Lon Lon Ranch:
"She needs to be at HOME, eatin' my eggs and PIE!" Malon was yelling at no one in particular. That no one happened to be Link, who sat at the kitchen table watching his wife furiously clean the week's worth of unwashed dishes. Things had gotten crazy since the beginning of this mess.
"At least she's safe, though, right? She's with Midna."
"I've never MET this Midna! Is she a mom? Does she have kids? Has she any idea how to take care of my baby?" She threw a wooden spoon into the already full sink. She leaned her hands on the counter and sobbed.
Link stood and walked over to her, putting his chin on her head and his arms about her. "I'm sorry, Mal."
"I just want them HOME! Melody AND Saria!"
"They'll be home soon—"
"No no!" Malon turned and placed her fists on his chest. "It was bad enough when you went off adventurin' all the time. Are my kids gonna do that to me now, too?"
Link lowered his forehead onto hers. "Do you remember what I said, when I came back for the last time?"
Malon considered. "You'd just defeated Ganondorf . . . your clothes were still tattered and bloody. You said . . ." Her eyes filled with tears. "You said you could never leave like that again, that every moment away from me was . . ."
Link pulled her closer. "Torture," he finished. "That hasn't changed. Not for me, and not for the children, either."
Malon sniffed.
"No matter how far away they go," Link said, "This will always be their home. We'll make sure of it."
Malon suddenly pulled back. "Oh! That reminds me, I've been so absentminded I forgot to fold Saria's laundry." She left Link's arms and hurried up the stairs. Link was soon behind.
Saria's room was just as she'd left it when they'd gone to the castle—bed made, her beloved feathers scattered here and there, and a dream catcher above her bed. A basket of clothing sat at the foot of her bed, waiting. Malon sat sadly on Saria's bed, and Link sat beside her.
"Ow!" He suddenly cried and shifted his position. He reached between the mattress, his fingers touching something wedged between it and the bed board. Getting a good grip around it, he pulled it out. It was a diary, and inside were daily accounts. Being curious parents as they were, they of course read it. Well, Link grew up in a town full of children who didn't even have doors, so privacy was not something he immediately thought of. Malon was . . . a very intuitive mother. What they read shocked them.
Dear Diary,
Will no one ever understand me? When I tell Mom and Dad that I can speak to the sages, they look like I must be pretending, like Tael and her imaginary friends. I thought Vaati understood me, but I was wrong. He doesn't understand me. He told me to leave him alone and hasn't visited me for AGES!
Why does this always happen?
"She . . . she was communicating with Vaati? Isn't that the sorcerer that spelled the castle?!"
"What did he want with Saria?!" Link asked, anger rising in his chest. It was directed at Vaati, but more importantly, at himself. How could he have not known?! Why hadn't he done something?
"Oh, Link, what have we done?" Malon flipped through a few previous entries. "She sounds so lonely. So sad. Why didn't we notice and do something?"
"She just seemed like regular Saria," Link said, putting his face in his hands. "I had no idea she was so lonely . . . I know more than anyone what loneliness feels like, and yet I didn't see it."
"Look at this . . . she speaks of Vaati as though he . . . as though he were a child. Listen,
"Vaati was shaking when he came to visit. He said his grandfather was extremely upset, and punished him. He said he wished he could come live with us. He said he wished Papa was his father, too, and he didn't know what having a mother is like. I feel really sorry for him."
"Midna mentioned something about a friend being with her," Link noted.
"Do you think . . . do you think this Lord Vaati, the sorcerer . . . do you think he has a son?"
"Vaati was acting strange today. He asked me if I knew who possessed the Triforce of Courage now that Papa had kids. He didn't look like he wanted to ask, eventually he admitted that his father and grandfather had made him. I hate when Vaati's scared. I just want him to be happy. He's my very best friend!"
"How terrible," Malon said. "Can you imagine being the child of a monster?"
Link wrapped an arm around her. "Why do you think they wanted to know about the Triforce of Courage?" He looked at the top of his other hand, his left hand, at the birthmark in the form of the Triforce. "What are they planning?"
Saria stared at the ceiling. She knew Midna wasn't telling her something. Vaati's gone off somewhere again, hasn't he? She sat up and smashed both fists into the covers. Clambering out of bed, she started packing her things—which involved simply getting dressed. If he thinks he's gotten rid of me so easily, he's got another thing coming!
