Chapter Three:
Stranger
Get up, you lazy oaf! Sweet Goddesses, Link, you sleep as much as a Goron who's had too much rock ale.
The words of Princess Zelda echoed deep inside Link's head as he rose up from the bed. The small little house remained the same as the previous day. It still held a lonely but warming atmosphere with its accommodations made only for two.
Yet, waking up this morning was different for Link. There was no bowl of terrifying remedial food being shoved in his face, and the debilitating ache all over his body from days of being cramped in a barrel seemed to have evaporated from his body. This morning was peaceful.
Thinking about it now, Link knows things had to have started returning to normal. Hearing the princess's nagging words in his head this morning was as if he were right at home in the castle.
But he still knows this place is not the castle. The small little house which, Link assumes, belongs to the red-haired girl Marin, is most certainly not even close to the home he knows, or rather, once knew as Hyrule Castle. Wherever this place is, it would take him a very long time to get home.
The house is empty, but looking around the house Link notices signs of recent activity, namely the front door left wide open, welcoming a draft of warm afternoon air into the cramped confines of the house.
Link moves his arms about as he walks out the open door, trying to loosen up his joints that are still quite stiff. The golden rays of the sunlight help sooth his body as he steps into their warm embrace.
The landscape, like the house, remains unchanged; the ocean still glows a crisp blue underneath the sun, and the lush green of the trees continue to radiate their cool aura. The calm winds sweep over the hillside carrying the peaceful sound of the sea with them.
"Hey look, it's him" says a childish voice, breaking through the wind. Surprised, Link turns quickly in the direction of the voice. Leaning against the small house's picket fence are two small children, one in red, the other in green, but otherwise appear completely identical to Link.
"Why's he lookin' at us so weird Tommy?" the boy in green quietly asks the boy in red.
"Miss Marin said he was in an accident, Tayce," the boy in red replies.
Link rubs his eyes with his knuckles and walks outside the picket fence on the same side as the children. He notices the child in green step back slightly as he steps towards them. "Do you live here, the both of you?"
The child in green takes a step back behind the one in red who takes a firm stance in front of Link. "Of course we live here, buddy, we're where we belong." The child in red stretches a tiny finger up towards Link, "You don't live here though. You're not where you belong."
Link raises his eyebrow at the child; the little kid doesn't know how right he really is. "Do you know a girl named Marin?" he asks the child in red.
The child drops his finger and grins, "Yeah we know Miss Marin, mister."
"Do you know where she is? I'd like to speak with her."
The two children turn away from Link and huddle close to each other, whispering between themselves. After a minute of conversation, the child in green shakes his head at the other, but the red one ignores him before turning aggressively back towards Link. "Yes, we'll take you to her. Follow us!" the child says politely.
The two children run off, away from the small house. A short distance away they both glance back at Link as if to beckon him to follow. Link sighs as he starts to chase after them, but is slowed down by an ache that pulsates over his body. Apparently he had been wrong in his assumption this morning about his body being free of pain.
The children lead Link through the town, passing by all of the houses that Link had checked the day before, only this time there are people outside of them. He wanted to stop and look at each one of them, but the children were beginning to pull away from him, thus, Link is forced to shield himself from the curious gazes of the townspeople as he follows the children up a large hill.
The two children stop at the edge of the hill, right before its steep cliff that appears to fall quite a distance to the ground.
"Here we are mister," says the child in red.
As Link had already somewhat suspected, Marin was nowhere to be seen. "So, where is she?" he says sarcastically as he leans over, putting his hands on his waist.
"Oh that's right Tayce, she's usually down below this hill isn't she?" the child in red says suspiciously to the other.
The child in green sighs, "You're right, Tommy."
"Oh I see her! Look, mister, down there!"
Link steps to the edge of the cliff and peers over the side. The only thing he could see at the base of the cliff was a stone well sticking out of the ground.
