Chapter 19: Kakariko

Link's mother glanced uncertainly at her son. He was dragging his feet and frowning at the ground three steps behind her.

"Kakariko is such a lovely town. We really should go here more often. They are building so many new shops and houses I can hardly recognize where I'm going anymore", she said to lighten up the mood. The basket she held was swinging back and forth with every light step she took. Link's answer was to kick a rock that happened to lie in his way.

"What do you think, should we buy vegetables first or have a look around?" his mother asked. Link grunted.

When a whole hour had passed Link was just as grumpy as when they had left home and his mother was running out of ideas to cheer him up.

"Here are some things I haven't bought yet, can you please take this list and buy them for me sweetie? It's just up those stairs, oh, and here's the rupees", she said and handed him the short list and some rupees. Link pocketed the list and rupees and headed for the stairs without a word.

"Navi, go with him", Link's mother added as she noticed that the small fairy had stayed behind.

"But he's always yelling at me when he's in such a bad mood!" Navi complained unwillingly and quickly followed Link. When the fairy caught up with him he glared and pouted but didn't say anything.

"Which one is the store?" Navi asked when they reached the top of the stairs. She looked at all the houses, some with colorful signs hanging outside.

Link stood dumbfounded next to her and looked from building to building. "I don't know!" he said with a slight of panic.

Navi gave him a small push. "Just knock on the one here then."

"I can't do that! It doesn't even look like a shop!"

"Do it!"

Link hesitated a few seconds but decided not to argue with the now crimson fairy. As soon as he had knocked on the wooden door they heard a voice from inside, as if the person answering had been sitting by the door.

"My boy is out playing, come back later."

"…but we…" Link began but felt someone tugging at his tunic. "Stop it, Navi", he frowned and tried to roughly brush her away but his hand hit something larger than a fairy.

"Ouch!" The old man exclaimed as he backed away covering his nose with his hands. He had long grey hair and a moustache, and he was dressed in some kind of blue robes with a hat to match.

"I'm so sorry sir!" Link apologized.

"Shood know beh-er 'an 'at!" The old man scowled at him.

"What?" Link asked.

"You should know better than that", Navi translated. "And you were going to hit me that hard?" she added in an accusing whisper to Link.

The old man removed his hands from his face and felt his nose for a minute before he decided that it wasn't that bad.

"No one knocks on that door anymore", the old man spoke. Both Link and Navi turned their attention back to him.

"It's such a sad story", the old man added and shook his head. He waited to make sure he had their full attention before he continued. "A few years ago a widow lived here with her young son, a healthy boy that was very helpful and spent a lot of time making good deeds. They even said he had a club (but that's only a rumor). Then one day, the day the windmill fell (you must have heard of it), the little boy died in the terrible accident and ever since, his mother has been staying inside her house, acting as if her boy was still alive. Some people still bring her food but otherwise she doesn't let anyone in and they also say she cooks for her boy, but of course he never shows up to eat. No one can cure her insanity… or insanity is what the other villages like to say, I however, call it the strength of love."

Link couldn't help but to glance sideways for his mother when the old man had finished and he could hear a small gulp from Navi.

"Sad, yes, very sad", the old man added with a smirk as if he thought their uneasiness was of great enjoyment.

"Yes, thanks for telling us, we're in a bit of a hurry", Navi said and began to flutter away from the man.

"Y-yes, we are in such a hurry!" Link agreed.

"I see", the old man said. "But don't hesitate to ask me questions about Kakariko, you sure you don't want to hear about the greedy people who once lived in what they now call the House of Skulltula? Or about the man who could see the truth?"

"Thanks, but no thanks, if I meet you again maybe", Link said and waved as he ran into the nearest store and quickly shut the door behind him, panting.

"Look Link! They sell just what we need here!" Navi said happily.

Link walked up to the counter where I read-headed male stood examining his own nails, looking utterly bored.

