Ch. XVII

The Ranch

Link opened his eyes to the dawn of a new day. Everything looked exactly the same as it did when he last traveled back in time. The carpenters' hammering echoed throughout the emptying main square, the postman jogged by, and a strange boy cautiously walked towards a mailbox, putting a letter in as he did so. Link hadn't spent a lot of time looking at the dawn of the first day before, but he realized that he had subconsciously begun to memorize every part of what happened. He almost longed for there to be something different, to have somebody who wasn't wound back like a clock every time he played the song, but he knew it was a wishful thought.

"I can't stop the cycle until Majora is defeated", he thought. Cracking his neck, Link stood straighter and walked purposely towards the Western gate. Tatl had told him that he needed to go to the Great Bay next, and that laid to the west, across the expansive Termina Field.

Link passed by the guard with no problems, but gazed at the wide field in front of him. It reminded him of Hyrule Field back home, but on a smaller scale. Even though Termina field was miles long, its Hylian counterpart dwarfed it by a huge margin. Seeing the field also reminded Link of the ranch that lay almost in the center of Hyrule. After drifting through his memories for a while, he asked Tatl a question.

"Tatl, this might sound like a strange question, but is there a ranch here in Termina?" Link's question caught Tatl off guard, who had also been drifting in her own thoughts.

"W-what? Oh, a ranch. Yea, there are a few ranches here, but the most important one is called Romani Ranch, which produces most of the livestock and food for the region. Why do you ask?" Link was slow to answer.

"I'm beginning to see a pattern here in Termina. Some of the people I've met… They look exactly like people that I've seen in Hyrule. Even you remind me of…" Link stopped before he could say Navi's name. He had developed a deep connection with her, and even after being through so much with Tatl, he still felt ashamed for… replacing her. He didn't want to admit it, but he felt just having Tatl being with him was like an insult to Navi's memory. Before the awkward silence filled the air too much, Link continued his train of thought.

"Never mind. I just feel like something weird is going on here. I was just thinking of a friend who lives in a ranch in Hyrule." After Link's thoughts trailed off, only silence was left between the two companions. Almost instinctively, they began to travel more south than they intended and came to the edge of the Woodfall woods.

Upon seeing the woods, Tatl spoke up.

"Hey Link, we're close to Romani Ranch here. If we continue down that path over there, then we should be there in less than half an hour." Link was surprised that Tatl had brought it up at all. He considered his choices. He had meant to get to the Great Bay during this cycle, but a small detour wouldn't hurt, right? With a nod of agreement, Link and Tatl trekked through the well-worn path. Deep furrows had been dug into the road, giving evidence of wagons passing by. Birds flew overhead, and soon the duo came to a roadblock. An enormous boulder was in the center of the road, and a large and muscled man was chipping at it with a pickaxe. At seeing the boy and his fairy, the very hairy man grunted a response to their questioning looks.

"Boulder fell yesterday. I've been hired to clear it up so Cremia can transport her milk to Clock Town before the Carnival of Time. You can climb over it if you like, but don't expect me to catch you if ya fall." The man's brusk attitude shocked Link, but he supposed that not everyone could be courteous or kind. With little difficulty, he climbed over the sizable boulder and landed on his feet on the other side.

A wide, open field opened in front of him, with cows milling about, eating grass, and drinking from troughs dug into the ground. On the other side of the pasture, Link could see a collection of houses with small figures going in and out of them. He trudged past the lazy cows and aimed for the largest farmhouse, curious to see what the people were like. He froze only a few dozen yards from the house when he saw a girl sitting on a stump. She had smooth red hair and wore a cream-colored dress with a blue hem and a small brooch holding a bright yellow scarf around her neck. Memories flooded into Link, and he felt himself being swept into the river of memories that seemed to come from so long ago.

"Fairy Boy, what do you think you're doing?", Malon laughed at Link. They had been playing with the Cuccos in the henhouse, and Link had grabbed a Cucco and bragged that he could land safely on the ground ten feet below with the help of a Cucco. Of course, he was just messing with Malon, but he was curious to see if he could make it. He had heard songs from a bard in a tavern once about a flying Cucco, but he hadn't known the validity of his claim. Chuckling, both at himself and his foolishness, Link went to set the wildly flapping Cucco down. He had just put the Cucco down when one of his feet slipped on the loose straw that was strewn along the floor. He wildly flailed his arms as he fell off the raised loft. His fall seemed to last much longer than it actually did, but when he landed, his breath was forced out of his lungs, leaving him breathless. Malon cried out

"Link!", rushed down the ladder and knelt on her knees next to him. She was beginning to panic when Link didn't say anything. Hearing Link heave in a massive breath a few seconds later alleviated many of her concerns. He pulled in the air that had been so forcefully taken from his lungs, and just laid there, hay in his hair and Malon next to him.

