INSOMNIA
based on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
They trudged slowly down the path towards Termina field, with the swamp and the distant ringing of crickets at their back and an orb of lifeless rock suspended overhead.
"I can't believe you did that," said Tatl, toying with the thing in her hands.
"Did what?" said Link, looking away.
The faerie gave the tiniest shrug. "You know what I mean."
She held in her hands a feather, thin and streamlined and nearly taller than her. In the night darkness it might have been any colour at all. The bird she had plucked it from was still lying motionless on the path some ten, twenty minutes behind them.
It had been so easy. A few birds, perched on a tree. He'd been thinking about something, had seen something in Tatl's face, and then the impulse had taken him, and his hands moved by themselves. Yes, his hands had moved by themselves; those birds could have been vultures or Ganon's minions or concentric red rings on a wooden board. So easy. Four thirty, four thirty-one, four thirty-two.
After a pause, Link spoke uncertainly. "I thought you wanted..."
"I..." Tatl dropped her eyes. "Well, yes."
"So..." Link glanced at her.
"So since when did you care what I want?" She shrugged. "I just thought... You seemed better than that. Better than me."
The worst of it was that a tiny part of him, the part of his brain that danced sword and bow through the air, seemed to think, So what? They were just birds. And the voice of the dead Kokiri boy, who was supposed to appear and say You weren't supposed to do that, remained absent.
"You helped," said Link after a pause. "At Woodfall Temple. There was that room with the blackboes and you helped me out. And with the big monster... I thought you were going to run. And maybe.. I mean, you're the rudest faerie I've ever met, but maybe I was... well..."
Tatl looked him up and down with genuine curiosity. "So what," she said, "this is a peace offering or something?"
"Well... you kept going on about..."
"I'll take that as a yes." She shrugged. "I guess I should be flattered."
The ensuing pause lasted just a moment too long for comfort.
"Come on," said Tatl, turning with a sudden movement. "Let's keep going. There's something further down I want to show you."
-oOo-
They stopped at the very edge of the swamp, where the trees ended and Termina field began.
"Here," said Tatl, leading him to the side.
There was a rough drawing carved at the roots of a tree, which looked like a hatted stick figure surrounded by flies. Link vaguely remembered having noticed it before. He stepped in to get a closer look.
"What does that look like to you?" said Tatl.
Link peered at it. Up close, it still looked the same. "Insects of some sort? The figure in the middle and..." He trailed off, realising the obvious. "They're faeries."
Tatl nodded. "That's right."
"Two faeries and... the Skull Kid?"
"Yeah. Tael and I drew this with the Skull Kid when we first met him..."
She turned and stared into space pointedly. After a few moments of silence, Link realised that she was waiting for him to take the bait.
"How did it happen?" he asked. "How did you and Tael meet the Skull Kid?"
Tatl stroked the feather with a dramatic sigh. "If you must know."
She made a show of stretching her neck from side to side.
Link shifted his weight to one foot. "So..."
"It was raining," Tatl said. "There's a big hollowed-out log not far from here. Me and Tael went in there because it was dry. The Skull Kid was hiding in there. He was hiding really well, too; we wouldn't have noticed him if he hadn't been crying. So we went down to talk to him. Turns out he was pretty lonely. Bit of an outsider." She glanced at Link. "Maybe you can relate...?"
"Go on," said Link tersely.
"We got along real well. The Skull Kid wasn't like most people, he knew how to have fun.
And having someone bigger around really helped with some of the pranks Tael and I wanted to pull. And, well..." She smirked. "The Skull Kid looks like a scarecrow. We weren't complaining.
"But you were asking how we met, so... yeah. That's pretty much all there was to it. Well... That first night, when we went down to talk to him, he told us that he had been fighting with his friends and that they had left him all alone." She shrugged. "Doesn't surprise me. He's a lot like me and Tael; he's got a sense of humour. Most people don't get that. So I can see why he didn't get along with most people."
Her face grew dark.
"But to do what he did just because of that..."
The second blow struck home and the man crumpled. He landed face first, his arms bouncing uselessly off the ground. There he lay still.
The Skull Kid was immediately at the man's side, unfastening his victim's rucksack and rolling it away from the body. He rubbed his hands together excitedly and began to rummage through its contents.
Tael hovered by the salesman's head, staring with worry at the thin bloody ellipse where the club had connected.
"Are you sure he's alive?" he said.
"Of course he's alive." Tatl rolled her eyes. "Skull Kid was gentle, isn't that right?"
"Course I was," replied the Skull Kid. He looked at the body uncertainly for a few seconds, then let out a breath. "See? He's still breathing." He shot Tael a smile. "I'm not that strong, my faerie friend."
He returned his attention to the rucksack. Save a sleeping bag and a few dirty underclothes, the only thing he was pulling out of the large leather bag was masks, dozens upon dozens of them. Some resembled people or animals, others were adorned with ornate ceremonial designs that swirled back and forth, others still were stark and abstract like the gears of a clock. The Skull Kid paused with each one, holding it up for the faeries to look at before tossing it aside.