Link closes his eyes tightly, building a slight rage in his head. As if he really though some good for nothing children were going to shed some light on his situation.
Steaming with an arsenal of vulgarity, Link prepares to launch his fury back at the children, but he is stopped by a slight tremor beneath him. In an instant, the ground beneath his outstretched foot gives way beneath him. With nothing to grab a hold of, Link slides with the crumbling earth over the edge of the cliff, falling down along the side of the cliff and directly into the stone well at the bottom, making a powerful splash into a pool of freezing cold water.
Link quickly surfaces taking a gasp of cool air from the dark confines of the well. The well water is deep, and he is forced to tread the water continually to avoid dipping beneath it. Shaking his head to the side, Link expels some water from inside his ears which allows him to hear the faint sound of laughter from high above. As much as he wanted to release his anger on the children, there was little use; they would not hear him from all the way down here, nor would they care to mind the words of a stranger.
At least for him, the cold water of the well is fairly soothing. Not only does the water calm his aching muscles, but his frustration about everything seems to drift away with the cool gusts of wind entering from above.
The laughter eventually stops from above and the whistle of the wind through the well's mouth rings in Link's waterlogged ears. Not long after the laughter ceases, he can hear the sound of a girl's voice from above, yet it is much too faint to hear.
Link his head to the side again, loosening up more water. He stretches his now mostly empty ear towards the well's opening in an attempt to hear the voice.
"Tommy? Tayce?" the voice says before the wind interrupts, "you did what?"
Link looks up and sees a shadowed face looking down from high above on the cliff. He squints to try to make out the face.
The person starts to edge closer to the side of the cliff but appears to lose their footing in much the same way Link had done. As the person topples over the side of the cliff, he recognizes the blue dress and red hair in the sunlight. "Marin!" he yells up, but much too late. In a flash, she falls from the cliff and down inside the well, splashing into the well water right next to Link. Link reaches beneath the water and grabs her arm, pulling her up to the surface.
Marin gasps for air, grabbing Link's shoulder with her arm to hold herself above the water. She finally catches her breath, looking up at Link whose face is slightly illuminated in the dim light from above. "Oh, Link, You're alright."
Link is shocked at how casual Marin's voice is. "I'm alright? What about you? You just took quite a fall."
Marin lets go of Link's arm to pull her wet, clumped hair from in front of her face. Link can barely make out a smirk on her face in the pale light. "You took the same fall didn't you? And here I find you in one piece just like me," she giggles.
Link sighs and closes his eyes. This girl reminds him of the magic puzzle boxes Zelda enjoyed tormenting him with on rainy days at the castle. The idea behind all of them was always the same: move the different keys and levers on the outside to unlock parts on the inside in order to get to the center. Even though Link had a certain knack for the boxes, he knew of no Hylian who could possibly detect the traps held inside each one; thus solving a box meant he would always have to deal with fingers that were shocked, burned, and pricked by the tiny trick spells hidden amongst the fake locks.
Up until this point, this strange red-haired girl was turning into one of those puzzle boxes right before his eyes; one he had yet to release a single lock on by knowing next to nothing about her. All he had managed was being tormented by the traps of a mysteriously foul soup and a treacherously high fall from the top of a cliff.
Yet, this girl had saved his life. Not once, but already twice. So, just as Zelda was always ready with a touch of Nayru's love for his hands and a friendly vote of confidence for his spirits, Link had to be as ever vigilant with his new situation as he was with the puzzle boxes, or else he would never figure out where he was and how to get home from it.
Link opens his eyes and holds a stern expression. "It's just that, how are we going to get out of here now with you down here? I doubt those kids are going to go running to help me."
"Oh, don't worry; those kids are already getting help for us. They'd never let anything happen to me," replies Marin, laughing at Link's concerned look.
Link gazes up the shaft of the well. Apart from the edge of the cliff, the only thing visible is the deep blue sky. The whistle of the wind through the well's opening is all Link can hear, no movement, no sounds of other people.
