Ah, looks like it's getting around crunch time for school. Three more weeks until I'm finished, so updates might be slow or nonexistent until mid-April. After that, I'm hoping I'll be able to push out a few chapters for all of my stories before May, as I'll be working full time from then until the end of August and will only get a chance to update one story per week (if I'm lucky).

Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one

Finding Home

"Well, I'm off to look for some mushrooms in the forest!"

"Okay, be careful, Dad!"

"Haha, when am I not careful?"

The sound of the door shutting was followed by a sigh from the girl who had stayed behind. "I don't think he's ever careful."

Inhaling deeply, Link opened his eyes and glanced around the room. Oddly enough, this was not the room he had fallen asleep in just moments ago. Within moments, he was able to recognize the comfy interior as Marin's house, but how he had ended up here was rather odd. Of course, he could only assume that this was some sort of dream, though he'd never found himself aware of his own dreaming before. Perhaps this was one of those lucid dreams he had heard about during his travels. It seemed that that could be the only plausible situation.

"Good morning."

Link sat himself up and looked over to the redhead who was slowly sauntering herself toward him. With her signature smile and orchid in her hair, the hero could do nothing but smile back at her. Assuming this was a lucid dream, it would only make sense that he would recreate Koholint in his mind, as it was the home of his lover.

"How are you feeling?" she asked softly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

Link stretched out his arms and torso a bit, making sure that he could still move everything before answering. "I'm fine, better than fine, actually. I feel…alive."

Marin giggled and gently held his hand. "That's a funny thing to say, considering you've been sleeping as if you were dead. I don't think I've ever seen you sleep so soundly before."

Chuckling lightly, Link readjusted himself so that he was sitting next to Marin on the bedside. As he placed his feet on the ground, a strange tingling sensation spread through his legs, as if they had fallen asleep. Crinkling his nose in the slight discomfort, he attempted to add some weight to them, but stopped when they began to wobble.

"That's strange," he mumbled, attempting to knead out his thigh muscles with the palm of his free hand. Despite this being a lucid dream, it seemed that his leg muscles were still as weakened as they were back in the waking world.

"What's the matter?" Marin asked when she noticed him shifting his legs around.

"O-Oh, it's nothing, really," he answered quickly, giving her a small, reassuring smile. "I guess I'm just not at my full strength right now. Seems like my legs are a little weak."

"Hmm," the redhead mused, placing a hand on his thigh, much to Link's surprise and embarrassment. "Well, Tarin isn't old enough to need a cane, so there isn't anything here you could use to move around with. I could run to the shop and buy you–… Link? Your face is all red… Are you feeling feverish?"

"N-No, it's just…your hand…" he said meekly, beads of sweat beginning to form along his hairline.

Glancing down, Marin quickly realized how close she had placed her hand to Link's groin. Squeaking a bit, she immediately pulled her hand away and turned the other direction, mirroring his reddened cheeks. Despite sharing strong feelings for one another, Link and Marin had only ever gotten as far as kissing. Anything beyond that would have felt as though they were rushing into things, and even if it didn't, there was always the risk of Tarin coming home at the wrong time.

Slowly craning their necks back toward each other, the two failed to suppress their laughter at the sight of the other's expression. Fully allowing their giggles to bubble forth, Link and Marin simply enjoyed the moment as they laughed effortlessly beside each other. This was right. This was how things should have been, should still be. If he could have lived like this, he would never have considered awakening the Wind Fish. He had been selflessly helping others for all his life, so what harm would a small amount of greed have done? He was only human, after all.

Sadly, once their laughter had died down, Link's smile disappeared and, despite his efforts, he could feel his face drop. This could never be. This lucid dream may be the closest thing he could ever experience to being with Marin again, but he knew that his body in the real world was currently lying on a windowsill or perhaps had been moved back to the bed by Talon and Malon. This right here was nothing more than a figment of his imagination, the manifestation of his heart's desire. He could not marry a dream nor spend his life in an endless sleep.

It hurt to feel Marin's soft, slender body lean again his. It hurt to have her here so close where she was practically with him again. It hurt to know that she was gone.

No, it wasn't that she was gone; it was that she had never existed in the first place.

