For those of you who supported and reviewed this work, I thank you. This is kind of a transition chapter, so there is not too much action, but it will shed some light on some of the things which may have been a bit confusing. I hope you enjoy it, and please review.
As Michael exited the Gerudo fortress, he saw five Gerudo guards positioned in a semicircle waiting for him, pointing spears in his direction. Michael took a few seconds to study his ambushers. All had red ponytails tied back behind their partially veiled faces. They all wore revealing purple tops, covering only the chest. "Did I miss something?" asked the middle aged man.
"What are you doing with our leader?" asked the one in the center.
"I am friends with Nabooru," he insisted. "Is that a problem?"
"What do you want with her?" demanded the Gerudo in the center with an explosive voice.
"My friendship with your leader, and I emphasize 'leader,' is my business. It is not yours. I don't think she would appreciate the disrespect you are presenting me with right now." Michael said, keeping very calm.
The central Gerudo stepped forward. She shoved the tip of her spear right before Michael's face. "Now you listen here. I care very much for my people, as I am the assistant leader, Rasha. Nabooru is our patron. If you do anything to harm her, I will kill you. Do you understand that?"
Michael smiled. "I think you explained it pretty well, especially the part about killing me."
"Good." Rasha said in her corundum voice.
Michael gave her a courtesy nod while displaying a wide grin, then walked past them, toward Hyrule Field. As soon as Michael's back faced the Gerudos, his smile vanished.
A knocking on the door to the house caused the lazy middle-aged man to stir on his bed. After a few seconds, he was motionless again. The knocking resumed, this time with a lot more volume. Michael stirred again, placing a hand on the pillow at the end of the bed. His head slowly raised until his chin was resting on the bed's surface. The knocking persisted. Michael opened his mouth and sighed. He yawned. "Yeah, I hear you," he snarled. The knocking stopped momentarily. Michael rolled over and placed his bare feet on the ground. The knocking began again. "I said I'm coming!" he yelled. Michael felt around the floor near the bed with his feet until he found his sandals, which he slipped his feet into without getting up. Stretching his arms up above his head, Michael yawned again. He got up off his bed and staggered toward the bedroom door, tripping on a cardboard box in the process. "Ow," he shouted. He quickly got back up and stumbled through the bedroom door, through the living room, and to the front door.
Upon opening the door, an exhausted Michael squinted in the evening glare. He studied the figure for a few moments, then frowned, "What do you want?"
Link, dressed in the green Kokiri Tunic over tights he wore during his quest, responded "I came to ask you a favor." Epona stood kicking the ground with her front hoofs in the distance behind the teenager.
Michael gave no facial response. "Come on in," he muttered. He backed against the door and motioned for Link to enter. Link looked at him, then walked through the doorway. Michael closed the door behind him and pointed at the little black couch. Link removed the sword and shield, placing them on the ground. He then took a seat. Michael sat down on one of the chairs surrounding the table.
"Did you just move in here?" Link asked.
"Yeah, I'm still kind of in the process," Michael said. "I've gone back to Boston, my hometown, to gather my few possessions. Some of it is still in boxes." He studied Link, who was sitting up straight on the couch, with incredibly proper posture. "So, Link, what can I do for you?"
"I've been staying in the castle with Zelda since the end of the quest—well not staying with her, but—"
"I know what you mean."
"She told me that I had to move out soon, so I need to find another place to live."
Michael laughed. "Wow, I am really surprised by that. Zelda getting rid of you after no longer needing you—then you coming to me, who you really don't even know that well." Link was not smiling. Michael stopped laughing and paused. "Come on, you can't possibly stand up for Zelda after all she put you through. She owes you everything she has, so why the fuck is she kicking you out of the castle? Although it's under construction, it's not like there is a shortage of room there."
"She told me that she must protect the triforce alone because it is her destiny. She also said that she will never forget me, or the time we spent together, but is certain that our destinies forbid us from being together."
Michael rolled his eyes. "Wow, she is so eloquent. I think I'm gonna cry."
"Are you mocking this?"
"Hell yeah," Michael snapped. "Let me rephrase what she said for you. She said, 'I appreciate you risking your life for me, Link, but I don't need you anymore, so fuck off."
Link scowled. "Why can't you respect her?"
"I don't respect people who treat others like they don't matter. I think she used you."
"Do you not believe in destiny?"
"No, Link. I don't believe in destiny. My own experiences paint the concept as highly unrealistic. Also, I think our 'fair' princess uses it as an excuse way too often." Michael sighed. He ran his hand through his unkempt black hair. "This brings us to your favor. Was I right in my reasoning that you had no one else to go to? I mean, that forest must be off limits now that you're over five feet tall."
