Chapter 3
"Karyn, Karyn!" Talon raced from the small farmhouse to meet the carriage coming up the path of Lon Lon Ranch. He noticed immediately that Malon seemed to be in need. "Karyn, get down here and help me!"
Malon staggered out of her driver's seat and ran to the back of the transport to haul Link out. He'd gone into a conniption fit on the way from the castle and was in a state of shock, scaring the life out of Malon in the process. She hadn't known what was happening, and thought it best to take her chances and travel nonstop back to the ranch where she would have help in aiding him.
"Father! Help me take him to the guest room." Talon grabbed Link under the arms while Malon held his feet and they proceeded to take him into the house.
"I wonder where your step-mother is! I can't seem to find her anywhere."
"Less talk Father, more maneuvering," Malon said in between gasps of breath, "She's probably in the milk tower." Once they finally got him up the stairs and into the guest bed, Malon sank down into a chair and tried to calm herself. ((Goddesses he's heavy.)) Talon had noticed that the girl had been shaking and was a bit paler than normal. Link lay motionless on the bed, unconscious, but breathing deeply to both Talon and Malon's relief.
It had been a while since Talon had seen the boy last, and wondered what brought him here under such mysterious circumstances. He didn't mind, of course, he would always welcome the best friend of his only daughter into his home. Time, however, would soon change his mind.
"Malon, daughter, tell me what in the blazes is goin' on here?" Malon sighed and wiped some sweat off of her forehead. "What happened to the poor lad?"
"Not here Father, let's talk in the kitchen."
Malon led her father into the kitchen and sat down at the table across from him. She felt exhausted.
"I cannot tell you fully what I have learned for Link's safety as well as my own, you understand?" Talon nodded and waited patiently for her to continue. "I found him in the dungeon keeps of the castle, Father." Talon's eyes widened and he was about to say something but Malon held up her hand.
"You cannot utter a word about this to anyone. We would be in a great deal of danger. I know what you're thinking Father, but I couldn't let him rot down there. He has not yet told me the extent of his story, but I know he will soon." Talon sat for a moment in shocked silence, trying to reason which question would be best to ask first.
"How did you escape? Surely the palace guards would have stopped you!" Malon nodded and smiled sadly, for she knew there would be severe consequences once the princess found out.
"I put him in one of the extra milk crates in the storage room. A guard did stop me to ask why I was taking it back...I told him the milk had spoiled. Luckily he believed me and didn't open the crate. He kindly assisted me in lifting the crate into our carriage and that was the end of that.
"As we were on our way back home, I heard a cracking sound and realized I had stupidly left Link in the crate once we were out of New Castle Town's perimeters. I stopped the horses and went to go free him, but he had broken through the wood like it was nothing. The next thing I knew, Link had some sort of fit and went into shock, and we were back on the road. He started thrashing around in the hay and I wasn't exactly sure what I was to do."
"You were right to bring him straight here. I will go find Karyn," Talon said somewhat flatly. He stood abruptly and was about to go, but turned and looked at his daughter for a brief second. Her head was down and a pure look of shame crossed her features. "I will speak of this to no one but your step-mother, Malon. But if he is indeed a fugitive, you know we will not be able to harbor him here for much longer."
With that said, Talon left the house and Malon sluggishly went upstairs to the guest room. She knew her father was upset with her, but he would not put them in any more danger than they already were in. She knew she could trust him, as well as Karyn. ((Karyn....))
Malon thought of the first time she had ever met Karyn as she went to sit down again next to Link. She was only six years old when her father proposed marriage to the strange woman, only a year after her mother had died. At first she was very upset with her father for so easily dismissing her mother, but as the years went on, she realized how much he needed Karyn in his life. Though Malon didn't think it possible at first, she had grown very fond of her step-mother and thought of her as one of the only people beside her father she felt she could fully trust.
There was also another that lived on the ranch that her father hired not long after her mother had died. Malon despised him with every fibre of her being, and for the life of her could not understand why her father hadn't fired the bumbling drunk when Karyn came into their lives. Perhaps he felt pity for the great fool, though Malon couldn't see how that was possible. Ingo was a dishonest, despicable character who had no moral values. Surely if he found out about Link there would be hell to pay, but he rarely ever came into the farmhouse unless he was invited, which was on a very, *very* rare occasion. Malon wouldn't let it worry her, for now.
