I think it's safe to say that any semblance of a consistent update rate from me has pretty much vanished. Sorry, guys, too busy with work and trips and prep for school and way too many other things to bother listing off. I'm hoping that updates will be more consistent (or at least more frequent) once I'm back at school, but we'll just have to find out.

Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one

Relativity of Reality

Waves. Seagull screeches. Roaring tides. This was Koholint for sure.

Link opened his eyes to view the algae-covered grotto he had been resting in. The air was musty and a bit dank, likely due to the fact that light could only get in through the cave's mouth. Stalactites dripped water into unseen tidepools, and the seawater that flowed in glowed from the bioluminescent plankton it contained. Sitting up after a drop of water plummeted onto his face, Link stretched his arms and cracked a few of his joints.

"I guess it was inevitable," he mumbled. His mind was fully awake here, and the hero could only accept the fact that he would be here for a longer time than usual.

He had spent at least three consecutive nights doing whatever he could to stay awake. It could have been more, but he had lost count when his sleepless delirium started to set in properly. He could only hope that his body was currently in bed so that he would not cause the ranchers to panic, but he really had no idea if he had managed to make it there before collapsing in exhaustion.

Scooping some of the glowing seawater into a glass bottle he happened to have handy, Link watched as the light seemed to fade in and out dimly. It reminded him of the odd golden light he'd seen on the plains of Hyrule, which, unfortunately, did not reappear on any of the last few nights he'd attempted to spot it.

Using the momentum of his legs, Link rolled up into a standing position and wiggled his legs to get the blood flowing again. Once they were stretched and limbered up, the hero made his way to the grotto's entrance. He had to squint due to the brightness, and it took more than a few minutes for his eyes to adjust. When he was able to see clearly, Link stopped on the spot to gaze around for a bit.

Now that he was back here, he wasn't completely sure what to do or where to go. The whole reason he'd been staying awake in the real world was because he did not want to face what potentially laid in wait for him here. Would it be all right to return to Marin's house? Would it even be acceptable to head into Mabe Village? Link didn't have a clue, and the mere idea that the townspeople might ostracize him for something that wasn't true made going back a less than favourable option.

Link shook his head and clapped his cheeks a couple of times. It was very unlikely that the shopkeeper tried to spread the word on what he mistook as the hero's philandering. Even if that had happened, the only person he needed to convince the truth to would be Marin, possibly Tarin too, if only for further reassurance.

Still, how could he even hope to face Marin right now? After all the things he'd told her, it was possible that she wouldn't want to hear anything from him for some time, especially if word had spread. When he thought about it that way, his disappearance for the past four or however many days it was would likely only serve to heighten suspicion levels around the village.

Something sharp hit Link's right shoulder, and he quickly grasped at it, more in surprise than in pain. Looking up, it appeared that a seagull flying overhead had dropped a barnacle-covered shell onto him. Checking to see whether it had left a cut, Link was more shocked to see that the markings on his arm had once again reduced in number.

From his current, awkward way of looking, he could just barely see the tops of some of the marks, but it was apparent that one or perhaps two had disappeared since he last looked a few days ago. It seemed that the rate of their disappearance was not constant, as it had taken almost two months for the first few to vanish. Was there something to these markings? Why were they vanishing in a specific order, and what, if anything, would happen when they had completely disappeared from his flesh?

Before he could ponder that question any longer, Link was interrupted by a loud ringing sound resonating from somewhere within the sea-cave. Re-entering the grotto and looking for the source, he cocked his head to the side when he came across a telephone ringing in the deepest part of the cavern. While these phones were scattered across the whole island, it was quite strange that one should be placed in such a closed-off, hidden place. Nevertheless, it was ringing, so Link curiously picked it up.

"Uh, hello?" he answered.

"Hello, yes, Ulrira here! I was calling to see if that package my wife mailed had been sent yet."

"O-Oh, Old Man Ulrira," Link tried to hold back his amusement over the shy yet talkative elder. "Sorry, this isn't the post office."

"Eh? I could have sworn this was the right number… Which phone did I end up calling?"

