Gathering Dust

by FlowerOwl

Left behind as the sole survivor after death descended on the world, Zelda cannot deny that she is fleeing from more than just the memories haunting her as each passing day adds to the weight of her despair, and when a chance meeting allows for her path to cross those of two strangers, it soon becomes clear that they all have more to make peace with than merely their own past.

9. Chapter 9

The following morning arrived, mist covering the world outside as Link opened up the door to let fresh air into the room. Blinking to try to let her eyes grow accustomed to the bright light of the sun that peeked through the clouds above, Zelda took in the sight of the city. It was not that she had never stepped out of her house to find that a thick layer of mist gave her the message of having to turn on her bicycle lamps before heading outside, but now, there was something eerie about the way it lay over everything, the layer of white reducing visibility, creating the illusion of the skyscrapers in the distance being little more than the windows near the top that was able to catch and reflect the rays of sun.

"We should probably get going. I don't know about you, but after seeing those wolves, I would prefer for us to at least be somewhat close to another city when night falls."

Turning towards him, Zelda saw that Ganondorf had come to join her in standing in the doorway.

For a moment, they just stood there, Link hurrying around inside, packing up their supplies, the blanket Zelda had lacked the energy to pick up soon lying as a bundle on top of their food as he gestured for them to move aside to allow him to push the trolley out onto the street. Looking over at Ganondorf and seeing the way he had not looked away from her for even a moment, Zelda could taste the words, the question of just what he and Link had been talking about the past night already waiting to let itself be heard. But she did not allow it to pass over her lips. Saying it and acknowledging the fact that she had kept herself from falling asleep to allow her to listen in on their conversation would only make it even more real, would prove that she had not been dreaming about those moments. Besides, if they kept secrets from her, it was not like she had any right to demand to know about them, not with how she guarded her own secrets like her life depended on it.

That was what Zelda tried to convince herself of as she broke eye contact with Ganondorf to instead use the tip of her shoe to try to dig into the ground beneath her feet, achieving nothing more than making the tip of her feet hurt. Even though she knew on a rational level that it did not do anything to take away the little knot of worry in her stomach that they might leave her behind in the end, it was enough to keep her from voicing her thoughts.

Link returned to their sides a moment later, and before long, all three of them had agreed to the plan of continuing south, heading towards the fields that covered the landscape there in the hope that the wolves would have run in a direction where they could find cover in a forest rather than out in the open. Zelda moved without thinking, simply nodding along to their plans when Ganondorf sent her a questioning glance. It did not matter anyway. Even if she had had a better idea than that, she would have let them go ahead with theirs as long as she was still able to come along. And so, they set out.

They must have made a weird sight if there had been any onlookers who could have watched as they left the city, three people whose appearances spoke of the weeks that had passed since the last time they had been near any chance of getting a proper bath. Perhaps she had grown somewhat used to her own smell, but even then, Zelda still noted the harsh odour of the days on the road as she tried to discreetly smell her shirt. It was not one single smell, not something that would have allowed her to pinpoint just what was so wrong about it. Rather, it felt like it was a combination of everything that had happened, the weeks outside, having to spend too much time within the cities, and the time she had thrown herself to the ground the moment someone had shown up to try to handle the bear in front of them, all combining with one another to form a single sensation that was powerful enough to make her have to cough in an attempt at clearing her mind of the memory.

They had not discussed it, but it only took a few minutes of the shopping trolley veering from side to side as Ganondorf and Link pushed it along, Ganondorf gesturing towards it every other second to get Link to match his own movements, for them to silently agree that it was not working, Link letting go of the handle to, without a word, allow Ganondorf to be the only one in charge of it. Ganondorf for his part, did not seem annoyed at him, simply humming some melody under his breath, the uneven ground below them making his arms and voice shake as the wheels of the trolley passed over every last hole in the road. Zelda could not recognise the melody, but it seemed that Link did, or at least he soon joined Ganondorf, whistling along to the melody as Mabe soon became little more than a dot in the distance, the field instead growing to become all they could see no matter in which direction they looked.

The sun continued to rise above them, slowly climbing up in its attempt at reaching its apex on the sky, as Zelda walked along next to them. More than once, she could almost believe that she was about to say something, finding herself opening her mouth to remark on the clean air or the blue sky above them, but each time, Link's voice echoed in her mind, the way he had sounded when he had told Ganondorf not to tell her about their conversion silencing her.

They continued like that for what felt like ages but could not have been more than about an hour judging from the position of the sun, the only sound to break the silence being that of Ganondorf and Link's impromptu concert. The melody had changed a couple of times, Zelda perking up each time, only for the fact that she still did not know what they were humming along to to take away the sudden burst of energy once more.

Finally, Link broke through the never-ending amount of music she did not know, turning towards Ganondorf as he walked. "Listen, I am not trying to be difficult here, but it is just me, or are we not really getting anywhere at all?"

Though she hated to admit it and let the hour of feeling out of place have been for nothing, Zelda was tempted to agree with him. It was not as much a case of them truly not having achieved anything during the last hour as it was a matter of the unchanging appearance of their surroundings removing all sense of making progress, but as Zelda looked ahead to see nothing other than a dusty road and grassy fields for as far as the eye could see, she could not blame Link for thinking that they had not moved a metre since they had first left Mabe behind.

However, before she got a chance to say any of that, Ganondorf had halted, Link and Zelda following suit to look at him as he cast a glance towards Link, a beaming smile slowly forming on his face as he gestured towards the trolley in front of him. "Get on," Ganondorf said.

"What?" Link asked, the confused edge to the word mirroring the way Zelda felt a crease forming between her eyebrows as she looked first at Ganondorf and then at the trolley.

Seemingly unfazed by the fact that none of them understood what he meant, Ganondorf nodded towards the shopping trolley once more. "Step onto it. If you are careful, there should be more than enough space for you to stand on the metal bar over the wheel without also stepping on the water. You too, Zelda. Get on, then I can push you for a while—just make sure to pick a side each to keep it balanced."

