Link stumbled into Lon Lon ranch with the rising sun. He had yet to brush dirt out of his hair or off his clothes. The whip he recently acquired was acting as a tourniquet for a wound that had now faded away with only the lingering stain of dried blood; some blessing of grateful dead now departed. He even still had the scent of dank, dark death hanging in the air around him. He was that fresh from his harrowing experience.
He would never go back. Never. Never again to that goddess-forsaken place. Never again would he delve into the depths beneath Hyrule field to the ghastly and tortured land known as Majora. Not while he lived; not while he died. His ears still had a ring to them from all the screams of the undying; tormented and otherwise. He rubbed them with a wince as he remembered that mask's high pitched and unearthly wailing: "WEAR ME! WEAR ME! WEAR ME!"
And then a second kind of yelling registered. He sluggishly looked up to see Malon with her skirts hiked up, legs a blur, skin paler than usual, eyes wide enough to eclipse the sky, "Good Golden Goddesses! LINK!"
She tackled him, and Link swayed dangerously close to falling over. He had too little energy to spare dealing with Malon's brute force. She kept them standing, though, "I-I thought I heard you scream a night or two ago, a-and you didn't come back yesterday! I-I thought..." Malon backed away from the embrace with tears in her eyes, "I didn't know what to think."
Link didn't reply. Malon began fussing with his hair and clothes, "Oh don't scare me like that! I was starting to think you died out there! You promised your business in Hollive was your last task!" She shrewdly noted the whip, and her fingers unknotted it before pulling it off of his arm, "Dunno where you got this but you'll kill that arm with it like that."
Malon paused as a stiff shudder passed Link, leaving a rigid grimace one moment and then easing into the same expression of nothing the next. It took a moment, but her brow furrowed and her lips curled in. "Link..." her hand softly cupped his cheek, "You're alright, right?"
Link still did not utter a word. He quietly and gently removed her hands and walked right past Malon. She watched him for a moment- flabbergasted -then hitched up her skirts again and went after him, "Link?! Link, what're you doing?" Link mounted Epona and spurred the horse on to a slow walk with a tired kick. Not even with a yell or grunt like he usually did. Malon skittered to a stop, watching in dumbfounded shock as Link began leaving.
She gathered her senses with blinding wrath and grabbed Epona's reins, "NOW HOLD ON A STINKING MINUTE!" Link wasn't watching Malon's red face shrieking, "What do you think you're playing at?! Scare me half to death one night, not show up when you said you'd be back, and now you're leaving?! Not even gonna tell me what happened?! Y-you think you can just run off with my horse without telling me what's- what's..."
Malon trailed off when she realized Link wasn't going to say anything. All she could see was his stupid floppy hat and a few golden bangs. He was turned away and relinquishing nothing. She shook the reins, "Say something!" Malon's panic rose, and she grabbed his hand, "Anything!"
Link turned to her, his face blank and tired and his gaze looking everywhere but hers. She realized there was a chip in his ear with scabs and caked blood where his earring should have been, say nothing of what she hoped was mud smeared all over him. His mouth was still with no sign he would have an inclination to speak any time soon. Something looked hollow in his gaze like sunlight had a meaningless kind of hurt. Malon felt her face drain. She'd seen this before. This intense silence like breathing was the weight of the world.
She grabbed Link- on her tiptoes and all -and shook him, "SAY SOMETHING! ANYTHING!" Link's shoulders tensed, his eyes widened in alarm. His mouth only became a thinner and thinner line that locked tight with every shake.
Malon sat back on her heels. For a moment, her mouth hung open, speechless. Link rolled his shoulders a little, heaving them with a shrug that seemed to be empty apology. He just didn't want to talk. What was the point of words anymore? With what he'd seen, words had become meaningless and without value. Words and negotiation did him nothing in the land of the undying, so what would they do here?
Malon's words hung in the air laced with restrained sobs, "Tell me anything... The sky is blue... my hair is red... your clothes are green..." She snapped at Link again, "Please! PLEASE JUST SAY SOMETHING!"
He didn't.
Malon ran off to other parts of the ranch, uncontrollably bawling.
...
"Well, you're not physically sick." Talon said softly after giving Link a thorough look over the next day. Link- cleaned up, clothes the same and patched up -nodded. He knew that. Talon tapped his head, "Up here, ain't it?" Link paused a moment, then nodded again. Talon nodded back with sympathy, "Saw something you weren't meant to?" Again Link nodded, shuddering. Too many things seen. Too many things heard. Too many things done to him.
Talon sighed and drummed the table, "Figured it'd happen eventually to you. Running in and out of danger like you do." Link was comforted by his large and cushiony hands on his shoulder, "You'll be fine, though. You're stronger than my wife was."
Link looked at him with slight question. Talon picked up a picture and began explaining, "She... got depressed... Stopped talkin' one day. Next she wasn't doing much. The she wouldn't get outta bed. Soon eating was too much of a chore..."
He gave another heavy sigh, "Malon was too young to understand that all that was wrong was that she was too sad. I told her her ma got sick and didn't get better. Since she never brings it up, shoots me down when I do, so I still haven't explained it more than that." He gave Link a particularly pointed look, "Willing to bet she thinks you'll end up the same."
