AN: New chapter, in which we learn more about Hyrule's racism problem . . .

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Chapter 39

Crash!

"Link! What did I tell you? Don't carry more than you can handle!"

"Sorry, Ciela . . ." Link was placing tools on a top shelf, using a ladder. He had been using a tray to carry lots of tools up the small ladder, and got overconfident. Now those tools lay all over the floor . . . and some of them looked broken. Argh. He stepped down from the ladder and knelt on the floor, picking up the tools and carrying them to the front counter to inspect.

The tiniest lady Link had ever seen sat on the counter, wearing a frilly cream-colored dress, complete with a cream-colored parasol held over one shoulder. She had a round face, big down turned hazel eyes, and toe-blond hair pulled up in two ponytails. She dressed young, but behaved so much like an adult that only a fool would mistake her for a child.

And if Link wasn't seeing things, her whole body had a kind of glow.

Ciela was Linebeck's assistant manager. He'd met her on his first day of work. Apparently Linebeck spent most of the week at his post by the ocean, leaving Ciela to do his dirty work here. She was a fan of makeup. Today, she wore exaggerated eyeliner, triangles underneath her eyes, and gold shimmer on her cheeks. Her brown eyelashes were also long and fake looking, but not in a bad way.

The eyeliner mostly covered the tattooed numbers underneath her left eye, but not completely. Link still hadn't had the guts to ask about those.

"You better not have broken anything!" Ciela was saying. "It'll have to come out of your paycheck."

"I know, Ciela," Link replied despondently, arranging the tools from Not Broken At All to Useless.

He heard Ciela sigh. "You know I'll cover for you. Again. But really, Link, you should just listen to me!" She jumped off the counter and put her hands on her hips, glaring at him. "I thought Darunia said you were a good listener!"

"Yeah, but he also said it's hard for me to focus." H began fiddling with a hinge on one of the broken tools. "By the way, why are these tools so fragile?"

Ciela rolled her eyes. Lack of focus? You got that right! She stood next to Link and set her elbows on the counter. "Those are weather gauges. With a little magic, they can tell you the weather of the place you're headed to, up to two hundred miles away! It's great for avoiding turbulent waters."

"Magic?" Link asked. The only magic he knew of was Sheik's, and whatever had been in Ganondorf's basement.

Ciela nodded. She scowled at the instruments. "Although, that type of magic is forbidden in Hyrule, so Linebeck has to deport them to other parts of the world to sell them at full price. Right now they're pretty much useless!" She shrugged with her hands and walked back to do whatever she'd been doing before Link messed up again. "Right now all they do is tell you the temperature . . ."

Link inspected the device. Magic . . . He looked after Ciela. "Wait! But . . . why is this magic forbidden?"

Ciela paused, and all Link could see was the bottom half of her dress, and her feet. The upper half was hidden by her parasol. She flipped half around, her blond ponytails bouncing along. Her face held a haunting look that gave Link shivers. "Because," she said, "It's fairy magic."

"Fairy magic." Link, in his surprise, suddenly crushed the tool he held in his hands. Oops! "You mean fairies are real?"

"What do you think I am?"

"You're a fairy?!"

Ciela nodded, looking exasperated. "What DO they teach in schools, these days?"

"They taught the fairies abandoned Hyrule decades ago, and nobody's seen them since."

"Hmph!" Ciela looked genuinely pissed off. She twirled her parasol. "Well let me tell you the story, Hylian!" She pointed at Link, almost accusingly. Link pointed at himself, feeling guilty for no reason. Ciela stopped herself, took a deep breath, then pulled herself up onto the counter again. "A few hundred years ago, there were lots of fairies. I mean, only a few actually believed in us, but that didn't matter. We didn't have a land, or a kingdom, just our magic. You could find us in every corner of Hyrule. We had Great Fairies, our version of leaders, but we were still quite free to join any country, job, or experience we wanted to." She sighed. "The monarchies of Hyrule were always jealous of our autonomy. Hylians, Zoras . . . even the Gorons. They were afraid of us, I guess. Thought we were holding out on them, being selfish with our magic or whatever." She rolled her eyes. "As if we owed it to the world to sacrifice ourselves and our magic for everyone else! We started being used as objects, kept in bottles-"

"Kept in bottles?" Link asked dumbly, looking at the giant fairy in front of him.

