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Chapter Text

Link had done it. He had saved Termina. They would never have to worry about their moon crashing to the surface and destroying everything again. Tatl and Tael had also been reunited and Skull Kid would continue to be their friend. Despite everything that had happened, they had forgiven him.

Link knew he could have stayed there. In these three repeating days, he had made many friends. He had helped so many of them out. Because of the goddess of time, everything he had done had been moved into one timeline too.

Everyone would be happy.

Well, everyone except Link.

He had come to Termina to search for Navi, but despite that he had done so much, she wasn’t here. She was the only one who had remembered everything that happened to him when he had saved Hyrule and she had left.

And he had failed to find her.

“I… I have to go,” Link said to his new friends. He still wanted to find Navi. He had searched all of Hyrule for her, but maybe he had missed something. He had been gone for… well, actually only three days even though to him it was longer, but maybe Saria or Zelda had heard something. If not them, maybe Nabooru or even Ruto… though he didn’t like visiting Ruto too much.

She still thought that he was going to marry him and no thanks! Link didn’t want to marry her. No way! It didn’t matter if she was a good friend to him.

Link knew that Tatl and Tael might have wanted to ask him to stay. He could have been one of their friends. That would have been fun! But he wanted to go home. He needed to go home. And maybe, just maybe, there would be some new news.

The first few people he spoke to in Kokiri Forest didn’t know anything. Saria even made a comment about how she would need more time. He thought about explaining everything but the words got stuck in his throat, which seemed to be happening more and more. Saria was his best friend in the whole world and he had told her all about what had really happened. He knew that she believed him about the time travel and her being a sage and fighting Ganon and yet… she hadn’t experienced it.

The whole thing was more of something that could have happened to her. Not what had really happened. But that timeline had been real. Those things that had happened had occurred. Link could still see the destruction when he closed his eyes. He could still see all the monsters and the destroyed towns.

He could still see himself fighting Ganondorf.

Link spent a few days riding from place to place on Epona. Even with all that was going on, he loved riding Epona. Sometimes it seemed like she remembered everything that had happened. Could she? Animals were different than humans, so maybe she could just sense it.

Link liked to believe so.

But he also knew that she didn’t know exactly what had happened.

Link visited everyone who would have been a sage if the future hadn’t changed. Some of them didn’t recognize him, and Nabooru even seemed confused as to why he was talking to her. He knew that she was happy about what was happening with Ganondorf, even if she didn’t know exactly what would have happened.

He wanted to explain what would have happened to everyone but even when he had explained it to Saria… he knew that she believed him, but it wasn’t easy for her. Even Zelda found some of it to be crazy.

It sounded crazy.

Eventually when he was done asking people about Navi, he went to the castle. Unlike before now, he didn’t have to sneak into the castle. Now they knew who he was and that he was friends with Zelda. The king even liked Link since he had helped give them the evidence which had found out what Ganondorf had been planning.

He did always give him weird looks when he went there, as if he didn’t trust what he might do. Still, he was fine with Link being around his daughter and the soldiers knew that, so they brought Link to the garden. For a moment,

Zelda grinned when she saw him and went over to him. She was wearing the same dress as she had the first day they had met. For a moment, Link couldn’t help but notice how pretty sure was. He had been noticing that sort of thing more now, such as Malon, Romani and Cremia.

“You’re back,” Zelda said, grinning.

Link tried to find the words, but he couldn’t get anything out.

“Did you find Navi?” Zelda said, her voice full of hope. “I don’t see her with you…”

Link wished that he could have said that she had stayed at Kokiri Forest but that she was back, even if he would have rather her been with him like before. Everything would have been okay if she was back.

But he was forced to shake his head.

Zelda sighed. “I’m sorry, Link. Are you going to keep looking for her?”

“I… maybe,” Link finally managed to say. He wanted to say that he would keep looking for her, but he didn’t know where else he would go. He had searched all of Hyrule. He had even gone to Termina which he hadn’t planned. Where else was there to go?

Zelda frowned and looked at him. She might not be saying anything but Link could tell that she wanted to.

