"You know you should get a boyfriend." Nehsa said, causing Link to choke on a piece of cucco from her salad. It was three days later and they were at an outdoor table eating lunch while watching Dina play with other kids her own age.
"And how does that go with the topic of swords?" She asked, referring to what they were talking about beforehand.
"Well, when boys are involved..."
"Never mind, don't want to know." Link decided quickly, pushing away her salad. Her stomach grumbled but she didn't feel like eating anymore. Nehsa just grinned, a catty grin she picked up after her time as a cat person.
"Oh come on Anell! You're a woman now, at 10 I was starting to feel things towards other people, you've got to be feeling things too."
"I have no idea what you mean, nor do I wish to know until this entire thing is sorted out."
"You know...looking at boys, and thinking 'gosh, he's got a nice butt.' Looking at girls and thinking 'her hips are really curvy.' Those sorts of things."
"One, I never really stopped and thought about it, and two, why would you think that about girls? Why would I think that about girls right now?"
"You act as though attraction is all about matching up with right parts..." she laughed "Trust me there is more to physical attraction then just if you're a girl and they're a boy. There's more than just finding them attractive too, but save those feelings until you've figured yourself out."
"You're what, two years older than me and you've figured yourself out?"
"Not a chance, I'm just mature enough to realize I need those things found out first. So come on, which do you like? Boys, girls, both?"
"Why are you pushing me about this right now?"
"Because you just said you never stopped to think about it, which means you never really had time, or you just missed those feelings because of everything else going on."
"Fine, if I tell you the one time I thought that sort of stuff and realized it can we drop the subject?"
"Depends on how good it is." Link just glared at her. "Fine, yes we can drop it for now..." Nehsa pouted.
"It was during the time I had the Master Sword."
"Ah, so you were seventeen then?"
"Yes...and I was at Lon Lon Ranch getting Epona and I found Malon there. and she kept saying stuff to me but the only thing I could think throughout the entire conversation was 'I wish she wasn't wearing that dress." Nehsa let out another laugh.
"Way to go, you had your first feelings as a man, and they were you wanted to see a woman naked, I'm proud of you."
"Yeah, thanks..." Link just blushed. "Can we get back onto swords now?"
"Fine, fine. Swords it is." But she just kept grinning the entire time and Link couldn't help but blush, even when she went back to her salad.
Link was going to kill Nehsa. There were no two ways about it. Nehsa was going to die and Link was going to be the reason. Ever since Nehsa's talk with her all she could do when looking at people was think about their attributes. She kept catching herself looking at the maids' bust and thinking how nice and full they were, looking at the guardsmen and thinking about how they must have nice muscles under that armor. She caught herself looking at Ferao and thinking that he had a nice butt and cute eyes.
"I'm going to kill her and when I do she will have to know why..." She said marching her way to Opper's office, hoping that maybe working on magic will make the thoughts go away. She burst in to see him relaxing in a chair, his legs off.
"Can I help you?" He sounded pained and bored, rubbing what was left of his right leg below the knee.
"I need something to take my mind off stuff, so I came for magic practice."
"Ah, well you've caught me at a bad time. I'm in the middle of something."
"I see...what are you doing?"
"Trying to rub out a cramp..." he said, putting more force into his work "I've had it ever since the accident and occasionally it slows me down too much." There was a disgusting popping sound and blood started to seep from the nub of the leg.
"Isn't that bad?"
"Nope, just means my skin's too tight. Goddesses I wish I could afford a healer for stuff like this."
"Why not try me?" Link suggested. "I mean, I'm here, got magical power and want to learn."
"Alright, fine then," he took his hands off his leg "focus energy into your hands and imagine it as a white light." Link did so...it was easy, and soon her hands were glowing with a white light tinged with green. "Good, now put them on what you want to heal..." she put them on his legs, and instantly she could feel all the knots in the muscle. "Focus the energy out, bathing the object." She did and the bleeding stopped and the knots in the muscle started to go away. "Now don't do too much or you'll start a regrowth and that's very advanced, impossible to stop and painful to fix. So what are you trying to take your mind off of?" Link groaned.
"People I guess. Just looking at everyone and seeing things..."
"Seeing things?"
