((Saying I do not own Legend of Zelda is depressing... so I'll say this instead! I own a chair. A very nice chair.))

It took roughly ten seconds for Link to realize traveling with Malon was not to be an enjoyable endeavor.

The realization was conjured upon the precise moment he'd caught up with her. The very moment when her face had transformed from pure joy to cold stone.

It hadn't been the warmest welcome. He'd sworn he could've seen the entirety of her thoughts when recognition had turned the curve of her smile into a flat line. Heard the thoughts as her eyes, lit with sunlight, withered and died as her gaze fell to him.

Many people had been disappointed upon their first meeting with the Hero of Time. Sometimes it was his height that rendered them unimpressed. Other times, his glaring lack of maturity in some pressing situations. More common was the moment when they found out he hadn't a penny to his name.

After the events of this morning, it seemed Malon was just as unappeased as the rest of the people of Hyrule. In due time, she would inevitably come to the same conclusion he was certain half of Hyrule was at this point—that the Hero of Time was nothing short of a freak.

Spoiled, unwanted, and virtually useless outside of a certain set of oddly specific skills.

Not exactly a promising start for a long adventure meant to be travelled side by side.

Good thing Link was more of an optimist in these situations. Having prided himself on his ability to keep up a warm welcome around the most unwelcoming of people, Link took courage and had offered her a friendly smile of comradery. He'd also done what he was sure any noble 'legendary hero' would do, and had internally vowed to make Malon as comfortable as physically possible during their journey.

Hours later, Link was beginning to severely doubt his ability to keep that vow.

Everything he'd done since seemed to make her the exact opposite of comfortable. His attempts to start conversation had been painfully one sided and therefore short. The smallest look, smile... even a mere glance her way made her shrink in her seat. To make matters worse, Epona kept trying to bite her horse in an attempt to get them to go at a faster pace.

He'd met plenty of shy people on his adventures. Timid, scared, panicked people. But never, in all his travels had he met a girl so drastically on edge around him. Certainly a few had taken to cowering in fear at his approach, but they didn't keep to their cowering as Malon did.

The point of it all, was that he was failing worse than he'd ever had in his entire history of making people feel comfortable around him. Which was severely making him feel uncomfortable.

After yanking back Epona's neck in effort to save Malon's horse from falling victim to the silver bay's merciless onslaught, Link decided to call for a much needed break. A bit of food would do him well. Besides, his legs were beginning to grow numb from all the squirming awkwardness.

His boots dug into the grassy plains of Hyrule Field as he climbed off a very moody Epona. Despite the slow pacing, angry horse, and not-so-friendly company, it did feel good to be out and about. Being somewhere other than the castle or under the gaze of a million star-struck tourists felt like a blessing few truly understood. He liked the subdued privacy of the fields. Infamously dangerous yes, but private. How long had it been since he'd been able to hear himself think?

The answer, a week and a half, did not nearly sound as long as it had felt. Though he supposed in terms of thoughts aimed towards more personal agendas... that answer was far longer than one ought to feel comfortable with.

The hairs on his neck stood on end as a pair of eyes peered at him near the peripheral of his vision. Though Malon shrunk from him, she had a way of watching him that made him want to shrink as well. As if she needed to watch his every movement. Keep tabs on every blink and each breath. It was terribly unnerving.

"Now would be a good time to eat." Link stated. She didn't even shift in her seat. Had she heard him?

'Kinda reminds me of an Armos.' The connection between an admittedly pretty Hylian woman and a stone statue helped ease a little of his discomfort. Suddenly her stares and stony looks seemed less shink-worthy and more lighthearted. Being one who'd kept his sanity the past few months/years through jests, Link quickly took hold of the idea in his head.

Armos Malon: A girl who may or may not wake from her stone place if he got too close.

Then charge him if poked too hard.

Definitely one to explode if attacked.

The fact that the description fit so well boosted his waning confidence a good degree. "Food?" He offered, his heart having took courage from his childish comparisons. "You know, nutrients? It is lunch time..."

She didn't even twitch at his words. Her eyes spent a few moments staring holes into his very soul. Finally, after what felt like the oddest stare down in his life, she dismounted her horse and began rummaging through her bags.

He envied her ability to keep such a void look. The things he could do with an expression like Malon's. The jokes. The pranks. It truly was a gift she had going for her.

Turning from that disconcerting look of hers, Link reached for his own bag of goods.