Link's eyes followed the things put up on the shelves before he spoke. "Uhm, excuse me I would like some Deku Nuts…"

"Yes, certainly, how many?" The man said in a voice sweet as honey as he turned to him with a wide smile.

Link took a look at his list. "About five will do…"

The man behind the counter took the glass jar with the nuts and handed Link five.

"…and two fishes…"

The man's smile broadened at this and hurried to take two fishes and wrap them in.

"That'll be 475 rupees."

"What? That's a fortune!"

"We might as well catch our own fish!" Navi huffed.

"But nowhere can you find anyone as fresh and tasty as mine. Believe me my pretty", he said and smiled charmingly at Navi.

"Well…"

Navi's glow turned slightly pink, but only for a second or two, before she quickly snapped at Link. "Hurry up and pay him! You're always embarrassing us!" She smacked him on the head with one of her wings. Link snorted at her and glared at the man behind the counter.

"Your fish ain't worth it", he stated.

"Pah, how much would you give then?" the man behind the counter asked, obviously offended.

"Not a damn rupee!" Link snapped before he turned towards the door and left the things at the counter. As his hand was about to touch the door handle the shopkeeper suddenly spoke again. "You have to pay. If you don't, I'll call the soldiers."

Link frowned. "I haven't done anything illegal. I just decided I don't want your junk."

The shopkeeper pointed at a paper stuck at the wall next to the door and Link leant to the side so that he could read it.

Rules (which if not followed will lead to calling of the Hylian soldiers, servers of justice)

- Stealing, shoplifting or any kind of thievery is strictly forbidden.

- Do not change places of anything inside the store or cause any disorder.

- Keep your voice down.

- Do not take other customers' time by complaining about prices. It'll do no good.

- Do not feed the fishes.

- Do not mention the Gerudo inside this shop.

- If you are a Gerudo you are not allowed to shop here.

- Do not criticise the shopkeeper.

- Do not insult the shopkeeper.

The most forbidden crimes of all, which will be strictly punished:

DO NOT TAKE PRODUCTS TO THE COUNTER AND THEN REFUSE TO PAY!

The shopkeeper smirked and held out his hand, waiting for the rupees.

"Thank you for coming and I can recommend the shop in the back alley too, it's just through that door, you'll find it easy. It's a witch who owns it and she has all kinds of marvellous things." He said as Link bitterly stomped back to the counter.

"I'm not going to visit the stupid shop and I'm not buying that trash!" Link stated.

The shopkeeper began to eye him from top to bottom.

"And what are you doing now?" Link asked, becoming more and more irritated for each passing second.

"Just making sure I can describe you for the soldiers…"

"Fine, I'll give you 200 rupees, happy?"

"That's about as much as one fish costs! I'm not selling for less than 450 rupees and that's already far too low", the shopkeeper made clear as he crossed his arms. Link couldn't help but to groan.

"Link, you know how bad you are at this stuff, let's just get it over with." Navi complained and immediately the charming smile was plastered onto the shopkeeper's face again. "Thank you my lovely, I must say that I don't approve of how he doesn't give you the best. I assume at least something of this is for you? It's such a shame that he won't even grant you fully paid food."

"Why you…" Link said through clenched teeth as his hands balled into fists, all while Navi's wings made an extra happy flutter. "Oh, it's not really for me, he could treat me better you know, but I'm sure I'll get to taste some", she said.

"I'll tell you what. I'll be nice and not raise the prize for you. You can get it for 475 rupees."

"Go on, Link!" Navi urged him.

Link kept muttering to himself as they exited the shop. He had ended up paying the full bill and he wasn't happy. The shopkeeper watched the door close behind them.

"Ladies", he said and shook his head as he held up a rupee to examine it. "Too easy."

"Wonderful, just wonderful", Link muttered and scowled at Navi.

"Now what?" the fairy asked and tried to fly down to sit on his shoulder but he brushed her away.

"This day is the worst day of my life!"

