Link woke with a huge yawn. He looked around groggily wondering where he was. He looked around some more before realizing he was in his house in Ordon. His mind was still processing this information as he started to climb out of his warm bed.
The party! Ilia! Of course! The memories flooded back as he perched on the edge of his bed. Link was never a morning person but today was especially bad. Ilia... Link's hand subconsciously went up to his cheek. Link groaned openly.
'Why'd she have go and do that?' Link wondered darkly. He reached over and grabbed his shirt and tunic and started to pull it over his head but decided against it. He threw it into a heap in the corner where he had left his boots and weapons the night before and jumped down to the lower level of the house. He wandered over to the trunk where he kept his spare clothes. He pulled out a clean tunic and started to put it on. After he was fully dressed he walked over to the cupboard. He pulled it open and found some crackers and raisins. Link considered if it would be a good idea to eat them since they had been in his cupboard since who-knows-when? He shrugged and started eating them. They weren't too bad, a bit stale but he didn't have time to get anything better.
Link grabbed his weapons out if the corner and walked out of his house. As he climbed down the ladder he looked over to where he had left Epona.
'Annnnnd she's gone. Of course she's gone. Well this day just keeps getting better and better doesn't it.' He thought with a sigh. Link noticed that he had been sighing a lot since the time that he had arrived at Ordon. The thought made him smile slightly before he looked towards the woods. He considered calling Epona but if his suspicions were correct Epona wouldn't come anyway.
Link groaned quietly and started walking towards the village, he figured Talo or Beth would most likely know where Ilia had his horse. Link wandered down to Talo's house and was about to knock on the door when he heard pounding on the side of the house. Curiously Link rounded the house to see what the noise was. It his surprise it was Jaggie pounding nails.
Link purposely snapped a twig to get Jaggie's attention.
"Oh hey! Link it's you, I was wondering if it was Talo trying to play another prank on me." he said with a laugh
Link just smiled and asked what he was doing.
"Oh this?" he asked while pointing at the hammer and nails. "Why we're opening up a new shop! On the side of our house here!" he said with a beaming smile
"A shop?" Link asked in confusion.
"Yeah a shop, Sera decided that she didn't want to run the village shop anymore and so my kind son volunteered to set up one of his shops down here!" Jaggie said glowing with pride. "And just who's going to be runnin' that shop, that's right! Me! Malo gave me all the instructions about how to run the shop and what the layout of it should be."
Link congratulated him and asked when he thought he would be finished.
"Oh, I don't know... Few months maybe?" Jaggie replied uncertainty. Link nodded happily and said that he hoped everything would go well.
"Ha! You and me both kid!" he answered with a crooked grin.
Link grinned back and asked where he could find Talo.
"Hmm, I think I heard that he was going to go swimming on the far side of the lake with Colin and Beth. You know, where there's that circular area of water with that small island." he said while pointing past the houses to where Link had retrieved the cradle from the monkey. Link turned back to Jaggie and thanked him before running off to the docks. As he ran Link scanned the sky to figure out what time it was. He started to run faster when he saw that it was getting to be close to 10:00.
'Darn it Ilia!' he thought, 'I need my horse!'
Link winced as he thought about what Telma would do to him if he was late.
He reached the dock and quickly looked around, Talo and Beth were nowhere in sight. Link sighed and jumped into the cold water. He switched into his Zora outfit as he swam. Then propelled himself into a rapid dive to pick up speed. He climbed up onto the small island where Jaggie had said he would find the kids. Link paused for a few seconds to catch his breath before looking around. His eyes locked with Talo's as he stared down at him wide eyed.
"Link!" He said surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you had already left?!"
Link stood up and dusted himself off before answering "That's because I'm already supposed to be gone." he said with a hint of anger crowding his voice Talo cautiously looked up at Link's face trying to decipher if the anger was directed at him or at someone else. They both turned to see Beth and Colin emerge from beneath the surface of the water.
