Sorry I haven't been updating! I've been lazy. I've had this half-done for a while. I finished it a couple days ago, but I never got around to uploading it. So, if you need a recap, Zelda regained her memory at the sound of the Song of Time, and now she and Link are fleeing the town.

As soon as the couple had left the store, Link had donned the stony-faced mask. He disappeared into the shadows with Zelda. They made their way to the city walls, but they were stopped by the gates. They were closed and locked.

Link looked for a way out. "There," he pointed to the wooden rooftop of a tower on the wall. He pulled the longshot off his belt and awkwardly grabbed Zelda with his other hand. With a clean shot, the pointed end of the chain shot out of the longshot and lodged itself into the wood. Link barely had time to brace himself for the intense pulling that came next. Just as planned, however, they landed on the edge of the wall.

"Well, now what?" hissed Zelda.

Link smiled as he took off the mask and stowed it in his bag, saluted her, and threw himself off the wall to the outside. Zelda gasped, watching him plummet to the unforgiving ground below. Thinking he would land in the moat, he landed in a somersault, and stood up. Zelda narrowed her eyes. She was desperate to make him see that she wasn't a helpless princess. Almost as daring as he, she jumped from the wall, landing in the icy waters of the moat.

"Are you okay?" inquired the hero, extending his hand. She glared at him, pulling herself out.

"I'm fine. Wet, but fine," she said. The doors of the wall opened, four armored guards marching out. Link shoved Zelda back into the water. "You b—"

"Hey!" called a guard. Link stiffened.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you that kid, aw, what's your name...? You used to hang out by the castle gates all the time. Little hero boy, that's what the guys called you." The guard laughed.

One of his colleagues spoke up next, "Yeah, and weren't you brought in for questioning just a few days ago?"

"Yeah, you were, weren't you?"

"Well, search is over, guys! We've got the kidnapper right here, I bet."

"Excuse me, gentlemen," said Link with a mocking smile, "what are you talking about?"

"The princess. She's missing."

"Yeah, the royal majesty's thinkin' she was kidnapped."

"And I think we got the kidnapper here."

"Yeah, I reckon so." The four guards closed in on Link. He sighed, trying to think on his toes.

"But, if I kidnapped her... where is she?" The hero pointed out in the tone of the tone of his worst childhood enemy, Mido.

"IN THE MOAT!" yelled the fourth guard, "Yeah! I saw you push someone in there!"

The four knights peered into the water, seeing Sheik's blank expression. She pulled herself out of the water again. She said nothing, pulling off the Sheikah facade perfectly. Silently, she tried to dry herself.

"Oh," the first guard sighed, "That is definitely not the princess."

"Keep an eye out for her, will you?"

"Don't think this isn't over, little man."

"What is a Sheikah doing in the moat?" The four guards looked at one another, pondering the fourth's inquiry, none of them coming up with an answer. None dared to ask Sheik, nor Link, and they left as quickly as they'd come, marching down the path to Kakariko Village.

"That was close," sighed Zelda, brushing hair out of her face. She could see Link struggling to keep composed. "What?" He burst into laughter.

"For a Sheikah, you're not very graceful."

"Oh, really? Let's see how graceful you are when I-" As she tried to push him into the freezing waters, he dodged, moving quickly and simply. He moved only one foot at a time, not doing anything unmanageable for any other person of his age. Zelda dropped her arms. "Fine, you've won this round." She grimaced at her loss.

"So, where are we going?" asked the princess.

"Does it matter?"

"Not really, no."

"Then I guess the question becomes: where are we going first?"

"So, where are we going first?"

Link nodded, taking her hand and pulling her onto a trail. "You see, once we have a horse, we're golden! So, we're off to Lon Lon Ranch."

The two walked in silence. Zelda looks at her companion. He had changed, a complete 180 degree change. In just a few minutes, Link had transformed from the angry, defeated young man in a questioning room into the dashing, witty boy in the Keaton mask.

The duo made their way to Lon Lon Ranch just in time for dinner. Seeing as neither of them had brought any food along with them, Link hoped that Talon would offer him a meal. Zelda stopped just before the gate. "I probably shouldn't come along, should I?" she said with a sigh.

"No, I guess not. I'll try to sneak you some supper, though. I doubt it will be as grand as you are used to," her companion jested.