Link glanced around as if there might be some sign that would better describe the location he was in. Unable to find one (though not entirely expecting to have found one), he scratched his head as he replied. "Well…you sort of called…a cave…"

"…What's that? Sorry, lad, you'll have to speak up. My hearing may be going south, I could have sworn you said I called a cave!"

"Um, that is what I said. There's a telephone in this cave and I'm currently talking to you from it…"

There was a pause as Ulrira mumbled something incomprehensible on the other end. Link could only wait for the old man to say something, as he was unsure of what was going on completely.

"Who in their right mind sets up a telephone in a cave?!" Old Man Ulrira blurted out after a while. "Honestly, what a nuisance. I'll be sure to call the phone company about this later. Gods forbid I end up calling a volcano by mistake!"

Both men chuckled, and just as Old Man Ulrira was about to hang up the phone, Link impulsively asked him something. "Oh, hold on a second!"

"Hmm? What is it? If it's anything to do with the island, I can tell you pretty much anything."

Link wasn't sure that it would be of any use, but it couldn't hurt to ask Old Man Ulrira, considering he was an encyclopedia pertaining to all matters on Koholint Island, past and present.

"Well, it's not about the island, but I thought maybe you might know… A little more than two months ago, these weird markings showed up on my arms. They don't hurt or anything, but they've been disappearing from one arm and continuing down towards the other. Have you ever heard of anything like this?"

The old man hummed in thought, but was relatively quick to respond. "My apologies, but you'd best ask a doctor about something like that. From the sounds of it, if they aren't causing any sort of problems, then there's no use worrying about it. That's just this old man's advice, though; my field of expertise lies only with the happenings on the island."

Link sighed but was not too downtrodden; after all, it would be more surprising to find someone who did know anything about these markings on his arms. Despite that fact, he was still a bit disappointed that no one even had a lead on what might be happening to him.

"If that's everything, I'll be hanging up, then; gotta check on that package," Old Man Ulrira said cheerily. "One thing, though: whom have I been talking to this whole time?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to say. It's Link."

"Link, eh? I suppose you're the only one that would answer a telephone in a cave. Well, best of luck, m'boy."

Hanging up the phone, the blond sighed and leaned against the cave wall. That conversation had been so random and strange that he almost disliked that it was his own subconscious that had created it. Still, if nothing else, there was one thing he could take away from it.

He could return to the village.

If any nasty rumours or anything had been floating around about him, Old Man Ulrira would have been the first to hear about it. Judging from the elder's lack of reaction to finding out he'd been speaking to Link on the phone was a fairly good sign that nothing major had occurred while he was away. Mustering his resolve, Link took a deep breath of the salty sea air and slowly stepped out of the cave.

The hero bit his lip as he took the first few steps onto the paved walkway entering the village. While not particularly reluctant to return, he felt himself hesitate despite being fairly sure that nothing would happen. Even as he passed by two playing children, he could not quell his uneasiness, regardless of the fact that neither they nor their parents took any notice of him.

Continuing at his sluggish pace, it took a significantly longer amount of time for him to reach his destination: Marin's home. Everyone he'd passed by had greeted him regularly; even the shopkeeper waved at him from the window. All of the friendly, regular greetings, however, only seemed to make him feel more anxious about what might happen when he faced Marin. Would she act like nothing had happened? Perhaps she would still be upset with him. There was no telling, and after keeping himself out of this dream world, Link could not even hazard a guess as to what might be in store for him. With that thought in mind, he cautiously reached for the doorknob.

The door creaked open, and Link peeked in before entering entirely. The house was empty, and he felt slightly relieved, though his anxiety was only getting postponed. Stepping farther inside, he spotted a note from Tarin, addressed to Marin that he would be gathering wild vegetables for the evening's supper. The blond smirked, wondering how Tarin always managed to waste away entire days picking questionably edible things from the forest.

Without warning, Link suddenly felt a pair of slender arms gently but aggressively wrap around him from behind. The force of the person who ran up to him made him stumble forward a bit, but he caught himself on the tabletop.

"You're back," Marin's soothing voice whispered into his ear. "I wasn't sure how long you would be gone this time."

All the doubt in his mind disappeared in that moment, and Link blinked rapidly to stop his eyes from watering too intensely.

"Yeah…I'm back."

