The storm began in the night, a massive crack of thunder rattling the house to the core. Lightning streaked fiercely across the sky and the clouds broiled overhead, angry and dark. Malon stood at her window, staring up into the sky as the rain pelted down, then she looked to the stable. There was a small glow, presumably from Ingo's lantern, shining through the slats. She could hear the blustering of the horses, the shudder of their hooves against the walls as they paced and kicked in worry. She bit her lip, looked again to the sky, then pulled her robe on over her nightgown.
The storm was so fierce that the brief steps it took to get from the house to the stable had soaked her hair and shoulders. She pressed against the door and stepped into the stable, closing it quickly behind her against the pressure of the wind.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Ingo grumbled from the corner. He was sitting cross-legged on his pallet working at a fat piece of branch with his pocketknife. She always knew that the man liked carving. She also knew that he wasn't very good.
"The storm makes me restless." She said, looking around at the animals in the stable, "As it does them. Some of us deserve sleep on this ranch, you may go to the house if you wish."
"The house?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Do not mistake my kindness." She said, flashing an angry eye at him, "I want the stable tonight. You may take your rest in the house, or outside." She gestured to the ceiling as another roll of thunder echoed overhead.
"You are too gracious." He spat, then stood, cracking his back.
"I will fetch you when I am ready in the morning." She said, stepping back and allowing him to pass her. He stopped at the door, sweeping her with his eyes.
"You did grow up so beautifully. I curse myself for a fool."
"You are a fool." She said simply, then crossed her arms and did not move until the door had shut behind him. When she was assured that he had disappeared into the house, she turned around and sighed. The horses were nervous, about as nervous as she was in this storm, and after she shed her robe and wrung her hair out on the dirt, she walked toward the animals.
She started with the cow in the first stall, an animal that had a worrisome nature anyway. Her eyes were wide, her ears flicking with each beat of thunder, each drop that slipped through the roof and dripped down on her back. Malon stroked the bovine's nose, then reached her hands around to massage small circles into her cheeks, behind her ears, and down her neck. The animal's breathing softened and she blinked calmly, then Malon began her old Hylian chant.
It was an old rhyme and one whose meaning she had forgotten, but her mouth knew how to curve around the words, how to make the soft sounds and lilting tune of the language come out like the breath of a soft dream. She strove to make the words from her mouth as soothing as they had been the first time she had heard it, the first time he told it to her.
"Ancient Hylian?" the boy looked amused, his face full of mirth and his eyes flashing at her, "you mean you can't understand it?"
"No." Little Malon had scoffed, hands on her hips in a demonstration of exasperation, "and I don't like you saying it to my horses. I want to know what it is!"
"It's nice words." The boy had said, stroking the face of the pony. She was a spirited one, this horse, and the boy had calmed her with words the same way Malon had done with music. Though, his words had been like music.
"I'll teach you to sing to her if you teach me how to speak like that." Malon said. The boy looked at the pony, pressing her head to Link in a demand for petting, then to the girl with her fiery red hair and blustering temper.
"That's fair!" He smiled broadly.
That was the first day he visited her. He had helped her in Castle Town, that was true, but he was a stranger, and a child no less. A child without accompaniment, but confident in his solitude. He knew what he was, he knew what he was doing, and he had passed Talon- worrying at the boy's lack of chaperone- and Ingo, complaining even then about Talon's lack of stamina for hard work- and gone straight for the girl who was plying her voice in the field to an audience of equines.
Her chant finished, she moved on to the second cow, an animal who had already begun to calm at the sound of the rhyme wafting through the barn like a sweet scent. Though the storm did not let up and the thunder still cracked overhead with the anger of the goddesses, inside the stable the world seemed warm, and happy, and dry.
~o~
The rattle of the door shook Malon out of sleep, starting her heart with an uncomfortable jolt. She stood in place, preparing to grab at anything to ward off an attacker. What kind of looter came in the middle of a storm like this anyway?
There was a small wavering light that flashed through the open stall door, and the sound of a worried whinny, then a darkened figure stepped inside. Malon's heart did not calm, but her nerves did.
"Fairy Boy!"
"Malon?" He looked up at her in surprise, his face illuminated by the light of his fairy, then by the flash of angry lightning overhead. Outside the stable, Epona reared and Link did his best to pull the horse back down. Malon ran over and grasped one side of the reins, helping Link guide the horse into the safety of the stable.
He was absolutely soaked through, she noted with some displeasure, and she reached out to brush back his wet hair from his face. She pulled her hand away when she realized his hair wasn't just wet, it was frozen.
"Link?" She asked, her brows furrowing in concern. Link grinned at her sheepishly.
"It's been a long night."
"I can tell." She laughed, taking Epona from him and guiding the horse into the stall. She allowed Link to remove the saddle before she set about to caring for the animal, drying Epona off as best as she could before fetching down blankets for her. All the while, she stole glances at Link.
