"If you don't tell me, I'm going to Mullick," Malon threatened the fairy while the painted boy restlessly relaxed under blankets. She had no idea the other boy didn't know the details either.
Navi eyed the Lon woman, chin jutting as she considered the effort of hiding the reason for Link's injury. When she had spoken, it had been her own anxiety, or Link's. He was drifting in pre-sleep, wide open right now, she sensed, pitying the stupidity of Zephane, and numb from the act of removing his own appendage, even if it was just the last joint. Her own pinky tingled in sympathy.
"Zephane was very enthusiastic to become Link's friend, and she fell into a peahat's burrow."
"He fought a peahat?" Malon cringed. "Lucky all he lost-"
"There were babas, too," Navi interrupted. "The poisonous-mouthed plants. After Link managed to hurt the peahat with his knife, it retracted. We were in the free, and Zephane just hurls herself at him, and into the babas he goes!" She was gesturing wildly with one hand, muffling shouts in her sparrow's chirp with the other. "By luck or divinity, apparently, Link rolled away, but one of the plants latched to his little finger. The only way to prevent death by poison was to sever the connection, and he was so lucky the poison didn't absorb into his skin very far." Now Navi reined in her anger, drawing into herself a little before saying, "He put Zephane in his debt, a blood debt. If he ever requests retribution, she cannot refuse. You should have felt his will. The spell was seamless."
"Spell?" Malon goggled, pawing her chest and glancing at the prone boy. "He can do magic?"
"Well, almost," Navi admitted. "He didn't really know he was casting one, but there's a lot of potential dormant in him, and I fear it will become more apparent as he travels."
"What about Zephane? What did the magic do to her?"
The blue sprite countered, "Nothing, yet. It was promise magic, something the Kokiri can do rather naturally, and it will go unseen and unfelt until the deal is complete, or broken."
"Does this happen often? Kids making blood debts in the woods?"
Assuaging, Navi continued, "Not seriously. You know how they make outrageous promises in games. The Children arrange deals for goods and crafts, and close friends can make personal promises, like help if they're injured on the trail. The magic of the Kokiri sends their fairy to their companion who promised them help. If they ignore her, the promise is broken."
"And what happens if the promise is broken?" Malon asked cautiously, fearing the obvious answer.
"Whatever Link wills to happen to Zephane at the moment of breaking. It's fairly harmless in the long run, but fate can trip up even the most carefully laid plans in seconds. I don't think he'd kill her, in any case." Navi leveled a look at Malon. "His heart is not likely to tread that path. Few Children would even imagine that as a consequence, and I've heard about kids wishing indigestion or a tail, some physical mark on the breaker at the worst."
"…I wonder if Zephane will mad when she finds out about the spell."
Navi studied her charge, fully sleeping despite her own protests and dreaming of the green woods lit by a red-gold sun.
There was only the sound of horse-pulled wagons around them for many long moments before Malon said, "He'll be coming into manhood in a year or two."
"You think it'll be that long?" Navi posed skeptically. "He's facing more changes than many could handle. And I'm the handler."
Malon smiled compassionately. "How do you think Pa managed me as a young philly? I came down with menarche sooner than expected, and I still wanted to take on more responsibility than was appropriate."
At this, Navi returned the expression. "He'll try to take on everything at once, if I'd let him."
"Be stern, but love the boy, Navi," Malon chided and braced as the cart bumped over the crest of a hill.
"I can do no less," the fairy sighed softly with the weight of her responsibility in her own heart and settled herself in the rafters to watch over Link.
In a few hours, the sun was nearing the horizon and Talon stopped the flow of cattle over the grass, riders racing on ahead with the last of their mounts' reserves before setting up their portable, lightweight fencing. They didn't recreate the corral, but a wide, open-ended cone that was easily guarded from any thieves or night-prowling animals. The wagons were splayed around Jim and Cella's cooking tent, the pairs of horses that conveyed them were picketed on a line near the cows and families were lining up to receive the communal meal of traveling foods, though some built their own fires to cook the signature salted pork or beef steaks. Tonight, most were delighted to see the children's contribution of a cabbage, carrot and herb soup cooked with a smoked hock, accepting a ladle of the green and root soup in personal tin cups.
