Today is the fourteenth anniversary for Twilight Princess. I still love that game, even though I don't play it nearly as much as I used to. Let's just say I have a life, not to mention I eventually got bored of doing the same thing over and over and over again. Isn't that sad?

Anyway! On to the story! And you already know who owns Twilight Princess.

Whodunit? - by Pseudo Twili

After rounding up some stray goats with Epona's help, Link left his faithful mare in one of the paddocks to graze, whereupon he joined some of the other villagers in harvesting. By the time the job was done, they had one hundred and two pumpkins stored in the shed, along with a few assorted gourds and some stray melons. This last item they'd grown inadvertently after someone had mixed up the seeds the year before. Link grinned to his fellow villagers, who were just as grubby as he was, and headed back to his mare.

However, as he approached the paddock, he quickly noted that Epona was quite conspicuous by the mere fact that she was absent. The young man's brows furrowed, and he frowned as he paused in climbing over the fence. He glanced to the right and then to the left. No, she was definitely not anywhere within the enclosure. The gate was not standing open, and he knew he had shut it, so he reasoned that she couldn't have wandered out by herself. She was a good gentle horse and she wouldn't misbehave by leaping the fence, instead she would always patiently wait for her master to return for her. Just where had she gone?

His wolf senses would come in right handy! But almost as soon as he had the idea, he discarded it. Not for the world was he going to transform and risk being spotted by his friends; seeing a wolf would put them in a panic and they didn't need any more trouble. He scratched his head, frowned again, and then headed toward the village proper.

Unfortunately, no one was particularly helpful. Sera scolded him, "You ought to take better care of your horse, Link!"

"If you can't keep track of your own horse, you don't expect me to, do ya?" Jaggle drawled, looking up from the hoe handle he was mending.

"I'm sorry, dear, I haven't seen Epona. Have you seen Colin or my husband?" a slightly distracted Uli replied while she juggled both her baby and a basket of wash.

Malo scowled as he tried to lift a basket of nuts. Link hefted it easily for him and set it inside the open door of Sera's shop. The little tyke craned his head so the hero could have the full effect of his glare. "Do I look like I have time to notice your horse? …And if you had any sense of decency you wouldn't have put the pumpkins so they were blocking the doorway of the storage shed."

Annoyed at being chastised by the snarky little runt, Link merely grunted and turned away. He marched over to Mayor Bo, who was talking to Renado, the latter of whom had traveled to Ordon to purchase a wagonload of pumpkins and other foodstuffs. Kakariko Village was finally getting on its feet and welcoming new inhabitants, and of course they needed food, so as a favor to his old friend and all the village farmers, he went the extra distance to buy everything fresh from Ordon rather than less fresh from Castle Town. Accompanying the shaman were his daughter, Luda, as well as Barnes and a few Gorons who had volunteered to pull the wagon, since they only had one horse in Kakariko so far anyway.

"Have you seen Epona?" Link asked after quickly exchanged greetings.

None of them had, unfortunately, so Link left as quickly as he'd come. He had no wish to be drafted into assisting his Goron brothers load the wagon as soon as Renado and Bo were finished settling things. Normally he would be more willing to help out, but his missing horse filled his mind and he was nearly desperate to find her.

Deciding that questioning his friends and adopted family was availing him nothing, the young man returned to the paddock where he'd started out. He climbed the fence rail and took one more look for Epona within, as if he thought she might have been missable the first time. It was funny, but he'd always just climbed the fence ever since he was big enough to manage it. Who needed gates?

He was seriously considering taking his wolf form just long enough to sniff out the nearby scents, even at the risk of being spotted, when a sudden voice close behind him nearly made him tumble from the top rail of the fence. Saving himself and slipping down the other side at the same time, he then looked between the wooden rails to see who had startled him. It was one of the Gorons, and who was only halfway grown at that.

"Are you looking for your horse?" the young Goron asked, his large blue eyes shining like sapphires of interest.

Link mumbled, "Yeah," and turned around, leaning down to peer at the ground.

The young Goron rolled under the fence. "Can I help you? I'm pretty good at noticing things. I'm going to be a detective when I'm all grown…in a few years."

"Oh brother…" Link groaned.

"Yep, that's right! My dad's always telling me I should help out a brother wherever I can. So now I want to help you."

"Don't step on any footprints."

"I know. They're evidence. Or they might be." He too stooped and investigated the turf.

They found nothing useful within the paddock. It was mostly grass anyway, so there was little space for footprints to stand out. The hero gave a little sigh and swiftly climbed the fence again. He was beginning to think of a method of ridding himself of his "helper" so that he could transform, and his frustration was mounting…

"Did you see this?" the young Goron queried suddenly.

