Here's Part 2! As always, feedback is highly appreciated. I'm still feeling pretty ambivalent about this story, so tell me if you like it! (Or, perhaps more importantly, tell me if you don't—did some corny line just make you roll your eyes and stop reading? Tell me before you go!)
Ralis floated above him, a sad look on his face. "Link," he said. "You failed me."
"No," Link tried to say, but his throat was tied shut. He couldn't speak.
"You abandoned me." Ralis had tears in his eyes. They began to fall, plunking onto Link's face. "You left me. Just like my father left me, and my mother. Like your father and mother."
Link tried again to speak, to apologize, but the words wouldn't come. He couldn't breathe. There was a sharp pain in his head. Ralis moved in front of him, but the tears continued to fall. There were so many of them. They covered Link's whole body, light and sharp and icy cold.
"You left me." Ralis punched him in the stomach.
No, thought Link.
"You abandoned me." He punched him again. Link felt like he had to vomit.
No.
"You killed me!" Ralis's face was contorted in anger, and he punched him again, just below the ribcage. This time, something came up, but it wasn't vomit. It was cold and wet—water.
No!
Ralis began to change. His face was still angry, but it was fading. He punched again, and Link spluttered more water. "Come back!" said Ralis.
I'm sorry!
"He's waking up!" said Ralis. "Come back to us, Link!" His voice was deeper now. His face had changed. Become longer. Paler. He punched him again.
The dam broke. Water gushed forth from Link's mouth, mixed with the foul taste of bile. Ralis's face was gone. There was a wall pressing into his side. It was soft. Grass.
Link threw up again. More water came out, and more bile. His eyes were open, but they felt fuzzy. He tried to roll onto his back, but something strong tightened around his arm, keeping him pinned to the side. Hands.
His chest was burning. He needed oxygen. Without his meaning to, his lungs opened up like a pair of Like-Likes and sucked the air in through his mouth and down his windpipe.
The stinging in his head, the burning in his chest, and the fuzziness in his eyes—it all disappeared, and everything was suddenly clear. He was lying in the muddy grass, on his side, and he was breathing. The air was glorious. He pushed himself to his hands and knees and tried to breathe again. Instead, he coughed. More water trickled from his mouth. He breathed in. He coughed. He breathed. He breathed again. He stared at the ground between his hands, and he became aware that it was still raining.
He sat back on his knees, breathing deeply, and feeling as if all his energy had been sucked from him.
There was a warm hand on his back. "Are you all right?"
He rolled his head to the side. It was Rusl. Link nodded, feebly.
Rusl put an arm around Link's head. He pulled him close. "Good gods," he breathed. "I really thought we'd lost you."
"I'm okay, Rusl."
"Can you stand up?"
Rusl helped him to his feet. His legs were shaky. All that swimming. That's right, he'd been swimming. He touched his right arm to his chest, but it felt empty. His eyes flew open.
"Ralis," he said. He meant to shout it, but his voice was hoarse and it came out as a mild croak. "Ralis," he said again, with a little more strength.
"He's fine," said Rusl.
"Ralis!"
"He's here," said Rusl. "He's fine. Look."
Rusl turned him around, and there were Telma and Renado. They had a bundle of blanket between them. A blue head stuck out of the top.
"Ralis!" said Link.
Ralis looked up. Met his eyes. "Link," he said softly.
Link found he could breathe again. He was deathly cold, and soaked to the bone. He remembered he was only wearing his leggings. "My clothes," he said, looking around. "Where are they?"
"Telma has them," said Rusl. "Here." He draped a cloak around Link's shoulders. It provided a small amount of warmth, but not much. "Are you okay to walk?"
"Yes," said Link.
"Then let's get back to the house. You'll freeze to death out here."
As they walked back across town, Link found his mind clearing and a small amount of strength returning to him. Every part of his body ached, but he could walk, and the queasiness in his stomach settled. He could look up without feeling dizzy.
Rusl's arm was tight around his shoulders, and he didn't move it until they were safe inside Renado's house. Without the howling wind and the pounding rain, things seemed unnaturally silent. Colin was standing by the hearth, tossing logs onto a crackling fire. He looked up when they entered.
"Link!"
"He's fine," said Rusl. "They're both fine."
Link was wrapped in a blanket and deposited in a chair before the fire. Ralis was on the other side of the hearth rug. His eyes were open, and he was staring vacantly into the fire.
"Are you okay?" said Link.
"She wasn't there," said Ralis quietly. "I thought for sure… she'd be there."
Link's heart sank. He didn't know what to say—or trust his voice to remain steady, for the boy's sake—so he didn't respond. He turned his attention to the dancing flames and allowed them to mesmerize him.
Before very long, Link felt the warmth returning to his fingertips, his legs, his torso. He sighed and sat back in the armchair, letting the heat envelop him. He became aware that he was still in his wet underclothes, and he asked Telma if he could go change. She hesitated, but there must have been some color returning to his cheeks because she eventually agreed.
