chapter ten

The Last Hurrah

I clamber down the ladder with the basket swinging from my arm, looking apprehensively up at the sky through the trees. It's a shaded grey, mischievously reminding us of an imminent rainstorm. I ignore it, striding to the pond and washing out Timi's bowls before stacking them back up and bringing them back to his house. I pause at the door. Timi is playing piano. Well, orphica, more specifically. It's a beautiful instrument, and he plays quite well. He's not relaxing into it, though; just from the tone of the notes I can tell his fingers are stiff and cold, closed off. I don't really want to interrupt, so I just wait by the door and shut my eyes to the tune. It's a tasteful, jazzy arrangement of one of my favourite songs, and I can't help but tap my fingers lightly with the beat. Epheremelda wiggles her fingers at me and I wave back.

It's a good five minutes before Timi notices where his fairy is looking and turns around.

"Hello, Link," he says, and I cringe slightly at the clipped quality of his words. Someone get him something sweet, pronto. It's offputting when he's in a poor mood.

"Hey! I, uh, came to bring back your bowls. Thank you so much for that, too, and I, uh, wanted to say sorry for getting at you last night, 'cause that was uncalled for, and I also-"

He lets the orphica hang from its strap around his shoulders, striding over and taking the basket back.

"Bíschönn," he murmurs in Fae, placing the basket on a table stuffed against a wall. Several broomsticks and his stilts are stashed behind the table, in the space between the straight edge and the curved wall. I look around; the place is simultaneously refined and elegant, and crammed full of so much stuff that you don't want to risk bumping into anything. "It was no trouble,"

Epheremelda beams, knotting her fingers together.

"O-okay," I say, looking back at the midget Kokiri. "I-I'll just go get ready for the gardening,"

He nods, turning back around boredly, fixing his brown sleeves. I stifle a pout and glance at Epheremelda before heading back to my house. I meet Saria and Navi halfway; the green-haired Kokiri jabs a thumb at my house.

"Zelda's being fussy," she says. "Trying to bring her harp with her,"

"Uh, why?" I ask. Navi shrugs.

"Doesn't trust that it'll be left alone,"

"She can hide it with my sword,"

"Yeah, that's what I said,"

I roll my eyes, heading back to the ladder, but stop. Zelda's arguing with...herself?

"Why won't you leave me alone?"

A pause.

"I know it's you, you blasted thing. Every single source I could find points to you. You're the one causing this trouble! It's your fault I wound up here in the first place!"

I beckon Saria over worriedly; she listens too, biting her lip.

"Oh, shut up!" Zelda suddenly snarls, and there's a loud thump, like something metallic hitting the floor. She's quiet for a while before continuing. "I'm sick of your stupid dreams. Take them somewhere else."

Navi raises an eyebrow at Saria and I. I'm starting to actually think Zelda is crazy. Between last night's fiasco and now talking to her harp…

I hear a noise that evidently means she's flopped back on the bed.

"I have to tell him," she murmurs. "It's not fair...Farore, where's Impa when you need her?"

I tiptoe away and then make a big show of stomping up to the ladder, so she can hear my footsteps.

"Zelda!" I holler up the ladder. "Hurry up!"

I hear a scrape of metal and a yelp before she appears, flustered, at the top of the ladder.

"S-sorry!" she says squeakily, tying the harp to her belt with ribbons. "Coming!"

She scrambles down, and Saria and I assume identical faces of unconcerned innocence as we lead her to the garden and hand her a hand mattock.

"You can do weeding," Saria says as Navi flutters off. "Just attack the weeds with the flat end to hook them out of the dirt. Make sure you get as much of their roots out as possible,"

Zelda stares at the mattock like it's about to explode, and I supress the urge to laugh. "Go on," I prod her, retrieving a small spade and a pitchfork, and swinging a tube of wooden stakes and an empty basket over my shoulder. Saria is tasked with prepping the trees for the frost; I get to dig up the vegetables and re-bury them in a makeshift root cellar. The blonde tags along after a helpful Mila, who offers to show her how to weed properly.

When I next look up, there's a long line of my garden stakes sticking out of the ground where I've turned over the cabbages and lettuces, and my basket is nearly full of the already mature potatoes, rhubarb and carrots. I glance over to where Saria is wrapping the bases of trees, and then find Zelda carrying a pile of weeds to the compost heap with an expression of distaste painted across her features. I can't help but make a face; she evidently has absolutely no qualities of a Kokiri, and absolutely no respect for the way we do things. Biting my lip, I return to my work, ignoring the several suspicious looks I find cast at my back when people think I'm not paying attention. Usually gardening is quite social, but today it feels closed off and lonely, with me humming to myself to fill the relative silence.