"Can't we leave it at that?"
"I suppose. That's enough thank you." Link stopped the healing. "But really if you're seeing things you should talk to someone even if those things are just things you're noticing for the first time."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I'm seeing them because I talked to someone."
"From your tone I take it you're not happy with them. But maybe you should be, sometimes you can go through life never noticing things until something points them out to us. Trust me, I'm twenty eight and I didn't notice half the things I did until someone pointed them out to me."
"Twenty eight isn't exactly old enough to say stuff like that."
"You'd think that wouldn't you. Anyway, be happy about the things you're noticing now." He started putting on his legs, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for class."
Link made her way back to her room careful to not look at anyone, and to avoid Ferao, who was on the prowl, ready to strike. She expected her room to be empty, what she found was Mister Eldritch sitting on her couch, talking with Navi
"You see, in my world, and many like it, you're not very well received."
"How come? I'm a fairy, helping, kind-"
"You came with this annoying sound."
"Annoying? What, did they put me as a bell?"
"No that was the other fairy, but she's here..." Eldritch turned to Link. He looked horrible, like he'd been crying for days, like he hadn't slept. His hair was greasy and unkempt, and he sported a full week's growth for his beard. "Excuse my appearance. I haven't learned to control it, and it's based on how I feel."
"Then you must feel like hell," she sat next to him "Something happen?"
"Yes... let's just say I did something bad," he nodded and turned away. "Something really bad."
"Are... are you going to jail for your people or something?"
"Oh no, you see, what I did was morally bankrupt, but it didn't hurt any of my people, so I'm completely off the hook."
"That's barbaric!"
"The People I belong to now cross time and space in the blink of an eye, our very existence changes the boundary of worlds, we create and destroy with equal zest but... What I did was new, and was found to be... unimportant."
"How can something morally bankrupt be unimportant?"
"It's not to me, which is why I'm here early, to give you a gift before I try something which has a ninety percent chance of killing me."
"It was that horrible?"
"Anell... no, I'll use your real name, Link... what I did was so horrible, so completely wrong that only sure way to recover from is the death of the caster. But enough about me... it's time to get on to what I'm giving you."
"You don't have to give me anything to prove you're otherworldly- you just knew my name, that brick of gold," she paused in thought, "and you got in here."
"Yes, but I want to and I promised. to give you something...your choices..." he flicked his wrist and the room was filled with shiny armor, weapons, things that Link couldn't begin to describe.
"Some choices come with extras. For example, the Mjolnir Mark V[B] armor comes with the enhancements you'll need to use it. All the guns come with a generator that lets you make a hundred rounds a day and store up to ten thousand. But most of them come by themselves: Lightsaber, Phaser, personal shield generator... " Link tuned him out as she took a look at all the choices. She took a look at the armor; a giant suit colored green and made of metal and cloth; next to it were a bunch of black metal pieces that, Link assumed, were the guns he had talked about. There was so much stuff, and none of it looked like anything she could possibly hope to understand. So much metal, and then there were the things that weren't metal; they were a weird smooth glossy material that came in many colors. Braces, vests, backpacks, clothes that had both metal and that strange material on it. So many choices.
"How am I supposed to choose?" she asked.
"Well, I find people traditionally go with the biggest shiniest thing."
"Yeah, but I don't even know what any of this stuff does! I mean, really, what does a gun even do?"
"It kills things... but you have a point." He snapped his fingers and the choices disappeared, and instead replaced with three choices: the armor, a single gun, and a brace.
"Your choices are now the Mjolnir armor, a nine millimeter pistol, or a solar powered shield generator. The armor also has shields, but the ones on the brace are not only more resilient, take less time to recharge. They can stop swords and the like. It also can generate a temporary shield around someone else. The armor itself will stop most swords, protect you when it's shields are down, increase your strength and doesn't need the sun at all." she picked up the brace, it would fit perfectly on her forearm.
"I'll take the brace." The other two choices disappeared in a flash of light, to be replaced by a book.
"Read that, it will tell you how to use it. Now if you ever hear of me again, it will be under the name Lee East."
"What did you lose a bet?" He simply grinned, then raised his hand, and disappeared into a white rift.