Chapter 12: Articulation
The sound of construction rang around castle town square as Zelda strolled in-between plots. Scanning around once more, she mentally checked off who was to be where over the coming days as she gradually made her way towards the station. From the corner of her eye popped a bright white hat and apron. Attached to them was Ms Pita, inspecting a giant wooden stand half built besides the station.
The small woman shouted orders in a voice better fitting the massive lumberjacks dashing around her, the anxiety on the men's faces bringing a pause to Zelda's step. She couldn't blame her though, the Wind Festival always was one of the biggest events for all the vendors in New Hyrule, and murmurs around town suggested the baking couple had something especially grand planned for this year. Guesses had been rampant, an ornate cake reaching to the heavens? A new delicious pastry? Someone had even suggested a recreation of the town made of baked goods. While she had admittedly tried her own hand at getting the couple to let some information slip, they'd proved to have learned from last year and were now tighter lipped than a puppy with stolen food. Not that it'd stop her trying.
Ms Pita seemed to have noticed her, sending a soft smile and friendly wave her way as if the strict business woman had never existed. She raised her hand in a courteous wave back, quickly continuing her stroll as Ms Pita jumped straight back to directing the poor men. She made a quick note of the stands location, no doubt useful for getting there early once the festival started.
Reaching the station, the princess turned towards the bustling town. She flipped through the checklist in her mind. That had been every stand now, both in and out of the town, and while there were a couple of minor things left to organise, everything seemed to be running smoothly. She stretched, the ache of work evaporating from her muscles.
"You seem to be having fun, Princess." A gruff, gravelly voice said from above her. Craning her neck up, a silhouette thicker than a tree formed above her.
"Alfonzo!" her energy returned in a second as she dashed up the stairs.
As she reached the peak, a completely different atmosphere covered the area. Instead of the smothering bustle of preparations, a calm breeze blew around her. Glancing about she clocked the colossal man, now seated on the station wall, facing his rustic wooden train as he waited for her. But her gaze continued for a second longer, running over the nostalgic sight of the train. Towards the back a couple of lumberjacks were heaving logs off the freight car. But as she looked, a thought surfaced in her mind, something her gut wanted to be there but she couldn't find. Popping filled the air, focusing her attention to the water tower. The long pipe hung low from the tower, feeding into the engine so it could quench its thirst.
"You're leaving already?" she straightened her back, attempting to hide the disappointment in her tone. Finally reaching Alfonzo, but keeping her gaze focused on the train, she continued, "Are you not setting up your stand? Don't tell me you don't have a plot this year?"
Alfonzo laughed, gesturing to his side for her to take a seat. As she hopped onto the wall, he spoke, "There's no need! Made a deal with the Whittleton chief," he nodded to the men slinging the giant logs off the train, "I give them cheap transport and they build us a top stand in a prime spot free of charge." His hearty laugh boomed around the station, and as the men struggled to ferry the wood up the station, it was clear who'd gotten the better deal.
"Us? Does that mean Link will be joining you this year?" She hoped Alfonzo didn't notice the eagerness in her voice. Truthfully she couldn't recall if Link had made an appearance in previous years, but the spark in her chest made it clear how she felt about the possibility.
Alfonzo sighed, scratching his head, "That is an excellent question, he's barely left the workshop for the last week now, I'm not even sure he knows how long he has left." Worry panged in her chest. He'd been working on it all week? It explained why she hadn't seen him. Still, that didn't reassure her in the least. The man turned to her, his gaze making it clear he'd picked up on how she felt.
"Tell you what, I'm done for the day, want to ask him yourself?"
The looming metal doors of Alfonzo's workshop were quite a sight. Zelda guessed they were at least thrice her height, and probably heavy enough to crush a Bulbos. Despite this, Alfonzo showed no sign of strain as he casually pushed one open for her before wandering back to his train.
"He'll be in a room right at the back, near the big red wheels, you can't miss it." He said as he slung a bag over his shoulder, catching her confused gaze, "just going on some deliveries, let Link know I'm back please?"
She nodded as the engineer strode off the station, leaving her alone with the dark workshop. Stealing herself, she took a step in.
