Chapter II: Welcome to Hyruletropolis
Well something seems amiss... Let's see if these kids know whats going on?
I mean, one of them is named Link. He must know the score, right?
987 years later...
A young lad and his three companions: A redhead girl with long hair, a young girl with cropped green hair, and a Zora girl from the Lake Hylia slums, all sit together upstairs, in front of his small TV in his room, watching the intro theatrics of the Legend of Zelda. A two part release: A game and a movie, the first ever successful game-to-move or movie-to-game, in his opinion; as they were both a reflection of each other. He liked the game better because he was in control of the action. But he Loved the movie, as it was, essentially, a walk-through for the hardest but most rewarding ending path through the game... He was finishing the intro of the game, as Ganon vanquished Link, when his mother entered, "Oh, you kids! You shouldn't be playing inside on such a nice day like this! Go on, shoo, get some fresh air! I know it's a brand new game, and you want to play it all right away, but you too, Link. C'mon, outside!"
The green haired girl playfully punched Link in the arm. "yeah, 'little hero'." she laughed, "let's go out and take a swim!" The redhead interrupted "Or ride horses! C'mon Krystal, Horses are way funner than water! Right, Rutostasia?" The Zora girl shied away and turned her head down "i guesso" she muttered. "Geeze, Malon! You're getting to be just as bad as your sister, Marin, used to be! Why have you started to pick on Ruto so much anyways?" Krystal demanded. Rutostasia just quietly said "s'okay." and tried to make herself as small as unapparant as possible, not wanting to stir anything up.
"Hey, dont blame me for how Marin acted when she ran away!" They began bickering, but Link ignored them and unintentionally snuck away, right out the front door. It didn't take long for his friends to notice and chase after him. "Link, wait up!" Ruto called out and was the first to run down the stairs after him.
They all 4 gathered outside the front door and formed a circle around each other. "What do you guys want to do then?" Asked Malon. "I'm down for swimming" Rutostasia said with negligibly more confidence than before. "you would-" Malon accused, to which Krystal slugged her in the shoulder, "What's the matter with you, Malon?! You're never that mean...!"
Malon choked a sob away and said nothing. "It's okay, Krys. I can handle myself." Ruto said, confidently. Link suddenly fell to the grass on his back. The three girls rushed down to ask if he was okay, but he simply smirked and patted the grass beside him, and they giggled and laid down in a cross with all four of their heads touching.
The four friends laid about through the afternoon, talking, giggling, occasionally getting up and playfully sparring or playing tag. The afternoon was hot and uncomfortable, but it was getting closer to sundown when Rutostasia suggested some Parkour, "I ought to head home soon, but I don't want the fun to end... Anyone up for some free-running, to my place?" Excited agreements all around, "That's a great idea, Ruto!" Malon exclaimed, "Yeah! I'm in! I'll call mom and tell her I'm sleeping over at Link's. She wont know I'm in the slums, so she wont worry..." Krystal replied, taking out her GameGirl and selecting a contact. Link was beaming, lips ear to ear, bearing happy teeth.
The four stretched out on the grass, barefoot. Forward bends, knee dips, horse stance, splits, neck rolls, all of the kids getting pumped up and excited. Link was twisting his torso slowly side to side as the girls defined their marks. "C'mon link!" Krystal called from the starting line. "Waiting on you!"
Link took his mark between her and Ruto and bent down along with his friends. "I'll call it." Malon declared. "Ready?" 3 heads nodding, "Three..." she paused absurdly long, "Two..." a fan of suspense, she waited till her friends got impatient and fidgety, "ONE!" she took off first. "Hey, what about go?!" Ruto called, dashing forward; awkwardly as a Zora, yet with unprecedented grace for her people. Link and Krystal took off together, inches behind her, intentionally waiting on each other.
South, along the main street leading out of the downtown Hyrule Metro area. Though Link lived in the nearby suburbs, not the city, 'all roads lead to Hyrule'.
They caught up with Malon, who caught sight of her companions and whistled sharply, "Come on Epona, join us!". She had ridden her horse out to visit and they two were inseparable, like life-mates. Epona galloped right over. "Cheater!" Krystal giggled, "You cant ride in Parkour!" Ruto giggled and veered off the road as it tapered into the undeveloped open fields northeast of the Lake Hylia slums. She knew she'd win if she could reach the shore even halfway behind her friends. No one can out swim a Zora!
A few moments later, When he caught sight of her deviating from Malon's lead from the corner of his eye, Link was next to follow her lead. He tapped Krystal's shoulder and nodded in Ruto's direction as he took off. She nodded, "Hey, Malon, Ruto is playing to win! Can your horse swim?" She laughed.
Malon was competitive, but had too many personal problems as of late to answer or focus on the fun; she was flooded with grief that she would not share with anyone but her most trusted friends... and even though they were here with her now, she still hasn't told but one friend. Her eyes involuntarily welled up with tears, but she blinked them away and veered toward the shore and followed from behind, slowing down.