In an ironic display, the children refused to eat the "yucky" soup they helped make.
It only cemented Link's distaste for the brats, and to help his system recover, and show them up, he had six servings of the restorative broth. Cella had used his herbs tastefully, he approved, which was a plus for the boy who had an intimate knowledge of herbal combinations. Zephane remained hidden for the meal.
Her parents, however, came to Link.
He looked up, their wind-tanned faces sad and concerned. "We need to talk, young man," said the father solemnly. Link glanced at Malon and Talon, and those two exchanged expressions, then shrugged.
Link set his cup by the firepit and hopped to his feet, resolving to relax as they walked further from the camp. Only going as far as the first wagons, the couple turned to confront the Kokiri.
The mother spoke first, "I'm Shara and this is Veston." She touched his leathered chest in introduction. "I know Zephane is excitable, but when she came back with a bloody forehead and no wound-"
"And she won't say a word! We heard from Billit something about a peahat burrow, but only you were injured. Malon wouldn't let us disturb you while you were resting, but now, we'd like an answer." Veston blustered, more concerned than angry, none of the tension staying in his shoulders.
Feeling out the right words on his tongue, Link replied calmly, "She went into the peahat burrow, though Mullick made it clear this landmark was known. I went in, and I injured the peahat, so it went back underground. We would have left without injury if Zephane hadn't been so insistent. She knocked me over, and I lost my fingertip to a deku baba, the poison-mouth."
Both were aghast and unable to dispute Link's extended, bandaged hand.
"I was mad, and I called her irresponsible," he apologized with a bowed head.
"And I think it was called for," Navi interrupted. Zephane's parents directed pleading eyes to her. "Link is right. Her carelessness cost him a piece of his body. She owes him a debt, and he'll collect when the time comes."
Shara was nodding in agreement. Veston was ready to object, but his wife raised a cowing eyebrow. "I've been thinking it's time for Zephane to take up more responsibility. She bosses the other kids around now and then, and that's a restless soul at work." She looked down her slope of a nose at Link. "Everyone knows about the burrows. Thank you for protecting our daughter." With nothing left to say, the group separated back to their respective family camp fires.
Link and Navi were later surprised by Talon and Ingo, who voted to sleep beneath the bed of the wagon, wrapped in a tarp, but Malon assured them it was their way of life, and the two old bulls enjoyed the open air. The other three fit quite comfortably into the mattress-bottomed bed above the snoring Lon brothers, but Link lay awake at the front end for some time.
"You did what you thought was right," Navi said from somewhere above his head, but in his head so not to disturb the Lons.
Can she live with that hanging over her head? Clouds were clearing out of the star-studded black sky.
"She'll have to, until you collect on your debt."
And what if I "Don't you dare, I've already had this conversation today, so you know the answer as well as I do." He saw her words to Malon, but only about his heart.
Okay.
The dawn shattered night's grip with a mess of gold and orange and lavender just as spectacular as any Link watched from the hills of Hyrule's plains, this time inviting Malon to share the display with him and Navi.
"I don't remember the last time I watched the sunrise," the redhead's hair was even more saturated in color than usual in the gorgeous morning. She tilted her head to the boy whose white paint looked rosy, or maybe he was blushing. "You have a good soul, Link." The sun was brightening, taking on his round shape when he surpassed the horizon. "I think you'll be able to take off your bandage today. The wound will be tender, but it'll heal fast."
He read the shades in her words and his cheeks crimped in a warm smile.
Malon was delighted. "Do that more often, hero."
"For all our sakes," Navi requested, sarcasm tinting her voice and she fluttered close to Link.
Pressing her hands into the grass, Malon rose from the ground and extended a hand to the young man. "Let's go riding."
