"Hey, listen!" Navi said, flying out from Link's hat as soon as she was hit with the scent of hay and heard cows mooing. "Link, we're supposed to be heading to Death Mountain!" She reminded the young Kokiri boy. She knew the boy was only ten years old, but she figured that his attention span would last for a while considering the fate of the world depended on him.
They had just left Hyrule Castle and had been informed that a man named Ganondorf was trying to take over all of Hyrule. The young Princess Zelda had tasked Navi's traveling partner with the task of gathering the two remaining spiritual stones before the man could take them for himself. They currently had the Kokiri Emerald, a shiny green stone with a bottom wrapped in gold. They were the keys to unlocking something that would help them stop the evil man from taking over everything. So they needed to get to the Gorons, a race of living rock creatures that lived in Death Mountain, and get the Goron Ruby. Navi didn't know everything, nor did the little white fairy claim to, but she did know that a farm with horses and cows was not where the rock-eating people lived.
"I know." Link said, a smile on his face as he walked as fast as he could, his sword and shield bouncing on his back making a tink tink tink tink sound, heading into the ranch. The wooden arc that he passed had "Lon Lon Ranch" painted on it. "And if we can get a horse then we'll be able to get there in no time!" The boy said, smiling up at the fair, proud of his plan. On a mission this important it would be helpful to have a horse to take them from point A to point B. And since they were doing this for the Princess of Hyrule they would probably just give them a horse to borrow.
"That actually isn't a bad idea," Navi said as she flew beside him as they entered the ranch. There were only three buildings in the entire place a large white building that Link heard snoring come from, and wooden building that he guessed was the born as he heard a lot of mooing coming from it, and then a stone windmill all the way on the other side of the property, which had to be almost a mile away. But in the middle was a fenced-off area, the main fence open letting horses run in and out as they pleased, with a dirt race track around it. Then surrounding that was lush light green grass. "They seem to have plenty of horses to spare." She said as they ran past the first two buildings.
There had to be a dozen horses running around, grazing on grass, or drinking from the trough in the back of the fenced area. They all had tense strong legs, healthy shining flanks, and manes neatly brushed. It was clear that the animals were well taken care of at the ranch. The problem was, that all the horses were almost six sizes the little boy's size.
"It's gonna be difficult to get on any of these." Link muttered to himself as he paused his dash, watching a yellow horse with a black mane rush past him as if it was late for an important meeting. It wouldn't be much use to get a horse if he couldn't get on it since he wouldn't be able to ride it. "Ok so maybe there was just one hiccup in this plan." He said with a sheepish giggle his cheeks tinting red as he looked up at Navi. He hadn't considered the fact there might not be a horse big enough, or small enough, for him to take. "But there has to be at least one horse here that I can ride." He assured his fairy companion, who was starting to turn about as red as his cheeks. Though for her it was more in an annoyance and anger than embarrassment.
"Come on Link, we don't have time for this." She badgered the boy, trying to get him to get on track with the mission at hand. "Once we have all the spiritual stones then we can come back and get a horse." She assured him.
"Uh huh, yep." The Kokiri said as he walked forward, dodging more horses, clearly not listening to his fairy friend, looking for a horse that he could feasibly climb on and ride. They had horses of every color, black, yellow, and even a couple of green ones, with manes of different colors. But the ranch didn't seem to be in the miniature horse business. Which was fair, Link was probably the first person in need of a teeny horse to travel with and he was almost ready to give up the hunt before he got crushed. Horse or no horse he wouldn't be saving anyone or anything if he got crushed then and there by one of the giants running around him. So he sighed and got ready to admit defeat and start making the long hike through Hyrule field to his next destination.
"Hey, it's the boy with the fairy!" A high-pitched voice said, making the boy freeze figuring the person was talking about him. So unless since he left the forest the other Kokiri children started to venture out, which he found doubtful. Considering it was said that the children of the forest wouldn't be able to survive outside of Kokiri Forest and he was the first to do so. And suddenly jumping out from a brown horse that was running by him a girl with long amber-orange hair and sapphire blue eyes was in front of him.
"Malon?" He asked, surprised to see the girl there. He had met the girl right outside of Hyrule's Castle Town when she pointed out where he had to go to get to the castle. Her dad was delivering some milk to the castle and she had been waiting for him to get back. So maybe her being there wasn't all that surprising.