It was extremely easy. Of all her siblings, she was the sneakiest—without even realizing it. If she wanted something, she got it, and usually her parents were none the wiser. Just like always.
It was simple to sneak into the Twilight Room and steal the fragment of magic that Midna had shown her earlier. Supposedly it was what allowed her father to change shape from wolf to human at will—with Midna's help, of course. She threw a cloth over it, grabbed it, and threw it over her back.
Then she sneaked to the front door. Outside looked no different than a few hours earlier. Does this place not have night or something? She left the castle unnoticed, bleeding into the shadows effortlessly. When she reached the edge of the city, she looked out in all directions. Where could Vaati have gone?
Dear sages, spirits of the Dark Realm, help me find my friend! She opened her eyes, smiling. Silly boy. He'd taken the Ocarina, which, by now, had so much Light Magic imbued in it that she could sense its presence, even now.
But he was already so far away. How would she ever catch up? He was headed . . . back to his family's castle. She sighed and dropped the bag over her shoulder, reaching inside to touch the fragment.
The fragment melded with her hand as soon as she touched it, and she felt her body morph again, until she was five inches tall and a little starling again. She flapped her wings a few times to readjust. You know, being a bird isn't so bad! She launched herself from the Twilit City and dove into the clouds, using the momentum to carry her forwards through the Twilight Realm.
I'll find you Vaati! And this time I'm going to TIE YOU TO MY FOOT so you can't run away again!
Shadow opened the door to the music box house. Sashira and Anton were having some sort of heated argument. Sashira pushed past him and ran into the morning light.
"Sashira, wait!" Anton cried, and Shadow got out of the way just in time for the anthropologist to also blast past him. "Please don't go!"
Shadow stopped him. "I'll go after her," he offered. "I . . . need to speak with her anyway, and I have an idea of where she's going."
Anton nodded. "I didn't mean to upset her . . . I just was trying to explain about the spirits in the valley and how they come alive at night, and how in the day they're gone, and how it's because they're dead and cursed, and she just . . ."
Sashira had been alone for so long in the desert, the spirits had become her friends, her family. She had known nothing else. To have that reality challenged . . . Shadow nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Of course, Shadow simply shadow-traveled until he caught up with her. He remained in the shadows, however, and simply followed. A few times she looked about, as though she could sense he was there. Eventually she reached a camouflaged cave and went inside. Shadow snuck in behind her.
The cave looked like the tattered remains of a home, tattered rugs with intricate designs on the ground and hung on the walls to conserve warmth. Sashira knelt in the center of the room and bowed to a pile of rags lying against the far wall.
No . . . not rags. Clothes. They were wrapped around a skeletal figure, long dead, its bony jaw hanging open. Shadow edged further into the room.
"Father," Sashira said, making Shadow stop. "I've come home. I'm alright. I escaped from the Ikanans . . . with some help from that Shadow guy. You know, the one who doesn't disappear in the daytime? . . . Yes, father, I'm fine! I met someone else, too. WHAT-!? I'm not blushing! Stop that!" She sat back on her haunches and pulled her long, dark brown hair over her shoulder, working through it with her fingers. "He's very nice, but . . . very strange, too. He has a lovely daughter. Yeah, it IS that weird scientist fellow who's been hanging around. Father . . ." Her fingers paused, curled loosely in her locks. "He said they're all dead. But you're not dead." She laughed. "I can see you sitting right there, just like you always have . . . They don't disappear in the daytime, either." Her shoulders began to shake. "I don't know why."
". . . Sashira?"
In a flash she was up, a sword leveled at Shadow's throat. Seeing it was him, she blushed and put away her sword. "What did you sneak up on me for?" Confusion crossed her features. "HOW did you sneak up on me?"
"I've got shadow powers, remember? Sashira . . . I came to say goodbye?"
"Goodbye? Are you leaving already? You just got here."
Shadow chuckled. "Not here. I'm leaving the desert with my daughter to find out how to get home again . . . I didn't want to leave you by yourself, though."
"What do you mean by myself?" She looked legitimately amused. "Oh!" She took his hand and pulled him forward. "Father, this is Shadow! Shadow, this is my father, the chief of the Garo."
