What's that? I'm back? No way.
From the beginning of May till now I've been extremely busy testing and working on projects and I apologize, but I'm back in the swing of things I hope so here's a new chapter that I hope you-
enjoy!
(P.S. please excuse if the writing quality isn't as good, it was harder to get back into it than I thought. I read through but even going back to fix italics I found a typo so).
Telma tried to comfort me, but as men began to file in around lunch time, her remarks were lost between orders. That's when I found Ilia, on her way out the door. I swiped Creota up from the floor where she was poking at crumbs and ran after the girl, calling her name before realizing, as she turned, that she didn't know it at all.
"What?" her green eyes squinted into the doorway.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Oh!" she lifted up the basket on her arm, "The market, I want to get some herbs."
"Can I tag along?"
She cracked a smile and nodded, leading me into a street full of people and objects and food. The girl I had known from the game was strong, but gentle. She had a knack for finding exactly what she needed at the market, likely at this for days. Link and her were childhood friends, but at this point in time, she looked back at me with sad eyes.
"I don't remember anything."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing and no one," she leaned down to examine one of the stalls, popping back up with a sigh, "I didn't know what to live for anymore until I found the Zora boy, now we're what's keeping each other alive."
"Zora boy?"
Ilia nodded, "I found him on the street and Telma helped me care for him. She's trying to see if the doctor will help tonight...I won't give up on him so long as he doesn't give up on me." She smiled to herself, calmly passing one stand to the other and picking up a couple of strange ingredients before paying a meager amount.
Do you remember any of this happening?
I started to nod, but as Ilia glanced back at me with graceful solemnity, I realized things were far too real to, "remember." The way she frowned, the way she laughed, the way her eyes brightened up at the thought of hope. How could I even know that from a game? I remembered the boy, the events, but I knew nothing more, nothing and no one.
We went back into the bar and headed to a room at the beginning of the hallway. Inside, Ralis was laid out in bed, a wet rag on his forehead. Ilia left and came back with two jars of red liquid, opening one and beginning to mix various ingredients in. Propping him up, she held the bottle to his lips, coaxing him to drink as much as he could. When he was done, she lowered him back down and sat back in silence. The only noise was the boy's panting for awhile.
Ralis was still except for his rising and falling chest, the only energy he seemed able to exert. Although his skin wasn't the same tan color of a human's, you could tell he was pale, his cheeks ashy grey without a hint of pink. Around his neck were ornate regal jewels, the only sign of his status if any.
Hours passed like water flowing out of my hands. I left Ilia alone after a while to get something to eat. Instead of going back, I went to my room to talk to Vox, greeting Creota who sat, asleep, on the bed. "What does she eat?" Smoothing out her soft fur, I lied down next to her, shutting my eyes for a moment.
Nothing, unless you want her to. She's a vessel for a soul.
I opened my eyes, listening to her soft pur, "Who's soul?"
My daughter's, but that's a story for another day.
Before I could ask him to tell it, he was already going over something else.
So that boy was the one the Zora queen was talking about, right?
"Mhm…"
And there's nothing suspicious about him?
"It's the same as it was before…"
We went over all the strange or odd things that I didn't remember from the game, but overall, he was convinced they just added up to the more realistic nature of the world here as opposed to there. All except for the attack on the Twilight Realm, which Vox said had to have happened after he left.
Many of the males left for your world all at once, but I was convinced we should stay to make sure the others in our colony didn't affect the upcoming war. We were told when we were little that we didn't belong here and when word got out that a child was born with the birthmark, we knew another one of those Hylian legends was starting.
The higher ups in the colony were corrupted and when my people kept leaving for Hylians, they were outraged. They valued blood purity above all else, but their population was dwindling, and we were afraid they would do anything to make it go back up, so they left and I left to find help.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up to Creota leaping out of my arms. I got up and opened the door looking out into the hallway. Voices shouted from the bar, soldiers still in armour getting drunk, working men filling their stomachs with food. Ilia found me entering their midst and pulled me to a table.
"She got a doctor to come after dinner," she beamed.
"That's great," I smiled for her.
As she went back to eating, I looked around at the men, jolly and loud. In the corner I spotted one with blonde hair and nearly leaped out of my seat. Noticing my sudden anxiety, Ilia tried to see what I had been startled by.
"What is it?" Her eyes darted from one side of the crowd to the other, but she didn't understand what I saw.
The man got up from his seat, a glass of beer in his hand. I stood rigidly, "I-I forgot to do something, I'll see you later."
She began to protest for a reason from me, but I was into the hallway before she could convince me to turn back around and tell her what it was. I shut myself in my room, locking the door and climbing into the corner. After a few minutes, a knock resounded into the room, but I ignored it, curling up further into myself.