"Can't you try to be a little happier? You're always so moody."

"Can't you try to be more useful than a pet fly?" Link replied and glowered at her.

"There you are!" Link's mother called out as she spotted the arguing pair. She came running towards them, waving to catch their attention. "Are you feeling better, dear?"

"No", Link said and pouted.

"He's better, he just wants you to spoil him", Navi said.

"Did you get everything?"

"Yeah, Mum", he handed her the things which she lay in her basket.

"Any money left?" She asked Link who handed her 25 rupees. She looked at them for a few seconds before she spoke. "This is all? We can't afford spending this much."

"I only bought what you told me to!"

"You can't accept his prices just like that, you have to…"

"It was Navi's fault!" Link interrupted and pointed at the fairy.

Meanwhile Zelda walked around Kakariko, as Sheik, dressed in a short cloak to hide her red eyes that revealed her to be a Sheikah.

Getting away from the two suitors in the castle was a relief. How could anyone expect her to willingly stay in the company with one man who couldn't stop goggling at her and one who tried his best to avoid her? Besides she had to concentrate on what Ganondorf was up to, without her training, both with Impa and Rauru, suffering too much because of it. She had decided that the best thing to do would actually be to find Link and take back the ocarina. She wanted to talk to him anyway.

She was glad that she had Impa and Taime. Impa could keep an eye on Ganondorf and Taime could cover up for her. He was also useful if she needed someone to spy on Link's father or someone else of the soldiers.

Zelda stopped as she heard a sneeze. By a low fence to her right a slim read-headed woman tried not to drop the struggling cucco she held in a tight grasp in her arms as she kept coughing uncontrollably.

The woman looked up as she felt someone gently removing the cucco from her arms. Her eyes glistened hopefully as she looked into the other person's face but then the shimmer faded. She saw an appealing, young man with his face hidden, with some streaks of blond hair visible. The cucco stopped struggling immediately in the man's arms and fell silent.

"Th-thank you… I'm allergic you see and all my Cuccos ran away", the woman explained with a nervous smile.

Zelda put the cucco down on the other side of the fence while she silently considered if she could waste some of her time helping this lady.

"You must think I'm silly having Cuccos as pets when I'm allergic", the woman said with a giggle and kept her gaze locked shyly onto her own hands which were fiddling with her green skirt.

"What people do is not for others to judge. Either you have a reason… And despite what reason anyone has it can't be considered as insufficient, because if it makes you do something it must matter to you… Or you don't have a certain reason, which means you listen to your feelings. Either one will do for me…"

Such a mysterious and gracious boy, the woman thought. "I… ah… uhm… you see…" She clasped her hands over her mouth and made a quick bow to apologise for her stuttering before she continued. "You see my brother disappeared some time ago and he had a pet cucco which he…" She cast a glance to see if he was bored before she made another bow, this time for falling silent in the middle of the story. "Th-that's not really the full reason though!" She waved her hands frantically as an anxious giggle escaped her. "You see, there's someone who I…" She fell silent again and seemed unable to get the words out. After a few minutes of what seemed like an inner battle her face turned scarlet, if it was because of what she was about to tell or if she was embarrassed for her behavior was hard to tell.

Suddenly a feeling of uneasiness washed over the woman. She looked at the young man again whose face was still hidden. Even though she couldn't see his face she could tell his penetrating eyes were fixed upon her. She couldn't help but to shudder, you couldn't feel gazes, could you? Not like this.

"I… uhm… she began…"

"Please, I'm sorry to say", Zelda began and made a quick, yet elegant, bow. "That I unfortunately have to leave but I assure you that the end of your story won't be able to keep itself hidden from me, not leave my thoughts."

"W-well… then… I…"

"I shall send a prayer to our goddess Nayru, begging that she will grant me the time to help you", Zelda said, now with her back against the woman as she kept walking towards the graveyard of Kakariko.

Link's mother stopped dead in her tracks.

"What?" Link asked.

