Legend of Zelda: Deluge November Part 7

     The rest of the armory seem almost clean itself up, caught up in a whirlwind of frenzied, rough scrubbing, washing and polishing. When a knight came to inspect, he was speechless at Link’s speedy progress. After making him redo a few things, he declared the job finished. Immediately, Link rushed to put his cleaning equipment away back in a nearby room where soap was stored, and then hurried to the stables.

      “Great timing, fairy boy!” The moment he entered, Malon threw him a pitchfork. “You’re just in time to help me muck the stalls!”

     After some instructions, Malon had him cleaning and putting down fresh straw for all fifty eight stalls. She told him that there were even more stables out on the castle grounds, and the Stablemaster was currently stranded there. As he cleaned each stall, Malon would lead the horse out and pace it around the courtyard. As Link worked, he noticed that most of the horses were very frisky in the snow. They tossed their heads and even kicked out at the snow; some bucked around in what he thought was a very childish manner. Malon seemed completely relaxed working with the even the largest horse, which was brown with thick feathers as white as the snow. He leaned against the pitchfork and watched them for a while until Malon noticed and motioned for him to get back to work.

      After they had finished, Link knew it was nearing late afternoon. After putting away the last horse, Malon left him, going to fetch some water. He was not very dirty, but was covered with straw and dust. His body was sore, but he felt more awake and alive with the exercise than he had in a few days. Pacing up and down the stable corridors, he easily stretched his arms and back out. Some of the horses watched him and, when he lingered by one, it sneezed on him.

     “I’m back!” The horses Malon had brought from her ranch pricked their ears up and looked over for her at the sound of her voice. Link felt just like them, turning around quickly, standing up straight, hastily picking a piece of straw from his hair as she came into view, easily carrying a large wooden bucket that was steaming. Under her arm she had a rolled up dry towel.

     “It’s the least I can do since I got you to work for me.” She handed him the bucket, which was very heavy and full of hot water. After he set it down she gave him the towel, and then dragged a wooden stool over from a corner. “Just wash yourself off some, but don’t get yourself too wet or you’ll freeze out there!”

     Link smiled, grateful. “Thank you for this.” Sitting down, he began to rub his arms off with the hot water. He noticed that a distinct layer of dirt and dust was coming off and he scrubbed harder with his knuckles.

     “Have you been around horses much, Link?” Malon asked, leaning against the wall, watching him.

     He shook his head.

     “I thought so. You’re pretty nervous around them.”

     Trying to focus less on her figure in the corner of his eye and more on scrubbing his hands, he asked, “You could tell?”

     “Yep. The horses can tell, too. They’re probably the smartest animals around.”

     “Maybe.” He looked up at the horse across from him, whose back was turned to them. “They’re…definitely different.”

     “Ohh, yes, that’s definitely true!”

     “But, you know…” Link leaned back towards the water, pulling up his sleeves and rubbing down his arms. “You are really calm around them, you must know all there is to know about them—”

     Malon let out a burst into laughter, then stifled it down, exclaiming, “Oh, no! If only! Horses are a total mystery, really. I mean, I’ve been around them my whole life, but there’s no way I could ever completely understand or know everything about them. They’re kind of like…” She gestured her arms, looking around as if for the answer. “They’re like…men.”

     Frowning, Link thought that the concept applied better to women, but did not say anything. Malon walked in front of him, just on the other side of the bucket and crouched down to his eye level, smiling warmly. Her face so suddenly close, he immediately sat up straight, almost shooting out of his seat.

     “You’re really funny, fairy boy, we really should keep working together.” She cocked her head, her expression sobering slightly. “I hope I haven’t scared you off with getting you to muck the stalls first thing. There’s a lot more to working with horses than just that. Horses are a mystery, but I promise they really are a lot of fun to work with.”

     Waiting for an answer, she looked straight at him, their gazes locking. Link froze, not sure if he felt like a deer when it’s spotted a wolf or if he just wanted to immediately nod overeagerly in agreement, bobbing up and down his head like an idiot. He just quickly shook his head, trying to clear it.

     “Yeah—of course. That sounds nice.”

     “Oh, that’s good.” She sighed, standing up. The moment her back was turned, Link hastily went back to scrubbing down his arms and then his neck, desperate for something to do.

     “I mean, if you don’t work with me, who knows who I might get stuck with,” Malon was saying in a slightly dreamy voice. Link was relieved she kept her back turned as she continued, “I mean, I might get stuck with someone…like that Bolek. How do you know him, anyways?” She turned around and Link intently kept his eyes downward, continuing to scrub his hair.

    “His brother is engaged to my sister,” he said quickly, rubbing his hands through his hair a little too hard.

