Legends of the Hero of Time

by Ryan-Sinclair

The Hero of Time, Link, is blessed by the Golden Goddesses with a normal existence, free for himself to rule over. He must learn the true meaning of life as he attempts to join Hylian society. Along the way, he finds a family to call his own. Protecting and loving them, as a new threat emerges, he grows to understand how he must still endure the challenges of fate.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

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[Time: Unknown]

[Date: Unknown]

[Location: Unknown]

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Darkness… Black… The total absence of light which enveloped everything in its shroud of obscurity. There was nothing left. Link had no clue how he got there or how long he'd been there. In a complete lack of sensory input, he was without the ability to do anything other than think. He found his body, or rather, where his body should be, to feel exceedingly weak. It was as if he was malnourished to the point of being faint. There was nothing he could do about it either, as he had nothing that he was capable of doing.

The last thing the hero could remember, he defeated Majora and saved Termina from the Moon crushing Clock Town. Yet again, he had saved another land from ultimate destruction. With Majora sealed away inside of its respective mask and the Four Giants free to protect their world, he was free to depart one more time on his adventure to find Navi.

He couldn't understand why the fairy had left him. She told him that she loved him and then she left. He didn't know if she meant that she loved him in a romantic manner, or if she loved him in a platonic manner. Link decided the best way of thinking about it would be to consider the latter true, as the former was too odd for his adolescent emotions to comprehend.

Every second the Hylian had Fairy spent together was time their relationship developed. After going through everything they had, they had so many moments together. They bonded as a family. He even told her all of his secrets. Due to becoming best friends with Navi, it felt like a slap in Link's face whenever she bid him a quick farewell. Her disappearing from his life without a trace hurt his feelings beyond all words, definitely more than what he let on to the others. 'I just cannot understand why.' The hero pondered. 'Why would she leave me? Was it because of me that she left? Did I do something wrong?'

Navi had witnessed everything during his time spent saving the Kingdom of Hyrule. She knew that Link was special, that he was the Hero of Time. Yet, she still abandoned him. Recently, he'd felt as if everyone other than Saria had suddenly abandoned him. All his life he'd been rejected, he even got used to the feeling. Not being a Kokiri, and yet living amongst them in their village, the hero was constantly harassed by Mido and his bully friends because of the sole fact that he was different, a Hylian. The Great Deku Tree and Saria were the only two people that he loved and trusted with every fiber of his being. He'd never do anything to hurt either of them and he always did everything that he could to help them. It was to protect them that he accepted my role as saviour of Hyrule. He'd become a hero to save them from the twisted evil in the world. However, at the time, he wasn't aware of precisely how much malice there truly was. Being stuck inside of the Forbidden Forest all his life had left him blind to the way the rest of society operates. He didn't know how bad that bad could truly get. His pranks, or a punch from Mido, was the worst that he'd ever been through.

Link and Navi had witnessed the horrors of the outside world together and we endured it in unison in order to succeed in their goals. Part of him felt like the fairy had no right to just suddenly choose to leave him as she had. He had waited all of his life for a fairy to come to him. In spite of the fact that he had previously discovered that he wasn't a Kokiri, he still selfishly felt as if he deserved one. She wasn't an object though. She was his friend. He missed her. He didn't want to lose Navi like he'd already lost everyone else. That was why he had hoped he could find her, that he could talk her into coming back with him.

Zelda was his biggest regret. He'd felt as if she'd screwed him over by reversing reality. Not a single part of him wanted to get sent back to his original timeline. After pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal, he warped forward seven years and proceeded to eliminate all of Ganondorf's soldiers before eventually taking down the wicked and demonic Gerudo man himself.

Everyone in the kingdom knew of his deeds and he was renowned as a legendary hero whom nobody's might would ever be able to ever match. He had the body of an adult, the ability to use any tool, any weapon and any shield to both protect and attack. As cocky and self-centered as it sounded, he also had all the attention that he wanted and he loved it. The maturity which grew inside of him from becoming an adult often dulled that lust for focus, but it still felt good to be a hero. He had a purpose and Navi was always there right beside him, helping him along as best as she possibly could.

Princess Zelda took that away from him by sending him back to the present. She congratulated him, yet, he wondered, at what cost. Unfortunately for Link, the moment she told him that he was going to be sent back to a time in which no one knew of his quest, he became well aware of how harsh things would be. Forceful humbleness was something he never expected to be a trait of a hero. He was forced to become a hero, and then he was forced to stop being a hero. Link's mind racked itself in a mix of frustration and anger as he felt as though everything he'd done was for nothing. In a world where every action has an equal and opposite reaction, there wasn't anyone other than Navi who remembered the things he had done. No one remembered his heroic actions, the ones that he risked life and limb to perform.

At least in Termina, where everything mirrored Hyrule, he was able to restore a portion of his reputation. Having more quests would often leave him feeling slightly happier as he had the pleasure of experiencing fulfillment again. On the other hand, he still missed his close friend and there wasn't any sign of Navi being in Clock Town or any other region in that province.

The last he could vividly recall, he was attempting to make his way back through the subterranean caves that he initially fell into while pursuing the Skull Kid. Out of nowhere, he started feeling nauseous and sick. The further he got in the cave, it got narrower and narrower. At a certain point, he remembered realizing that Epona wasn't going to fit. However, he never remembered it being so tight in the first place. In order to check it out, he went onward on his own for about a hundred feet before seeing that the rest of the cave had collapsed. The cave-in was likely from the heavy footsteps of the Four Giants, whenever they were forced to stop the moon from falling on Clock Town.

There was no choice for him other than to turn back. Returning to Clock Town, he grew weaker as everything around him began to look like a blur. His senses faded slowly as he pushed onward, refusing to let any strange illness stop him from getting to his destination. He decided to head toward the region of Woodfall. While there, tiny amounts of worry in the back of his mind made him stop by the Magic Hags' Potion Shop to see if they knew why he'd be feeling as dizzy as he was. However, in a near-warped voice, they told him that he was merely imagining things and would feel better with some rest. Their info was taken lightly though, as he knew he had to persevere.