The warm intensity of the suns gaze vanished from her back, replaced by the soothing coolness of indoor shade. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, the only light emanating from a few torches placed evenly about the walls. Glancing around, the workshop certainly looked the part. A large pit cut through the centre, dirty tracks laying at the base. Around the edges of the pit, workbenches covered most of the space, train parts and bolts scattered across them without order as far as she could tell. As she walked, the tap of her feet echoed around the oddly silent room.
She spotted the wheel, as tall as her and propped up against the far wall, it's bright red standing out in the dim room. She made her way over, carefully shifting around a mess of what she could only assume were incomplete train parts. A small doorway, empty save its stone boarder, made itself known as she approached and she let out a cry.
"Link? Are you there?"
Silence hung in the air and the concern was back in her chest. Reaching the room, she stepped in before the thought crossed her mind.
It was empty. Well that wasn't exactly true. Link wasn't there, but inside lay a great platform. Roughly half the size of the room, but she guessed smaller than the door way, the wooden platform rested in the centre. In some ways it seemed wrong to be snooping around, but it didn't take long for her curiosity to overwhelm her, and she tiptoed in. Spread across the platform were tiny models, buildings, hills and fields. As she studied it, thoughts nagged the back of her mind, as if it was somehow familiar. Then, she spotted a large grey tower nestled in the corner of the board. In fact, that would be about where the Tower of Spirits should be. So that would make the square near it Castle Town, and the cluster of houses closer to her Aboda village. It clicked, this was clearly a small, model map of the Forest Realm. It lacked some detail, clearly unfinished, but she could see the crafting that had gone into it. This was clearly something Link had been working on, but why? For the festival? It seemed odd, she'd expected something more mechanical, this seemed distinctly un-Link like.
As she rounded the platform, a light caught her eye, angled towards the desk. Approaching it, what when facing away from her had seemed dim now revealed itself as a bright white light, highlighting something half built that sat in the middle of the desk.
Reaching the desk, the light shone off the small metal parts. Odd as it seemed, it was a collection of tiny wheels, three palm sized and two about half that. They were perfectly lined up, a couple of equally small metal bars placed on top. If she looked closely, it seemed one connected the wheels, while the other formed an incomplete triangle with the first.
"Zelda?"
She spun. Link was stood in the doorway, details barely visible in the poor light. She'd been caught.
"Hey, Alfonzo says hi too. I see you've been busy." She said. But Link tilted his head, brow furrowed, so she gestured around the room and continued, "You must have been building this for ages."
Link sparked to life, catching her intent, and rubbed the back of his head as he walked to her side, "I mean it took me a while I guess, you have no idea how hard it was to make the tower, but it's been fun."
"And these?" She gestured to the desk, "They look like train wheels. Why're they so small?"
Link let out a small chuckle, "I'm clearly doing something right if you can tell then." He reached over the desk, pulling out a small lump of metal. He held it in front of the light, and the lump turned into a small metal train. It was plain, lacking the details of a fully finished model, but a white '1' was painted on the cabin side.
"It's going to be a model, well I'm making a couple actually, but the fun part is I've found a way to make them move by themselves." He continued, reaching over again, but this time pulling out a hastily put together wooden chest. Opening it revealed a small lump of yellow jelly inside.
"Is that from a Chuchu?
Link nodded so vigorously she thought his head would fall off. "Basically, you know how yellow ones always zapped me if I tried to stab them? Well I managed to chop off some chunks from a few outside the village." Her face must have shown her alarm as he added, "Don't worry I used my boomerang."
She rolled her eyes, "So that's how you're running them? Can I see?"
Link leapt up, clasping his hands up to his mouth. His eyes wandered, the thoughts in his head shining through them as he tapped his hands to his chin. "Right, yes. I just… hold this please," he dropped the train into her palm, dashing off before she could reply.
Barely a moment passed when Link flew back into the room, carrying a small wooden board about as big as his torso. As he placed it down, she noticed small tracks nailed into it, forming a small oval.
"It isn't much," he said as he placed the box of Chuchu jelly next to the tracks, "but this is the practice track I made. Basically you can use the electricity from the jelly with these," he picked up some wires attached to the track and stuck them into the jelly. Turning to her, a goofily excited grin on his face, he continued. "Then it will… well put that on and you'll see."