     “So you’ll be brothers then! Well, that’s…nice. He’ll be an interesting brother to have. He was in here talking about all the things he did at his town by the creek and all. It was…interesting.”

     “It’s a river.”

     “Oh, right, his town by the river. Which river was it, exactly? You’re from there too, right?”

      They continued to chat until the water cooled and Link finished rubbing the dust and dirt off of himself as much as he could without taking any clothes off. Malon once suggested that he could take his shirt off and give himself a full rub down, since he would probably not get another chance to wash himself off at all for a while. Although he came from a fishing town where he had gone around shirtless nearly all of his life while working, no matter who was in the area, Link had furiously shook his head no. To his relief, Malon quickly dropped the topic of his refusal.

     Afterwards, she took the bucket and towel, starting towards the exit. “Let’s go see how hard the snow is coming down out there now.”

     The snow was only lightly falling, though the breeze was still very strong. As it grew, the snowfall grew thinner and thinner.

     “Looks like its letting up for a while.” Link leaned forward, looking at the light, cloudy sky.

     “That’s good.” She looked at him. “Do you think that you could take a message to the Stablemaster, out in the grounds? I promised that I would let him know how I was managing things. If you could go and let him know I’m done for the day? And, if he asks for details, just say you just started working, but say that the horses had food, water, clean stalls, they’ve been cleaned thoroughly and put through their paces, and that they’ll be blanketed tonight.” Her eyes almost seemed to be sparkling as she asked him in a strangely sweet voice, “Would you do this for me? It would be a huge help.”

      He nodded automatically. “Sure. Yeah, sure. Sounds fine.”

     “Great! I’ll take care of everything here, you hurry and do that message before the weather gets bad. Come back to the stables once you’re done, alright?”

     Again, he just nodded and began to walk out into the courtyard until she shouted after him, “Wait wait! Your cloak! You’ll need that!”

     Not bothering to try to reply he stiffly walked back inside the stables, grabbed his cloak and hurriedly pulled it over his shoulders and paced back outside, trying to not make eye contact with her as he continued towards one of the drawbridges that led out to the castle grounds.

     The guards upon the castle walls refused to lower the drawbridges. Instead, they directed Link to a small door, hidden on the east side of the wall, that led out into the grounds. He quickly found it and passed through, closing the door behind him.

     As he looked out at the bleak, frozen view of the rolling, sloping castle grounds, he realized he had absolutely no idea where exactly the Stablemaster was located. There were no guards on the area of the wall above him at the moment, so he walked out into the grounds, looking around and up at the wall, waiting for someone to show up. He thought about going back to ask Malon, but imagined her laughing at him for not asking in the first place and dismissed the idea.

     The wind was immensely cold, and the snows blew around in the wind from the ground. Even though there was currently no snow falling, there was plenty being whipped into the air, blurring his surroundings and assailing all within their reach with frozen, sharp specks. Shielding his eyes with his arm, he kept walking towards the front of the castle walls.

     The wind died a little, and the area cleared. He stopped. He was in a clear, partially gated area that must have been a garden, with low lumps of bushes covered in white, iced walkways in between in thin rows of the bushes and the tall, half-naked trees. Frowning, he spotted something thick, snow-covered and irregularly lumpy in the center of the area.

     It was a snowman. As he walked over to it, he wondered who on earth would bother to build a snowman in this weather. Brushing out some of the thick snow from his hair, he allowed that the wet snow would make building the snowman easy, but it still made little sense.

     He was now right in front of it, leaning forward, sizing it up. It was just a little taller than he. Very lumpy, it looked more like large, windswept chucks of snow bunched together rather than a properly formed, three-part snowman. It had an extremely vast bottom and middle, topped with what was the ugliest, undecorated snowman head and face Link had ever seen. He leaned forward further, just about a foot away from it, looking at its strange, large, indistinguishable white head.

     Suddenly, it had eyes. He stepped back, but did not look or run away. The eyes were smaller than his own, but were a dark, deep blue, though the left one looked slightly faded, as if it had been damaged.

      For a long moment, it just looked at him and he at it.

      “What are you doing out here?”

     A deep, strong voice had come from the snowman. It began to move, and the snow fell away as it rose up, revealing a Goron. It was Durmuni, the tribe leader.

      Link stared at him, but then internally shook himself and managed to answer, “I—I’m trying to find the stables out here.”

     Durmuni raised one rocky eyebrow, saying, “Unlike me, you could freeze, and the snow will return soon. Go back inside.”

     “I would, but I need to just deliver a message to them.”