Without hesitation, Link took the proffered hand and followed his blooming first crush to the picket lines. They stood before the rose mare with the white mane, stroking velvet nose and silky face. Her ears flicked towards Navi as she inspected the fine animal closely. Assuming another handler brought her foal, the resemblance of the small horse beside Malon's was uncanny. Link switched from petting Aeponn to the petite foal that was curiously nosing her way into the affection.
"Don't we need a saddle?" Link asked when he noticed Malon untying the reins restraining her mount.
"Not for a little ride," Malon promised, expertly directing her horse into open space, grasping mane and swinging her leg up and over Aepon's back. She gave Link her hand again. This time, he worriedly studied the opportunity before him. What if he fell? "Grab her mane, here. Then I'll pull you up. That's it, tighter. It won't hurt her. Now, pull your foot up, get it over her shoulders, and you're up!" Malon congratulated the most awkward effort she'd seen in her life, giggling a little for the ruffled feathers of the stoic young man with wild hair and a Hylian tunic.
She snaked an arm around his waist, holding tight to him, and he felt her muscular legs grip to the sides of the horse. "We'll be back, little one!" she said to the foal, straining at her own tie, trying to follow them. Malon leaned forward, urging Aepon with a low whistle, and the world sprang into motion.
Link bounced on the horse, Malon an iron anchor. They were flying over the grass like the wind! His heart was soaring as fast as Navi beside them in the air, the gait hardly a factor and the speed exhilarated him like running faster than anyone in a race! Tears were whipped from the corners of his eyes as he squinted into the speeding air, leaning forward, and the horse's thundering pace quickened. Bluing sky was an endless vault above the tiny animal that pumped flesh and blood over the earth. As though a piece of his soul was suddenly complete, riding a horse across the plain set his heart afire with a passion that was going to be with him for all the worlds to come, and the very destiny of the moment was like a little bell in the back of his mind.
In a cosmic twinge, Malon hugged the boy close to her, humming a melody that ghosted through his ears and found a place deep in his memories. It was a simple tune, lilting and befitting the rhythm of a galloping horse, and even Navi could feel the flavor of the plains people in Malon's little song.
Aepon slowed after a few more lengths of galloping, cantering around a scrub oak and back to the promise of the food and safety of camp. The riders sat fluidly on her back, enjoying the peace of a slow ride back to savor this moment in whatever rightness the two elves had found.
Daily travel followed a definite pattern into the east, through bottoms and over hillocks, climbing a subtle slope towards Central Plains Country and the two weeks of near ritual passed quickly for Link and Navi. Learning horsecraft from Malon and cattle Lore with Talon and his pards along the trail, Link immersed himself with Lon culture, riding his own horse in preference of the wagon, Navi glad for the exercise of following an excitable thirteen-year with a new ride.
Daybreak set the fleet into motion with mobile breakfasts of traveling breads and cured meats and teas. Stirring the embers of the previous day, kettles of water were heated directly and doled into the personal cups of each drinker, though some preferred a drink much closer to heart.
Most of the horses with young were in milking condition. Since Link had been selective of his hunting targets, he never speared an animal with a brood, and only in desperation would the other hunters kill a baby animal for the nourishing, curdled milk in its stomach, everyone in the village getting a taste of the rare life-saving high-fat sacrifice. Out here, the Lons used their beneficial relationship to the utmost advantage, milking whichever species was close at hand. In summer, horse milk was a common beverage, as the dairy cows stayed at Homestead for convenience. Link's Lon family took him to the picket lines, cups in hand. Talon drew near to Aepon, working the teat to coax a dribble into his cup, and once it was half full, he straightened up, put a hand on his hip and swigged the froth down, wiping milk from his mustache.
"Link? Hand me your cup." He did so, and watched pointedly as Talon squeezed another half cup from Malon's horse. The vessel exchanged hands again and Link raised the foamy cream to sit beneath his nose, smelling grass and horse and sweet fat, sipping, enjoying, and savoring the drink. He couldn't remember tasting something so rich, or so easy. Gerrick was next, then Malon and Ingo indulged in their birthright. With her foal nursing as well, Aepon's milk-heavy teats were lighter for the day's travel. They brought her and their three other horses, the honey coated mare and two buff cart pullers. Ingo took Honey to take first cattle shift, and Talon arranged the yoke of the wagon over the backs of "Dust" and "The Wind."