Zelda scowled at him.

Without another word, Link stepped through the wooden gate and into the ranch.

"LINK!" came the squealing voice of a certain redhead. "You're here!" Malon dropped two buckets of milk to come sprinting over to him.

"Um, yeah, Malon," coughed the hero, "Nice... to see you...?"

The rancher's daughter's eyes sparkled with tears of joy. Her knight in shining armor had returned to her.

"Why are you here? What's going on? I thought you moved to the city! Would it be strange if I called you Fairy Boy?"

"To get my horse, to get my horse, yes I did, and I guess not..."

"Oh! Epona..." Malon looked nervous. "She hasn't been behaving so well..."

Link looked passed her to watch Ingo being chased by a large mare. He swore under his breath. Grabbing the ocarina from his belt, he began to play the soothing tune that Epona loved so much. Immediately the mare ceased to gallop, and turned to see her master. She came trotting down to meet him.

A grin broke out onto Link's face. "Hey, girl. Long time no see."

The rancher's daughter pouted a bit because Link's reaction to his horse was far more affectionate than his reaction to her. "No better than a horse, am I?" she growled.

The hero patted Epona's head, and then turned. "Can I... buy some milk? I'm... traveling." The redhead smiled extremely falsely.

"Of course, come inside." She rushed to open the door for him.

As expected, Talon was sitting amongst the cuckoos, petting his prized "Super Cuckoos." "Link, m'boy! Come to marry my girl, have ya?"

Link appeared mortified.

"I'm just messin' with ya! What do ya need? Milk? A cuckoo? To marry my daughter? Kidding, kidding!" The quite pudgy rancher's hair had thinned quite a bit, and his cheeks were still as red as ever, and his mustache was still as poofy as ever.

"I'd like a couple of bottles of milk, if that would be all right..." Link swallowed nervously.

"I'll get that, but not until after dinner, all right? You've got to be starving if you walked all the way here from the capital! Sit down, sit down! I'll get you some milk, some food, and we'll catch up, okay?" Talon pushed the warrior down into a chair and shooed his cuckoos away from the table.

Malon slid into the seat next to him. She leaned in close and asked, "So how's city life?", causing Link to almost jump out of his chair and fall onto the floor. He kept it together somehow.

"It's fine."

"Where're ya goin'?"

"I dunno."

"How long you gonna be gone?"

"I dunno."

"Who ya goin' with?"

"Nobody."

"Why ya leavin'?"

Link thought about that one. He couldn't tell the rancher girl that he was actually leaving with Princess Zelda to shield her transformation of sorts from the rest of the world... and for some reason that Impa didn't explain. "I dunno. Got bored of the city, I guess."

"You could always stay here."

"I like traveling."

Before Malon could fire another question at him, Talon emerged from the kitchen with a tray of food. "It's leftovers," he announced, placing bowls of potatoes and corn, a platter of roasted cuckoo (not his prized Super Cuckoos, though), and a pitcher of milk. "Well, let's eat!" Piling on heaping portions of the meal onto his plate, the ranch owner looked hungrily at the victuals. Just as he was about to take the first bite...

"Daddy!" shrieked the redheaded rancher girl. "We haven't thanked the goddesses for this food!"

Talon looked disappointed. "Well, honey, it's leftovers. Didn't we already thank them yesterday?"

"It's always good to pray. Think about it, if we aren't good to the goddesses, why should they be good to us? Have you ever thought about that? They could curse our horses with a deadly plague! They could make all of the cuckoos feathers fall off! All of our cows could stop giving milk!" Malon stabbed her fork in her father's direction with ever statement.

"All right, all right," mumbled Talon. "We thank the goddesses for blessing us with this meal." He looked quickly over to his daughter for approval. She smiled happily and nodded.

After a meal full of good food and awkward conversation, Link stood up and announced his departure. He was forcefully given the leftovers of the meal, three bottles of milk, and an uncomfortable hug from the redhead.

"Don't be a stranger, now," called Malon as she watched Link pack up his things onto Epona and ride off. She frowned as he left, hoping she would see her knight in shining armor once again.

"I'm back."

Zelda looked up at the voice. She looked bored. And hungry.

A/N: How was it? Worth the wait? I'll get working on the next one soon, don't you worry!