It felt good to strip off the wet cloth and replace it with a dry shirt and leggings. Link looked at himself in the mirror. He looked a little more pale than usual, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His hair was still damp and fell in clumps around his face. He looked, as Uli would say, like death warmed over. He smoothed out his hair in an effort to look a little more composed. It didn't help much.
Rusl was waiting for him in the kitchen. He held a small mug. "Telma says to give you this," he said. "Should calm your nerves, or something."
Link took the mug gratefully. There was a very small amount of liquid at the bottom. It was warm and smelled delicious. He downed it in one sip and heaved a sigh, depositing the empty mug on the table.
"How are you feeling?" said Rusl.
"Better," said Link. "I was a little dizzy, but I'm okay now."
"How's your breathing?"
"Fine."
"Are you still cold?"
"No," said Link. "A little chilly, I guess, but I'm warming up." He held out his arm and shook the sleeve. "It helps to be dry."
Rusl nodded. He appeared to be thinking hard, struggling with something. His brow furrowed. He grabbed both of Link's shoulders and held him firmly. "You scared us all half to death," he said, and he gave Link a little shake. "Do you know that?"
Link's eyes widened, but he realized he shouldn't be surprised. He had very nearly drowned, after all, and almost gotten Ralis killed. He didn't answer.
"What in the gods' names were you thinking, taking a boy that sick outside on a night like this? The last thing he needs is cold and rain. You can't see a thing out there. It's no wonder you fell into that pool."
"We didn't fall," said Link. "We jumped."
Rusl gaped at him.
"Well, he jumped," Link said hurriedly. "And I jumped in after him. But we didn't fall—it was completely on purpose."
"You—he—jumped—? Why in the gods' names—"
"He wanted to see his mother," said Link.
Rusl stopped. "His mother?"
"He wanted to talk to her one last time. He was swimming out to her tomb, but he started to sink, so I went in after him."
"Link, his mother's dead," said Rusl. "You know that as well as he does."
"But she came to me."
Rusl hesitated.
"Ralis thought she might still be here."
"But you said she disappeared," said Rusl. "After you found Ralis, you said you went back to her tomb. She said she could rest peacefully, now that her son was safe. Right?"
"Yes," said Link.
"And did she return tonight?"
Link looked at the ground. Very softly, he said, "No."
Rusl considered this for a moment. "So you had no reason to believe she would?"
Link shook his head.
"Then why did you go, for the gods' sakes?"
"He asked me to," said Link.
Rusl narrowed his eyes, and the color rose in his cheeks. "He asked you to?" Link was suddenly aware of the height advantage Rusl had over him, and the way he was clenching and unclenching his fists made Link just a little bit uncomfortable. He shrank under the glower. "I supposed you would have walked him clear back to Zora's Domain if he'd asked you to," Rusl said severely. "Use your head, boy! You knew she wasn't coming back. The kid is sick as a dog. It's pouring out. You can't honestly tell me this all seemed like a good idea to you!"
It hadn't seemed like a good idea, really, but he had done it, anyway. Why? "He's used to the water," Link said, realizing as the words came out just how lame it sounded. Nevertheless, he tacked on an explanatory, "He is a Zora."
"Yes, he's used to the warm spring water above Lake Hylia," Rusl snapped. "Frigid air and stinging rain, however, he won't have had much experience with."
Link hung his head. It had been a stupid thing to do, that much was becoming more and more obvious. But he had known it was stupid from the beginning. So what was it that had convinced him? How had he been talked into such a dangerous mission, one whose goal would be so impossible to achieve?
The answer hit him, then, hit him so suddenly the space behind his eyes grew hot. He realized in the space of an instant that the whole thing had hardly been about Ralis at all, and he began to see what was so truly awful about the fact that he had failed. Link's skin grew cold, and he swallowed hard.
Rusl, seeing the change come over his face, cocked an eyebrow and said, "Well?"
How could Link explain it? He felt so horribly selfish. "Ralis's father is dead," he said tentatively, "and now his mother is, too. I don't think he has any other family. He's… he's all alone."
"And you figured getting him killed would be a good solution."
"No. I wanted him to see his mother." Link looked up, to see if Rusl understood, but Rusl was still watching him, waiting for him to continue, so Link turned his eyes downward again. "I wanted him to have one last happy memory with his mother before losing her forever. I just thought, if it had been me…" His voice cracked. He took a moment to steady himself, and then he said, very slowly, "If I had had the chance to see my mother, just one last time, I know I would have risked my life to do it. I would still give anything for the memory of her face… her smile. I don't have even that, and I just thought, maybe, if I could give that to Ralis, maybe it would be like…" He took a quavering breath. "I just… didn't want him to end up like me. Alone. No memories, nothing. Nobody left to…" He couldn't do it. He swallowed a lump the size of his fist and repeated, in a soft voice, "Nobody."