"I'm movin' out!" yelled Talon, and with a yip-yip and crack of the reins, Link and Gerick lurched when the wagon did indeed move on.
Lunch was a loose affair, most men eating when they switched their shifts between riding with their cattle stock and steering the family wagon.
Dusk brought the procession to a halt in the signature array around the cooking tent for fire lit communal meals.
Four legs much faster than his own two, Link's mount, the young mare of Aepon he called Epona, was a sturdy and practical beast for her age. She responded well to the amateur rider, her instinct from living with a herd balancing his own intuition and the tutelage of Malon, only throwing the boy twice before he learned her limits.
He rode alongside Talon often, learning to throw ropes and demonstrating his own skill with a leather sling. The little pouch with long ends flung stones harder than possible by hand, and Link's accuracy was tested and affirmed from a saddle. Many nights while they sat around the fire, he had a fowl or a rabbit on a spit, herbed and rubbed with the ubiquitous pork fat for flavor familiar to the Lons, and little bites were passed around for all to sample with relish.
In the time since the peahat incident, Link stopped seeking out the main party of children, preferring Mullick's maturity, and the native plainsboy understood the ex-Kokiri was as different as an adult compared to his cousins. When he was not riding with Malon or the watchers or Talon, Link rode in a wagon with Mullick where they mostly enjoyed the rolling hills, spotty trees and sparse water of a deceptive environment.
The cows shuffled along in an earthy rainbow of browns, ochers and whites, some straggling in pairs but all sported short, S-curved horns, and the Lons kept tips clipped to minimize danger. Horn baubles abounded in the scalp locks of the ranching men and women, often in cow or horse-themed motifs. Link watched the relatively placid animals tear a huge swatch of hoof-churned sod, bitten grass and patties dotted a path parallel to the sinuous wagon tracks.
They passed a sizeable waterway two days from Homestead, and most of the Clan separated by gender to swim and launder summer-stained garb. Talon, Link and Mullick came down the bank through some curly willow, the soft green spears fragrant and shading the shoal where the other men gathered to and bathe.
"We haven't stopped here in summer for years," Talon sighed and waded into the slowly rolling water and dunked himself.
Link approached the water, Navi straying to inspect the verdant willow grove as they scrubbed garments, their own body and toe jam from the webbing of their feet. Link had since gifted a pair of sturdy, proper, Hylian boots in his size, enjoying the protection, but wary of the sweat that soaked his socks. He'd seen infected toenails and fungus and blisters, which could make an easy journey miserable and incredibly taxing, potentially lethal in the worst conditions. Every Hylian technology Link adopted, he adjusted the conditions of his world view, fearing less the sharp rock that could pierce rawhide and more the inward threat of foot rot protected in specially burnished, reinforced leather.
Once everyone was pruny and slated for horsing around in the river, their bodies dried in the wind that constantly accompanied the Lon's life as they went back to the wagons. Link retrieved his paint box in his pack at the back of the beds, swiping across his forehead, cheeks and forearms and, giving it a moment of thought while looking at the map of the canopy, put a little white dot just outside the bending curve surrounding bottomless triangles that represented Cottonwood Camp.
The stories about the Kokiri boy were circulating furiously by the time the wooden palisade of Homestead popped into view as they crested the plateau chosen in ancestral birthright. That day, they did not stop for darkness, instead pulling into their home well after the sun abandoned their efforts, and more people than Link believed could live in one place were awaiting their kin with bursting curiosity about this new guest. Similar to his first opening speech about the foreigner, Talon addressed the rest of his Clan about Link's status.
"Born of a Hylian woman, I assure you, as Kokiri cannot leave the forest. Their deity appointed the fairy, Navi, to assist him in finding his destiny, and for the moment, he's sharin' our path to Market Town this year. I pledged, with the support of Cottonwood Camp, to help him on his way."
