I'd like to thank the people who reviewed and placed this story on their alerts. It really means a lot to me!

Now, with this chapter, I was really comfortable with this up till half way, then I felt, "Eh, this... is... uh..." Yeah... It got kinda weak starting about half way. Meh. I still like it.

A Family's Song

A baby's scream pierced through the black night. It came from a tall house. Inside the house, Amena and Brion lay in bed, awakened by their son's cries. Both were still, expecting the other to get up and spend the rest of the night calming down the baby. After a few seconds of silence between the two, Amena finally sighed and spoke.

"Please, Brion, I'm exhausted. Can you take care of him tonight?"

"No, I did it last night. It's your turn." Brion yawned and when he didn't say anything else, Amena assumed he had fallen back asleep. She groaned as she crawled from under the blanket, drowsy from the few hours of sleep she had received.

The wooden floor creaked as the woman drug her feet across the small room. She slowly pulled herself up two ladders to reach a platform where Link's cradle sat. She looked down at the wailing boy, sighed once more, and picked him up. As soon as he felt his mother's gentle touch, Link's screams quieted down to soft whimpers. Amena chuckled softly.

"You silly boy. Was all that screaming just to get some attention?" As if to answer her question, Link's whimpers stopped and looked up at his mother with his blue eyes. "You're so adorable, you know that? But you have got to stop waking us up in the middle of the night." She knew her son didn't understand a word that came out of her mouth, but she felt that if she stopped talking, she would fall asleep on her feet.

There must be an easier way to get him to sleep than to just hold him all night, she thought to herself. The logical answer would be to sing or hum a lullaby, and Amena had tried that. However, she did not inherit any singing abilities from her mother or grandmother, both known for their wonderful singing voices. If either sang a lullaby, any child would fall into a peaceful sleep for hours. If Amena sang any song, Link would scream even louder than before.

Amena bounced on her feet, trying to rock her son to sleep. She tried to hum a bit, but it didn't seem to reach the boy's ears and the hums soon turned into a yawn. She silently begged Link to fall asleep. In a few minutes, the baby's eyes began to get heavy, sliding down his eyes. He let out a long yawn, letting his eyes to close completely. His mother sighed as she heard his even breathing, telling her he was asleep. She placed him back into the cradle and headed back to her own bed, ready to collapse back into sleep.

Link giggled as his mother bent down, filling a basket with cucco feed. The baby was set securely in a sling across Amena's torso. While her son was filled with energy, Amena was not. She stifled a yawn for the umpteenth that morning. Link, as young as he was, was oblivious to his mother's weariness. Instead, his attention was on the flock of birds gathered around Amena's feet. He reached downwards, trying to touch one white cucco. Amena pushed his hand back into the sling, causing the boy to switch his attention to her.

"With how tired you are, you better watch out for him doing that again. He might fall while you're yawning," said Shannon. Both women were in charge of taking care of the cuccos, which included feeding them in the morning. Ilia sat in a sling around Shannon's torso, similar to Amena and Link. Normally, the baby girl would toddle around her mother's feet, playing with the gentle cuccos. However, the birds got extremely aggressive during feeding, making it dangerous for any child to be around.

Amena glanced at her friend as she tossed some feed. "I can't help it. Link has been waking Brion and me up almost every night for the past month."

"That's nothing unusual. Any baby does that. Ilia did. Bo and I probably got less than fifteen hours of sleep a week sometimes. He'll grow out of it." Shannon tossed some feed to the side, distracting a cucco from attacking a fellow bird.

"Well, it's strange. For the first two months or so, he only woke us up about once a week. Now, it's just…" Amena trailed off, letting out a sigh that turned into yet another yawn.

Shannon put her hand on her hip and observed the younger woman. After a few seconds, she finally said, "Well, have you tried singing a lullaby? Or even humming one?"

Amena nodded slowly, frowning slightly. "Unfortunately, my singing lacks any skill and talent. It just makes Link scream louder. And humming seems to not affect him in any way."

The older woman shook her head. "Don't be so pessimistic. It can't be that bad."

"Oh, it is. I didn't inherit my mother's singing. My cousin once paid me fifteen rupees when I was younger so I wouldn't sing while within earshot." Amena let out a short chuckle at the memory.

"Is there another way for you to do a lullaby, if you're so insecure about singing one?"

"Well…" She put her index finger on her chin, thinking about it. "I was taught how to play the ocarina by my grandfather. But my old ocarina is with my parents in Kakariko, so the skills aren't really useful now."

