Link was angry. No angry is not a good word. Livid. His hands gripped Epona's reins until she flattened her ears back in annoyance, stretching her neck to try to get more slack.
My gray peered back at me with the whites of her eyes.
"I know," I sighed, scratching its forelock gently. "I know." I looked forward and found that Link was glaring at me with clouded eyes. When our eyes met, it was as though I had wounded him with an arrow and he dropped the reins in shock. With a groan, Link buried his head into his hands.
Epona continued walking good-naturedly, but not before turning to direct my horse to catch up. I muffled a surprised yelp as it shot from a meander to a streaming gallop, careening to a walk right next to Epona. The horses sniffed each other curiously.
Our horses had gotten so close that our stirrups had gotten tied together. Dropping my reins, I put one hand on the back of Link's saddle, praying that one of the two wouldn't break into anything faster then what we were currently doing, and slid down the saddle to contemplate the knot.
Through his fingers, Link saw me slide down and grasped me by the waist before I was able to finger the knot. I shrieked as he somehow managed to get my left leg over onto the right side of the horse; I was sitting on the saddle like a couch, facing him. I could feel tears well behind my eyes, though I could not explain why they were there. Pride kept them from falling
"Why?" he asked simply. I was quiet though my blood was screaming answers and excuses. Or maybe just a mixture of the two. Link captured my hands in his and squeezed gently, as if he didn't believe I was there.
"You can trust me," Link said gravely.
"I... I do trust you." I tried to pull away from his hands, but he added pressure.
"Link, I trust you. You have helped me through things I never knew I faced, but I still feel as though I don't know you." He gave me a pained look, his eyes growing a deeper blue until they looked black.
"Who are you really? Who is your mother? What would you want to do if you weren't what you are? Did you ever break a limb when you were younger? Have you ever been in l-?" I stuffed the last question back in my mouth before I went too far
Link was silent, though the blue of his eyes cleared a bit.
"I don't really know the answers to any of those questions," he said, his voice wavering, "but, I almost lost you. It will kill me if you died for something I could prevent." He caught my gaze, the sheer intensity of his stare told me that he was telling me the truth. My mouth moved, but no words were forming
"I... I can't…Um, you don't-" His face hardened. The thing I was trying to say wasn't coming out right, and the look on his face just made it worse. "I… You don't…um...understa-"
"No" he interrupted. "I understand." He sighed. Somehow, my stirrup slithered out of the knot, and Link took advantage of the opportunity to urge Epona to a fast canter toward the entrance to the desert. My horse turned his head and snorted at me, from then on refusing to listen to what I wanted it to do.
"How does everything I do end up insulting someone?" I asked it. The horse snapped me in the back with its tail.
Link doesn't understand, I lamented to myself, rubbing the sore spot on my back, we have both been independent for so long that we cannot trust another with our weaknesses. He won't even give me a chance to explain myself! I huffed in frustration when something caught my eye. Link rolled his shoulders and dismounted suddenly.
"We lead our horses on foot from here," he said without turning around. Epona bucked slightly in his hand, but he jerked hard on the reins and she stopped with a humanlike whimper. He glared at her and led her up the bridge. My horse bobbed his head as I snapped a lead rein on under her chin, following Link stoically.
"He's just angry," I justified to the horse quietly enough for only him to hear. It was then that the edge of a cliff appeared suddenly below my feet.
Wobbling, I felt my body shift forward, and the ground below me crumbled. I managed to grab on to a piece of rock, and watched the rubble fall into the rushing water below me. I looked up wildly at Link
"Help!" He looked at me stoically. I started to lift myself up alone, when a boot crushed my fingers.
"Fall," Link laughed. He lifted his boot up and my fingers slipped off the ledge.
"No!" I cried, but the wind snatched away my words. I plunged toward the water facing the sky, able to watch Link regard me with a malicious smile as I fell. Rocks were descending all around me, skipping off my skin as they descended toward the water.
The wind roared around me, grasping my braid and unraveling it. I tried to breathe, but the air pushed by with such force that I couldn't get a grasp on it. Link's smirking face turned stunned and he snatched helplessly at the air, as if to pull me up by invisible strings.