It's well into the afternoon when finally the massive gardens are fully prepped for winter. I bring my basket teeming with vegetables back to Somi, who thanks me as I drop it beside another three full. They'll be kept in the storeroom underground, where it's cooler and they'll last longer. It's plenty cold out here, to be honest- the promised rain has started to drizzle half-heartedly down on us as we pack up, picking our way around stakes and rows of buckwheat, clover and turnips.

"Hey, Link," Zelda says, catching up to me. "Can we borrow a few of those stakes?"

I blink.

"Uh, why?"

"I have an idea," she says impatiently. "Can we borrow them?"

I roll my eyes as I dump my stakes, yanking three from the cylinder and passing them to her. She nods gratefully.

"Thanks," she says, taking them and dashing off. Here's hoping she's not using them for anything stupid, dangerous, or stupidly dangerous. Rolling my eyes, I wander after Saria, joining her in a nap on her bed.

Zelda returns triumphant several hours later, hair plastered to her head with rain but her eyes sparkling.

"Hey, Link!" she says, popping into Saria's house to wake us up. "Come with me! And hurry!"

I blink as she vanishes again, yawning and glancing at Saria, who looks equally alarmed.

"I-I better go check that," I say apologetically, standing up and stretching. Saria nods.

"No worries," she yawns. "I can always go nick one of Timi's books if I get bored, he has a ton of them."

I blink.

"You read books?"

"Just cause I can read," she teases. I wince.

"I can read!" I say defensively. "Just...not particularly well. I don't like doing it,"

"Oi, go chase after Zelda before she gets lost," Saria snickers. I tug my hat down over my ears, to the protests of the sleeping Navi contained inside, and race out into the freezing rain. I can see Zelda's honey-blonde head ducking across the village to my left, and I follow her as she ascends the ramp into the upper Lost Woods. I can't help but laugh; looks like she has about as much respect for the 'don't go out alone' rule as I've got. She keeps going, following where she's evidently scratched marks into trees to make a path.

Huh. Genius.

Zelda finally stops at a clearing that she's rigged up with vines tied in a circle around the encircling trees, like a little stage or something. In the middle the three stakes are lying down with their ends blunted off; she picks up two and kicks the third aside.

"Here," she says, handing me one of them and stepping back. I stare at the stake uncomprehendingly; okay. It's a stake. What am I meant to do with this?

It becomes quite evident when Zelda suddenly assumes what I recognise to be a standard fencing stance, one hand held aloft behind her and the stake out in front.

"Wait, what?" I yelp, lifting the stake protectively. "What are you doing?"

"You beat that Gohma with blind luck," she says flatly. "And if you're going to be getting into trouble like that you're going to need to know how to actually defend yourself,"

I blink.

"How do you know how to swordfight?" I ask in dismay. She looks at me incredulously.

"Standard training for Hylians in authority. Swordplay is often used in honour contests, and we also need to be able to fend off attackers and assassins,"

Shaking my head, I raise the stick higher.

"And why do I need to know how to swordfight?"

"Because I said so!" she shouts suddenly, leaping forwards. I duck behind the stick; she swiftly hits the stick so hard it hits me in the nose, then she lashes out and takes my knees out from under me.

"Pathetic," she says stiffly, her stick pressing against my throat. I swallow hard, chin up as far away from the actually deadly stake she's holding. "If this were a blade you'd be drowning in your own blood by now,"

She whips the stick away and I let out a breath.

"Ch-charming," I stammer, standing up again. She doesn't even pause before leaping forward again; I try to duck to the side like she did before, and she instead throws her weapon to the side and slams it into my head. I don't even register landing on my back, and she scowls at me again.

"If this were a blade, your head would be open like an overripe melon,"

I wince at the gross imagery as I climb to my feet once again.

"Are you going to actually teach me how to swordfight? Or are you just going to beat the snot out of me with a stick? Because I could easily get Mido to do the second one, if you're not partial,"

She gives me a filthy look.

"Fine. But you're holding it completely wrong,"


The trees are completely bare and the frost is thick on the ground by the time Zelda finally decides that she's happy with my swordfighting skills, to my immense joy. I've had even more bruises than usual for the last month, and I've been glad for the long sleeves of my winter tunic concealing them from view. I'm not entirely sure that I want it to be known that I'm being repeatedly bested by Zelda.

