Title: Dark Link

Ch: 5

Written By: Emerald Padparadscha

Over the next few days and nights, it was the same routine, and Malon had grown accustomed to the presence of Dark Link in the stable during the day. He never ventured out from the corner of the room, always staying out of the way of everything, yet always watching no matter what she did. At night, he was always standing or sitting near the back outside wall of the stable, listening keenly with interest to the song that she sang every night.

He hadn't said a single word to her since that one night, and he preferred it that way. He was content with his silence, and since she spoke no to him, he did not speak to her in any way. No contact was really necessary. That is, until one day...

Malon was stroking one of the buckskin horses under her care, feeding it the daily grain, when she noticed something strange about Dark Link that she had not noticed before. His hand bore a long, red scar. Normally she was good about noticing such things. She prided herself on her gift of observation, but this time she wondered why she hadn't noticed it before. She knew it wasn't her place to ask questions, but she found herself asking about it, anyway.

"The scar on your hand. It wasn't there before." She said, then asked, "What happened?"

Dark Link hadn't expected her to speak to him. He answered, however, in his own terms. "I was careless."

"Oh." She nodded once slowly, turning her attention on the horse she was feeding. She rubbed the horse's forehead gently, playing with the long, black bangs with her fingers, then straightened out the bangs once more so they would be out of the horse's eyes. "Why do you come to listen to me every night?"

He frowned, narrowing his eyes at her. "Why do you insist on conversation?"

She herself didn't understand or know, and an answer wasn't on her mind at the time. She tried to think of one, yet nothing came to her. "I don't really know very well." She admitted truthfully, then added, "I suppose I want to get to understand you better."

"Understand?" Dark Link repeated. "There is nothing to understand."

"There is a lot to understand from my point of view." She replied to him, moving away from the horse and looking his way. "I know you're Link's shadow, but I see that you are nothing like Link. Except for your appearance, that is."

Now it was he that didn't quite understand her words. "What are you talking about?"

"You're different. You have a different mind. Probably more unique than Link's. I can judge what Link will answer to any question before anyone even asks him! He's too predicable. You're not predictable at all. I'd like to get to know you."

It was silent for a few seconds, then his reply, "I'm not interested."

Malon sighed. Her attempt at communication with him had failed. Perhaps she could try again sometime, but she knew that it, too, wouldn't go over so well. She took the feed bucket from the horse's stall and walked toward the door. As she opened the door to step out, she stopped, looking back at the corner where she knew Dark Link stood.

"I understand." She said. "But I also understand that you are lonely."

The next day, Dark Link was surprised at himself. He found himself actually thinking about Malon's proposal from the day before. Maybe it was part of Link inside him that compelled him to go forward. Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't. Whatever it may be, he didn't care. There was the part of him that didn't enjoy the company of others too greatly. It was biting at him, though. The urge, that is. Not the urge to destroy Link, but the urge to understand this Malon character more than he did. He delved into the thoughts and memories that Link had about Malon and all that were associated with her. He had felt them before, so he knew where to find them again.

And he was surprised by what he found...

There were memories of laughter and joy there, of two children running and playing with the horses and chickens. There was the sense of embarrassment that came with the name of Fairy Boy that Dark Link discovered. He smiled, knowing that this must be Malon's nickname for Link. There was the same humorous feeling that came with the name Talon, and Dark Link felt that this Talon was a father to Malon. Had to be. He looked deeper into the feelings than the memories. He found he could understand much more from what Link had felt than of his memories. The memories were usually only flashes of an instant, anyway.

In a sudden block of will, Dark Link pulled himself out of the feelings and brought himself back to his own reality. He replaced the wall around his mind that he had been learning to form between his own thoughts and Link's for the past few days. He was sure that he had just felt...lust? Couldn't be any less. He understood to some extent. Link was a Hylian, after all. A man. It was only natural that he would feel the love and lust for Malon when he saw her as a grown woman.

It was then that he heard the door creak open. Looking, he noticed as Malon walked slowly into the stable. In her hands, as per usual, were two buckets of oats. One bucket contained the oats for the two horses that were usually inside the stable, while the other contained a special blend of oats and herbs meant for the cow that seemed to always inhabit one of the stable's stalls. Dark Link watched as she lifted up the special bucket to the cow, holding it there as the cow started to eat. She seemed to watch the cow's eyelashes move up and down as the cow started on her food.