"This is awful!"

"What?" Both Navi and Link asked.

"I forgot to buy some ingredients to the dessert", Link's mother said. "I can't leave without buying them, or else I can't surprise your father with his favorite pudding this evening."

"Don't worry, you can go and buy them and then we'll meet up later. The two of us can enjoy ourselves for some time", Navi replied.

"Huh? Why can't we just go with Mum?" Link asked Navi.

"S-silly, I j-just meant that we could… Oh, you won't get it Link, come on!" Navi flew away hurriedly, knowing that he would follow.

"Wait up, Navi!" Link cried and ran after her but she didn't wait for him. Link sped up and finally managed to catch her in his hand. "What was that all about?" He asked her while trying to catch his breath.

"Hah, as if you care!" She said and refused to meet his gaze. Suddenly Link felt the small fairy's body tense in his grasp. "Where are we Link?" she asked him.

Link looked around and noticed that they were standing in the middle of a graveyard. It was awfully quiet compared to the lively town.

"This is spooky, let's go back", Navi said. "It's late too, let's just go back and find your mother instead!"

"You're the one that wanted us to be alone! It's your fault that we're here!" Link stated and squeezed her in his hand as he glowered at her. The fairy zapped him with some of her magic and with an insulted "Humph!" she put some distance between them.

"Well, if that's how you're gonna be, I'm not wastin' my time here. I'm off!"

"Eh, w-wait Link! What if there are Poes here? Or if the scary grave keeper comes out? I've heard he comes out when it gets dark!"

Link laughed. "You're scared?"

"Idiot! You're so inconsiderate! Are you going to leave me here?"

Before the small fairy had time to react Link's hand caressed her gently and put her inside his hat. "You are the idiot, always making such a big fuss", he said caringly. Navi however, didn't catch his intention of being nice. "What do you mean with that?" she yelled at him. "I'm not making a big fuss! I'm sure I saw something too, ah, didn't you hear that just now?"

"I didn't see nor hear anything", Link told her with a smug smile. Navi was about to say something rude but a chilly wind drew by and made both of them shudder. The pleasant mood was blown away with the wind in an instant.

"I-it is really late, let's go Link", Navi said and crawled deeper into his hat which Link put back on his head.

"Y-you're imagining things Navi."

Both flinched when the sound of sobs was carried to them with another chilly wind. The tombstones looked threatening in the dark around them and nowhere could they see anyone which the voice could belong to.

Navi peaked out from Link's hat and lay comfortably on top of his head. "Let's go!" she said and banged her small fist on his head.

"But there are no such things as ghosts or Poes, maybe someone's in trouble? It sounds like a kid who's lost or something."

"Things are not always what they seem, Link! Come on!"

But Link began to walk slowly among the graves, searching for the person sobbing.

"What's that?" Navi asked and pointed at something pallid, contrasting strongly to the dark in the graveyard. It looked like a small person sitting on top of a tombstone. "I want to go home Link", she said weakly.

Link walked up to the grave and could now clearly see a small boy holding a Deku stick in one hand sobbing. He looked odd in his luminous whiteness, his skin so white it was almost translucent and he looked just as delicate as a snowflake. His tranquil sobs had a hint of echoing, but that surely must be because of the wind?

"Are you lost?" Link asked and bent down so they were at eyelevel. Navi was tugging hard at his hair but he ignored her.

"I'm waiting", the boy said and lifted his head. Link flinched when he saw the boy's eyes. They were unusually pale, as if the color had been slowly drained from them.

"What are you waiting for?" Link asked, feeling a bit anxious.

"I want my Mum to come and get me…" the boy said with his hollow, echoing voice. "She said that if I ever got lost we'd meet here… I can always find my way back here… because this is my favorite playground."

"So, your mother hasn't come yet?"

"No… how long have I been waiting? She hasn't forgotten about me has she? I promised her I wouldn't leave here if I got lost… Mum always said that if you lose something you'll go back to find it… but you won't find it… if it has moved, will you?"

