Link's breath caught in his throat and he clutched his hand to his chest, wild-eyed.
"Link?" Malon asked, her angry tone suddenly dropped, "What is the matter?"
His heart thumped hard in his chest and he spun around, sprinting out of the paddock. He slammed the door open of the stables and ran in, closing the door and finding everything her could to wedge it shut.
After, Link staggered backwards, shaking feverishly and falling against a post. He slid to the hay covered ground, slumping against the wooden pole and panting, making noises of pain every so often.
Why was this happening? Hadn't he banished the Stalfos' curse?
"Na... NYAAAAAAGGGGHHH!" Link screamed as a horrid burst of agony seemed to seize up his whole body.
Next thing he knew, he was breathing heavily, his breath seeming to echo. His tunic lay limp on his thin body and his hat was laid on the floor next to him.
"Link?!" Harry's voice was carried in from outside as he knocked on the door, "Link, what's the matter?!"
"G-Go away!" Link stuttered.
"What the hell's wrong with your voice?! I'm coming in there."
"NO! Don't! Please!"
"What're you doing?"
"Just- Just go!"
"Ugh, bombarda!" The door flew open and Link got to his feet, running for the hay. He buried himself among it and watched through one, glowing red eye as Harry walked in.
"Where are you?" Harry tutted, looking around.
"I said to leave me!" Link said. He immediately recognised his mistake.
Harry followed the sound of his voice and pulled the hay off Link.
The skeleton pulled the neck of his tunic over his head as Harry looked at him.
"What are you doing?" Harry chuckled slightly, "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you sat like that in the hay?"
"... Because... Because that's just what I do... I-uh-I sit in the hay... It-uh-it helps me to... Relax?"
"Oh, come on!" Harry grabbed the tunic and tried to pull it down, but Link remained vigilant, pulling it back up, "Look, just-let-go-of-the-AH!" Harry fell over and pulled Link with him. They then got into a scuffle, Harry trying to pull the neck down and Link desperately fighting to keep it up.
"HARRY! JUST LET IT GO!" Link yelled.
"NO! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THE DARK ABOUT SOMETHING!"
"YOU IDIOT, YOU'RE GONNA RIP THE TUNIC!"
"THEN LET GO!"
"NO!"
"AGH! RELASHIO!"
To Link's dismay, he felt his hands slip off the fabric and they stopped, Harry staring at the hollow skull in horror. He yelled in shock and jumped off Link, shrinking against the wall behind him as the skeleton got to his feet.
"Happy?" Link spat, "I'm a Stalfos!" He turned around and kicked a pile of hay in frustration, "Just as Malon said, I really am a monster!" He looked up at the patch in the roof which was missing, "And oh! What a surprise! It's a full moon! Now I wonder what's gonna happen here!"
"B-but... You're... You're a skeleton!" Harry stuttered, "How long-"
"Four years, Harry, four years. This is my first transformation which I remember, because I travelled forwards in time! I'm meant to be your age, living the next four years of my life in peace, but NO, NO, NOOO, I had to be the idiot I was born to be and gladly give up my humanity because of my own stupidity!" He ranted bitterly, "The goddesses had another twist for my fate lined up, because one or two stories aren't enough for them! Being the Hero of Time and all, surely I should be able to take it?
"I'M MEANT TO BE THIRTEEN FLIPPING YEARS OLD! I'M NOT MEANT TO BE KILLING MONSTERS, OR SAVING PRINCESSES, OR SCALING DUNGEONS, I'M MEANT TO BE AT SCHOOL, HAVING FUN, NOT BEING TURNED INTO A BLOODY MONSTER EVERY FULL MOON!" He screamed in frustration, turning and punching a wooden beam and causing the whole stable to shake.
"I just wanted... A normal life... I just wanted to be the little Kokiri kid. All I wanted was a fairy. That's all I wanted. Was it too much to ask?" He said in a croaky, wavering voice. He looked back up at Harry, who was still stood in the exact same place.