Arrows scattered everywhere, my sword fell beside me. Wind again pushed the breath from my lungs, and by accident, my hand hit the sword. My palm started bleeding heavily, but the thought of not having a weapon pushed me to catch it. Just as my sword clicked into its sheath, I hit the river with a sickening smack, water filling my mouth, ears, eyes, and was swept away like dirt under a mat.
I swam with all my might toward the surface, my lungs burning for lack of air, limbs screaming with pain; I just prayed I hadn't broken anything important. With a gasp my head bobbed above the surface for a moment, allowing me a small breath of oxygen. With black edging at the sides of my vision, I tried to swim to shore but pain spread like fire over my entire body. Allowing my body to be pushed by the current, I felt a dark shadow pass over the sun. Then darkness and endless laughter.
Dramatic Pause... DUM DUM DUM! Sorry. The author likes to make bad jokes.
A wave of pain left me reeling as I heaved my body from the water. Like a fish on land, I couldn't breathe right. Rocking back and forth like a child, I waited until I could take a full breath. I didn't try to stand, I was nauseous already, and it wasn't from the fall. What in hell just happened? I could recall only darkness for the moment.
"Ughh," I groaned. Everything hurt. Including your heart came an unbidden thought. I squashed it before I had to think about it. Right now, I was only concerned for survival.
A quick glance around the lake didn't help; only crumbling ruins, a building, and a solitary tree changed the drabness of the lake. A sign near the building said it was the home of a mad scientist. I told you he was crazy! cried my brain in triumph. You might not want to mix with any more crazies, just in case. My heart said nothing. A lone tree was my only option; it was dead, but the sun beat down on me fiercely and I desperately wanted to live. Avoiding sun stroke was within my best interests.
Groaning, I slowly eased to my feet. With a hiss, I lowered my right arm to my side. Blood flowed from a deep gash on my palm. I ripped the bottom part of my tunic and wrapped it around it to stop the worst of the flow but the blood just continued. When something tickled my cheek, I brushed it away, just to find that blood was dripping from and a small cut on my nose. With a sigh, I lurched forward and stepped cautiously over the wooden bridge, leaving a gleaming trail of liquid behind me. As I limped along, I was frustrated to find my ankle was sprained. With my good arm, I dragged myself toward the tree.
Everything seemed so completely hopeless. He asks me to trust him and then he pushed me over a cliff. What was I thinking? I had to get home, but I couldn't walk with gashes and a sprained ankle all the way to the forest. Now I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. Great. Just wonderful. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks, mixing with the blood sending red rivers flowing onto the bridge and coloring the water. At least I was alive, which was a miracle.
Slowly rotating each part of my body, I checked for broken bones. Strangely, there were none. With the velocity that I was traveling at, I should have broken something, but I was only bruised, cut, and sprained. My legs were covered in tiny nicks from the rocks, but they would heal soon enough.
Minutes dragged along under the tree. With the help of the sword, I was able to cut off enough of my tunic to stem the flow from my hand for a while, but I knew infection would set in if I didn't clean it soon. I must have sat there for hours, because before I knew it, the sun was behind the mountains. With no food, no shelter, and no clean water around, this was a lousy place to be lost in. Mercifully, the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore finally put the throbbing pain away and I succumbed to sleep.
My dream was on full blast when I awoke suddenly to a sharp poke on the head. The grey horse snorted gently on my cheek and pushed at my head.
"Uff...all right, I'm awake." Groggily, I reached out for his reins and pulled myself up. Even though my body throbbed rhythmically, nothing was seriously painful. With only three tries I managed to vault myself onto the saddle, and turn the horse in the general direction of north. (Moss on the north side of a tree?) Ok, so in reality I had no idea where I was going, but somewhere was better than no where. Luckily, my horse's saddle bags had some old bread in them, so I managed to collect enough food to sustain me for a while. For some reason, the horse seemed to know where he was going, so I just sat back and enjoyed the view. Early autumn was upon the world already, and the trees were beginning to respond. Leaves rustled softly in the trees, outlined in golds, pinks, yellow, oranges, and crimsons. A solitary leaf fluttered off the tree and floated gently on the surface of the lake. Walls soon blocked my vision, and I returned to grimly staring between my horses's bobbing ears.