"Are you ok, Link?", she said worriedly. Link felt each part of his body and knew he would have some bruising, but no broken bones. The ridiculousness of what led him to this situation made Link laugh, which only made Malon worry more until she saw him sit up. She began to giggle, and soon both of them were laughing together, covered in Cucco feathers and hay. Link had never been so happy before, and he didn't want the moment to end.

"Link! Are you listening to me? Hello!?" The shrill voice of Tatl broke LInk from his thoughts and brought him back to the present.

"W-what? What did you say?" Tatl sighed and repeated herself.

"Are you ok, Link? We were almost to the farmhouse when you just stopped. Is something wrong?" Link slowly shook his head.

"No. I… I think I'm ok" he said unconvincingly. Before Tatl could argue with him, Link walked forward at a more brisk pace and walked straight towards the girl. Before he even came halfway, he heard a familiar neigh. To his left, in a small horse corral, stood Epona! Link ran towards her, but the girl let out a shouted warning

"Stop! Romani was told that the horse is dangerous! She won't let anyone ride her! Cremia barely managed to convince her into a corral!" The girl who looked exactly like Malon caught up with Link and looked him in the eyes. She even had Malon's eyes! Blue, the same color as Lake Hylia in the summer. Link struggled to find words in his throat as he gazed at her.

"M-Malon?" The girl who looked exactly like Malon blinked in confusion.

"Romani is my name. Who are you? You seem to patter around like a grasshopper when you walk. You even look like one, in your green clothes. Can Romani call you that?" The way that the girl spoke confused Link, but her appearance confused him infinitely more. Every last detail of the girl looked like the girl who he'd spent so much time with, had laughed with, and had admired so much. The only thing missing from her was the twinkle that he remembered in Malon's eyes, which this other girl lacked. Still taking in the girl who was Malon, yet not Malon at the same time, Link muttered an ok, even though he had no idea what Romani said. Tearing his eyes away from her, he looked back at Epona and called her name.

"Epona!", he called. She lifted her head from the feeding trough she had been eating from and neighed shrilly once more. He carefully walked forward and put a hand on her snout, which she nuzzled looking for a treat.

"Epona? That's her name?", Romani said, "Romani doesn't know why Epona is not biting you, it looks like she likes you." Link stroked his horse's smooth flank, and took his time answering Romani, his mind still whirling about the girl who looked exactly like his friend.

"Epona is my horse. I've had her for years, and we've been through a lot together. A while ago, I lost her, and I thought she was gone forever. It looks like she ended up here though." In a fit of inspiration, Link pulled out his ocarina and began to play the notes of Epona's Song that he had learned so long ago. The simple song filled the air with its almost melancholic tune, and Epona trotted even closer towards Link, her head poking out from above the gate. Once Link finished the song, he clipped the Ocarina of Time back to his belt. Tatl almost swore she could see tears in the corners of his eyes, but Link turned towards Romani before she could properly tell.

"So, were you named after the Ranch, or was the ranch named after you, Romani?" Link asked. Romani broke out of the trance that Epona's Song had seemed to put her in and answered Link dreamily.

"Oh, Romani was given the same name as the ranch. It was my father's ranch, you know. Now it's just Romani and Cremia." The strange way that Romani spoke, as if she were talking about another person instead of herself unnerved Link. Moments after Link's question, the door to the farmhouse opened, and a woman stepped out. She was an identical copy of Romani, except for the purple skirt and brown apron that she wore.

"Romani, who're you talkin' to?" She called out. Romani turned to the woman.

"This here is Grasshopper, and he's a foreigner! Romani has never seen him before, but he says the horse that we found belongs to him." She turned to Link and said

"This here is Cremia, Romani's older sister. She takes good care of the ranch." After the initial introductions, Link, Tatl, Cremia, and Romani were all talking and asking questions about their life at the ranch.

As the day waned, Romani invited Link into her house, where a late lunch was set. As Link gnawed on some bread and cheese, Romani happily chattered away, telling him story after story about her life at the ranch. Nearer to the end of the meal, Romani said something particularly interesting.

"They will be coming soon. TheyThey come at night, every year when the carnival approaches. They come in a bright, shining ball. A whole lot of Them come down, and They come to the barn to steal our cows." At hearing her younger sister talk about the mysterious "Them", Cremia frowned.

"Romani", she admonished, "You know well that there is no such thing as these… "Them" creatures. If anything, it's most likely that the cows just get stolen by thieves, or are killed by predators." Her admonishment was only half-hearted, as even she knew that the possibility of thieves coming every year to steal cows was very unlikely. After another moment of silence, Cremia spoke.

