Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda. This is just for fun and not for profit.

The Ghost Beside Me

Chapter 2: Forgotten Memories

The room walls were painted in shades of white and cream colors with some drawings hanging from them. The drawings were childish, painted with scarce but brilliant shades of green, blue, and red. A shelf in one of the walls stored a variety of toys, clothes, and diapers. A crib was placed in a corner of the room, rocking chair on one side and a night table with a chandelier on top of it on the other side. On the opposite wall a tall, simple wardrobe contained more clothes, toys and other things. All of which were locked on with a silver key. A big, round rug made of colorful hemp covered the floor in the center of the room.

Some small squared blocks were scattered all over the rug. Different letters and images where carved on every side of each cube. A small hand touched one block gingerly before grabbing it. The small hand brought it into his mouth and licked it with his tongue. When the wet tongue discovered that the wooden toy had no flavor and was not comestible, the owner took it away from it and decided to play with it instead. The hand put the block over another block, then he put another block over another to from a three-story tower.

The little boy giggled expressing his sense of accomplishment. He built a tower, his own tower, just like big people do!

Faint coughing sounds resonated from some other room to the boy's small kingdom. His turned his head from his sitting spot, his giggles stopped. The door was opened, and more coughing were heard somewhere beyond that door. Full of curiosity, the boy put his hands on the floor and turned his fragile body. He crawled his way out of the room as fast as his short legs allowed him to move.

He crawled a considerate distance until he came near a fireplace. As he crawled, a pair of feet came into his view. He stopped about a meter away from the feet. More coughing sounds, this time they came from the person in front of it. The toddler sat and looked up, glancing the woman whose back was toward him. She seemed to be attending something inside the fireplace, maybe some food in a cauldron, which drew all of her attention.

The toddler gurgled, and called for the woman's attention. The woman turned to the boy on the floor. When she looked down, her eyes glinted like stars in the night, and a big smile decorated her smooth, young face.

"Oh sweetheart, you are here!" The blond woman said cheerfully to the boy. "Did you make the tallest block tower ever, huh?"

The boy's blue eyes stared at her.

She knelt in front of him and made full eye contact with him. "I am making dinner, sweetie. Are you so hungry that you cannot wait any longer for it?" The woman asked him in a playful tone.

The boy kept staring the lady in front of him. She had dark, blond hair that reached past her shoulders. Her hair was pulled back with a pink ribbon to avoid the loose strands of hair to fall over her forehead. Her eyes were green like emeralds. Despite the light, purple circles under her eyes, her face reflected compassion and care.

The little boy knew that woman. She was the only one he knew. And she made him happy.

The toddler shrieked and laughed excited as he extended his arms toward the lovely lady in front of him. He offered his widest smile his mouth could ever afford.

"Aww, come here my precious baby." The lady took the toddler in her arms and lifted him. She hugged him while she hummed a child lullaby to the small person in her arms. She stroked his back and head gently, comforting him.

The boy felt incredibly happy in her arms. He wrapped his arms around her neck and sunk his face in her soft shoulder. Her skin was fragrantly sweet, like fruits. Succumbing into that sea of softness and confidence, he closed his eyes and thought of nothing but his guardian, who whispered caring words to his ears. He felt safe.

"I love you, Link."

Link woke up when the morning sun rays broke inside through his window and bathed his face. When he opened his eyes, he noted that he was laying on his side in his bed, hugging one of his two pillows tightly against his chest. He let go of the pillow and stood up, letting out a big yawn. While stretching out his arms and back, parts of his dream came to his head. He remembered dreaming about toy blocks and a rug in a floor. He looked at the round rug in his room. He could not remember if it was the same as in his dream, but that was of little importance right now, as well as what he dreamed anyway.

He was about to get ready to go to Ordon Ranch when he remembered that it was Saturday. Nobody in the ranch or the village worked on Saturdays. He thought the lack of work would made him bored throughout the day, but was relieved that a resting day finally arrived, since he worked so much in both the ranch and by helping Rusl in Faron Woods the other day.

After washing up, having a little breakfast and taking care of Epona, Link found himself back in his house with practically nothing to do. He stood in the middle of the room and looked around, trying to find something to occupy him. While looking, he saw the small corner of his house that led to the cellar. He didn't remember when was the last time he went down there. It must be dirty, full of dust, hairballs and rodents. In addition to that, he didn't know what was been stored in the cellar. Since he had no other significant task to do, he decided to take the day and clean up the cellar.