Link nodded uncomfortably. "I would get my things from the castle tomorrow, after I return the Master Sword to its pedestal in the Temple of Time."
Michael blinked then rubbed his eyes. "This is a pretty small house. There is only one bedroom. Why don't you want to live near town in an inn? Why out here on the lake, away from civilization?"
"I don't really have any money."
"But surely people will make exceptions for you, afterall, you are the hero who saved their country." His eyes remained locked on Link.
"No one offered to take me in. I didn't want to ask because I'd rather be away from the town now that Zelda does not want me in the castle anymore. I need to figure out what I'm going to do now."
Michael nodded in approval. "Fair enough. I guess you can stay here for a little while, but only until you get your own place, which you better start trying to do soon. You get to sleep on that couch, and you better not get in my way."
Link nodded.
"You also will have to do your share of cleaning up, getting stuff from the town market, and will be entirely responsible for the horse. Is that understood?" Michael asked, looking at his own feet.
Again, Link nodded.
"At least say something," Michael scolded. He raised his head to stare at Michael. "I don't count nodding as a linguistic response."
"Thank you," Link said. He got up, gathered his sword and shield, and walked towards the door. He turned around offered a weak smile, and said "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." With that, Link walked out the door, mounted Epona, and rode off.
As Michael closed the door and turned around to head back to his bedroom, another knocking on the door startled him. He rolled his eyes. "So much for catching up on sleep today," he grunted. The knocking intensified. The middle-aged man backtracked the length of the living room and opened the door. Nabooru stood smiling in the doorway. "I guess it's true," Michael began. "There really is no rest for the wicked."
"I should have known not to expect a proper greeting," Nabooru jested.
Michael stepped back and to the side. "So what brings you here to Lake Hylia?"
"You." Nabooru smiled. "I trust you found your way out of the fortress alright?"
"Yeah," Michael responded. "Your guards were so friendly too." Sarcasm erupted from Michael's voice.
"You must have met Rasha."
"Yeah. She seems like a really nice girl…if you enjoy being bullied around like a little kid."
"She's always been a little hot-headed, but she is very passionate about maintaing our Gerudo legacies and she is very loyal. She even questioned me about letting you into our fortress." Nabooru saw no reaction from her companion, so she quickly changed the subject. "It looks as if you are just moving in."
"I went back to Boston, where I originally come from a bit this past week to get my few possessions and bring them here. As you can see, I still haven't unpacked everything."
Nabooru laughed. "I passed Link at the entrance to Lake Hylia when I was on my way here. Did he ask you if he could live here for a while?"
"Yes, and I told him that he could for a short while. He is supposed to move in tomorrow."
"Which means this is your last free night. This is the last night that you will have this house to yourself."
Michael grinned. "That's true." He then led the Gerudo leader to his bedroom. They both sat down on his unmade bed.
Nabooru gasped. "You have a Hylian symbol on your flag, but I have never seen that flag before!"
Michael looked puzzled. He studied the flag hanging on the wall right above his bed. Vertically, the flag was divided into halves. The right half white and the left half green. In the middle sat a red crescent with a red star between the tips of the crescent. "That is not a Hylian flag."
"The crescent moon with the star is a very old symbol here in Hyrule. It was all over the sacred realm even."
"Then that's a coincidence. My flag is of the country where I lived for a couple of years after Joanne, my ex-girlfriend left me. The crescent moon and stars is a symbol of Islam, the most popular religion in that country."
"Is that your religion?"
"No, religion has always seemed ridiculous to me."
"So you moved to a different country after your girlfriend left you?"
The inquisition sucked all the remaining traces of smile away from Michael's face. "I dated Joanne for ten years, but because of some foolish choices I made, we could never get married. She loved me, but eventually she felt that staying with me was holding her entire life in limbo, so she decided that she had to try for a future with someone else. She got married a few months after she called our relationship off, and she is now a mother."
"So Michael finally begins to open up," Nabooru taunted.
"Joanne was pregnant, though," Michael continued. "She was pregnant with my child when she married her fiancé. She told me that I could have no contact with her or her family once she was married."
"But it's your child."
"I couldn't do anything about it. I was no longer a citizen of America at the time, so I had no legal right to even question Joanne's decree."
"Did you want to be a father?"
"Yes."
"Did Joanne know that?"
"Yes," Michael chuckled.
"Then what Joanne did was treacherous. So that is why you moved?"
"I moved several thousands of miles away after that. I wanted to live in some desolate place: a harsh climate where I would have to stand on my own and focus on the bare elements of survival and not my constant torment. I moved to the most expansive desert in my world: The Sahara."
"That is the flag above your bed?"