She sat back against the wall and started thinking of her mother. It was such a long time ago, nearly 10 years since she died. Her thoughts wandered forward in time to Karyn, who had significantly made Malon's life easier. Then there was Link....
Malon remembered vividly the first day she had met Link. She was out in the pastures of Lon Lon Ranch when she heard yelling coming from inside the stables. She ran frantically towards them to see if her father had been trying to lift the milk wagon all by himself again. When she got to the door, she looked in and saw a young boy her age struggling with the reigns of her most precious horse, who would not let him pull her out of her stall.
"HEY! What do you think you're doing to my horse?!" Link looked up right as the horse yanked on the reigns and sent him flying into the water bucket. Malon couldn't help but burst out laughing, running to help the mischievous young boy out. She pulled out a sopping wet boy by his arm and stood him up on his feet.
"I'm sorry about your horse..I.."
"It's ok, a pipsqueak like you wouldn't have gotten her far," Malon said, chuckling.
"Hey! I am NOT a pipsqueak!" Malon quieted herself down and held out her hand.
"Come on, I'll take you inside to get dry. My name's Malon, by the way."
"I kn- err... mine's Link."
"Link huh? That sounds somehow familiar." Link smiled to himself and took the farm girl's hand. "How old are you, Link?"
"I'm seven. How old are you?"
"Wow, cool! I'm seven too. Just turned a month ago. Come on, I'll take you to meet my father."
Malon sighed as she remembered the next three years to follow that. He had told her everything, from his Kokiri home to meeting the Princess, to saving Hyrule. How was she supposed to react? She took him for a big story teller, though she did not mind at all. She loved the stories.
Then one day, he disappeared. Just like that. She had just celebrated her tenth birthday, and Link was nowhere to be found. Neither was her horse, Epona. To say that Malon was upset about it was a huge understatement.
Not quite five years later, Link showed up on her doorstep ( so to speak, considering she doesn't really *have* a door step), shaking and bruised. She immediately forgot she was mad at him and took him in. For nearly a month she tried getting through to him, tried to get him to talk to her. No such luck.
She would constantly wake up in the middle of the night to hear muffled screams coming from the guest room. Trying her best to comfort him, she would hold him and tell him that they were just silly dreams, none of them could hurt him. He would never respond, so she would just quietly hum her mother's tune softly in his ear.
Then one particular night as she held him he had told her in gasping breaths that he did not sleep, they were not dreams, but "Memories, Malon. My own haunting past. Waking dreams."
He was gone by the next morning. Six weeks. And now she knew. It wasn't enough though, she didn't have the answers she wanted. She knew what had happened, but she didn't know *why*. That was what was killing her.
Baffled by so many good and bad memories, her head swarming with questions and emotions, Malon did the only thing she could to give her some sort of peace. Humming her mother's song softly, she shrieked and jumped up when she heard his voice.
"In all this time, I have never forgotten that tune, and I never will." Link sat up slowly and rested his head against the headboard of the bed.
"You're awake," Malon said softly while moving forward, making to sit on the edge of his bed.
"I wasn't really asleep, though you thought I was."
"You were unconscious."
"Was I?" Link asked, looking as if he hadn't known. He looked up at her then and asked her a question with his eyes that Malon seemed to understand.
"Yes, I told my father, but I did not tell him every detail." Link nodded in understanding.
"Did you tell him about..."
"No, I didn't tell him about Zelda." Link nodded again.
"What about in the carriage, when I..."
"No, I didn't tell him that either." Link then did something that surprised Malon beyond words. He leaned forward and kissed the red spots that blanketed her neck. Malon closed her eyes for a moment and Link pulled back.
"I am truly sorry for that Malon." Malon shivered slightly.
"Link, I won't pretend to understand why...what happened, happened. If you would just tell me what's wrong with you I'd know." Link sat back and remembered how he had burst through that milk crate and grabbed Malon's neck, almost strangling her. He had thought her to be Navi...he saw her while he was trapped in there, floating above his face, 'Master, master, master' she said, driving Link insane. When he had felt the carriage stop, Navi flew out of a small crack that was in the crate and he had broken through intending to kill the fairy, only he grabbed a hold of Malon.
She didn't scream, just gasped and flailed helplessly while Link continued to squeeze her neck, waiting until the moment he found himself again. When he did, he'd gone into a conniption fit and thrashed about. Malon, tears streaming down her face and staggering, found her way clumsily back to the front of the carriage and took off at the speed of lightning.
