Previous disclaimers apply.

The Ghost Beside Me

Chapter 9: Realization

Rusl sat on the living room sofa holding a cup full of steaming tea. He sniffed the fragrant smell of the sweet herbs before sipping a little, careful enough to not burn his lips. Uli was a wonderful cook, and there weren't any doubt that she also dominated the arts of making teas and other concoctions. The tea warmed his body almost instantly.

"The house is so cold tonight, and quiet too." Uli said in an exasperated tone from some part of the house. "I'm missing Colin already."

"I wouldn't worry too much about him. Not that I don't care about him though." Rusl commented. "I am sure he is having some fun at Talo's. They must be playing, jumping around their beds… They will not let the cold weather to hold them down in boredom."

Uli's laughter was heard in the distance. "You are right. We have quite a hyperactive son."

"Yeah," the mustached man smiled as he took another sip of coffee.

His son. His most precious treasure.

Not only the mention of the word son reminded him of his blond haired boy Colin, but also reminded him of his surrogate son, Link. There wasn't a moment when he didn't think of him as an offspring of his own. Ever since Adryll's untimely death, he and his wife promised to her in her deathbed to take care of him and love him as she would had done. They all gave their best efforts to raise the orphaned toddler the best they could - along with the other villagers. The gods and spirits were ever-present witnesses to that. With the passing time, Link turned into a handsome and caring young man full of life. Neither he nor Uli had failed to break that promise.

The news about his dead mother was surely a blow to him. All of the sudden, Link became distraught and somewhat clumsy. Now he was suffering from a cold from his usual stubbornness, but it wasn't helping matters either. The least Rusl wanted for Link was to be bed-ridden while dealing with this recent discovery.

Rusl placed the empty cup on the coffee table and stood up. He put on his winter boots and coat, then he headed to the door.

"Uli, I'm going out tonight."

"You are going out with this weather?" Uli asked as she came into the living room. "Where are you going?"

"I'm visiting Link. I'm going to check how he is. Last time I saw him looked quite sick."

"Oh really?" Uli sounded concerned. She didn't know he was sick. He was fine the last time he talked to him.

"Yeah, he looked pretty messed up. But don't worry, if I see Link is okay, I'll be right back, I promise."

"Wait, wait." Rusl turned when Uli urged him to stop. "Can I go with you?"

Rusl smiled at how innocent her question sounded. "Of course you can. In fact, I'm sure he will feel better the instant he sees you."

After Uli changed her clothes to some warmer ones, the couple headed to Link's house.

It was coldness of the snow around him what made Link to come around his senses - or most of them. He felt the air being pulled inside his mouth by his starving lungs. As the humid air entered his lungs, it evaporated any moisture that was left in his mouth. He swallowed dry, the sore knot in his throat made him desist of doing it a second time. As he opened his eyes, the moonlight was the first thing to greet him. With blurry eyes he saw the moon floating high in the sky and over him.

He grunted as he rolled over, forcing his body to kneel on the snow, and forcing his mind to understand. He wasn't shivering as much as he should be; perhaps his body got used to the cold weather. He surveyed the place, looking for something that could make him remember. But the pale, bluish light was not helping his weary eyes. The piercing headache made him wince and his face contorted with pain. He lifted a hand to his head.

"Ughh," he grunted. He surveyed the place for a second time, looking for something, or someone.

Looking for her.

The woman. He wanted to see her; he wanted to drown into her bright eyes. He wanted to feel her presence, to feel her warm embrace.

But she was nowhere to be found.

He lost her. No one was there to safe him. He was alone again.

"Hey," he called hoarsely, scared of how pathetic his own voice sounded. It didn't make the slight echo sound. The lantern was not giving any light; the oil was burnt completely since who knows when.

A painful shiver ran through his system, and he knew he could not be outside in the wilderness for much longer. He staggered a few times while he stood up, feeling a little uneasy if he could even hold his own weight. When he finally got into his feet, he was panting for air. He doubted that he could made it at least half the way to his house, but all he wanted was to get out of that frozen hell and never come back.

