AN: Thank you all for the lovely reviews! I appreciate them very much! On a side note, school is almost out! Then maybe I can get over this writers block and finish this story! You'd think I'd be able to after planning it out for two years…it's taken me a long time to do these…I *should* be studying for a math final right now but…you all know how that goes…. :) Right now I'm sitting here in pain because of an eventful romp it the park with some friends involving me, wax paper, and a slide. Let's just say my back got the worst of it…I'll be so sore tomorrow…but that's totally off topic.
Yeah, and I know where I start and stop my chapters are weird, but I think it's just my style seeing as I can't seem to stop doing it!
Chapter Five: On The Edge
"The crops on the southern fields are starting to wilt."
"Well have any of you been to Lake Hylia lately? Water level has to have dropped five feet since I was there a few weeks ago."
"It's to early in the summer for drought, and we had decent rain this winter."
"Don't ask me, all I know is if things don't pick up, we're all in for a lot of trouble."
"It's just weird, I hope someone's looking into it."
Link was walking through the market and overheard many conversations like the one above. People were starting to notice the changes in the land, the signs that the Future Sages foretold would signal the coming of Ganondorf. His heart lurched and he clamped his eyes tightly shut to block the people out. Link wasn't sure if he was ready yet, and with the day approaching not more than a week away, how could he stand it? Every night he watched the moon slowly waning away in the night. Every night he prayed to the Goddesses for a miracle.
Link looked around the market, remembering when it was no more than a few crumbled buildings and charred logs under Ganondorf's reign. That wouldn't happen again, he'd die first. Or Loraefin will die first… his subconscious shot in. No, she wouldn't, his vision had said his blood could bring down Ganon, but what if it lied? What if he trusted it and it didn't work, sending Hyrule to destruction because he thought he could control fate…or even worse, play a God.
Inner turmoil started to surface again after the long year of suppressing it, staying focused on the solution not the problem. Link ducked into a back alley and leaned against a wall for breath, blocking out the tears of anger that wanted to fall and the scream that was welling in his throat. He hit the wall and scraped some of the skin off of his knuckles, but he didn't care, couldn't even feel it through his frustration. A mild sensation of dizziness flooded over him and he heard Saria's voice in his head.
"Link?" her voice was a whisper at first, his ability to communicate telepathically still not well honed, "Link, can you hear me? What's wrong, I can sense something." Link straightened up as if she could see him standing alone in an empty alley at odds as he was. Quickly he closed the doors in his mind that told of the future so Saria could not penetrate them. Saria, on her end, could feel the doors slamming shut just as much as if they were in her face. Link was hiding something from her that he didn't want her to know.
"Yeah Saria, I can hear you," his voice was calm now but Saria could hear the choked sound in it.
"What were you doing? I can feel your upset. Tell me what's wrong."
Link shook his head to himself, denying her entry into his memories.
"Nothing Saria, I just had a bit of an argument with one of the shopkeepers, that all. Guy wanted to try and make me pay for some pottery he accused me of breaking." He was lying through his teeth and Saria knew it automatically.
"You're lying," her voice chanted in his head, "won't you tell me what's wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong Saria!" Link said out loud to the empty alley. "There's nothing wrong, Saria," he made sure to speak properly this time, "I just feel a little on edge, that's all. I'm entitled." And with that came an uncharacteristic sarcastic tone for which he immediately felt badly for. Saria said nothing and her silence let Link know she was hurt. "Saria, I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't mean anything by that. Let's just let it rest, okay? Now, did you want something?" Saria was silent for a moment longer before she spoke a bit stiffly.
"Yes, there was, but I don't know if I want to talk to someone who keeps important secrets from someone he's known as long as he has."
"Please, Saria. It's nothing. I'm sorry," she could hear the sorrow in his voice and broke down.
"It's my turn to leave the Sacred Realm in the next couple of days, when Darunia gets back. I wanted to reserve some time with you, since I know you can get so busy. I was just thinking that maybe you'd like to go to the Forest Temple some time, like we did when we were children…well, when you were a child anyhow," it was a dry laugh, but a laugh.
"You know I would Saria, when you come back, it's first on my list. I'm supposed to have supper with Zelda and King Harkinian tonight, any message you want me to tell Zelda?"
"No, I've talked with her earlier this morning. She says her father really needs her help with things, she won't be coming back here for awhile…Won't you tell me what's wrong?" Saria's voice was pleading now but Link stood firm. She took his silence as another no and didn't dare to try and force his mind with her powers. "Fine," she sighed, "if you want to talk, you know how to find me. I'll see you in a few days." Gone.
The conversation bothered Link all the way up to dinner at the castle. Zelda barely said a word the entire time and in the end ended up excusing herself from the table. King Harkinian informed Link that she hadn't been feeling well all day, suffering from nausea and headaches. It was unusual, he said, because Zelda was hardly ever ill. A small tremor shook the tableware and rattles the glasses for a few seconds, but other than knocking over a candlestick did nothing else.
The king shrugged it off and helped himself to more turkey, and would continue to talk about the new drought that was threatening crops, how the general moral of the people was unusually low, but Link only responded with the casual nod of the head or simple sentences. Beyond the King's chair was a large window, and outside of it, the moon as a half-orb in the dark blue sky.