“What?” Link asked even though he didn’t think that he was going to like it. He still needed to hear what she was going to think.

“Link, I…” She paused. She really did represent Wisdom. She was only a little older than Link, but it seemed much more than that. Then Zelda surprised Link by giving him a smile, but he could still see that it was forced. “We got some fresh Lon Lon milk here today. We should have some. I know how much you love the milk.”

Link did love milk, especially from Lon Lon Ranch. He had gone there since Navi had left, but not since he got back from Termina and he did miss the milk. The Romani milk had been good, but it didn’t taste the same.

There was something special about Lon Lon milk.

There was something special about the ranch.

He needed to go back there soon.

“You’ll like the milk we got,” Zelda said. “And my father would love to hear more about adventures. You did have some good adventures recently when…” She didn’t finish what she was going to say. She was going to mention Navi.

“I don’t want milk,” Link said, even though it was his favorite drink in the world. Apparently other kids like him often didn’t like it, but when he had been growing up in the forest he hadn’t gotten it much. No, he had mostly drank water or tea that was brewed from the local flowers.

Milk was special.

“But—” Zelda started to say.

“I want to know what you were going to say,” Link said and he shifted nervously from one foot to another. He wanted to run around or rather flip around. He wanted to let off some of his energy. Staying still was hard especially at moments like this.

“I’m thinking that Navi probably…” Zelda paused. “She must be off doing something important.”

Link stared at her and blinked, at first not sure what to say. “If she was doing something important then she would have taken me with her.”

She knew that he would have gone anywhere with him. He had grown up being the only child in Kokiri Forest without a fairy and when Navi had first come to him… despite that he knew something was wrong, he was happy. He had always dreamed of having a fairy. He had always dreamed of belonging.

Now he still didn’t belong.

Even when he had Navi, he didn’t really belong anywhere, but at least he had her. She had been one of his best friends. Different than Saria since Navi had saved Hyrule with him and remembered everything.

And she had been his fairy companion.

“She would have wanted me to come with her,” Link said. He needed to believe this. He needed to believe that Navi had a good reason for going.

That she wouldn’t just abandon him.

“It must have been something that she needed to do by herself,” Zelda said.

Link didn’t believe this. She had no reason to go off by herself, right? But she had done that without a word.

“She’ll probably come back when she’s ready,” Zelda said.

“But she… I wish she would have told me where she was going,” Link said as his voice broke. He hated that. He didn’t want to cry in front of Zelda. He didn’t want to cry in front of anyone.

He didn’t even want to cry by himself.

Zelda paused and then reached out and took his hands. “You have to believe that she had a good reason for why she did it.”

Link pulled away and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. He hoped that she didn’t realize how close he had been to crying.

“She’ll come back eventually, Link,” Zelda said. “You have to trust her that she had a good reason for this.”

“But I…” Link hadn’t wanted to be alone like this. “I…”

“When she comes back, then she’ll find you,” Zelda said. “She’ll find you. I bet it will be the first thing that she does.”

Link wiped at his eyes yet again. “Do you really think so?”

He wanted to hear that she did think so.

“Yes, I’m sure that she’ll do that,” Zelda said, giving him a comforting smile. “She’ll come back and explain everything to you, Link. She wouldn’t have left if she didn’t have a good reason for it, and I’m sure that she misses you too.”

Link bit his lip. Did Navi miss him too?

“I hope she comes back soon,” Link said. “I miss her a lot.”

He didn’t want to think that he wouldn’t see her anytime soon. He wanted to see her soon. He wanted to tell her everything that had happened in Termina and Hyrule since then.

Zelda nodded. “I bet she will be back soon.”

Link hoped so soon.

“Now, we should go have some of that milk,” Zelda said, even though she wasn’t as much into milk as he was.

Link paused and then nodded. Maybe some milk would be good after all.

Link hoped that Zelda would be right and that Navi would show up again soon, but the days went by and soon months had gone by. She still hadn’t come back. Saria agreed with Zelda and said that she would probably come back eventually, but the way she said it was different.