     “You’re not a member of the castle household. You’re not a courier. Why would you be delivering a message that would risk your life?”

     Frowning thoughtfully, Link answered slowly, “I’m just delivering a message from the woman helping in the stables inside the castle. She wanted it delivered so I just sort of…” He trailed off, realizing he had not thought this entire venture through.

     “Ahhh, a woman. That’s why.” Durmuni almost smiled. “The strange things that Hylian women get their male counterparts to do never cease to astound me. Yet, I have little to do at the moment. I’ll lead you to the stables.”

     Link hoped he did not look too surprised as he thanked Durmuni, who did not answer, but immediately began to walk away, to his right. As he followed, Link stayed in the paths that the Goron cut through in the snow or stepped in his large footprints. He walked at a brisk, steady pace, unaffected by the wind or fallen snow, and sometimes Link had to jog to keep up with him. Moving at this pace, they soon reached the stables. They were large, low and mostly wood, hosting what looked and smelled like well over two hundred horses. Surrounding the stables were short, thick pine trees that blocked the wind. The snow had begun to fall again. Durmuni stopped just outside the line of pine trees, waiting while Link ran inside.

     He was quickly directed to the Stablemaster, who interrogated Link a little about the horses back at the castle, but easily gave his approval. Soon he sent Link away, directing him to let Malon know that he trusted her. As he exited the stables and went outside the encircling pine trees, Link found Durmuni still there, looking away at the hazy, grey and white world. The snow was falling a little harder, and the wind was relentless.

    Spotting him, Durmuni said, “Let’s return. The snow will worsen quickly, and I want to hear the report from the Magician’s Guild.”

    “What would that be about?” Link asked.

     As they began to walk back towards the castle, Durmuni answered, “It’s a test performed by a  league of the most powerful magicians among the aristocracy. Apparently in magical skill they are just as, or perhaps more powerful, than the King Hyrule and the Princess Zelda, and they’ve been set on determining whether or not this storm is magical.” He shook his head. “It might just be a sudden blizzard, but apparently the…meteorologists of the castle say otherwise. The Guild had some trouble yesterday, and so they’re supposed to announce the nature of the storm this evening.”

     The snow was falling harder, heavier and icier, almost like hail. Link pulled his cloak up over his head, shielding his face, while Durmuni just bent his head down a little, otherwise unaffected. They continued on without talking until they reached the castle wall, and trailed it until they reached the small door that Link had come in through. However, it had been locked behind him, and they could not see any guards up on the wall.

     “Incompetent,” Durmuni was muttering under his breath. “Knowing there’s a door here, and not keeping constant watch on it; this would be the easiest place for anyone to break in through.”

     Immediately he curled up and rolled away speedily and messily, sending snow flying everywhere. Link wiped it off of himself hastily. After a few moments, he could hear Durmuni’s voice, shouting at someone, loud over the wind. Hastily Link stood back as Durmuni came rolling back into sight and stopped before the door, uncurling and standing up straight in one swift movement, glaring up at the wall expectantly, his arms crossed.

     After a few seconds passed and no one showed, he sighed. “He was on the other side of the castle. It might take a while.” He turned his attention towards Link. “And you, you’re going to become a knight, are you?”

     Blinking rapidly in surprise, Link answered, “No. Why do you ask?”

     “You were armed, and were not cowering with the others during the Stalchild attack.” Durmuni frowned. “You seek to be an independent warrior of some sort, then? Golo told me about all that he told you about our type of combat…” He narrowed his eyes. “All of it. You haven’t told anyone else about any of it, have you?”

     Link quickly shook his head no. “It never really occurred to me to do so.”

     “See that it doesn’t.”

     Durmuni turned his gaze away, glaring up at the wall again, waiting for the knights. Deciding to stay silent, Link busied himself by staring at the ground and pulling his cloak around him against the wind. He repeated the gesture several times, just willing to have something to do to make things feel a little less awkward.

     Thankfully a guard soon arrived and hurried to unlock the door and let them in. They walked through the small east courtyard and up into the northern one, where the stables and the entrance to the castle were located. Loitering around the large castle doors were Golo and Dolo. Dolo spotted them and immediately walked over, looking peevish. Golo followed him, his shoulders slumped.

     As they met in the middle of the yard, Dolo loudly asked, “Was there something to do outside that you were busy with all day? I thought we weren’t supposed to leave the castle grounds.”

      “I went outside to get some air, but the snow is picking up again, so it’s too dangerous for anyone now,” Durmuni answered.

     “Could I go out later, if it lets up again?” Golo asked, absentmindedly grinding his knuckles together in a slow, habitual fashion.

      “Haven’t you kept busy in the castle?” Durmuni asked.

