Malon grimaced as she felt Saria try to untie her wrists, her tiny nails digging into Malon's skin in the effort to unwind the tough knot.
"I'm sorry. This is hard. She tied this knot really tight!" She heard the girl groan. Then, the sound of high-pitched angry screams and slow footsteps made them both stop. Nabooru came out of the temple, an unconscious Link was draped on her shoulder and she was holding something bright and blue in her left hand. With an annoyed frown, she let Link fall to the meadow floor, jumping down after him. Malon felt Saria flinch as Link hit the floor, the younger girl quietly muttered something unintelligible but obviously sad.
"Saria, I think this thing belongs to you," Nabooru hissed angrily, walking over to Saria and holding out the clenched hand. Saria held out her hand timidly, staring at the bright light leaking out between Nabooru's clenched knuckles, and the Gerudo opened her hand to let a furious blue fairy fall down from her hand to land on Saria's palm. The fairy flailed around on Saria's hand before it figured out it had stopped falling.
"Nabooru! How could you do this? I finally decided to meet up with Link again, he must have missed me so much, and you… You…" The fairy screamed up at the Gerudo, her high-pitched voice making everyone in the vicinity scowl as their ears rang and still unconcious Link twitch.
"She's not mine, this must be Link's fairy," Saria replied, ignoring the fairy's rant.
"Stop shouting!" Saria's fairy shouted angrily from her perch in Saria's hair. The shout startled the other fairy, who immediatly stopped shouting at Nabooru. Nabooru glanced between the angry fairy perched on Saria's hand to Saria's fairy before she shook her head in annoyance.
"Gah, keep her then. I will not have that thing screaming in my ear the whole trip back home. I need to go. You can untie her if you wish, but don't even think about following," Nabooru huffed before storming back to Link's crumpled form. With strained effort, she hoisted him onto her shoulder and started walking off towards the exit, muttering angrily under her breath about how heavy he weighed.
"What is going on, Saria? I came back to Hyrule because the Great Deku Tree said I needed to return and help Link, but I get here and that Gerudo woman knocked Link unconscious! Did he grow so weak while I was gone? How rude of him, being depressed about me leaving. Hey, listen! Listen to me!" The fairy yelled as Saria ignored her and began untying Malon's knots again.
"I remember you, you were that annoying fairy that kept bugging him about something when we first met in Castletown," Malon growled, glaring at the fairy.
"Oh yeah, you were that girl who lost her father. You were distracting Link, he had to go to the castle immediately," The fairy replied, her voice quieting for a moment while she landed on Malon's knee.
"Distracting him with a conversation, which included asking him to find my father at the castle. Oh yes, it is so distracting," Malon retorted as the knots on her wrists finally became loose. With a grin, she pulled her hands free from the ropes. Her wrists were red from where the ropes had rubbed roughly against her skin. After rubbing her hands to warm them up again, she began untying her ankles.
"This is my fault. It is all my fault…" Saria sniffed, sitting down on the grass beside Malon.
"No, it's not your fault, sweetie! Don't blame yourself for this," Malon said as she untied her ankles and rubbed the red bruises forming from the chafing ropes.
"Yes it is! She guessed he was here because of me! I'm such a bastard!" Saria howled. Malon stopped at Saria and stared at her with mixed confusion and amusement.
"Uh, you really should not call yourself a bastard. It's usually an insult thrown at others," Malon replied. Saria sniffed and looked down towards her feet.
"But, it's my fault…" Saria muttered again, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"What happened has happened, there's no need to fret over it now. What we should be doing is thinking about how to fix the problem before something worse happens to Link," Malon replied. Saria sniffed, then nodded her head and looked up at Malon.
"So, why is Nabooru looking for Link?" Saria asked, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging them.
"There is a festival going on, called the Wild Hunt. Nabooru received Link as her prey, so she was to hunt him down and bring him back to the Fortress. If we don't get to him in time, he'll be… something bad will happen," Malon replied, thinking about their options. Breaking into the fortress for a rescue; that was asking for trouble. Getting help from the Princess; already out of the question.