"So, you're saying there're other people in your village that can help us?" Link looks back at Marin.
Marin stops laughing to raise an eyebrow at Link. "Of course there are. Did you think I lived here alone?"
"Well, it's just that when I woke up…yesterday that is…I looked around everywhere for people, but no one was around."
Marin puts a hand to her chin to think. "Oh, yes! I remember you saying something like that a few times. But, you know Link; you were awfully worn out that day. There's not that many people in this town so I'm sure if some of them were out it probably felt like no one was here with you being sick."
Sick or not, Link knows he checked every house in this village that day and nobody was there. "You're probably right. Let's just forget about it. If we ever get out of this well, maybe I can meet some of these people."
Marin gasps. Her face seems to light up the well with joy. "I'm so glad!" Tilting her head to the well's opening she puts her hands around her mouth, "Tommy! Tayce! You two better be getting help up there!" she yells.
Almost immediately, the light from the opening is blocked out by a giant object that Link can barely tell is a person. "Marin? What'cha doin' down there, sweetie?"
Link can no longer see Marin's face. "Very funny, Dad. Throw the rope or whatever down here, please"
Light returns to the well and the wind rushes back inside carrying with it the sound of something knocking against the stone walls of the shaft. The bottom rungs of a wooden rope ladder hit Link in the face before splashing down in the water sparking a grunt of pain from Link.
Marin chuckles as Link rubs his face. She grabs onto the ladder and hoists herself out of the water, dripping streams of cold water from the tips of her dress onto Link who grabs the ladder below her and begins to follow her up.
As Link climbs behind Marin, he twists his face in discomfort due to the pain from being hit by the ladder and the chill of the water dripping from Marin's dress. Although for his own sake, it's probably a positive that he cannot look up, he thinks to himself.
The water from Marin's dress begins to subside as the light intensifies towards the top of the well. Reaching the surface, Link feels the chill of the warm air against his cold, drenched body. He grabs on to the edge of the well and pulls himself over the side; crashing to the ground he lets out a deep breath of fresh air.
"Ah what're you doing all tuckered out like that youngin'?" Link is suddenly jolted to his feet by the grip of a powerful fist. Link could see that the fist's owner was an abnormally large man with a thick black mustache and powerful arms under toned with layers of fat that were in perfect proportion to his protrusive stomach. "I've fallen down that hole a thousand times, you'll live." With a booming laugh the man gives a thunderous pat on Link's back, sending him flying across the grass.
Having spent all that time in the well, Link had forgotten how sore he still was, and now as he slides across the grass to a stop he wishes he could have stayed a little longer in that cold well water.
After coming to a stop face down in the dirt, Link turns himself over and sits up to look back at the humongous man.
Marin had been standing next to him. She rings out her hair and clothes with a grin as she watches Link get up. "Please forgive my father Link, he can't help himself sometimes."
The giant man walks over to Link and holds out a hand. Link reluctantly grasps the large fist, but is surprised at how gently the man helps him to his feet this time. "I had to give you my personal greeting, son. Sorry about that," he says with a chuckle, "anyhow; the name's Tarin. I'm Marin's father. Finally I get ta' meet this young lad that my little girl's been taking care of."
Link continues to shake Tarin's hand while attempting to ease the pain of his backside with the other. "It's great to finally meet someone else, sir," Link says weakly.
Tarin returns Link's words with a beaming grin, "You've got plenty of other people to meet. This whole village is in an uproar about the stranger; so much in fact that…"
"Papa, Link is tired and still not feeling very well," Marin interrupts. She hurries over to Link's side and grabs his hand, giving him a tug in the direction of her house. "I'm going to get him some different clothes then let him relax a little on the beach."
Link notices the demanding look in her eyes as she stares at her father, yet Tarin seems to be befuddled by her quick reaction. After scratching the thick black hair on the top of his head, his eyes grow wide, "Oh! Of course dear; run along now."
