OMG! Fifteen reviews! This is turning out pretty good! Wow. Okay, I'm finished with the phantom of the opera fic, now I can work on my Zelda! Yay! Here you go!
Chapter 3
(The Trouble with two year olds)
Zelda was severely freaking out. Link thought she was his mommy. This was bad. "Impa!" she looked exasperatingly at her guardian. "What am I supposed to do?" they both took a moment to look at Link, sound asleep in Zelda's old bed, which she had as a child.
"Well, there's not much to do." Impa replied simply. "It would most likely be best to let him think you're his mother." She smiled. "I suppose you're going to have an early taste of motherhood, Zelda."
"But…" she stuttered, trying to think up an argument. "What about tomorrow? I'm going to be running errands all over town! I'm going to Malon's, to pick up some wildflowers, to the market, everywhere!" she paused for a moment, thinking. "Can two year olds talk?" she asked. "Like, in sentences?"
"Normally yes, they can say a few small, short sentences." Impa nodded. "I'm not sure about Link, though. Every child is different." She sighed. "Let's just wait until tomorrow. We'll find out if Link can talk then."
Zelda got up and headed for her room. "Well, I suppose I'll go to bed, seeing nothing else can go wrong." She shut the door tightly behind her. "Heaven help me." She lay down; hoping it was all a bad dream.
When morning finally came, she creaked open the door, peering into the dining hall where breakfast was served. This morning she could smell the delightful aroma of pancakes. The tiny flicker of hope that she had of this being a dream quickly extinguished when she saw Link, still a two year old; on a chair, munching a pancake with a blissful look on his face.
She couldn't help but allow a tiny smile to form. She walked over and sat across from him; fingering her fork uneasily. She summoned the courage to speak to him. "Good morning, Link." He glanced up for a moment with a blank look on his face, and continued to eat. She sighed, and put the fork down. "Impa, I'm going to start my errands. I'll leave Link here with you…" she trailed off; heading for the door at a brisk pace.
She turned to say good-bye, and noticed Link following her. "Link…" she bent down face to face with him. "I'm going out. You're going to stay here with Impa, okay?" she opened the door and almost fell forward. She turned to see Link holding on to her dress. "Link, you're not coming with me…" she felt frustrated as she tried to tell him again.
She saw him violently shake his head and bury himself into her dress. "Mommy." He looked up; tears were forming in his eyes.
"Oh…fine then." She picked him up. "Impa, never mind. I'm taking Link with me." She picked out a well-ridden horse named Karisha and made sure that she went extremely slow. The first place was Lon Lon Ranch. She pulled herself down from Karisha; helping Link down too. Zelda smiled and had to hold back a chuckle when she saw him contentedly sucking his thumb.
By this time, everyone in the kingdom knew about Link's unfortunate accident. So when Malon met with Zelda and saw him; she was not exceedingly surprised. She bent down. "Why, hello there, little hero." She smiled warmly. Link uttered a small gasp and hid behind Zelda shyly.
Malon giggled and made sure Link was watching her before speaking again. "Well, I guess that about does it with what you need, Zelda. You got the milk now. Too bad, though. I just baked a terrific batch of my homemade chocolate-chip cookies. Unfortunately, I have no one to share them with…" she trailed off and winked at Zelda. Link slowly peeked out from behind Zelda's dress and watched Malon's hand offer him the tasty bait.
He lashed out with a quick grab and inspected the cookie for a moment before starting to nibble it. After a few moments it was completely gone; Link looked up at them with chocolate smeared all over his face. Both Zelda and Malon laughed whole-heartedly. "Well, I guess that's all we need for now, Malon. Thanks for the eatables!" she pointed to the cookies wrapped in the picnic basket she was given. The first errand was done; now for the second.
Link was shuffling along the ground; following Zelda. Suddenly, he bumped into something. He looked up and saw a huge horse staring him in the face. "Epona!" Malon came over quickly. "Do you remember Epona, Link?" she patted the mare who responded with a whinny. "She's your horse."