Getting on the trolley to let it be pushed along a road that was littered with holes deep enough to have made her almost trip over them twice already seemed like the last thing they should be doing, but as Link returned Ganondorf's grin with one of his own, already running to jump onto the left side of the trolley, Zelda felt how the worries melted away to instead give way to the realisation that she had, at least, not been left out of this. So, without giving herself another moment to worry about the fact that she had no idea what they would do in the event that the trolley would tip to the side, whether she or Link would be able to avoid having it fall onto them if it were to happen, she copied him, placing her foot on the metal bar, clinging onto the right side of the trolley, fingers curling around the net-like side, as she lifted her other foot off the ground as well.

The next moment, Ganondorf had set the trolley into motion. Zelda had halfway expected for him to have continued to push it along just as he had done before, all three of them having walked along the road at a pace that was perhaps not as fast as it should have been, Link's words about wanting to reach a city before nightfall taken into account, so when he began sprinting, all she could do was to hold onto the side of the trolley for dear life and try her best not to let her panic show as the trolley wobbled dangerously beneath her for a moment before Ganondorf regained control over it, barely managing to keep it on the road as it made a sudden turn in front of them. Tearing her gaze from the supplies right in front of her, the water in the bottles shaking alongside the trolley and her, making it seem almost like an expression of solidarity, Zelda gritted her teeth, pushed back the fear, and looked up.

Link was laughing, and not just the little laughs they had been able to use to distract themselves from everything that was happening, none of the tense lines of strained muscles to be found in his expression as he met her gaze. He looked like he was truly enjoying himself, and although it should not have made a difference to her, there was something about standing there, the little metal beam beneath her feet being all that separated her from the ground rushing by her as she listened to Ganondorf and Link's loud yelps as the trolley hit a slight bump in the road, making them fly through the air for a fraction of a second before they hit it, the impact rattling Zelda as she held onto the side, that brought a smile to her face. Although she had to clench her jaw to keep herself from accidentally biting her own tongue, although the adrenaline was making the world around her seem even sharper, suddenly, Zelda heard herself join in on the laughs, cheering loudly as Ganondorf pushed a bit harder, making them move just that little bit faster that felt like it was all that separated them from being able to fly. Next to her, she heard the wind take away both Link's and Ganondorf's voices, leaving them behind her as everything else melted away to leave her with the feeling of wind throwing her hair around her face, most of it flying behind her but a few strands coming in front of her face, Zelda having to shake her head to try to get the locks of hair out of her eyes. Throughout it all, she could not keep herself from laughing. Perhaps it was the adrenaline and the hopeless situation that had finally managed to make her lose her last bit of sanity, but if that was the case, Zelda would not complain. If losing what little rational thoughts she still had left meant being able to exist like this, free and without the burden of the past, then she would chose it in a heartbeat over anything else.

But, of course, like every other good thing that had ever happened, the moment had to come to an end, the trolley coming to a stop that was sudden enough to almost make her lose her grip on the metal bar. Barely managing to stay on the shopping trolley, Zelda at first thought that it was Ganondorf who had had to stop their moment of elated screams, the task of having pushed the trolley for what must surely have been hundreds of metres having left him winded and in need of a break. However, as the world and its sounds came back to her, Zelda knew that that was not the case. Rather than looking exhausted, gasping for air, Ganondorf was looking right past her, his eyebrows raised in a silent question. The reason for that soon became clear.

Jumping off the trolley, Link had already halfway run around it, pointing towards something in the distance, as he spun around to look back at them. What little sounds the wind and the distance he had already put between them did not steal away was muddled in Zelda's ears, but even then, she could still understand the gist of what he was saying.

"There's something—over there!" Link yelled before completing the turn to continue to run through the tall grass covering the field next to the road.

"Gan—" Zelda turned towards Ganondorf, already waiting for him to tell her that they had to be careful in their attempt at following along behind Link, but he did not seem to hear her, having already let go of the trolley to run after Link. Zelda could hear him yell his name, the sound being caught and thrown around by the wind, but it felt almost like it did not quite register in her brain, every last thought slowing down until they stood still to instead let her feel how the realisation that he had just left her without sparing her another glance set in.

Still, even if they seemed to have forgot about her, Zelda could not allow herself to be left behind because of that, so, fully abandoning the trolley, she broke into a run, following the path of broken blades of grass, Link little more than a figure in the distance and Ganondorf having already gained a considerable lead by the time Zelda felt the adrenaline push through her boundaries to allow her to run like she had not spent weeks balancing on the edge between barely being able to survive and outright being malnourished. The air, as cold as she knew it had been just that morning, felt like fire in her aching lungs as Zelda pushed herself to run faster, Ganondorf soon becoming larger in her field of vision as she finally reached his side.

He cast a glance in her direction, and as much as it could simply have been wishful thinking, Zelda was certain that she was not imagining the little nod he sent her as the two of them continued to chase after Link.

A building marked a sudden disturbance to the otherwise never-ending expanse of grass they had first seen when looking out over the field. The memory of the map of Hyrule was still fresh in her mind from the hours she and Ganondorf had spent poring over it to try to figure out if there was a better way of reaching Lurelin Village than to travel through the Faron Province, and still, Zelda was not able to recall the name of the building. It must be a ranch, that much was clear by the fence that surrounded the property, a little bank of earth rising up around it to form a second, natural enclosure around it, but as much as Zelda tried to force herself to put a name to the main building that rose up above the ground, the two-storey structure making it stand out against its flat surroundings in a way that Zelda doubted a skyscraper would have been able to do in the city, she could not remember it. But then again, it was not like there was really anyone left to be upset about that. Most likely, the inhabitants of the ranch had been dead for a month. The thought was macabre, but as much as Zelda wanted to be able to find something to hold onto that would have been enough to disprove it, the sight of the hole in the fence that grew to become something she could not have failed to notice as they reached the house along with the horses that walked around just outside the enclosure itself, grazing, with their tails moving slightly from side to side, the horses not even bothering to acknowledge their presence as they rushed past them, was more than enough to let the uneasy feeling in her stomach become even heavier. For all she wanted to remain positive, all Zelda could do as she and Ganondorf moved around the horses, was to try to keep her mind occupied with following Link.