But Link tried to just listen to what she said.

The next few months, he stayed in Kokiri Forest with his former friends there. He wanted things to be like they used to be before everything had happened. Well, except that he wouldn’t be treated like an outcast because he didn’t have a fairy with him.

Things weren’t the same though. Even though people, even Mido, didn’t tease him for not having a fairy, things weren’t the same. Link would find himself distracted and staring off into space. He wouldn’t find playing with his friends to be as fun as it used to be. He would always find himself thinking about things that happened in the past.

When he went near the Forest Temple, he would think about what had happened there. Then he would start thinking about things at other temples.

He didn’t even want to go near there, but just going to the normal places and doing what he used to do didn’t bring him with the same happiness that it used to.

Really it didn’t entertain him anymore at all.

Link had always liked to sleep before too. He used to always sleep in. Now sleeping wasn’t how it used to be. His dreams were filled with nightmares about Ganondorf, the Temple bosses, and just other horrible things. Sometimes he dreamed that Ganondorf escaped his prison and he would manage to conquer Hyrule just like before.

But nothing would save it this time.

He wished that Ganondorf would have been locked away somewhere he would never be able to escape, but Zelda said that was going to take longer.

It was taking too long, but Link thought that the nightmares would continue anyway.

When he did manage to sleep for awhile and not get awoken by his nightmares, he would find it hard to wake up. He would sleep in even for a long time for him. He would be tired when he did force himself to get up.

He just wasn’t himself at all.

One day he couldn’t stand to be in this forest anymore. He was tempted to just leave as soon as he could in the morning, but when he was close to leaving before most people were awake, he stopped. Another memory came back to him. He remembered when Saria had found him here. She had been so sad that day, but she had told him how she would miss him and that they were friends.

If he left her again without saying anything… she would be sad. And he would be doing something like Navi did, even if he would come back eventually.

He had to go tell her goodbye.

He worried that she would tell him that he should stay. That she would say that this was the place that Navi was most likely to come back for him.

“I think it’s a good idea for you to leave for awhile,” Saria said, smiling slightly after he had found her in her house in Kokiri Forest. She had her ocarina in her hands and was probably going to go to the Lost Woods soon. That was one of her favorite places to play it.

She liked to play the ocarina near the Forest Temple.

“You do?” Link asked. He hadn’t expected that. He thought that she would be sad just like she had before. That would have made it even harder for him to leave even though staying here wasn’t right.

“Yes, you’ve not been yourself recently,” Saria said. “You’ve been… distant and… sad.”

Sad? Link had been sad. It felt like so much more than that.

“It might help you if you go travel Hyrule just for fun,” Saria said. “As long as you promise to come back and visit.”

Link nodded. He didn’t plan to be gone forever. He just needed to get away for awhile. He wanted to do something that would make him happy. He wanted to ride Epona around and swim in Lake Hylia. He wanted to go to the Market Town and play games, and he also wanted to go to Lon Lon Ranch.

Chapter Text

At first Link went to the Market Town. He tried to get Zelda to join him, and she wanted to, but her father didn’t think that would be a good idea.

“You need to have security, darling,” The king said, smiling softly at his daughter. “You never know who could be out there.” He sighed and shook his head. “Especially with everything that has happened with that thief Ganondorf.”

Link couldn’t help but cringe when he was brought up. People often didn’t bring up Ganondorf to him, even Saria. Saria acted like she was worried about how he would react about something like that.

“I like being around the people,” Zelda said, not noticing his reaction which was good. Link didn’t want Zelda to think that he wasn’t brave. He was brave. He had held the Triforce of courage. Maybe he still didn’t. He didn’t really understand how everything worked. “It’s good for us to be around common people.”

Link nodded. He agreed with that even if he hadn’t known much about royalty until recently. In the forest there wasn’t any royalty. Yes, he had heard about the royal family when he had lived there, but he hadn’t known much about it.

He hadn’t thought that he would meet them, but then he had and was now even friends with Zelda. He knew Ruto and the king of the Zoros too.