There was a long silence. Link stared at the ground, feeling more miserable than he had all night. Because that was the truth of it, he knew now. He had wanted to give Ralis the memory of his mother. And he'd failed. And now Ralis would be just like him, alone in the world, orphaned, no family, no one to be close to, without even a last smiling image of his mother to help him sleep at night.
"Nobody?" repeated Rusl. His voice no longer sounded angry—just tired, even a little sad…
Without warning, he dealt Link a swift cuff in the head, just behind the temple. Link touched his head and stared at him. "Ow!"
"Idiot," Rusl murmured. Then he wrapped both arms around Link and pulled him into a fierce embrace. Link was slack with surprise, but when he recovered, he felt his eyes prick with tears, and he found himself returning the hug, holding on desperately… to what? He didn't know.
Rusl put a hand on the back of his head and held it gently. His hand was warm, and his hold was secure. Link choked out a strangled sob, and then another.
"Nobody," Rusl said again. "Who showed you how to ride a horse? Who gave you your first sword? Who has clothed and fed you all these years, taught you everything you know, how to fish, how to hunt? Let you live in his house? Raised you as his own son?" Rusl pulled away and held Link at arm's length. The boy's eyes were pink and glistening. "You have never been anything less than a son to me, Link," Rusl said firmly. "Or to Uli. Or a brother to Colin. We are your family, and we always have been. So don't you ever, ever let me hear you say you don't have anybody, you understand? I'll tan your miserable hide I ever hear that from you again. Because you do have someone. You have me. Do you understand? You have me."
Link stared at him. He felt something warm and soft spread out from his chest. It settled the churning in his stomach, and it moved through his arms and legs and up through his head until his whole body felt warm, slightly tingly, and very calm. He swallowed hard.
Rusl gave him a small shake. "Do you understand me?"
Link nodded. "Yes." He felt his face growing hot, and he blinked a couple of times. "Yes, I understand."
Rusl pulled him close again, and Link buried his face in a broad shoulder, trembling as he fought back his tears.
"Thank you," said Link.
"Hush," said Rusl, and he ran his broad hand through Link's hair as the boy sobbed into his shoulder.
When Ralis was ordered back to bed, he went without a fuss. Telma wanted to stay and watch over him. "Make sure he doesn't get any more bright ideas," she said, shooting Ralis a look that was probably meant to be intimidating but mostly came across as affectionate.
Renado put a hand on Telma's shoulder. "I think he's learned his lesson," he said. "Isn't that right, young man?"
"Yes, sir," said Ralis. "I'll stay here. I'll do whatever you say. I promise."
Telma didn't look entirely convinced, but she allowed herself to be led from the room. Link started to follow Rusl, as well, but Ralis called out his name, stopping him.
Link looked at Ralis, then he looked back at Rusl, who was giving him a very pointed look. "Just one minute," said Link. "I'm not going to do anything. I just want to talk to him."
Rusl sighed. He pointed a finger at Link. "I'm coming back in five minutes. You'd better have cleared out."
"Yes, sir."
Rusl left the room, shaking his head.
Link turned to Ralis. "Are you okay?"
Ralis didn't look at him. He was gazing into a corner of the room, an odd little half-smile on his lips.
"Ralis?"
"She's here, Link," he said.
Link's eyes popped. He glanced quickly around the room. "Right now? Where?"
"Right there," said Ralis. "She's smiling at me."
Link followed Ralis's gaze, but he saw nothing.
"You can't see her," said Ralis. "That's all right."
Link put a hand on Ralis's arm. "What's she saying?"
"She was cross with me for endangering you like that," said Ralis. "Endangering myself." He turned to look at Link. "I'm sorry."
Link shook his head. "Don't be. I shouldn't have let you go."
Ralis turned back to the corner. He smiled. "She says you have a kind heart. She says you understand me."
Link smiled. He nodded.
Ralis cocked his head, as though listening, and his face grew somber. He nodded. "I will."
"What did she say?" said Link.
Ralis ignored him. "No," he said to the wall. "I understand." There was another pause, and the prince's eyes began to well with tears. "I love you, too," he whispered. "Good-bye… Mother."
From the way his eyes drooped, Link guessed the queen was gone. Forever? It was impossible to tell.
"She says I must be strong," said Ralis. "For my kingdom. She was almost gone when she heard us at the tomb. She came back, this time, but she won't be able to again."
Link nodded. "Sometimes, you just have to move forward. Make do with what you have."
Ralis smiled through his tears. "Yes."
Link took Ralis's arm in both his hands. "Ralis," he said. He looked fiercely into the boy's eyes. "Don't forget her. Your mother. Don't ever forget her face."
Ralis returned his gaze. "I won't," he said.
"Promise me."
"I promise," said Ralis. "I won't forget."
Link released his arm. "Good," he said. He went to the door. "Good night, Ralis."
"Good night, Link," said Ralis. "And—thank you."
Link shut the door. He glanced toward Rusl's room, door halfway open, light spilling into the hall. He gave a little smile.
"No, Ralis," he said quietly. "Thank you."
The end.