Cucco for Lon Lon by Jes
As the sun cast its last golden rays of light over the land basking all of creations of nature in a brilliant orange glow, two friends sat and watched nature's grand show peacefully.
Link, now a young man of nine-teen, lay on the grass staring up at the sky with a contented smile on his face. A girl, his friend of nearly ten years, lying at his side also watching, the sun set, sighed happily.
"I'm supposed to be feeding the Cuccos right now." She said wistfully, really to no one in particular.
"Mmm?" Came the reply at her side. Link had let his eyes close and he was slowly drifting into sleep's embrace.
"I think… I will wait just a few more minutes."
"Mhmm…"
"What did you do with those reigns after you were finished ridding Epona?" Malon asked only to receive Link's soft breathing as a response.
"Link, are you listening to me?" Malon sat up and looked at her friend who was now dozing quietly.
She gently poked Link in the ribs startling him awake.
"huh?"
"I asked what you did with Epona's reigns when you were done ridding her, sleepy head?" Malon giggled.
Link yawned loudly and stretched as he sat up, "I just threw them in the barn," The boy noticed Malon frowning slightly
"Don't worry I will remember to put them away before I leave" The red headed girl seemed satisfied with Link's answer and didn't say anymore about it.
"I suppose I'd better feed these Cuccos before, dinner is ready." She said as she got up and brushed some non-existent dust from her dress. Link too stood up and stretched again. The pair chatted happily about un-important things as they walked to the Cucco pen, Link had told her a humorous story about being the recipient of a Goron hug, which the girl found very funny. "Oh you poor thing—" she said between giggles as they arrived at gate to the Cucco pen. "You don't know the half of it" Link moaned.
As soon as Malon opened the gate to the pen she was ankle deep in a sea of fluffy white feathers. The Cuccos swarmed around the girl in an effort to get some of the first seeds to be dropped from the bucket.
"Dinner is nearly done, I can smell it from here," Malon said as she tossed some seed to the floor, "Would you like to stay I will ask Papa if it's alright." Malon said as she threw another hand full of seed on the ground, which the Cuccos were only too happy to 'clean up' for her.
"I—" Link opened his mouth to respond but was cut short by the sound of Ingo's furious cries.
"Malon!" The angry voice of Ingo, Lon Lon, Ranch's stable hand, resonated through the barn scaring more than a few of the cows, which he come to feed.
The red headed young woman stepped through the double barn doors carrying a bucket of Cucco feed. Link had made sure to stay more than few paces behind Malon; he got the impression that whatever was upsetting Ingo, would only be made worse by his presence. Needless to say, Link was probably Ingo's least favorite person.
"Yes Ingo?" she stood in the door way not bothering to come all the way into the barn.
"What is this?" Ingo pointed to a cluster of tangled reigns and bits on the barn floor.
For a moment the girl looked back at Link who was now wearing a horribly guilty look. Giving Link a annoyed look, Malon turned her attention back to Ingo.
"Oh, that…" She said nonchalantly "When Link was finished ridding Epona—"
"Oh I see, and when he was done; he just threw all the reigns in the floor! That is it! I forbid that… that… that boy to come into my bar—"
Malon swept into the barn, a gaggle of noisy Cuccos in tow. She stopped dead in front of Ingo, and glared. Although Malon was nine-teen, she was short for her age, and was often mistaken for being more than a few years younger than she actually was. However; she seemed a lot taller when she was angry. Without even realizing it, Ingo took a step back.
"One, Ingo," she said, her words dripping with annoyance.
"When he asked me what to do with them, I told him to just leave them in here, and that I would put them up later." Malon lied. Link had always put Epona's reigns, bit, and saddle back in the stables where they belonged but he was prone to just throwing them in the barn to keep them out of the way, until he was ready to go.
"And two" Malon continued, "This is not your barn!"
The stable hand was somewhat stunned by Malon's outburst. He'd usually been a spectator to Malon's fiery temper, which was normally directed at her lazy father 'Talon' but Ingo, was very rarely ever in the line of fire.
Ingo just stared at the young woman for a moment. The noise of the Cuccos fighting over a few bits of seed that had fallen from a small hole in Malon's pail brought the man back to his senses.
"What are you doing feeding the Cuccos? That's my job" He growled
Malon blinked, of all the things she expected Ingo to say… that wasn't one of them.
"I—"
"Don't ask me why but I was trying to help you!"
"Well don't, maybe if you spent more time keeping that friend of yours from causing trouble, instead of trying to do my work, these wouldn't be here!" He angrily pointed at the reigns on the barn floor.
"You know, you could show just a little gratitude, instead of attitude!"