The brown fabric nuzzled against the still-angry Epona. Link ended up battling through a few of the charger's bad tempered whines and jerks as his fingers reached for the package of things. After a small game of keep-away, his hands slipped into the dark compartment. His fingers pulling out a plump red apple. A bit more struggling allowed him to claim another one before Epona snorted loud in his face and stomped away.

"So then," Link began as he left Epona to her brooding state. Next battle, Malon. Just as she had the past several hours of their riding, Malon's head ducked lower the minute he spoke up. Her bangs slid over her eyes, casting a shadow over her piercing gaze. Her face didn't give him anything beyond hints of sheer nothing, but her arms tensed every time his foot touched the ground.

An odd reaction for sure, as she hadn't seem at all bothered by him back at the Ranch. What could have her so wound up now? He paused a few paces away to hold up an apple to her, not wanting to scare the girl into doing something drastic. Like jumping on her exhausted horses and forcing him to giddy-up away.

Was it the fact that they were headed into a Thieves' Den?

Oh Din, he hoped it wasn't the thieves' hideout making her so edgy. The Gerudo would surely cut her from their presence if she was scared of them.

Not only so, but relations were so fragile between the Gerudo and Hylians. One slight mistake could easily thrust them back into years of enmity and turmoil. Link had spent the better part of two months trying to patch up a millennia of violence between the two. And what little peace he'd gotten between both sides had been hard earned. He was not at all keen with the idea of undoing that progress.

Malon's fear though, would do just that. Gerudo weren't kind to timid folk. Being as religiously devoted to acts of backbone as they were about swords. One spineless Hylian girl losing it on their grounds could spell disaster for everyone.

Just as he was about to bring this worry to light, Malon grabbed the fruit from him wihtout so much as a warning. Her fingers brushed against his as the apple passed between their hands. The unexpected touch thrusting him into more than a dozen unpleasant memories. He fought down a shudder as his world briefly switched to the past. Jaw tightening as the scars of recent years made itself painfully apparent.

The world faded back to it's bright, happy fields as her touch left him. Leaving him tense, slightly unsettled, and deeply terrified.

He hated touch.

Malon didn't seem to realize his small episode. A blessing if he'd ever received one. Her eyes still glanced at him occasionally. Wariness etched in her every move as she pulled out more items of food. A wrapped cheese, a few thin slices of salted meats, and a sphere of lettuce sat in the cradle of her held up skirt. Her eyes searching for another ingredient. The next time her gaze shifted to him, he made certain the warm welcoming smile was plastered back on his face.

He was a hero. Hero's did not break. Especially a legend. He was the epitome of calm and collected. That was, after all, the only real duty he had left.

Her eyes fell on him again as she tugged out a loaf of bread from it's place among her things. Despite not fully focusing on him, he noted the slight turn of her shoulders. As if she did not entirely trust him to ever stop facing him.

This would not do at all.

He'd have to find some means of calming her before they reached the Desert Valley, or the Gerudo would not be kind to either of them. This was perhaps the first actual task of his adenture: keep Malon from starting another war.

To begin, he probably ought to see where the source of her fear lay in terms of the Gerudo. Was it the stories or personal experiences? Now that he pondered on it, had she feared the Gerudo before they'd joined league with Ganondorf, or after? "Have you ever met a Gerudo before?" Link asked grabbing the best question he could find to encroach the touchy subject.

She placed the loaf into her skirts with the rest of her things. Looking over at him a bit more confidently as her hand reached back into a place on her saddle to pull out along, sharp knife. "I have."

Bread knife. It was a bread knife. Still, Link couldn't help but feel slightly threatened over this bit of confidence she held now.

At least he knew it was a personal experience making her so jumpy. The question was, how was he to calm that? He followed behind a ways as she carefully stepped behind her horse (still not turning fully from him, so he noted), to a blanket spread across the plains of Hyrule. The sight surprised him.

When had she spread out a blanket? He must've been too busy grabbing the apples from Epona to have noticed. But still... the fact she'd spread it out and had begun grabbing as much items as she had was as impressive as the fact that she'd nearly cut off his head this morning. This girl held more to her than what was eye level. He was starting to suspect few, including herself, really understood how much stealth and agility she had. Not even a grown soldier could manage the type of sneaking she'd done around him. And so far, she'd done so twice. Was it a question why she unnerved him so much?

