Ice: Finally an update! So sorry about the delay. Creativity has not been flowing like it should.
After three days of hiding in bed away from the world, Navi had enough. She had never seen Link be out of commission this long from a hangover. The pathetic sight of him had finally reached its limit and she decided to speak up.
"Hey, listen!"
"No... No listening. I'm done listening. That was miserable. I can never show my face back there again," Link moaned.
"Umm... Yeah... It's not like you haven't done the same thing just about weekly... Well, maybe not on stage."
"Exactly! Now everyone knows!"
"I'm sure they were all drunk and don't remember it. Now, about today..."
"No."
"Yes, I'm tired of you moping about the bed. I've talked to Cremia."
"Oh yes, let's just add insult to injury."
"You didn't get injured, and I'm holding back the insults, trust me."
"..."
"She wants to see you. She feels bad about the incident. Something about that batch being particularly strong and wants to make up for it. Something about making you feel better."
"Feel better?! Why didn't you say so?"
With that, he was out the door and on his way to Romani Ranch. It was an uneventful trek spent mostly trying to get Epona to go faster, and Epona nearly throwing him into a tree for his impatience. Eventually they made it with Link still in the saddle.
"Hey, Cremia, how's it going?" Link called out.
"Oh, Link. I heard about what happened. I'm so sorry," she apologized as she walked out of the barn.
"Oh, that. It's nothing. It's all good. I'm fine. Navi made it sound like some big deal, but it wasn't," he proudly claimed.
"Really? Even Nayru came back by and said you were groaning that you were dying and she felt so awf-"
"Yeah, it was nothing. Anyway, Navi said you wanted to see me?" He quickly cut her off.
"Yes! She said you've been a bit down the past few days and I thought I could help with that."
"Go on..."
"Well, an honest day's work never killed anyone so perhaps you can help me around the farm."
"Yeah, I've got this thing back in Hyrule I should really be getting back to..." He said as he tried to back away to Epona.
"Oh no, you don't. Navi said you'd try to pull this. You're going to work mister. It'll make you feel right as rain after," Cremia lectured as she dragged him by the ear to the barn.
"In that I'll be swimming in my tears you mean?"
Once Cremia got the crestfallen hero into the barn, she started giving him lists. There was more work than Link ever thought possible on a ranch. He'd never seen Malon lift the first pitchfork, but there was also Ingo to do all the grunt work. He realized that made him Ingo and scowled at the thought.
"First, clean out those stables while the cows are out grazing. After that, fill the water and food troughs so they'll be ready when we bring them back in. While you're at it, you're strong. Re-stack those barrels in the corner for me."
"Yes, slave driver..."
"What was that?"
"I said, 'yes ma'am'!"
He started in the stables regretting that he only had the two hands and no clothespins near. He spent most of the morning whining about the smell that prevented him from finishing the twenty or so minutes it would have taken normally. Once finished though, he was quite proud of his work. He turned to boast his awesomeness to Cremia when he noticed she was nowhere in the barn to be found. He shrugged it off and set off to clean and replenish the food and water troughs.
It wasn't nearly as difficult a task, much less time consuming. He finished that in no time at all and sat down for a few minutes.
I can't believe she asked me here to put me to work... Where is she anyway? She said there was a lot of work, so why isn't she here helping? He wondered. I bet Navi knew about this. I'm seriously going to thump her wing when I get back...
He decided to push his luck with relaxing, but after 2 hours and no sign of Cremia, he thought it might be best not to incur her wrath further and finish for the day. One look at the toy sword by the barrels and he instantly knew who caused them to fall.
Romani meant well wanting to protect her family's ranch, but teaching her sword fighting might not have been the best idea. She was already a decent archer and it seemed like a logical next step. Next time, Link would keep his mouth shut since it seemed to create more work for him in the long run.
He sauntered up to a barrel. It seemed easy and light enough. Almost seemed too silly to stack such lightweight items on top of each other. He tried to lift it up... Tried...
What the heck is in this thing?! It doesn't even seem like it's full! How did she even manage to knock it over in the first place?
After a ten minute struggle, Link realized there was a reason why he always packed the power glove with him. Never knew when he would have to show off for the ladies. He was content to show off and be pampered by them, but dating them was pushing it.
Instantly, he managed to lift two at a time to start the new stack in the corner. It wasn't long before he had them all rearranged to his liking. He stood proudly admiring his work when a thought struck him.
If I had to use the power glove to even pick it up, how in Hyrule does Cremia even move them?!
He shrugged the thought off and headed to the house. He noticed it was very quiet around the ranch. Cremia wasn't in the fields with the cows. Romani wasn't wandering around practicing archery. The silence was almost deafening...until he heard a faint laugh coming from the house.
That does it. They're in there goofing off while I did all that work. When I get a hold of them...
He opened the door and spotted the two girls sitting around the table with a board game.
"You finished? Thank you so much for your help! If it wasn't for you, I'd never have been able to take some time away from chores to have some family time with Romani," Cremia said gratefully.
"Well, you know, always happy to help..." His anger quickly dissipated.
He could hardly be mad about that, but he still wasn't very pleased with the lie.
"Well, don't just stand there. Do you want in on the next game or not?" Romani asked.
"You bet!" Link exclaimed as he sat down with them.
It was early evening when Link decided to leave. Full on milk and some not quite wins, he started to mount Epona. Cremia and Romani went to see him off before bringing the cows in for the evening.
"Don't be a stranger!" Romani called.
"Give Navi my thanks. She had this excellent idea. I'm glad you could help out today," Cremia said jabbing the imaginary dagger into Link's back.
"Yeah... No problem... I'll let her know..."
I'll let her know alright. She's in for it as soon as I get back.
The trip back was uneventful. Once home, he opened the door to find Navi sitting on top of a chair reading a leaf. His rage boiled.
"HOW COULD YOU LIE TO ME LIKE THAT?!"
"Welcome home. Nice to see you too," she responded without looking up.
"You could have just said she needed help to spend time with her sister! I would have-" Navi shifted her eyes at him, " ...thought about it! Really hard!"
"Uh huh... Sure you would have..."
"I would have!"
"I know..."
"I don't need this. I'm going to bed."
"And so ends another day of wasting time with hopeless Link," she sighed.
Ice: He really would have thought for awhile on it. So long in fact the moment would go whooshing by. Please review and I'll try not to take so long with the next chapter!
Note: I thought being a fairy, they would be likely to pick up a leaf and be able to read the goings-on of the forest. Like a newspaper.