"Aww Colin! How are you so good at holding your breath?! I can't seem to beat you no matter how much I practice." Beth said with a pout.
Colin smiled with a slight blush. He and Beth started to swim back to the island before noticing Link standing there.
"Link!" Beth cried "Why are you still here? We thought you were leaving early this morning! ...Wait, what are you wearing?"
Link looked down at his clothes. The dark blue of his Zora outfit was a sharp contrast to the green around him.
"It's to let me breathe under water, a gift from the Zoras" He answered in way of explanation
"That so cool!" Talo said "Can you really breath underwater?!"
"Yes but-" Link started to answer
"Of course he can breathe underwater stupid Talo," Beth interrupted "If Link says it can do that then it does" she said pointedly at Talo with her arms crossed (which Link and Colin both found hilarious because she tried to do this as she was treading water)
"Look that's not a big deal but I need your guys' help, Li-" Link tried to say
"Oh be quiet Beth I know that! I just wanted to see if it could do anything else! That's all." Talo broke in
"Guys-"
"That doesn't matter! If it could do something else Link would say it would now wouldn't he?" Beth shot back
"Maybe he just forgot to mention it!" Talo yelled
A fight quickly got underway between the two and eventually just ended in an endless name calling spree until Link got tired of it and splashed some water in their faces.
"Hey! Why'd you do that?" they both asked frowning.
Link looked at them both sternly "I did it to make you two stop fighting and listen up" he answered. They looked sullenly at him but decided not to argue.
"Now listen. I need your guys help. I'm going to be late as it is getting to Hyrule, but I still need to find my horse because somebody has taken her" Link said with a roll of his eyes. The three kids looked at each other
"It was probably Ilia" Talo said a after a moment
"Yeah, it seems like something she would do" Beth said with a roll of her eyes
"She's probably at the spring" Colin said quietly Link mentally kicked himself for not thinking of that earlier. He thanked Colin very much and bid goodbye to the three before jumping back into the water.
Link arrived out of breath at the Ordon Spring. He looked up from his hunched over state to see Ilia sitting on the grassy area surrounding the water. Epona pranced around the warm water happily trying to nip at the passing fairies. Link whistled and Epona ran over and nuzzled his face. He laughed and stroked her face. Ilia slowly got up from the ground and walked over to Link.
"So I guess you found me" she said with a small laugh as she looked down at the ground.
Link sighed "You really need to stop stealing my horse" He said.
She answered with a smile "I didn't steal her; I just took her to make sure she was a set for your ... trip" she said, the word with a slight catch in her voice. Link said nothing and just looked at her for a while. She seemed to be doing everything in her power to not meet his stare.
"Ilia." Link said after a while
She twitched slightly but didn't look up.
"Ilia, look at me" he said more firmly
She seemingly tore her gaze away from to ground and forced herself to look in his eyes. Link saw a flood of emotions run behind her eyes.
"There's nothing that can stop me from going on this trip... Or any other one like it. But that doesn't mean that I'm never going to come back." Link paused and waited to see her reaction. A shot of pain passed over her face as she tilted her head slightly away.
"I need you to stay here and care for everyone in my place." he told her gently "and I need you to stop making things harder for me every time I decide to do something that you don't agree with, ... Do you think that you're able to do that?" Link asked her seriously.
After a long pause Ilia answered "Well, it will be hard" she said with a slight chuckle "but I guess I could try."
Link smiled relieved that she had answered the way she did. Now at least she would let him go without any more distractions.
"Thank you" he said simply as he climbed up into Epona's saddle and looked back down at Ilia. She stroked Epona's nose before backing up to make way for them.
"Thank your father for me ok?" Link asked over his shoulder
"Of course I will. Keep yourself safe." Ilia replied
"Have I ever done otherwise?" Link answered with a grin. He laughed and kicked Epona into a gallop leaving Ilia staring after them.
*Just for future reference Norachre is the province beside Hyrule.