After leaving the potion shop, he chose to make his way through Woodfall into the Woods of Mystery. As the name implied, it was very much like the Forbidden Forest. Based upon his own speculation, something led him to believe that if he went there, he might be able to find a shortcut to return to the Lost Woods. Proceeding several hours of riding Epona, fate had other plans for him. Rather than finding a way home, the onset of severe symptoms from his sickness intensified beyond his capabilities. His breathing grew ever more laboured. It soon felt as if his heart was slowing down. The hero's body shivered drastically. He could vaguely remember falling off Epona and hitting his head prior to crawling up to the nearest tree. Everything after that wasn't clear enough to recall.

All he knew was that he eventually lost consciousness while thinking about what the Lunar Children said to him while he was on the grassy plain inside of the Moon. The single question that all of them asked, questioning his moral righteousness. The inquiry echoed around in his head until their voices morphed into his own. 'The right thing...' One asked in Link's own voice 'What is it? I wonder... If you do the right thing, does it make everybody happy?' Following the contemplation, it was then that he managed to regain lucidity, awakening from whatever had been wrong with him. Nonetheless, the questions from the lunar children continued to repeat. 'What makes you happy? I wonder... What makes you happy, does it make others happy too?'

Deep down, the blonde-haired hylian curiously wondered if he were going insane. Somehow it felt as if his lips were moving, even when he rationally knew that they weren't. It almost seemed like it was him that was saying those sentences. He knew it wasn't, it was the Lunar Children.

Every attempt at looking around made no difference at all as the only thing that he could see was the colour black. Nothingness surrounded him. There were no other sounds besides his own thoughts and the disembodied questions. Only silence. Any attempt to move was met with an extremely heavy sense of being held down. The hero's breathing was still shallow and yet, earlier he had experienced the odd sensation that he was swallowing something, only to have an intense coughing session without ever actually feeling himself cough.

Immediately after having the sensation that he had gulped something down, Link started to feel better. The icy bone-chilling cold faded away into a warm, fuzzy feeling that wrapped itself around him like a snug cocoon. Although the feeling was tight, he didn't feel suffocated. In fact, the young boy wound up involuntarily gasping in a deep breath, sensing that his lungs felt much clearer. There remained no sound or sight, but there was a massive wave of relief that brought him encouragement. A sudden surge of motivation coursed through him.

The gained lucidity allowed him to take notice of another abrupt feeling. Water droplets on his forehead was enough to send the hero's thoughts into overdrive. Moving beyond the feeling of dying, he now desperately wanted to find a way out of the oblivion he'd found himself in. Somewhere, there had to be an exit and that led back to Hyrule.

Although he had to escape the void, the additional objective of finding Navi was still considered top-priority to him. All of his current situation was merely a waste of time. Frustration gripped him tightly as he did what he could to struggle, only to discover that he wasn't able to budge an inch. Being in the nowhere place was useless. It was impractical. Considering the circumstances, he almost wanted to try telling himself that he'd died. However, he knew all too well that there wasn't simply a void of nothingness on the other side. If he were truly in the afterlife, then he expected to see what divinity promised. There were no roads paved with dazzling gold bricks. No angels with unimaginable beauty skillfully playing harps on the clouds of thought. He wasn't in an endless paradise where he got to spend time with his real mother and father. There wasn't even a trio of thrones for the three Golden Goddesses. No, he knew he wasn't dead. Whatever was wrong with him, he acknowledged that it wasn't death.

As that feeling of water droplets hitting him increased, his struggling intensified tenfold. The genuine afterlife sounded like perpetual bliss. Regardless, he didn't feel ready to die. He wanted to live so he could be with Saria and Navi. He wanted to wait until the day when he could finally speak with the Great Deku Tree's sprout again. The real world that he left behind, it didn't need him anymore, but he needed it. He wanted it. No matter what happened, the hero felt too young to give in to any sort of mental struggle for life. If that was what this was, then he had already prevailed. The questions that were asked by the Lunar Children, he never had to give an answer in order to live his own life. He had a right to experience another chance and he prayed that the goddesses feel the same for way.

Before long, a low-pitched rumbling sound replaced the thoughts of moral questioning. The whole time he had assumed his eyes were wide-open, when in reality he could now sense that they were closed. His spatial cognition realized that he was also lying down.

Again, the feeling of having something going down his throat occurred. He felt himself automatically cough and then gag a couple of times prior to more water being poured on him. Finally, he decided that he had to somehow open his eyes. He had to see what was happening. If he could just force them open, he knew he would regain consciousness and thus a release from the hellish void of absence. All that he had to do was force himself to awaken.

Struggling harder, Link recounted over and over in his mind as to why he should be allowed to live. All that he wanted was to be a hero. Without that, he felt as though he had no purpose. However, resolve came when the boy fully comprehended what a hero was. Thinking hard on it, he accepted that he had to not only be a hero for Hyrule, but himself as well. He had to be his own hero in order to give himself the purpose that he so desperately desired.

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[Time: 12:03 P.M. (Noon)]

[Date: Month 3 'Spring', Day 25, 8th Era]

[Location: Hyrule, Hyrule Field - Lon Lon Ranch]

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With what sounded like a loud pop, Link came to gasping with a single deep breath. The air around him was quickly sucked in his lungs as he opened his eyes to see a wooden roof and tan walls. 'Where am I?' He wondered. Coughing ensued the moment he attempted to exhale. For some reason, it felt like he had a severe head-cold. His lungs heaved with heavily congested fluids. It felt good to choke it up, even if it merely ran down his cheek. The more that came up, the more he could breathe normally. The hero's nose was still stopped up, but it too was gradually getting better. Now that he could breathe, he decided to start trying to figure out where he was. It was clear that it was someone's house.