Krystal was fiercely competitive, but liked her friend too much to try to outpace him... she was struggling with herself beside him, but finally bolted ahead, running past Ruto, reaching the shore first. She quickly fished out and tossed her GameGirl into the grass, diving right in. Link then looked back toward Malon who was walking now, horse following. He slowed, she noticed and shooed him ahead; so he dashed on.
Ruto looked back when Link passed her. Seeing Malon mount her Horse, she gave up racing and waited for her to catch up, Malon noticed and picked up pace. "Krys dropped her phone, could you ride out to the house and drop it off for us?" She shouted back, Malon smiled and gave an exaggerated nod and waved to make sure Ruto could see her answer clearly. Ruto waved then hobbled ahead quickly, pointing to the cell as she dove in without looking back.
Krystal was nearing the step ladder behind Ruto's adoptive family's shanty; Link was catching up, but Ruto was torpedoing madly toward them, dove deep, and jumped out of the water a few times, to announce herself. Krystal was first to the ladder and half way up, looking back at the splashing. "Geeze that's fast!" she observed aloud. Link grabbed the ladder as Krystal exclaimed at Ruto, who dove deep and spiraled down out of sight into the deep blue lake. Krystal hastily reached for the top but her footing slipped and she had to struggle to climb the rest of the way, so Link assisted her by offering one hand for a foothold. "Thanks, Link!" Krystal smiled down on him as Ruto splashed out and straight up to her front door and entered. "But it looks like we lost!" Krystal finished off, spontaneously.
The pair grabbed towels Ruto brought them; a strange commodity in a Zora community, but she had uncommon friends for a young Zora in today's world. They all smiled and laughed as Link and Krystal dried off. "I'm going to have to go back for my GameGirl, you know..." she started, but noticed Ruto's expression change, looking sarcastic, or concerned, or disgusted, or... "What?" Krystal requested. "Malon will bring it, I asked her to grab it and pointed to it as I jumped in the lake."
The three chatted, sitting on the dock edge, enjoying the end of the afternoon into the oncoming evening. They talked about all kinds of things, and various topics, while they waited for Malon. "... and so they are out of town for a while. I have the shanty all to myself for the foreseeable future!" Ruto had finished explaining, contented. "I've heard this shanty town was built on the remains of an ancient temple..." Krystal said partly out of the blue. Ruto began to respond when the familiar clopping pattern of a friend's horse interrupted her thoughts, "oh, there's your phone..." she said.
The friends went inside and Ruto offered some tea she'd prepared when retrieving the towels. So they sat around her vacant adobe and talked. The conversation was mostly quiet and plain... weather talk, mutual financial woes to look forward to as adults, the mythology of the hero of time came up but subsided without a whimper or a bang. Malon was silent most of this time, and Ruto nudged her. "you told me... come on, we all love you." she whispered. Malon was too proud to cry, but couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
She didn't sob or cry, but choked down her grief and breathed deep, ignoring the eye leak she had sprung. "It's my mom... She's... She's so very ill..." She paused long and hard, trying to even out her breathing. "What's wrong with Cremia?!" Krystal exclaimed. Their mothers had been great friends before Malon warmed up to Krystal. Krys all but lived vicariously through her mother and considered Cremia her friend before she did Malon or her elder sister, Marin.
Malon had lost her resolve, she'd endured hiding her grief for too long in one day and broke down and cried, embarrassingly in front of her friends; the only people, perhaps, whom in front of she could survive the shame of even doing so. Between sobs she explained all she knew, "The doctors say... it's. It's the cold air off the mountain... and told her... to stay warm and in bed, but Dad... and Ingo both think it's a cop-out, that the doctors don't know any more," She sobbed, gasped for air and slowed her breath. "About- They don't know more about it than we do."
Her tone became less grief stricken and more enraged as she continued. "They say that it will pass, to keep her sipping water and wrapped up in bed, but they don't understand how long its been!" She was getting madder and madder at the thought of her mother's state. "They don't understand how frail and weak it's making her, she cant stay in bed and do nothing! She needs to be out with the cows and the horses!" She near about screamed that last word: Horses were her life and world, and the whole ranch was her mother's life and world.
Lon-Lon Romani Ranch, locally known as The LLRR (or double LR), was once a great and economic foothold in northeast Hyrule. That is, until her mother struck ill a year ago, as if the two, person and property, had intertwined health. Ingo was too selfish to do half the work Cremia did, and Malon's father Talon was a lazy man but too attentive to his wife for that to be the case... Malon had never seen her father awake for so many hours in a day, so constantly beside her mother; his wife. The cows had all but destroyed the last bush on the property, and had already mowed away the grass, leaving the ranch dry, dusty, and brown... An insult and injury from its former glory.
Everyone had fallen as silent as Link; except Link, who sighed heavily and held Malon's hands. "Thanks, Link. You're a courageous friend, you know that?" She said smiling, wiping the tears from her eyes. Krystal moved in to initiate a group hug, and Ruto reluctantly joined in. The day was over, the friends stayed well into the night, and eventually Krystal's GameGirl chirped a 'secret sound'. "Mom's asking where we are... Looks like the jig is up! C'mon Link, maybe Malon will give us a ride back to your house?" She said. Malon smiled, but said nothing. Just nodded. She was spent.