Link sighed and ran a hand through his dirty hair.
"Malon, you don't understand why I left."
"Well make me understand, Link." She searched his eyes to find something. What it was she was looking for, she didn't know. When she didn't find it she looked down at her hands resting on the bed, and was about to get up and say 'forget it' when Link took her hand.
"This isn't going to be easy for you to hear and it isn't going to be easy for me to tell. So try to keep an open mind and don't say anything until I'm finished. Understood?" Malon said nothing and a tear streamed down her face. He must've been through something awful.
"Like I said before, I might as well tell you what really happened in the Water Temple."
"I'm ready to know, Link." Link looked at her and sighed, absently rubbing his left arm. Link told her of the mirror-like-lake and the evil demon inside.
"...I thought I had won, Malon. I thought I had destroyed it. But then something unimaginable happened, something that I will never forgive myself for. It had warned me earlier of my anger making it more powerful, but I dismissed it as cheap, provocative talk. It told me that my hatred had blinded me, and that my anger would destroy me.
"I looked down at my sword, which was imbedded in the stomach of the monster, Dark Link, and it started to glow. I could not let go of it. My arm started to throb and a searing pain shot through it, my sword was jerking violently. Dark Link had disappeared and I could have sworn I heard a ringing in my head like laughing.
"Then I realized what he had done. His magic had somehow flowed into the sword..." Malon stared at him. She didn't understand.
"He stayed in the sword then?"
"No. Malon, that is where I made my first fatal mistake." Link rubbed his left arm again and flexed his fingers, as if he hadn't moved them in a long while. "I thought, as you did, that he was inside my sword and meant to stay there. But I was wrong.
"Yes, he was inside until after I had defeated Ganon. Then, the bastard, broke our d..." Link trailed off suddenly.
"What Link?"
"He didn't stay inside the sword after that. He used the sword to transfer completely into my body through the course of time it took me to complete my quest." ((You were deceiving me the whole time, fucker.)) Malon leapt off the bed and shook her head at him. She didn't believe what she was hearing.
"No, Link, you got him out of there, right? He's not...he can't be..." Link stood then, too, and moved toward Malon, who only moved back away from him. He was afraid of this.
"No, Malon. He's still in here." That explained a lot, she realized. She then completely broke down in tears and slumped to the ground, her back sliding against the wall. Link sat at the foot of the bed. "I'm not quite finished yet." Malon just sat there silently sobbing, so Link didn't wait for her to respond before he continued.
"When Zelda sent me back in time, something went wrong and I ended up coming back three years before I was supposed to. Don't ask me how I know, I just know I wasn't destined to meet you until after...well, I'll get to that later.
"You have to keep in mind that I still didn't know Dark Link was inside *me*, instead of the Master Sword, which had remained in the temple after I came back. I thought I'd be rid of him for good, though I wasn't completely sure what would become of him and the Master Sword.
"The day you met me, was the day I had decided I was going to go find my real home, my real parents, if they were still alive. I wanted to find all that out. I figured since I'd already known you, you'd understand, but I easily forgot that you *didn't* know me. Something then changed my mind, and I didn't want to leave."
Malon looked up at him through a mass of tears and red hair.
"Then why did you leave?! I thought I'd never see you again dammit!"
"Please, Malon.." In that instant Link felt a tugging somewhere inside him immediately followed by a tingling sensation. ((No, not now. No no no. IloveherIloveherIloveherIloveher.)) Link closed his eyes tightly and willed Dark Link to go away. Malon didn't seem to notice. It worked. Link's blue eyes flickered to a shade of red before turning normal again. He sighed.
Taking his chances, Link walked over to Malon and slumped down beside her, putting his arm around her shaking shoulders. She tensed up at first, then gradually allowed herself to be pulled into Link's arms, like she had done before in his cell. She closed her eyes and stayed quiet while Link went on with his story.
"One morning, I think it was a couple days after my 10th established birthday, I was walking through the fields when I felt a strange tugging inside. That's when I realized all hell was going to break loose." Malon said something then, and Link barely caught it.
"That was a week before my birthday...before you disappeared."
"I didn't know what it was at the time, but I began to feel a strange sensation in my mind every time I thought about my past and what I had done. Then somehow it all became clear to me. It was that day I heard the voice for the first time." Link closed his eyes and remembered the agony that accompanied the voice and his stumbling.
'....so, thought you'd be rid of me eh? Not by a long shot boy, not by a long shot!....'