He hadn't left her with anything to go on after their talk. He'd up and vanished for a handful of days, giving no word of when he expected to return. Things had been like that before, but times had changed since then; there were no dangerous expeditions to take on or monsters to fight anymore.

She must have worried about him more than he could have predicted. Even if she had somehow found him, his unconscious body probably would have been more fear inducing than the current situation. His heart ached with guilt, yet there was joy coming from within him as well.

"I…I had to think things over for some time, but after I had spent enough time alone, you were nowhere to be found," she murmured, her face buried between his shoulder blades.

Link's gaze dropped, falling on the note that Tarin would leave for his daughter every time he would be gone for the day. The guilty feeling washed over the hero again, and he could only give a short response.

"I'm sorry…"

Marin shook her head against him, her warm breaths tickling his back through the fabric of his shirt. "No, you don't have to apologize; I probably would have done the same thing if…if our roles were reversed…"

She loosened her grip on his torso, so Link used this opportunity to turn around and face her. Seeing the downtrodden look on her face, he gently raised her chin and pressed their foreheads together.

"I thought about everything you said," she continued softly. "And even if what you said is the truth, I'm still going to believe that this is all real. You may have recreated all of this, but I know for a fact that I'm the one in control of my own feelings, my own life. No matter what you try to do, Link, you'll never be the one forcing me to be who I am right now."

"Marin…"

The redhead's arms tightened around his torso again, and Link returned the embrace, circling his arms around her shoulders and upper back.

"If this is a dream, then it's the best dream I've ever had," she whispered, her lips mere millimeters from his own. "To me, this is the real world, and that place you go to when you're asleep is the dream world. I don't care if you say it's the other way around, Link; this is my reality, and being here with you is the truest, most genuine thing that proves I'm alive."

He could not utter a single word in response, lost by the power behind her words. Instead of speaking, he simply tightened his grip, pulling her lips into his as her passion filled him with emotions of which he had never felt before.

∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆V∆

The sun was already high in the sky when Link awoke. He rubbed his eyes and yawned while sitting up, stretching his arms above his head as he did so. Some of his muscles ached, likely due to the awkward position he'd slept in after instantly passing out. The hero's joints cracked as he made funny movements to soothe his soreness.

"Marin," he muttered under his breath, thinking about everything that had happened in his dream. Things had gone much smoother than he thought they would, spectacularly so, in fact.

Enough to make him question the genuineness of it.

Of course, it was still just a dream, so questioning the truth to the situation was more than a little bit silly. It was more about what Marin had said, though, about her reality being different from his, that was causing him to think this way.

He had likely just gotten lost in the heat of the moment, but now that he could think on it clearly, Marin had forgiven him shockingly quickly and without any sort of retaliation towards him. Not only that, but the follow-up after establishing that her reality was that of the dream world was…well, a little more risqué than she usually acted. Not too long ago, the two of them were blushing over the slightest signs of affection in her own home, and now she was suddenly acting like that? To put it bluntly, it all seemed too good to be true, which, in this case, made perfect sense.

"I…wouldn't make her act like that, would I?" Link lightly bit on his cheek in serious thought. "That's not…how I would ever imagine her… Even if she's fake, I would never force–"

"Knock knock," Malon's voice bubbled cheerfully from the doorway. Link tensed in surprise, earning a giggle from her. "Heehee, I guess you were still half asleep, huh?"

It took him a moment to collect himself, and he did his best to repress Marin's actions into the depths of his mind.

"Y-Yeah, I guess so," he chuckled shakily, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry I slept in; I think my body was trying to catch up on all the rest I've been depriving myself of."

"Mm, you have seemed pretty tired the past few days. What have you been doing up so late?"

"Uh, nothing, really. Just…y'know, stuff…"

"Hmm…" Malon narrowed her eyes towards him but reopened them soon after, giving him a lighthearted smile. "Well, whatever, as long as you're up now." As she turned to leave, the redhead looked back over her shoulder and added, "Oh, come to the barn once you're dressed. I'll show you how to milk the cows today!"

He nodded as she turned back around and hurried off.

