chapter twenty-four
Hoofbeats, Heartbeats
[/]{INTERLUDE-SARIA}[\]
The city of Lochmede is bigger than she thought it would be. A lot bigger.
"Now we just have to ask if anyone's seen them," Kiri said, fluttering closer to a brazier someone had burning. Mido joined her, presenting chilled fingers to the flame in a hope that they would warm quickly. Saria, rather than heading to the fire, made her way towards the owner of it.
"Whoa, what happened to you two?" the rugged woman said, planting her hands on broad hips. Saria didn't even have it in her to be astounded that she was talking to a grown-up.
"Have you seen my friend?" Saria asked- or tried to ask, anyway. Her voice was barely there, raspy with disuse, and the woman's deep brown eyes widened.
"Here," she said, turning around and grabbing a tankard, thrusting it into Saria's hands. "Drink this, you sound like you've eaten sand,"
Saria took a sip of the bitter-tasting liquid and grimaced, swallowing just enough to make her feel a little less like she'd eaten a whole Wolfos. She handed back the tankard and the woman handed it straight to Mido, who did the same.
"Have you seen my friend?" Saria asked, while Kiri fluttered closer to the tankard, apparently trying to figure out what was in it. "He's...he's short, blonde, dresses in green with a pointy hat."
The woman raised an eyebrow.
"Now that could be anyone's friend, dear," she said. "Can you give me any more detail?"
"He'd have been injured," Mido said. "Probably with a girl, with long blonde hair. She was wearing green as well. They had a fairy with them as well,"
The woman hesitated. "I don't think I've seen them, I'm sorry. But...if someone's seen them, there's a good chance they stuck out, according to your description. If you ask around, someone ought to remember them,"
"Thank you," Saria said, turning around.
"Where are your parents?" the woman asked.
"That would be me," Kiri said, and Mido gave her a look that was half shock, half disgust. The woman gave Kiri an appraising look.
"The other one yours as well, then?" she asked, sounding wary. "I'll have you know, we don't take kindly to your folk leaving changelings. If you're here to steal children…"
"What?" Saria said, and Kiri flared red.
"Of course not!" she snapped. "Saria is all I need. She just wants her friend back,"
The woman crossed her arms. "I'll be telling the Lady Seres that you're here. If any changelings appear we'll know exactly who left them,"
Kiri flinched sharply when the woman mentioned telling, bristling angrily. "Fine. But I'm not going to touch your stupid Hylian children."
"Calm down, Kiri," Mido said, handing the woman back her tankard. "Don't be such a cow,"
"Says you," Kiri hissed at him. "Hypocrite. I can't believe you're even here,"
"Shut up, Kiri," murmured Saria. "Thank you," she added, for the woman, who nodded. She still looked suspicious of Kiri.
"Be careful, hm?"
"Sure," Mido said, turning away and looking back at Saria. "Do we just...ask around?"
Saria scowled, looking around. How hard could he possibly be to find? It was just Link! Why hadn't he come back to them by himself? She knew Link, and if it was up to him he'd already be back in the forest. So why wasn't he?
"You're such a liar, Mido," Kiri said bitterly, once the woman was out of earshot. "Why are you here? It's sure as hell not to rescue Link,"
Mido looked stung, and Saria whirled to look at Kiri.
"What is your problem?" she demanded, glaring at her fairy. "Back off! He's helping us, Kiri!"
Her voice cracked a little on helping and she hated it. Kiri just glared at Mido.
"He's going to get you killed, Saria," the fairy spat. "I'm not going to let him drag you around looking for someone he doesn't even like just to impress you,"
"Wh-Kiri! If anything, I'm the one dragging him around!" Saria said. "Are you even listening to yourself?"
"He got Neri killed! There's nothing stopping him from doing it to you!"
There was a stunned silence, during which Mido's face went abruptly wooden and he kept moving his arms, as if not sure where to put them.
"You're such a bitch," Saria choked out, looking at Mido. Neri was burning with a fiery light.
"Look at him. He knows it's true!"
"Mido? Talk to me," Saria said nudging him, but he just glared hatefully at Kiri as if he'd like nothing better than to crush her between his boot and the ground. Eventually he seemed to realise he was standing in people's way, and he swiftly jerked into motion to sit down against a building, knees pulled to his chest.
Saria rounded on Kiri. "What brought this on? You can't say things like that!"