“I still don’t know if it’s a good idea,” the king said. “You need to be careful, Zelda.”

“I will be,” Zelda said. “And Link will be there to guard me also.”

“I will!” Link exclaimed. He had fought fierce enemies after all and he would be able to take care of Zelda. She was tough also. Sometimes he thought that she could take just as many people that he could. After all when she had been Sheik she had been strong and could take care of herself.

He knew that she would be able to do it now too, even if she was younger and her dad treated her like she was just a helpless princess. She was much more than that.

Sometimes he thought that she could be scary.

“Everything will be okay, Father,” Zelda said. Link wondered if she knew what he was thinking. Link had told her about Sheik before. He had told her much of the future and she believed him.

The king paused and Link felt a flutter of hope. It would be more fun to have Zelda with him to play games. He wanted to have more friends who would play games with him.

“There will be other times when you can go out to the town,” the king said. “Perhaps your friend Link can go with you then.”

“But Father,” Zelda said with a sigh. “He really can make sure that nothing will happen to us. He is strong and—” Zelda didn’t get a chance to finish what she was going to say.

Link didn’t get a chance to try and explain everything either. He didn’t know how much the king knew about the future, and he knew that he probably wouldn’t believe most of it, but he should trust Link. Link was one of the main reasons that they found out about Ganondorf and what he had been planning.

Without Link the future would have happened how it was meant to.

Link hated the thought of it. He saw that future too many times in his nightmares. He was afraid that somehow it would come true despite everything.

That somehow he hadn’t done enough.

“The matter is settled, Zelda,” The king said. “If Link wants to spend time with you, he can do it in the castle until you must do your studies.”

Zelda let out a small sigh, but she nodded. It turned out that there wasn’t much time until she had to do her studies too.

“I’m sorry, Link,” Zelda said with a sigh. “We’ll be able to go to the market town and play some games later. It would be nice to get to know the town people too.”

“What if your father doesn’t ever allow it?” Link asked. He could see something like that happening. He might want to try and protect her despite that Link would never let something happen to any of his friends.

Especially after what had happened seven years in the future.

“He will,” Zelda said. “I might have to have some of the guards with me though.” She paused. “I know that you are better than they are but people don’t know that. They don’t know about the future.”

They didn’t. They just thought that he was a kid that somehow found out something horrible. Link wished that more people knew what he had really done. He wished that people would know the truth.

“Okay…” Link said, even though it wouldn’t be as fun with the guards there. He wasn’t even sure if the guards liked him all that much and they were adults anyway. Adults were never as much fun as kids. He had learned that.

Zelda still smiled though.

Link had to leave soon after that so she could do her studies and he went and played the games by himself. Just like he thought, it wasn’t near as much fun as he knew that it would have been with Zelda.

Eventually he got tired of playing them and went out to Hyrule Field even though it was getting dark. He rode Epona around the field. He stopped at some of his favorite places as he did. He even eventually ended up jumping down a hole and taking a nap next to one of the cows that he used to visit on his adventures around Hyrule.

In the morning, he went to Lake Hylia and went fishing. That was fun for awhile, but eventually he got tired of that too. It didn’t matter how many fish he caught or how large they were.

Eventually he ended up leaving and riding aimlessly through Hyrule Field. He didn’t know what he wanted to do. He needed to do something. Maybe he should have gone back to Kokiri Forest, but he knew that he would just be told that Navi still hadn’t shown up. He couldn’t hear that again.

He couldn’t take it.

It was too hard.

Eventually he ended up near Lon Lon Ranch. He hadn’t been there for awhile. And Malon was one of his friends. Maybe she could go to the Market Town with him one day. That was where they had met the first time. It felt like forever ago, even longer than it actually had.

Even though Link wasn’t even thirteen yet, it felt like he was much older. He had seen so much already. Both in Hyrule and in Termina.

When he got to Lon Lon Ranch, the sun was starting to go down, but he didn’t think that they would be asleep yet. Sure enough and soon as he stepped in, he heard loud chirping and then a hoard of cuccos ran by. They didn’t look angry, but they were certainly energetic and were moving faster than Link had seen them.

