"Twila! Midna! How dare you tell our tale!" Kotake began, "You pests spoiled our surprise and frightened the young boy pale!" Link got up and brushed himself off again, standing tall, as to show he was fine, not at all traumatized, not the least bit scared. Koume and Kotake ordered Midna and Twila into the house with no more than a stiff bony finger, each, jutted to their front door, and the two youngers slipped away into the shadows. "Perhaps it's started all over again," Koume said to Kotake, "The hero does reappear now and then." Her sister agreed. They eagerly stared at Link with great intent.

Link waited. The witches waited. Link looked into their eyes. The sisters looked him in his eyes. Link stood awkwardly, waiting. Koume and Kotake hovered on their broomsticks, awkwardly. Link scratched the back of his brown head of hair.

"Oh! That's right!" Kotake burst out, and squirmed and fidgeted like slapstick, retrieving a bottle from her sleeve. "Bring this back to us tomorrow afternoon." She started, "We can help your friend's mother with our potion of blue." Koume finished.
"Also, you might want these. They aren't worth trade anymore, like in the old days, but you can still find more by cutting down the shrubs you might find... Well if you had a sword... These were for the last bottle of potion we sold, hundreds of years ago, before everything changed." Kotake spoke plainly. Koume handed over a purple rupee and a pair of red rupees, and the large bottle. Link stared at the large bottle a moment and took it from the witch with caution, as if it might be cursed. Kotake cackled, and the two witches disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Link had breached the forest edge about a mile behind the Ranch and trudged along, sleepily. It was dawning, and though no sun was visible, the light poured over the horizon, announcing it was not far from rising. By the time he made it to the front porch, his two friends burst out in a panic... They were looking for him.
"Link!" Was all Malon could really say, and the three of them stood on the front porch awkwardly. "What were you doing outside so early?" She asked after an awkward silence. Link smelled breakfast, and his stomach growled. Tired from lack of sleep, and now hungry on top of it, he gripped his stomach and then fell to his knees, prompting Krystal and Malon to his side. "Link!" Krystal yelled, worried. Then his stomach growled louder, and clued the girls in. They laughed together and escorted him to the dining table.

After breakfast, Link passed out in the Living room, watching Super Mario cartoons with his friends.
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In Link's dream, he saw the worlds of Hyrule, all bound and contained together by the Triforce, with himself standing amidst them all, as if a giant tree, binding the worlds of Hyrule across time and space, standing in the center of the Triforce.
In one world, red with war, crawling off his right arm, in another, on his forehead, blue with ocean and vast of skies, others showed peaceful melding of people, and some showed pristine nature, green and untouched, growing upward from beneath his left foot.
The giant Link, towering over his myriad adventures, peered down into a shadowy realm branching out from his heart. Black clouds and purple lightning foreshadowing an olive sunset; a weak and sickly looking sunset, its rays not even beaming outward, but shining enough to express the hordes of monsters crowding together in the shadows.
Deep into the darkness, where no monsters stirred, smoky, cloudy wisps of shade gently tumbled about. Emerging were the twins, Twila and Midna. "The potion's almost done, wake up sleepyhead!" They said in unison. As they retreated to the billowing shadows, Link thought he could see himself peering out with glowing red eyes, as he awoke.
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He'd slept through the cartoons, and heard the front door click shut, opened his eyes and looked around; got up and left the house. He found Krystal mounting Epona, and Malon standing beside, helping her up while giving her some riding instructions. "Hey sleepyhead!" Krystal called to him, waving then losing her balance. Link approached them. "Krystal was jealous you 'got to' ride Epona last night," she said, slightly offensively, "and she conned me into teaching her how to ride..." Krystal butted in, "You looked so fabulous and heroic, Link!" and Link blushed.

Malon explained that she wasn't too happy with Link, and didn't like sharing her horse, told them both it was a "one time deal" and that they would have to find their own horses next time. "This might take a while, Link. Why don't you find something to make yourself useful? I'm sure Ingo would be more than happy to dump his responsibilities on you!" Malon half joked, but meant it literally. So Link disappeared for a couple hours while the girls rode and Ingo labored, Talon at his frail wife's side.