A frown formed on Link's face as he stood and reached for some clothes he could throw on. Had she noticed anything in that brief moment she seemed to be scrutinizing him? Considering how she responded, she either didn't pick up on his behaviour or brushed it off as nothing. Link hoped it was the former, but knowing that Malon was brighter than she sometimes let on, he couldn't be entirely sure if he'd let his guard down too much.

Regardless, there were more important things to be worried about. The dreamed situation with Marin could not be suppressed to the recesses of Link's mind, and they quickly re-emerged to the forefront. Her uncharacteristic actions, the possibility that his subconscious was going beyond his control, the idea that his carnal desires were beginning to warp his dreams, it was all a mess of unwanted possibilities. He needed a doctor, or better yet, a psychiatrist. Hell, at this point, even a forest-dwelling witch would be better than nothing.

Fortunately enough, Link had more than 'nothing' available to him.

"If you need to vent for a bit and release your stress, I'll be here to listen whenever you need."

Malon's words remained clearly in his memory, and more than a handful of times Link considered going to her about this. Talon was also an option, though it was possible that he wouldn't take the discussion seriously, especially if Link were to explain last night's dream. What held him back from going to either of them, though, was his own uncertainty and insecurity. The hero was almost certain that Talon would make some kind of loose connection to Marin and Malon, once again hinting that he should get closer to the auburn-haired rancher. With Malon, however, Link couldn't even guess what direction she might interpret his dreams.

Walking over to the barn and getting right to work, Link's mind was clouded with doubt as he half-listened to Malon's explanation of how to properly milk the cows. At this point, he was not even trying to be discreet about his troubled thoughts. Malon made no comment, but the manner in which she looked at him clearly showed that she had noticed something was afoot.

"Not like that, Link," the redhead chuckled, watching his poor form. "You can't just squeeze the bottom of the udders, you need to pull from the base downwards."

"Oh, sorry," Link replied brainlessly, continuing to do what he had been doing.

Malon sighed and took his hands in hers, which managed to slightly break him from his thoughts. With dulled eyes, he watched as she made him grasp the base of the udders, squeeze more tightly than he had been, and pull down, releasing a fair amount of milk into the bucket below.

"As long as you aren't trying to rip off their udders, you don't have to be overly gentle about this," Malon explained to him. "Did you get any of that?"

He blinked, staring back at her blankly before uttering a simple, "Yeah, I've got it."

Milking the cow properly, Link hardly took any notice of Malon staring at him. She no longer hid any signs of concern, making it very clear from her expression that she knew Link was quite troubled. As he swatted a gnat away from his face, he met Malon's gaze for a brief moment and froze up as they stared at one another.

"Do you…want to take a break, Link?" she asked quietly. "I know we've only been doing this for about an hour, but you don't really seem to be in the right mindset for working right now…"

He shook his head. "No, it wouldn't be fair to stop just because I'm a little out of it. I'll be fine."

Link turned back to start milking the cow, but from the corner of his eye he could still see Malon giving him a hard look. Slowly turning his head to face her again, he began to feel a bit uneasy.

"Is…is something the matter?" she spoke very quietly. "You weren't this out of it on the days you hadn't gotten any sleep. Actually, you were pretty lively before today, and I thought we…were having a lot of fun…"

He took a moment to think over the past sleepless days. His memory was a bit hazy, but he did recall goofing off and spending a lot of time with Malon. Then again, he may have been exaggerating his wakefulness to trick his body into staying awake.

Now he was presented with one of his earlier predicaments: should he tell Malon about his dreams or leave it be? Honestly, he wasn't sure telling her would be the best thing to do, especially since he had told her a little bit about Marin. Especially after last night's dream, Malon could quite possibly get very embarrassed hearing about the lewd events that transpired in his subconscious and start keeping a slight distance from him. The last thing he wanted to do was push her away; there was no one else he could turn to if things got rough.

"Really, don't worry about it," he sighed, settling for not telling her about it. "I've just been feeling kind of nostalgic today for some reason. It's nothing you need to concern yourself with, Mal."

Malon blushed, apparently not expecting Link to have used her nickname. "O-Oh, I see. Sorry, I guess I don't know much about your past. You only told me about that girl you fell in love with before you wound up here. Still, I think you should take a break or something. If you can't concentrate, then you won't be any help, so it'd be faster for Dad and me to handle the chores today."