Link climbed down the ladder with three oil lanterns in his hand since there was no natural light entering the place and it was almost pitch black. He lit them all and placed them in different places so the light that emanated covered most of the cellar. When he could finally see the cellar at full, he almost cried in dismay. The cellar was so disorganized and dusty that he though would take him forever to clean it up. There were rolled-up wallpapers inside a flower vase in one corner and about five or six boxes were stacked in another corner. The shelves that occupied an entire wall had all sort of things: tools, more unmarked boxes, even a music box. Some furnitures were placed one over another and covered with blankets that were covered with cobwebs at the same time. Link surveyed the place with his jaw opened. Where did all come from? And how so many things ended up there in the first place?

Sighing, Link took a broom and began sweeping the floor.

He didn't know for how long he'd been there, the only thing he knew was that the whole cleaning session kept him very busy. He was surprised by how may things where stored in his house cellar. He started with the wall shelves. Most of the things there were exposure in dampness and were damaged in some way. Old chandeliers with melted candles, cooking tools, pieces of paper… He could not give any use to them and decided to throw them away, except for a dirty, silver key that he found inside the music box, which he put in one of his pockets. For that, he placed them in a box.

He then proceeded with the boxes. Most of them were full of fairly old clothes; men's and women's. The colors were faded by time and were full of holes and mold, not to mention that all of the pieces stunk. He returned them to the boxes to throw them away.

Now, the furnitures. They did not occupy most of the cellar space but decided to also take care of them. Link retrieved the white blankets that protected them, tangling his fingers with the spider cobwebs. He shook his hands to get rid of it.

"Wow," he said under his breath as he uncovered the first piece of furniture: a rocking chair. It was old, but it still looked firm. He could not content the temptation; he sat down on the rocking chair, slowly and careful that it would not fall apart under his weight. The chair creaked when he sat down, but nothing broke. Link rocked himself slowly. He smiled as the rocking movement began to relax him and almost made him drowsy. But he knew that there're still a lot of things to do, so he stood up and continued with his shores. He then uncovered the other furniture, which was a crib. He touched it. He felt a small tingle run through his fingers. Who could have used that crib in the past? He decided to condone the lives of both the rocking chair and the crib to offer them to somebody who might need it later, along with the flower vases and a broken mirror frame. Maybe Uli of Pergie could use them.

Link stopped working and looked the newly organized cellar. It looked more pleasant to the eyes and smelt cleaner, no dust or bugs anywhere around. Ilia would be proud of him, since she complained that his house was a complete mess from time to time.

He was about to call the day off when he spotted another furniture covered with another blanket in a corner of the cellar. It was the largest piece of furniture in the cellar; it almost reached the ceiling.

"How didn't I notice this one before?" He asked to himself.

He threw the blanket away to reveal a fairly large wardrobe. It was made of wooden, probably the same material as with the baby crib and the rocking chair. He observed it for a minute before opening it. But when he tried the knob, it did not budge a bit. It was locked. He sighed in frustration. If there was something inside the wardrobe, he would have to break it or force the knob open, and he felt that he would regret it if he did that.

He looked at it once more, and noticed the key hole under the knob. He foolishly tried to introduce his small finger into the keyhole and worked it as a key, but to no avail. He almost kicked the wardrobe foot when he remembered that he found a key some hours ago while cleaning. He had a fat chance that it would open the wardrobe double door. But he would not let pass the opportunity anyway. He took it out of his pocket and introduced it into the key. Holding his breath, he turned the key.

--Click--

The small sound announced that the door was unlocked. He turned the knob, and the door opened. He felt a little disappointed when he saw that the wardrobe was almost empty. At least that was what he saw until his eyes came down to the wardrobe floor. There was a small box inside. But it did not produce any excitement in him.

Great. More boxes…

With no options left, he took the box out and placed it on the floor. He sat down and opened it, its content drawing half a smile on his face.