Home. Home. Just get home…

"Come back home…" He remembered the muted plead of the lady in the ranch. "Come back home… Come back home…"

With only the moonlight as his guide, he made his way out of the Ordon Spring. The dark edges on his eyes refused to go away and he was practically walking blind. His survival instinct was what kept him dragging his feet in clumsy and uneven steps. The snow that covered the ground made his legs to scream in pain. He rubbed his shoulders weakly in an attempt to warm them up. The action resulted to be tiresome and brought no relief at all.

Link continued to walk blindly through the place, trusting the way to his moving feet and not to his eyes. It was uncannily quiet. There wasn't any wind blowing around, the trees branches weren't moving, and no snow was falling. His noisy ragged intakes of air were the only thing that assured him he wasn't deaf yet.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally stumped against something hard. He used his hands to identify it, and sighed in relief when he recognized the steps of his house ladder. But he tensed again as he realized that he needed to climb it in order to enter his house.

You have to do it. Climb it up and then you can rest… One by one and ever so slowly, he climbed the steps to his porch. Feeling his energy draining fast, he got hold of the door knob to stand up again. He slumped over the door and he felt drifting away in sleep. He tried to turn the door knob. When it did not budge, he knocked on it heavily, as if someone inside would open it for him.

No… Please open. I just want to rest a little, that's all.

He could do the hardest jobs at Fado's ranch, he could spend the entire day chopping wood and help anybody with their daily shores. Yet at that moment, he couldn't open his door. He'd never felt so weak and useless in his life. And that feeling made him angry. Stepping back a little, he clashed against the door with his shoulder. The door opened, and with the impact, Link fell to the floor with a loud thud. He groaned as his shoulder resented the hit. He laid on his stomach and didn't move for a minute. He let himself to enjoy the warm sturdiness of his house's wooden floor.

My house… I made it, I finally made it…

He managed to kneel on the floor. With shaky hands, he removed his damp shirt, leaving his upper body bare. He began to crawl to where his bed was and with much effort, he lifted his body to his bed. He sunk his body into the blanked, damp, cold and completely tired. He had no energy to think or to move anymore. Once his head rested comfortably in his pillow, he forgot about the world around him and fell asleep immediately.

A small, soft hand was touching his face, almost caressing his frozen cheek.

Two shiny brown eyes took form and a second later, two slightly parted thin lips came into view. The hair was pulled back by something he couldn't distinguish…

…Its white skin looked soft and youthful…

"So pretty…"

His beautiful savior.

His goddess.

His mother.

Link's eyes snapped open and sat up in the bed, ignoring his migraine and his sore muscles. He glanced at his surroundings, breathing heavily. All of the sudden, he felt uncomfortable, but his weariness was gone and his mind became more alert. Something was wrong. Something was amiss.

His heart beat painfully in his chest as he got out of his bed. He needed to find it, he needed to be sure.

The pictograph! I have to find it!

He began to search his house for the pictograph he found in the cellar. He searched the night tables, over the tables, inside his chests… Where did I put it? Where did I put it? He frantically checked under the bed blankets and the pillow, but he could not find it anywhere. Frustration was starting to get over him. In a wave of anger, he threw everything that was on a table to the floor, breaking some of the vases and other decorative elements.

He knelt to look under the armchair, and when he tried to stand up, pain exploded inside his chest and his back. He moaned in discomfort and lowered his forehead until it touched the floor. He hugged his chest as the dull pain thumped rhythmically with his heart. His eyes drifted to the side, and then he saw it.

The pictograph laid unfolded under his bed. Link extended his hand to reach the old pictograph, while the other arm still hugged his sore chest. He grabbed it and began to examine it closely.

No… it can't be…

The color of her skin, her small hands, her blond-golden hair, her caring eyes…

Her beauty.

Her resemblance.

No, no please. It's impossible…

It was her. It was her all along, from the very beginning. The apparent illusion he saw at the spring, the woman he saw in the ranch, the woman in his dreams… She was the person who pulled him out of his certain death in the spring pond; the woman who knelt by his side while his senses spiraled out of his control. It was the woman his friends called Adryll: his mother, his deceased mother.

