"I CAN'T EVEN LOOK AT YOU!"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT, MALON!"
"GET OUT! GET OOOOUT!"
"FINE, I'M LEAVING!"
Talon looked up as the door to the farmhouse burst open and Link came outside. After the Bulblins left, the family had returned to the ranch, meeting up with Talon and the rest of the kids on the way.
At first, Link didn't notice Talon and just stared at the ground with his hands on his hips, pacing this way and that.
"Don't be mad at Malon," Talon said. "It's my fault, not hers."
"I KNOW," came Link's clipped, growling reply.
Neither of them had looked Talon in the eye since he told them how he had lost track of Melody. Talon was angry at himself, but he was older and knew more about these things. He knew the anger was really just all of them worrying and blaming themselves. None of them had gotten any sleep lately. "Don't blame yourself, either, son."
Link's fists clenched, his muscles tightening.
Talon continued, "I'm sure you'll find a way—"
"TALON. I CAN'T—I JUST . . . I CAN'T TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW." Link strode away, whistling. Epona caught up with him, ears laid back, but she relaxed when he put a hand on her neck. He pulled himself onto her back, and the pair galloped out of the ranch onto the field.
Talon leaned back against the farmhouse wall, sighing. He glanced at the corral, where Russ was watching Tatl and Tael. The children were subdued, even Russ.
Saria and Vaati Jr. hadn't spoken for a few minutes when a knock came at the door. They looked at each other in alarm, then Vaati Jr. jumped off his bed and pointed emphatically underneath it. Saria dove onto her belly and scurried underneath it, muttering the Avoidance spell Aunt Zelda had taught her.
"Oh Vaaati! It's meeeeeeeee!" Thankfully, it sounded like Mr. Vaati, not the grandpa.
"Coming," said Vaati, making sure his blankets covered the space over his bed before opening the door.
Mr. Vaati stood outside, wearing his sharp toothy grin. It looked almost pained. The black lines that trailed down his cheeks like tear streaks made his dark eyes even more hideous.
"What is it, Dad?" Vaati asked.
His father kept grinning. "I have a present for you! Can I come in?"
Vaati's face showed his unease, but he opened the door wider and Mr. Vaati came in. "What present?"
"TA-DA!" Mr. Vaati whipped his hands out of his cloak and held them up. He held a small bulbous object with holes in the top of it, painted beautifully in red and dark gray. An ocarina. "I thought since you'd never get to see that girl again I'd make you an ocarina since you talked about it so much!"
An ocarina was NOT a substitute for the death of a friend, which was obvious if you were to look at Vaati's face, but he took the ocarina.
"Play it! Play it!" Mr. Vaati clapped, sounding like an overgrown child.
Vaati lifted the instrument to his lips and blew half-heartedly into it.
There were tiny pops which caught Vaati by surprise. He held the ocarina away. Tiny flags had burst out of every hole.
Mr. Vaati burst out laughing. Saria didn't think his mouth could get any wider—oh wait. Yes it could. Mr. Vaati stifled his laughter and wiped the tears from his eyes quite quickly when he saw that Vaati's shoulders had slumped and he was looking at the ground morosely. Mr. Vaati quickly reached forward and plucked the flags out of the ocarina. "It DOES work, you know. I just couldn't resist a joke. You know me!"
Vaati seemed a little less cheerless at that. "Oh. Well, thank you."
"You're welcome my boy!" Mr. Vaati patted him on the shoulder.
They stared awkwardly at each other. When he realized Vaati wasn't going to play the ocarina with him around, he said, "Well, got to get back to work! See ya junior!" then spun around and whisked out the door, shutting it behind him.
Vaati got onto the floor and looked under the bed. "You okay, Saria?" he whispered.
"Yup!"
". . . Why do you look so happy?"
Saria was grinning as if she had a secret. A plan. "Your ocarina. Does it really work?"
Vaati brought it to his lips and blew into it. It made a nice sound. He tried covering a few holes with his fingers and played around with the different notes he could make.
When he pulled it from his lips, Saria reached for it. "This is great!"
"Why? You're still stuck here."
Saria held the ocarina like it was her most precious treasure. "Yeah, but with this, maybe we can find a way out on our own!"
"What do you mean?"
Saria glanced up at him warily. Then she lifted the ocarina to her lips. She tested a few notes, then played her Aunt Zelda's lullaby.
Electric static seemed to fill the space under the bed, and Vaati's hair stood on end. "Woooow. Is that song magic?"
Saria nodded with a twinkle in her eye. "I know other ones, too! Hold onto my arm."
Vaati did so.
Putting the ocarina again to her lips, she played a song Papa taught her—the Minuet of Forest. As the last note filled the air, she waited.
And waited.