"There's nothing here, Tatl," he muttered impatiently. "I told you this guy was a mask salesman."
"Yeah, but he was scrawny, wasn't he?" said Tatl. "Easy pickings."
"We're in huge trouble if he saw us," said Tael, flying up to join his sister. "Huge trouble."
"We were careful, weren't we?" said Tatl, giving her brother an annoyed shove. "Don't be a crybaby."
"If this guy's a salesman where's all his money?" said the Skull Kid. "Don't people buy his masks?"
She flew closer to the mouth of the rucksack, peering inside. "Ew. Smells like rotten fruit." She wrinkled her nose. "Maybe nobody wants the masks?"
"Yeah," chimed Tael, "look at this one. It's just a piece of wood with holes for eyes."
The Skull Kid paused in his rummaging. "What's this?" he said.
He pulled the object in question out and stepped away from the rucksack. It was the right size to be another mask, but was wrapped in black cloth.
"Maybe it's special?" said Tael.
"Maybe," said the Skull Kid.
He started unwrapping the object, but didn't get far before he encountered resistance. Turning it over in his hands, he saw that the cloth had actually been sewn up, preventing it from being opened.
The Skull Kid looked up at the faeries uncertainly.
Tatl shrugged. "Rip it."
"Yeah," said Tael, "do it."
Clutching opposite ends of the wrapping in his hands, the Skull Kid gritted his teeth and pulled. He strained at it for a few seconds, and then with a sharp twanging sound the entire bundle came flying apart and something large and heavy fell to the ground, narrowly missing the Skull Kid's toes.
For a few long seconds, the imp and the two faeries stared at the object without a word.
"Now that's interesting," said the Skull Kid.
It was a mask, but they could see at once that this mask was different to the others. Shaped like a deformed love heart, it exuded an ominous air. Its surface glinted strangely in the sunlight, not quite metallic but not quite anything else either. It had its own eyes: two bloodshot orbs with tiny black pupils which seemed to bore holes straight through the viewer. Beyond this there were no recognisably human features on the mask, just layers upon layers of thick black lines bordering deep earthen paints. Thick spikes of yellowing bone protruded dangerously from the mask's sides.
"That has to be the creepiest mask I've ever seen," said Tatl.
"I'll say," said the Skull Kid. He lifted it up. "Let's see how it fits me."
Gingerly, not wanting to break it, he carefully placed the mask onto his face. It fit snugly, and he removed his hands it seemed to sink a little further into his face.
"Ooh," he said. "I like."
He turned to face them, and a slight shiver ran down Tatl's spine. The mask was even more unsettling once it was being worn. She pushed the feeling back – just a mask – and nodded appraisingly.
"Nice fit," she said.
"That mask is creepy," said Tael. He had an uncomfortable look on his face.
"Yeah, isn't it?" said the Skull Kid happily. "This will be great for scaring people with. I'm keeping this one."
"How can you see without eyeholes?" said Tatl.
The Skull Kid shrugged. "I don't know. Magic? Whatever it is, I like it. Everything looks so much more... colourful. Happier..."
She smirked. "Happy isn't a colour."
"Well, whatever." The Skull Kid cocked his head from side to side, sending the mask's eyes lolling back and forth eerily. "It's neat, whatever it is. I like it."
"Take it off, Skull Kid," said Tael, biting his lip. "That mask gives me a bad feeling."
"It's a mask, Tael," said his sister dryly. "The only harm it can do is scaring a little wimp like you to death."
Skull Kid laughed. "Aww, is Tael scared? Hee, hee." He hopped to his feet and took a few bounding steps towards the faeries.
Tael flinched and drew back. "Please, Skull Kid. Take the mask off. I don't like it. Make him take it off, Sis."
Tatl groaned. "Wingshreds, Tael. Give it a rest."
"But..."
"It's okay," said the Skull Kid. He gripped the mask in both hands and pulled it off. He grinned, orange eyes twinkling. "See? All normal."
"Yeah," chimed Tatl, "it hasn't eaten his face or anything, has it?"
"Heh." Skull Kid spun the mask around in his hands. "You should listen to your sister, Tael. She has a lot more sense than you."
Tatl grinned. Tael still looked uneasy.
"You're just spooked, Tael. You thought we killed the salesman and you got all superstitious. It's nothing to worry about." The Skull Kid raised the mask towards his face. "I mean, what about the 'haunted' house we did the other day? What about those Snapper eggs we stole, you remember? After everything we've been through together, is a mask really all that scary?"
The purple faerie looked down sheepishly. "I guess not..."
"That's right," said the Skull Kid. He shot Tatl a grin. "See? Problem fixed."
"Nice work," chirped Tatl. "We taking anything else?"
The Skull Kid glanced at the pile of discarded masks. "Nah," he said. "This one's cool, but no point making a collection."
"Okay. Let's get out of here, then."