Talon came flying out of his and Malon’s house as well as the coop. His eyes were wide and he let out a cry. He went running after the cuccos but they were much faster than him and they seemed determined to avoid being caught.

It was almost like they were playing a game that they found funny. For a moment, it sounded like they were laughing in their own way.

Link knew that he should help him and he was about to do just that. He didn’t know what he needed to do though. Maybe just catch them and return them to their house. Those cuccos could be more deadly than anything else he had fought. He had found that out the hard way.

He remembered once when he had accidentally hit one of them with his sword when he had been an adult and they had chased him out of the town that he had been in. He still remembered the cuts that he had from them.

But yet he still didn’t like the birds.

Before he could take action and try to help Talon or at least find out what he was doing, Malon hurried out the house. Her red hair was wild and her eyes were also wide, but she also had a smirk on her face that looked almost like a smile.

This couldn’t be that bad if she looked like this, right?

And sure enough she laughed. Link couldn’t help but think about how much he liked her laugh. It was even prettier than Romani’s even though the two of them looked close enough alike to be twins. It was just so… cute.

Link felt his face get warm when he thought that. What was going on with him?

“Fairy boy, what are you doing here?!” Malon exclaimed, looking away from her dad who was still having trouble with the cuccos.They had all gone in different directions. One of them had even managed to get on one of the horses.

It would have been funny if one of them had gotten on Epona, but Epona was near him so no where close to them.

“I—” Link tried to say, but he didn’t get a chance to finish.

“Never mind, it doesn’t matter right now,” she said. “I’m glad that you’re here.”

Link nodded and tried not to smile. It was good that someone was happy to see him. Sometimes it seemed like his other friends were getting tired of seeing him. None of them said that, but he still thought they might feel that way.

“Can you help me and my father catch the cuccos? Malon said and then she laughed again. “He did something that made them crazy. I don’t know what though.”

Link didn’t know what either. He had never seen cuccos like this. He wished he had one of the masks that he had in Termina because it would have helped him handle them. However, he hadn’t kept his masks when he had left. He figured that they belonged in the land that they had come from.

Sometimes he regretted that though. Some of them could do amazing things.

Some of them were just fun to have.

“I can—” Link tried to say, but Malon got too excited and didn’t give him a chance to finish.

“If you do, then I’ll give you some fresh Lon Lon milk,” Malon said. “I swear you like it more than my dad even does.”

Sometimes it didn’t seem like anyone else appreciated it as much as he did. Maybe because they had grown up having it when Link hadn’t.

“We can ride the horses too,” Malon said. “We never ride our horses together. It’ll be fun. I’m sure you’ll be better at doing that then my dad is.”

Link nodded. He never got to ride Epona with anyone. He had when he had won her when he had been an adult, but that situation had been entirely different. He knew that Malon was good at riding horses, but he hadn’t seen her do it much.

Maybe the two of them could race even.

“I can help you catch them,” Link said. After all, how hard could it be to the catch the cuccos? He had done that before in Kakariko.

Surely it wouldn’t be that much more difficult here, even if they were acting much crazier than before. He would be able to do it, right?

Chapter Text

Zelda 3

He had figured catching the cuccos wouldn’t be that hard even though they did look like they were crazier than usual. He had fought horrible monsters and saved two worlds, so he thought that he could handle some cuckoos, but they were crazier than anything he had ever fought before. It seemed like nothing would be able to calm them. They were flying around as if they were on something stronger than milk and when Link and anyone got too close to them.

At times Link wasn’t sure he would be able to do it. They kept going at him but somehow… somehow he managed to get them all in the coop.

But he would be having some scratches for a few days still.

Malon giggled. “Those birds can be crazy, fairy boy.”

Link nodded. That was true.

“You seemed to like it though,” Malon said.

“I…” Link said. “I was just helping.”

“You were doing more than that,” Malon said and then she laughed again. “You were smiling when you caught them.”