Toys. The box was full of toys. The first thing he saw was a wooden horse. It was brown, with black hair, and a red horse seat was painted on its back. He admired the toys beauty. It resembled Epona, an exact image of his pet. Next, he found a cream color teddy bear. Link shook away the light layer of dust that covered the fur. He didn't know how old was the animal plush, but it was torn or broken. In fact, it looked like new.

He kept searching the box like a little child, and found about a dozed blocks in the bottom of the box. He took them all out and held one on his hand. The six-side block was painted in different colors, with one letter of the Hylian alphabet imprinted on each side, except for one side, that had an emblem painted in yellow.

He put the block along with the others. He frowned when he noted that the emblem in the block was similar to the mark on his left back hand.

Ha, what a coincidence.

He was about to put the toys back to the box when he saw the there where still some items inside. He took out what appeared to be a pictobox along with some pictographs. His eyes opened wide. It had been years since the last time he saw one of those. The lens was cracked; no way to repair it unless it was replaced by a new one. He brought the red pictobox to his ears and shook it lightly. It made clanking noises inside. Forget replacing the lens; the whole thing was broken. He opened it to find any pictographs inside.

He took out the pictographs in the bottom of the box and looked at them. To his dismay, most of the images faded out, leaving the squared papers almost white. He kept passing them, but every single one of them were useless; nothing could be made out of the pictographs. Those, like most of the items he found in the cellar were many years old, maybe older that him.

There was one pictogragh that was very well preserved despite all the years. He looked at it intently. In the pictograph, there was a young woman holding a baby in her arms. The image just showed her from the waist up, but her features could be distinguished with detail. To Link, she was very pretty, her smile ran from ear to ear, and a red bow decorated her golden hair. The baby in her arms was very small, perhaps a newborn. He was practically enveloped by a green blanket decorated with yellow lace. The baby's face and tiny hands barely stuck out from the fabric cocoon, but he was sure that it was a boy.

"Link!" a faint voice called his name.

He turned his head to the ladder, to the source of the voice.

"Link!" The same faint voice again. It sounded so far away that he could not recognize it; he had no idea whose voice was calling him. His gut jumped inside him a little when he remembered his little hearing episode in the woods the other day, when he thought he heard someone talking in his ear.

He was going to stand up from the floor when the voice called him again. "Link!"

It was coming closer. He wanted to call back, but he was afraid, which made no sense to him. He remained sat on the floor, still like a statue.

The voice stopped calling him, but he heard some steps up in the house.

--Clop, clop, clop--

Someone was climbing down the ladder, and was coming for him.

"Link, where are you?" The voice was much clearer now. It was a girl's.

He dared to open his mouth to reply. His voice trembled a little. "Hey…"

"Link?"

Link frowned. "Ilia?"

"Link," Ilia said when she reached the cellar floor. She stared at Link, who was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. "What are you doing here?"

"Eh," Link chuckled under his breath, relieved and he didn't know why. "I was cleaning."

"Really?" Ilia surveyed the place. "Well, it really looks clean. It is the cleanest cellar I've ever seen." She said to his friend on the floor. "I was on my way to the spring and I decided to say 'hi'. I called you from outside and since you did not answer I entered. Still busy?"

"Not really. I am finishing here with this." He said. "You have no idea how many things I have found here."

"It surely took you all day to put all in order." She observed. "Well, I better get going. Father is…" She trailed off when she saw the item in Link's hand. "Oh Gods, is that a pictobox?"

Link looked incredulously at the pictobox in his hands. He showed it proudly to his friend. "Yes, it is."

Link handed the pictobox to her. Ilia admired it speechless. "I have not seen one of this since I was a little girl." Ilia sat down on the flood by Link's side.

"So do I. But I don't know who this belonged to. It is broken."

Ilia looked at the toys was Link scattered over the floor.

"Those were your toys right?" She said while holding the wooden horse in her hand.

"I don't know. Perhaps they were. I don't remember any of them at all." He said. Actually, he did not remember very much about his early childhood at all.

Ilia took the pictographs. "They were on the box, along with the toys." Link told her.

She looked at them, passing them rapidly as none of them showed any images for her to see. "Hey, looks like this pictograph survived the passing years."

"Yeah, I think so."

"But who is she?"

"I thought maybe you could tell me."

She shook her head. "No, I don't know her. I've never seen her before." She spent some seconds in silence, surveying the pictograph. "She looks like Uli. The baby could be Colin."

