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Disclaimer:
I do not own Ocarina of Time nor any part of the Zelda franchise.
All rights go to their respective owners.
This story is a work of fiction and corresponds to the story line, but does not follow it exactly.
This chapter is rated: K
Now, on with the show!
Chapter Two: Lon Lon Girl
Stepping out into Hyrule Field after living his entire life within the seclusion of the Kokiri Forest was an overwhelming experience for Link. His heart was already akin to a lump of lead from the events that had just passed, and the reality that he could not return home no matter the reason hurt like a deep, infected wound in his chest. The openness and vulnerability that it brought made Link's forceful stride keep a steady pace. He often had to seek the refuge of a passing tree or large boulder when his breath became shallow or tears stung his eyes. No, this new life was anything but easy on the boy. Navi wasn't exactly a sympathetic character, either, and Link was beginning to regret ever pining for a fairy. Her near constant nagging in his ear was already grinding on his nerves, and he had scarcely known the fairy for a day! The fact Link was a bit stoic and reserved by nature seemed to compel the fairy to speak more to fill the silence that he would've been entirely comfortable with. Finally, after he'd had enough of her, Link yanked off his cap and used it as a net to catch her before plopping it back on his head. Navi buzzed angrily for a few minutes, but settled down afterwards.
Link was grateful for only the noise of tall grass rustling from his footsteps and the drone of distant Peahats filling his ears. The sun crawled towards the western end of the sky and Link knew evening was drawing near. The powder blue sky above now looked as if a master artist had painted brushstrokes of orange, pink, and yellow across it and the temperature dropped steadily. Link got a small chill that made gooseflesh creep up his exposed arms and legs; night would no doubt be chilling out here without a warm bed. In the distance Link saw a wall of stone surrounding the perimeter of...something. He pondered off-handedly if it happened to be the castle Navi had droned on about prior. Link's muscles were sore from not only his exhausting fight with the wicked Gohma earlier that day, but also the travel in a terrifying new place. He felt his body might simply collapse at any moment. With the last of his strength, Link trudged towards the walls.
As it turned out the masonry wasn't as fine as he would've expected of a castle. The stones weren't polished or smooth, and didn't blend well together for that matter. It looked sturdy, but didn't radiate the order and finesse of something so grand to guard a castle. Link entered through the mouth of the stone walls, and bit into his bottom lip as he observed the less than impressive wooden doors that were swung wide open. They were a simple grainy, but strong oak. Link decided immediately that this was not a castle when he followed the dirt trodden path and found two large wooden buildings sitting parallel from each other and a grassy field and fenced in corral beyond them. The building on the right was painted a faded red and the one on the left a pale blue, as if to distinguish the two. Not that it was any trouble for Link, since the smell emanating from the red building was rancid and made his nose curl. Link cautiously took a few steps past the buildings (which he heard the whinnies of horses and the calls of cattle from the inside of the right building) and observed the green grassy pasture before him. A wooden corral as set up in the center with a dirt path surrounding it.
A faded red silo was in the far left corner of the pasture and matched (what Link assumed) was the barn. A pen was off to his left, and although he saw no actual animals inside it there was a volley of white feathers left behind in it. What a strange place. Link thought to himself. Surely it isn't abandoned, but where are the caretakers? He got his answer all too suddenly when a small, pale hand clasped his shoulder. Link gasped aloud and swung around to face whatever had grabbed him, his sword drawn from its sheath and his eyes narrowed fiercely.
What had grabbed him turned out to not be someone threatening, but rather a girl his age with pale skin, long burnt orange hair, and freckles that spread across her nose. She gasped as well and took a few unsteady steps back, her hands immediately winding around the sleeves of the yellow sweater tied loosely around her shoulders. Her plain off-white dress had flecks of mud and debris speckled along the bottom, suggesting she spent her day hard at work, and her boots were caked with dried mud as well. She blinked her pale blue eyes at him, and he did the same at her. Link felt a sickening feeling twist his gut, and he sheathed the sword. Had he frightened her? He only meant to defend himself. He took quick steps backwards, and lost his balance when he stepped into a divot in the ground, then he fell on his rear with a loud thump. If the girl was threatened before, she certainly wasn't now as she laughed into her hands at Link's expense. Link's face flared up and heat crawled up to the tips of his ears. He jumped up nervously and dashed towards the exit with strength he wasn't aware was left in him. "Wait!" He heard the girl call after him, her voice had a bit of a strange twang to it, but he did not dare pause in his retreat.
The sun had dipped behind the intimidating peak of Death Mountain and Link heard the lonesome cry of a wolfos pierce the stillness. The land might've been dark, but Link hardly cared. After the day he'd been through the last thing he wanted was to make a fool out of himself in front of a stranger. He parked his scrawny butt beneath a tree and drew his scraped knees towards his chest, then buried his grimy face into them. It was all too much. Link started to sob so hard his chest was tight and his shoulders heaved with every inhale. Navi flew out from under his hat and hovered nearby to shine a little light for him and provide some comfort in the fact he wasn't completely alone. Link glanced up at the fairy and wiped away the salty tears soaking his cheeks with the heel of his hand. "Hey, no need to cry. Everything will be okay. You'll see." Navi comforted him, although her words meant next to nothing to him.