Smiling? That was when Link realized that he was smiling even now despite everything. It felt like he hadn’t been smiling much at all recently, especially not without thinking about it.

“It was fun,” Link said.

“Fun?” Malon crossed her hands and gave him a look. He had missed her when he had been in Termina. Romani and her sister might have looked like her but they weren’t the same. “I didn’t think it was fun at all.”

Link shrugged.

That was when Malon looped her arm with him and smiled at him again., He couldn’t help but smile back at her. “Let’s get some milk now, fairy boy. That is if you don’t have anything better to do?”

“I’d like some milk,” Link said. When he thought about it, he could already almost taste it.

“My dad will probably want you to stay for dinner too,” Malon said. “He actually tried to cook.”

Link liked that idea of that. He didn’t usually get a homemade food. Usually he just ate what he could find and it wasn’t anything fancy. When he had been in Kokiri Forest he would have a lot of soups and other things like that, which he was used to and liked in his own way. He tried to replicate it when he had been on his own, but he wasn’t good at it.

Sometimes people offered him food on his travels, but not very often.

One day Link wanted to learn to cook on his own. He thought that it might even be fun.

“I want to stay and have dinner,” Link said, without thinking twice about it.

“My dad isn’t a good cook,” Malon said, making a face. “He is always burning things.” She sighed and made even more of a face. “I can already smell burnt food. You’d probably like whatever they have at the forest more.”

“I’m not… I’m not staying at the forest right now,” Link said, trying to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal. He knew that he could always go back. Saria would probably be happy when he came back. She had wanted him to go out because she thought it might make him happy.

Malon gave him a look. “So do you want to stay and have some of my dad’s food?” She smiled again. “He might not be good at cooking, but Ingo is really good at baking. He makes the best desserts.”

Link bit the inside of his mouth. He didn’t have the best memories of Ingo either, but eventually he had changed too. He had been a nice person after Link had gotten Epona. It was as if it was night and day.

“Really?” Link asked.

“I know he doesn’t seem like he would be but he can make the best desserts,” Malon said. “He makes the best strawberry shortcake especially.”

Link really couldn’t see that, but yet he would like to. Malon led him into the house and sure enough Talon had somehow already made dinner. It smelled… well, it didn’t smell good exactly, but it smelled like food in a way… and like smoke also.

“Dad, did you burn the food again?” Malon said with a sigh as she put her hands on her hips. “It’s not that hard to cook.”

“He would be able to cook better if he wasn’t falling asleep,” Ingo said with a sigh as he sat at the table now.

“I—” Talon tried to say, but he didn’t get a chance to finish what he was saying.

“He’s right. You can’t fall asleep when you’re cooking,” Malon said. “You could burn the whole ranch down if you do that.”

Talon sighed and shook his head but he didn’t say anything about it at first, until he had gone to the table too and sat down. “Maybe I’ll bring one of the cuccos with me when I’m cooking. They can help me stay awake.”

Link actually thought that was a good idea. It had been a cuccos that had woken him up near the castle. Plus if they were going to act how they had today then he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. Not unless he wanted to be murdered by one of them.

They were very strong birds.

Link and Malon went and sat down too and Talon got back up and brought the food over. Sure enough it was burnt. Not just burnt but it was hard for Link to even know what it was at first. Still he forced himself to take a bite out of it. And it… well, it wasn’t good but it wasn’t that bad either. He had had much worse before.

And it was warm and that was nice right now after everything.

He had some delicious fresh milk next to it too which made everything better.

Malon kept giving him weird looks as he ate it. She was mostly picking at the food and neither of the adults seemed to like what they were eating either, even though Talon kept making comments about how it was good and people were too hard on his cooking.

Link liked it in a way… or at least he was fine with eating it.

He ate the whole thing.

Talon’s eyes widened. “You… you liked my cooking?”

Malon looked at the plate and then at her dad. “He can’t like your cooking. It’s…”

“It’s not even that editble,” Ingo said, but he was also looking at Link’s plate.

