Hyrule Field is big. Huge. Titanic, in fact. Usually, my vision was obscured by a forest's worth of trees. But this field grew very little but monsters. The rain didn't break until mid-afternoon, when it finally decided that if we were going to ignore it, it might as well just go take a nap instead. Instead, the sun played with shadows, showing its dazzling array of effects. I was impressed.
Link had a story for every stone and hill. Here is where Epona tripped and he was ejected into a river. There is where he fell his first poe. I didn't mind that he didn't stop talking for hours. I was overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the place I was walking in.
"I am sorry to ramble like this," laughed Link after a while," but I have never had so attentive an audience."
"Does Princess Zelda not listen to your stories?" I asked. It was a loaded question which I expected him to dodge, but he took the hit.
"No. No, she is usually busy with something. As am I," he said. "Ah! There is Lon Lon Ranch now." Link pointed to a walled enclosure about 5 miles away. He scanned the remaining distance, eying me as I slung my bag over my other shoulder.
"Hm. Let's…stop here for the night," he said finally. I was a bit peeved at this because I did not know his intent. If he thought that I was another delicate female, he had something coming for him; I could split an arrow in a target while riding a horse, I could beat my father at swordsmanship, and, as I had just learned, fate had taken a special interest in me. Just to let off some steam, I gathered branches and slammed together a fire.
And so, evening passed into night in silence. When I finally went to sleep, my dream was different then normal, though it slipped through the cracks in my memory as soon as I awoke. I dreamed of wind, of fire, of water, and of endless plains. A women dressed in yellow weaved in and out of my unconsciousness, and when I awoke in the morning, I could feel her name on the tip of my tongue, though it was lost to my memory.
The gray dawn found us eating a small breakfast under the tree. Link watched me consume an apple with relish, having only bread and jam himself. When I finally finished it, I fished out another and threw it to him with a laugh. I found it strange that the hero of so many lands was jealous of my food. But perhaps tales exaggerate truth until the protagonists can break trees with their little fingers, or walk on water. As we were packing up, I wondered if I would ever have tales made about me. Not that I would want it, I thought with a frown, I just want to live my life for myself. Of course, Link was watching my face with interest, which I realized when I looked up.
"Is something amiss?" I asked. Link laughed and said nothing. It was eerie, but he seemed to have some ability to guess what I was thinking. Perhaps my face is too readable.
As we reached the walls of the ranch, I began to notice a purple cloud trailing the edges of my eyes. It bothered me, but I said nothing. I suppose I was still angry from the night before, but I also have too much pride to ask for help. What could he do anyway? Give me purple fog eye drops? The closer we got to the ranch, the worse the fog got, until we entered the ranch and everything was tinged amethyst.
A high pitched scream suddenly issued from a window to our left. A girl with red, elbow length hair ran from the door to the house and jumped into Link's arms.
"I haven't seen you in years!" she cried through her cascade of hair. His grin seemed somewhat awkward to me, but she didn't seem to notice; she pulled off her apron and flung it in the door in an attempt to become more attractive.
"Malon, I don't believe that you have met Helen. Helen, Malon." Link said. We shook hands and her palms were as rough as sandpaper. As Link put on hand on Malon's back to guide her forward, I looked at my own. You haven't done much physical labor outside of gardening, sneered my brain. Oh leave her alone. She has enough scars on the rest of her body to make up for it, said my heart. It was true; I had more sword scars then a practice dummy. Not physical ones honey, it replied.
Malon talked faster then an express train; I only caught the words "faerie boy" and "adventure" but even those were hard to find. Perhaps it was the heaviness of the air which made me tired. When I had walked pass the house, it had felt as though someone had dropped a lead noose over my head. I could neither breathe nor hear nor see. I think you should tell Link now, said my heart. I agreed
As we walked passed the iron rails of the paddocks, some of the horses sniffed me through the bars. I assumed it was because they had never seen me before, but one never knows with horses. Sometimes they can read a person better than someone could know themselves.
Malon's rapid-fire ranting suddenly halted as a copper colored horse halted a few feet away. It pawed the ground nervously and dust rose around its hooves, tossing its head agitatedly. I stepped forward slowly, letting her see my every movement, not caring that the conversation behind me had ceased to exist. The horse was skittery, and backed away one step. I froze waiting for it to accept me. After thirty seconds of careful observation, the horse casually closed the distance between us, and nuzzled the top of my head. Laughing softly, I plunged my hands deep into her snow white mane, and rested my head under her nose as she snuffled the hair on the top of my head. The incredulous silence was ruptured when Link finally spoke.
"Helen?" he said finally.
"Mhm?" The horse snorted and licked my nose as the girl behind me squealed. Link put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me until I faced him.
"Do you know Epona?" My face went blank with astonishment. Link's horse was famous for being completely aloof. She often spent most of her time at the ranch, but on especially clear days, you could hear the faint wail of an ocarina and the trail of dust the horse left behind as she galloped to the summons.
"She seems to like you," he said. I smiled as she started to chew on the end of my braid. Link came up beside me and scratched Epona's nose thoughtfully.
"Is something wrong?" Link asked after a pause. Epona bumped my head with her nose until I was looking into his eyes. He searched my face, flames growing behind his eyes as he realized what I wasn't saying.
"Tell me what's wrong," he hissed through clenched teeth.
I took a breath to steady my nerves from the fit he was going to throw when he found out what I had been hiding, but I realized that I no longer felt strange. My vision had been completely repaired and the weight of my body was gone. I grinned momentarily, and then looked into Link's face. He was frozen in a look of pure anger, everything around him slowed to a standstill. I backed up a few steps, my mind disbelieving.
"What?" I said quizzically. The silence lay thickly over the paddock. I got no response.
"Link?" He stood inertly. Something moved in the corner of my eye.
"Who's there?" I called. The silence answered me back. A horse was suspended in midair over a jump, the clouds hanging, precariously it seemed, in a standstill over my head. I was shivering nervously when a sharp point pressed against my cheek. With a yelp, I leaped back, causing the frozen arrow to scrape my cheek. Wiping away the trickle of blood, I looked at the arrow wonderingly.
Another movement snatched my attention, and I immediately cocked an arrow. A black shadow darted across the field. Even though everything around was moving in another time, it moved with surprising grace and speed. Pulling the string of my bow taught, I let an arrow fly into the heart of the shadow. A piercing scream ensued from within the creature, but it did not seem to be injured. It glided quickly across the ground, aimed straight at me. Right before it would have hit me, it ran through Link and disappeared with a black hiss. It seemed the ranch gave a satisfied sigh before everything returned to normal.
The arrow that had grazed my cheek continued its path, and let out a thwack as it sunk into the earth beside me. A wide eyed Link trailed off in mid-chastisement as he turned is gaze to the arrow, right in time for a drop of blood from my scrape to drip on the ground. He traced the line in my cheek, glaring at me with such intensity that it felt like I would set aflame if I didn't avert my eyes.
"We are leaving. Now!" he said, his voice laced with fury. He vaulted onto Epona without touching the stirrups and kicked her into a gallop. Before I knew it, he had cleared a wall and had left me alone. Quietly, Malon pressed the reins to a grey stallion into my hand.
"Follow him before he gets too angry," she said gently. I quickly mounted the horse and jumped the wall. I should have been surprised to have cleared a twenty foot wall, but all emotion was crushed by molten fury.
"Take good care of my faerie boy," murmured Malon after I had left. "He needs you more then you know."
For the love of god, review! Just tell me its crap and I will love you forever