Link perked his head up entirely when he heard a low rumble coming from the ground. a skeleton hand burst from the ground and scattered clods of dirt in every direction. Link stared dumbly, caught in a silent scream as an awful creature hauled itself from the ground. It was a skeleton with bones browned and cracked with age, a large reptilian skull, and haunting red eyes. It did not give off a proper cry, but rather a sharp noise of bone scraped on bone. Link scrambled to his feet, quickly hauling himself away from the monster and towards that ranch. At least there was a building he could hide in there. The skeleton wasn't exactly swift, but companions constantly burst from the earth to join it, so Link strained his sore muscles to get away. He saw the wooden gates of the ranch slowly closing and made a leap to get inside, and barely scraped by.
A very confused man in overalls blinked at the boy, then locked the gates. Link panted and his lungs felt fit to burst. "Who the hell are you, boy?" The man leaned over him and frowned disapprovingly. "I have half a mind to feed you to those damned Stalchildren!" Said Stalchildren clawed at the heavy doors and hissed and chittered in anger that their prize had slipped away by the skin of his teeth. "Ingo, don't be so mean!" A familiar voice scolded. Link peered open his eyes slightly and caught sight of the girl from earlier leaning over him now. She winked at him, and he knit his brows in confusion. "Malon, you ought to be in bed." Ingo harrumphed and crossed his arms. "What Father doesn't know won't kill him." She crossed her arms right back. "I'll take care of our guest." "Suit yourself, kid." Ingo snorted and meandered towards the blue building. Malon uncrossed her arms and bent down to lean over Link again, who was lying flat on his back in exhaustion. "Hi, my name is Malon. I didn't mean to frighten you earlier."
It wasn't fright that drove him away, but rather crude embarrassment. She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, then smiled compassionately at the crumpled boy on the ground. "Why don't we find you a place to rest?"
Link hardly remembered what happened after Malon said that to him. He woke up late in the afternoon, though, to the unpleasant smell of cattle. Link rubbed his eyes groggily; his skin itched all over from the pile of loose hay he'd been resting in. The boy sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't slept so much as he'd completely gave out from exhaustion. He silently vowed to never push his body so hard again, but he didn't have much of a choice yesterday. Yesterday.
It still all felt surreal to him. His thoughts were briefly interrupted when the doors of the barn were swung open and unwarranted sunlight flooded the space. Link groaned unhappily and pulled his hat down over his eyes.
Malon noticed he was awake and set down the empty tin buckets in her hands. She treaded towards him and nudged Link with the toe of her boot. "Hey, boy, get up." She urged with a hint of amusement in her tone. "You've been asleep for an entire week." Link yanked the hat off his head and stared at her with bulging eyes. What was she talking about?!
Malon laughed into her hands again, then smiled innocently.
"Just kidding. Who are you, anyways?" Link frowned slightly at her, and crawled backwards when she curiously leaned in close to his face. He did not particularly like being crowded or cornered. Under the scrutiny of Malon's gaze he was having a hard time breathing. She wrinkled her nose a little at him, and Link felt a little offended. He might've been a tad dirty, but he was nothing disgusting!
"Your clothes, they're so different. Wait, are you from the forest, fairy boy?" She asked. Link glanced down at his tunic. He didn't think what he was wearing was all that strange, but he didn't raise a fuss.
Instead he meekly nodded. Malon's eyes seemed to brighten considerably and she assaulted him with a slew of rapid-fire questions. "Why did you leave the forest? Who exactly are you? Where did you get that sword and wooden shield? You reek, fairy boy, what happened to you?" Link felt dizzy from her endless supply of questions and the fact she kept poking and prodding at him. "Hey, earth to fairy boy, do you have a name?"
"Link." He said softly. The girl seemed surprised he said anything at all, but grinned at him and reached over to pluck a stray piece of hay from his hair. "I'm Malon. My father runs this ranch and we export Lon Lon Milk to all over Hyrule." She explained to him. "You're cute, fairy boy, I like you."
Link spent his day more or less being dragged around by Malon and listening to whatever she jabbered on about. Honestly, she was worse than Navi with her constant chatter, but at least she wasn't complaining. He helped her with her chores, and when evening started to draw near again he felt exhausted once more. His muscles cried with soreness everytime he moved, and it had put a damper on his mood all day. Now he finally had an opportunity to relax, and by Din he was going to take full advantage of it. He and Malon were in the coral watching the horses graze. The girl was humming a sweet tune beneath her breath and constantly tucking her hair behind her ears. Link never caught on to the fact se kept stealing glances over to him, or that her breathing was light and shallow; he was in a light sleep when Malon worked up enough nerve to break their comfortable silence-something Link had reveled in. "Hey, fairy boy, want to see something?" She asked him and Link blinked his eyes open sleepily. Malon took that as a yes and started to sing the tune she was humming with more gusto. A caramel coloured foal trotted over with a starch white mane and tail. It snorted before nuzzling Malon's outstretched hand. "This is Epona. Isn't she sweet?"