She had halfway expected for him to follow her line of sight and run towards the main house, but the moment before he would have reached it, Link turned right, instead stopping in front of the fence. A moment passed, just barely enough to allow Zelda and Ganondorf to catch up with him, but before any of them would have got the chance to ask him what he was doing, Link had continued towards the hole in the fence, using the fact that one of the logs had seemingly been kicked so forcefully that it had splintered, leaving a rough edge behind at each sides of the hole, to allow him to begin to make his way past the obstacle.

"Link," Zelda panted, "Link, are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, we don't really have any way of treating any possible infection, so—"

"Look." pointing towards a spot in the distance, Link said the word like it was enough to explain everything, and maybe it was, for despite how she wanted for nothing more than to tell him that they could not afford to follow every last impulse that went through their mind, Zelda found herself looking in the direction he pointed at.

Just across from the hole in the enclosure, there was a horse. With its reddish brown fur and height Zelda was tempted to say that it had been the kind of horse that would have made her father nod and talk about how it had once been customary for the children born into their family to receive a foal once they became a teenager that would then be raised to become the perfect animal for them back before that world had come to an end. However, the sound of her father pointing towards history books and stories of people Zelda struggled to remember the name of was drowned out by the way Zelda did not have to ask Link for confirmation to know that the horse would not continue to be there if it did not receive help.

It was not hurt, not directly at least, but as it moved its head, Zelda seeing how it tried to move towards them the moment it noticed their presence, it became clear that it had got stuck in the fence, its hoof seemingly wedged in between the different logs, making it unable to pull it away or deliver a kick that was strong enough to free itself.

"I…" Link's voice pulled her back to reality, the fact that he could not have been able to know about the possibility of there being a ranch almost an entire kilometre away from the road they had agreed to follow nor that there was a horse that had got stuck there when he had first run away from them repeating in the back of Zelda's mind as Link swallowed before continuing. "I have to help her."

More than anything, Zelda wanted for it to make sense, for her to be able to look at Link and reason that, with how he had grown up on a ranch, perhaps it had somehow made him learn about the location of other ranches, a knowledge that might then have made him feel like he was responsible for the survival of the animals there after the death of their owners. And maybe she would have been able to make herself believe that if it had not been for the little edge of something else in his voice as he said the words, the way Link's eyes shone with a strange light that was almost enough to make Zelda take a step back, away from him, as she fought to regain the ability to speak.

She was grateful for how Ganondorf stepped in, reaching out to hold onto Link's arm, keeping him from going through with the plan of climbing through the hole. "Hold on." Ganondorf kept his voice calm, but Zelda could see how his arm shook as Link turned around to look back up at him. "Link, you can't just rush headfirst into this—there might be all kinds of bacteria here, and we won't be able to clean the wound if you get hurt while making your way into the pen. Besides, how can you know that the horse might not hurt you? It's a big animal and if it's stuck—"

Link interrupted him before he got a chance to finish. Pulling his arm out of Ganondorf's grasp, Link shook his head. There was something eerie about his movement, something about them that made them seem almost too slow and too quick at the same time, unfocused, as if there was someone else moving him as he spoke. "Don't worry; I know that she would never hurt me."

"Link!"

But it was too late. Before either Ganondorf or Zelda was able to hold him back or try to make him listen to reason, Link had turned around.

Without hesitating for even a moment, he had grabbed onto both sides of the ruined fence to allow himself to jump onto the lower log and from there down onto the ground. Just like that, he was inside the pen, leaving Zelda and Ganondorf to stand outside as he ran towards the opposite side of the grassy area.

Reaching out to hold onto the log, it seemed like Ganondorf was going to call out for him once more, but he closed his mouth again, instead turning to look down at Zelda. She could already see what he was going to say in his eyes, but even then, that did not do much to soften the feeling of having him choose Link rather than her as he shook his head, muttering something under his breath that sounded like a swear, before following Link in his jump over the fence, breaking into a run the moment his feet hit the ground again.

Zelda remained where she had first stopped, looking after him as the distance between them grew. The wood was rough beneath her fingers, a couple of splinters sticking out from the planks, and still, Zelda found herself clutching the log so tightly that she saw her knuckles turn white. The right thing to do would have been to follow them, to ignore the risk of injury in her attempt at keeping them from leaving her behind yet again, and still, Zelda stood there, feeling less like a human and more like a statue as Ganondorf slowed down, his hesitation clearly owed to the fact that Link had knelt down next to the horse. Though she could not see exactly what he was doing, the memory of how his eyes had shone mere moments before he had run into the pen was enough to let her know that he was trying to free the horse, and from the way he continued to sit there, it would appear that he was struggling with it. Perhaps her coming over to join them would have been what would make the difference in the end. Maybe she could walk in there and help calm the horse.

There was so many things she might have done, but fact was that Zelda stayed exactly where she was, letting the moments pass by, Link soon managing to free the horse, all three of them, Link, Ganondorf, and the horse, soon crossing the pen again to walk back towards where she was still standing, having not moved as much as a centimetre in the time they had been gone.

Link was the first to reach the fence again. Grabbing onto the fence post, he jumped over the log, grinning at Zelda as he stepped aside to let Ganondorf follow him before moving back to help guide the horse over. Zelda saw the way he kept his hand against its muzzle, mumbling, as the horse finally stepped over the barrier as well.