That was a rather blunt way of putting it, but Link knew that she was right. Deeply exhaling through his nostrils, the blond stood from his stool and quietly headed out of the barn. Stepping into the house, he headed over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Nostalgic…heh, I guess it's not exactly a lie," he chuckled wryly at his poor excuse.

How long could he continue lying to Malon? Time and time again she had made it clear that he could talk to her about whatever was on his mind. He knew she was not judgmental and she was one of the few people he had met in his life that he could honestly say he trusted fully. It hurt him to lie to her and continue pushing away her kindness, for she was more than just the girl he was staying with, she actually meant something to him.

Link could feel his face heat up, and he quickly downed his water and sat down at the table. She didn't mean that much to him, at least not in a romantic sense. He had made the claim once before that she was like a family member to him, more akin to a sister than anything else, but that familial bond was beginning to break, warping itself into something he was all too familiar with. The feeling was warm, soothing, relaxing, and one that he treasured more than other emotions.

But at the same time, he hated it.

Perhaps hate was too strong of a word, as it implied that he never wanted to experience the feeling ever. However, in this current situation he disliked knowing that what had developed between himself and the redheaded rancher was changing into a different feeling. It was small, and, if anything, it still felt little more than the slightest of affections, but it was enough to make him question his thoughts even further.

Was Malon simply becoming a replacement for Marin? As it seemed right now, he was becoming more and more accepting of the fact that Marin was nothing more than something his subconscious continually recreated each time he went to sleep. He could change her personality with a single thought, rearrange the whole of Koholint, build an entire world in his mind, but doing any of that would amount to nothing in the end. That world would only exist in his head, and there would be absolutely nothing to show for it.

Malon was real, though. She existed in this world of reality, this world where any action he made would have some kind of consequence or result. She had her own thoughts, her own motives, and her own freedom to do as she chose. He never had to worry that he was controlling her like a puppeteer. Whatever the ranch girl did, it was of her own free will.

Link hung his head and propped it up in his hands. He loved Marin as a woman, he liked Malon kind of like a sister; Malon is real, Marin is not. Any way he looked at it, he felt as though he was trying to transfer his feelings for Marin onto Malon. Technically, there was nothing wrong with it, since one of them didn't exist, but Link's morality and conscience kept telling him that it was like cheating. Perhaps the Mabe Village shopkeeper was actually just his conscience keeping him in check…

The front door squeaked open, and Link glanced up to see Malon step in, her forehead glistening with a few sweat beads. She must have been doing something more tiresome than milking.

"Feeling any better?" she asked, sounding a little out of breath.

"Not really," he sighed and slumped down on the tabletop. "The more I think, the worse these feelings seem to get, but I can't focus long enough to do something that'll take my mind off of it."

"Oh, that's too bad," she paused, sitting across from him and twiddling her fingers. "I, um…can't really say I know what you're experiencing. My whole life has been on this ranch, so I don't have many memories I think back on that make me wish I could go back to then."

"What about people? Like your mother?"

"I may have mentioned it before, but I was too young at the time to really even know what was happening when she passed away. My memories from when she was alive are kind of vague: I know I was happy when she was around, but there isn't any specific time that I wish I could return to."

Link stayed silent, unable to think of a response to give. When he thought back on his time on Koholint Island, there were only a few specific moments that he truly missed. His longing to return there was formed because of his love for the people, but there was nothing in particular that he wanted to relive. As long as he could be with Marin, it wouldn't matter.

At the same time, even if there was some kind of magical opportunity to return to Koholint, Link wasn't sure that that was the place he wanted to settle anymore. If possible, he would want to bring Marin back to this land and start a life with her here. There were so many places and things he had yet to see in this land, but…

His wants were now beginning to conflict.

Even if that impossible situation were possible, he could not bring Marin here to Lon Lon Ranch. He had not seen enough of this land to know how he felt about it, but Link knew that he had already become accustomed to the ranch and the surrounding towns. He liked them as much, if not more, than Mabe Village, as everything was relatively close together and there was always something going on. He also cared about Talon and Malon like they were his family, and the mere thought of leaving them left him with a hollow feeling in his chest. He had grown too comfortable in this place.