"Link," she said breathily, nuzzling her head on his shoulder, "we'll be together from now on. Promise that you'll stay by my side."

The hero bit his lip and forced himself not to look at her. Could he promise something like that? Would it even make a difference if he made a promise to a dream? It wasn't as though he would be lying if he said something to what was essentially his own brain. The problem was that he did not want to lie to her, even if she was imaginary. A promise like that…it meant something genuine.

"I…I want to, Marin," he said softly, keeping his gaze fixed away from her. "I want to tell you that we'll stay together…but I just can't promise it. I don't know what the future holds…and I've been on the move ever since I can remember. I care about you too much to make a promise I'm not sure I can keep."

He expected her to move off of him or react in some sort of way that would indicate she was hurt, but Marin did not do anything at all. For a moment, the two of them sat in silence, and Link began to feel slightly uncomfortable. However, it was not very long before Marin spoke in her gentle, soothing voice once again.

"I see." Her words were not sad or angry; rather, she sounded the same as always. "I'm glad that you can tell me how you truly feel, even if it isn't what I necessarily want to hear. If that's how you feel, then I'll just have to do everything I can to fight for you and for us."

Link couldn't help but smile as she spoke. Marin's words were so empowering and heartfelt, and he found her resolve to be refreshing. Most people would get down on themselves from hearing a response as negative as his had been, but she was different. Whether his memory of her was making her act this way or his subconscious had made it so that she would not respond sadly, Link couldn't say for sure, but the fact that this was a dream seemed not to matter nearly as much as it had before.

Turning toward her as she sat up straight, he watched as the redhead got to her feet and faced him.

"First things first, we won't be able to do anything fun until you can walk," she said enthusiastically, a wide grin spreading across her face. "I'll step out to see if I can find a cane or something. Normally I'd tell you to stay here until I get back, but that's kind of why I'm going out. Heehee."

Smirking at her quip, Link waved to her as she bustled out the door. Without a way to move about on his own, the hero found himself stuck to the bed until either Marin or Tarin returned. With nothing else to do, he shrugged and laid himself out on the bed. The fact that he couldn't move his legs in his own dream still seemed rather odd, but it didn't really matter as long as he could spend time with Marin.

Of course, he knew that it wouldn't amount to anything once he woke up from this dream. Would it even be possible to force himself to stay asleep? Eventually his real body and mind would be rested enough to the point where he physically would not be able to rest any longer. Doing the opposite was relatively simple when he thought about it, and he cursed the fact that it had to be this way. Even if he could find a way to sleep more often, there was no guarantee that he would get to experience another lucid dream, nor that he would even dream of Marin on each occasion.

But that was reality. This was naught but a dream, both literally and figuratively. There were no loopholes or exploitations of life that he knew of; all that Link could do now was learn to accept what fate had brought him and cope with it.

∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆

"Good morning."

Link yawned and rubbed his eyes as he awoke to the sound of Malon's voice. The way she greeted was strangely similar to how Marin would do so, almost as if she were singing the words rather than speaking them.

"Or, rather, I should say good evening now," the farmgirl chortled as he opened his deep blue eyes to look at her.

Glancing around, it was clear to see that the sun had set only a short time ago, as the sky outside the window was painted in a myriad of reds and oranges. It took a moment for him to notice, but Link realized that he was back in the straw-mattress bed he had woken up in before. Assuming that one of them must have moved him when they found him sleeping in what must have been an awkward position on the windowsill, he didn't bother to ask what had happened.

"Sorry," he said a bit hoarsely, earning a confused look from Malon. "You told me to take it easy, and then I ended up trying to walk and passed out. I guess I was more exhausted than I thought."

Malon's expression lasted a bit longer, but quickly morphed into a warm smile as she waved off his apology. "Oh, don't worry about it. I kind of figured you'd try to move around; you don't really seem like the type to just sit and wait things out. Are your legs feeling okay?"

The blond glanced down and wiggled his legs around a bit, gently swinging them over the side of the bed as he sat up. Interestingly enough, they didn't feel the same way as they did in his dream. Here, they simply felt tired, as if he'd been running around all day yesterday and was now suffering the consequences, but they had felt asleep in his dream. It was unlikely that there was any sort of correlation between the two, but it did seem strange, nonetheless.