"I am sorry." He straightened back up, "I... I lost myself there... This form... This form is meant for a merciless monster... I guess it's trying to make me fit it. Sorry."
Harry shook his head, "I know how you feel." He dropped down to sit in the hay, a hand in his sooty hair.
A faint voice drifted across the barn as a blue light floated into view.
"If.. If.. If it's any consolation..." Naia stuttered, "You have a fairy... now." She knew about stalfos. They had entered her past before, however she trusted Link indefinitely. He would not let this form change him. He would never ruthlessly kill. She managed a tragically weak smile.
Link remained silent. He didn't even show his acknowledgement towards the fairy, just looked at his own feet.
There was a long silence.
"Navi..." Link finally whispered, "Navi was my fairy before I met you, Naia... She... She went away... And never came back... I went into that forest to find her..."
"Well now I fell totally inadequate." Naia bantered. She looked upon him with pity and said in a softer tone, "We will find her. And the wand. You are strong. Stronger than you think."
"Hm." Link sat down grumpily in a lump of hay, "You two go back in. I'll sleep in here tonight. I... I don't want to scare the others."
"You sure?" Harry said as he got so his feet.
"I'll be fine. Go on."
Naia looked at the poor boy. "If you need anything..." she trailed off. She tried to say something else but only squeaked.
Link leant back in the hay as the door snapped shut.
The next day, Link walked out into a sunny morning, blinking his blue eyes and a lot more relaxed, happy about being back in his Hylian body again.
He walked into the main house and spotted his group laid out on the sofas and floor, still fast asleep. He sighed and clapped his hands together,
"WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!" He said loudly.
The others woke up begrudgingly, groaning and yawning.
"Come ooon!" Link bounced on the balls of his feet, "We need to get going to Gerudo desert!"
"Ugh..." Ron moaned, sitting up, "Why so early?"
"Because if you want to get home, you're going to have to get your arses in gear!"
"What about Zelda?" Harry asked and Link paused.
He finally said in an unusually jolly tone, "You shouldn't worry. One quest at a time, right? I'll start on it as soon as I know you're back at this Pigfarts place you're on about."
"It's Hogwarts!"
"Yeah, yeah, same thing." Link waved his hand in disregarde, "Come on! Get dressed and let's get going!"
"Alright, just brush your teeth will you?"
Link hesitated, going red, then walked though the the bathroom.
Hermione had been awake a while, reading. It was only that, however, that she noticed Naia in her dressing table. Hermione decided, not without pain, to sacrifice the story for her friend.
Naia could hear Hermione coming before she even spoke. Humans were so loud. the glass she was sitting in was probably amplifying it too. She hoped Hermione couldn't hear the sound of her tears.
Hermione looked into the tiny face of the fairy. it was slightly distorted through the vase.
"Naia..." Hermione started, "why are you in a vase?"
Naia turned, her red eyes and face betraying her mood,
"Because I'm too bloody tiny and insignificant to sleep under a duvet like you bloody humans! You know I can't lift it!" She fluttered up and poked her head out of the vase, "and if your are finished asking bloody obvious questions, you can go!"
With a snap of her fingers, the vase was no longer transparent, but an opaque grey. Except however opaque it was, crying could still be heard through it.
Link, after cleaning his teeth, walked back out to see everybody ready, "Good." He smiled, "Wait... Where's Naia?"
Harry shrugged and Ron did the same.
Hermione heard Link talking outside her door.
"Naia.." she said calmly, "we need to go... whats wrong?"
An echoy voice erupted from the vase, "F*** off!"
Hermione sighed and tried to put her hand down the vase,
"Come on, we are going to leave!" She wiggled her finger in the base of the vase, but ripped it out in pain.
"OW! Naia! you bit me!" She hissed, so the boys wouldn't hear.
"Don't you get it?" Came a tearful voice, " I DON'T WANT TO F***ING COME WITH YOU!"
"What's that shouting?" Ron looked at the door.
Link shrugged and led the way to it, knocking and opening the door, not looking, "You decent, guys?"
All that could be heard from outside the room was as follows.
"Yeah!"