Link thought about trying to take more, but he didn’t know what the others would do if he did that. They already seemed shocked enough as it was.

“It was okay,” Link said. He wouldn’t tell him that it was good but he thought that if he did bring a cucco then he could make good food.

“Maybe he doesn’t know what is good food because he’s from the forest and…” Malon tried to say but then she looked at Link and her father and stopped.

“You shouldn’t say things about the fairy people in the forest,” Talon said, which surprised Link. He was used to Talon always falling asleep and well… being lazy, but he had shown that he was going to change in the future also.

And Link knew that he loved his daughter.

It must be nice to have parents. Link remembered the story that he had been told about his mother by the Deku Tree, but he couldn’t actually imagine what it would be like to have someone like that. The Deku Tree had made it sound like his mother had cared about him. She must have known that leaving him in the forest would be a good idea.

He was glad that he had been there. He had been surrounded by people who cared for him. Saria had been like an older sister to him. She would always be like an older sister to him, even when Link was older than her physically.

He would never be as wise as her even when he looked older.

Link wondered if his mother had known that things would be okay for him if she left him in the forest. He wondered if she had heard stories about it. She must have heard or at least hoped that it would be a good place for him.

She must have loved him, right?

Link wished that he could have gotten to know her. He wished that he could have gotten to know her and his father.

If things had been different then maybe they would have been a family. What would have happened then? Would he have ever fought Ganondorf? Maybe he would have lived a normal life. Or maybe there was something made him destined to fight him? Like… a curse? Somehow that seemed right, even though Link knew that he had to do it.

“Fairy Boy? Link?” Malon asked, using his real name. He didn’t know the last time that she had called him that. He didn’t mind the nickname fairy boy, but he also liked that she had used his real name. “Are you okay?”

“I… I’m okay,” Link said.

“Are you sure—” Talon tried to say, but Link didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Link didn’t want to tell them what he had been thinking about.

He hadn’t told anyone about his mother who had left him in the forest. Maybe some people in the forest knew about it since they were all older than him, despite that Link was already getting taller, but he didn’t know.

Maybe the Deku Tree had kept it all a secret. Mido probably would have made fun of him even more than he already had if he knew for sure why Link was there and what had happened. He doubted that it would have remained a secret.

Link didn’t mind Mido now and yet…

“I just want to have dessert now,” Link said. “Malon said that Ingo makes really good dessert.”

Malon shrugged. “I didn’t say really good. It’s okay though.”

Ingo smirked, but Link could tell that he wanted to smile even more than he already was. Ingo could be good with horses even though Epona hadn’t liked him, but Link hoped that he was better with desserts.

Link had never had much desserts, but he had a feeling that he would like them.

And sure enough when the dessert got there Link tried it and he didn’t think that he had ever had anything this good. Well, at least not besides Lon Lon milk. That was… he didn’t know if it was better but it was just as good in a different way. The dessert was somehow sweet and tangy at the same time and even had a bit of sour and he couldn’t stop eating it.

It was good. He ate much too fast and this time he couldn’t help but get another plate. Really, he probably would have ate the whole cake if he could have.

Ingo and Talon were eventually just watching him which caused him to stop. Ingo was smiling though. He wasn’t even trying to prevent himself from doing it.

“Kid really does love your food,” Talon said. “Maybe you have a future as a baker instead.”

Ingo shrugged and didn’t say anything about that, but Link could tell that he was pleased about that comment.

“It was good,” Link said, but it was much more than that.

Malon laughed. “We should go ride horses now. We can race.” She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I know that I’ll beat you.”

Link grinned. There was no way that he was going to let that happen. Epona would like racing. This was going to be a lot of fun.

But then Talon ended his silence.

“Malon, it is getting late,” Talon said.

Malon blinked. “But I want to race?” It came out as a question as if she wasn’t used to her father saying something like this. He probably wouldn’t have done that before a year ago when he had been trying to save Hyrule.

“You’ll be able to spend time with your friend later,” Talon said. “You can come and race my daughter later?”