"And when you met this Gerudo..." Link continued, shoving aside his awe to focus instead on the task at hand. "Did she attack you?"

Her head shook as she sat atop the blanket, laying down her treasures before beginning her work.

"Then you witnessed an attack?"

Again she shook her head.

His lips pulled down. Questions spilling in his head as the girl began casually slicing bread at his feet. If she hadn't been involved in any violence with the Gerudo, what would strike this sort of fear into her? "Did she threaten you?"

For the third time, her gestures spoke negative. Her two slices cut, she set to work on unwrapping the cheese. "A Gerudo would come to the house every once in a while."

To their house? Ah, the thieves she had mistook him as this morning. "Do they still come?"

"No. She does not."

That was a decidedly good thing. They had kept to their promises then. Link hoped over time that would ease some of the tensions among the Hylians. While he could understand their concerns of trust towards the tribe of women, he also understood the Gerudo's poverty.

"If I can ease some of your worries, I can vouch for the Gerudo Tribe as a whole." Link stated, "They can be a bit violent and harsh at times, but that's the way of their people. They mean well, but they are a shunned people. It was flattery and trickery during hard times that lead to the group uniting with Ganondorf. They don't really wish to destroy all of Hyrule."

"I know."

She knew? Good grief, did she mean to keep all her explanations to herself? It was driving him crazy trying to figure out the blanks between every one of her claims.

He was growing frustrated. "Well, hurry and finish, we should get going soon." Link prodded as he held back a sigh.

"Link."

He paused his retreat to look back at her. Her fingers moving graceful as she assembled the makings of a sandwich. "Do you mean to only eat an apple?"

He eyed her, then the forgotten apple in his hands. When he looked back her hand held the sandwich towards him. Odd that. The castle in it's grandeur had provided gluttonous amounts of food. There, Link had quickly found large meals were a good way to end up sick. For now, an apple would suffice.

With a shrug and a smile, he gave her the best inviting voice he could muster, "Do you want something else for your meal? If so I can grab some more fruits. I think your dad packed some Lon Lon Milk in my bags. What is it you wish for?"

Her jaw opened and closed. Her face actually paled as if he'd just breathed a threat rather than issued a polite request. The raised sandwich drooped in her hands as the winds nudged against her. "I..." and then she wilted. He hadn't thought such an action possible with the way she was shrinking from him, but she did it.

Her back hunched down, the sandwich falling onto her lap. The stone in her face cracked a little as her lips pulled downward in a miniscule motion. Her eyes couldn't even meet his anymore.

Was she a mystery! She'd gone the whole time speaking of personal attacks from the Gerudo without faltering once. Yet the moment he dodged a question involving a sandwich she looked absolutely miserable. She hadn't even looked this sad saying goodbye to Talon. Of all the things to break down about...

But what had he done wrong?

He hadn't so much as a clue. So he went to plan B: run away. "I'm going to go run Epona around a little ways." It was Link's turn to cast a wary look at Malon, uncertain if the revelation would break her further or not. It didn't. "She's got a lot of pent up energy and I think tiring her out a little before we get back to it will help."

She didn't answer, nor did she meet his gaze. Her eyes stayed on the sandwich in her hands. "I'll... leave you two to patch things up." Link gave her a small grin before turning and whistling Epona's song.

He wasted no time mounting Epona before kicking her into a full gallop. Desperate to get away from the mystery before he further made a mull of her.

"Remember this Epona, never suggest to get more food for Malon." Link lectured in a solemn tone. The horse kept running.

He tried to keep his eyes away from the strange girl, but as he began to turn Epona into a wide circle, his eyes automatically flew back to the blanket and it's occupant.

If things couldn't get more strange, she was cleaning up. They'd only been riding a few moments and she was already done? Link bit into his apple, nudging Epona to the side a little more. He hoped to Hylia Malon was just as fast an eater as she was at setting things up. He didn't at all like the thought of her going on an empty stomach. At least he was eating an apple.

Making Malon comfortable was going to be a hard task indeed.

(( I didn't like how it was before. First of all, I didn't even stick to the characters. Second, Link sounded like a baby in it. I mean... I can't say he sounds intelligent here, but like... it's better right? Right?

Props to y'all who have left reviews! They keep me goin'. Thank you for you lovelies who have favorited/followed this story because wow.

Thank you dear readers for your time, I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I thank you for it.

Stay safe and healthy and don't forget to show off your lovely smiles.

-Fangirlingglz