"I'd like to teach you how to ride," she says ruefully as we sit on the porch beside Saria, "but there're no horses in the woods. I dunno how I'd do it,"

I bite a nail thoughtfully.

"I mean, we have a prop horse somewhere," I say, "but that'll probably be useless."

Zelda and Saria shoot me a look that assures me the prop horse would indeed be useless, and that I'm a moron for bringing it up. Navi sneezes violently from my shoulder and I nearly jump out of my skin. I think she may have caught a cold or something.

"Sneeze the other way, please," Kiri says in that quiet voice that makes you regret everything you've ever done. Navi blushes navy-blue, stammering a snuffly apology.

"Hey, look," I crack, hoping to cheer her up. "It's a Navy Navi!" Saria laughs, and Navi shoots me a look.

"Does she do purple?" asks Zelda with a cheeky smile. Navi turns orange instead in indignation. "No, purple!" she says. "That's orange!"

"I'll give you purple!" snaps Navi, brightening to red in frustration.

"But you didn't give us purple, that's red," Saria says in a clueless tone of voice, clearly trying not to crack up. Kiri makes an irritated noise at our immaturity, while Navi turns a dangerous black, smouldering. I frown- my efforts to cheer her up are clearly not working. I tickle her.

"That's not purple," I say playfully. "You're pretty in every colour, though,"

She gives a little smile and starts to fade back into cyan; at one stage, halfway between the inky black and pale cyan, she's a dark indigo.

"She's purple now," says Kiri flatly.

Navi instantly turns black again.

"Uh," says Zelda, evidently hoping to defuse the situation, "hey, Link. Saria. Can I teach you a special little song?"

"Oh?" says Saria, interested. "What for?"

"Well," Zelda says, "I figure that I trust you enough by now. I was thinking on what you said, about how the Hyrulean Army would bulldoze the Kokiri. If you ever did need to stop our army or one of our soldiers or someone, you could play this song."

"Sounds like a lot of power that could be easily given away by someone whistling," I comment. Zelda flicks her hair.

"It started off as a simple lullaby for my great-grandmother, but when the war broke out it became a sort of signal, to test if people were spies. You'd hum the first part, and if the second man hummed the refrain back they were genuine. If not, they were a spy. It's a rather well-kept secret, and there's an enchantment on the song itself to stop it being used by anyone who hasn't sworn fealty to the crown,"

"That's some powerful magic," Kiri says, finally interested. "How is it maintained?"

"Intent charm," Zelda responds. "For the song to come out right, you have to have the right intentions."

"How do you monitor that, though? Usually with intent charms, there has to be a physical component; like a bow that won't shoot arrows unless they're going to hit monsters,"

"It's actually cast on their throats and their fingers," the blonde elaborates. "You can't play or sing a song without using either your throat or your hands. If someone with bad intentions tries to play it, their muscles just won't respond to them."

"That's so cool," Navi says, impressed. "That's really clever thinking,"

"Anyway, want to learn it?" she offers.

"Hell yes," I say immediately. "Magic songs are awesome,"

"Okay," Zelda says with a smile. Her hands go to the pouch at her belt, and I stifle a laugh as she mutters angrily, unlacing the entire top half of the pouch just to get at the harp inside. "These bottomless pouches are amazing," she says crossly, "but they're useless if you can't get the blasted things out of the opening,"

"I'm glad you trust the pouch enough to store your harp there," Saria says seriously. "From what I hear, that thing's pretty explosive,"

"Oh, it's not too bad," Zelda says, shooting it a filthy look as she finally tugs it free. "It tends to mess with magical power, though. Gives you dreams. Whispers. It taps into things that should be left alone,"

I look worriedly at Saria. Is that why Zelda was pitching a fit the other day? The harp? It sounded like she was actually talking to someone, rather than something, but I could be wrong.

"Anyway, it goes like this," she says, lifting the harp. "This is the call," She plucks a short melody, three notes, repeated once. "And this is the response," Eight notes now. "The whole song is longer, but that's just the part taught to members of the army."

I whistle the song back at her, and I can actually feel something tingling in my throat. Or is that my imagination?

"Thank you," Saria says honestly, and I blink. "I don't think we'd need it, but Kokiri live many lifetimes. If things change, it's comforting to know we have something to back us up."