With a quick smile at her father, Marin yanks at Link's arm, pulling him through the village back to the house.
Like the rest of the village, the beach remained as beautiful as the first time Link laid eyes upon it. Marin had brought him back to the small cove where the two first met after they spent a better part of the afternoon searching for clothes that would fit Link.
In the time it took Marin to scramble around her house rummaging through her father's clothes, the pale green shirt Link had been wearing was dried of every last drop of water from the well. Embarrassed by what she claimed a "lack of hospitality" Marin had rushed the two of them down to the beach before Link could even think of thanking her for the hospitality she had already exhibited.
The first rays of twilight cast long shadows of Link and Marin along the canvas of sand as the two of them sit inside the cove's circle of jagged rocks. Link sits with outstretched legs, dipping his toes into the edge of the tide as it periodically slides up the shore. Marin sits next to him, her legs bent up to her chin with her arms wrapped tightly around them.
The only sound in the cove is that of the crashing waves which makes the warm breeze feel like needles as is brushes against the back of Link's neck.
"Do you like sunsets, Link?" Marin says while gazing out at the ocean.
Link feels a twist in his stomach. "I suppose I do."
Marin remains focused on the sea. "Really? I've always found them to be quite sad."
"Sad?" says Link, his stomach twisting over again.
"It's sad because the sun gets to see what lies way out beyond the ocean, but I can't follow it."
Link looks at Marin, his face lost with bewilderment.
Marin returns Link's stare with a joyful smile. "But, you must have followed the sun out there."
Link frowns, "Just once."
"Once would be just enough for me," Marin says; her eyes deep with ambition.
Link stands up, "I wouldn't dream so much about it," he says, shrugging, "once was all I needed to lose my way."
Marin lifts herself to her feet in suit. "Hey now, don't you go making the sunset any sadder," she says with a chuckle, "If you really came from somewhere across the sea, I'm sure you can get back."
"How can I when I don't even know where I am now?" Link says, raising his arms at the land around him.
"Koholint."
"What?"
"You're on Koholint Island," Marin says with a smile.
"Koholint?" Link asks, closing his eyes to think.
"Yep."
Throughout most of his childhood, Zelda had always enjoyed dragging Link to the castle library and commanding him to remain seated while she read aloud a variety of texts for her enjoyment. She had always said it was beneficial to his education, yet Link had always had his doubts.
Link remembers vividly the Geography of Hyrule books specifically because they were so painfully boring it was as if Zelda was branding his brain with a cattle prod of useless geographic information. It was from these horrifying experiences that Link could say without a doubt that he had never heard of such a place as "Koholint Island."
"I've never heard of it," says Link.
Marin laughs, "I'm not surprised. We've never gotten a visitor here before."
Link feels his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. "You've never…gotten a visitor?"
"Nope," Marin sticks out her finger and pokes Link's vacated heart, "you're the first."
Parallel to the setting sun and draped with in a melancholy orange glow, the jagged rocks of the cove envelope the sand in a dark shadow. Link feels as if the sand could give way any second, sending him falling into a deep abyss. Perhaps that would be the only way to escape this island.
Link raises his hands to his face to bury his head into come form of comfort.
Marin puts a hand on his shoulder. "I have something to show you Link. Come with me."
Marin Grabs his hand and pulls him along the beach back towards the village.
The night comes quickly to the island as Marin guides Link back through the hills to the village. Link glares back at the last sliver of the sun before it vanishes behind the horizon; it must have been quite eager to see the distant oceans and leave him in darkness.
The small lights of the village come into view as the two pass over the last hill. Many of the windows are dark, but there are some candles left burning their weak flames on the various window sills.
Link feels the grip on his hand tighten as he is pulled harder along. Marin begins to pick up speed as the two of them pass by her house.
"Where are we going?"" Link says, hurrying to keep up with her.
"Just come on."