Link sat up and awed quietly at the beautiful animal. He reached out his own hand to the finicky foal and Epona took off like a rocket the opposite direction from them. Malon covered her mouth to suppress her giggles while Link knit his thick brows together in confusion. "Epona doesn't seem to like you, fairy boy."
Link frowned at that, especially after Malon sang again and the foal trotted right up to her. He reached out again and was met with the same result. It dawned on Link that perhaps it was the song Malon chanted that soothed the beast into docility. He unhooked the ocarina Saria gave to him as a parting gift from his belt and held it against his lips. "Oh? What a cute ocarina, you want to learn my song?" Malon asked him curiously. "My mother used to sing it to me as a lullaby. I'll show it to you."
They practiced together until Link could replicate the tune on his instrument flawlessly. It was a wonderful sight, Malon thought, to watch his slim fingers nimbly switch holes and produce soft, almost haunting tunes. Link closed his eyes when he played, his eyebrows were pulled taut in concentration, and he swayed gently from side to side like a snake charmer. It made her blush to watch him, but she kept her voice steady so he wouldn't be alarmed. Epona came over to them both after listening to the song, and even allowed Link to stroke her muzzle. "I guess she likes you, fairy boy." Malon tried to hide the pride in her voice. Link grinned as Epona nibbled on the blonde wisps of hair that stuck out from under his hat.
Link slept out in the barn again, but he didn't mind as much this time. After Talon rounded up the children from the coral he treated them to dinner (vegetarian for Link) and Malon and him stayed up drawing pictures on spare scraps of paper while Talon heated up water for the wash basin. Link handed Malon a rather crude drawing of himself and her in the coral, and he smiled when the girl hugged it close and thanked him. He laid now with his arms tucked behind his head as a makeshift pillow in the hay pile. The cattle lowed in a dull roar that made the boy drift off towards sleep. Navi stayed near him and reminded Link that tomorrow he ought to head towards Hyrule Castle, and Link thought she was right. Another day here would be overstaying his welcome. His final thought was leaving when the sun first showed its face before he let his deeper conscious take over.
He was abruptly woken when a cow suddenly cried out. Link jumped up on reflex, but only found grumpy Ingo milking the poor cow. Link shuddered and hurried outside of the barn without bothering to dust himself off. Malon was scattering feed to the cuckoos; Talon was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn't all that surprising. Link had never met anyone lazier than him until he laid eyes on Talon passed out in the middle of his shop floor with cuckoos surrounding him. Malon noticed Link was up and waved her hand eagerly in greeting.
"Good morning, fairy boy!" Link waited as she treaded lightly through white birds towards him. Link gave her a half-smile in return to her greeting. Malon seemed to read his mind when she caught his lonesome gaze at the exit.
"You're leaving?" She asked softly, not really needing an answer to know it was true. Link was a traveler, she expected this to happen. Regardless she pursed her lips into a small pout at the thought of losing the one person who listened to her so patiently. "Well, I can't stop you, fairy boy, I can only wish you luck. Go see my father before you leave, he has a gift for you."
Link nodded and turned towards the faded blue building.
Inside he found Talon asleep (no surprise there) with a fat cuckoo perched atop his balding head. Link shook the man awake and he jolted, sending the animal away squawking. "What in tarnation?!" Talon rubbed his head then realized it was only Link before him. The kind man emitted a jolly, tummy-rumbling laugh and stood up. His belly was prominent in his blue overalls. "You must be heading out, Link, I have a little something-something for you before you go."
He reached underneath the desk and pulled out a glass of milk then handed it to the boy. "Don't worry about that milk going sour; the bottle has been treated to act as an insulator and it's sealed on tight. It should keep for several days. It's a gift for helping me round up my cuckoos and cleaning out the silo."
Link almost smiled at the memory of yesterday; Talon was so helpless. "Also, I was wondering if you wanted to marry my daughter Malon?"
Link tilted his head to the side at the suggestion, having not the foggiest idea of what "marriage" was. He hesitantly shook his head no and Talon roared in laughter, slapping his knee as well. "I was just pulling your leg, son!" Talon wiped at his eyes. "Go on now. You've got a long day ahead of you."
Link nodded his head in thanks for the milk then hurried out the door and towards the wooden gates. He paused and to look around for Malon, but saw her nowhere. He shrugged it off then dashed out the gates, loving the feel of the morning sunshine on his face.
Malon watched from the rooftop of the barn, sighing softly as Link became nothing but a dot in the distance. She unfolded the slip of paper in her dress pocket and ran her fingers over the crude drawing, then held it against her chest. She managed a half-hearted wave before she leaned back on her hands and watched the puffy clouds roll by. "Good bye, fairy boy. Come back soon."
A/N: So we sidetracked in our quest a tad earlier than in the game. Since Malon will be a love interest for Link later on I wanted to go ahead and introduce her. Next we'll head towards Hyrule Castle and meet some new faces!
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