"I knew it," Link exclaimed, turning to look at Zelda, joy apparent on his face, "I don't know how, but I just knew that there was someone here who was in need of help, and see?" he motioned towards the horse. "I was right. This poor girl had got her hoof stuck between two logs. It was lucky that we came by when we did, because I don't think it would have taken much more time or much more desperation from her side for her to injure her leg in her attempt at freeing herself. Huh, do you hear that?" he reached out to pet the horse's muzzle, the horse, for its part, turning its head towards him. "You are going to be just fine, just make sure not to get stuck there again, okay? But…" Link looked into the horse's eyes. "I can't very well continue to just refer to you as 'poor girl'. Do you have a name, anything for me to call you?"

Zelda had been right; the horse was indeed the kind of horse that would have made her father talk about the past grandeur of the Bosphoramus family. With a white blaze that matched its mane and tail, it seemed like it would be easy to tell it apart from any other horse. But even then, as much as Link seemed to think the opposite, Zelda doubted that Link would be able to guess its name, much less get it to tell him what it was, despite how he leant towards the horse, still patting its muzzle as he continued to try to find different ways to ask for its name.

"Epona." it was not until Zelda saw Link turning to look at her that she realised that she had been the one to say the word. Fighting to keep herself from blushing and brushing it off as just her being tired, Zelda straightened her back and repeated herself. "Epona. That's… I mean we are not exactly going to actually get it to tell us its name, so we might as well give it one ourselves. And if that is the case, well, what would be a better name for a horse than that of the horse that helped the Hero of Time?"

She sounded like her father. Once, the fact that she could almost hear how she might have continued, telling them to wait as she went to find a book on the subject in her office, would have been accompanied by pride and joy, the little feeling that she might be able to impress him being impossible to ignore. Now, however, it took everything in her to keep herself from pressing her hand against her mouth in a futile attempt at taking back what had already been said. Epona. It was a name suited for a horse like the ones her father loved to lecture about, but that did not necessarily make it a bad name. Zelda had to believe that, that just because it might be something her father would choose, that did not take away the legacy of the name having belonged to the horse that was known for having helped the Hero of Time.

It would appear that Link agreed, for after glancing back towards the horse, he nodded at her. "Epona," he mumbled, "yes, that could work. Actually, it's a great name, really fitting for her, isn't it? Just—Zelda Epona's a 'she'—not an 'it'"

Zelda frowned despite her best attempt at staying neutral. Her father had referred to the horses that had belonged to their family in the past as 'it'. But then again, if her father liking the name Epona had counted as a negative for her, perhaps the same should be the case for every other word he had used to refer to them.

"All right," Zelda finally heard herself say, "in that case, she's certainly one lucky horse, to think that the three of us just happened to pass by right when she needed us."

"Yeah." stepping closer to them, Ganondorf knitted his brows, sending Link a look that Zelda did not know how to read. "We still haven't actually got an explanation for how you knew that she would be here. I mean, the ranch wasn't visible from the road, and you still just left us to sprint through the fields to get here. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we were able to save Epona, but how…? How did you know that she would be here?"

"I…" Link placed his hand flat against the blaze on Epona's forehead. He could try to hide it all he wanted, but Zelda still saw how he bit his lip before continuing. "I don't know. I just felt like I had to run in that direction—and I know that it must sound crazy to you, but that was what it was like. I could just… well, not hear, but I could almost sense, in a way, that there was someone here who would need my help." he looked up at them, his gaze flickering from Ganondorf to Zelda and back again.

Part of Zelda wanted to tell him that he had to have a better reason for having abandoned them and the shopping trolley to sprint towards what was little more than a feeling that there might be something calling for him, but she could not bring herself to say it. It was not that she did not want to, that she did not feel the need for an explanation almost as a physical sensation, not that she was scared of upsetting him. Instead, her inability to do much more than to wait for Ganondorf to respond was all due to the fact that an even larger part of her understood what it meant. It should have frightened her, and deep down, Zelda could not deny the thought that perhaps it was yet another sign that she was losing her sanity, but, for as little sense as Link's talk about having felt that someone needed him made, she understood what he meant.

They must have been quiet for far too long with how Link's movements grew more and more sudden and uncontrolled as he looked between them.

When he spoke, Ganondorf almost threw out his response in a jumble of words, his attempt at assuring Link that all was well apparent in his tone of voice. "No—I mean, that is… understandable. Just… please remember that Zelda and I did not have any chance of knowing where you were going the next time. For all we knew, you could have been about to leave us for good, not even to mention the fact that we all left the trolley behind."

He was not looking at her, but with how the shame made her cheeks grow warmer, he might as well have explicitly reminded them all that Zelda had been the last to leave the road, the one who should have remembered to bring the trolley along.

But Link did not even bother to look at her at the mention of the trolley, instead rubbing the back of his neck, an embarrassed gleam in his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I know that it's not really a reason for why I did it, but I just completely forgot about everything else the moment I felt that there was someone who needed my help. I am really sorry that I did not stop to think about the fact that you guys had no way of knowing what I was doing. I never meant for you to have a reason to believe that I would leave, because, believe me, I would never have done that."

Following Ganondorf's line of sight, Zelda could tell the moment he made the decision, and still, she found herself taken by surprise by the fact that he also included her as he stepped forward to bring both of them in for a tight embrace. If she had known that it would happen, perhaps Zelda would have been able to prepare herself for it, but as it was, all she could do was to try to remember to breathe and make a desperate attempt at convincing herself that she did not smell as bad as the time that had passed since the world had fallen apart would suggest.

From somewhere above her, Zelda heard Ganondorf's voice, bright and clear as he spoke. "Don't worry. I am just happy that you are both here and that you did not get hurt while jumping over the log to get into the pen, Link."

"Like I would ever have got hurt doing something as simple as that." Zelda could not see anything other than Ganondorf's sweater, but still, she could picture Link's smirk as vividly in her mind as if she had been able to look over at him as he added. "Besides, from what I remember, you were not far behind."

