After waiting so long, Link traveled back across the bridge, into downtown. As he passed the two remaining Brawlers, he heard one of them mutter something about him being a little green punk. Ahead of him across the bridge, Link could just barely make out a dark figure hopping over the railing and crawling along side the edge of the bridge. He ran ahead to get a better view, then slowed down and watched once he was close enough to make out the Ninja wrap. He watched, fascinated by the grace at which this mysterious person leapt from the bridge into the trees near by and vanished toward the skate park. Link ran ahead and followed the bridge down the side path before the intersection until he was blocked by a museum separating the bridge path from the main street. He hurried to the park, but could make no sign of any mysterious Ninja in the area. Goron Link on patrol, the familiar blue van under the bridge had just arrived, and several familiar faces started to show up from around downtown for the free food. Link decided to stick around and people-watch again, so he traveled back along the bridge to a pedestrian off ramp of sorts across the street. He scurried over to the park ans sat all the way across the park from the bridge on the empty end, in a quiet corner bench.
Goron Link stopped to chat with a couple on a stroll, Zelda hurried back and forth under the bridge, no signs of brawlers or mafia, the sun was starting to light the dusk horizon with orange and yellow hues, and no signs of ninja either. Link stretched out and stood up in front of the bench. He began doing a few stretches and side twists, and deep breathing. As the couple departed from Goron Link, he raised his hands in a cheer and let out an audible "yahoooph!" as he gobbled up a small gift. Link smiled to himself and touched his toes and inhaled deep.
The park breathed and sighed as people came to eat and dispersed slowly into the falling dusk. Link had remained mostly by the park bench all evening, and approached the van under the bridge. Impa was washing the fold-out tables off and gathering up any napkins, utensils, plates, or other resources left behind as Zelda loaded them into the van. Link walked around one table, toward the van and waited as Zelda loaded a box of canned chili into the back. She turned around to face Link, standing awkwardly beside. They stared at each other for a moment and Impa noticed, waiting for Zelda to return. Finally, she approached, and formally introduced herself and Zelda, "Hello, Link. You've grown a lot since we were all last together. I am Zelda's attendant, Impa."
Zelda noticed herself staring at Link and interrupted Impa, "I don't suppose you'd remember me either, but I barely remember you, when we were so little..." She trailed off. "My name is Zelda, we were really little when all our parents last met together at the Double LR. I remember you, Link, and our friends, Ruto, Krystal, Malon, and the twins, Twila and Midna... I think Marin is the only one of us old enough to remember anything more, though." Impa had resumed the cleanup while Zelda talked with Link. She mentioned playing games with each other at the ranch long ago, and expressed enjoying the wonders of meeting horses for their first time. Impa cleared her throat and indicated at the tables and gas stoves. Zelda politely excused herself, and Link helped by carrying the collapsible tables into the back of the van.
Impa thanked Link for his help and entered the driver's seat, while Zelda lingered to talk. "Thank you for the help, Link. I hope you can come help us tomorrow evening, I can give you Impa's cell number so you can stay in touch with me. He took the number she wrote down for him and they waited awkwardly. Impa broke the silence and called for Zelda.
Link waved goodbye as Zelda climbed in and they drove off. Before he could, or perhaps would, turn around to return home, a cyan racer sped past and followed the van a moment before revving past them and disappearing. Link looked back in the direction the car had come and noticed some Cyan Racer jumpsuits walking toward the park from the formerly Brawler shops across the street. Goron Link had noticed too and approached Link, under the bridge. "Relax, kid. They're just leaving. You should go home too."