"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, and tried another. The Serenade of Water. Bolero of Fire. Nocturne of Shadow. Requiem of spirit. Prelude of Light.
Nothing.
Noting her disappointed expression, Vaati asked, "What were those songs supposed to do?"
"Well, when Papa played them with the Ocarina of Time, they teleported him to the temples in Hyrule. I just thought . . ." she fell silent.
Vaati patted her arm.
Saria sighed audibly. "One more." She brought the ocarina to her lips, closed her eyes, and played Saria's Song.
The notes were eaten up by the walls of the castle. Saria set the ocarina down with another sigh.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
Both Vaati and Saria shot their heads up in surprise, both hitting the base of Vaati's bed and grimacing.
It was a voice, a young girl's voice. "Link? Can you hear me?"
"Saria?"
"Hm? Who is this?"
"My name is . . . uh, Link is my Papa!"
"Oh! So he's a daddy now? Haha, that's great! Where is he now? I've been stuck in the Sacred Realm so long, I haven't heard him play my songs in years."
"He's at home. I think."
Vaati's eyes were bulging out of his head at the disembodied voice. He hissed, "Who is that?!"
"Sh. It's my namesake. Sage Saria? I really need your help. I'm stuck somewhere in . . . in . . ."
"Shadow realm!" Vaati supplied. "Or Dark World. Or, or corrupted Sacred Realm?"
There was a second of silence. "How did you end up there?! Does Link know where you are?"
"No," was Saria's answer. "My friend is here with me. His name is Vaati, but so is his dad's, but his dad and his grandpa are mean, and we're stuck here in their castle and we can't get out!"
"This is just terrible! . . . You hang in there, okay? I'll talk to the other sages and we'll see what we can do. Keep your chin up!"
"Thank you, Saria!"
"Oh, and dear?"
"Yes?"
"What's your name?"
She smiled. "Saria."
They heard a giggle. "Link named you after me?"
"Yeah," she said. "He thought about calling me Navi, but he said it just didn't suit me."
Another laugh. "Okay—Oh! I have to go. You're right, you are in a very dangerous place. I can feel the evil there . . . you stay hidden and call me ONLY when you need to, okay? Don't let them find out."
"Yes, Saria."
"Talk to me again in three days!"
"Okay."
They waited, but there was no response. Sage Saria had apparently left.
"Wow!" Vaati exclaimed. "What do we do now?"
Saria crawled out from under the bed and stood. "Now we go around and see which parts of this castle respond to Zelda's Lullaby! It'll tell us where the most magical parts are. Come on!"
"I'll make sure the coast is clear."
Hyrule Field glinted orange in the setting sun. Most people would be getting safely indoors, but Link had no fear of monsters. He just couldn't go home yet. Not because he was angry, though he was still angry and sick from worry. No. For whatever reason, Link had an itch. It was in his brain. He hadn't felt it in a long time.
He just didn't know what to do. With no father of his own, he had no one to consult. Talon had told him not to feel guilty, but what did HE know? He lost Melody!
Link forced the blaming feelings out of his brain. He had been going in circles for hours. "But I lost Saria." He had let Epona wander along the field since they'd left the ranch. Only now did he look to see where he was. There were trees around him, sparsely spaced.
He thought of Rusl. Certainly he could ask him what to do. Or Ilia's father. What about Renado? He had a daughter . . .
No. He looked up at the stars. He loved those men, but none of them had anything to do with magic. Renado sort of did, since he was a Shaman, but it was a different kind of magic. None of them were Hylian, either. Growing up, there were subtle differences between him and the other villagers of Ordon, who were all human. Things he felt, the way he thought, things he could hear . . . he was just different. He knew his girls would be, too. He longed for someone who would understand him and be able to tell him how to do this.
The only other Hylian—or pseudo-Hylian—Link knew personally, Shadow, was missing as well.
"Link!"
He halted Epona.
"Link can you hear me?!"
That was not a voice he'd heard in . . . decades. Timidly, wondering if he was crazy, he whispered, "Saria?"
"Link! We sages are working together in the Sacred Realm to contact you. We do not have long, our power grows weak. There is much evil here, and it is growing. You must help us! Your daughter, Saria, has contacted us from inside here. She is trapped with the sorcerer Vaati. We will use the last of our strength to rescue her from the clutches of evil. Worry not!" The voice suddenly disappeared.
"What? Wait! Saria!" Link yelled her name several more times, waiting unmoving with bated breath. Even Epona stood still.
Saria's voice did not return, and yet Link's heart had lifted—the sages knew where Saria was! Then his stomach dropped out. His daughter was in the Sacred Realm, in the hands of someone named Vaati.
"Girl, are you ready for this?" he asked Epona. The horse snorted proudly as if to say, you have to ask? "HIYA!" Link spurred her on and they raced back to the castle. He needed Princess Zelda's help.