Penn had some great quests, this has a spoiler for my favorite one! Edit notes at the end.

Some dead people coordinate while Epona picks up debunking as a hobby.


Ascend was also quite fun to play with and explained at least some of how Rauru got them out of the castle basement to the sky. Link had plans for pranks. (He made a mental note to discuss these plans at the forest.) Link came to the conclusion that Rauru was the superior ghost king.

He practically skipped to the temple doors. Now he could go catch up with Zelda. He was willing to take all the safety lectures, Zelda was worth it.

Link thought that having to listen to Ganon whine for ten thousand years was bad enough but Rauru had blown his record out of the water while holding down the Demon King. If Zelda's ramblings were accurate, Link's estimation of how far Zonai tech had outdated his Sheikah tech by a few thousand years, give or take a millennia. That took patience. Link knew Rauru could handle engineering experiments.


Rauru had thought he could handle Link's experiments far more easily than the Demon King's evil.

He was wrong. Especially now Link had Recall.

The Demon King was, when held in a chokehold, immobile. Link was not. Also Link was in dire need of parenting since last century. Rauru was filling in that parenting gap too little, too late. Rauru sighed. He missed Sonia so badly but Link was taking an evening off cooking dinner before diving down to the surface and unless the king was mistaken, that soup now had a piece of Zonaite thrown in it. Rauru buried his face in his paws while waiting for Link to get some sleep by the fire.

Also why did Zelda have to give him Recall? Rauru's day was filled with watching things float backwards, deforestation, irresponsible platforming, and more.

So Rauru made his decision to stay. He could not do anything physically, but Link sometimes listened to his advice. Had Link not been so excellent with the Koroks, and the situation less dire, Rauru would have disabled all functions of his arm. (Other than basic muscle functions. Rauru wasn't cruel.)

The next day the ghost king greeted Link. "Ah good. I see you have managed to open the door without destroying the temple. You haven't fully recovered yet, but that is to be expected. You were almost beyond saving... By visiting the shrines and receiving their blessings, you have mitigated some of the corruptions effects. Though our time together has been brief, I am so happy that we finally met... You are exactly as Zelda said." Rauru hoped Zelda was using hyperbole during the stories she told. "I've done everything I can for her. Now I will help you."

"Um, you know I can take care of myself, right?" Link said. "You can go if you want to?"

"Link, remember when you were using recall to on that roast apple?" Rauru asked Link as a gentle reminder. Link did. After flinging it in the clouds to see if the moisture would clean it off for him, Link tried to catch the returning apple in his teeth, slipped, and only got back on the top of the island by clinging to the side of the island and somehow ascending into the middle of a construct war camp.

"I mean, since Zelda, Epona, and Scruples aren't around I probably do need someone responsible around..."

"Who are Epona and Scruples?" Rauru asked.

"Oh. Epona is my horse! She is the smartest mare in the world. Scruples was the name I came up with for this wolf that was actually a servant of the gods or something. Most people couldn't see him. Between the two of them, they stopped me from losing my eyebrows every other day."

"A wolf only you could see? What was that about the..." Rauru's ears twitched as he thought of more to ask about the eyebrows, then decided against it.

"Me and Epona. And the horse god." Link spent the way to the ledge telling Rauru about Malanya's gossip.


Epona was a famous horse to those in the know about horses. Epona was legendary for having done unbelievable things. The important thing was, she was known in South Akkala stable as Link's horse and not to be touched.

The 'Cucco Oracle' did not know Epona, and he would soon.

"..Yeah, yeah, you'll meet the love of your life before the end of the year. *cluck* All right, next!" the cucco jumped impatiently. The line let Epona forward as she had been waiting her turn.

"Hey! Thou art just a stupid horse!"

Epona gave the fake bird the side eye while the stablehand behind her came forth to mediate. Tenne apologetically wrung her hands

"Um, this is Epona! I don't know why she's here, maybe she is asking you to help her find her master?"

"I don't have time to waste on a horse!"

"I mean, everyone is looking for Link, I'm surprised if no one else has asked you where Link is." Tenne said.

The 'cucco' was now very interested. "Whoa, wait, didst thou say Link?!"

"Yeah, this is Link's horse! It fought Ganon with him! Rumor has it, Epona is the smartest horse in the world! At the very least, she is the smartest in Hyrule."

The Oracle now was giving Epona an appraising look and was it his imagination, or was the horse glaring at him? He recovered his composure. It was just a stupid horse. "I'll give this horse a trial to face. Go over there, behind this hill where that rock is. Then the horse must wait alone for the omen from the heavens. Ready yourself. *cluck cluck*"

Tenne thanked the oracle profusely as she followed Epona down, then left her behind. Epona didn't have to wait long before a Yiga poofed out of hiding and climbed on to her back. "Wow, we get to steal Link's horse? This is great!" Yiga Two stood to the side watching his friend and having a great time laughing.

Yiga One barely got comfortable, then Epona threw him over the cliff. Yiga Two jumped back in shock but was not quick enough. Epona kicked. Hard. He launched over the cliff as well.

Epona trotted back to the cucco who was clucking at Tenne and another supplicant. Epona kicked this Cucco Oracle into the tree. Feathers dissolved into smoke. Tenne and Lonni gasped at the sudden Yiga.

The Yiga swiped a sword at the furious mare but Epona was quicker to drop something.

Tenne threw herself to the ground as the concussive blast of a bomb flower knocked out the fake oracle. She slowly got up when the hoofbeats slowed to a stop by her.

Last week she would have said no one would believe this, but they'd believed the Cucco Oracle so maybe she could tell the truth. Lonni and Tenne ended up having a long chat with a Rito in the stable who asked a lot of questions. By the time Penn looked for the legendary horse, Epona was long gone.


Yay reviews!

I'm glad Kass got to travel, but I can't imagine him being happy to find out that he missed a blizzard and the Upheaval while he was away from his home. I kind of want to write more for the other story I started. Maybe I'll just swap between stories when I run out of ideas for one?

Originally, I was going to have Wolf Link following Link around Hyrule as adult supervision but realized Rauru had untapped potential because he has no idea just how weird everyone in Hyrule can be. He founded the country and he gets to guess the difference between culture clash and insanity with Link being no help at all on that front. Link only barely mastered the modern language. Good luck with that, sir.