"Good, you remember me!" The girl said, her hands behind her back as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her brown boots. "I'm glad you came a visited the ranch." She said to him, a beaming smile on her face.
"Yeah, be hard to forget the girl whose father fell asleep outside the castle." Link chuckled at the memory of Malon's dad rushing off after he had been woken up. "Glad you guys got back safely."
"Thanks for waking him up." She sighed as she grabbed the bronze brooch that looked like some sort of lizard that hung around her neck by an orange scarf, nervously fiddling with it. "He has a problem just falling asleep anywhere." She explained with a sigh before shaking her head. "Anyways, what brings you here? You wanna try some of our famous Lon Lon Ranch milk?"
"No… but that does sound good!" He said, "But I'm looking for a horse. I gotta get to Death Mountain and having a horse to ride there would make it easier. But you guys only have these really big horses." Link sighed as he watched a few more horses go by.
"Oh, yeah well there supposed to be work horses. Not really horses for riding around." She informed him as she put her finger to her chin and thought. "But there is one horse here that you could ride." She informed him as she turned and went towards the fenced-off area, skipping the entire way and making her white and blue dress sway, Link following behind her. "Ok, here we go!" The girl declared as they pushed past some more of the larger adult horses and revealed a pony grazing on some grass that was growing in the enclosure. The pony had a bright orange flank with a snow-white flank, tail, and hair right above their hooves. The tips of the pony's ears were black. "This is Epona!" She said, rushing over and petting the horse's mane, making the horse stand up before moving her head so her snout was in the girl's hand. "She's our youngest horse here but she runs like the wind!" The girl said as Link approached the pony.
"Wow, she's so pretty!" Link said, the sun hitting the pony's flank practically had her glowing in the middle of the enclosure. He slowly reached his hand out to give the horse a pat, but when his hand was almost to the horse's head, the creature let out a loud scoff and walked away. "Uh hey!" Link whined, his hand reaching out for the pony as she trotted away, leaving him to blush as Malon let out a high-pitched giggle.
"She doesn't like strangers." The ranch girl informed the boy, "I've known her since she was just a baby colt that's why she likes me. But I'm gonna guess you don't have time to become friends with her like I did. A knight needs his steed!" She said.
"Yeah, we kind of have to be quick about this mission. But I'm not a knight." Link pointed out, an eyebrow raised as he heard that from the girl.
"Of course, you're a knight!" She declared, pounding a fist into her hand with an excited look in her eyes. "You got a sword n' shield, you visited the princess while on an important mission, and now I bet you're on a mission for the princess!" She said, jumping in place excitedly as she talked. Which did make sense when the girl put it like that. Link wasn't exactly sure what made up a knight, but he was way too young to be a knight. He was just doing what he was told to do.
"Right…" He said. "So anyways is there anything that I can do to help Epona warm up to me?"
"Hm…" Malon asked, rocking back and forth on her feet, pondering the question, "Well you could try playing with her." The girl suggested, "That's what I do with her every day. She loves to play chase."
"Really, that's it?" Link asked a bit shocked. He could chase a pony around for a bit, and he played tag with his friends in the forest. And they would jump from tree to tree and swing from vines, so how hard would chasing a horse be?
"Link…" Navi whined, jingling like a bell in the boy's pointy ear. "We need to go." She said to him. "In the time you get the horse to like you we could have gotten both of the spiritual stones." She said, making the boy grumble and roll his eyes.
"I'm gonna play one game with the horse, Navi. I don't think we could get both of them." He said to her before turning back to Malon. "Ok, let's do this!" He said, pulling his sword and shield off his back so he wouldn't be weighed down by them and then dashing after the orange horse.
Epona immediately let out a high-pitched cry, getting on her hind legs before she dashed forward. Literally leaving Link in a brown puff of dust as she ran forward like she was being chased by a monster. But Link didn't let that discourage him, it wouldn't be much of a game if she just let him catch her, so he pushed on. Running as fast as he could the forest boy tried to catch the filly, but Epona was just faster than Link.
Every once in a while he would start to catch up, his hand stretched out to tap to horse's white tail. But the second he was going to touch the horse's tail she sped up leaving the boy with only air to grab. He tried lunging at the creature, hoping that he could just graze the horse in some way. But that just ended up with him on the ground, covered in mud, dirt, and dust.