He had come in wearing a blue tunic. It was one she hadn't seen before and she meant to ask him about it, but when he thought she wasn't looking he had stripped the garment off and wrung it out. She remembered telling her father that Link had come back from his adventures unscathed, but she now realized that wasn't true. His built torso was littered with scars and bruises, some of them looking fresh, and when he turned around to retrieve a different tunic from the saddle bags she gasped softly at a scar that ran its way diagonally across his back.
His fairy floated around him, bouncing back and forth between his ear and the saddlebags. He frowned at the pixie then held out his hand, finger extended, and she perched on it like a bird. Malon could hear him talking to her, but his voice was low and she couldn't understand what he was saying. After a bit, he pulled the soaking hat off his head and wrung it out too, then offered it to the fairy. Malon could understand the sound of fairy laughter, if not the language, and she smiled.
"It's probably bad enough in your hat without it being soaking wet." She said over her shoulder. Link flushed and slung the hat over the saddle.
"I don't like her in there anyway." He said, shooting a good-natured glare at the fairy, "Sometimes I take my hat off and she's braided some of my hair."
"I'm sure it's a lovely effect." Malon laughed, giving Epona a final pat before closing the stall behind her, "Makes that cowlick of yours more refined."
"Cowlick indeed." He laughed to himself and pulled his green tunic out of the bag, tossing it over his head.
"Link," Malon said, her voice getting serious, "Where were you?"
"Why?"
"You always come back to me with stories." She said, trying to sound casual, "and your hair is frozen."
"It's thawing." He said, reaching up to touch the stiff strands. She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.
"I have something to show you." He said, his face lighting up with sudden joy. She uncrossed her arms and walked toward him, sitting on the edge of Ingo's straw pallet as Link dug in his bag. He produced a bottle that glowed blue and Malon gasped. At first she thought it was a trapped fairy, but then she realized that the bottle was filled with-
"Fire?"
"Blue fire." Link smiled widely, undoing the cork at the top of the bottle.
"How can it… you have fire in a bottle." Malon said, her voice filled with wonder. The man grinned widely at her, before unceremoniously turning the bottle over and literally pouring the fire on the ground.
"LINK!" Malon shrieked, pulling her feet back in horror.
"It doesn't burn." He said, gesturing to the mass that had settled in a nook on in the dirt and stilled, the blue flames licking at the air. Malon began reaching out for it.
"I still wouldn't touch it-" Link warned, reaching out and staying her hand, "You see, it freezes instead of burns."
"Freezes?" She asked incredulously. Link nodded, then turned to the hat that was sitting on the saddle. He took it up and nonchalantly tossed it toward the flame. There was a small burst as the fire licked over the hat and white ice crystals formed over it. Link took the bottle and slowly nudged the hat out of the way, catching up the blue flame and corking it again. He then picked up the hat, now frozen and stiff as a board.
"See?"
"Link… where on earth do you find such a thing?" she gasped in amazement, taking the bottle from him. The bottom of the glass was ice cold and she could feel the churning of the power through it, reverberating in her fingertips.
"There's an ice cavern in Zora's Domain." He said, leaning back, "Remember when we were kids and I told you about the giant fish?"
"Jabeejab or whatever it was?" She asked, setting the bottle down between them.
"Jabu-Jabu." Link corrected, "The god of Zoras. Apparently fate was not kind to him and he's gone, which left the Zoras susceptible to Ganondorf."
He leaned forward, pressing his face in his hands.
"Link, no one has seen a Zora in years." Malon said softly, "We all thought they died."
"You're not completely wrong." Link said, his voice sounding defeated, "All of Zora's Domain is completely frozen. King Zora was the same, but I was able to save him. He think his people have survived under the ice, but I'm not sure." He pressed his fingers to his eyes and sighed. "I have to go to the Lake, Malon. I know there's something there- something lurking."
"The Lake? Lake Hylia?"
"It's angry, whatever it is. I know that's why this storm happened." He looked up at the ceiling, "Whatever is there knows that I found what I need, it's trying to stall. It's keeping me away."
"I'm sorry, Link." She said, reaching over and running her hand over his shoulders. Link sighed, then looked back at her, smiling.
"You would love the Ice Cavern, Malon." He grinned broadly.
"Yeah?" She asked, feeling a smile play at her lips.
"It's so beautiful. The entire thing sparkles like nothing I've ever seen before. There are giant stalactites and stalagmites littered everywhere, the ice so pure and clear it looks like thorns of glass."
"It sounds a little dangerous." she said, moving closer to him. He leaned back, pressed against the stable wall, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his chest. He reached up an arm behind her and wrapped his hand around her shoulder, but his eyes jumped around as he spoke, as if trying to see what he was describing in the room.
Malon sighed softly, trying to concentrate on Link's words, but feeling her consciousness slipping. She listened to him for as long as she could, playing her part in the story by smiling or laughing or gasping appropriately, before his words began to falter and she could hear sleep tugging at him. Right before she slipped into her dreams, she had one clear, concise thought.
Please, Fairy Boy, don't disappear again. Please, just let me see you in the morning.