"Oh, Link…" A girl's voice sadly said in advance of the boy feeling someone dab at his cheek where the congestion had leaked out. "You're going to get yourself dirty again."

The sound of a sponge-like cloth being wrung out over a bucket of water echoed amongst the room before LInk felt a cool, wet sensation go onto his forehead.

"I'm still praying that you'll wake up soon." Malon hoped.

To Link, he realized that the voice speaking sounded very familiar. He knew that it wasn't Saria, Navi, or Zelda. Still, he was certain he'd heard it somewhere before. The voice began softly humming a peaceful melody that made his entire weak, feeble body feel serene. Soon, he formed an idea as to who it was. Turning his head, the girl's bright red hair came into view. He had to blink his eyes quite a few times to get a clear image, yet he knew right away who it was. "Nnn… M-Malon?" His vision focused on her face as she gasped in surprise. Part of him was wondering why she was here. In fact, more of him was curious as to why he was here. The place seemed to be a house. After discovering through a brief look around that he was lying on a bed, he assumed he must have been in Malon's room. "Is that you?"

"L-Link… Are-… Are you awake?" The farm girl hesitantly asked for verification, wanting to ensure that he wasn't merely hallucinating again.

Blinking away more groggy sleep, Link held his hand to his head with a groan prior to responding "Yeah…. *Coughs*… I'm awake… *cough**cough*…. Ugnn… My aching head."

Malon looked stunned, as if she couldn't believe that Link was alive. "Oh, praise the Goddesses! Thank you, Farore! Thank you!" Following a show of appreciation to the goddess of life, she called for her father. "Daddy! DAD! Come quick, he's awake!"

The farm girl's shrill voice rattled around inside Link's sore head, clanking off his skull like a dodgeball before hitting him right in the brain each time. The hylian boy heard a thud from below, followed by heavy footsteps. This made him figure out that he was upstairs. "Hnn… Why am I in your room?"

Malon bent down to dip a rag into a wooden bucket of water before straining it and then dabbing the injured hero's forehead with it. "Shh… It's alright, Fairy Boy."

All of his body felt heavy, as if he could hardly move due to being weighed down by some unforeseen force. His thoughts suffered the worst though, as his mind felt absolutely sluggish to the point where he might fall back asleep if he closed his eyes again. At least now he knew where those feelings of water droplets came from while he was in his state of semi-consciousness. "H-… *Coughs*… How did I get here?"

Taking loving care of Link, Malon continued dabbing his forehead with the damp cloth. "Shh, save your strength." She tried to get him to stop talking. "I brought you here… … DAD! GET IN HERE!" Link's jaw clenched tightly as he winced from her yelling.

Afterward, they heard Talon's voice call out as heavy footsteps grew closer, as did the heavyset farmer. "I'm comin', Darlin'!"

Preceding another harsh cough, LInk managed to clear his throat enough to reiterate what he meant. "No… I mean… How did I get back here to Hyrule from Termina?"

Malon took the wet rag away from Link's forehead with a quizzical expression on her face just as Talon walked through the doorway on the other side of the room. "Umm… I'm sorry, Link… But, I've never heard of a place called Termina. You've been unconscious for days."

With a slow blink, Link tried to figure out what to say next. Talon didn't let the boy think for long, however, as the heavyset hylian instantly walked over to the weary hero and, with a nervous look, asked "Link? Are ya really awake, boy?"

Ingo suddenly came into the room as Link choked out a hoarse reply. "Y-Yeah… Is-… Is this the ranch?" Having them all so worried about him truly made the boy feel a bit better. There weren't many exceedingly caring Hylians that he'd had come across in his travels, certainly not people that he'd had the time to get to know. It felt slightly awkward as well to be stared at in the fragile state he was in.

Talon nodded in response to Link's question while slowly checking the hero's forehead to feel for a temperature. Ingo made his way over as well. "Yep… It's Malon's room. Epona came to us and Malon followed 'er to the Lost Woods, where she found ya."

"The Lost Woods?" Link asked in confusion, unsure of how it was that he went from the Woods of Mystery in Termina to the Lost Woods in Hyrule. Then again, all of the events of his time spent in that region began growing slightly hazy. In a way, he felt like the more that he thought about it, the more everything that happened on his terminian adventure was illogical, or at the very least unlikely. Yet, at the same time, he was certain it happened. He knew that he was there and that it was he who stopped Majora from bringing the moon down onto Clock Town. It was also the boy himself who reunited Anju and Kafei and it was he who defeated the Skull Kid before humbling the imp instead of killing it.

"Yep…" Talon informed Link before issuing a question of his own. "Do yah rememba' why ya were there? Ya know that children should stay away from such a dangerous place."

Forcing himself to scratch an itch on his arm, Link said "Mr. Talon, I-… *Coughs*… I live there... It's actually not as dangerous as everyone always says."

Malon stared up at her father as the hylian man briefly had a look of disbelief on his face before it disappeared. "Daddy… It's true. I met his mother and everything. He really does live there."

Link's already weak heart felt as though it was about to explode whenever the farm girl mentioned his maternal parent. The mere broach of the subject caused the hero to sharply call the hylian girl out. "My mother!?"

They leaned back some from Link's sudden loudness, but Malon soon replied. "Mhmm… Saria… She was so kind and sweet. I'm really glad that I was able to meet her."

Hearing Saria's name and having them under the impression that she was his mother made Link's cheeks redden ever so lightly, hardly able to be seen at all. Even if he had always considered the green-haired Kokiri girl as such, nobody else in the Forbidden Forest ever acknowledged it that way and certainly nobody in the rest of Hyrule. "O-Oh… Umm… O-… Okay… I guess."

The little hero's embarrassment was taken away as Talon waved his hand in front of the boy's face. "Hey… Could ya answer me? Why were ya in the Lost Woods? Were ya goin' home or somethin'?"