Link had no idea how many hours passed with him just throwing himself and trying to tag the horse. It could have been a few minutes, though the fact that the sun had been in the middle of the sky and now it was setting in the west, making the sky a bright orange, he had the sneaking suspicion it had been more than a few minutes. Also, the fact that he was huffing and puffing and covered in sticky smelly sweat was another indicator he had been there for a while. He was used to running and playing for hours on end in the forest, so for him to work up a sweat like this meant he was really trying to get the horse.
"Ok… I think… I think I have to give up." Link sighed as he approached the carrot head, who had been watching the entire thing off from the side.
"You know, you could've asked for help." The girl said with a smirk on her face, as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"What?! You didn't say I could do that!" He pointed out as he crashed to the ground, sitting on his bottom.
"We'll, you never asked." She said with an eye roll as she stopped rocking back and forth. "Want a hand?" She asked, squatting down to be closer to the boy's head.
"Please!" He begged her, but at this point, it was too late to get the pony to save time. Now it was more about the principal of the matter, the horse had made him look a fool all day, and if he could at least tap the horse then at least he could say he did it.
"Ok, only because you said the magic word though." She said winking at him as her head tilted to the side. She then took a deep breath in as she held her hands at her chest. "Oo-oo-ooooo oo-oo-oooo oo-oo-oo-oo-ooo." The girl sang out as she swayed back and forth making Link raise an eyebrow. It was a nice tune, but he wasn't exactly sure how it was supposed to help him catch Epona. But before the 10-year-old could say anything he heard a snort from behind him. Leaning back he saw Epona standing there, staring at Malon as if she had put the pony in a trance.
Seeing his opportunity he slowly reached out and petted the horse's leg, since it was the closest to him. A smirk grew across his face as he looked at Malon again, resting his chin in his spare hand he listened to Malon's singing as he continued to bet the horse. Not that the song lasted that long, maybe a minute.
"My mom taught me this song, Epona lovers it." She said as she sat down criss-cross-applesauce style holding onto he knees. Epona trotted over to the girl, shoving her snout into the girl's head, nibbling Malon's hair as if to try and make a music box start to play again. But the girl giggled as her head dropped down and petted the horse.
"Malon, that might be what I needed to get Epona to like me!" Link said, his eyes lightening up as he watched the horse run away since the music was over. "She likes you because you take care of her and sing to her. But I might need the song to get her to start to trust me!" He declared as he reached behind him into his travel bag and pulled out a brown clay ocarina. It was a present from his best friend Saria, it had been her prized possession but parted with it so Link would never forget her or the forest.
The forest boy frowned as he looked at his musical instrument and he tried to remember the notes that the ranch girl had sung. Bringing the ocarina to his lips he blew into the instrument, the smell of dirt, leaves, and clay filling the air as he started to play. His long pointed ears moved up and down the notes got higher and lower and soon her had found the melody as a 'Doo-doo-dooo do-do-dooo' filled the air much like Malons sing.
Once the boy was done he looked around and a smile grew across his face as Epona stood over him, shaking her head when they made eye contact. The boy reached his hand up once more and the horse nuzzled her snout into it. Though she quickly moved her nose and slowly trotted off once again.
"There we go!" Link cheered happily as he hopped up to his feet.
"Good job!" Malon said, matching his excitement as she also got to her feet, "Well a deal a deal… she seems to like you so you can borrow her." She informed the boy, "Just don't do anything to put her in harm's way, okay? I know being a knight is dangerous work and all." She said.
"Ok no putting her in danger, ok!" The boy agreed, "Though really, I'm not a knight Malon." He tried to assure her.
"Ok, sure." She said, clearly not believing him. "You just got a sword n' shield, had to see the princess, on a mission from the princess, and ya got a horse. You're totally not a knight." She said with a giggle, rocking back and forth again. "But do you wanna have dinner and stay the night? It's gettin' pretty late." She pointed out, and Link's stomach was quick to answer for him as it growled loudly at the mention of food.
"I think we have time for that." Navi said coming out of Link's hat, "At this point, it'd be better to rest up for our journey to see the Gorons." The white fairy explained.
"Great, I'll tell Dad you're staying." She chirped, "And help him get a bath ready for you… you smell really bad like you've been running all day." She said with a giggle as she skipped away towards the house.
"H-hey I don't smell that bad!" He called out, his cheeks bright red, as he looked up at Navi, "Do I?"
"Well… there's a reason I'm out here and not in your hat." She said with a giggle, sounding like a little bell ringing, and dashing off after Malon.