"How bad?" Saria asked worriedly.
"Erm, just something bad. I'm not really sure what," Malon stated, hoping that her face wasn't turning red from the lie. However, the girl nodded and thought about what Malon had said.
"Could we switch Link out with someone who looks like him?" Saria asked.
"Well, that's a interesting idea, but I don't know anyone who looks like him," Malon replied.
"Hey…"
"There must be someone in that town you said you first met Link in. Could you ask around and see if anyone can help us?" Saria said.
"Listen…"
"I do not think there would be many men willing to follow us into the Gerudo Fortress, especially during the Wild Hunt. We would be extremely lucky to find a man out on the street, let alone someone who looks like Link," Malon replied with a disgruntled sigh.
"Listen to me! I said listen to me!" The fairy screamed, bouncing up and down on Malon's knee in fury. Malon resisted the urge to flick the fairy off her knee and glared down at it.
"Can't you be quiet?" Malon growled.
"I was trying to say I might know someone we can trick into replacing Link, but I guess you have this all under control," The fairy sniffed, her voice laced with anger and annoyance.
"You know someone who can help us? Where is he?" Saria asked, holding out her hand to the fairy. It sighed, but clambered onto the girl's hand and sat on her palm.
"I want an apology from her before I say anything else," The fairy huffed, her wings fluttering in agitation. Malon scowled, but remained quiet.
"No, I am not apologizing to you," Malon growled, glaring down at the fairy. The fairy pretended to ignore her, although a quiet scoff managed to escape. The noise didn't surprise Malon, but the sob that suddenly escaped Saria did. Malon looked towards the girl to see that her face had turned light red and a tear was slipping down her cheek.
"Hey, you don't need to cry about it," Malon said. Saria's red cheeks darkened when Malon mentioned the word cry.
"Please, just say that you are sorry. We don't need to argue," Saria mumbled as she wiped away the tear. Malon stared at the little girl before turning back to the fairy. The fairy continued to ignore her.
"…I am sorry," Malon replied through gritted teeth, imagining smashing the fairy underneath her feet as she said it. The fairy's wings stopped fluttering in agitation, a sign that it had accepted the apology.
"See, isn't that much better? We don't need to be enemies," The fairy giggled.
"Just tell us where he is," Malon hissed, glancing at Saria to make sure she wasn't still crying about the argument. The girl's face lightened considerably and she smiled weakly at Malon before returning her attention to the fairy.
"All right, I'll tell you where the person is. He doesn't like Link, he might not even listen to us, but he is our best bet if we want to help Link. Follow me!" The fairy yelled, leaping from Saria's palm and flying towards the exit.
"Let's go, then!" Saria shouted as she pushed herself up to her feet and ran after the fairy. Malon looked around the meadow before sighing and standing up. Her feet were unsteady for a moment, but she recovered herself and started running after the green-haired girl.
Nabooru smiled, leaving the forest was quicker than the trek to the temple. Once she reached the village Saria lived at, she swatted a small crowd of curious children away from her horse and threw Link onto the horse. After making sure he wouldn't fall from the saddle during the journey back to the fortress, she calmly dragged her horse through the gate, across the bridge, and through the second gate into the entrance to Hyrule Field. Viento didn't appreciate having to go through the gates and across the bridge a second time, but he soon forgot about his anger against Nabooru once he noticed the wide expanse of Hyrule Field past the last of the trees.
"I'm sorry about dragging you into the forest. You'll have lots of tasty treats back at the fortress, okay?," Nabooru told the horse as she rubbed the horse's side. His ears flickered back for a moment before he looked back and nuzzled his face against her own face, accepting the apology and the promise of tasty treats.
"Let's go back to the Fortress, Viento!" She yelled, her mood soaring at her horse's response and the thrill of success. Viento snorted and waved his mane as she leapt onto his back. As soon as the horse felt his master sitting securely on his back, he burst into a gallop past the forest's edge and out onto the vast Hyrule Field.