"Link, it'll be ok if you sleep here for the night if ya need somewhere to stay" Link was touched by Cremia's kindness, and even with the strangeness of seeing almost complete copies of a person who he was close to, he had grown fond of Romani's strange personality and Cremia's no-nonsense attitude.

"Thank you Cremia, I would really appreciate that.", Link replied.

Link sat on Epona, looking anxiously towards the stars in the sky, outdone by the looming moon sneering at him. Romani told him that They would come tonight, and he wasn't eager to face what seemed like a horde of monsters that came from the sky. He checked the quivers of arrows that Romani had gifted him for the event. It seemed like there were enough arrows to outfit an entire town militia! He hoped he wouldn't have to use them all. Romani stood beside him, bow in hand. She scanned the sky vigilantly, and she seemed to be counting under her breath.

"60, 59… 33, 32,...12, 11… 4, 3, 2,1. They should be here at any second no-" Before Romani finished her sentence, a bright ball of light appeared over the ranch and sped towards the barn where the cows were kept. It stopped abruptly, only a few hundred feet away from the structure, and it flared with light. Other flashes of light appeared across the ranch, and an apparition faded to life within each one. They all wore purple hoods and had glowing eyes. They floated just above the ground, and in each of their hands was clutched a lantern glowing a sickly yellow color, the same as their eyes. Before Romani could prompt Link to go, he had already kicked Epona into a gallop and was riding across the field.

Link pulled an arrow from a quiver and fired it at one of the floating creatures. It missed by a wide margin, and Link cursed himself for not practicing earlier. He drew and aimed another arrow, Epona still galloping, and he fired once more. With a fizzle of energy the creature dissolved into nothing, and Link felt a thrill of excitement. He fired arrow after arrow into the crowd of creatures, and creature after creature fell and vanished into nothing. Many appeared to take the fallen's place. He ran in a tight circle around the barn, shooting any of the mysterious figures before they could get close. His many hours under the supervision of Gerudo archery trainers had paid off, and Link was a master at mounted archery. Each of the purple-hooded figures moved slowly and were easy targets. Still, with the sheer number of them, Link struggled. Romani fired arrows at the same time but did not have the same precision or accuracy as Link, so he often needed to finish off a wounded enemy. Still, her help did ease some of Link's tension, and he kept on firing arrow after arrow. There was a close time when Epona was spooked by one of the hooded creatures who flashed to life right in front of her. Link had to cling to her saddle tightly in order to not fall.

Soon, a tinge of red touched the edge of the sky, and the aliens moved even more urgently. Link just barely managed to kill Them off before they could reach the barn, and he and Romani had their backs to the front of the barn. In one final push to get to the barn, They flew as fast as Link could run, but before the closest one could reach Link, the sun peeked over the horizon. The battle before the sunrise had been silent, save for the twanging of bows and the fizzling of the dead monsters, but as the sun rose, a collective shriek rent itself from each creature, and they simultaneously withered and fizzled into nothingness. Tired and relieved, Link and Romani stumbled into the farmhouse and quickly fell asleep.

"Link… Why do you have to go?" The pain in Malons eyes was almost too much for Link to bear. He had promised himself that he would have to do this, that he must do this, but saying goodbyes was too painful. First saying goodbye to Zelda, and now saying goodbye to Malon. He knew that it wouldn't be forever, but he felt dread in his heart when he thought of leaving Malon. He knew he would feel even worse if he didn't say anything to Malon before he left, so he met her eyes.

"Malon… I have to go. I know Navi is out there, I had a vision of myself going to a forest, and hearing a fairies chime. Who else could it be? It sounded just like her!", Link said. He had told Malon before, and they had the exact argument over and over, but Link was determined to go. Navi meant too much to him. She had been a friend, a teacher, his rock when times got tough. Most importantly, she was his fairy. Even though he wasn't a Kokiri, Link had a bond with Navi, and that was a bond that he felt would last for the rest of his life. Malon knew how special Navi was to Link, but she was afraid that he wouldn't come back. She stepped forward and hugged Link, hard.

"Be careful Link. Please come back once you find Navi." Malon's sorrowful words brought fresh tears to Link's eyes, and he hugged her back. He whispered.

"I promise, Malon. I promise I'll come back."

When Link awoke, he opened his eyes to the sight of Romani grinning at him.

"We did it, Grasshopper! We beat Them! Romani wanted to give this to you as a reward last night, but was so tired that I had forgotten it." Following the short speech, Romani pulled a jar of milk from her pocket. It had a small blue label on its side that read: ROMANI MILK. Link took the bottle from Romani and examined it. It was cool in his hand and had one, maybe two servings of milk in it. Link looked at Romani, a tired smile on his face.