"Yeah, before he wakes up," said Tael.
"Sure thing," said the Skull Kid. With a cheeky smile, he stopped twirling the mask and slipped it back onto his head.
Neither of the faeries had seen his face since.
"I told him not to do it," said Tatl earnestly. "Stealing from lazy shopkeepers is one thing, but mugging people... that was his idea. And Tael, well, he just went along with it. The Skull Kid was always a little more reckless than us. And once he got his power, once he put that mask on, well... he was never quite the same."
"The mask changed him?" said Link.
"It changed him," nodded Tatl. "He could be spiteful, sure, but ever since he discovered the mask gave him magic powers, some of the pranks became just vicious. He spent two whole days with a dog that had bitten him at last year's big festival... 'experimenting', he called it. And not long after that... well. He'd always wanted a horse. And then I lose, what, a few weeks?, in the Underforest trying to help you out, and the next thing I know he's trying to destroy the world. Didn't the Great Faerie say the Mask wants to destroy things? Well, Skull Kid never wanted that. He was like us, he liked messing with things, but whatever this is, whatever's been poisoning the swamp and dragging down the moon – that's not him. It's the Mask or something. It's not him."
Link regarded her carefully. "You're saying it's not his fault?"
She shrugged. "I saw how you handled the monster in the temple. That was... I mean, it was good, scary good, but... look, all I'm trying to say here is – go easy on Skull Kid, okay? He's not a bad person. Whatever we saw on top of the Clock Tower... that wasn't him."
Link frowned, unsure whether to believe her. She had been part of the ambush that had seen him robbed and cursed in the first place. But everything he'd seen of Tatl since then seemed to show she wasn't a bad person. For a while those thoughts simmered. Then he made up his mind: this wasn't a matter of life or death in any immediate sense. At least this once, he could afford to take a chance and ignore his danger instincts (or was that just another word for paranoia?).
"I understand," he said.
Tatl nodded, looking relieved. "Good..." she said, staring off into blank space.
Perhaps she was thinking of the Skull Kid again. Or perhaps her brother. Link kept forgetting about Tael... but of course the younger faerie would be weighing on her mind. She had lost a friend, too – perhaps she would understand.
Navi was...
He almost opened his mouth to say it, but couldn't quite complete the movement. Explaining Navi would mean explaining a lot of things, and he didn't think he could stand that. He had tried, Goddesses knew, with Zelda, and what had that achieved? No amount of explaining could make someone understand seven years of erased history.
Instead, he searched for something to say, and-
"Friends?" he said aloud.
The question caught him off-guard. He didn't remember forming the words in his mind, they had just appeared there on their own accord.
Tatl quickly looked away, but not before he caught the ghost of a smile on her face.
"You're a weird one, Deku boy," she said. "It doesn't work like that, you know."
"What doesn't work like that?"
Tatl laughed; Link reddened. "Never mind," she said. "I forgot you're only eight..."
"Ten..."
"...you have plenty of time to grow up." She laughed again and shook her head. "Come on. We have work to do." She pointed at his belt. "Get out your, uh..."
"Ocarina?"
"Yeah, that. Not much we can do in the next few hours."
True. Link took his ocarina from his belt. It was cool in his hands as he turned it over and felt for the finger holes. He raised the reed to his lips and paused.
"What do we do next?" he said.
"Isn't it obvious?" said Tatl. "We head north."
"North? What's to the north?"
She waved him off irritably. "Ask me afterwards. Come on, do your time travel thing already. I don't want to be around that..." - she nudged her head towards the moon, which filled half the sky - "...any longer than I have to."
Link shuddered. Somehow he'd managed to avoid thinking about the moon all night. Now that he remembered it was there he could almost feel it pressing down on the air above them. Some things were just unnatural.
"All right," he said. He closed his eyes for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and began to play.
The Song of Time was a mournful melody, uncomplicated and unpretentious. His hands moved through the piece with easy familiarity. Soon enough the last note had faded to silence.
"I hope this works again," said Tatl darkly. "Because if-"
The world held for a moment.
Then there was a shimmering, a shimmering and all at once the ground and the trees and the night time sky were crumbling, crumbling to pieces and everything was white, white and there were the endless clocks ticking, ticking and Link was falling-
A/N: Yes? No? I had more but I cut out a lot of stuff I liked because it was getting a bit too much. :( Personally, I think that what we see of Link and Tatl in this chapter flows naturally from their portrayal in previous chapters (that is, it doesn't look like everyone's personality suddenly changed), but then again I have this stuff running around in my head all the time so I might not be the best judge. What do you think?
Anyway - another cycle done! It's a little worrying because at my current rate it will take another three years to finish this fanfic, which is an absurd amount of time for any kind of amateur effort. We'll have to see if the next cycle comes out any faster... I'd call it a fifty-fifty.
A huge thanks to all my readers for sticking with me this far. Here's to more Insomnia to come...
CYCLE 1: Paranoia (November 2008 - November 2009)