He stared at it in complete silence, as he did some days ago. A tear rolled over his cheek as a strangled sob escaped his throat. It did not make any sense, but at the same time it explained it all. Adryll was the woman who gave him life, but also she was the reason of his breakdown. It was an overwhelming mixture of feeling in which Link was swimming and was barely managing to keep his head over the surface.

"Why?" He asked to the pictograph, but it didn't give him any answers. His mother kept staring at him; her smile to him and her newborn baby – himself - in her arms.

"I don't… I-I don't understand. Why?" He begged, his voice finally breaking and giving in to raw emotions. Tears fall down his face at full blast as he cried. He lifted the pictograph and held it against his face, his eyes closed tightly against the impossibility of his situation.

He sobbed as he received no answer to his question. "Why did you do this to me?" He whimpered. He felt humiliated. Was it a punishment? What did he do wrong to deserve that?

"Why did you do this to me?"

Rusl and Uli walked slowly toward Link's house. The snow was too deep for them to walk properly and in their usual pace. It was cold outside, but their clothes protected him from most of it, avoiding them from getting a chill.

About half an hour later, they arrived at Link's house. Little by little, the light from the moon along with Rusl's lantern, revealed the iconic house.

"Oh look, I think Link is still awake." Uli observed from the distance.

"He may be. The door is open." Rusl added. It was weird; Link never left the door of his house open, not even at broad daylight. Seen the door wide open in the middle of the night made Rusl frown with curiosity.

"Well, let's get inside, shall we?"

Rusl climbed the ladder. Once up there, showed his head shyly through the door.

"Good evening, Link." Rusl said in a low voice.

Link did not answer. Rusl thought he was fast asleep, but he dismissed the possibility because the door was wide open.

Rusl took a few steps forward and entered the dark house. He surveyed the place with the help of his lantern, and what he saw made his heart to beat faster than usual.

The place was a complete mess. Broken glass and pottery were scattered all over the floor. Some of their edges looked sharp enough to slice a foot if somebody carelessly stepped on them. The floor was wet with water puddles. The tables, some books and some clothes were all misplaced and apparently thrown in every direction. With all the mess and destruction around, the place looked dirtier than it may look at first.

Once he saw the mess around him, Rusl's senses were fully alert. He needed to find Link, and fast.

"Link!" The older man called. No sound. No one answered. Rusl was getting very worried. By the looked of it, it looked like a robbery. Perhaps Link was hiding somewhere in the house and didn't listen to him; it seemed quite reasonable. But the chance that the robber might have hurt Link made him tremble with fear.

Trying to control his nerves, he searched the semi dark place avoiding the broken items on the floor. "Link, are you here?" He called again with distress etched in his voice. He was answered by silence.

Noticing the small water puddles on the floor, he decided to follow them. He hoped they would lead him somewhere. The water marks lead them closer to the Link's bed and stopped there, but Link was not on his bed. Out of curiosity and with any reason whatsoever, he placed a hand on the bed's blankets, and frowned as he felt them wet and cold to the touch. He sighed in despair, now he was sure something happened with Link. And it wasn't good.

Rusl shone his lantern to the other side of the bed, and noticed a pair of feet in the floor. As he turned around the bed, the burning light discovered the form of a person lying on its side, its back turned at him.

"Link?" He called as he got closer.

He recognized him immediately. He gasped at the sight of him; it made his blood to run cold in his veins. There, lying in a puddle of water was the unmoving body of his pupil.

TBC...

** To those who are/were following this story: It saddens me to announce that this fic is being put ON HIATUS. I'd never imagined myself saying this, but it seems that way, and it's possible even for me. If it's temporary of permanent, only time and the readers' interest on it will tell. If there's any interest shown, the chapters that are left in this story are still in my mind waiting to be written.

Meanwhile, don't be afraid to leave a review, it's not that hard you know...