Zelda bites her lip- looks like she didn't think about the whole ageless thing. Bet she isn't comfortable with the idea of the Kokiri living forever with the knowledge of how to manipulate her army. Boo hoo. It's not like the Kokiri would ever be the aggressors in a battle. We'd just be defending ourselves, anyway.

"You're welcome," she says after a pause. "Look after it. Use it well,"

Saria and I nod at the same time.

"Do we have permission to use it, too?" asks Navi.

Zelda blinks. "Of course,"

"Thank you," Kiri says gleefully. "I might have a little fun with the magic of that little piece,"

"Don't you go picking apart my enchantment, now," Zelda warns. "There's a lot riding on that song,"

"I know," the fairy mutters petulantly. "Just want to have a bit of fun,"

There's a quick, fierce look exchanged by the Hylian and the fairy, and the latter relents.

"Fine," she moans. "I'll leave it alone,"

"Thank you," Zelda says flatly. "Much appreciated."

I yawn widely, huddling closer to Saria. It's cold. Zelda catches the action and sniggers.

"You have it lucky, here in the village. Out in central and coastal Hyrule, it's so cold that it's impossible to leave the house."

"And it's not here?" Saria says stiffly, shivering. I loop an arm around her, hoping to warm her up a little.

Zelda snorts. "In Hyrule, if you go outside without at least two layers of clothes on this time of year you'll end up with frostbite. Your fingers and toes will turn purple and maybe even fall off. People can't have baths unless the water's been heated over a fire, and the beds are warmed with pipes of hot air from the furnaces."

"Furnace?" asks Navi.

"It's a room full of fire, used for heating," she explains. I make a contented noise; the very thought is warming.

"If we didn't live in a forest made of wood, I would suggest we build one," I comment. "As it is, that'd be a terrible idea,"

"You think?" Saria says, surveying the trees outside. "Gah, winter is the worst season. I bet the Forest Temple'll be all snowed under,"

"Why does the Great Deku Tree keep his leaves through winter?" asks Zelda. "Almost all of the other trees lose theirs, except for those smaller Deku Trees scattered around. The...not talking ones."

"Deku Trees just don't lose their leaves," Navi shrugs. "They're capable of growing right through winter,"

"Interesting," Zelda says thoughtfully.

My fingers drum a tattoo on the boards beside me as I spot a Skull Kid racing through the trees, outside of the main village. Not long now until my birthday, and the Deku Tree says that the Skull Kids might start acting up around me when I turn eleven. I'm not exactly looking forward to that.

Another Skull Kid bolts past, and I frown. It's unusual to see Skull Kids so close to the village, let alone two. Then a Deku Scrub comes tearing across the village and I lean forwards. What are they running from? My eyes rake the trees, searching for anything out of the ordinary. I've always been able to see distant stuff easier than what's closer to me. I can't really see anything odd, though. What is it that's distressing the Skull Kids and Scrubs?

A second later, I get my answer, and my blood runs cold. No. No.

"Zelda?" I whisper in horror. She looks at me, breaking off her conversation with Saria and Kiri.

"Yes?"

"Hide that harp. Now."


A/N: Aww, thanks to the guys who reviewed last chapter! Nobody got the identity of the grave robber, so that's still open for guessing!

ROFLCOPTER (guest): Uh... unfortunately, I have no idea whose name you were trying to spell ^_^" Sorry about that!

pikachewy1: Aww, thank you so much for your review! Heart has been restored to full, and I'll be writing at full steam! I'll probably start lengthening the chapters as the story goes on and becomes more interesting; and I ought to start moving my tail feathers more. In the original, the events of this chapter happened in chapter six! I'm moving a lot slower this time around, but hopefully it makes the story flow better.

Ecenema: I suppose that's one way of seeing it, but sometimes I really will write something, then upon re-reading say "Wait, what the hell? I've never even considered writing that before!" It honestly does feel as if the characters are adding in little bits themselves, just to mess around.

I won't change their relationship too much, but I will make it more realistic. I mean, in the original it was basically a "Hey, let's be friends" kind of thing, whereas here I'm actually having them talk to eachother. I'm rather intrigued with your view of Morgan; " you whould think someone like that wouldn't do that"? Do what? If you really think on it, it's culturally acceptable for him, and while his wife is of a rather different species, she is the older and more responsible member of the duo. If there is fault to be assigned, does it really land squarely on Morgan, just because he was the male in the relationship? ^_^" I might turn this into a little discussion with you, eh?

Read and review!

26 September 2016