Link's Awakening

Chapter Twenty: Animal Village

Now that the rain had finally stopped, and the sand on the beach of Koholint Island was almost dried out, I remember that it was turning out to be a beautiful day… although all that paled in comparison to Marin. Yes, I am aware that I had only known the young woman for a few days, but everything about her was just so perfect, from her hair down to her shoes, and she smelled so wonderful as we sat and talked on the fallen palm tree. Agahnim had been right when he suggested that me spending time with her would have an impact on my decision whether or not to wake the Wind Fish, but the final decision was mine alone… what was I going to do?

After all of the insanity that had been going on since his arrival on the island, it was nice for Link to have the chance to just sit down and relax with someone for a while. Marin wanted to know all about the young man, such as where he was from, and his family and friends, with the added bonus of him being able to forget all about the Wind Fish for a while. So he told her all about his family and friends, including the two great adventures that his father had gone on, and how Link had wanted to have his own life, instead of just being known as the son of a hero.

The young woman had a thousand more questions about Hyrule, and said that she would love to see it sometime, but also that her father and everyone else on the island were convinced that there was nothing beyond the sea. In any other circumstance, the young man would have found a way to make a new boat and simply take Marin away from Koholint, but as Agahnim had recently proved to him, there was no easy way to leave… once again lending credit to the idea that this place was somehow not real.

"Sometimes I wish I was a seagull." The young woman said, interrupting his thoughts. "Then I could just fly away from her and go anywhere I wanted, and then I could sing for all the people of the world."

"Yeah… I suppose that could be nice." Link replied, deciding to test the waters by putting his hand on top of hers. "You didn't tell me you could sing."

She didn't pull her hand away, which was a good sign, and just carried on like everything was normal, explaining to him that she had been invited to sing at the Honey Festival over in Animal Village later that afternoon. This was why she had been down at the beach in the first place, warming up her voice before spotting the young man, and now he really did want to hear what Marin sounded like. If her voice was as perfect as the rest of her, then whatever the young woman sang was going to be a treat indeed, and then the young woman suddenly stood up, pulling him away from the shore by the hand.

"Come on, Link, let's go together." She said happily. "You can be my date to the Honey Festival."

There was no way he was going to argue with that, since the young man wanted any excuse he could find to spend more time with her, so Link got up from the fallen tree, and the two of them started walking hand in hand. Back the way he came, and right past Zelda's old cottage, Marin led him back into what looked like the southern edge of the prairie he had seen while trying to find Tracy, but that was as far north as they went… and good thing, too, since Prince Richard and his guards were probably not very happy with him right about now.

For such a small island, it sure had a diverse set of climates, such as the forest, prairie, and swamp that Link had already seen, and now the landscape was starting to get sandier as they headed east. Not like the white sands of the beach, but simply less grassy to the point where there were large patches of tan colored dirt, while the air was becoming dry, which… made it not make much sense when the two of them came up to a shallow creek that should have been surrounded by grass on both sides even in a more arid climate.

The path ended right at the edge of the creek and continued on the other side, while a collection of rocks and gravel were visible just below the water's surface as if it had once been the way across, but washed away. Marin suggested that they should take their shoes off in order to stop them from getting wet, but Link had a better idea, making the young woman cry out in surprise when he suddenly picked her up into his arms. The boots he had stolen from Prince Richard were very high quality, and therefore waterproof, so the young man simply walked across the shallow creek with her in his arms, and then gently set her back down once they were on the other side.

"My hero." She said with a slight smile. "Come on, we're almost there."

Resuming their walk, this time with Marin linking arms with him so that they had to walk closer together, which the young man didn't mind at all, the land around them became even more dry, but… there was also a new smell in the air. It was sweet, lingering within the breeze, and it took Link a moment to realize that it was honey… well, yeah, simpleton, they were on their way to a honey festival. He also had to admit that he had been curious about Animal Village ever since seeing it on the Koholint Island map at the library, since the name of the place seemed strange… at least it did until they reached the village limits.

"Would you look at that?" He said to himself. "Huh… Animal Village."

At first glance, the place looked a lot like Mabe Village, with a similar layout, and the same kind of buildings, but with two important differences. The first was that instead of being surrounded with trees, this place was bordered on three sides by rocky hills, and instead of people… and the young man had to rub his eyes for this one… it was populated by animals. Yes, even after rubbing his eyes a second time, Animal Villages was occupied with person size, upright walking, clothes wearing… animals… and they were very happy to see Marin.

Speaking like people, while smaller versions of the animals ran around and played like any other children, the animals led them into the village, where a few others from Mabe Village were already present, to where… to where a very large bear in a chef's hat was stirring what looked like a caldron filled with golden honey that was bubbling over a fire. The whole place smelled absolutely wonderful, and, well… you figure if any animal knew how to properly cook up some honey, it would be a bear… right?

And cook it up he did; there was a large cake that the bear used a spoon to pour some honey on like a glaze, and some strangely colored bread that the honey was spread on like butter, and that was just the beginning. Thankfully, there was plenty of actual food as well, since Link was worried about getting sick from too much honey, but then the young man saw something that surprised him. First, there were a couple of familiar looking children who were playing with some of the animals, while Crazy Tracy from the health spa watched over them, and then…

"I'm glad you could make it, Junior." Agahnim said, startling the young man by putting his arm around him. "The Honey Festival is certainly one of the highlights of life here on Koholint… and look, you even brought a date."

"You… you're Agahnim!" Marin exclaimed. "Link, you didn't tell me you know the great hero of Koholint."

Honestly, Link wasn't sure what to say, but thankfully the wizard took care of that for him by suggesting that the young woman do a song for them. The people and animals agreed, happily urging her to perform, even though the festival hadn't officially started yet… but then the young man was distracted from everything else when he saw that Richard was there as well. The Prince noticed him at the same time, and immediately reached for the new sword on his belt… but then Agahnim held up his hand, and Richard backed down. Link didn't understand how his friend could have become so great here that even the Prince obeyed him, not that Richard didn't scowl and turn away just as Marin was getting ready to sing.

"I know the festival hasn't started yet." The young woman began. "And I know you all probably want to hear Manbo's Mambo, but you know I always save that one for last, so… I'll sing the Ballad of the Wind Fish."

The name of the song caught Link's attention, even though he was busy keeping one eye on Prince Richard, and then everyone fell silent as Marin began to sing. Her song was lovely, slow paced and almost like a lullaby, but as much as the young woman's voice was making him fall for her even more, the words were not what caught his attention the most. It was the fact that the tune of the song she was singing was the exact same one that the young man kept hearing every time one of the Instruments of the Sirens was nearby.

A larger crowd was gathering now, with everyone around seemingly mesmerized by this beautiful song, and even Prince Richard was calm now as everyone except for Agahnim and Link began to slowly sway back and forth. The wizard leaned in and gave Tracy a kiss on the cheek before returning his attention to the song, and when it was over, everyone applauded as if they suddenly came back to life. Now the crowd was demanding more from her, with several of them insisting on hearing Manbo's Mambo, whatever that was, so Marin finally gave in, beginning to sing a much faster and happier song that made everyone pair up to start dancing.

However, just as Link was trying to find a way to be able to dance with the young woman, her latest song and all other sounds around him became muffled while… while the Ballad of the Wind Fish could barely be heard coming from somewhere behind him. The people and animals danced and carried on while Marin danced and sang the song, but… the music the young man could hear was hard to resist… like he was supposed to follow it… follow it through the small path that went between the rocky hills that bordered Animal Village to where another Instrument of the Sirens probably awaited him.