Dark Link didn't understand why he did it, but at he moment he didn't care to debate the why of it. This day, Epoch was the only other beast inside the stable besides the cow. The other horses had been let out to enjoy the sunny day in the pasture. However, Epoch had refused to leave. Dark Link walked over to where Malon had set down the bucket of oats, picked it up, and walked over to the stall where Epoch awaited. He held the bucket up for Epoch to eat out of. The black stallion had no qualms about who held the bucket. The oats were there, and he was to eat. All was fine with him.

Malon watched as Dark Link fed Epoch the grain. Strange it was watching the shadow feeding the black horse, yet it looked so right as it was. Though why Dark Link chose now to choose movement over standing in the corner as he always did confused her. As she held the bucket for the cow, her gaze was on Dark Link and Epoch. Then she noticed something.

"How is it that you can hold that bucket?" She asked, truly wondering the answer. "I've seen you pass through things, and normal objects that can hurt us don't hurt you at all. Yet you can pick up that bucket. You are a shadow, aren't you?"

Dark Link looked at her and nodded. "I am a shadow. I can touch or be touched by physical matter if I want."

The bucket, now empty due to the hungry Epoch, was held out. Dark Link released his concentration to prove his point. The bucket fell through his hand as easily as if there had been nothing but air there in the first place. The bucket clattered to the ground noisily.

Malon didn't know why she asked the question in the first place. "What do you feel like?"

He looked at her strangely. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry." She giggled. "I asked that wrong. I meant, if I touch you, what will I feel? If I reached out with my hand, would it pass right through you?" He nodded affirmatively. Malon then asked, "Can I try?"

Dark Link was taken aback by this. He didn't expect her to ask that. He hadn't expected her to ask that in a hundred years if she or he lived that long. Yet, he did not answer. Nor did he move, so when Malon stepped up to him, he made no movement nor a sound. When she reached out to touch his arm, her hand passed right through his shadowy form. He felt nothing when she did so. Nothing...

Malon, however, felt much. Her hand tingled and felt strangely warm all over. Not warm as in the warmth of a freshly laid egg, but a small warmth that felt almost like water when the sun barely touches the surface. Still, she felt also nothing but air, as if he wasn't there at all. Only the warm and the tingling sensation told otherwise. She removed her hand and held it up, looking at it in curiosity.

"You were warm." She said, smiling slightly. She looked up at him, suddenly realizing their proximity to one another. "I'm sorry. I suppose I thought that you might be cold."

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm cold by nature."

She nodded. "Yes, I know, but you are warm by touch."

"I felt nothing."

That night after darkness found her in her bed, Malon dreamt. Perhaps she had not meant to dream. She didn't have much to dream about. Still, she dreamed, and she remembered her dream well.

At first there was complete darkness. Malon didn't understand it at first. Usually her dreams were filled with color and wondering feelings that encompassed all. Yet now...nothingness. A shadowy world. Suddenly, the light seemed to turn on. She found herself standing in the middle of a field under the light of the stars and a brilliant full moon. In the distance, illuminated by the moonlight, was a figure. It was tall. Taller than her, at least. At first she thought she recognized it. The same figure, the same shape... In any other instant she would have thought that it could be none other than Link...

As she approached the figure, her realization changed. Standing before her was none other than Dark Link himself! Strange, though. She felt no intimidation from him like she usually did. Though his eyes glowed as brightly and as ferociously as they had before, and his figure was as imposing as Ganondorf himself, she felt no fear. Then, almost timidly, she felt a softness against her lips. A brush of wonder against her that she had never felt before. After a moment, she realized that she had closed her eyes in the dream, and when she opened them she discovered...

Malon sat up in her bed with a sudden start, her right hand flying upward to touch her lips. She felt as if she was trembling all over. She knew she must be! After a dream like that, who wouldn't? She didn't even know why she had dreamed something like that! She could remember past dreams that she had about Link that were far from decent, yet to dream something like that about Dark Link...

Dark Link had kissed her. She could feel his own lips against hers. She had felt something against the front of her body. Like a burst of air and water all combined into one had rushed over her. A single passing moment of amazement and wonderment. A thousand thoughts all at once surely had poured over her. It couldn't be described as anything less!

But why...?

Why such a dream about Dark Link...?