"But can't be her." Link observed. "Those pictographs are very old. That can't be Colin. Besides, that pictograph was down here all the time."

"Hmm," Ilia kept looking at the image. "Maybe we should go ask Uli about this lady."

Link looked at Ilia quizzically. "Why?"

"She may know her, whoever she is."

"I don't see a reason to do that."

"Come on, Link. This is history. What if some other family lived here before you? Or ever before Father was born?" Ilia said very enthusiastic. "What if this baby is actually Rusl, or Fado?"

Link smiled at the hypothesis. "Well, you can ask anyone if you want."

"Me? Yes, I am going to. But you are coming with me." She said as she stood up with the pictograph in her hand. "Come on, let's go."

"What? We are going now?" He asked as he stood up, shaking away any dust from his pants.

"Why wait?"

Link looked down at the scattered toys on the floor. Those doubts about some persons' past could be clarified another day, but sometimes he just did not understand why Ilia hurry so much regarding some things, being the pictograph's mystery woman a clear example of that. Perhaps knowing about the past and family trees were like hobbies to her. It wasn't that it did not matter to him, but he found all those weird things about unknown people in his house, along his stuff. They were part of him now. It should matter.

"Eh, can I pick up these toys first. Maybe the Talo and the other kids at the village would like them."

Ilia smiled. "Okay, I will help you."

A knock in the door drifted Uli's attention from the task in her hands. She was sewing the second sock from a pair when the sound took away her concentration. She put the half-sewn sock away and stood up form the couch. Someone knocked the door again.

"I am coming," Uli called form inside. She opened the door and was greeted by the presence of two young persons. Two which she knew very well.

"Oh Ilia! Link!" What a surprise!" Uli greeted them.

"Hi Uli," Ilia greeted back.

Link smiled at the older lady and just waved her hand, leaving all the speech and greeting to his female friend.

"It is so good to see you. Please, come in." Uli said as she let the visitors enter her house.

"Thank you Uli. Where is Colin?" Ilia asked when he noted the unusual calmness of the house.

"He is with Rusl in the pond. He is teaching Colin how to use his new fishing pole." Uli informed. "Or at least that is what they told me. Perhaps Rusl is doing some sparing with him and did not tell me. He knows what I think about that."

"Yeah," Ilia giggle. Link only chuckled.

"So, what can I do for you? Can I serve you something to drink?" Uli gladly offered.

"Actually we are here because both Link and I want to ask you something." Ilia sail to her. "About something Link found. Don't worry, it should not take too long, I hope."

"Of course, anything. What is it?" Uli waited for any of them to speak, but only silence spoke for them.

Uli glanced at Link to speak and show her what he got. But Link just stood silently, seemly reluctant whether tell her about his new discovery or not.

Some seconds passed. None of them talked. Uli waited patiently.

Ilia could not wait any more and discretely hit Link softly in his ribs with and elbow. Link recoiled lightly.

"Ow…"

"Show her, Link." Ilia ordered him, whispering her words.

Link rolled her eyes and finally moved. He took the pictograph and unfolded. After flattening it a little, he handed it to Uli. "I was cleaning up the cellar and I found this."

Uli took the pictograph but did not look at it yet.

"When we saw the woman there, Ilia and I thought perhaps you or Rusl know her, since I think she should be about your age now."

After listening to the young couple, she finally looked at the pictograph. As soon as she looked at it, her soft features suddenly turned serious. Her eyes never blinked as she observed every detail in the pictograph in her hand. Both Link and Ilia watched as Uli seemed to be looking in complete silence at every tiny dot that she could find there. Uli swallowed hard. Ilia noted how Uli tried to hide her sudden distress, but she failed.

"So, do you know her?" Ilia broke the silence.

Uli tried to smile despite her sinking mood. "Yes, I know who she is."

"Really?" Link said.

Uli swallowed hard again, preparing her throat and her mind to what she was about to say. "Her name is Adryll." She informed them. She then turned it and showed the woman's pictograph directly to Link.

Link got confused by her action. He already looked at it, why was she showing it to him like that? Anyway, he looked at the pretty lady on it once more.

After a pause, Uli added, still holding the pictograph toward the young man's eye level. "Link, she is your mother."

TBC...

A/N: How is it so far? Let me know what you think!