Do you know him?
"No! I don't know where he came from." Another knock rang, another second of silence wavered.
He's not a Vinderendetta, I checked.
"Oh yeah, that helps."
The hinges of the door shuddered with the next knock, but fortunately didn't give way.
"Shit, what does he want?"
I don't know, but stay away from him.
There wasn't another knock this time, but I heard footsteps leave, heavy and distinct.
"Gladly," I got up from the floor, dusting off my legs and sitting on the edge of the bed. Vox kept talking about random things, but I had started tuning him out. My worries turned to Link, desperately stuck in a cycle of thoughts about him. I couldn't tell when he was getting back and I didn't want to be alone knowing that man could very well still be out there waiting for me.
My chest constricted suddenly, "Do they think I'm dead?"
Who?
"My family…"
There's no way they could find a body, you're here.
I breathed out, "Thank god…"
But my body didn't make it back through...doing two things at once isn't as easy as it seems.
"Vox!"
I'm sorry! I messed up, it really wasn't that hard.
A knock erupted from the door and I froze.
Not again. Your heartbeat hurts my ears.
Another one, harder, shook it in its frame. Before I could hide, a voice shouted through.
"Maizy!"
I let out my breath. Pushing myself up from the creaky bed, I turned the doorknob slowly, peering past the wood to see his icy blues eyes scowling back at me. "Link?"
"I told you not to do anything stupid," he forced the door open the rest of the way, jerking it out of my hands.
"Wha-I didn't."
Link stepped in, throwing the door closed behind him, casting everything into darkness, "Where's the light?" He didn't wait for a response, lighting his lantern between us.
"What are you talking about?" I pleaded as he turned away and put the lantern on the table, facing back to me with drawn eyebrows.
"You know what I'm talking about. I told you to go straight to Castle Town, but instead you decided to do a little stunt." he seethed, crossing his arms.
I hugged my stomach, begging it to calm down, "I destroyed the rock you were supposed to use to break the ice, I was just trying to help."
"I could've figured out another way."
"I saved you time!"
"SHUT UP, MAIZY, LISTEN TO ME! I don't care what you thought you did, this is my war to fight, we follow my rules." Link yelled, his voice cutting the wire between my brain and anxiety.
There was suddenly nothing holding me back and I couldn't bear looking him in the eye anymore, so I spoke, and I spoke clearly, "She doesn't remember you, does she?"
The malice dripping from my lips tasted bitter. Link's expression softened before growing even more intense, "Fuck you."
He swept his lantern off the table and left, slamming the door behind him, leaving me in the dark. I broke down into tears, sobbing into the bed sheets uncontrollably. Vox didn't speak to me, but Creota curled up in my lap and fell asleep. My head pounded, my stomach pulsed with pain. Every movement was sore, I barely managed to get myself up into bed and once I did, I fell asleep immediately, lost to the misery in my eyes.
In the morning, Link shook me awake and threw something on the bed, "Come out quick with that on, I don't want you sticking out anymore." When he left and I rubbed my eyes, there was a lantern on the table, illuminating a pile of clothes. As I picked them up, the altering in the fabric became obvious in the light, the cut out shoulder and freshly sewn hem. I grabbed the black garment, a full body skin tight article without sleeves and a strap at the bottom to go around the arch of the foot.
After slipping it all on, I tied the shirt in a knot at the side to make it fit better, then noticed the lump of fabric still on the bed. It was a long wide strip of the same material as the shirt. I fit it on, finding the slits in the skirt lined up with my thighs on the front and back, and tied it at the side. Creota yawned from the floor, but I left her behind and grabbed the lantern, stepping out into the light of the hallway. The true colors of the outfit became apparent, a deep lavender on top of black.
Link turned his head over and nodded, "Tomorrow we head out for Kakariko with Ralis and Ilia. You got any objections?"
"No…"
"Good," he walked past me to the bar and I followed helplessly behind him.
I stared into the back of his head, pulling teeth to get myself to say something to him, anything, "Link, I'm sorry."
Hey, hey, hey. Stand your ground.
"I don't want to hear it," he stopped at a table, looking down at the girl there who was sitting and eating, Ilia, "We're going to go out and get some provisions for the journey, would you like to join us?"
Ilia jumped up from her food, swallowing what was in her mouth and looking up at us, "Oh, I need to take care of-"
Link interrupted her, "He'll be okay by tomorrow, Renado is a skilled medic," her eyes dropped, "Please, we'll be quick."