Link headed back toward his home and fiddled with his new phone. He sent a text to his mom with the time and his location. Then sent another asking to add Krystal's and Zelda's phone numbers to his list. Along his trip, he noticed the same old lady with the blanket shawl walking out of a small store, near his home, and decided to take a look inside. The shop owner was a kind man with a happy demeanor. He turned and greeted Link right away, revealing a large yellow fox mask. "Hello, lad!" he nearly boomed from behind the mask, perhaps trying to startle the kid. "You have the look of a smart kid, so I'll tell ya a little secret!" He placed his hand beside his mask, pushing it aside to show his mouth, and leaned in as Link approached the counter. "There's a magical mask salesman coming to town soon, an' he'll be setting up shop in here. I've got a special deal to promote him by giving away this free mask!"
Link smiled and put out his hands, but the shop keep continued on, pulling back and letting the mask fall over his mouth again. "But there's a small catch, you see. I need to make a living here, yeah?" me spoke up to compensate for his muffled voice. "I can't give too many away for free, so it's more like a job... I'm passing the torch. You want the mask, you just gotta wear it and try to sell it. If you come back with the money, I can either let you keep the same mask for free, or give you a new one to try to sell. How do ya like that?"
After rolling his head back and forth in thought, Link nodded and took the mask from the man. He then introduced himself as Kafei, stroking his strangely blue hair, "and that is the Keaton Mask. It represents the tricky fox from old stories. Maybe you remember some of them?" then asked if Link was here to buy anything from his shop. Link decided to look around and see what there was. He noticed small and medium bottles, a wooden sword and shield practice set, a Large Olde Hyrulean Wallet, and a Traditional Hunter's Tunic: Medium and Large Sizes.
Link started to leave, and Kafei asked him "You see anything you like? There's a special discount for employees, you know? Sell the mask, alright?" Link nodded and left for home, wearing the Keaton Mask. He traveled the short trip home, entering his house, when he received his answer to the text about his friends. It was yes.
"Oh good, you're ho-WHOAHHHEE! WHAT ARE YOU?" His mask frightened a sudden response when his mom emerged from the kitchen, so Link took it off. They sat on the couch and laughed. It was 'payday' and Link received his allowance of 20r. His mom took the GameBoy and entered the information he requested then thanked him for giving her a time and location update. "... and since you're proving you can be responsible..." she said, as she gave him two blue 5r bills. " your allowance just got a raise." They exchanged a hug, and she had asked about the mask before Link retired to bed, mentioning something about a Keaton story she grew up with.
The weekend had arrived and the slow weekend mornings in Hyrule meant everyone usually slept in or stayed indoors until lunchtime or later. Link took advantage of the vacant mornings every weekend to practice Parkour. He woke up extra early today for some reason. Probably due to all the excitement about the new Zelda game and his own coincidental experiences as of late.
Link was up before the sun had even begun to creep out from behind the horizon, and crept about the house softly, so as not to wake his mother; downstairs to the fridge for some milk, he quietly pulled handfuls of cereal out into a bowl, and put the milk back, ever gently closing the fridge as to make no sounds.
He ate as quickly and quietly as he could before taking off. Out the front door, on the front step, Link held his breath as he slowly closed the door, as if taking an hour. Link stretched himself out as he walked, taking extra long strides and walking extra slow, toward downtown for his Weekend Free Run. He looked forward to each run, but this would be the first time going into the city. Usually he'd just go to Ruto's house and back; or just stay and hang out with his friend. Perhaps it was just the recent drama and stimulation, but Link was feeling extra adventurous and decided to explore downtown beyond the mall and skate park.
Halfway there, the familiar blanket shawl obscures a misfortunate soul, hiding behind a tree, asleep. Link wadded up and left some of that "worthless" money for her, both his 5r bills. He felt a sense of pride when he walked away, and smiled.
He decided he was close enough to Downtown to begin really warming up and started jogging. His travel time drastically changed the morning for him. For one thing, he'd have been running from his house from the beginning if he were going to Ruto's, but because he was not as familiar with the downtown maze of streets, he needed all the energy he could get; at the expense of his morning lull, he realized; once the sun started announcing himself link felt pressured to begin his delayed run. Link's increased pace wasn't satisfactory, he wanted to run already!