She stuck her tongue out at him, then chuckled. "We're not always this big!"

Link smirked, and nodded. He decided to sit on the counter as well. He listened intently.

"So anyway," Ciela continued, her hands grappling the handle of her parasol fiercely, "People started to abuse us. They'd refuse to work with us unless we did them deeds. A lot of times we didn't like them, so we refused." Her countenance fell. "That's when things started getting really bad. When Hyruleans found out that fairies weren't going to help them out anymore—not without rights, anyway—they got angry. They closed their doors to us, spat at us, swatted at us, and drove us out of Hyrule. Well, most of us. A lot of us didn't escape." Setting her parasol aside, she pulled out her purse and rummaged through it for a cotton wipe and makeup remover. She started wiping the makeup off of the left side of her face by her eye. "Fairy magic was outlawed unless sanctioned by the king of Hyrule, and spells were placed that would seriously harm us if we were caught using it." She shivered. "The guards were ruthless in the old days. You had to do everything they wanted, even if it was illegal or wrong, or else they'd . . . they'd use the spell against you."

"That's horrible," Link said, wide-eyed.

Ciela nodded. "Since we couldn't use our magic, and we weren't allowed to leave Hyrule, those of us that didn't make it out were forced to stay and find work—non-magical work. I can tell you, no one wants to hire a fairy, not anymore. Bad for business, they say, fairies are lying, thieving, . . . etcetera. And we were. Because we had to be. No one would give us jobs, so we stole and cheated to survive."

"But how did people know you were fairies? I didn't notice."

"PFFFT!" Ciela burst out laughing. "You didn't even know we were real until today! Hahahaha!" She wiped the tears from her eyes, and then said, "But you're right, it CAN be hard to tell. We look a lot like Hylians, so . . . that's where the registration came in."

Link had the sickest feeling in his stomach. "Registration?"

Ciela nodded. "If we wanted to work in Hyrule, we had to register ourselves in the Fairy Collection Agency of Hyrule. Otherwise we'd be arrested . . . and forced to register anyway. That is, if we ever made it out of jail to begin with."

She turned to Link with a now makeup-less left eye. The inartistic, crudely tattooed numbers sat right under her eye socket, like a glaring blemish to her face: 179463.

"That . . . they did that to you?" Link asked, breathless.

Ciela nodded. "That's my registration number. That's how everyone knows I'm a fairy. It's spelled so I can't hide it with my own magic, and I can only do so much with makeup."

Link was trying to wrap his mind around the stupidity of it. "So . . . so . . ." He gripped the counter tightly. "You couldn't get out, so they MADE you tattoo numbers ON YOUR FACE?! And you can't use your magic, you can't . . ."

"Be myself? Nope." She returned her items to her purse and scooched off the counter. "I'm lucky, though. I have a passport because of Linebeck. As long as I'm working for him, I can leave the city. Go to the islands and stuff. Other fairies aren't as lucky."

Link's eyebrows knitted together. "Don't you want to get out of here?"

A lost look crossed Ciela's features. She tried to shrug it off, but even Link could tell it was a lame attempt. "There's nowhere for me to go. Nowhere in the world. I guess maybe there's a place, a small place, with just fairies . . . but who wants to be cooped up in one place their entire life?" She glanced at a painting on the wall, one of a ship on the sea. "I want to travel the world, and I've already got the marks. Other fairies . . ." She hunched her shoulders, as if embarrassed. As if ashamed. "I wouldn't fit in there." She brought a hand up to cover the numbers on her face.

"I understand," Link said.

Ciela gave him a disbelieving look.

Link realized he'd said something probably REALLY insensitive. He waved his hands dismissively. "I mean, not me exactly, but . . . I have a sister." He held his hands in his lap and twiddled his thumbs. "She has autism, and it keeps her from being like other kids."

"Oh," Ciela responded, with surprise and a little understanding.