The boy stared unblinkingly at Link.

"Uhm… no…"

"I promised her I'd stay here… I won't move…"

"Why did you go here in the first place?" Link couldn't help but to ask.

"I… remember… it was a wheel, a huge, burning wheel… and it came closer… it seemed to move so slowly but it must have been really fast… mustn't it? It was fire… everything was burning… There was a girl there… and everything became dark… I must have run here because here is where I woke up… or maybe Dampé brought me here…"

"Who's Dampé?"

"The grave keeper", Link heard a faint voice squeal from inside hat.

"He's nice… He's not bad… he talks to me…"

"I think you better go home, you do know where you live, right?" Link said.

"I won't move", the boy said in a harsh voice. "I'll wait for my mother…" The boy jumped down from the tombstone. He didn't even reach up to Link's waist. "I'll rest a little… and then I'll wait for my mother…"

Link's eyes widened as the small boy vanished into thin air right in front of his eyes.

"L-let's get out of here Navi…"

"So now you listen?" Navi said almost hysterically. Link began to run but tripped over his own feet as he almost ran into a cloaked person sitting on a large tombstone near the exit.

"S-sorry, excuse me", Link blurted out as he half walked, half crawled to get away as soon as possible.

"How rude not to even say hello", the person on the tombstone said.

"Sheik?" Link asked as he straightened up and brushed himself off. Sheik's face was hidden by the cloak but Link could for a second see a red gleam in his eyes as he jumped down from the tombstone.

"I'm here on a mission."

"That's nice but I'm in a hurry."

Sheik grabbed his shoulder so hard that he couldn't walk away. Link winced as the grip tightened even more.

"I want the ocarina Zelda gave you."

Link tensed and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Waddya' need that for?"

"You know what I am, a Sheikah, I have neither need nor desire for anything. I'm only here to ask of you to give me the ocarina."

"Forget it!" Link said as he took a defensive stance and twisted his shoulder away. "You're acting strange Sheik. Why aren't you making any stupid jokes or teasing me as usual? Showing up here of all places and acting strange."

"There are some things you can't go through without changing. I have simply begun to become a true Sheikah and that means I have to let go of some things, including the emotions Zelda wanted me to explore."

"All this mystery doesn't suit you Sheik!" Link said, but the truth was that it suited Sheik terrifyingly well. The darkness, the mystery, the unsaid. It was as if Sheik had found his true element and Link didn't like it. Perhaps because that amused gleam in his red eyes reminded him of a young, innocent Zelda?

"Changes are not always bad, or you must do what's best of it", Sheik responded with his hand outstretched to accept the ocarina.

"I'm not giving it to you! Zelda wanted me to…"

"You two had a fight."

"We didn't fight", Link said but he sounded hesitant. "I'll guard it for her anyway!" he then added stubbornly.

Sheik stood with his hand still outstretched in the darkness, then lowered it slowly.

"Maybe it's for the best. Zelda wishes to see you too."

Sheik reached for something inside his cloak but Link spoke before the item was revealed. "Sheik, does things like ghosts and Poes really exist?"

"Yes, didn't you just see one?"

"The boy?"

"Yes."

Link frowned. "But what's the difference? Isn't a Poe the same as ghost?"

The look in Sheik's eyes made Link believed that he was about to laugh. As if this childish question brought a warm feeling of happiness to the Sheikah.

"A Poe keeps lingering in our world because it feels that its task in life is undone, or it has a strong desire for revenge. Refusing death because there's something you must finish will give you the appearance of a Poe with a temporary body of darkness and glowing eyes. A Poe's appearance scares people and because of their vengeance they are often told about as evil. A ghost on the other hand, is someone who doesn't know that it's dead or refuses to accept death because of fear or similar reasons. A ghost does, as you know, look like when it was alive, only paler or sometimes transparent. They often lose their sense of time and sometimes don't even realize it if they do something only ghosts can do. A ghost is ready for death but refuses to accept it, while a Poe clings to life because it needs to finish something." Sheik made a pause. "But Poes are a kind of ghost, yes."