She didn't seem to understand his persistence, but after a moment of thinking, I saw her nod and stand up, taking the food and disposing of it before coming back to us. We set out to the market, buying a few reasonable things before moving towards the center of the city. On the way, Link stopped us at a stand of flowers, throwing a few rupees at the seller and picking up a rose that he handed to Ilia.
The girl's cheeks bloomed the same color as the petals in her fingertips, stealing the blood from my own. I felt pale and when she glanced towards me, our eyes met, "You look sick!" she exclaimed.
"It's nothing," I assured her.
We carried on, me in tow behind the two childhood friends whose shoulders nearly touched. As we walked, I didn't feel the same eyes bore into me like I had before, instead I felt their absence like being suffocated. Creota was back in the room, but Vox was always in my chest, waiting to throw out a quip.
Someone's jealous.
"Shut up."
Someone's upset.
I shook my head, blotting out my emotions until my head throbbed and we had stopped moving. Link turned to Ilia, smiling at her as he lowered himself to the edge of the fountain and motioned for her to sit next to him. They laughed with each other, gazes locked on the other's, lips exchanging thoughts.
A hand patted my shoulder and I tensed. Whipping around, I found the swampy eyes of the man staring me down. He didn't speak, only grinning, turning away back into the crowd. I couldn't find him again, gone in the endless stream of people. Link was still enthralled with Ilia, watching her with wonder. Anxiously, I moved in front of them and jumped in on a loose end of conversation, "Can we leave the city for a bit?"
They both finally looked at me, "Well, I don't want to be out for too long," Ilia said, "Besides, look," her finger reached out to some place behind me, "Storm clouds."
"Why do you want to leave anyway?" Link asked.
"I, well," I hesitated, "someone's been following me."
Ilia stood up from the fountain, "Was that the reason you freaked out yesterday?!"
"Yeah."
"There has to be a reason he's following you." Link sighed.
"Look, why don't you two work this out and I'll go back to the bar, I really need to check up on him."
The conversation grew stiff, Link got up beside Ilia, failing to get out a single word before she stepped away, "Thank you, you're really sweet."
He nodded as she left, swallowed by the crowd. When his attention shifted to me, my chest constricted, lost to the glare in his eyes. Above, the sky was blue, but in the distance I could see the clouds, dark and brooding.
"I heard the Southern Field is nice, why don't we go down there to talk?" his voice was a straight edge as he picked up the rose left on the fountain. He held it up for a moment, then threw it into the water.
We walked back, side by side, down the market street and through the open gate into the stone stairway on the other side. At its base an expanse of flowers spread out over the grass for acres. On the horizon, two people strolled along, knee deep in petals. A breeze carried away color into the sky, lifting my hair from my shoulders.
Link exhaled softly, "I'm sorry."
"What?"
He took another breath, "For yelling at you."
Aha!
"What's with the change of heart?" I peered to see his face, catching a quick glance from the corner of his eye.
"Midna talked to me."
"Oh," a strong wind took away the heat of the sun, blowing around the scent of the flowers up where we were making our way down.
"I still don't want you running off like that, but I shouldn't have shouted at you, I was just upset." he shut his eyes, tilting his head up to the sun.
My toes brushed grass and flower stems, but I didn't look down at them, "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have said that…" When he didn't respond, I scratched my shoulder, "You love her, don't you?"
"I miss her," his eyes opened, "She's still in there, she still feels like home...I love her but...If she doesn't remember me, what am I gonna do?" A gloved hand reached up to his face, wiping away small tears.
The field of flowers tickled my nose with pollen, every gust of wind throwing up particles and petals and butterflies. Sometimes I kneeled down to see the bugs, dragonflies and wasps perched on flower tops, bumble bees covered in fuzz. I did it without warning, but Link still waited to move along, one time offering me an aster on my way back up. It stayed clamped between my fingers for long afterwards.
We came up on the two people who had just been dots on the field before, a young girl dressed in a princess gown decorated with butterflies and an older man with striking blonde hair that matched hers. They had the same sad purple eyes with three dots underneath the bottom lash, smiles somber. The girl had come running over in a frenzy, clamping her hands down on something in the dirt. As she came back up, she opened her palm to reveal a sparkling gold beetle.
"You almost stepped on him!" She scowled at Link, tucking the bug away into a pouch.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see him," Link started sifting through his pouch, pulling out a twinkling butterfly, "Here, have this."
The girl nearly stopped breathing, "Where did you find that?!" she cupped her palm over the tiny insect ushering it into her other hand, "Holy shit!"
"Agitha!"
A gust of wind swept the butterfly into the air, sending the girl into another panic as she ran after it frantically. The man frowned, "Oh well…" then turned to us, "Hello, sorry about my daughter."