"I promise he's friendly," Mullick sprang to his defense this time, and the adults were disarmed by a child's endorsement, even if the child was known to be a bit bratty. Zephane's story was still an unknown, neither she nor the other children, who did not even know exactly what occurred, spoke a word to anyone about the peahat, and Shara held true to her prescription of a few more duties to the suddenly sober girl to occupy a brewing menarchal depression.
"And he's staying with our family," Gerick added warmly. "Taught us a lot 'bout the Kokry and the forest than we ever knew. I'm sure you'll get the stories soon." That said, they moved their teams and wagons to a wide lot before a big wooden house painted in creams and browns. It was understood the travelers were tired, and no less required to give a short welcoming speech before they retired. Talon took the horses away to the stables, and the Lons grabbed their personal boxes, Link, his pack and sword.
Still, the steel remained untested by his hands. There was no time to stop along the way without losing time, and now there would be even more to learn here. Crops, industries for processing those crops and countless kinds of crafts were prepared here for the summer markets, and Talon wanted to show it all to the boy in the next few days. Then it would be on to the Market, and the Royal Family. What mystery awaited him there, he could not imagine, but he was having trouble judging when to take time for himself in the near future. The trip would provide some routine security, but for the Kokiri who lived by nature's routine, drifting with only the inklings of a plan nagged at him with a faint headache.
The families were pouring into the long wooden house through a proper framed door with a handle and latch, the first Link had ever seen, but he didn't stop to admire tonight. He bit his tongue and pushed down a desire to push through the throng of people around him, and was relieved to discover Malon opening another door from the central hall of the long house to reveal a room resembling their tent in a more permanent and private form. The central fire was not open, but contained in a clay dome that fluted to the roof fifteen feet above their heads and decorated by painted symbols baked by the constant heat. Who lit the fire?
"The runners who told Homestead we were coming," Navi supplied mentally.
Gerick claimed the bed closest to the stove where his bones could appreciate the soothing heat, Malon bunking one to his left and Ingo on his right, each laying out their personal blanket and stowing their boxes of possessions beneath the short wooden legs. Two beds remained, and one already had Talon's plain box. Link set his pack on the empty extra bed, pulling out his bear skin, breathing his own scent but was interested to realize he smelled like a Lon.
"You can't leave that horse alone," Navi teased in thought from the rafters. He put his sword at the head of the bed, resting it against the wooden walls of the deluxe bunkhouse, pretending to ignore her.
"Can I make you a cup, Link?" Malon asked, putting a kettle over the embers, three cups present, the fourth in her hand where it awaited his approval.
"Sure," he nodded. Talon swung the door on its hinges and with an "Oof!" plopped onto his bed. They waited in a pleasant silence for the kettle to bubble and hiss with hot water, then a few more minutes for the poured brew to cool enough for tongues. Almost as one, all but Ingo sipped at the mugs.
"I like your tea, Malon," Link complimented when the silent mantle grew too heavy. "Does bunkweed grow here?"
"Yeah," she replied wearily, smiling though. "We'll show you the growers' houses and the Fowlery and the Dairy and everything tomorrow." Childlike, she was snuggling into memories of this Homestead, this rock of stability in a wandering lifestyle. Will I ever have a place like this? To return to and feel…
"Like you belong? Oh yeah, I've got a good feeling about that," Navi prophesized mutely from the air above them. "I've seen a dream image of your house after all this is done."
And what will be done?
"You're going to be a heck of an interior designer, that's for sure…"
No, what are we doing? What do we have to do? And why is it going to be after everything is done?
To cap this burst of anxiety, Navi shot, "Hylians. You can't just say thank you for a fairy's vision. Let it pass, then, if you won't appreciate it."
Sleepier and sleepier, Link followed the advice, but he wished he had a more concrete plan than…whatever this was.
Cups drained, the little family and their guest promised to bed down for the night and see morning well after it had begun.