Of course, this was just a ridiculous hypothetical, one that could not actually happen unless some spellcaster could pull Link's subconscious thoughts into the real world.

"Can I ask you something, Link?" Malon said after those moments of silence.

"Yeah, go ahead," he said plainly.

"Um, well…it's just… Remember when you first got here, how you kept saying that you planned on leaving after you'd repaid us?"

"What about it?"

"I…was thinking about that while working earlier… I know that you decided to stay, but I wanted to know if…you still planned on leaving at some point."

Link took a moment to mull over the question. It was strangely coincidental that she would ask that right after his previous thoughts, but more importantly, he hadn't given that much thought in a while.

"Well…" he began slowly, trying to think of the best way to put it, "I don't know when, but I doubt that I'll end up staying here forever. Before I wound up here in Hyrule I planned on settling down, but that was because…I had Marin…"

There was a silence after Link spoke her name. He had not mentioned Marin since the first day he wound up here and mistook Malon for her. Back then, it was a necessary circumstance that he had to explain to both of the ranchers, but there was never any reason to bring up her name again since.

"Now that I'm on my own," he continued once he'd gathered his resolve, "I'll probably start exploring again. Like I said, though, I have no idea when I plan on leaving, just that I don't think I'll be settling here forever."

"That makes sense," Malon replied understandingly, though the drop in her tone made her seem disappointed. "Sorry, I just… It'll be lonely after you leave. It wouldn't have made much of a difference if you had left within the first couple of weeks, but now that you've been here for a while, well, it'll be hard to see you off."

The warm feeling started buzzing around inside Link's chest, and he gulped as his body tensed up a bit. "Y-Yeah, it'll be hard for me too. I-I'll be sure to stop in if I'm ever close by…but…yeah, I don't know how often that might be…"

Both of them allowed another silence to ensue. Briefly glancing up at her, Link was unable to get a proper read on Malon, only gathering the obvious fact that she would be sad to see him leave in the future. Why had she asked in the first place, though? She couldn't have expected him to say that he planned on staying forever, could he? After all, he was still technically occupying their guest room, and despite helping out on the ranch, Link still felt as though his assistance hardly lightened their workload at all.

Malon muttered something under her breath, which made Link perk up. He wasn't quite able to catch what she said, except for a few words; however, piecing together what would have made sense in the context made him question what he was interpreting it as.

"Did you say something?"

"Eep! I-I mean, no! Nothing, nothing, ehehe, um, wow, I should probably get back to work! I-If you start feeling better, you can ask my dad what he needs you to do!"

Before he had the chance to say anything else, the redhead had already hopped up out of her chair and jogged out the door, leaving him feeling rather lost and just as confused as before she had come inside. Resting his head on the table, Link sighed and tightly shut his eyes. The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears, and his body felt hot, almost like he had just finished bathing or working in the sun. Reopening his eyes, the hero looked out the window to see Malon furiously going about her work. He couldn't be sure whether what he'd heard was correct, but, every time Link repeated the muttered words of Malon in his head, the stirring feeling inside of him became more and more aggressive.

With end of one of his breaths, he faintly mumbled the words he'd heard aloud.

"I don't…want you to leave…"

Took an extra week and a half to get this all done, but I did it! Finally started shifting gears on Link and Malon's relationship too, so I'm happy with what I accomplished :). As for what's going on with Marin, well, you know as much as Link does. He didn't think his subconscious would ever change her, but he has normal feelings and urges like everyone else. Also, make what you will of the 'lewd things' that occurred after they made up. I didn't want to go into detail because, well, even I wasn't sure how far I should make them go. It is a dream, though, so…

Initially, I was going to make the whole chapter on Koholint, or most of it, but it was quite a bit harder to keep going with what I had, and I didn't want another short chapter. Either way, I got to develop Link and Malon a bit, so it turned out okay, especially since they're the ones that need development (considering that Link and Marin already have a relationship).

Thanks to MadlyPurple, Niki Bogwater, and Sylis for reviewing!

Thanks for reading and please review!

–GengaJupite