"NO!"
"what..? Naia you ...OW!"
"I'M COMPLETELY NAKED"
"mMMUMMGGNNmmmgg!"
"F*** OFF ALL OF YOU !"
Inside the room, it was utter turmoil. After the shout of 'OW!' Naia had gagged Hermione, hence the 'mMMUMMGGNNmmmgg', (or she was trying to repeat the fourth line of the Yiitish national anthem in gyroscopicalnorglish. Highly unlikely.)
Hermione finally managed to get off the mouth gag and called out, "just... give us a minute!" Sincerely hoping they would actually come in.
"What's going on in here?" Harry looked around Link, a confused look on his face.
Link rubbed his face with a hand, sighing, and walked in.
"Naia." He said softly, "Naia, get off her."
"GO AWAY!" Naia shouted. She sounded like a six year old, and folded her arms and pouted like one too.
Hermione stood up and retreated to the doorway.
"She is..scary.." She looked at Ron with genuine fear.
"Shall we...?" She nodded towards the hall, she wanted to exit quickly.
"Good idea." Ron nodded. Harry agreed as well.
"Naia, Naia calm down." Link said calmly, trying to catch her.
"NO!" She shouted, "NOT UNTIL YOU STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD!". Naia's face was now a deep violet.
"I'm not sure she is thinking this through.." Hermione whispered, as she entered the hall.
"Child?" He laughed slightly, stopping and raising an eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?"
Naia balled her fists and yelled about how he was trying to catch her, but Hermione walked back in. She rolled her eyes and said,
"You are both acting like CHILDREN!"
"What?" Link said in a high voice, "I am NOT the one who is acting like a child! SHE'S the one who won't tell me what's wrong!" He pointed at the floating blue light.
"Navi was my fairy before I met you, NAVI!" Naia mimicked Link's voice patronisingly.
"Oh look! Naia is trying to make me feel better! LETS CRUSH HER TINY HEART BECAUSE I DON'T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE'S FEELINGS! I BET FAIRIES ARE SO INSIGNIFICANT THEY DON'T EVEN CARE!"
"What?!" Link flinched, "That's just stupid! I only said that to explain why I went into the bloody forest in the first place!"
"I WAS TRYING TO COMFORT YOU!" She flew around in rage.
"I tried. You were all wallowing in depression, and I was there for you. You basically said that you DIDN'T CARE!"
Hermione shuffled away awkwardly.
"I did! I was very grateful for it!" Link fumed.
"Really?!" Naia completely rejected the thought. "Grateful?"
"Link... if it makes you feel happy and accepted and relatively normal, I'll be your fairy!" Naia danced around before dropping down to Link's nose and saying, "Nah. I value this other fairy much higher than your feelings so I basically don't need you!
"Well, Link." She held out a tiny hand and said, "I basically don't need you either!"
Link opened his mouth to try and back his point but when she said that last sentence, his forgiving state quickly morphed. He frowned, then said in a slightly hurt voice, "Fine! I've got friends who can back me up when I need them! I don't need an over-reactant fairy!"
"DO YOU JUST NOT GET IT?" She shouted, but then relented. She flew out of the window in a fiery rage.
She didn't need him. She shouldn't have bothered to save his life. Did he even deserve it?
Link stormed out of the house, absolutely fuming, "We're going." He said abruptly to the others and shouted into the paddock, scaring some of the horses with the harshness of his voice, "Thanks for your hospitality, Malon!" And set off a a quick, stern pace.
"Where's Naia?" Harry asked, looking around for the blue light.
"She's not coming."
"Why?" Ron inquired.
"Because I was a ****head last night to her, apparently."
Link's tone sounded dangerous and if Harry was honest, it made him a little wary of what he said next,
"What did you say to her?"
"You should know. You were there all the time I was with her."
"Was it the thing about the other fairy?"
"Apparently, yes."
Harry exchanged a look with Ron and decided to remain silent.
Hermione was very worried by Naia disappearing. She kept. Looking over her shoulder in a fading hope of seeing her.