"I should be alright," he said softly, placing his feet on the ground. "If I walk slowly, I should be able to be back to normal in a few days. I don't have anything with me, but I promise that I'll pay you and Talon back somehow before I leave."

"You're too eager to leave, kid," Talon's voice sounded from outside the room. A few moments later, the stocky man stepped in with a tray of food for the three of them. "If you go running off right after you start feelin' better, you might collapse again and be right back to square one."

"It's not that I'm trying to get away from here," Link defended, dropping his gaze a bit. "I-It's just that…I'd hate to impose any more than I already have. You're already doing so much for me, yet we just met each other earlier today, not to mention that I didn't exactly make the best first impression."

"Hogwash," Talon said, placing the tray down and grabbing a piece of bread for himself. "Listen here, Link, you're not imposin' on anybody here. Mal and I are all about hospitality here, so making sure you get back to yourself the proper, healthy way is just what we do. Just 'cause you're a little down on your luck now doesn't mean that we're goin' to add to your troubles by charging you and whatnot."

"That's gracious of you, but–"

""But" nothing! Look, if you really feel like you need to pay us back, then get your legs workin' again and you can help out around the ranch. Who knows, you're a fit, good-lookin' kid, so if you turn out to be a good worker, I'll let you marry Malon!"

"Dad!"

Talon guffawed loudly and rocked on his chair as Malon and Link glanced at one another and quickly looked away, their faces coloured a deep crimson. Apparently Talon wasn't the overprotective father type that Link had imagined him to be. Besides, even if Talon had been serious about offering Malon's hand, Link doubted he would accept. At this moment in time, finding love seemed like an impossible feat, one that he had already accomplished and would never experience again. To say that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all seemed like the conceited words of someone who had never experienced the loss.

"Heh, lighten up, you two," Talon said as his laughter died down. "If you're too uptight about a little joke then you'll both be old before I am. Anyway, I've got a delivery to make early tomorrow morning, so I'm gonna go hit the sack early tonight. Can you get the horses in the stables tonight, Mal?"

"Y-Yeah, no problem," she said quietly, still feeling a bit embarrassed from her father's joke. With a simple nod to both of them, the moustached man stood from his chair and yawned as he made his way through the doorway.

Now that it was just he and Malon, Link wasn't quite sure how he should feel. When they had been alone together earlier in the day, he hadn't felt uncomfortable, as she had only been there to clean up the glass. Now they were alone again, but the atmosphere had a tense awkwardness about it, multiplied by the lingering thoughts of Talon's stupid joke.

"U-Um," Malon began, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the room, "if you'd like, I can introduce you to some of the horses… Only if you're feeling strong enough to walk down, though."

Despite her offer, the manner in which she had asked helped very little to clear the tension in the air, and Link found himself unsure of how to respond. Thinking that the best route would be to lighten the mood a bit, he forced a smile and scratched his head.

"Oh? Are you trying to pin some of your work on me?"

Whether it was because of the tension or that Malon was jumpier than he was expecting, Link was surprised when she waved her hands in a flustered manner.

"N-No! I-I wasn't trying to imply that at all!" she defended, her face turning slightly pink. "You just seemed like…a horse person was all, so I thought you might want to… If you don't want to, that's fine! I just–"

"I'll go."

The redhead sent him a confused look as he cut her off, her hands frozen in front of her before she slowly set them down. Without a word, she stood from her chair at a snail's pace and shyly offered a hand to help him up. For a moment, Link only stared at her outstretched palm, a strange sense of déjà vu washing over him. Hadn't Marin helped him onto his feet in the exact same way when he first met her? He shook his head as if to rid his mind of those thoughts right now. Being depressed was only natural in his current situation, but this exact moment wasn't the proper time for him to feel that way. With all of his mental strength, Link carefully took Malon's hand and pulled himself up with her assistance.

It took some time to exit the house, especially while attempting to maneuver down the stairs without falling, but eventually Link was able to make his way out the front door with little reliance on Malon. Stepping onto the soft, grassy earth, Link followed Malon under an archway that led to the paddock he had seen from his window earlier.