Marin guides Link up a set of steep stone stairs carved into a small cliff. At the top, Link notices a very large house that he failed to notice before. It stands just as tall as the others around, but is nearly twice as long and complete with two doors.
"Here we are!" Marin says, pointing to one of the large house's doors, "Go ahead inside."
Link cautiously steps up to the door. The house is completely dark, with no candles alight in any of its many windows. He grabs the small wooden handle with a shaking hand and swings open the door.
Stepping inside, Link is overcome by shadow. Only the faint moonlight from the door is visible, but it disappears as Marin steps inside, closing the door behind them.
"Marin?"
Suddenly the house is illuminated with a blinding light, forcing Link to shut his eyes.
"Welcome to Koholint, Link!" rings out the sound of numerous voices.
Opening his eyes, Link sees many different people, adults, children, elders, even the two children from earlier and Marin's father Tarin. All of them stand close around a large table stretched along the interior of the house. A crackling flame in the fireplace at the back illuminates the tabletop, which is completely covered with baskets of different fruits and breads, too many variations for Link to count. Dispersed amongst the fruit are plates of fish, some left raw, other cooked that fill the air with a unique smell of sea and spice.
Link stands in awe of the scene, his mouth slightly open in astonishment.
Marin steps next to her father and watches Link absorb the surprise with a satisfying smile. "From all of us here in Mabe Village, to you, Link, our guest: welcome to Koholint Island."
Welcome to Koholint Island. The words ring deep inside Link's head. It was a customary thing to welcome someone to your home. He knew such customs were common by listening to Zelda speak of her travels to the various lands around Hyrule. But Zelda was royalty. She was someone important; someone who the natives were obligated to acknowledge with a warm greeting.
What did that make Link, then? He was no diplomat, and certainly not royalty, even if he was the closest friend the Princess of Hyrule had. Yet, the people of this island were greeting him as if he was. It was an unnecessary gesture, but somewhere deep inside it all, Link could see the heart that was behind it, even if he did not know he could.
Link feels the meager tug of a tiny hand on his pant leg that snaps him out of his thoughts. The boy in the green shirt who had conspired against him stood close to him looking up with a set of childish eyes.
"I'm sorry about today Link. I didn't want you to fall in the well but…Tommy made me" the little child in green says tearfully.
The child in red emerges from the crowd of people and starts to chase after the child in green, "Shut up Tayce, and get over here!"
The two children run circles around Link and some of the other people until a woman steps between them, swooping her arms down to snatch both children. "Calm down you two," she says, fighting with the child in red who was kicking and reaching for the child in green, "I'm the one who's sorry Link. My name is Mamahl and these two are mine. Tommy, apologize to this young man right now."
The child in red stops fighting in his mother's arms, "Sorry," he says nearly inaudibly.
Link gives the child a faint glare. "That's alright, Ma'am," he says softly.
"I'm sure you were like this once, Link," Mamahl says, smiling, "I actually have two more of these rascals here. Teddy, Tison; come on out and meet Mr. Link."
Two more children, identical to the other two and dressed in green shirts similar to Tayce's, run out from the crowd stopping by their mother. A tall man, who had been standing next to Tarin, walks up to Mamahl and places his hand on her shoulder.
"Quadruplets; they certainly make this village an interesting place," says the man, sticking out his hand, "I'm Papahl, this is my wife and our four sons. We're honored to meet you, Link."
Link loosely shakes Papahl's hand. The other people, who had been silently watching Link, start to converse with each other creating a bustling atmosphere.
Tarin raises his arms high in the air, "Now, now, everyone," he booms, "We'll all have a chance to meet our guest but for right now we should dig in to this food; it's getting cold!"
As they are commanded, everyone in the room finds themselves a seat, leaving Link the seat at the head of the long table. Every set of eyes watches Link slide reluctantly into the wooden chair. Link feels the gazes of the people against his face, each of them burning, causing a bead of sweat to trickle from his forehead.