Link was quietly thinking it over with a chin to his hand. He then got up without a word, intending to go out on his own again to try and find his answers. Talon stopped him, "You're made of stronger mettle, okay? Stay quiet as long as you like, but don't give up and take the easy way. I know you're stronger than most. You got a strong, beating, heroic heart. I've heard it."
Link's head dipped. He wasn't that far down yet. Close, but not quite.
...
Unsurprisingly, Malon was brushing the snags out of Epona's mane. Over and over the brush ran through the white hair, and after a moment Malon set the brush aside to start braiding it. Her face was stubborn as always, stiff as if she was only annoyed. The tears on her cheeks said otherwise. So did her fingers that fumbled around and lost hairs instead of elegantly and efficiently winding the strands together like usual.
"Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit ALL!" Malon dropped the knotwork with a frustrated yell. She flailed her balled fists in the air, continuing, "Not him! Why did it have to be HIM?!" She yelled skyward, "You already took my mother! What more do you want from me?! What more?!"
Of course, there was no reply except for a tired knicker from Epona. Malon went back to her horse, and began rubbing Epona's neck, "It's happening again... The goddesses must hate me." Epona rubbed her muzzle against Malon's cheek in an affectionate way.
Malon replied by hugging Epona, "Oh Epona, you're all I've got now." After a moment in the embrace, Malon opened the gate. "How's about we go break that record of ours again?" She suggested with a hollow and tired enthusiasm. Epona walked alongside her, more of a crutch than a lead. The horse waited patiently for Malon to set up the obstacle course, ignoring her fumbling and cursing and other hindering actions as if they weren't there.
Malon mounted Epona with a straggling sigh, "Okay, our last time was forty five seconds." With nothing else said, she got Epona galloping at an almost reckless speed. The horse jumped and turned with strong leans, and the two were a precise blur of speed and grace. Of course the record was forty five seconds for one lap. Twenty five had passed and they were half way through. She seized up at the sight of green- deep emerald green, not grass -out of the corner of her eye.
Malon felt the shift first, but had little time to react to Epona losing her footing from the sudden yank on her reins. Malon began falling. She let go of the reins and tucked herself in, hitting the ground with her shoulder, a painful burst, and rolling. So close. They were at twenty six seconds and only yards away from the finish line.
Her tousled hair made curtains. The world seemed like it was only her face and its panting breaths in an ocean of sunset red light. She blinked away the dizziness that still plagued her mind, but otherwise felt like her world was small, cramped, and insignificant like the grass she stared at.
She lifted herself from the void when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Of course, there was the cause of the accident, Link. Hero's garb as green as always with all the blood cleaned out, stitched back up; his scimitar sat proudly on his shoulder like a mark of honor. But his shoulders were weary with weight. His eyes were still so tired and dull, his mouth still locked so firmly shut. His skin was actually a few shades paler than the deep tan it had been, and emphasized the deep bags and bruised discoloration under his eyes, the scarring in some places.
His eyes darted around with a questioning shrug of his shoulders.
Malon slapped his hand away and stood, "I'm fine."
Link didn't stop her, still kneeling on the ground as she walked past him to see to Epona. He looked at his hand as if he was wondering why it was still on his wrist. Malon, meanwhile, looked her horse over, "Sorry, sorry, I-I'm sorry, Epona." She heard the slight clinking around of Link standing up. She felt him tapping her shoulder and she sniffed, "I said I'm fine."
Link then went around so she would see him, and his head nodded to the obstacle course. Malon shrugged, "I wasn't fast enough." Link held up his hand, left, and came back with a horse of his own. Malon and Epona let him run the course, and the run came to a full minute. Link got off with the barest smile, and nodded to Malon.
After an awkward moment, the smile faded, and once again Link was staring at his worn boots. Malon was wondering why he always did that. If he was really Mr. Legendary Hero like she and the rest of Hyrule now thought, why was he so quiet? So introverted? Wasn't he supposed to be proud and heroic and... Well, not who he was.
She now realized he was scared that fateful market day, definitely not one for courage. Not to mention he expressed so many times he hated city crowds, especially when Princess Zelda scooted him right up onto her stage, proclaiming him the hero Hyrule needed while his shoulders were raised in alarm, trying to get smaller. A real hero surely would love all of the people of the land, why else would he fight?
And most important of all, he wouldn't lie to anyone. Malon had a feeling the missionary alibi was a load of horse manure, but she had yet to hear anything more likely from him. Why else would he act so familiar with the desert customs, yet alien to Hylian? How else could he have those blue clothes he'd worn when he arrived that certainly weren't Hylian in style or cut? She couldn't say, but she did know something was up. He was holding back the truth even after sharing so much with her. She didn't want to think that he was raised Gerudo. Goddesses strike her dead if she even suggested the idea he identified more with those heathens than his own flesh and blood.
Malon had the idea of so many things to say, so many things to ask, but for once her own words clamped shut on her. Link then made a motion for Epona's reins and Malon pulled them away. Her voice quivered, but was more than resolute and angry, "You're walking, mister. Wherever you need to go for your next stupid 'errand', you're walking."
Link watched her go with a sad and understanding look, then left himself with a weary shrug.
So Link's like... 80% back. I am aware he has an unbreakable will, being Hylia's chose hero and all, but I feel that doesn't quite cover cracking o3o I also gave Malon a little more rounding to her character so enjoy that I guess.