"Karyn, Karyn!" Talon raced from the small farmhouse to meet the carriage coming up the path of Lon Lon Ranch. He noticed immediately that Malon seemed to be in need. "Karyn, get down here and help me!"
Malon staggered out of her driver's seat and ran to the back of the transport to haul Link out. He'd gone into a conniption fit on the way from the castle and was in a state of shock, scaring the life out of Malon in the process. She hadn't known what was happening, and thought it best to take her chances and travel nonstop back to the ranch where she would have help in aiding him.
"Father! Help me take him to the guest room." Talon grabbed Link under the arms while Malon held his feet and they proceeded to take him into the house.
"I wonder where your step-mother is! I can't seem to find her anywhere."
"Less talk Father, more maneuvering," Malon said in between gasps of breath, "She's probably in the milk tower." Once they finally got him up the stairs and into the guest bed, Malon sank down into a chair and tried to calm herself. ((Goddesses he's heavy.)) Talon had noticed that the girl had been shaking and was a bit paler than normal. Link lay motionless on the bed, unconscious, but breathing deeply to both Talon and Malon's relief.
It had been a while since Talon had seen the boy last, and wondered what brought him here under such mysterious circumstances. He didn't mind, of course, he would always welcome the best friend of his only daughter into his home. Time, however, would soon change his mind.
"Malon, daughter, tell me what in the blazes is goin' on here?" Malon sighed and wiped some sweat off of her forehead. "What happened to the poor lad?"
"Not here Father, let's talk in the kitchen."
Malon led her father into the kitchen and sat down at the table across from him. She felt exhausted.
"I cannot tell you fully what I have learned for Link's safety as well as my own, you understand?" Talon nodded and waited patiently for her to continue. "I found him in the dungeon keeps of the castle, Father." Talon's eyes widened and he was about to say something but Malon held up her hand.
"You cannot utter a word about this to anyone. We would be in a great deal of danger. I know what you're thinking Father, but I couldn't let him rot down there. He has not yet told me the extent of his story, but I know he will soon." Talon sat for a moment in shocked silence, trying to reason which question would be best to ask first.
"How did you escape? Surely the palace guards would have stopped you!" Malon nodded and smiled sadly, for she knew there would be severe consequences once the princess found out.
"I put him in one of the extra milk crates in the storage room. A guard did stop me to ask why I was taking it back...I told him the milk had spoiled. Luckily he believed me and didn't open the crate. He kindly assisted me in lifting the crate into our carriage and that was the end of that.
"As we were on our way back home, I heard a cracking sound and realized I had stupidly left Link in the crate once we were out of New Castle Town's perimeters. I stopped the horses and went to go free him, but he had broken through the wood like it was nothing. The next thing I knew, Link had some sort of fit and went into shock, and we were back on the road. He started thrashing around in the hay and I wasn't exactly sure what I was to do."
"You were right to bring him straight here. I will go find Karyn," Talon said somewhat flatly. He stood abruptly and was about to go, but turned and looked at his daughter for a brief second. Her head was down and a pure look of shame crossed her features. "I will speak of this to no one but your step-mother, Malon. But if he is indeed a fugitive, you know we will not be able to harbor him here for much longer."
With that said, Talon left the house and Malon sluggishly went upstairs to the guest room. She knew her father was upset with her, but he would not put them in any more danger than they already were in. She knew she could trust him, as well as Karyn. ((Karyn....))
Malon thought of the first time she had ever met Karyn as she went to sit down again next to Link. She was only six years old when her father proposed marriage to the strange woman, only a year after her mother had died. At first she was very upset with her father for so easily dismissing her mother, but as the years went on, she realized how much he needed Karyn in his life. Though Malon didn't think it possible at first, she had grown very fond of her step-mother and thought of her as one of the only people beside her father she felt she could fully trust.
There was also another that lived on the ranch that her father hired not long after her mother had died. Malon despised him with every fibre of her being, and for the life of her could not understand why her father hadn't fired the bumbling drunk when Karyn came into their lives. Perhaps he felt pity for the great fool, though Malon couldn't see how that was possible. Ingo was a dishonest, despicable character who had no moral values. Surely if he found out about Link there would be hell to pay, but he rarely ever came into the farmhouse unless he was invited, which was on a very, *very* rare occasion. Malon wouldn't let it worry her, for now.