While the sight he was met with wasn't particularly spectacular or breathtaking, Link felt intrigued by the number of horses within the fenced area. He had some experience with horses, but seeing so many in one place was new to him, and he didn't have a word to describe what sort of sensation he was feeling.

"Have you ever ridden a horse before?" Malon asked as she opened the gate leading into the corral.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, a few times in the past," he replied and slowly followed after her. "I doubt I'm in any condition to try it right now."

"Well, that was sort of a given," she chuckled, shutting the gate behind him. "I guess I was right when I said you liked horses?"

He shrugged in response, trying to count the number of horses they were keeping here, though he had to assume that there were none in the stables already. "You could say that, but it's really more like I'm indifferent. I've never really seen them as anything more than helpful animals."

"That sounds like most people's opinions," Malon mused, stroking one's mane as it trotted over to her. "I think people only think that way because they've never had to interact with horses. They're really smart, lovable creatures if you take the time to get to know them. Someday, I hope that I can show a lot of people just how wonderful they are. It isn't good to only think of horses as convenient tools for people to use, so I'll just have to fight to make sure that people can understand that."

"I'll just have to do everything I can to fight for you."

Link clutched at his head as Marin's words from the dream echoed in his head. Luckily, Malon was turned the other way, so she wouldn't think that he was in some sort of pain.

Why did that line have to surface just now? Was it because of how similar it sounded to what Malon was saying? It seemed rather odd to liken himself to a horse if he were comparing the different things that both redheads were fighting for. In any case, he had been trying to suppress his thoughts of Marin, and even having memories from his dreams reappear was too much. Taking a moment to calm himself down, Link forced his thoughts of Marin into the recesses of his mind and glanced back at Malon just as she was turning around to face him again.

"They like it when you sing to them," she said sweetly, patting the horse as it began to wander in the other direction.

"Sing?" Link inquired, hoping that this new conversation topic would take his mind off of Marin.

"Mhm," she hummed. "Well, they like it when I do, at least. Dad's never really been the singing type, so he always gets me to do it whenever they get restless."

"What about your mom?"

Malon didn't reply right away, and Link feared that he might have said something rather insensitive. While she didn't appear sad or unhappy in any way, the smile that was on her face sank into her regular expression. As he opened his mouth to apologize, he held his breath as the redhead took a deep breath and shut her eyes. Before he had the chance to do anything, a soothing melody began flowing out of her.

The tune floated on the air, as if wafting around and calming any tension in the atmosphere. While it was a simple melody and contained no words, the hero felt his body ease up, eradicating the feeling that he had done something wrong. It was strange that a tune so simplistic compared to the complex song Marin always sang could have such an impact on him.

It took a moment for him to realize that Malon had stopped singing, as the sound of her voice continued to echo in his head, but when he realized, he noticed the redhead giving him a soft smile.

"It's my mother's song," Malon said before Link could ask what it was. "She always used to sing it to me when I was a kid. Her dying wish was that I would sing it for her before she died. At the time, I was too young to understand what was happening, so I just held her hand while she lay in bed and sang to her. Dad cried beside me, and all the while I thought she was just sleepy. When I figured out what had happened, I was so upset, but I could never forget the way she shut her eyes with a smile on her face, and in a strange way it made me happy. Letting go was the only thing keeping me from moving forward with my life, so I made sure to let all of my emotions out one day so that I could move on with no regrets."

Her words struck him harder than any enemy attack had ever managed to. Even as a young child, Malon was able to grieve for her mother and move on quickly. What sort of resolve did it take for a child, no, a person of any sort to effectively come out of such a tragedy? He certainly didn't have the capacity to do so. Even if he vowed to steel himself from here on out, Link doubted that he would be able to simply move on from Marin just like that.

In the time it had taken for Malon to complete her song and for Link to fall into deep thought, a number of horses had already gathered in front of the redhead, nuzzling their faces against her to show their affection. She giggled and lightly stroked each one of them, her hands moving in strong but gentle movements.

Without warning, Link suddenly felt a rough tapping on his shoulder and then his head. Turning in the direction away from Malon, the blond realized that a reddish-brown horse was prodding him. As he took a step away from it, the horse exhaled and stepped toward him so it could continue.