"Link is probably dead," growled Kiri. "The sooner you see that, the better. You're not safe out here,"
"I don't care," Saria hissed back.
"You didn't see them leaving the woods," Kiri retorted. "I went and talked to that Scrub who did. He said that Navi put Zelda's eye out, and that Link's leg was broken and that Zelda smashed his head in with a rock. He's dead and I won't let you risk your life for him a moment longer,"
Saria wasn't altogether surprised to feel the bite of her tears freezing on her cheeks.
"Damn you, Kiri," she whispered. "He's not dead. I don't care what you think. I'm not going home until I find him,"
"And how will you do that, huh?" Kiri challenged. "Hyrule is enormous! You'll never find him!"
"I'll just have to ask this Seres lady, if she's in charge," Saria said. Kiri grabbed Saria's ear and yanked, Saria yelping in response.
"You will not!" she snarled, and Saria all but wrenched the fairy's vice grip from the point of her ear.
"Get off me!" she said, unaware of the scene they were causing. "You can't stop me!"
"I can and I will!" Kiri shouted back, tiny hands burning with white fire. "You are going back to the woods with me right now!"
"You can't- you can't just make me abandon him!"
"Everyone is abandoned at some point," Kiri said sharply. "It's better for you to be on the right end of it,"
Saria took a step back, glaring daggers.
"Go to hell, Kiri," she said flatly. "Either come with us or go back to the woods by yourself."
"Mido will get you killed, if you don't do it yourself," Kiri cried.
"He needs this as much as I do," Saria closed her eyes. "I won't just sit in the woods and wallow in my grief, and I won't let Mido do that either. I'm going to find him, Kiri. Say what you want,"
Saria turned on her heel and went to join Mido, trying to coax him to his feet. Kiri, grinding her teeth, followed with a bitter fear in her eyes.
[/]{END OF INTERLUDE}[\]
The wind bites at us as I cling to the horse's back, trying not to fall off at the thumping pace Malon has set. Riding is...harder than I thought it would be. We're moving very slowly- perhaps Malon gets that I'm nervous, because I am. Slowly, slowly, we work our way up to faster paces. Malon's horse is far too big for her- she says that that the skittish-looking foal who I've taken a liking to will be a beautiful horse to ride, but she also said something about her knees not being closed so she shouldn't be ridden yet. Instead we're both on the shortest stallions the Lons own- mine is a little gray one who seems to be a little frustrated by how slow we're going. When we work our way up to a trot I feel shaken about, a little nervous. Maybe I ought to slow down, I decide, so I pull back on the reins.
And...he doesn't slow down. I cling a little more nervously and pull back again, and in direct defiance he speeds up.
"Malon! How do I make him stop!" I shout, holding on for dear life. She looks at me, alarmed.
"Pull back on the reins!"
"I am!"
"Stop squeezing his belly!" she yells, and I can quite honestly hear the silence in my head punctuated only by oh. Sure enough, I unwrap my limbs from around his gut and pull back on the reins. He stops.
"Don't do that!" she chastises me. "You scared the hell out of me!"
"Sorry," I say.
"Wanna try again?"
"Gimme a minute,"
By the time Zelda rides out to join us in the late afternoon- with perfect poise, dammit- I'm managing to control a galloping horse.
"How's the boring stuff going?" I ask her as she rides up beside me. Navi is sitting in her hair, holding onto her hairband like her own set of reins.
"Quite well. Lon Lon's going to get their red ice in exchange for certain harvests having a share cut out for the Zora,"
"Is that a good deal?"
"Well, Lon Lon is located in some of the most fertile land in Hyrule. The only place that's better is the Lost Woods- and I'm pretty sure there was magic helping you along in there. They should be able to grow the extra crops with no problems,"
"You wanna try jumping?" Malon yells, riding up to me. "Oh, there's two of ya now,"
"I'd love to," I say, and Malon grins.
"Well, hurry up- the fences are this way,"
"Ruto says she'll be ready by sundown!" Zelda yells after us, and I offer her a thumbs up.
"Don't do anything too dangerous!" Navi shouts.
"I won't!" I assure her as I follow after Malon, the horse beneath me eager to catch up. We spend the afternoon jumping a set of clearly handmade fences Malon's rigged up. Each landing rattles my teeth in my skull but I can't deny that it's fun, especially as I get used to it and shift in the stirrups to soften each landing.