She eyed him sceptically, she'd seen these jellies zap him first hand. Now it wasn't that she thought he'd intentionally do anything to hurt her, and experience showed that if anything he was the more careful of the two of them, it was more that he had more of a trial and error method of solving problems, and at best this was clearly still in the trial stage. But looking into his eyes, an animated shine looked back at her. She placed the train down.
An energetic whir sounded around them and the train shot off. A small gasp escaped her. It ran round the loop. Again. Thrice. It kept going, moving just like the train she'd taken that very day. She continued to stare at it.
"That's amazing" she muttered under her breath.
"Thanks" Link spoke quietly and she spun to face him. She practically melted as she looked at him, a giddy grin on his face as he played with his hands, eyes stuck on the train, the hint of delight in his voice, "It…it took a while to get working. I was thinking we could use them to test what we'd use on actual trains; check how they work before building the real thing."
So that explained it then. She tilted her head, getting the boy to look at her, "Well I'm certainly impressed; I can't wait to see the finished thing at the festival."
Link froze and the moment shattered. The train came to a stop on the tracks and Link picked it up, turning it in his hands as if hoping the small item would bring some level of comfort. The air chilled around them, its weight pressing on her skin as he spoke.
"I guess Alfonzo told you about that then?"
Tenseness stretched in his voice. She hummed, quietly, fearful of scaring him off. Taking a second to breathe, he continued.
"Yeah, it's…well it was just an idea I had. I'm…" His voice ran away, words evaporating into the air.
He was clearly troubled, the stress twisting his face in pain. Her stomach emptied, then welled up with something she wasn't sure how to place. It was a desire, one that wanted to rid him of that look and whatever caused it. Her hand landed on his shoulder, gently caressing it as all she could think to do. He turned at her touch and she was looking deep into his eyes, themselves welling with uncertainty. She flashed him a small smile.
"You're worried about presenting it?"
Finally, Link smiled back. It was sullen, but he was trying, and that's all she could ask for. Fully turning to face her now, she pulled her arm back as he carefully placed the train onto the desk.
"Kind of… well also not… I mean I'm not worried about the model, it's more…me." He squeaked out the last part, as if saying it out loud for the first time.
"You? What's there to worry about you?"
"I… don't really know what to do while I'm up there. Seeing everyone, the looks on their faces as they watch everything I do, listen to everything I say. It's just…every time I have to present something I worry about messing up and end up panicking and the words mix up in my head and it gets worse and it's all just…exhausting."
"I can understand that."
The words had left her mouth before she'd thought of them. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she should have said it, wasn't sure what he needed. But he looked like his legs would give up at any moment, like he needed comfort, so it's what she said.
Link jumped, eyebrows raised and she knew her words had helped.
"You can?" He asked, "But how? You're always meeting with people, doing ceremonies and things like that. It can't possibly bother you."
She propped her elbow into one palm, resting her hand against her chin as she mulled his words over. "Well sure, but I've been doing that since I was a little kid. I'm used to it now, but it used to spook me all the time."
He leaned towards her, his voice a little braver now but keeping its hushed tone. "Do you…do you have any advice?"
Her brow furrowed as answers flew around her head. "I mean get more experience, obviously, but that just comes with time." She studied him, carefully planning what to say next. "But for you, it's quite easy. I'd say the key is talking about it passionately, finding the point you love and explain that. People always respond well to it, regardless of how interested they actually are themselves."
Link's face brightened, the idea brining a new shine to him. But he paused, tilting his head once again, "But how do I do that?"
A laugh escaped her, and she had to take a second to recollect herself as Link grew in confusion. "I'm sorry, but you know you've basically been doing it this whole time with me right? Just draw on that."
He paused, face twisting in thought as he pieced what she meant together. "Oh…that seems really straight forward." Despite his words, the slightly muddled look stayed on his face. She couldn't help herself as she spoke again.
"Why don't we practice a bit, if you want? Run through everything with me now so we can pick out the best bits?"
Link sprung to life, gently nodding at the idea.
Later on, when Alfonzo finally returned after dark, he would find the two still eagerly chatting away, seemingly unbothered by the cold air that filled the workshop.
So thank you for the wait on this chapter. Unfortunately chapter planning has been a bit odd this week, fortunately it's resulted in this, the first chapter of the Wind Festival mini-arc. Obviously this means these coming chapters will be more closely linked than normal, so I'm looking forward to writing them!