Link looks down at the plate in front of him. A platter of fish and fruit had already been served to him. Link slowly reaches for the fork at the side of the plate, picking it up and piercing a slice of pineapple with care. He now had numerous beads of sweat collecting on his brow. He raises the morsel of food to his mouth and bites down on it, swallowing it immediately.
Coincidently as Link feels the sweet slice of fruit slip down his throat, Tarin throws his arms in the air as if to rejoice Link's apparent accomplishment. "Let's eat!" he yells.
The room bursts into a sea of excitement and activity as the people pass around the plates of food and pitchers of water to each other. The heat of the stares fades away as the attention turns to the food, leaving Link in a dazed trance holding an empty fork.
He looks over at Marin sitting to his left, who is clenching her mouth shut with her teeth in an attempt not to laugh at Link's ridiculous appearance.
The large room continued to bustle well into the night with spirited laughter. The people of the village each took their own turn to introduce themselves to Link.
There was the jovial Madame MeowMeow, a large woman who spent her introduction speaking of her collection of BowWows, which Link could only assume were dogs.
The sly shopkeeper, a short bald man, kept his introduction short, giving Link a lesson he had already known in avoiding theft.
The town's two eldest residents, Grandpa and Grandma Ulrira, were especially unique. Grandma Ulrira gave two introductions, one for herself, and the other for her husband who apparently was too shy to speak to Link in person.
Papahl once again apologized to Link for the behavior of his quadruplets even as the one in red, Tommy, made faces at Link from across the table. Link came close to smiling when Tommy was stopped by a kick from his mother from underneath the table.
Even Tarin felt he had to give another introduction for Marin and himself, and somehow it resulted in being the lengthiest of all the speeches. Marin finally cut the monologue short by sliding an uneaten piece of fish from her plate to her father's, to which Tarin was readily distracted from speaking any further.
The people of Mabe village, despite being few in number, appeared more colorful than the droves of citizens who walked the streets of Hyrule Castletown every day. Each one of them had a story to tell that could fill a shelf in the castle library, and it painted them all into the one giant family, the likes of which Link had never known.
The introductions finally come to an end, just as the table that was once piled high with delectable food is picked clean down to the smallest crumb of bread. Tarin is leaned back in his chair, passed out, with tiny bits of food spread across his shirt; Marin next to him, her head buried in her hands in embarrassment.
The rest of the villagers talk quietly, most of them still looking curiously at Link. Was it his turn to give an introduction?
Link picks up his cup and gulps down the last of the water inside it. He stands up and surveys the people sitting around the table, all of them, including Tarin who had just been slapped awake by his daughter, stared in awe, eagerly anticipating Link to say more than three words.
"I want to thank you all for doing this. I don't feel as much a stranger to this place as before."
All of the people smile.
"I don't really know what I should do now. I thank all of you for saving my life, but I…"
Thump
Link's speech is interrupted by a knock from the door behind him. The villagers move in their seats trying to catch a glimpse of the door as silence falls over the room.
Thump
The curtains in the windows rustle as a heavy wind blows through the house, blowing out the candles leaving only the eerie light of the fireplace.
Thump
"Should someone check it?" a voice from the back says.
Link gets up from his chair starts to move towards the door, but is stopped as Marin grabs his hand. "Wait, Link," she says nervously, "I don't know who that could be. Everyone in the village is here right now."
Link slips his hand out of her grip and shrugs at her, continuing to make his way to the door.
Arriving at the door, Link reaches his hand to the door knob.
Thump
The sound startles Link, causing him to jerk his hand back slightly. He could feel the villagers jump in sync with him.
With a deep breath, Link quickly reaches out and grabs the handle.
Don't tell them.
Link chokes on his own breath as he hears the haunting whisper in his head. He looks back at the villagers to gage their reaction, but none of them had made the slightest stir at the sound of the whisper. Shaking his head, the voice fades away into the wind.
With one more deep breath, Link turns the handle and opens the door...