     “Yes, but they keep giving us easier things since we’re guests,” Golo said, sitting down on the ground and folding his arms, looking up at Durmuni. “I’m not trying to complain, I—”

     “If we were allowed to go out into the city, this wouldn’t be a problem,” Dolo interrupted. Golo looked at the ground, silent, sulking.

     “Nonsense. The castle may be assaulted by malignant magic, and you want to abandon our allies?” Durmuni snorted, and Link guessed it was disdainful, but it also sounded like the snort of an enraged wild boar, about the charge. As if responding to it, Dolo lifted up his hands defensively.

    “I’m just saying. And Golo is getting restless.”

     “Bored, are you?” Durmuni asked. Golo nodded, and he continued, “Well, I heard you told Link here a great deal about Goron martial arts. And the boy shows decent potential, and never intends to be a knight. Perhaps you two should train together to use your energy and pass the time.”

     Link and Golo both stared at Durmuni; Link leaned back a little in surprise, his mouth hanging open, while Golo’s expression was lighting up excitedly. But in one instant, it fell and, glancing at Link nervously, Golo stood up and walked over to Durmuni, whispering something in his ear. The other Goron nearly smiled, raising an eyebrow at Link.

     “No, I don’t think that will be a problem, Golo,” Durumni said as Golo stepped back. He looked relieved as Durmuni went on, “You two will be fine. I’m sure there’s plenty to learn from each other, and I know you will only improve.” He looked at Link. “What do you say?”

     Smiling broadly, Link immediately nodded. “That would be great! I would—”

     “Really?” interrupted Dolo loudly in a drawling voice. He rolled his eyes. “Sure, the kid doesn’t intend to be a knight, and seeing all the trouble he got into with them a couple days ago, I guess we can believe that. But teaching a human Goron skills?”

     “They’ll be doing general training, no specifics,” Durmuni said, his voice lower than before, sounding just a little impatient.

     “Okay, but really, what’s going to happen? You know this guy,” he jerked his head at Golo, who looked down at the ground, “has no self control. Think of all the damage he’s done back home! One minute of training and this kid will be snapped in two—”

     “That won’t happen.” Link spoke up without thinking, but Golo was looking so embarrassed and ashamed that he could not help it, and, ignoring their surprised looks, kept going in a firm voice, “When we were talking about your martial arts and fighting, he knew what he was talking about. He knows what he’ll be doing.”

     “And you know that, Dolo.” Durmuni was glowering at him. “Golo has just as much experience as any other Goron. We’re all a little rough around the edges in some areas, but I know this will be fine. Again, it’ll be good for them both. And…” He raised an eyebrow, a small smirk creeping on his face, “Since you’re so worried, you can supervise their training.”

     Dolo snorted angrily and opened his mouth to snap, but Durmuni took a small step forward, standing straight, towering over him. Immediately Dolo took a step back, unnerved, but he quickly recovered and shrugged easily. “Fine, fine. No problem. Somebody’s got to do it.”

     “Link?”

     They all turned, seeing Malon approaching, wearing a dark yellow cloak, shielding herself against the increasing wind and snow.

     Suddenly remembering at the sight of her, as she reached them Link turned to her, saying, “I got the message to the Stablemaster, and he said it was alright. All you’re doing, that is. He said he trusts you with the horses.”

     “Great, that’s good, but we should go inside.” Her eyebrows were knit in worry, and she looked at the Gorons, asking, “Have you heard? The Magician’s Guild just announced that this storm is caused by magic. And look, just now…” She pointed up at the sky. They all looked to see the clouds were swirling faster than the winds allowed, and increasingly growing darker. There was the distant sound of rumbling thunder.

    “That training will have to wait til tomorrow,” Durmuni said. “We all need to get inside, now.”

     “Let’s get going, Link,” Malon said, already walking towards the stables. Link began to follow, but slowed, looking back at the Gorons. Golo was smiling, saying, “We’ll train tomorrow for sure, Link!” He smiled in return, nodding.

     “Let’s go.” Durmuni began to walk away towards the castle, and the other two followed. Dolo shot Link a dark look. Realizing Link noticed, he tried to turn it into a grin, but just wound up looking sour.

     As they hurried away, Link turned and followed after Malon, glancing once more up at the sky. The clouds were swirling overhead like a whirlpool, some as dark as night. As he entered the stables, the freezing wind returned, chasing them all, bitter, scratching, followed by no longer snow, but violent, noisy hail. 

 

The Legend of Zelda and characters copyright Nintendo

"The Legend of Zelda: Deluge" writing and original concepts and characters copyright Mahira / Mahira-chan