"You're late!" Kotake cackled inoffensively, stirring up a ladle full of blue from within the cauldron. "You'll have to hurry back, this isn't a proper potion," she continued, "it will turn red when its exposed to warmth or sunlight for more than a minute." Koume explained, "In the forest, the cool air will preserve it," she continued, followed by her sister, "When you reach the forest edge, don't step into the light," she emphasized, "Run!" They said together.
This may have confused him, this may not have. Perhaps he was simply very eager to finish the task, or perhaps he mistook their unison as an immediate command. Whatever may the case be, Link ran as fast as he could the whole way there; cradling the bottle, twice protected, within his satchel. When he cleared the forest, he ran faster. He bolted into the house and up the stairs, ran back to the room at the very end of the hall and entered Talon and Cremia's room. Talon got up with a shot, and approached Link, who ignored him and produced the bottle from his pack. He stood bedside of Cremia and held the blue potion to her lips. The smell was inviting; invigorating and aromatic, so immediately she wanted to drink a sip at first, then regaining her strength with miraculous speed, drank faster, and then, halfway through, gulped that half of the bottle all at once, leaving not a drop. She jumpped out of bed and stood tall, invigorated, Healthy! Talon was confused and angry for Link's sudden burst into the privacy of his room and did not know what to do, just awkwardly shouted monotonously "What was that, boy?"

Cremia had recovered so instantly that suddenly, she was in tears and hugged her husband fiercely. Malon and Krystal had seen Link's haste outside, while riding, and followed him in cautiously; entering to the sight of two crying, happy adults. Malon was in shock for a moment and moved her lips, yet said nothing. Krystal looked aside and saw Malon's reaction, then stepped away with Link. Malon then burst into tears and cried out "MOM!" And ran over to embrace her parents.

Chapter V: The Dirt on Downtown

Okay...
Maybe this is going somewhere after all...
But what's going on here? This is barely Zelda!
So yeah, it's apparently the future, but... I mean, come on...
What about temples, dungeons, monsters, Heart Containers, and... you know... Zelda stuff?!

Krystal and Link had quietly left the family, without a word, and left them to their joyous reunion. They began the long walk back to Link's house, and Krystal wanted to ask him what happened in there but couldn't find the words. They walked slowly and silently for almost 2 miles before she broke the silence, "How did you save Cremia? No one knew what was wrong, and you came in and out like nothing happened at all. I've only ever heard of the forest witches having that kind of healing power..." Her mention of the witches shocked Link into recoil, and when he turned with a start, his eyes peeled open in surprise, Krystal recoiled as well, intuiting what happened. "no..." was all she could say at first.

They walked for only a brief silent moment, nearing the river "You went into the forest this morning, didn't you?" Link's expression told all, his jaw dropped. Krystal turned aside, partially ashamed. She didn't know how to explain how SHE knew about the Forest Witches. Having never told anyone where she lived, Cremia being the only living soul but her own mother to know. But she stayed silent and continued walking, leaving Link behind to catch up from her stunning revelation. He slowly began walking again, then picked up the pace to catch up with her, but said nothing.

They walked in silence, following a winding pedestrian path to climb west across the highway bridge, spanning the river between east and west Hyruletropolis, through downtown, past the skate park, and onward toward Link's house, still a couple miles away. almost half an hour of silence between the pair, nothing but the sounds of traffic and wind. They barely cleared the park when the silence was starting to irritate Krystal, but her mind was overly occupied with her home and her mother's past; wanting to talk but not about her thoughts, unable to distract herself she broke off. "I'm sorry, Link! I've got to go home!" Krystal said, tears welling up in her eyes. She ran back toward the park and followed the adjacent footbridge, south of the highway, and didn't look back. Link was beside himself, and backtracked to the skate park to find a bench and contemplate.
He wondered about his friends' strange behaviors recently, the eerie chance encounter with the witches and shadow girls; and Cremia's mysterious illness. He was so stuck in thought he hadn't noticed a homeless Goron is walking around the perimeter of the park... Or the black leather jackets coming and going consistently from seemingly random streets. He did not notice the purple t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts with elegant and intricate "B" emblems on the fronts and/or backs. Nor had he consciously noticed the garish yellow tuxedo that stepped out of a limousine, or the cyan bandannas and wristbands that huddled together beside sports cars. All that, which marked the local riff-raff, suddenly started standing out after the Goron's umpteenth lap around the skate park. Link had sat for so long, engorged on thought, as if in shock - and quite rightly so - that the scenery around him had started to turn into a story of self evident lies and mystery.

The afternoon had slipped right underneath his nose. But for a moment, of sudden lucidity, Link felt like he could see through reality, as if a divine force compelled him to act on, and solve, the many Hyrulean problems he encountered. His eyes widened as he watched some more, now with intent. A black thief had picked the yellow tuxedo's pocket, whom had come to launder money with a purple brawler as part of a reward to his gang for "cleaning up" the cyan racers up north in mafia territory, which had moved in on the black thieves' claim and forced them out into the west, outside of town.
Even though it took all day for these events to transpire, Even though Link had payed no direct attention to any of the events, so caught up in his own recent experience, Link was suddenly and mysteriously aware of all of this... He had no genuine proof that what he thought he saw was real, but he felt it in his heart to be true, and then, as if on cue, the Goron took off his perimeter path to approach Link, standing directly in front of him, almost menacingly, waiting for Link to look up at him.