Link looked up at Epona, and hugged one of her legs. "Horsie!" he squealed. Zelda felt strangely proud as she watched him. That was the second word he said that day.
"Come on, Link. It's time for our second errand." She said good-bye to Malon and rode with Link to a nice spot where she could pick some beautiful wildflowers for her room. "Link, can you say flower?" she asked, picking one up and handing it to him when they had settled down.
Link pursed his lips. "F…" he struggled with the words. "Fower?" he looked at her questioningly.
She laughed out loud. "No, no, no…like this…" she leaned in towards him. "Flower." She formed the word slowly and distinctly. Link took a moment to ponder this.
"F…" he tried again. "Flower!" he smiled.
"Yes! Good job Link!" she went back to her business, she heard Link yelling the word "Flower" over and over again in the background. Once she got tired of it, she sighed, and turned to see him chasing a yellow butterfly.
"Flower! Flower!" Link yelled. Zelda caught his attention by yelling to him.
"No, no, no…" he came over to her. She could hardly talk, she was laughing so hard. "That's not a flower, that's a butterfly!" she laughed. Link tilted his head, thinking.
"Budderfwy?" he asked. Zelda had to suppress hoards of giggles.
"Close enough." She rumpled his hair. "You'll talk when you're ready." She led him back to the horse. "Alright, only one more errand." She felt more confident. Maybe it wasn't as hard to take care of a child as she had thought. She put the flowers in the basket with the cookies and rode with Link to her last destination- the market.
She tied up Karisha and warned Link to stay close to her. She started browsing through all of the different stands and booths of goods. She didn't even notice that the little Hyrulian had left her side.
Link was completely obsessed in his own world; exploring and toddling around the town. The place that most interested Link was the dark alleys. The strange noises, new smells, and the strange people were most alluring to a two-year old. Link was looking down as he walked; watching a tiny bug crawl along his path. He ran into an unusual object and looked up to see what was blocking his fun.
Link felt his heart pump wildly in his chest. The thing he bumped into was a man. A man that was huge! He stared down at the little child and growled in his throat. Link was scared. He felt something about this man was just not good.
Ganondorf peered down at this child that bumped into him. He could have destroyed the impudent young pup in a second. Unfortunately, he had more important matters to deal with. He had been watching Zelda closely. Link was strangely not with her. He was biding his time until he was able to strike. He turned to leave, he needed to plan more.
He abruptly stopped. The little child was still there; watching him intently. He had never seen this little boy before. Yet, something inside told him he had seen the little boy before. He shook his head; disappearing into the dark, damp alleyways.
Link wrinkled his nose as he noticed the scary man walk off. He slowly started back to where he came from; only to hear a scream of relief as Zelda scooped him up. "Link!" she hugged him close; tears forming in her cheeks.
" I was so worried! Don't you ever stray away from me again!" she held him close. She finally let him go for a minute, thinking. "Well, I guess we're done for today. Let's go home for now, Link." She waved her hand, gesturing towards the castle. They both rode Karisha back to the castle.
Zelda swung open the door; carrying Link asleep in one arm and the basket in the other. She carefully laid him down in the bed; falling into the nearest chair; exhausted. Impa watched with growing interest.
"Have a busy day?" she asked, leaning back against the wall.
"You have no idea, Impa." Zelda sighed, letting stress flow out of her. Impa turned away for a moment; attending to something cooking.
"Well, can Link talk?" hearing no answer, she turned to see what was wrong. She chuckled lightly. Zelda was fast asleep. "What awaits us tomorrow?" she thought, watching the sun slowly die in the hills.
Wow…this was a long chapter! Phew…I will try to write the next one soon. I already have the entire story thought out. It should take about, oh…around ten or eleven chapters…just an estimate. Any who, don't forget to review! (That rhymed!);)