Link's eyes slowly rose up to Talon's as he recalled his reasoning for going where he was, all of which was prior to the Skull Kid attacking. The one person missing from the room was the one person that he had held extremely dear for months on end. A tiny sprite had run off with a piece of his heart. "Navi…" Malon frowned softly for the young boy even while he did the same. "I went into the Lost Woods to find Navi, my fairy."

Ingo finally opened his mouth, snapping back with a tiny hint of anger in his voice. "You kids still know that you can't go into the Lost woods! In fact, you should stay away from the Forbidden Forest altogether!" Malon's furious gaze shut the farmhand up in a heartbeat, even if he did try to shrug and act as though he didn't know what he had said was bad. "What? I'm just saying… He's a hylian and he needs to live where hylians live, not with forest children."

"Be quiet, Ingo!" Malon sneered while resuming her gentle dabbing of Link's forehead. "He doesn't need to be blamed for what he's done. Right now, he needs to keep resting."

Link had to admit that the bed was very comfy and that the cool water felt amazingly refreshing. Yet, his mind was still on overdrive as it desperately attempted to figure out how it got from Termina to Hyrule. Malon said that she had never heard of Termina before. In fact, neither had Link prior to actually going there. Regardless, he was sure he wasn't crazy, as everything that happened was far too realistic to be some sort of hallucination. "Clock Town..." The blond-headed hylian managed to utter, watching as Talon cocked his head. "I've been in a kingdom known as Termina, just east of here. I stayed in Clock Town for about three days."

Malon's face contorted some as she looked like there was something that she wanted to say. Ingo twirled his mustache. Talon, however, scratched his balding head and then replied. "Termina? I… I don't think I ever heard of a place called Termina… I heard of Holodrum and Labrynna, but no Termina."

Ingo shook his head before interjecting. "Did you mean Trevania? That's way south of Ordona and closer to Aberdyfi than it is to here."

Other than Ordona, Link had never heard of those places. The boy was sure that he hadn't been to any of them. It wouldn't really be possible since he was on Epona for less than a day until the Skull Kid showed up, seemingly teleporting them to Termina. "No… It wasn't any of those… I ran into a Skull Kid while I was searching for Navi and I wound up fighting him. Throughout the battle, he took me to another land called Termina, where-…. where-… w-where-…" All of them stared at him in confusion as he stopped himself mid-sentence. Suddenly, compared to this one, he remembered how illogical the world of Termina was. 'Romani and Cremia, they looked like Malon when she was a kid and an adult.' Yet, he was aware of the fact that wasn't possible. 'There's only one Malon… How could there be two? Not to mention, it doesn't make sense for one to look like the other from the future.'

Upon further analysis of everything that happened, things didn't add up. All of the other people in that region were doppelgangers. Clock Town seemed so advanced compared to Hyrule, which was supposed to be the most developed in perhaps the entire world. Due to these discrepancies, Link momentarily doubted himself, his sanity. 'There's also only one Ingo and one Talon… One Anju… One Durunia… One Princess Ruto… One Sakon… One set of Twins… One set of the Poes, Sharp and Flat… One Dampé the Grave Keeper… One Aveil.'

The hero wasn't allowed to think for very much longer as Talon soon took him away from his contemplation. "Where? Where-… What?"

Before Link had left to try and find Navi, Talon and Malon were the only people in the Kingdom, other than Saria, that he had talked to about the future and the events he went through to kill Ganondorf. He divulged all he did to take the Triforce away from the hands of evil. Saria, likely resulting from her being the Forest Sage and his closest friend, one hundred percent believed every word that came out of his mouth. However, Talon and Malon were much less understanding. Talon even laughed, giving the boy pats on the head prior to informing him 'That's a pretty good story for a ten year old.' Malon, she simply giggled and rambled on about the hero being like a knight in shining armour, which was far from true.

"N-Nevermind… *Coughs*... Forget it." Link conceded.

"Wait…" Malon said while appearing baffled at something. "You said that a Skull Kid attacked you?"

The giant knot on the side of his forehead should've been enough of a hint that he had encountered somebody. For the stinging sensation on his right shoulder, Link had no clue what it was, as he didn't recall receiving a wound on my shoulder unless it was from during the time he went unconscious in the Woods of Mystery. "Yeah… The l-little thief stole stuff from me, tried to beat me up and then made me chase him into Termina."

Once more, Talon and Ingo displayed no knowledge of a place called Termina. Malon looked like she had something on her mind though. "Link... I'm sorry, but I don't think that that's right, unless I was completely lied to. I met the Skull Kid that I think you're talking about. Timi, right?"

Link's head slowly turned to stare at the farm girl as he felt a bit of surprise at hearing the imp's name. "What? M-Malon… You-… *Harsh Cough*… You shouldn't have been near him. He's extremely dangerous."

The red-headed hylian girl's cheeks flushed lightly over Link's worry for her before she responded. "But, Link… He's the one that saved you. He took you out of the elements. He protected you for the first three days that you were unconscious."

The intense battling that Link went through with that wooden freak and all of the time he spent trying to undo the damage a skull kid had brought upon Termina, it made the hero far too hesitant to believe the imp would ever be his saviour. Then again, it did possibly explain how he made it from the Woods of Mystery in Termina to the Lost Woods in Hyrule. It was just too hard for the boy to make sense of. Knowing that he'd been out for several days wasn't any help either. What was real and what was fake, everything was blended together and clogging up his mind. "There's no w-way… I had to stop the Skull Kid from trying to destroy the city of Clock Town. He's a lunatic and M-Majora's Mask gave him the power he wanted… If-… *Sniffles*… If it wasn't for the Four Giants convincing him to stop, I would've h-had no choice other than to end him permanently."

All three of them, Malon, Talon and Ingo looked at the little hero as if he'd lost his mind. Perhaps he had. "Majora's Mask? Four Giants?" Talon questioned.