Ganondorf laughed, the sound travelling up from his stomach, Zelda able to feel its journey as it reached the air around her. "Well, given how I met you after you had placed yourself directly in the path of a bear that was about to attack me and Zelda, I think I was justified both in being a bit worried about your survival instincts and in wanting to be near you in case something happened that would leave you in need of my help." letting go of them again, Ganondorf took a step back, leaving Zelda to struggle not to ask him to not let the hug end just yet as he continued. "But we should probably get back to the trolley now. We have a lot of distance to cover if we want to be near a city by nightfall. You said that Epona's not injured, right? So she will be fine with us saying goodbye to her, won't she?"

The words had barely left Ganondorf's mouth before Zelda was able to point out an obvious flaw in his plan. The flaw was visible in the way Link's smile fell, how he turned to look back up at Epona, his hand seemingly coming to rest against her muzzle without him realising it. He did not want to leave her.

Shooting a glance back towards Ganondorf, Zelda saw how he appeared to already be halfway about to begin to run back towards the trolley. How he had not realised the fact that Link was not about to leave Epona was beyond her, but it seemed to be the case nonetheless.

"Wait." Link did not raise his voice, but still, it was enough to make Ganondorf stop dead in his tracks. "I know… I know that we… I know that this is irrational, but… I really don't want to leave her. Not now, not when we have just saved her."

He wanted to keep the horse. As Zelda looked back and forth between him and Epona, the thoughts going through her mind were not even about the fact that she had no idea what bringing her along with them would entail, how much about the horses of the past her father had left out of the stories, how much she did not know about everything it would take to bring a horse along for the journey to Lurelin Village. Instead it was about the fact that, with the way Epona kept her head close to Link, Zelda had her doubts about whether they would even have been able to leave her behind if they tried to or if she would simply have decided to follow them wherever they may decide to go.

She could not tell if that was part of Ganondorf's thought process, the way he frowned slightly before looking over at Epona not revealing much about just what he was thinking about the idea.

But at last, Ganondorf let out a loud sigh. "All right. If you want to and Zelda doesn't have anything against it either, I have no arguments against keeping Epona. Just—please tell me that you know something about horses, Link, because I know for a fact that I know nothing about them, and seeing as I didn't exactly see a lot of horses in Hyrule Castle Town, I doubt that Zelda would know how to treat her either."

Link looked over at her, the way he smiled letting Zelda know that there was nothing she could have done to hide that fact that she would never tell him to let go of Epona with how the way his face had lit up from the moment he had first run away from them was still a clear memory in her mind. "What do you say, Zelda? Can Epona come with us?"

"Yeah," Zelda said, "I guess she can."

"Thank you!" for a moment, it seemed almost like Link was about to throw his arms around her to bring her in for a hug, taking a step towards her only to stop again. Zelda did not know what to think about it, so she fought to keep her face from revealing any emotions as Link spun around, his hand once again finding a spot on Epona's neck to rest against as he turned back towards Ganondorf. "I will hurry up and get back to the trolley then. Come on, Epona, we are going to head out for an adventure, all four of us!" just like that, chatting to Epona like he was expecting for her to respond to some of the things he said, Link began to walk away from them, following the path of bent blades of grass to find his way back to the trolley.

Zelda was just about to follow them when Ganondorf reached out to stop her, holding onto her hand.

"Wait, Zelda, just… I have to talk with you about something."

"Yes?" she heard how her voice rose, trembling slightly as she tried to guess just what that something might be. Already, the memory of the previous night came rushing back, the feeling of waking up to find that Ganondorf and Link were talking about something they were purposefully keeping secret from her making her heart speed up. The dread grew in her stomach as Zelda realised that it was not entirely unlikely that that might be what he wanted to discuss, that perhaps Ganondorf had realised that she had not been asleep, merely waiting for Link to leave them to get a chance to confront her with the fact that he knew she had been listening in on their conversation.

But if that was the case, Ganondorf was hiding it well, instead smiling down at her for a moment. "I… I was just thinking about the fact that I never really got to thank you properly—for fixing my Sheikah Slate, I mean."

"Oh." the relief was immense as the sentence let her know that he was not aware of her having overheard their conversation, Zelda having to fight not to laugh as she realised that she had worried about nothing. "Don't worry about that; it really wasn't that difficult—I didn't even fix your phone. I just transferred power to its core, nothing you could not have done by plugging it into a socket outlet back before everything happened."

Zelda had expected for Ganondorf to accept her attempt at brushing it off, perhaps sending her a worried glance before moving on. However, that did not happen. Rather than nodding along, Ganondorf shook his head. "No, it wasn't nothing, not to me at least. Listen, Zelda, I… I know that I haven't said this nearly enough, but after everything that has happened, you and Link—I feel almost like you are my family. And seeing you risk electric shock just to get back the pictures I had on my phone of my sister—well, I am sure that you can imagine what it felt like for me. To watch you walk over to that car and know that you might die all because you wanted to give me back my pictures… I don't know what my thoughts were exactly back then, but now, I know that I have to tell you that, no matter what you might have believed at the time, no matter how much you might have thought that I missed those pictures and the memories of her, I would never have asked for you to do that. Riju… Riju is dead, and there's nothing I can do to change that. I was powerless to help her when she needed me the most, but you, I could have done more to keep you from risking your life like that, and I am truly sorry that I did not think to act before you had already put your life at risk."

The words grew thick in the back of her throat, Zelda feeling like the sounds refused to be uttered as she looked up at Ganondorf and saw how the tears had made his eyes shine. Deep down, somewhere towards the back of her mind, Zelda was aware of the little seed of doubt that had been planted, the moment it had first appeared being a mystery to her. It could have been planted the night before, or at least, that was what she wanted to believe, but as she stood there, she could not deny the feeling that it might have been there for far longer. No matter what, fact was that she would have to say something, would have to respond to the confession. Only, she could not bring herself to say anything at all, instead merely looking up at Ganondorf as he cleared his throat, his cheeks turning slightly redder as he coughed.

"Yeah, that was what I wanted to tell you. I—just in case you had not already known, I wanted to make absolutely certain that you know that I would never have asked or expected for you to risk your life like that because of some old pictures of her."

