My Friend In You.

According to Legend...

Surely surely

The door between worlds is through a keaton's eye.

But if one were to look into it...

Surely surely

That one would die.

Art and Story by

Megan 'Ryo-chan' Campbell

Original Story by Shingeru Miyamoto

Based on the original story and game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time Day I

The keaton.

The sound of grass rustling was the only noise heard, as the sun slowly began to rise over the valley called Hyrule Field. Mist hovered above the tall grass like clouds, and beneath it, a set of paws parted the grass. A small animal walked through the field, only sound of blown grasses and his almost silent footsteps. Larger than a cat but small than a mere dog, he was called a keaton. Keatons were strange creatures, sought after in this land of Hyrule for luck. If a keaton were to embark on a journey with someone, that person would surely live and prosper, according to legend. But that never happened, keatons did not trust any of the five human-like races that lived in Hyrule. They were stubborn animals; they would not allow themselves to be seen by the Hylians, the Gorons, and the Zoras, sometimes not even the Kokiri elf children who inhabited the good forests of Hyrule. And especially not the arrogant feminine people of the desert, the infamous Gerudo, whose name was known far and wide for their vicious past of bloodshed and pride. They keaton would hide themselves in the woodlands, and only those brave enough to venture into those cursed woods would perhaps ever get to see the flick of a keaton's three bushy tails, or the small slit of a keaton's thin eyes, their true shape and color hidden within the mystery. The mystery of the keaton itself.

Since the beginning of life, along with every other breathing creature, these mysterious fox-like beings roamed through the dense forests of the young earth. Their appearance was an elegant one, whose beauty majested adults and even awed children's greatest fantasies. A sleek, and graceful canine, with a face that would make every woman turn and smile, if she had the chance. A keaton had long, black tipped ears, and a small black nose no bigger than a pebble on the end of its long pointed snout. Covered head to tail in a silky amber-gold fur, and on it's hind not one bushy tail but three. Three identical tails, the pattern of fur on each being the keaton's sheen; each keaton had their own sheen, with none other quite like it.

This particular keaton though...he was different. Though he looked the same, walked the same, bled the same...he was different.

The keaton walked with his tails held low, even though the wind blew sand through his fur and on his face, refreshing his body. He ignored it, and instead looked up at the rising sun in mid-step. He looked at the sunrise, awed by it's beauty. Any other mortal would have walked by it as if it were nothing. After all, every day the sun rose, and every day the same sun fell, this was no different. But he stood unmoving, until after an hour or two the sun had rose, and the day began. The keaton slowly brought his head down again, and then continued on his journey.

The reason this keaton was different was not a simple one.

'What am I to do now...?' He thought regretfully, as a tear fell from one of his narrow eyes, and landed in the dirt behind him, 'This regret...such a horrible feeling! I've never had before...' He tried through more grass, until the plant life grew a little scarcer and the ground denser. 'Without anything...what is?'

From sun rise to sun fall the keaton aimlessly walked. He crossed out of Hyrule Field and into the Gerudo Valley. As the sun set, he walked across the bridge that connected the cast Gerudo deserts to the rest of Hyrule. Far beneath the bridge, at the bottom of the canyon that the bridge spanned across, was a raging river, filled with rapids. Also, there were three huge, dangerous, yet beautiful waterfalls. He stopped for a moment, awing the power of the raging waterfalls. Never before had this young keaton seen such energy! He let out something somewhat like a sigh, and then kept walking; his paws were starting to ache.

A young Gerudo girl sat near the other end of the bridge, leaning against her spear that was probably too large for her to combat with anyway. She held her head down, trying her hardest not to fall asleep on her shift, yet she didn't want to find the energy to guard the bridge properly either. She slipped off into a daze, until she was awakened by a slight nudge. Someone was nudging against her cheek. "...Huh?" She mumbled sleepily, lifted her head and opened her eyes to see, "...Keaton?" She looked at the innocent little dog in front of her. 'Is this really one of them?' She thought, 'Those fabled keaton that can kill even the priestess?'

The keaton looked at the girl, she seemed not to respond to him, so he brought his head beside hers and, with his snout, nudged her gently again. She stood up quickly and looked down at him. 'But...he looks so harmless!' She thought, and leaned against her spear. He looked up at her, then to the pass that lead into the dessert. She made no motion of stopping him, so the keaton stared for a moment, and then silently walked off. After he left, she looked at the sky. "It's getting dark..." She smiled to herself, "You'd better hurry up...strange little keaton."

The keaton walked through the busy fortress that lies beyond the pass. What would later prove to be a good omen for him, many were too busy to even notice him, so busy...that the large gate that lead into the wastelands of a desert was left ajar. The gate was almost closed, but there was just enough space left that Kaysho could crawl underneath it. He walked into the desert, every once in a while his mind waking from it's daze, asking him what on earth did he think he was doing. 'Surely it isn't wise to be here...' he thought, 'But...why can't I seem to return?'

The sun fell, and the keaton kept walking, the moon rose, and the keaton kept walking. With every step how his body wished to go back, or just stop and rest his sore legs and paws. But his mind felt a longing to be somewhere...and forced his legs to keep walking. The moon crossed over him as he stumbled over endless dunes of sand, and the occasional boulder, until the sun rose again, and a new day began.