She sat back against the wall and started thinking of her mother. It was such a long time ago, nearly 10 years since she died. Her thoughts wandered forward in time to Karyn, who had significantly made Malon's life easier. Then there was Link....
Malon remembered vividly the first day she had met Link. She was out in the pastures of Lon Lon Ranch when she heard yelling coming from inside the stables. She ran frantically towards them to see if her father had been trying to lift the milk wagon all by himself again. When she got to the door, she looked in and saw a young boy her age struggling with the reigns of her most precious horse, who would not let him pull her out of her stall.
"HEY! What do you think you're doing to my horse?!" Link looked up right as the horse yanked on the reigns and sent him flying into the water bucket. Malon couldn't help but burst out laughing, running to help the mischievous young boy out. She pulled out a sopping wet boy by his arm and stood him up on his feet.
"I'm sorry about your horse..I.."
"It's ok, a pipsqueak like you wouldn't have gotten her far," Malon said, chuckling.
"Hey! I am NOT a pipsqueak!" Malon quieted herself down and held out her hand.
"Come on, I'll take you inside to get dry. My name's Malon, by the way."
"I kn- err... mine's Link."
"Link huh? That sounds somehow familiar." Link smiled to himself and took the farm girl's hand. "How old are you, Link?"
"I'm seven. How old are you?"
"Wow, cool! I'm seven too. Just turned a month ago. Come on, I'll take you to meet my father."
Malon sighed as she remembered the next three years to follow that. He had told her everything, from his Kokiri home to meeting the Princess, to saving Hyrule. How was she supposed to react? She took him for a big story teller, though she did not mind at all. She loved the stories.
Then one day, he disappeared. Just like that. She had just celebrated her tenth birthday, and Link was nowhere to be found. Neither was her horse, Epona. To say that Malon was upset about it was a huge understatement.
Not quite five years later, Link showed up on her doorstep ( so to speak, considering she doesn't really *have* a door step), shaking and bruised. She immediately forgot she was mad at him and took him in. For nearly a month she tried getting through to him, tried to get him to talk to her. No such luck.
She would constantly wake up in the middle of the night to hear muffled screams coming from the guest room. Trying her best to comfort him, she would hold him and tell him that they were just silly dreams, none of them could hurt him. He would never respond, so she would just quietly hum her mother's tune softly in his ear.
Then one particular night as she held him he had told her in gasping breaths that he did not sleep, they were not dreams, but "Memories, Malon. My own haunting past. Waking dreams."
He was gone by the next morning. Six weeks. And now she knew. It wasn't enough though, she didn't have the answers she wanted. She knew what had happened, but she didn't know *why*. That was what was killing her.
Baffled by so many good and bad memories, her head swarming with questions and emotions, Malon did the only thing she could to give her some sort of peace. Humming her mother's song softly, she shrieked and jumped up when she heard his voice.
"In all this time, I have never forgotten that tune, and I never will." Link sat up slowly and rested his head against the headboard of the bed.
"You're awake," Malon said softly while moving forward, making to sit on the edge of his bed.
"I wasn't really asleep, though you thought I was."
"You were unconscious."
"Was I?" Link asked, looking as if he hadn't known. He looked up at her then and asked her a question with his eyes that Malon seemed to understand.
"Yes, I told my father, but I did not tell him every detail." Link nodded in understanding.
"Did you tell him about..."
"No, I didn't tell him about Zelda." Link nodded again.
"What about in the carriage, when I..."
"No, I didn't tell him that either." Link then did something that surprised Malon beyond words. He leaned forward and kissed the red spots that blanketed her neck. Malon closed her eyes for a moment and Link pulled back.
"I am truly sorry for that Malon." Malon shivered slightly.
"Link, I won't pretend to understand why...what happened, happened. If you would just tell me what's wrong with you I'd know." Link sat back and remembered how he had burst through that milk crate and grabbed Malon's neck, almost strangling her. He had thought her to be Navi...he saw her while he was trapped in there, floating above his face, 'Master, master, master' she said, driving Link insane. When he had felt the carriage stop, Navi flew out of a small crack that was in the crate and he had broken through intending to kill the fairy, only he grabbed a hold of Malon.
She didn't scream, just gasped and flailed helplessly while Link continued to squeeze her neck, waiting until the moment he found himself again. When he did, he'd gone into a conniption fit and thrashed about. Malon, tears streaming down her face and staggering, found her way clumsily back to the front of the carriage and took off at the speed of lightning.