"Gratitude, for what?! Some know-it-all girl who thinks that I am not capable of doing a job that I have been doing since before she was born? I grew up on a farm you know! I've been doing farmhand work since I was six!"
Malon rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes I know, you've been telling me that for years, I believe you, you must have been raised on a farm by mules; it would explain why you're such an ass!"
Malon turned on her heal to leave, "If you want to feed the Cuccos so badly…" She hurled the contents of the bucket at Ingo drenching him in the small seed. "Be my guest!"
And with that she left the barn satisfied with the angry cries of Ingo as he was being 'hen pecked' by the swarm of Cuccos.
"Hey watch i-- oww-- That's not seed you silly bird! Eek, ouch!--"
"I am sorry I caused so much trouble" The young man in green said quietly.
"You shouldn't have taken the blame fore me, and I should have put the reigns back as soon as I was done ridding Epona."
Link looked back towards the barn where angry yelling still could be heard. "You shouldn't have thrown that bucket of seed on him, he sounds really mad"
"That's what he gets for calling me a 'Know-it-all' I was only trying to help!" Malon huffed.
Link cocked an eyebrow in surprise but said nothing more about it.
"I'd better get going, it's starting to get pretty dark," Link said as he looked towards the horizon, the last little bit of sun was quickly disappearing.
"Aww, well at least say good bye to Epona or she will be very mad at you" Malon teased
"I wouldn't want that" Said Link; he looked at Malon with a mischievous glint in his eye. "After all there's nothing scarier than an angry female" he joked.
"Ha, ha, very funny fairy boy," Malon said as she playfully slapped Link on the arm.
The pair walked over to a grazing light brown mare, "I gotta get going girl," Link said as he rubbed the horses nose, "But I will come back to see you again." The young horse rubbed its nose against Links head, Malon giggled, "I think she's giving you a hug, though you probably like Goron hugs better."
Link cleared his throat and turned pink ever-so slightly, "I like you too girl" he said quietly. Giving the horse one last pat he turned to Malon and said his good byes.
The girl watched as the young man disappeared through Lon Lon Ranch's front gates and into Hyrule field.
Well Epona, I suppose I'd better get you back to the stables, and head in for dinner. The horse neighed as if in agreement and allowed Malon to lead her to the stables for the night.
"Stupid Malon," Ingo sullenly said as he picked seed out of his hair.
He winced as Cucco pecked skin brushed up against the rough fabric of his coveralls. "Ouch, stupid Cuccos" Ingo had finally escaped the Cuccos when they had eaten all the seed that had been in the bucket. And not a moment too soon either, a few minutes more and he feared he would have been pecked into oblivion. "WHAAAAA!" He stepped forward and tripped over the tangled jumble of reigns in the floor and landed flat on his face, Splat!
For a long time Ingo didn't move, if someone had been watching him they would have thought that he'd broke his neck. Still lying in the barn floor covered in hay and bird seed Ingo sighed.
"Talon doesn't care how hard I work and Malon thinks I'm an—" Ingo sighed sadly "ass" That remark had thoroughly hurt Ingo; he had always though of himself as a nice person. Was it too much to ask that, his work load not be made heavier by people just leaving things all over the place for him to clean up? As it was he usually ended up eating cold leftovers instead of warm stew for dinner due to his monstrous list of chores.
"I give up, I'm tired of being made a fool of and disrespected, maybe… I'm not cut out to work here…I grew up on a farm three times as large as Lon Lon and I can't even handle a small ranch with a few cows, some horses a flock of Cuccos and a short red headed girl." Ingo sniffled feeling horribly dejected.
"I've been here for nearly ten years; maybe… it's time I do something else with my life." Ingo lay in the barn floor still contemplating this line of thought
"If I left, it's not like anyone would miss me." Ingo sighed disdainfully
"I'd miss this place though, although only the great fairies would know why" he sniffed.
"But my time is done here, it's decided I will tell Talon tomorrow that he will need to find himself another stable hand to ignore and dump loads of work on. And Malon can find another ass to make Cucco food out, because I quit!" With that Ingo dragged himself to his feet and left the barn for bed, not bothering to even go to dinner.
Author's notes, (rants)
About the title it's a really forced play on the slogan "coocoo for cocoapuff
My first Zelda fic, which will not actually be featuring Zelda or even Link that much (he's in there a little bit)
Mostly this story will be about the people that live at Lon Lon Ranch, and don't worry I will slip a plot in there somewhere :} Mwahahahaha!
Malon: Evil laughter…
Ingo: That can't be good. O.o;
Talon: Zzzzzz -_-
Navi: Hey Listen!
Jes:… Now where did I put that fly swatter?