"No, it's the country Algeria, which only covers a small portion of the Sahara. I lived in a Saharan outpost called El Golea. It was amazing. I had never seen so much beauty before, and it was a desert! After a couple of years, I decided to return to Boston and resume my old job in Boston--" Michael cut himself off when he noticed Nabooru leaning on him, barely conscious. "Yesterday you were pleading for me to open up to you, now when I finally begin revealing elements of my past, you are bored out of your skull."
"I only needed to hear the first part to understand why I craved you so much. Now, it is your turn to get me to open up."
Michael smiled. "Do not forget my warnings yesterday."
"Forget yesterday. Focus on tonight." Nabooru instructed. Michael happily obliged.
Back to present (Joanne and Malon)
"Okay, so what exactly did Michael tell you in regard to where the book was?" Joanne asked standing up beside the bookshelves, with her gaze intently focused on Malon, who was sitting down on the couch.
Malon answered very slowly. "He said that retrieving the book would require plundering a forgotten city."
"And those were his exact words?"
Malon looked up for a few seconds. "Actually, I think it was a city buried beneath nearly two thousand years, but that didn't make so much sense."
"It makes a difference," Joanne pointed out.
"So what does that mean?" asked Malon.
"No one from Hyrule would be able to get it unless Michael told them specifically what his clue meant. There is a country called Italy which is very rich in history. There are ruins all over the country that date back to well over two thousand years ago. About two thousand years ago, there was a very powerful empire centered in Italy. The Roman Empire was the most powerful in the world for many centuries. One particularly wealthy city was actually a port town called Pompeii. Over 1900 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption buried the town in pyroclastic sediment, which is volcanic rock. For nearly two millennia, that town was practically forgotten, but in the last few decades, part of the town has been excavated, and the pyroclastic sediment preserved it really well.
Confusion twisted Malon's face. "Obviously, only people from your world could possibly understand this, right?"
"Yeah. I doubt that Hylians study the Roman Empire in school."
"But why would he give Link and me a clue that we couldn't understand?"
"That's simple. He didn't want it to be found by you guys."
"But why would he even give us a hint, let alone a legitimate one, if he didn't want us to find the book in the first place?"
"Well, I think it was more of a joke. I doubt he planned on dying. I think he just wanted to see you guys try to figure out something that couldn't possibly have understood."
"I guess," Malon solemnly accepted. "So how did you figure out that he was talking about Pompeii in that hint?"
"That's simple. When Link was here this morning telling me about Michael's death at his hands, I found myself studied Michael's book collection. Most the books there were brought from Boston. I noticed that one of them was called Pompeii." Joanne kneeled down and pulled a black hardbound book. On the spine read the title, and the name Robert Harris. Joanne continued. "This is a contemporary fiction novel. I read reviews for it when it first came out. It was a murder mystery set back in the area of Pompeii at the time of the catastrophic eruption. When I saw the title, I immediately thought back to the hint Link relayed to me, and after he left, I pulled the book to see if this held an answer." Joanne handed Malon the book. "Open it, and read what's hand written on the inside cover aloud to me."
Malon accepted the book dubiously. Under Joanne's sturdy supervision, she slowly opened the cover. She squinted and held the book close, as deciphering the sloppy cursive writing was a feasible, but not too simple task. "Dear reader," the farm girl began, "If you expecting to read this novel of suspense by Robert Harris, then you may as well close this book now, as I tore out the original novel. Trust me: the novel was mediocre at best. What lies ahead on the following pages is a work of nonfiction. It is my story. Be warned that the following pages are filled with pain, sin, and failure. It is my story." Malon looked up at Joanne in disbelief. The red hed gaped at the elder blonde.
"I haven't read it yet," muttered Joanne. "Under any other circumstance, I would not read it. I lived this story with Michael, at least most of it, and I understand what happened pretty well. I have no wish to go back and relive it via Michael's words, and I highly doubt that he would want me, a woman he almost certainly considers to be villainous, to see his personal account." Joanne paused. Welling water in her eyes conquered the dead look of exhaustion from a night without sleep. It was clear that she was fighting tears. "However, because Michael is no longer alive, and my quest to find him ended up in vain, I am willing to read the book. I don't really care what his words say, as I don't need to hear his perspective, but I need his words so that I might hear his voice one last time." Joanne gently seized the open book from Malon's trembling hands. The middle aged blonde positioned her fingers to turn the page…
"Stop!" squeaked Malon. Joanne stopped and looked up at the shaking mature red haired teenager. A few tears released themselves from her eyes. "You should reconsider reading that book any farther." Malon's voice was mellow and shaken.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Because Michael is not dead," Malon choked out.