When the sky is a deep orange Malon sighs.
"I s'pose you'd better get back, fairy-boy," she says regretfully, "or straw-head will throw a fit,"
"Why do you call her that?" I ask, trotting beside her.
"'Cause her hair's like straw," Malon says obviously.
"Well, yeah," I admit, "but why not just call her Zelda?"
"'Cause names are hard but I'll always look at her and think hey her hair looks like straw, and remember what to call her,"
"You won't just...remember what she looks like?"
Malon scowls. "People keep changin' the way they look and it's hard to remember. But, you wear a fairy hat and have a fairy friend and I'll know you're fairy boy. She has straw hair, so I'll remember that."
That's...certainly an odd way of doing it. Makes sense, I guess. I'm awful with faces. Takes me like a week to remember what people actually look like for any length of time. She's just...averting the problem entirely, in an extremely roundabout way.
We ride in silence for a while before Malon abruptly slows down her horse, and I fumble to do the same.
"What's wrong?" I ask her. She hesitates.
"Well," she says haltingly, "daddy won't let me have any friends who are boys. He reckons I'm not ladylike enough, but that's just 'cause he's been told that by all the cranky old ladies in town. Anyway, I was wonderin'...would you watch the sunset with me?"
"What?" I ask, astonished. She flushes, her face clashing awkwardly with her hair.
"Ya don't have to! But I was just wonderin'. It's terribly romantic and I prolly won't get the chance to do it again 'til I'm old and fat and married. Please?"
I hesitate.
"Okay," I say, unsure. Malon beams.
"Aw, thank you," she says, leaning forward in her saddle. She looks up at the orange of the sky, and I follow her gaze. The moon is visible despite the fact it's not dark, and I study the shapes I can see on it curiously. "'s like fire, isn't it?"
I must flinch slightly, because Malon leans towards me with concern in her eyes. "What, ya don't like fire?"
"Not particularly," I mutter, throat feeling slightly tight at the mental image of the sky on fire. I think she gets the gist.
"I get that, I guess. I don't like storms, myself."
She studies me for a moment. "Tell ya what; don't look at the orange. Look back a little at the pinks and purples and blues. They're pretty too,"
I do what she says, admiring the view. It may be prettier from Kaion's back, but there's still something incredible about this view unblocked by trees, setting the sky aflame in all its glory. Our horses are practically touching sides, our boots bumping together in the stirrups as we sit there.
"...I admit, this is takin' longer than I thought it was gonna," Malon says after a while. I laugh.
"I didn't want to say anything," I say. Malon shrugs.
"Still. I'm gonna do this even if it's just once."
Slowly, the sky fades from amber to pink to violet to blue, and finally to black. Malon leads the way back to the house slowly, her horse carefully picking its way along the path in the darkness.
"Someday I wanna see those stars up close," she says quietly. "Fluff once told me that stars were just the souls of the dead shining through the Twilight Realm, but I don't think that's true. Stars aren't souls. They're something more. One day I'm going to go up there and see them for myself,"
I bite my lip.
"I...I don't know about seeing them right up close, but I can get you closer than just down here on the ground,"
"Really?" Malon says. "Whatcha gonna do? Shoot me from a cannon?"
"No," I say. "I...have a friend. His name's Kaion. He's a loftwing,"
"Wait," she says. "Ain't they those things from the old hero tales? The big birds?"
"Yep,"
She stares at me.
"Say, that hat of yours is mighty pointy…"
"So it is," I say awkwardly. There's a short silence.
"That's cool. So, ya reckon your bird buddy will let me have a fly?"
"He should. He seems pretty docile,"
"Well, that's real lovely of ya," Malon beams, her teeth standing out eerily in the darkness. "I'll take you up on that,"
We put the horses in the stable and walk down the path to Malon's house, where a lantern is burning and Talon, Zelda and Ruto stand.
"Malon! Where've you been?"
"Sorry, daddy," Malon says. "Rode further than I thought we did. Took us a while to get back,"
Talon huffs. "Don't do that again, hear?"
"I won't, daddy,"
"You kept us waiting, Link," Ruto says primly. "Are we to fly through the night?"
"Kaion won't fly at night, anyway," Zelda sighs. "I thought if we left this afternoon we might cover some ground, but we've no hope of getting him airborne now,"
I suddenly think of Malon's wanting to fly.
"Mr. Lon," I begin.