"Thanks, Romani! I appreciate the gesture." Tatl snickered in the background, being rudely awoken by Romani as well. She had no large part in the defense of the barn the previous night but had given Link plenty of warnings of Them trying to sneak to the barn behind him. Romani beamed at Link's remark, and skipped off towards the kitchen, singing Epona's song under her breath.

LATER THAT DAY

Link was climbing into Cremia's wagon, and Romani was waving goodbye. Cremia had offered him a ride back to Clock Town, and Link had accepted it. He did not really need to take a wagon there, as he had the Song of Time to send him back to the first day, but suspected that she had seen his fight against Them last night. Cremia had talked about bandits traversing the road last night, and he felt that he should protect her after everything she did for him. With his bow in his lap and a quiver at his side, he waved goodbye to Romani as the wagon trundled down the bumpy path to Clock Town. It wasn't long before something wrong happened, as Link had suspected. A gate was drawn across the path, and only a side pathway was left for the wagon to travel to.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Cremia murmured. She carefully turned the wagon down the path and watched as it curved into a flat racing track. Seconds later, the thumping of horse's hooves came from behind the wagon, and she kicked the two horses pulling the wagon and its two riders into a gallop. Link, not needing any instructions, pulled an arrow out and aimed it at one of the masked men who were chasing the wagon. There were two men, each tall and lanky, who wielded long spears and rode beaten and old horses. They could have been twins for their similarities for all Link could see, but he didn't care at the moment. He took a deep breath, and fired his bow, hitting one of the men in the shoulder. He let out a yowl of pain and fell behind the wagon that was now traveling at a very fast speed. The other man, enraged at his partner's injury, swiped at one of the storage jars for milk and sliced through it, shattering the jar and splashing milk everywhere. Link swiftly fired another arrow but had aimed a little too far downwards. Instead of hitting the man's right arm as he intended, he hit the man's horse instead. With a shrill neigh, the rider's horse reared at the sudden pain, dropping its rider and bolting in the opposite direction.

Cremia stared in awe at Link's bow and she struggled to find words.

"Link, you did a mighty fine job. I'm surprised at how good you are at that bow of yours. I'm certain that those bandits won't bother anyone for a good long time for how much you banged em up. What I'm tryin' to say is, thank you. For everythin'. It's been a while now

since our father and mother died. I've been trying to take care of the ranch, but things had been getting unstable lately. I'm grateful for the help that you've given us. First, those strange… things, and now you saved my life from those bandits back there! That deserves a reward. This isn't very big, but accept my thanks!" Cremia handed Link a floppy felt mask that looked like one of the many cows on Romani ranch that Cremia took care of, with black spots on a white hide, and a pink nose.

"I'm sorry about giving you only this. It's called the Romani Mask. It's proof of Milk Bar membership. The Chateau Romani is a little expensive, but you can try it at the bar." By this point, the wagon had arrived at Clock Town, and workers began to unload the crates of milk from the wagon. Cremia waved goodbye as she watched Link head into Clock Town, new mask in hand, and wondered where such a strange and kind child could come from.

Link looked at the new mask in his hand. It was rather silly looking, but he had tried to get into the milk bar before and had no success. He hesitated before he added it to his beaded necklace. Seamlessly, the mask shrank and smoothed, becoming another small bead on the ever-growing piece of jewelry. He realized just how many masks he had added to the necklace. The Deku Mask, Goron mask, Bomb mask, Romani mask, Great Fairy mask, Bremen mask, and the mask of Scents! Just thinking of it made his neck hurt, and he realized he had barely used them. Link told himself that he would use them more often, and let go of his necklace.

Link spent the last day just exploring more of Clock Town. He deposited his few remaining Rupees into the bank, and he was shocked to learn of his total.

"417 rupees?" Link tried to remember where he had gotten all of those rupees. He had taken the silver rupee from his room in the Stockpot Inn, but he had mostly spent it every time. How many days had he spent in this loop? He counted silently in his head. He had not wasted a single day, and had always waited until the last day to turn back time. That must mean… 15 days? Almost 18 days now, he realized, as he was on the final day in this cycle. In a fit of inspiration, Link withdrew the battered notebook that had been given to him by the Bombers gang. He wrote tally marks for each day that he had spent, and closed the notebook.

Knowing he had only hours to spare, Link played the Song of Time for Tatl, who was getting anxious at how close they were getting to the moon falling. Link played the song, swaying slightly as the tune lifted into the air and filled the silent streets of Clock Town. As soon as he finished the last note, he and Tatl fell, deeper and deeper, into the vast well of time, back to the day where all of their troubles started.

Calendar: 18 days have passed since the dawn of the FIRST day.