Link reached out to shake his hand which he politely accepted, "Agitha?"
The man nodded, "My name's Monich."
"Link and…" he dragged me closer by the arm, "Maizy."
Monich stood back, scanning us up and down thoughtfully, "Are you travelers?"
"Yeah, we've been out for about a week now and are just stopping by for the time being."
The man's face lit up, "Why don't you stop by my place for dinner? I'm sure it's been awhile since you've had a hot meal." Agitha came running up behind him, hands clamping over the shimmering bug. Her small frame bumped into him, beaming at what she knew was in between her fingers.
"Why not, where do you live?" Link folded his arms, "We'll come around sundown."
"Mm," Monich tapped his chin, "The wealthy district. Take the roads east from the market street and if you find the main road, I'm the large stone building, hard to miss."
Agitha tucked the butterfly away and looked up at us, "It looks like a castle."
"Got it," Link smirked, smoothing out his hair as another breeze tumbled through us, "Should be a nice break from having to listen to this girl talk."
My eyebrows drew together as I turned to him, "I barely talk, what are you talking about?"
As he began chuckling I realized the sarcasm and drew away. Monich noticed, however, and smiled, "My wife was quiet too, soft spoken. Sometimes I wonder if she would've survived had she just been...louder."
"What happened?" I asked, but he shook his head, gesturing towards Agitha.
"I'd rather not talk about it with her here."
"Oh, of course! I'm sorry...I uh-"
"She's absent minded, and also probably hungry, I think we should go get lunch." Link tugged on my arm and I followed him in his waves and goodbyes.
Monich saluted us somewhat as we turned away, faced with the immense size of Castle Town's walls and the castle, always looming overhead. Our footsteps left behind the field of flowers, impressing upon them our own meanings and memories, of which would be gone with the coming of winter, buried in the snow. Between the two large staircases back up to the market street, a waterway drained underground. I stopped by it, holding out the aster from my chest.
A hand grasped the stem over mine, "You're just going to throw away my flower?"
I met his eyes, stuttering over myself, "Oh, uh, I didn't think it meant anything." My cheeks went red.
Yeah sure.
He cocked his head, but shook it off, letting go, "Drop it then, I don't care." The wind spiraled between us, shaking the slim flower in my grasp.
One by one, my fingers left the stem, but as the last two clung on, I found that I couldn't let it go like he had. The image of Ilia's rose, gliding along the water's surface, flashed in my head. I brought it back to my chest then, gingerly, tried to fit it behind my ear. When it slid out, his fingers caught onto it before I could grab on, weaving it through my hair until it stayed put.
My heartbeat filled my ears, thundering louder than the thoughts flicking around.
Shh.
The look of anger on Link's face just last night faded out of memory. Instead, I saw his gentle neutrality, disconnected yet comforting against all of the unfamiliar faces I found every day. "Let's start over from yesterday, yeah?" he said.
I nodded, "Yeah."
Link grinned slightly, "I'm glad you're alright."
"I-" my voice hitched, "Thanks for coming back."
We moved on, back to the market street. Link ended up buying a few things, strolling off without warning. Initially I held back complaints that I wanted to sit down, but after he turned around and handed me a small dagger strapped to a belt, the thoughts suddenly left my mind. It fit around my waist well enough, although it sat lopsided because I had never really put on weight in my life and was prone to losing it more than anything.
Telma's bar was busy somewhat, people's voices peaked as they shouted over the crowd and demanded orders. The food here was simple, but it was enough to attract more than just drunks at the right time of day. Link came up to the bar where Telma finished up a request and turned to us.
"Where's Ilia?"
Telma narrowed her eyes at Link, "I thought she was with you."
He stepped closer, "Are you serious?" Several looks flashed by from the people sitting at the bar. Link's face was swiftly losing color even in the warm light.
"Why would I be joking?"
You saw that guy back at the fountain.
My breathing stopped as I realized he'd seen me with her several times...and I'd let her go off on her own even though I knew he was close by. "Link."
"What?" he rubbed his forehead.
"I think...I saw the guy back at the fountain, and if Ilia went back by herself, none of us would have seen him take her so maybe-"
"What does the guy look like?!" Link's body was now fully facing me.
"Blonde hair, um...tall and very muscular?"
Telma interrupted, "There's a man named Destrian I've heard word about who's known for harassing girls on the street," she paused, "he lives somewhere in the aristocratic district, I'm sure if you asked around there someone would know him."
"Let's go, come on Maizy." Link grabbed my arm and ran with it, yanking me along before I could even get myself into a running pace. Nonetheless I kept up because the look on his face was enough to know that keeping my mouth shut was the best thing I could do right then.