Link sighed and ran a hand through his dirty hair.
"Malon, you don't understand why I left."
"Well make me understand, Link." She searched his eyes to find something. What it was she was looking for, she didn't know. When she didn't find it she looked down at her hands resting on the bed, and was about to get up and say 'forget it' when Link took her hand.
"This isn't going to be easy for you to hear and it isn't going to be easy for me to tell. So try to keep an open mind and don't say anything until I'm finished. Understood?" Malon said nothing and a tear streamed down her face. He must've been through something awful.
"Like I said before, I might as well tell you what really happened in the Water Temple."
"I'm ready to know, Link." Link looked at her and sighed, absently rubbing his left arm. Link told her of the mirror-like-lake and the evil demon inside.
"...I thought I had won, Malon. I thought I had destroyed it. But then something unimaginable happened, something that I will never forgive myself for. It had warned me earlier of my anger making it more powerful, but I dismissed it as cheap, provocative talk. It told me that my hatred had blinded me, and that my anger would destroy me.
"I looked down at my sword, which was imbedded in the stomach of the monster, Dark Link, and it started to glow. I could not let go of it. My arm started to throb and a searing pain shot through it, my sword was jerking violently. Dark Link had disappeared and I could have sworn I heard a ringing in my head like laughing.
"Then I realized what he had done. His magic had somehow flowed into the sword..." Malon stared at him. She didn't understand.
"He stayed in the sword then?"
"No. Malon, that is where I made my first fatal mistake." Link rubbed his left arm again and flexed his fingers, as if he hadn't moved them in a long while. "I thought, as you did, that he was inside my sword and meant to stay there. But I was wrong.
"Yes, he was inside until after I had defeated Ganon. Then, the bastard, broke our d..." Link trailed off suddenly.
"What Link?"
"He didn't stay inside the sword after that. He used the sword to transfer completely into my body through the course of time it took me to complete my quest." ((You were deceiving me the whole time, fucker.)) Malon leapt off the bed and shook her head at him. She didn't believe what she was hearing.
"No, Link, you got him out of there, right? He's not...he can't be..." Link stood then, too, and moved toward Malon, who only moved back away from him. He was afraid of this.
"No, Malon. He's still in here." That explained a lot, she realized. She then completely broke down in tears and slumped to the ground, her back sliding against the wall. Link sat at the foot of the bed. "I'm not quite finished yet." Malon just sat there silently sobbing, so Link didn't wait for her to respond before he continued.
"When Zelda sent me back in time, something went wrong and I ended up coming back three years before I was supposed to. Don't ask me how I know, I just know I wasn't destined to meet you until after...well, I'll get to that later.
"You have to keep in mind that I still didn't know Dark Link was inside *me*, instead of the Master Sword, which had remained in the temple after I came back. I thought I'd be rid of him for good, though I wasn't completely sure what would become of him and the Master Sword.
"The day you met me, was the day I had decided I was going to go find my real home, my real parents, if they were still alive. I wanted to find all that out. I figured since I'd already known you, you'd understand, but I easily forgot that you *didn't* know me. Something then changed my mind, and I didn't want to leave."
Malon looked up at him through a mass of tears and red hair.
"Then why did you leave?! I thought I'd never see you again dammit!"
"Please, Malon.." In that instant Link felt a tugging somewhere inside him immediately followed by a tingling sensation. ((No, not now. No no no. IloveherIloveherIloveherIloveher.)) Link closed his eyes tightly and willed Dark Link to go away. Malon didn't seem to notice. It worked. Link's blue eyes flickered to a shade of red before turning normal again. He sighed.
Taking his chances, Link walked over to Malon and slumped down beside her, putting his arm around her shaking shoulders. She tensed up at first, then gradually allowed herself to be pulled into Link's arms, like she had done before in his cell. She closed her eyes and stayed quiet while Link went on with his story.
"One morning, I think it was a couple days after my 10th established birthday, I was walking through the fields when I felt a strange tugging inside. That's when I realized all hell was going to break loose." Malon said something then, and Link barely caught it.
"That was a week before my birthday...before you disappeared."
"I didn't know what it was at the time, but I began to feel a strange sensation in my mind every time I thought about my past and what I had done. Then somehow it all became clear to me. It was that day I heard the voice for the first time." Link closed his eyes and remembered the agony that accompanied the voice and his stumbling.
'....so, thought you'd be rid of me eh? Not by a long shot boy, not by a long shot!....'