Dark Link opened his eyes slowly, his dream fading in his mind like a soft current of wind passing through. Never before had he experienced a dream. He knew what it was on the moment. A dream. Yet what a dream! Why this particular dream had chosen to reveal itself to him was a mystery that he wasn't sure he wanted to be revealed! In his dream, Malon had walked up to him. There was no fear in her eyes. Only a strange wonderment that was almost like she couldn't understand his being there. Then, there was the brief instant when he felt as if something overcame him altogether.

He had felt it when his lips had brushed up against hers, and he had felt it in double when he had wrapped his arms around her to pull her body against his own. Sensations that he hadn't expected ever before to surface erupted like a dormant volcano once again gone active. The sensations slowly died, however, as the dream ended. It just faded from his mind as if it hadn't been there at all.

Yet he knew. Dark Link knew that it was there, and it had been there. Why, he knew it was of his concern, yet he didn't care to understand it just now. Not yet.

The next day, as he stood in the corner and watched her as he always did, Dark Link noticed a strange habit that Malon seemed to have formed. Her eyes would move to watch him suspiciously every now and then. Far more than they had in the past. First her gaze would switch to suspicious and bewilderment, then to wonder and curiosity. He didn't understand what it meant, but he did wonder why she was acting so strange.

He knew he watched her quite frequently enough, yet her watching him all the same was a strange chance of motion. On any normal day he knew he would confront her about it, or perhaps he wouldn't, just standing and watching to see things turn out as they would. This day was no different than a normal day for him. He would confront her about it.

Yet as he tried to take a step foward he found his feet planted still where they were. Neither force or magic held him in his place. It might as well be magic, however, by the way he was feeling. Just the sheer sensation 0f feeling was different...

What did he feel, anyway? He wanted to find out.

That night after Malon had finished her chores and her singing, she went to bed, like always. Dark Link, however, did not return to the stable or roam the Hyrule Plains like he always did. Instead, he used his shadow powers to seep through the dark cracks of the door, moving into the farm house. The first things he noticed were cuccos. They seemed to be all over the place, save for three. Those three cuccos were very content relaxing and sleeping on a man who was sleeping up against something. Talon, he guessed, Malon's father. Dark Link looked to his right where some stairs were that led upward to a door. The second floor. If Malon was not downstairs, then...?

He began to walk up the stairs. So far he had heard not a sound come from the room beyond the door. She should be asleep by this time. It had been nearly an hour since she had entered in the house. Lightly, he touched his hand to the door knob. He knew full well that he did not have to use door knobs. Just a single dark crack would work for him to slip through. And yet, if Malon was to awake and find the door open, then she would not think of him as the one who had entered in her room. The theory worked good for Malon, and better for him.

With a turn, the doorknob clicked, and the door opened. Revealed to him was a room modestly decorated. Simple shelves in one corner with a few books and pots with flowers in them on one wall. A desk and a table opposite. A small dresser near one wall as well, and a small trunk that served probably as some storage area near the foot of the bed. The bed itself was of a good size, though not overly big. Just enough for one or two people, depending on how big the people were. Lying in the middle of the bed, sleeping on her side, was Malon. Dark Link stepped up to the bed and kneeled down by it, looking into her face. She didn't have the worried look she usually did when she was awake. She looked...

...so peaceful...

Her eyelids quivered slightly and he froze. Was she dreaming? She must be. She hadn't made a move to awaken. Strange. Looking upon her face like this made him feel...he didn't know how it made him feel, to tell the truth. He knew that when he had searched Link's feelings before that Link had felt more for this girl than just friendship. Perhaps Link's feelings had influenced him somehow, or he was only feeling the aftereffects of those particular feelings of Link's that had slipped through.

Either way...

...he didn't know why he did it...

...

He reached down and touched his lips lightly to hers, kissing her softly. Just a brief touch. When Dark Link realized what he had done, he pulled away and fell back, unsure of what he had just done. With no resolve, he stood up and bolted out the still open door, not looking back as he ran downstairs and dove through the cracks of the door below. Once outside, he ran to Epoch, mounting the great stallion, and urged him into a fast gallop as he exited Lon Lon ranch as fast as he could manage.

He never saw the smile that had crossed Malon's lips, nor did he know the still tingling sensation that Malon had felt against her soft skin.