"H-Hey, cut it out," Link said, using both hands to gently push the horse's nose away from him. Since it appeared undeterred by his actions, he began to use a bit more force, though it seemed that this only spurred the horse to return with an equal amount of force.

"Heehee, that's a first," Malon giggled, forcing Link to direct his attention to her instead of the horse. "Epona doesn't like to play with strangers, but she went over to you without even coming over to me first."

"This is supposed to be playing?" Link complained, now using almost all his strength to repel the horse. "W-What am I even supposed to do in this situation?"

Malon giggled again, amused by Link's failing attempts to push Epona away from himself. "Do? You don't have to do anything, Link. She's just playing, so let her do what she wants. If you're really lucky, she might even let you ride her, which is saying something since she only lets me get that far."

As animated as Malon might have been about this situation, Link simply wanted to be out of it. At this point, his hands were pretty much covered in horse saliva and mucus, though he very much hoped that there was none of the latter. Eventually his strength and stamina had reached their limit, and Epona was able to push him down with a simple shove. Feeling defeated, Link sprawled himself out on the ground and allowed the horse to smell his face to no end. It certainly wasn't a favourable situation, but he couldn't help smirking as Malon giggled by the other horses. Something about seeing her laugh after telling such a sad story made him feel warm, even if he did have an overly curious creature smelling and drooling on his face.

It took a while, but Malon made her way over to him after a while and was able to shoo Epona off to the side so she could help pull the hero to his feet. Once he was up, the redhead reached into her side pocket, retrieving a large handkerchief with which to wipe his face with.

"Sorry I didn't help you up sooner," she laughed girlishly. "Just the way you looked so helpless at the mercy of a cute horse like Epona made me want the moment to last longer. She's completely harmless, but the way you were acting made her seem like some kind of overbearing monster."

"You're exaggerating," he responded when she finished unnecessarily cleaning his face for him. "I was just a bit surprised by how strong she was. I had a feeling I might get knocked over, but I was really putting all of my strength into preventing her from doing so."

"Yeah, well, I don't know what it is, but she's always been quite a bit stronger and healthier than the other horses. It might be because she's a different breed, but she still shouldn't be that much different from the others, considering she was raised here just like all the others. In any case, you should just be grateful that our prized horse likes you as a playmate!"

"I can hardly contain my excitement."

Malon smirked at him and suddenly grabbed onto his wrist, much to the hero's surprise and slight embarrassment. Pulling him toward the other horses while Epona followed suit, Link just watched as Malon lightly smacked them on the side and told them to head to the stables. The way they listened was almost as if they completely understood what she was saying, though it was likely that she and her father did this so often that it was a daily ritual that had engraved itself into the animals' minds.

"Anyway, we came out here to move the horses to the stable," she said, letting go of his wrist and quickly pulling herself up onto Epona's back. "I can round most of them up, but if you want to help, just hobble yourself over to the horses, give them a little smack on their side and tell them 'Home'."

Without waiting for so much as a nod of affirmation, Malon immediately took off and began rounding up the horses as if they were sheep or goats. Shaking his head, Link smiled and slowly headed toward a group of horses opposite of where Malon had just run over.

"Letting go, huh?" Link mumbled to himself, quoting some of Malon's earlier words. "Moving forward…with no regrets…"

It almost seemed an impossible feat to accomplish right now, but perhaps if he gave himself a bit of time…no, he would need quite a bit of time. Regardless, if he could have time to let go, perhaps even have an emotional day like Malon had allowed herself, then it would help him to move on. It wasn't sure to work, but the thought seemed a lot more pleasurable than moping about and trying to push his false memories of a nonexistent girl into the recesses of his brain. With that thought in mind, Link smiled as he approached the horses and gestured for them to return to the stables.

"Home."

It took me a while to actually write all of it, but I definitely got into the flow of writing when it got to the second half of this chapter. I'm not sure why exactly, though I'm guessing it's because the base work for the Malink got established. Either way, I'm just going to hope that I can keep with the flow of things as the story progresses and heads into one of the big plot points.

Thanks to 9tailsfox2 and MadSkillz for reviewing!

Thanks for reading and please review!

–GengaJupite