Malon shook her head in denial over what Link had just said. "I don't think so, Link… Timi told me that he saw you on Epona, watched you fall off from the curse of the Lost Woods and then dragged you into a hollow tree where he sheltered you from the rain and temperature."

From Link's memories, he had never received a name from the Skull Kid. The name Timi didn't ring a bell. But, he felt sure that a Skull Kid didn't rescue him. He didn't even believe it could have been a different one from who he dealt with in Termina. Saria always told him to stay away from the mischievous forest imps lest he were to get scolded by the Great Deku Tree for hanging out with them. None were known for anything good. "I don't know a Timi! Okay!?" The hero accidentally shouted back, making the others hesitant to stay close. Malon looked away from him as Talon laid his hand on Link's chest, making the hylian boy realize that he didn't have his tunic on and was bare. "I… I… I'm sorry… The Skull Kid that I ran into had stolen not only my stuff, but a mask from the Happy Mask Salesman."

Once her gaze returned, Malon hesitantly asked "Majora's Mask? Was that what was responsible for the moon falling?"

Instantly, Link felt his heart thump as he wondered how the farm girl would know something about Majora's Mask. If it were true that she was aware of such a thing, then she had to have seen the corrupted sky rock falling from orbit. He was hoping this proved his sanity was still there, that Termina truly did exist. "How do you know about that? Did you see it falling?"

Unfortunately, Malon shook her head as she slowly dabbed at his forehead with the damp rag. "No… The moon never actually fell. You just kept saying that it was falling. You also called me Romani while you were asleep."

A sigh exhaled from the hero's lips as that wasn't the answer that he was hoping for. Now, he had to question his sanity all over again. Without proof, he was unsure of anything, especially after already having traveled through time. "I see…" Was all Link could muster to say.

Further down the bedside, Talon stood back up from his knelt down position. "I'm sorry, son… But, I think ya been hallucinatin' a lot of stuff happenin' that didn't. I'll go and check my map of the continent to see if there's any place called Termina. For now, if yer' feelin' up to eatin', I'll bring up a plate of what's left from breakfas'."

While Link's mind was frustrated that nobody believed anything he had said, the boy's stomach quickly spoke up with a grumble. His mouth began to water in anticipation of any form of food, as if I hadn't eaten in days. Part of his brain questioned why he was feeling so starved whenever he vividly recalled having dined with Anju and Kafei the night before he felt that strange sickness wash over him. On the other hand, that hollow pit of emptiness in his abdomen wasn't happy about anything and made him reply with its answer instead of his own. "Yes… Please, that would be great."

Talon nodded in advance of turning around, leaving only Link, Malon, and Ingo together. Before long, the farmhand also decided to go back out the door. Just like the usual Ingo, he didn't even bother to see if the hero was okay. He just left without a word.

Alone in Malon's room, with her next to him as he lay in her bed, Link found it to be kind of awkward. If he weren't feeling as weak as he was, he'd get up right then and make his way down the stairs. 'Not that there's anything wrong with Malon.' He thought while looking away from her, turning his head to where his nose pushed against the fluffy pillow. Only half of his minor blush was hidden. 'Her bed is comfy. It smells a lot like her too.' Captivated, he realized he could stay locked in those thoughts, inhaling all night the gentle aroma of handmade Gerudo Soap and Thyme. The farm girl once claimed she bathed with both since they're, quote 'good for the skin'.

Malon noticed his strange behaviour and remarked with a question. "Link? What are you doing?"

Pulling his head away from the pillow, the hero tried to act as if he hadn't just been thinking about her in an overly friendly way. "N-Nothing..."

The farm girl smiled softly with a look of bewilderment as she continued to dab the boy's forehead with the damp rag. She helped him to feel good, cool and refreshed. Staring at her, Link suddenly felt as though he should be extraordinarily grateful for her. For her to have come all the way out to the Forbidden Forest and then brave the Lost Woods just to find him, it was remarkable. Truly, she'd done something he would have only ever expected from a person with a heart of gold. "Did… Did you really find me?"

Proceeding a few seconds that it took for her to figure out what he meant, Malon responded. "Yes… Not on my own though. Epona was the one who came back here to let me know that something was wrong."

With all of his strength, Link partially leaned up enough to prop himself up on the pillow. The heroic hylian hadn't even thought about the filly until now. The last that he had seen his horse, she was beside him in the woods of Mystery. Unless, all of the events of Termina were somehow not real, in which case, he realized he hadn't seen her for over three days. "Is she okay!? Epona!?"

Malon's hand was quick to grab the sheets in order to keep them from falling away from Link. "Yes… She's out in the stables, getting some well-deserved rest… The stuff we had to go through, Link, I-… I don't think I could've done it without her."

"W-What do you mean?" Link held his head as it throbbed. He felt as if all his blood rushed away from his brain as gravity pulled down. The sluggish feeling didn't give way quickly either. Focusing on other things helped, but no matter what, he still felt a funny feeling inside of his mind that he couldn't identify as anything other than being similar to anxiety from everything that has happened.

"I mean, we had to fight off a lot of monsters." She stated

Imagining Malon trying to fight off forest monsters wasn't something that Link was easily able to do. She was such a sweet and innocent young girl that he figured she had likely never even held a sword. Farmers of any kind were rarely known to take part in combat. "Monsters?"

With a nod, she resumed speaking. "Yeah… After I found you. Timi, the Skull Kid, brought me halfway back to the Kokiri Village. I ran into a Wolfos that tried to kill us as soon as he left."

Looking down at his shoulder, Link was positive that the long scratch marks embedded in his flesh were caused by a beast, proving that she was certainly telling the truth. "I… I'm sorry, Malon… I didn't m-mean to put you in danger." He apologized.

Malon shook her head prior to responding almost immediately. "No, Link. Don't be sorry. It was me who put myself in danger because I wanted to find you. I was so worried that something bad had happened that I went out on my own to see if I could find you."