Link nodded. He could come back. He would come back first thing in the morning. That sounded better than anything else that he could do right now.

“You do have somewhere to stay right now?” Talon asked.

Link stared at him, not sure what to say. He would be fine on his own. He was fine being out in the field. He could take care of himself.

“The forest is pretty far from here. You won’t be able to get there before night,” Talon said. “Do you have somewhere else to stay?”

Malon nodded and looked at him. “Epona won’t even be able to get there in time?”

Link knew that she wouldn’t have been able to get him back in time, but he hadn’t planned to go back there anyway.

Not yet anyway. Maybe eventually.

“I have somewhere to stay,” Link said. He didn’t mind sleeping out under the stars at Hyrule. That was if he could actually sleep. It had been difficult recently and he would often find himself tossing and turning.

Winter was coming too.

“You sure? Because we can have you sleep here,” Talon said.

Link thought about taking up on that, but it didn’t feel right. He didn’t want to be a burden. He already felt like he had been that way in Kokiri Forest, especially since now he knew that he was a Hylian and not one of them.

“I’m fine,” Link said. “I have a place to go.”

“Where?” Ingo asked, which surprised Link. He didn’t think that Ingo would say anything about that. Link had been far from his favorite person in the future and probably here too.

“I know someone in Kakariko,” Link said, surprised that he thought of something so fast. He didn’t actually have that many friends in Kakariko, especially now. In the future he had known more.

He did like to go there sometimes. He liked to help out Dam[e the grave digger. Before he had even gotten a heart piece from him before. Still it wasn’t like he was going to stay with him. He didn’t even plan to go to Kakariko.

Luckily they didn’t ask him where he was going to stay or any more questions like that.

“You should come over tomorrow,” Malon said. “That way we can race horses.”

Link nodded.

He left soon after that, but was given some leftovers to eat. He hadn’t gotten far from the ranch when he took them out and ate them almost right away. They weren’t as warm and comforting as they had been before, but he still liked them. He was tempted to eat the dessert now since it had been so good, but he also wanted to make sure that he would have it later. Maybe for breakfast.

When he tried to get to sleep, he found himself tossing and turning all night. It was cold tonight and it looked like it was going to rain. He knew what rain looked like now because he had caused it to come so many times with the Song of Storms.

He didn’t want to deal with that so he hoped that he was wrong and it wouldn’t come. Or at the very least that it would be light and he could just go under a tree and not have to worry about it. And he went to do just that, but soon he found out that it wasn’t just going to sprinkle. No, it was already raining so much harder than that.

Soon Link found that he was drenched. The rain had chilled him to the bone and the cold winter air wasn’t making it easier. He remembered how Zora’s Domain had been under Ganondorf and the mountain in Termina. It reminded him of that, even though there wasn’t any snow.

There wasn’t any snow yet.

Link couldn’t stand this. He could have ridden Epona to the forest even though it was a ways away or he could have gone to Kakariko after all. He could have even played the song that would cause him to warp somewhere else where the weather might be better. Even if it wasn’t better, he could find a place to sleep. He probably could have stayed in the Temple of Time and no one have noticed.

But he didn’t want to do that.

Instead he found himself back by the Ranch. He knew that he could have knocked on the door and they would have let him stay there, but he didn’t want them to know that he hadn’t had somewhere to stay before. He didn’t want anyone’s pity.

But he did want somewhere dry to sleep. Luckily he knew a place on the ranch that he could go without them noticing. He wouldn’t have minded sleeping near the horses but then he would be caught pretty easily, especially since Epona was here.

Really having Epona here made it more challenging in general, but he still had a plan.

The ranch had a place near the back where he and Epona could go inside. Not only was it dry and warm in there, but there had always been a cow there too. He knew a song to get milk. It seemed like even cows loved music.

But right now he didn’t want milk. He just wanted to be warm.

There was some dry hay in the shed and he didn’t hesitate to lay down on it. It felt like it had only been seconds since he had put his head down that his eyes refused to stay open. He drifted off to sleep.

It was one of the first peaceful sleeps that he had for a long time.