"Talon,"
"Talon, could we borrow your daughter for a few days?"
"Link!" hisses Zelda, and Talon frowns.
"What?"
"We're going to the Zora's Domain for a day or two, to do something for Princess Ruto,"
"So that's why she's hanging around," Talon says. "Why'd you want Malon along?"
"I...I think, after what she did yesterday, that maybe she feels a little cooped up here," I offer, hoping I'm not overstepping my bounds. "She'd be safe and everything- Zelda's all morally upstanding and stuff and she's really good at magic, so she could fight off anything, really. And we'd be surrounded by Zora who'd look out for us because Ruto's with us. Please?"
"Please, daddy?" adds Malon, looking like she's about to trip over herself in excitement and longing. "I know I'm grounded but please? I promise, I'm not gonna do anything bad or let the cows out again. Please?"
Talon and Zelda have identical looks of consternation on their faces; I can tell Zelda's not pleased I've involved Malon in this but I know she'd really love the adventure of travelling through the Zora caves, looking for a treasure horde. She seems like a romanticist, the kind who spends their days reading heroic stories and wishing they could live them.
"You'd look after her properly?" Talon says grudgingly. "Feed her right, make sure she sleeps properly, make sure she don't run off?"
"Of course, Talon," I say, feeling a little like a cheat for using his first name, like I'm manipulating him with it.
"I'd make sure she's perfectly safe, sir," Zelda says. "You wouldn't have to worry,"
He sighs. "It's true she don't get out much. Maybe this'd be good for her?"
"It would!" Malon almost barks. "Really!"
Talon crosses his arms.
"Fine. But you have five days at the most. If she's not back by then I'll have the knights on you, and they'll know where to find you,"
"Would it help if we left you some of our valuables so you'd know we'd have to come back for them?" Zelda offers. Talon nods.
"That'd be mighty reassurin',"
Zelda opens her pouch, and gestures for me to do the same. Talon ends up holding Zelda's crown, the Spiritual Stone, and the ocarina.
"These are...incredibly valuable, sir, so please, don't lose them or sell them or anything," Zelda says anxiously.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Talon says. He squints at the tiara. "This looks familiar, you know,"
"Thank you so much, daddy," Malon breathes. Then she suddenly squeals, jumping up and down. "I get to see the Zora's Domain!"
"I particularly love how I wasn't asked about this," Ruto grunts.
"Right. Uh, can Malon come?" I ask her.
"As long as she helps,"
"I'll help with whatever ya want," Malon promises, awe in her voice. "Wow!"
"We'll leave in the morning," Zelda says.
"You'd better pack a bag, Malon," Talon says, and Malon's gone in a flash of red hair. "With dresses!" he shouts after her.
"I ain't wearin' no dress!" she yells back gleefully. "I got a whole new place to explore!"
A/N: My goodness, Malon is so much fun to write. Gah, she's my favourite character after like three chapters. And before the spontaneous writing she got when I was making those chapters she barely had a role in this story at all. So tell me! What role would you like Malon to have? What do you want to see from her? Lay it on me! You never know, I might really do it! I mean, until I was writing this chapter she wasn't coming along to the Zora's Domain and I reworked the whole thing to fit her in, so really I can do whatever I want! (Yay for author powers!)
Lord Darth Yoda: Huh. I know what you mean- sometimes I get alert emails from fanfics and just forget to read the new chapter. I've gotten into the habit of leaving the email tab open and the email in my inbox until I've read the chapter. But that's just what I do XD And Malon is just genuinely fun. I feel like she doesn't get enough screen time in the games and it's so much fun writing her hijinks and accent. I'm really not sure where her accent came from, but she has it now. Whoops XD I'm not a hardcore anything shipper when it comes to Zelda- I mean, I don't even know where I'm going with this story and I'm the one making it. So I'm just portraying every character as their own amazing person and seeing how they all fit together. Who do you ship Link with?
Leave a review, guys! I always love to hear your feedback, criticisms, advice and ideas. It really does affect the story! I can rework entire character arcs and massive plot lines just because someone made an offhanded comment that inspired a better arc. So let me know what you think!
NOW! WHAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU: CHARACTER ART FOR THIS STORY IS ON DEVIANTART!
My username is "Electronic-Ink-0" and you can find character art for TSC, maps of Hyrule and the surrounding countries, and much more. I urge you to check it out!
26 February 2017