Upon that explanation, their blue eyes met for a moment until they had to look away from each other in embarrassment. For Link, he never really knew that the farm girl cared so much about him. Usually, he only had Saria, Navi or the Great Deku Tree who were concerned for his well-being. On a whole new level though, he also recalled how much he had done for Malon, both lately and in the future, in another timeline. Regardless, it felt different and confused him with its awkwardness.

"Daddy and Ingo didn't want to go out at night and it was almost sundown, but I told them that we had to go now." Malon told her story. "If I had waited for them to come with me, I probably wouldn't have fought even a quarter as much as I did."

Their eyes met again and this time they noticed one another's red cheeks. "You… Umm… You didn't get hurt, did you?" Link inquired with genuine concern.

Her head dropped a little in further discomfiture. "N-No… I hit my head on a tree-branch, but other than that, I managed to use your shield to protect myself from the Wolfos and Stalchildren."

The two had never been so awkward around each other. Since the very first time they had met, they'd become quick friends after Link awoke her dad, who was sleeping on the job beside Hyrule Castle when he was supposed to be delivering a shipment of the ranch's famous Lon Lon Milk. Despite their friendship, Link thought that she didn't have any special feelings for him. Although, without any experience in the field of romance, he was only guessing. He figured that this situation as a whole was something they should feel flustered about, that it didn't have any other meaning besides caring for a friend's wellbeing.

"Stalchildren? They were in the forest?" Link wondered.

As they heard footsteps coming up the stairs, Malon shook her head prior to explaining what she meant. "No… I encountered them whenever I left the forest with you. But first, I had to evade the two Wolfos until we made it to Kokiri Village. Everyone there was worried sick about you…" For just a second, seeing as how he wasn't truly one of them, Link wasn't able to truly believe that all the kokiri were concerned for him. He recalled when he was young, how not all of them cared about him; some of them even despised him. "Saria, your mother, was nearly hysterical whenever she first laid her eyes on you."

Subconsciously, Link gently bit his lower lip as Malon once more called Saria his mother. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that Saria told the farm girl that as it wasn't a 'out in plain sight' thing that anyone could figure out. "Malon…" The little hero interrupted meekly as Talon made his way back in the room with a plate of food. "Saria-… Saria isn't really my mother."

With a smile, she giggled lightly as the smell of breakfast made Link's mouth water exceeding amounts of saliva. "She raised you, Link."

Abruptly, Link realized that Malon had somehow figured out his true adopted relationship with the green-haired kokiri girl. That likely meant that Saria explained everything. It was embarrassing to have her think his best friend in the entire world was his own mother.

"Alrightee…" Talon spoke while placing a plate of food down on the nightstand beside Link. "This mornin' we had bukkenade (Spicy beef stew) with bread and a fresh Lake Hylia orange. You can wash it all down with this tall glass of green tea and I bet y'all be feelin' better in no time."

Inhaling the scent again, Link knew he had to lean up more in order to eat. The hylian boy's stomach was telling him that he was famished, even if his mind was telling him that he had just recently eaten in Termina. As soon as he propped himself up more, Malon was yet again quick to grab the sheets to keep them from falling away from him. "Thank you so much, Mr. Talon."

Talon smiled heartily in advance of giving Link a couple of pats on the head. "It's no problem, son… Tis' good eatin' too. If ya never had it before, be sure to try dunkin' the bread in the bukkenade… MmmMm!"

Link and Malon laughed at Talon's stomach rubbing gesture before the hero took the spoon in his hand, dipping it into the light brown broth. The moment it touched his tongue, that famished feeling inside of him intensified to the point where he almost wanted to toss the spoon aside and slurp the entire bowl down. His main course of action soon became nothing other than a repetitive motion of the hand bringing the meaty soup to his mouth. The way that both Malona and Talon stared at him soon made the hylian boy realize that he was eating too fast, making himself look like a barbarian. "I-It's good…" The green tea was almost like a gift from the heavens. Link's tongue felt like literally thanking him as the liquid got rid of his extra-dry mouth. "Take yer' time… Whenever ya feel well enough to get up, come down stairs and we'll talk."

After chomping down into a chunk of bread, Link stared up at the heavy set hylian rather curiously. "Huh? About what?"

Talon merely raised an eyebrow prior to looking back at Malon, who placed a handkerchief on the bedspread beneath the spot Link was eating, obviously not enjoying the boy getting crumbs on her bed. "Ya didn't tell em', Malon?" The farmer laughed. "I'll leave that up to you two lovebirds then."

As he strolled away, stretching his arms with a yawn as well as a smile, Link nearly choked on his bite while Malon gasped with a full-fledged blush. "Daddy! Out-Out-Out!" The farm girl yelled at her father. Talon merely laughed while making his way out of the room, back downstairs, leaving the two kids in their awkwardness yet again. 'Why does he always tease me like that?' They both thought in unison. Malon tried hard to recompose herself, hiding her rosy cheeks as even her long ears reddened. "I'm sorry… You know how my dad is. He's always trying to find me a boyfriend, even though I'm only ten."

Link had long since realized Talon's intentions, especially considering all of the jokes and suggestions the rotund man dropped regarding the matter. However, hearing the farm girl actually say it made him more uncomfortable. He tried to loosen the mood with a jest of his own. "Yeah… I had a feeling. After all, you and I are supposed to get married." The moment he said that, he realized it didn't come out sounding as jokingly as he initially planned. From the look on Malon's face, Link quickly became aware she thought he was being serious. Nervousness kicked in and he was quick to retract his previous sentence. "I was just kidding."

Malon forced a smile before standing up away from the hero, making him fear the worse. In reality, she had forgotten that it was her father who made the remark to the hylian boy about marrying her. "I know… I'm going to have to start getting ready for the day though. It's time for me to feed the horses and let them outside in the corral. Plus, the stable needs to be mucked out. Ingo could really use my help."