"People treat her differently," Link continued. "Sometimes . . . they call her awful names, stupid and spoiled and brat, like you were saying. Like they just treat her awful, for no reason than she's different, and it makes me so angry. I'm always trying to protect her, but I don't want her to have to stay cooped up in the house all the time." His voice became very quiet. "Sometimes they say they'd like to hit her, saying that would make her 'behave' and make her 'get over' her autism, as if she doesn't have a freaking condition!" His voice had raised, and his adrenaline was starting to pump. He forced all his extra energy to his fists, which he then relaxed. He pushed his hair behind one ear. "There's nothing wrong with her. She's not sick, and she's NOT a brat! I guess what I'm saying is, not that I understand or anything, but that I care? I want people to be kind to others when they're different, and not be jealous or mean. I really angry for you . . ." He finally looked at her. She was looking directly back, a soft look on her face. "And," he continued, "I'm sorry."

One side of her mouth turned up, not in a mocking or flippant way. "Well," she said. "I appreciate that. You seem like a decent guy, Link." She got back onto the counter, next to Link, closed her parasol and kicked her legs under the counter. "I'm sorry people are rude to your sister. You really care about her, huh?"

Link nodded, smiling.

"So where do you want to take her?"

Link's smile turned into an excited grin. "I want to take her onto the ocean! When I was working with Darunia, we went to the ocean once, and we grew up on the ocean, and . . . she'd like it. I'd love to show her all the different places in the world. I want to show her everything! I want her to have everything every person should have. Adventure, fun . . ."

"Well you're in the right business!" Ciela responded brightly. "Linebeck and I go out on the ocean all the time."

Link's eyes practically sparkled as he gazed at her. "Do you think he'll teach me how to handle a ship one day?"

Ciela grimaced. "I'm not sure, he's super territorial about the ocean . . ." A sly grin grew across her face. "But I'll see what I can do for ya!"

"Gee, thanks! You're awesome, Ciela!"

She winked. "No problem."


Shadow and Vio sat next to each other in a booth at the Milk Bar, about a foot apart. Vio looked like he'd swallowed a toad. He rested his chin in his hand, tapping his face with irritated fingers. He was not looking at Shadow. Shadow was staring at the table, hands in his lap, eyebrows knit together worryingly.

"I'm sorry," Shadow said finally.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Vio replied, sounding tense as a diving board.

"I know, but I'm still sorry."

"It's fine."

"You sound mad."

Vio threw his hands in the air and replied angrily, "I'm not mad!" Vio knew if he looked Shadow would have puppy dog eyes, but he couldn't help it and looked. He hunched his shoulders abashedly and folded his arms. "It's just . . . I really REALLY wanna kiss you!"

"We kiss when we're drunk," Shadow tried.

"That doesn't count!" Vio whined. "You have NO IDEA." Shadow knew what he meant. Being a foster kid, Vio had seen a lot. There were a lot more places for his imagination to take him than Shadow's. Some memories were not so pleasant, but that didn't change the fact that Vio had the thoughts now. Being a foster kid sucked, made you grow up faster than you should so even when you WERE older everything was confusing. "I want you to kiss me when you're sober." Vio held his hands out in front of him. "I want to hold your naked body in my arms, I want—" He twisted in his seat and got right into Shadow's face, one hand palm down on the table in front of him as he said, intensely, "I want to teach you everything I know."

Shadow flushed scarlet. It was true. They hadn't kissed that night, or any night or day, really. Except those couple times they got drunk and . . . forgot everything. He shifted his eyes away. "I'm sorry, I'm not ready."

Vio backed off and buried his head in his arms on the table. "I know."

"You can't blame me," Shadow said, sounding considerably less guilty now. He resettled in his seat. "I mean you JUST told me you didn't care about me, even though we were supposedly boyfriends. Why would I want to kiss someone who doesn't care about me?"

"I care about you as a friend!"

"But not as a boyfriend."

Vio lifted his head. "Friends with benefits is a thing!"

"Not when it matters." Seeing Vio's glum expression, Shadow continued, "Look, I understand this is hard for you, but you don't even know if you CAN love me. I don't really like the idea of soberly making out with somebody who only considers me an emotional friend. You see?"

