Entwined fingers gripped her mane hard, creating tender patches of skin well beneath the white-blond twine. Hooves hit the dirt, echoing deep into the near-silent rustles of the night field.
Hyrule field- he'd had to fight his way through this place countless times. The undead wolves, the boarish boar-riding giants, Ganon… What sort of place could so suddenly go from absolute turbulence to this mind-numbing peace? Yes, he'd wanted peace. He'd fought for peace.
But peace was killing him.
Epona ripped through the small tufts of reed-grass, paving the way for… no one. No grotesque half-human goblinoids, no twisted, tainted Twili… No Midna.
A pang of guilt sank into his stomach. He'd hated her once, twice, for weeks… Every time she'd shown her face then, he could only think of how long he'd have to wait before he could hack it off. He'd been so sure that little… thing, that she'd been evil. And she had! There's no way her wicked ways could be described as anything but evil, at first. Even now, they hadn't changed. He just wanted them back.
Epona leaped over an oddly placed gate without any conscious thought from her rider. He glanced up, loosening his grip on her mane slightly. She'd taken him back to Ordon ranch. The corners of his mouth tipped downward- he hadn't wanted to come back here, not yet. He still needed to work things out.
Perhaps he could still run? He repositioned himself on Epona's back and bent his knees inward, circling about to jump the gate again. Mind elsewhere, he finally found some small reprieve from his racing thoughts, preparing to jump the gate.
Epona soared over, far clearing the slab of wood. The artificial wind flipped through his cap, but he couldn't care. He felt as though he flew again, shot up through a cannon… trickled up through the sky. That grin flashed inside again, her grin.
His chest constricted severely as he watched. He'd lost his breath, Epona bucked after her landing, and he fell hard onto his still-laden back. Exhausted, her whinny and clopping hoof beats seemed a world away to Link. She'd run, he knew, as he stared involuntarily at the bright sky above and the dark edges flittering about his vision.
His breath returned in short spurts, barely enough to keep him from falling asleep. Stuck motionless, he relaxed for the first time in… Not that time actually meant anything to him now. He could be fifty, a thousand, dead, and still nothing would change. His life felt hopeless, worthless, now. Ganon no longer posed a threat. His tenure as 'The Hero of Twilight' meant less than… less than 'poor, peasant, goat-farmer from Ordon.' He didn't want to live in the palace, he didn't want to become a knight, and he definitely didn't want a place on the royal court. He couldn't even imagine himself dressed in gold-laden magnificence, to match that of her Hylian Royal Highness.
He'd grown fond of the odd green tunic Faron had bestowed- rather magicked- onto him. For days, Midna had laughed at his expense for this outfit, and the one before it, and the sudden change, and his reaction to Faron's new gift, and a million things. Goddesses, what he'd do- to have her back and joking and sporadically screeching over his stupidity! Anything-
The light of the sky above, even in the afternoon hours, made his eyes ache.
He'd finally regained his breath enough to turn away from the sun and attempt to stand. Forcing his shaking legs to take his weight, numb from clutching Epona's sides, he brushed the dust from his front.
"Link!" An unplaced squeal caught in the air around the newly standing Link, and Ilia ambushed him, tying him about the middle with her arms. "Is everything alright now?" The bags under her eyes worried him, and how thin she'd gotten. He smiled half-heartedly and squeezed her some, reminiscent of how they used to hug.
"Yes. Z… The Princess said so anyway." The slender girl backed off from him, realizing embarrassedly that she'd latched herself onto him much too long.
"What's that supposed to mean? Do you not think so?" A small, hidden frown rested between her eyebrows. He worried her now, but she should have been worried then. Losing her memory hadn't been her fault, but he hadn't lost his. –No, that was a selfish way to think. Irrational. The Princess wouldn't approve.
Ha! But Midna would… have. At the very least, she would have understood. Midna had never liked Ilia, as far as he could tell. She hated that his best friend, that Ilia, couldn't fight or think or do anything useful. She, though she'd used Link's need to rescue her, despised that this girl always played the damsel in distress.
"Link? You in there?" She peered with her pale green eyes into his face, hoping to get a glance at what he was thinking.
"Yes. No. I…" Link stammered, pulled back into the real world by her voice, by her question. Was he even there? He wanted to stay in his imaginary world, where he, and Midna, and even Zelda could fight together for something again. Hyrule, the Twilight realm… anything, what didn't even matter.
"You what, Link?" She put her hands forward, hoping to comfort him, but deathly afraid of what he might do if she touched him. He backed away fervently, ignoring the hurt look on her face, as callously as he had ignored Zelda's.
"I don't know." He couldn't take staring at his old life anymore, his old self that still lived in her eyes. He ran, horse-less, still far outdistancing the poor farm-girl, and Zelda, and Midna, and the Goddesses, and… everyone.
He could escape almost everyone…