At least she wasn't upset. Regardless, Link still wanted her to explain things before the farm girl left. "Wait… Malon. Can you finish telling me what happened?"

She pulled open a top drawer in the middle of her dresser and then removed her usual signature orange scarf with the strange pendant resembling a turtle-dragon's face. "Oh…Well… I talked daddy into allowing you to stay. You just have to pull your share of the work around here. Daily chores have to be done, no matter what the weather is like or how bad you feel." While tying the scarf around her neck, Malon stared at Link through her mirror, arousing minor self-confidence issues over him not having his shirt on. "T-That is, of course, if you want to stay... I figured you would, so I set-up a sleep quarters for you in the loft above the barn. It should be quieter there since it's away from the animals on the ground floor."

Such an offering would normally have been kindly refuted by the hero in the past. All of the adventuring that was forced upon me, Link wasn't allowed to stay anywhere longer than a day, not even his own house back in the Kokiri Village. Now, without the need to be on a constant move, there was a chance for him to ponder the idea of settling down for a while, at least until he regained his strength. Ganondorf was supposedly powerless in this timeline, Princess Zelda didn't want anything more to do with him and Navi was completely and utterly gone from his life by her own choice. Rather than fame, he appeared destined to live a boringly humdrum life. As beat up as he was about it, both mentally and physically, he figured it was his best bet to agree to the terms that would allow him to stay at the ranch for a little while.

"Sure…" Link consented to the idea of remaining stationary. After all, he did have a few skills to offer. "I learned how to do tons of cultivating from the Kokiri. The only thing I need your help on is what to do with the animals. You'll have to teach me because I don't really have much experience other than a little bit with horses." Thinking about it, he started realizing it might not be so bad to live a calm life. He quite enjoyed doing laborious tasks for some odd reason. Comfort was brought to him from the peace of mind it gave. 'Growing potatoes certainly wouldn't be as dangerous as fending off a horde of pissed off Moblins chucking spears at me.'

"Good…" Malon was happy to hear Link's reply. "To be honest, I really wanted you to stay." She said that last part slightly under her breath.

Link didn't mind either. Being with the farm girl and Talon felt good to him. They were hylians he felt as if he belonged with. Nothing they did made him feel strange from living with kokiri his entire life. "I think you probably just want me to help you with your chores." He teased.

Malon blushed lightly with a giggle as the hero smiled at her. "No! I'm used to handling all of that stuff. It's natural to me now… I don't particularly need help. Though, I could use the company."

Hearing that made the boy feel even further accepted as the two shared a lot in common. "Thank you, Malon."

Her smile disappeared back into more embarrassment as Link picked up a slice of Lake Hylia orange, which had graciously been pre-cut by Talon. "For what?" The farm girl asked

"For rescuing me…" Link replied without hesitation as he bit into a slice of the orange. His taste buds nearly went into shock from the intensity of the citrus. Now he was certainly wide awake. Such juiciness was definitely rejuvenating him. "For saving me from the Wolfos and Stalchildren."

Malon walked back over to the hero as he ate. "You're welcome… I'm sorry that you couldn't find your fairy, Navi. I know how close you two were."

A frown from hearing the fairy's name was an obvious sign that Link still missed Navi severely. Each time his heart pumped without her being by his side, it felt like his eyes wanted to force out a cascade of warm and salty tears. Without her, nothing was quite the same. She was his family and utterly irreplaceable. "It-… It's okay… I'll be alright… I just have to move on."

Malon didn't look like she understood exactly what Link meant by that, but she agreed with him regardless just to carry on with the conversation. "I'm just glad that you're okay, Link… I was really worried that the curse of the Lost Woods was going to take you away to see the goddesses. All the stuff that I went through was to save you. I even went inside of the Great Deku Tree with Mido and Fado to get the ingredients the Know-It-All Brothers needed to make the tonic that saved you."

In shock, Link held a bite of orange in his mouth prior to swallowing it. "You went inside of the Great Deku Tree?"

Malon nodded while reaching across Link and the bed to open the blinds even more, allowing as much sunshine to flow in as possible. For a brief moment, the majestic whiff of thyme once again blessed the hero's nostrils as the farm girl's bright red hair brushed past his face. Thankfully, she didn't notice his focus on her and opted to simply continue speaking. "I had to… Otherwise I was afraid that you wouldn't make it."

Link's heart fluttered at the thought of Malon being so concerned with him. He stared at her as she checked his temperature one more time, using her bare hand to feel his forehead. Afterward, she walked over to the door as if she was ready to leave in order to do her chores around the ranch. "Y-You really care about me, huh?" The hero muttered questioningly.

Although she was slightly taken aback, the hylian girl forced a smile to hide her discomfort prior to giggling softly. "Of course, Link… I didn't want you to turn into that Fierce Deity thing you kept rambling on about while you were unconscious."

Immediately, once the two words 'Fierce Deity' slipped out of her mouth, Link felt an unbelievably intense amount of anxiety wash over him. Time slowed down a little as he recalled the events in Termina. After everything that happened, the most painful memories were of the moment he placed the Fierce Deity Mask upon his face. It was difficult for him to rationalize. It was hard to to understand the mask was an ultimate power consisting of that 'greater' than the Triforce of Power. Wielders of the Triforce of Power were able to control its abilities and bestow upon themselves the strength of a god. On the other hand, the sheer potency of the might barely restrained within the Fierce Deity Mask was overwhelming to the point of it being crippling. Once placed on Link's face, the hero was corrupted, warped in such a way that his mind lusted for nothing other than blood. Everything else ceased to exist in his one track-mind as he had even a feeling of rejection toward the Golden Goddesses. The only thing Link wanted to do with the mask on was kill. Majora fit the bill for giving Fierce Link the perfect fight over life and death.