Vio's eyes had peeked over his arms, but they were looking across the bar. He mumbled into his arms, "Yes. I just don't understand why you're not as horny as I am."

"Hmph! Maybe I am and just have better self control!"

Vio's look of utter consternation was worth the quip. Shadow smirked evilly.

And Vio said, "You kissed me when you were drunk and we weren't even friends then."

Shadow deadpanned. "Doesn't count unless you're sober, didn't you say that?"

Vio cursed.


After a moment, a new waitress came to refill their drinks. To Shadow's surprise, it was Malon! "Well hey-ho! What a surprise!" She said with a crinkle of her nose and a great big smile.

"Hey Malon!" Shadow said brightly, leaning forward. "I didn't know you worked here . . . How are you working here if you're a minor?"

Malon sighed roughly. "My uncle's makin' me work, that's how. He don't care about age or nothin'. Says until my Dad gets out of jail I have to help 'im run the place or he'll throw me on the street. I had to go live with 'im now Dad's gone. He's workin' me right out of my brains!"

Shadow and Vio glanced at the man behind the counter, with the big nose, skinny head, the ridiculous mustache and bald spots on the top of his head. "Ingo?"

Malon nodded.

"What an asshole," Shadow bit out. Then he remembered his manners. "Oh! Vio, this is Malon. We have the same physical therapist. Malon, this is my . . . uh, this is Vio." It actually made him sad to not include 'boyfriend' in that sentence.

"Oh, right? THE Vio? Nice ta meetcha!" She shook Vio's hand.

"Pleasure's mine," replied Vio.

"So what can I get you folks?"

Shadow grinned. "We're gonna both have the veggie burger and some sweet potato fries." He absolutely beamed. "Vio says he's gonna become vegan for me, so I'm showing him all the cool foods he can get."

A tiny smile crossed Vio's otherwise serious expression. Malon noticed, but didn't say anything about it. "Good for you, Vio! I'm a vegetarian myself." She blanched as she wrote on her notepad. "Never could eat anything with a face. Guess that comes from growin' up on a ranch!"

"I know, right?" Shadow responded. He sent a glance to the sky. "I can't believe I ever ate animals!"

"But you don't even eat cheese or milk or stuff made by animals, right?"

"They're not made BY animals," Shadow corrected. "They're made my humans taking advantage of animals! Well, usually. But you're a rancher, what's that like?"

Malon shrugged. "The cows always seem to like when I milk 'em, and the cuccos don't seem to miss their eggs, so I don't see the harm."

"I can respect that. You love your animals."

She grinned. "Yes, I do!" She bent over the table conspiratorially. "Didja hear about the Romani Ranch controversy, though?"

Shadow shook his head and leaned forward again, ears intent.

"A brave soul recorded how they run things. They claim to be super humane to the animals, but the video completely exposes them! Cuccos chicks gettin' their beaks sawed off, cows kept in filthy pens and fed their own manure. It's awful!"

Shadow pounded on the table. "Bastards! I trusted them! I buy their vegetables!"

Malon nodded in fierce agreement.

Vio wondered what on earth the big deal was and his mind drifted off.

"Somebody should picket them," Shadow said.

"Yeah," Malon replied, "like, Hyrule for Animals or somethin'. But they're busy takin' down all of your dad's businesses now he's in jail."

They sighed collectively. Then Shadow had an idea. "Hey . . . why can't WE do something about it?

Vio straightened. "Wait, what?"

Malon drew in a rush of air. "Oh my butterfingers, that's a fantabulous idea, Shadow!"

Shadow stood up excitedly. "Yeah! We can make signs and throw rotten vegetables!"

"I can make us bandannas and such to wear so they know who we are!"

"This is gonna be AWESOME!"

"This is gonna be GREAT!"

They gave each other a hand clasp and nodded their heads. Vio thought it a monumental waste of time. Try to care, try to care . . . about . . . animals . . .

Then Shadow turned to Vio, as if remembering something. "You're gonna come, right?"

How can I say no to that face? Besides, causing public unrest was always fun. Getting into trouble with Shadow was even more fun. He adjusted his glasses and quirked an eyebrow. "Of course. Let's get the bastards!"

Malon and Shadow cheered.