She looked so happy. Those eyes, that face, those relaxed lines now that she was in a perceived safe place . . . aside from the tanned skin and dark hair, she was now Zelda's spitting image.
Was she Termina's version of Zelda?
If so . . . did that mean Link also had a counterpart . . .?
It took some resolve to not simply speak to the pile of rags in the corner and play along just to keep her happy, but Shadow did not even grace the skeleton with a glance. "Sashira," he said gently, "There's no one there."
Sashira looked at him like he was crazy. She looked at her father's remains, then at Shadow. "You're loony. Look right there!"
She took Shadow's arm and tried to turn him so he would look at her father, but he resisted.
"It's a dead body, Sashira. No one's alive in there."
"Don't say that!" Something like panic filled her face. "Just what do you think you're doing? Are you suffering from sun stroke?!"
"I'm not sick, Sashira."
"You're not funny! Stop it! GET OUT!"
The sudden escalation of emotion told Shadow that he had hit upon Sashira's memories, something buried deep inside that she'd forgotten. She shoved him. "GET OUT! GET OUT! I'll have the scouts throw you out if you don't leave!"
"They're just specters, Sashira, spirits cursed to roam this land eternally."
"No they—" Her words caught in her throat. She grabbed her head. "No. Get out!"
Shadow took her by the shoulders. "You know they're not really there, Sashira! Open your eyes and see!"
"N-no!" She shivered.
"Yes!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She grabbed the front of his tunic, and before he knew what was happening, she had turned and flipped him over her shoulder. He landed roughly on his back, seeing stars.
He struggled to pull himself up to his feet again. When he did, he found Sashira with her back against a wall with a horrified expression, staring at nothing, fingers poking into her face as if she couldn't feel her own face. Shadow took a few careful steps toward her, wary for any sign of her reaching to grab him again. When she didn't move, he dared to get just a tad closer.
"When I was little," Sashira explained in a robotic voice, "we lived in a little village. The last of us Garo. There were just a few. Father told me stories about the curse, about the spirits in the valley . . . And then the sickness came." A look like disgusted terror crossed her face. "It was like a curse from the gods. And everyone . . . Father took me away, but he was already infected." She fell silent.
"He died, Sashira," Shadow said. "Look for yourself."
She shook her head violently.
Shadow took her hands gently, and slowly pulled them from her face. "Look."
Her eyes flicked back and forth at the ground, but finally they lifted slightly, just slightly, so she could look at her father's body, then looked away again. Something like calm realization reached her, and she took a longer look.
Bones. Bones and rags. Shadow could tell she saw them for what they were. Sashira wrung her hands. "I was alone . . . I was all alone." Her eyes became feverish again. "But at night, they came, and I was safe! At night . . . but my father was never with them. He always stayed here. But—but—but . . ." The fever left her eyes. "They were already dead?" Suddenly she began to shake, and not just a little. Her legs gave out and her hands went limp in Shadow's own. She crumpled to the floor, and Shadow crouched next to her. "I was alone," she said in the tone of a little girl. "I was all alone. I was so alone." She began breathing rapidly.
"You're not alone anymore, Sashira," Shadow said. He pulled her toward him and held her as she shook and babbled nonsense, her mind trying to make sense of everything that had happened to her. "Here . . . don't try to stand. I'll carry you."
"Where are we going?!" Sashira asked, alarmed.
"Somewhere you won't be alone anymore." Shadow smiled at her, and put his arms around her back and under her knees and hefted her up. "I doubt your father actually meant to leave you here for so long."
Sashira looked back. "Father . . ."
"He'll be safe. I'm sure he won't mind if you leave him be for a while. You can bury him when you're ready." He'd already been there for decades, what was a few more days, weeks, months?
"Oh . . . okay," Sashira said reluctantly.
Shadow's heart was breaking as he carried her outside and began their way back to the music box house. He thought back to when they had first come to this place, when Shadow felt he was going to faint from thirst, and he told Zelly to keep going even if he fell down . . .
He could imagine Sashira's father, trying as hard as he could to get Sashira out of the valley, to safety, and finally collapsing. What had he thought at that time, as he watched Sashira unpack their things inside the cave as he sat and waited for death to take him? What must he have thought, knowing how little chance his young daughter had to survive in the cruel heated days and frozen nights?