That was what finally gave back Zelda the ability to speak. Already knowing that the confusion had settled into her expression, she tilted her head to the side. "But, Riju—you were missing her. Why would you not want to have the pictures of her? I mean, I get that we might be the last people in the world, but even if I were to die—" Ganondorf looked like he was going to cut in, the horror apparent in his eyes, so Zelda raised her voice just enough to signal to him that she was not finished yet, "please, let me finish—even if I were to die, you would still have Link here with you, so it wasn't like you would have had to face the reality of being all alone if something had happened to me back then."

She had misjudged. That much was clear as silence came to fill the air between them, Zelda taking a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for any response. Ganondorf did not let out the breath he had been holding, did not look relieved that she had just removed all feelings of guilt from his shoulders. Instead, there was something in his eyes that Zelda wanted to pretend she did not know how to interpret, the wilful ignorance not doing much to shield her from the worry, confusion, and horror that flickered through his eyes in the span of a second, Ganondorf opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, giving off the impression that there was so many things he wanted to say that he did not even know where to begin, leaving him unable to do anything other than continuing to look at her in total silence.

At last, he moved, but it wasn't to shrug of the conversation and return to Link. Instead, he reached out, placing both hands on her shoulders, the weight he put into the gesture making it seem almost like it was meant as a way for him to keep himself upright as much as it was to comfort her. "Zelda, I…." Ganondorf let the sentence trail off, swallowing thickly before continuing, his voice trembling slightly. "Look, Zelda, this," making an all-encompassing motion, it appeared that Ganondorf wasn't even really sure what he wanted to direct her attention towards, "this is not just a matter of finding other people in a world where I had just tried to make peace with the fact that I would be alone for the rest of what would probably become my short life. You and Link—and I know that I haven't known either of you for that long, but if anything were to happen to any of you, even if I could somehow go out and be rescued by a team from Labrynna and taken to my aunts immediately, I would still grieve for you; I would still look back at the days we spent together here in Hyrule and wish that I could have just one of them back. I—I know that this is probably not going to change anything for you, and as much as I wish that I could take away whatever it is that is making you think that I am lying to spare your feelings when I say this, I know that I can't, but please listen to me when I say that you are worth more than some pictures on my phone."

Zelda had halfway opened her mouth tell him that they really needed to get back to Link, Epona and the trolley, that, for as much as he was clearly trying his best to make it all seem sincere, she had been awake to listen to his and Link's conversation the night before and knew that he could not possible mean what he was saying, but she found herself closing it again without saying anything. It was not a matter of her fully allowing herself to believe what he was saying, but as she inspected his face, finding her eyes drawn to his and the way the honesty shone in them, Zelda felt the words falling away in a matter of moments, leaving her with no choice other than to nod. "I—" clearing her throat did not do anything to lessen the feeling of the words getting stuck, but she still tried. "Thank you. Really, Ganondorf, thank you for that. I will try to remember it."

It looked like Ganondorf was about to say something more, but the moment passed by without him having uttered a word. Instead, he spun around to shoot a look in the direction of where Link had already moved so far away from them that he was little more than a dot against the horizon, motioning towards it as he looked back down at Zelda. "Come. We should probably hurry to catch up with him. I really don't want to give him another opportunity to run away to some farm where there is a horse stuck in the fence without at least telling us first."

The chuckle sounded hollow in Zelda's ears, but at least Ganondorf did not comment on it as they both broke into a sprint, once again finding themselves running across the field to reach Link.

The decision to let Link be the one to take care of Epona was one they reached unanimously without any of them having to utter a word. It simply happened; when they climbed down from the tree Link had decided was large enough to house both them and hide their trolley from the night, Zelda's back protesting loudly as she tried to stand up straight after barely managing not to fall on her face after landing on the ground, he was the one to walk over to where they had left Epona by a little glade a few metres away, the one to guide her out of the forest again as Ganondorf and Zelda pushed the trolley, and the one who continued to walk with his hand resting against her side as they set out once more. Even those short moments was enough for Zelda to know that they would all have looked to him for guidance when it came to Epona anyway, or at least she only had to spend a few hours in the presence of the horse to come to the realisation that there was nothing about having to bring a horse along as they continued their journey to Lurelin Village that her father's stories would have been able to prepare her for. In the legends, they had simply been present without properly existing, waiting in the background for the moment where they would be relevant for legend again. By the time Link had announced that they would have to wait for Epona to finish grazing to continue their journey twice, it was already clear to her that they were waiting for Epona to need them much more than she was waiting for her moment to rush in and help them.

In the past, if she had still looked around her and known that there were people somewhere out there who counted on her to hurry, that her father might look at her and ask just what she had been able to achieve, why she had not got a better grade, why she had yet to properly mark her entrance onto the political scene, Zelda might have tried to suggest leaving Epona behind. It would have made sense on a purely logical level; the horse seemed perfectly capable of looking out for herself if the way she would look up, ears twitching at the slightest sound, Link having to press a hand to her muzzle and mumble words to her for minutes to get her to relax, was any indication. But each time she found herself considering the idea, Zelda would look over at Link and see how he was walking next to Epona, his eyes twinkling in a way she would never have dared to take away from any of them. So the horse came with them as they made their way across Hyrule Fields towards Mount Daphnes.

Neither of them did anything to draw the others' attention to it, but with how they were all quickening their pace after stopping for lunch, Zelda was certain that they were all thinking about the fact that if they were just able to reach Clock Town before nightfall, they would be able to sleep inside for yet another night. At least that was what she told herself to refrain from thinking too much about the blisters she could feel forming on her feet. That and the fact that Ganondorf seemed intent on doing everything in his power to try to speak with her, no doubt wishing to resume their conversation from the day before. More than once, Zelda could see his attempt out of the corner of her eye, the way he turned to her, opening his mouth, only for her attempt at doing everything in her power to continue staring straight ahead to silence him.