Link spun on him, but a second later all irksome thoughts had left his head. The young Goron, who wasn't yet as tall as the top of the fence (which Link had barely outstripped before his growth spurt quit) stood holding the gate open. He stared for a moment. He could have sworn the gate had been closed when he first made his discovery, but while it may have looked that way, he hadn't checked it.

"Did you open that just now?" asked he.

"Nope. It was unfastened like this," the young Goron replied and demonstrated by swinging the gate to its former position. Sure enough, it stayed there, even though a simple push would send it swinging.

Link scratched his head. That did put a different angle on things. He knew he had shut the gate when he left Epona, so it was elementary that someone had come along, unlatched it, brought Epona out, and neglected to fasten it again.

"That was a clue," declared the young Goron. "It was, wasn't it? Was I helpful?"

"Yes, yes," Link mumbled absently.

"I knew it!" he cheered and danced up and down a couple of times. "My name is Sherroch. Can I call you Waston?"

"My name is Link."

"I know," Sherroch replied, his wide lips stretching all the more. "But you're my sidekick, so I should call you Waston."

The hero rolled his eyes. "So now I'm the sidekick. Great. This just gets better and better… Is that really your name?"

The Goron's smile dissipated like a crescent moon swallowed by the curve of the planet. "My name is Sherroch," he insisted.

"That doesn't sound much like a Goron name."

The self-proclaimed detective frowned and decided he'd best tell the truth to someone who was supposed to be his sidekick. "Well, my name's really Darroch, but it's so boring. So I took the name of my favorite detective."

"Look, it doesn't matter to me," Link replied with a shrug. "I'd settle for anything if we can find my horse."

"Okay, call me Sherroch and I'll help you. Deal?" the young Goron said hopefully, extending his rocky hand outward.

Link took it, shook it quickly, and then pulled his fingers out to avoid getting them half mangled. Darroch—no Sherroch's—grin had returned, this time showing some of the granite-like teeth. Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as Link had feared, after all. With two pairs of eyes and two brains working, they might just arrive at the solution all that much faster.

Sherroch withdrew a magnifying glass from somewhere about his person and, treating it gently lest he damaged it, he looked through it at everything at the scene. Then he spotted a group of a few hairs that had gotten caught in the wood of one of the gate posts. He pulled them out carefully and held them out to his companion.

"Do you think these belong to the culprit?" the Goron asked expectantly.

Link held them carefully between his fingers and gave them a good hard look. He even borrowed Sherroch's magnifier to confirm what he thought he was seeing. Those few hairs were distinctly blonde.

"Yes, this is a good clue," he said, which made Sherroch grin and do his little dance again.

They continued to scrutinize the crime scene, as Sherroch was calling it. The bit of path leading away from the entrance of the paddock had been worn down to a point where it was more dirt than grass. As there had been no rain for a couple of weeks, the dirt was dry and powdery, making it easy for Link to spot the hoof marks which traveled in about the direction of the village. There was no doubt as to which horse those imprints belonged, for his was the only one in Ordon. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the dust also bore slender, barefooted prints. After a few yards or so, both these and the hoof marks were no longer distinguishable amongst the signs of other foot traffic.

Sherroch eyed the new find too. "What do you think those mean?"

"Whoever these belong to wasn't wearing shoes, and the prints are not very big. This should let out most of the men and maybe a couple of the women." As he said it, Link glanced down at young Sherroch's feet, which were not yet as large as those of a full-grown Goron. "…You didn't take Epona, did you?"

"No… but it would be a good ruse to help you if I had. What would I want with a horse? We Gorons can roll along just as fast or faster."

Link nodded, knowing how true that fact was. He continued, "This barefoot person who took Epona was standing very near to her as they walked away. This probably means that the culprit likes horses. And Epona's hoof prints tell me that she was going at a leisurely pace and that she was comfortable and content. There was no danger."

"Can you really tell all that from those?!" exclaimed an open-mouthed Sherroch.

"Sure," Link replied easily. "And now I'm sure I know who took my horse."

"You do?! Darn it! I'm the detective and you're the sidekick! I was supposed to find the answer first…"

The hero shrugged. He couldn't help the smile that captured his mouth in an upward sweep. "You did help, if that's any consolation."

"Who did it? And where is your horse?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Link shook his head once. "Ah, drat. I knew I was forgetting something…"

Sherroch grinned again. "We're not done yet!" he all but crowed.

He began scuttling around as fast as his short legs could take him, searching for further clues. He would have taken to rolling, except that he would not be able to see much and might inadvertently steamroll right over something important. Link rolled his eyes again and caught up to the young Goron.

It wasn't long before they found something else. Actually, three somethings in the form of barefooted prints in the dirt. One set led to the ranch, the second set followed the path of the village stream, and the third led to Link's house and ended abruptly.

Do you know who took Epona and where the culprit spirited her? Let me know in a review and then check out the solution after the break.

11-19-2020 ~ Published