Did you guess as to who took Epona? Let's see how close you were to the solution!

The two investigators learned that the first set of bare footprints belonged to Talo, who had gone to the ranch to bedevil Fado and the goats, and the owner of the second set of prints was a Goron who had gone along the stream in search of a tasty, rocky snack. That left only the third and final set to chase down.

Link leaped up his ladder two rungs at a time, flung open his door and hurried inside, rather nervous and irate all at the same time about what he might find. Sherroch, on the other hand, had some trouble in getting his overbalanced Goron body up the ladder. Meanwhile, Link couldn't believe quite why he did it, but he called to his faithful mare and heard a somewhat distant answering whinny. He looked everywhere and couldn't find her. By that time, his Goron companion had finally overcome the obstacle of the ladder and he aided in the search too.

They heard her again. Were her neighs coming from the floor? Exasperated and confounded, Link lit his lantern and all but threw himself down the dark hole to his basement. There was Epona, who whinnied again at the sight of her beloved master. Then, from the mare's side came Ilia, who stroked the horse's head fondly.

"H-hello, Link," she said.

~O~

Turns out, Ilia just wanted to spend some time with Epona, but since Link was always taking her away to ride her or use her for work or whatever, the young woman decided to take the mare somewhere where Link surely wouldn't dream of finding them.

How did she get Epona into Link's basement, you say? Well, she just used her charm and Epona followed her like a puppy.

Link forgave Ilia, of course, but he had a devil of a time getting his horse out. And as for Sherroch, he went back home ecstatic that he'd solved his first case. Later he moved to Castle Town and became a private detective.

~ Fin ~

This is based on a story one of my sisters made up when we were out in the garden digging up carrots. That was in May of 2008. I wrote it down shortly after, and hence am still able to look back on it. In trying to determine the story to write for this year's anniversary, I eventually decided to bring this one out of the mothballs of my computer, dust it off, spruce it up, give it a bit of a spin of my own, and publish it for the world to see. My thanks go to my sister, who had a pretty good imagination and a love of the game even then.

Let me know if you'd like me to PM you the story as my sister told it to me.

See you later...

11-19-2020 ~ Published