They had walked in silence for hours by the time it was broken. However, unlike what Zelda had expected, Ganondorf wasn't the one to insist on saying something. It was Link.

Catching up with them, Link was almost pushed off the road by all three of them and a horse trying to walk next to each other, but just before he would have had to take a step to the side and find himself in the ditch, Epona moved a bit closer to Ganondorf's side of the trolley, the way she hesitated for a moment before placing her hoof in front of her letting them know that she had realised that they were there and would appreciate not being stepped on.

Hidden from sight by Epona's large body, Zelda could not know for a fact that Link was smiling, but the way his voice rose a little, the lively tone unmistakable, she was still willing to bet that he was smiling as his voice was carried by the wind over Epona and towards them.

"It was really lucky that we found Epona, wasn't it?"

"Sure," Zelda said, wondering to herself what it was about that exact moment that had made Link feel the need to bring up the fact that they were bringing a horse along, what had changed from every other second they had spent in her presence.

If he noticed the curt edge to her response, Link did not let it show, simply continuing. "Yeah, I think so as well. She really makes it easy to forget that she hasn't been here with us from the very start, doesn't she?"

This time, it was Ganondorf who was the one to answer. Speaking slowly, everything about his tone of voice seemed to go against what he said directly. "Yes, she is certainly… present."

As if to prove his point, Epona neighed.

Link must have noticed the edge of dishonesty in Ganondorf's voice, for he let out a sigh. "I know. It's just… well, I used to think that I would go on to become a horse trainer when I was younger—used to pretend that I was teaching horses how to behave and everything in my backyard." the melancholy was dripping from his words, making the change after he cleared his throat all the more apparent. "But that was in the past. Now, I was actually planning to go on to become a firefighter!"

"A firefighter?" Zelda echoed, for once simply voicing what she was thinking rather than stopping to think about the words before she said them.

"Yes, A firefighter. I guess I just wanted to help people, and then, well, being a firefighter felt like it would be a good job for me. I mean, saving people and their property from being destroyed completely—it just felt like it was something that would bring meaning into my life. What about you guys, though? What did you want to do?"

It should not have been possible to divorce the question from the act of trying to remember a time before the world had turned into the single-minded journey towards Labrynna, but somehow, Zelda was able to do just that. Or, if nothing else, at least she did not feel the sting of tears as she looked back over at a point just in front of Epona's left legs where she could make out the familiar dirty green of Link's jacket when she answered. "I wasn't actually sure about what I wanted to do back then," she began, only to realise the lie she had allowed to creep into the words, making her try again, "no, actually, I had a pretty good idea about what I wanted to do; it was just a matter of my father wishing for me to go into politics."

"Oh," Link said, "well, what was it that you wanted to do then?" he said it like it was nothing, the three of them merely continuing their discussion, but Zelda could still feel how she had to fight to keep herself from falling silent in response to the question.

"I guess…" Zelda said, the memory of the different brochures whirling through her mind, "I guess I would have love to study engineering—preferably at Naboris University." sneaking a glance at Ganondorf, Zelda saw how he smiled down at her, and for once, she found the strength to return it.

"Naboris University?" Link repeated her answer, his voice rising a bit towards the end. "Hey, that's like you, isn't it, Ganondorf? Weren't you studying engineering there?"

Something Zelda did not know what to think of passed across Ganondorf's face, disappearing before it had truly got the chance to settle into his eyes as he nodded towards Link, the fact that Epona was still walking along between them making it superfluous. "Yeah, I did. I have actually already told Zelda that I think she would have done great if she had got the chance to go there. I am sure that my aunts would not have minded it if she had wanted to come home to them during school breaks, seeing as… seeing as Hyrule is so far away that it might be difficult to get home and back in time for the next semester."

He had kept her secret. Sending him a hint of a smile, Zelda could only look ahead as she tried to let the fact that he had not told Link register in her mind.

Seemingly not realising what was going on on the other side of Epona, Link continued with the same cheerful tone to his words. "Yeah, yeah, you two, I already knew that I have two nerds at my side during this trip, there's no need to remind me. Still, it's probably a good thing, all things considered. I mean, you guys have me to jump in front of wild animals and then I can count on you two to actually have a plan about what to do."

"Hey, you are also able to come up with plans," Ganondorf protested, the laugh it received from the other side of the horse confirming that they were all aware of the fact that, with how they were only there because Link had saved them from the bear and because the plan Zelda and Ganondorf had made called for them to make their way towards Mount Daphnes, no one could deny that there was a certain degree of truth to his words.

Link did not sound upset at all as he stopped laughing, his voice still retaining the light chuckle. "No, it's fine. My teachers always told me that I was better at the physical subjects than the more theoretical ones anyway, so it's not really like it is something completely new for me."

"I take it that you favourite subject in school was athletics then," Ganondorf responded.

A second of silence ensued before Link spoke. "Actually, no, though I think that most of my teachers would have agreed with you about that. But my favourite subject was actually religion and mythology from the very beginning." their silence must have been enough to let him know that they were trying to figure out just how that could be the case, for Link continued before they had time to ask him to further elaborate on that answer. "I don't know, but there was always something about listening to the stories of old that just… I don't know, but I just found myself admiring so many of the characters. I mean, the Hero of Time? Could you imagine going through something like that, getting stuck in time for seven years just so that you would be old enough to defeat some great evil—no offence, Ganondorf."

"None taken," Ganondorf said, brushing off Link's worried tone with a wave he had no chance of actually seeing.

Still, Link must have heard them, for he continued. "Waking up in some place you technically know because you were there seven years ago, but realising that it is now completely unlike what you knew back then? It just sounded so tragic. Well..." something else made its way into Link's voice, "I guess that we are kind of experiencing the same thing right now, or at least we are probably all feeling the sensation of walking around in a place we should technically know that is nothing like what we remembered."