Shannon had a thoughtful look on her face as she said, "Maybe not. I have an idea that might work." She and Amena threw the last of the feed on the ground, the cuccos all flocking around the food. "Follow me." She walked across the bridge over the small creek, Amena not far behind. They walked passed Ordon's only shop and Amena's home. They ended up at the Spirit Spring. Shannon pointed to a strange plant. "See that?"

Amena nodded. "What is it, exactly?"

"I'm not sure the real name, but we call it horse grass, because it's shaped like a horseshoe. It's pretty rare, from what I heard, in the rest of Hyrule. You can find it a lot of spots in Ordona." Amena raised an eyebrow, still not understanding why the horse grass was important. "See, the stem of the grass is hallow and similar to an ocarina's mouthpiece. So, of course, you can use it as a whistle."

"Really?" Amena bent down and picked one blade of the "grass." It was indeed shaped like a horseshoe, an inch long stub sticking out from the curve of the shape where it would attach to the actual grass. She put her mouth on the stub and gently blew. A sweet sounding whistle was produced. She lowered the plant from her mouth and looked at it, clearly impressed. Link looked at the plant, curious of this new object that made noise.

"The only problem with these is they're a plant. Eventually they'll wilt and you'll have to get a new one. Not very practical if you want to have a musical hobby, but it's good enough for your purpose." Shannon looked at her friend, again testing her new "discovery." She seemed to already have figured out how to change to different pitches, allowing her to play simple songs. "You caught on to that fast. I personally could never do it, no matter how hard I tried."

Amena stopped her playing, moving the plant away from her lips but not lowering it. "My grandfather always said I had a gift for the ocarina, so I guess this is just natural for me."

Shannon gave a slight nod. "That probably has something to do with it. So, do you know what lullaby you're going to use? You should probably see if he likes it."

Instead of answering, Amena once again place the stem in her mouth. She blew a few notes, trying to find to correct starting one. When she did, the song went into three descending notes. The music was soothing, causing Shannon to sway a little. Both of the babies yawned, fighting their heavy eyelids. As the song came to a stop, soft breathing was heard from the two infants, telling the mothers they were asleep.

Shannon stared at her friend in amazement. "I've never seen any song do this before," she muttered, just loud enough for Amena to hear.

The younger woman shrugged. "The song… it's not a lullaby, but it's special. It always calmed the ranch animals, and my cousins and me, for that matter. I actually used to think it was magical." She chuckled at this.

Shannon shook her head, smiling. "You continue to amaze me."

Before they could continue their conversation, they heard two people enter the spring's clearing. It was Brion and Rusl. Brion was holding his arm, not completely hiding the red burn. He had a smile on his face, though it was mixed with pain and embarrassment. Amena ran up to her husband.

"Brion, what happened?"

Brion gave a nervous laugh. "Well, it's kinda a funny story…" His wife raised an eyebrow and turned to Rusl. Rusl sighed.

"He really wanted to try and make a sword, so I let him, despite my better judgment. He wasn't paying much attention and some of the sparks landed on his arm. He wouldn't wear the gloves."

"Brion!" Amena yelled loudly, turning to Brion. Link shifted in his sleep. His mother lowered her voice to avoid waking him. She then proceeded to punch her husband on his good arm. "What were you thinking? You can hardly make horseshoes, much less a sword. And without gloves?"

"Amena, calm down! I just thought-"

"Thought? You couldn't have been thinking anything sane. I don't care if you're a swordsman, you can't just make a sword when you've only been working as a blacksmith for a few months!"

"Amena, just let me explain!"

"Oh, I can't wait to hear this."

"I thought if I could make a normal sword, I could make a toy sword for Link when he's older."

Amena's angry expression softened. She then hugged her husband tightly with one arm as to avoid crushing her son. "Aw! That's so sweet, Brion. But it was still stupid!" She hit his arm again, but this time half-heatedly. She turned to Rusl. "You brought a cloth and bandages, right?"

"Of course." The two walked to the spring's edge. Shannon and Rusl told them they would go ahead back to the village. Amena dipped the cloth in the cool water, wiping the burn, cooling it off.

"What are you doing here, anyways?" Brion looked at his wife as she wrapped the bandages around his arm.

"Shannon told me about this grass that can be like a musical instrument. I think we'll be able to sleep at night."

"So, no more of your singing attempts?"

Amena rolled her eyes. "Of course. And I think Link will be pleased about it, too."

As if to answer her, Link woke up, laughing and reaching up for his mother. Both his parents laughed. Brion reached over and picked him up.

"I guess he's relieved about it."

Okay, weird ending, I know. I just didn't know how else to end it.