What would he have said?
"I love you," Sashira whispered, breaking Shadow out of his thought. He glanced at her strangely.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "We've only just met, first of all, and second . . ."
"That's what he said," she interrupted, in explanation. "The very last thing. He told me I would never be alone, and that he loved me. I remember now. After that . . . it was just conversations I made up in my head."
Shadow grinned. "I guess his love was enough to keep you alive that long, eh?"
Not for the last time, she glanced behind them longingly.
"He's not there, Sashira."
She looked for a moment more, and then turned her head away sadly, slowly.
"Sashira!" Anton came running. "Are you alright?"
"She's fine!" Shadow replied. "Just . . . awfully tired." He set Sashira down. "Are you going to be alright now?"
Sashira seemed dazed, and didn't answer.
"She's . . . sort of remembered how she got here," Shadow explained. "Do you think she'll . . . be alright?"
Anton looked at her with such great concern. He took her hand in both of his own. Sensing the touch, she glanced up at him, and blinked. "I know you. Anton."
He grinned. "Yes! I'm really sorry about earlier."
She grew uncertain, and turned to Shadow. "Is he . . .?"
One side of Shadow's mouth curled up, but not in a mocking way. "He's alive. He's here in the daytime, see?"
She turned back to Anton, who was still searching her face worriedly. Shadow wasn't positive, but he was pretty sure he saw something sparking between the two.
Well, that made him happy. He felt much better leaving Sashira in the care of someone who would help her.
"I heard you had . . . quite a bad day," Anton said.
Sashira nodded. "I guess I've been alone for a long time."
"Well, you don't have to be alone anymore! We . . . that is, Pamela and I . . . we'd love if you came to stay with us. It's not natural, living out there on your own."
"No . . . No I suppose not."
Pamela and Zelly, who had been watching from the porch, decided to come over. Well, Pamela walked. Zelly shadow-melded.
"Zelly!" Shadow chided. "I told you to keep that secret!"
Zelly just blinked at him. "Yes, Daddy." And she ran around him. Shadow sighed long-sufferingly.
"You can have my blanket," Pamela offered to Sashira. She looked as though she could hardly contain her excitement. "Although I guess you'll want to sleep with Daddy, huh? I've never had a mommy before!"
Both Sashira's and Anton's faces turned red—Anton more than Sashira. They suddenly released each other's hand.
Anton stared at his feet, and shrugged one shoulder. "But seriously . . . you can stay. If you'd like."
Sashira pushed her hair behind one ear. "I . . . I would like that, I think. You're very kind."
"Oh, not at all! It's my pleasure!"
"Zelly and I will be off, then," Shadow interjected. He didn't like hurrying goodbyes, but he really felt they needed to get home as soon as possible.
"Oh!" Anton said, a little disappointed. "So soon? Well," he shook Shadow's hand. "I hope to see you around sometime again, Shadow." He bent down and shook Zelly's hand with a big smile. "I know Pamela will miss her new friend deeply!"
"Goodbye Zelly!" Pamela ran forward and she and Zelly hugged.
"Goodbye . . ." Zelly said with a sad drop in her voice. When they pulled apart, she immediately asked, "Daddy, can we stay and play?"
"No, sweetheart. We have to get back to Mommy, you know that."
"Okay. Sorry Pam, I miss Mommy a lot."
Pamela nodded understandingly. "I just got a new mommy! So . . . will you write to me?"
Zelly nodded. "Yes! Lots!"
Pamela grinned. "Okay. Well, bye then!"
Shadow hugged Sashira goodbye. "Best of luck, Sashira."
"You too, Shadow."
When they pulled away, Shadow found himself unable to look her in the eye for very long. She looked to much like Zelda, reminded him too much of what he'd lost. He picked Zelly up and gave one last wave before heading to Ikana River. Anton, Sashira, and Pamela, looking rather like they belonged to one another, waved them off until they disappeared in the heat waves like mirages.
Was any of that real? Shadow found himself wondering. He smiled. I guess it doesn't really matter, does it? It ended happily.
He and Zelly used their shadow powers to get down the cliff and cross the river. On the other side was grass, something they hadn't seen in a long while. The weather's temperature got lower and lower the further away they got from Ikana, and soon Shadow knew they had come upon a place much different.
Termina Field.