Zelda wanted for nothing more than to be able to find a silver lining, to find a way that their life now differed from the life of the Hero of Time, but, try as she might, she could not think of anything to say. The fact that they were only a month away from everything that had been normal as opposed to seven years seemed negligible when compared to the death that had found its way into every last corner of their world.

She was grateful for Ganondorf rushing in to continue the conversation instead of her, apparently able to find the strength to both push the trolley in front of them, push away the pain of everything that had happened, and put on a smile that was wasted on Link as he turned to look in the direction of where Link was halfway hidden from sight behind Epona. "Yes, there is… there is certainly something about those legends that feels a bit more… like they hit a bit closer to home now than they would have done before."

"Yeah." Link paused for a moment, and Zelda did not need to wait for him to add on to what he had just said to know that he was questioning whether or not to share his thoughts with them. He must have reached the conclusion that he should, the silence soon being broken once again. "I—well, in the legends, I mean, the problems the heroes face are often resolved by them finding the Triforce and making a wish to restore order to the world around them. Do you think that—"

"No." Ganondorf did not raise his voice, his tone not becoming any harsher, and still, it was clear that there was no room for any of them to bring it up again even before Zelda looked at him to see that he was holding onto the handle of the trolley so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, the bone pressing against his skin. "No," Ganondorf repeated, this time in a tone of voice that was a bit more controlled than before, "no, I don't believe that we can somehow find the Triforce and have it allow us to somehow reverse all of this."

He fell silent after that, keeping his gaze carefully fastened on a point just in front of them.

Walking along beside him, all Zelda could do was to glance in the direction of Epona as she tried to guess what Link was thinking and feeling. Surely, if the past couple of days were any indication, he would feel guilty for having been the one to provoke such a response. But as much as she felt sorry for him and wished that she would be able to say something to make anything about the situation better for any of them, deep down, Zelda knew that she would have agreed with Ganondorf in a heartbeat. The past was gone, and nothing they could say or do would ever change that fact. All they would achieve by pretending that anything other than that might be the case was to bring further pain to themselves.

"I..." Link's voice was small, sounding broken. "I am sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I was just thinking… no, I guess I wasn't really thinking. I am sorry. I know that they are gone and that they will not return."

The sigh Ganondorf let out was not one of exhaustion, but rather one laced with guilt as he shook his head. "No, I am the one who should apologise. I know that you didn't mean it like that. I am just—I think that I still have a lot of work to do to fully begin to comprehend what has happened."

The comment could have been about himself entirely, but there was something about his tone of voice as he added that last part that brought back the memory of waking up at night and overhearing a hushed conversation between them from where Zelda had been able to banish it to.

She might have been wrong; it could have been all there was to it, merely Ganondorf returning the apology, but as Link quickened his pace just enough to allow him to walk half a metre in front of Epona and look over at them to make eye contact, Zelda knew that she had been right to believe that there was more to it than that.

"I—no, actually," looking directly at her, his eyes not flickering towards Ganondorf for even a moment, the apology was apparent in Link's face as he bowed his head slightly, "I want to begin by telling you that I am truly sorry that I have not told you this yet, Zelda. I—I haven't known you for long, but I know that you are going to try to search for a way to make the fact that I haven't told you about this yet a sign that you did something wrong somehow, so I just want to tell you right now that that is not the case. I didn't tell you because I was scared at first, and after that, I refrained from telling you, deciding to only talk with Ganondorf about it not entirely because I felt like he would be able to understand me better, but mostly because I had just witnessed how much danger you were willing to put yourself in in the belief that it would be able to help us deal with our loss."

Already, Zelda knew without a shadow of doubt what he was going to say. It was a strange sense of certainty, one completely unlike the one that accompanied arriving to class with the comfort of knowing that she had gone over the assignments several times to make sure that there were no mistakes to be found anywhere, based completely on feelings rather than logic, but it was certainty nonetheless. That could not be changed, not by any amount of attempting to rationalise it. But still, even then, Zelda felt how she tensed in anticipation for what was to come.

"I—and I want to tell you that I didn't keep this from you because I didn't trust you, but I—" Link looked down. "Her name was Aryll. My little sister. She—she—" his voice broke, and from the way he fell behind to once again be hidden from sight by Epona, Zelda knew that the sound of fabric rustling was created by him reaching up to wipe away the tears. "She died. Like everyone else, I guess, but, still… she died back then."

It was like the last piece of a puzzle, that last piece of information allowing it all to come together to form a larger picture that finally answered the questions she had not fully dared to think about, feeling like she would overstep some invisible line by asking a question whose the answer was obvious now that everyone had died. But, for as much as it logically made sense, that was not what Zelda found herself focusing on. Instead, it was the way Link fell silent, the way he had kept on repeating over and over again that his silence had not been her fault. It had felt like it was back then, back when she had woken up in the middle of the night to overhear his and Ganondorf's conversation, but now, Zelda could hardly remember why she had thought that in the first place. A dead sister. She only had to remember how Ganondorf had broken down in Mabe to know what it meant. A glance towards Ganondorf confirmed what she already knew to be the case, that that was what they had been discussing back then, their little sisters and how they had died.

"Are—" Zelda caught herself the moment before she would have been able to ask Link if he was all right. It was, after all, a meaningless question. Nothing was all right. Rather than consisting of an order that would then sometimes be disturbed, the new status quo was disorder and the search for something that would make sense, so she tried again. "I am sorry to hear about that. Truly. I—I know that I don't know exactly what it must feel like for you—for any of you—but I am sorry that it happened. I am sorry that any of this happened."

"Yeah." Link mumbled the word, making Zelda have to listen carefully to make sure that she caught everything he said. "So am I."

They continued on like that, the silence once again coming to fill the world around them, but for once, it wasn't as uncomfortable as it could have been when Zelda saw Link walk just in front of Epona once again, him and Ganondorf exchanging looks in front of both her and the horse. It should have hurt, and just a few hours ago, Zelda was sure that it would have, but now, she was able to simply walk alongside them.