Without being able to think clearly, as soon as the fight had ended, Link still felt a horrible deeply rooted urge, an itching compulsion to slaughter everything and everyone in sight. The double-handed, helix-edged sword in his grasp yearned to be soaked in red, desired to hear the screams of the afraid and longed for the destruction of all. No sooner had he defeated Majora, did he hear that one sentence echo around inside his mind, mocking him with malicious intent and planning to use the boy to fulfill its aching heart's want of murder.

'I shall consume… Consume... Consume everything.'

Link knew deep inside that with that mask on, he could simply allow it to control him, to grant an endless power far beyond that of Ganondorf's. Surrendering to the power would allow him to become a truly 'fierce deity'; unstoppable and invulnerable. Unfortunately, it would come with the price of taking his consciousness and hollowing out his soul. The spiteful spirit would infiltrate his body and use it as its perverted marionette. Sickeningly, it was around that time as well, after he had invoked thoughts of forsaking the goddesses, which he had begun to desire more.

The mask brought him ultimate forte, and yet, he wanted more. The Triforce of Courage allowed valor as well as audacity to flow through the hero's veins. But, the darkness inside told him that he could have greater depth in abilities. It told him that someone so deserving as himself earned the right to be the holder of the rest of the pieces of the Triforce, even if he didn't actually need it for anything. He started feeling as if he was worthy of it where the others weren't. Ganondorf, with his pitifully weak mind, surely couldn't justify why he should be the master of something so omnipotent. Princess Zelda, he once felt she didn't deserve her status because of her idiocy, because it was her oversight which allowed Ganondorf to break the seal and gain entrance into the Sacred Realm. The mask convinced him that neither Ganondor nor Zelda deserved their respective pieces of the Triforce. Based upon his experiences, it was always him who was right. It was always he who saved the day and stopped people from getting killed. He was the one who was Courageous, Intelligent, and Powerful. The others were nothing in comparison to him.

'A puppet that can no longer be used is mere garbage.' The mask spoke yet again in Majora's voice. Whenever Link attempted to rationalize what was happening, all thoughts directed toward rejecting the darkness tainting his spirit only resulted in further speech. The voice of Majora, even after its defeat, lingered on, taunting the hero. 'Envision a life spent void of timekeeping…' It whispered the command, hissing with a hot breath that was somehow cold as ice. 'You cannot, can you? You are fully aware of the year, the month, the day, maybe even the hour or further down to the precise minute… Nevertheless, all around you, you find that keeping track of time is not a priority to lesser creatures of this world.'

The voice would fluctuate every now and then, just like it did later on, morphing itself into Link's voice or others the boy held dear in advance of returning to that sinister tone of hatred and revulsion. Link's heartbeat sped up substantially as his brain felt as though it was overloading from the pain of trying to answer the illogical questions of life. The voice wanted the hero to fail. It wanted the hero to give in to it no matter what the cost. 'Birds are never late… A dog does not check his watch…Cows do not fret over their passing age… No… No… Man alone is the one who calculates time, who measures it and decides how to spend it most efficiently.' Deeper, the feelings grew until they were completely and utterly out of control. 'It is because of this that man suffers in solitude, paralyzed by the fear of something no other animal in existence has… a fear that endures… a fear… of time running out.'

It wasn't until Link's hand swiftly removed the mask did he manage to regain his sanity. He could recall quite vividly promising himself that he would never again wear that face, not for as long as he lived. He couldn't allow himself to behold such corrupting grandeur lest he want to see everyone around him succumb to the burning flame residing inside his heart. All of the masks that he wore were off limits as he had to remain true to himself and no longer hide behind a false look. The real Link is a hero, not a murderer lusting for power. Link is the Hero of Time, not Ganondorf. Letting himself become evil was not a possibility.

Back in the present, feeling his face, he had to make sure that he wasn't still the Fierce Deity. He had to be sure that he wasn't wearing a mask. "Mirror…" The blonde-haired hylian boy said aloud just before Malon almost left. "Bring me the mirror."

She stopped in the doorway with a confused look. "Huh?"

Link's heart continued to beat out of his chest during his unstable fretfulness of apprehension and unease. All he wanted was to make sure that he was still the person that he always was, that he was still Link. He didn't want to be anybody else. "Where's a mirror!?"

Malon's eyes widened slightly as she seemed shocked he raised his voice. She also worried that something was wrong with the hero. "A mirror? H-Here… There's one right here on my dresser… Let me get it for you, don't get up."

Due to his panic, Link didn't fully listen to her and chose to instead make his way in getting up. Not only did he want to see his own appearance but, with all of the energy pent up in his legs, it was going to feel really good to get back on them and move around. As he leaned up, swung his feet over the edge of the bed and then stood up, the farm girl waved her hands to get him to stop.

Malon was burning beet red in the face all of the while with a loud gasp of surprise. Following a piercing gaze as well as a single blink of eyes the size of dinner-plates, she shrieked to the top of her lungs, rushing out of the room faster than she had ever moved in her entire life. "BY THE GODDESSES!" Her voice echoed loudly as her footsteps clattered down the stairs.

Making his way toward the mirror, he feared that something was indeed wrong with him. He worried that his soul had warped itself with hatred from losing its focus on living. If a mask did rest upon his face, he knew he wouldn't be able to remain the same person that he was. Thankfully, as he stared into the mirror, his familiar boyish face had locked blue eyes with himself. It was a relief to see he was still Link, that he was still the same boy who'd lived in the Kokiri Forest for most of his life.

However, as his eyes drifted down further, he fully realized the reason for Malon's sudden burst of alarm. Birthday suit is what Saria always called it. Yet, he would just come right out and say that he was literally butt naked, exposing every inch of skin on his body. From the visual, he saw that, other than the scratch mark on his shoulder, the bruises on his sides and the cut on his forehead, he looked healthy. Though, he could still stand to eat as well as drink some more, as he appeared to be a bit malnourished. At least he was still Link. "This… is going to be hard to explain to Malon."