"Sh-Sheik?"

"No, I granted you the answer to your question, farewell for now", Sheik said and pulled something from his cloak and threw it at the ground. A blinding flash forced Link to cover his eyes and when he dared to open them again there was no longer any Sheik standing in front of him.

"Sheik was acting weird", Navi said as they walked away. "We better find your mother. I don't know for how long we stayed in that graveyard."

No matter how much Navi nagged on Link to run he walked slowly as he looked for his mother.

"You are as useless as ever Link! Couldn't you have decided a place where we could meet?"

"Did you hear Navi?"

"Huh?" Navi noticed that he seemed so far away he had probably not heard a word she had said.

"Zelda wishes to see me…"

"What's with that? You're just friends, right?" Navi snapped.

"Yeah, of course we're just friends, what else would we be!" Link snapped back.

"There's you're mother!" Navi said and pointed at Link's mother running towards them.

"Navi, Link!" She called out to them. "Don't you think it became dark awfully quickly? We must hurry home before your father gets too worried. You know how he gets."

Somewhere else in the small town of Kakariko someone knocked on a door.

"My boy is asleep! Come back tomorrow!" the woman lying on the floor by the door cried but the knocking continued. "My boy can't see anyone right now!"

Then she heard a soft voice through the door, was it a boy or a girl's? "I know he can't."

With trembling hands the elder woman, looking rather starved, her clothes in rags and her face dirty, opened the door to see a dark figure standing outside, a slender man by the looks of it.

"W-why are you here?"

"You haven't come to get your boy at the graveyard."

"M-my b-boy's not there, he's in his bed!" She said while her body twitched, barely noticeable but still doing so, and her eyes darted from side to side anxiously.

"Have you been to the graveyard?"

"No, I have no business there."

"Your son didn't eat any dinner today."

"How can you know?" the woman asked, suddenly sounding frightened and looking small, making the narrow opening of the door even narrower so that not even half of her body was shown. One of her eyes stared wildly through it at the young man, her gaze shifting.

"That is because he's lost and wants you to come to the graveyard. You both have something to tell each other."

"Is t-that why my boy hasn't been having his dinner today?"

The mysterious man, dressed in a short cloak, turned to leave without another word and left the woman standing in the doorway, now fully open.

In another house a woman with red, shiny hair that fell down to her shoulders, looked out her window.

While she looked at the moon she wondered if her love would come back soon. They might be as different as the sun and the moon but they completed each other. They had been friends for so long. How would she dare to ask him if he remembered that they would exchange masks, one of the sun and one of the moon, on the day they got married? Maybe he loved someone else? And here she was, getting herself several Cuccos as pets just because he mentioned that he liked them. She had hoped that he would come back more often now when she'd gotten herself so many Cuccos and then all of them, except one ran away."

She sighed and looked down towards the fence, expecting to see a lone Cucco there but to her great surprise all Cuccos that had escaped was back. She blinked in disbelief and then, smiling, looked back up at the sky. Didn't Nayru's blue star shine a little brighter this evening?

Took some time didn't it? This chapter didn't really bring the story forwards but it was some time ago I included any characters from OOT (Taime is actually a character from the game but maybe I have already said that?). And I couldn't resist adding some things about Anju and Kafei even though they are from Majora's Mask. I planned the scene with the boy from the graveyard already when I made the windmill fall in one of the earlier chapters (that feels so long ago).

It was some time since Link got to stand in the spotlight too, wasn't it? Well, Ganny, it's time for you to act, don't you think? Or we'll be stuck here forever.

I can't believe I was excited about school! I hate it! The Chemistry teacher is a living nightmare and I'm not having time with anything anymore! Thank you for the reviews, I'm sorry I'm so slow. You are encouraging!