Before he was fully 3 quarters of the way there, he took off. He could see the first parking garage, marking the southern border of downtown and decided he'd start there; up and down the stairs, wend his way around and over parked cars, then back down to the street level to explore.
Link's increased running speed freed his spirit and he smiled inwardly to himself, and did a cartwheel without breaking pace. Smiling outwardly at himself, accomplished, he was getting better at Parkour and felt like trying some stunts for the first time!
Link ran the outer perimeter of the garage and entered, after encircling the whole building; daylight was starting its full swing for the day as the last drop of sun dripped up in the unseen distance outside of downtown. He began encircling the inside of the garage, looking for stairs to the top. He kicked the wall of the open stairwell door frame up to the first quarter-flight landing before the stairs cornered off and turned, gracefully grabbing the hand rail to orbit the turn and keep going up without slowing down.
Clearing two steps at a time, Link chugged up to the top without any more fancy footwork. He tripped at the top step, but caught himself in time to roll through his fall and keep pace. Very few cars were parked in the garage, and only one at the top, on the other end of the lot; Link dashed over and rolled across the car, testing himself some more. He wrapped around and came to the ramp, gaining a little speed and losing his balance; he had to slow down and felt a little disappointed, but pressed on with peerless enthusiasm.
He jumped ahead of himself with a dash and cleared a dozen paces down the ramp, landed, and rolled with the momentum, involuntarily jumping again as he cleared the roll, clearing eighteen paces down the ramp and landing hard, rolling several paces and stopping flat on his back. His wallet bounced off his person and emptied part of its contents: a cellphone and a green rupee he'd missed earlier. The wallet seemed bigger on the insider somehow...
Link gathered his wallet and returned its contents, sat rubbing his knee a moment, then began stretching again. He didn't want to really hurt himself, since he was nowhere near done running this morning! No, he was going to get his beloved running in and take the time to explore downtown!
After stretching and walking out of the garage, traffic was starting to creep out as a lone car drove out of downtown as link exited. Back to jogging until he got to the mall 3 blocks up. Not one soul around this early, other than the few passers-through, an occasional stray dog or cat, and Link.
Jogging done, sprinting now; Parkour, Free Running, straight down the sidewalk, past the mall, turn toward the park, turn again just before, at the church, and running north past the vehicle tune-up, board, blade, and bike shop, dojo, and auditorium/theatre, into less familiar territory... Time to break off the beaten path. Link curved around a corner into an alleyway, where downtown mysteriously changed into a labyrinth... Luckily, he'd run right into a dead end, nothing but some sort of commercial back door, and simply turned around. However, to his astonishment, he turned around to find himself on an entirely different street! He stopped abruptly and looked around his shoulder. The dead end had also changed into a T-corner. Link felt a sense of dread creep up on him and looked around to find some landmarks. He turned around twice, he didn't know where he was, except that a "Navi's Curio" shop was across the street from him and featured a crystal ball on a pole for a store sign. That stood out enough, that Link's confidence had returned. He had the courage he needed to finish his run.
Link took a deep breath and held it for a moment, almost as if expecting something to come running out of the alley behind him. But when nothing happened, he turned and exhaled sharply with a burst of speed as he took his first step forward, and dashed into the wall where the brick alley split: Left or right..? ... and kicked off the wall with a left hand turn into the alleyways of Hyruletropolis.
He nearly collided with the parallel wall in the narrow alley and considered for a gleeful moment that he could wall kick his way through if he wanted. As he came up to another 3 way T-split. He took the left hand path again and noticed Navi's Curio pass him on his left hand side in an alleyway transfer, stopping him dead in his tracks. He'd already cleared the corner, and when he turned around to look back out the exit, he saw another sight all together: The Hyrulean museum. His jaw dropped, and he stood still, petrified. This was, at the very least, a familiar sight, so he was quickly confident again, knowing he'd be able to get home as long as he stuck to the streets and stayed well away from the alleys. He found a little courage and broke the paralysis.