My legs started to ache by the time we reached the walls of the ranch, and I was forced to dismount. The horse tossed his head when ever I tried to attach the lead rope I had found in his pack, so I left him alone. Nibbling on some old bread hungrily, I couldn't help thinking that I should go to Hyrule Town. The flickering fires called with warmth and shelter. The path beckoned with home. I don't want to stay here, but I don't think I can make it home before nightfall.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked the horse, who was munching on some longer prairie grasses nearby. He snorted and tossed his head.
"You don't seem to like it there, do you? It's just as well. I should return you and go home." Just as I was turning the horse, the clouds broke, sending torrential rain down upon the whole meadow. The storm must have pulled up suddenly, because when I left the lake, the sun was still barely visible from above the lines of mountains.
Wind screamed down, whipping around us and leaving us reeling. Between the crash of thunder and the din of the storm, it almost seemed as though an ocarina song was weaved into the wind, but the wind was probably deceiving me, for who would be out here willingly? The only way to escape the storm was to enter the ranch or the town. My heart pulled toward the town; the ranch was too dangerous if I wanted to stay away from Link and the town was much more interesting. Quickly mounting the horse, I urged him to a low canter, and headed toward the town.
The town bridge sported no guards; neither did the plaza. Everyone seemed to have retreated in the face of the storm. The rattling of a sign turned my attention to a cozy looking inn and I was right. As soon as I handed my horse to the awestruck stable boy, and opened the door to the inn I could feel the comfort radiating out from the room.
It was nothing special, but it seemed so homey. A fire crackled in a stone fireplace at one end of the room. A hodge podge of chairs and tables were strategically placed around the room with various table settings arranged in front of the chairs. The throng created a din of noise; flowing around the room and banishing shadows from every corner. The people all had burnt yellow hair and bright colored clothes; flashes of viridian and cerulean came from everywhere. No one turned to stare at me, but I still felt out of place with my green hair and forest colored garb, not to mention my limp and bruises.
"Hey missy? Whatcha doin just standin at the door? Come in! Come in!" the innkeeper cried cheerfully from the bar. I turned to see a plump woman dressed in ochre yellow wave at me.
"What cannai do fer you?" she said brightly. Suddenly, I felt self-conscious about my eastern accent and tried to copy hers. Unfortunately, no words came out.
"She's a strange one I tell ya. Not sayn a word!" she muttered to the person standing next to her. She gestured to the back and spoke slow and loud "Do ya need a room?"
"Oh, oh yes! Yes, I do." I rushed.
"Ah, an easterner! Not a wonda ya so shy. Follow me lass!" With this, she weaved deftly through the crowd toward a darker corner of the inn. Smoke hung lazily in the air, masking any people sitting back here. People sat back here, chatting merrily, even though I couldn't see them that well in the haze. The only person who sat alone was hidden by a black cloak, soaked (like me) from the rain. The hood turned my way when the innkeeper rushed by, his eyes glowing from reflected light. I slowed, my body feeling very heavy and cold. Suddenly, the innkeeper thrust a hand to my forehead. "Aai! Lass, ya be gettin sick now! Ya must be sleepin or ya willn be dead asa doornail 'fore thn week is out!" She gestured to a door in a dim hallway.
" 'ere we are love. Sleep tightly now!" She flashed a smile before flitting back through the tables.
The room was as mismatched as the tables, but it was cozy all the same. I carefully untied my sword from my leather belt and propped it up in the corner. With a sudden flash of panic, I jangled my pockets to find just enough change for one night. Nothing seemed as good as a nice feather bed, so I flopped into bed and fell asleep immediately.
I have fans! cries happily Well, anyway, any constructive critisims that you have would be more then appreciated, or any hate rants as well.
What the heck made Link push Helen? Has the author gone mad? No one may ever know... until a later chapter ;)