Even as the Princess forbade Link from searching for the monsters and Auru, he had decided to do so anyways. The moment she closed her study door, he immediately turned and walked away, disappointed at her inability to help him, making him all the more resolute in going to search himself. Still, as he left, he could feel the eye of the black-clad woman who served Zelda following him. She did not say anything, yet Link could not help but feel as though she knew what he was thinking; it took all the courage he had not to run away from her piercing gaze.
Ever since then he had occupied himself with working to help clean up the castle until curfew was called. Now he hurried back to his room, keeping an eye out for Bolek, his body was limp and weary, each step taking an effort. Fighting to keep his mind off of this morning and his failure to help Auru, he focused on how he would explore Hyrule alone. He remembered the map that was still in Auru's pack, as well as the larger, more detailed maps of all the land that Purel owned. Deciding he had to first go back to his hometown, he stopped, realizing he would have to explain everything to Layrel in person.
Trying not to run all of her possible reactions to the news through his mind, Link began to walk again, rubbing his sore left arm uneasily. Turning into a small side hall, he stopped. Bolek was walking towards him, scowling furiously, even though his face was unusually pale.
"Link! Is it true?" He stopped in front of Link, grabbing him by the shoulders. "That woman, Impa, Princess Zelda's attendant—she said Auru had been taken by the monsters! That's ridiculous! She was making it up, right? I mean, I haven't seen him all day, but…" He trailed off uneasily, and let go of Link, who kept his eyes on the ground.
"I saw it happen."
Bolek stepped back, his fists clenching and unclenching tautly. "And what were you doing? What, you just stood there and—"
"I did all I could!"
"If you did, then why are you even here?" Bolek jabbed him in the chest with his finger, seething. "You're the one who should've been taken off to get eaten!"
"H-he wasn't taken to be eaten!" Link shook his head. "Why would they go to all the effort? He's got to be alright."
"Or he could be dead!" Bolek folded his arms tightly, sneering, circling Link as he went on, "You don't know anything about monsters, do you? You don't have any idea—" Bolek cut off, turning away, nearly growling a stream of curses under his breath. When he finished, he rounded on Link again, his face now red with anger as he bellowed, "This is all your fault! You let him be killed and your stupid sister is the reason he was here in the first place—"
"Maybe if you hadn't been avoiding him all week—"
"Don't blame this on me!" Bolek jabbed him painfully again in the chest. Without thinking, Link swat his hand away. In response Bolek shoved him hard against the wall.
Despite his weariness, a small spark was welling up inside him; every time Bolek ignored Auru, every nasty thing he had said ever since they came to the castle, all of it suddenly burst forth, assaulting his vision and ringing in his ears.
Before he knew it he had punched at Bolek's face; he had enough sense this time to dodge, and then lunged to tackle him. The training with Golo egged at Link to do the smart thing and sidestep out of Bolek's reach, but instead he just started punching like mad, fighting without rhyme or reason. Bolek responded in kind and landed many blows on him, one that broke his nose much like Link had done to him days ago. Feeling the hot blood streaming down into his mouth, Link grabbed Bolek's annoyingly long ginger hair just as Bolek grabbed his collar, both ready to punch each other's face in—
"Bolek! Link!" Malon's voice, unusually shrill, came down the hall, freezing them. They both looked just as she stormed over to them, grabbed the backs of their shirts and wrenched them apart with surprising strength. Her face was flushed, and she glared at them with irritated astonishment. "What is wrong with you!? We just got attacked by hordes of monsters and you're beating each other up?" Letting go of them, she stood between them, snapping at Bolek, "So this is why you left? That lady, Impa, came and told you something, you said whatever it was it wasn't a big deal! So what's this now?"
"So…he was helping you?" Link asked, gesturing at Bolek with one hand while gingerly trying to wipe the blood from his nose. Earlier he had gone to the stables to see if Malon needed any help. She had insisted that the stables had not been affected by the attack, and that Link should work in the damaged areas of the castle and that she had gotten some extra help anyhow.
"Yes, he was helping me with putting the horses down when that Impa came," said Malon, looking at Link before glaring back at Bolek.
"It's none of your business," Bolek muttered, not meeting her gaze.
"Well I suppose that might be true if you weren't beating up my other stable hand," she said, waving a hand at Link.
"He punched me first!"
"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it if you can't act like adults!"
"Malon, listen," Link tried to keep his voice clear and placating even as he tilted his head back to stem the blood flow, "Auru, Bolek's brother, he disappeared during the monster attack."
"Oh." Malon's hand flew to her mouth and her face paled. "Oh, I'm so sorry. You don't have any idea where he could be? I mean…"
"He's dead, thanks to him!" Bolek could not seem to resist jabbing his finger into Link's chest again. Malon rebuked him angrily, slapping his arm down. They began to squabble, Malon both shouting and nearing the point of tears and Bolek putting so much effort into not losing his temper with her that neither of them noticed Link leaving.
Despite the cold, he headed outside into the small, deserted west courtyard. The moon shone down freely in a clear, dark sky. There was no wind. All around him the still courtyard appeared the deep blue only found in winter nights: everything outside appeared to be dyed in a royal, pure blue and the windows of the castle were blossoming with the yellow and orange colors of light and warmth.
Link walked out and sat down on a small, cold bench in the middle of the courtyard and looked at all around him. The colors of the night transformed the area in a distinct, lovely way, but he sighed, hardly noticing.
His nose was not as bad as he thought it was, not quite broken, and soon the bleeding had stopped. Dusting the snow away, he laid back on the broad bench seat, looking up at the stars. He remembered going out into the widest clearings and small hills in the woods around his hometown with Auru and Purel to study the stars. Even now, he remembered them well, and knew that he could start walking at that moment, and eventually find his way back home without any maps or directions.
Shaking his head, he muttered, "Still need a map for small things" and gingerly rubbed his nose. On top of his weariness, which was currently abated by the cold, he now had the recent bruises from the fight with Bolek, which somehow seemed to reawaken the pains he had earned from training with Golo. He relished the freezing bench pressing against his back and the chill air, which dulled the pain to a degree. As he focused on the stars again, he thought of Layrel, Auru and his home, then tried not to think of how Layrel would take the news of her fiancée's abduction.
"I'll tell her I'm going to find him." He reached up at the stars with his sword hand, his left, slowly clenching his fist that was battered from colliding with Bolek's armor. "At least she won't try to go out on her own, then." Grinning, he muttered, "She would." Shaking his head, he let his arm fall dully beside him.
Looking at the sky, he noticed the moon peeping above the walls and into the yard. Strangely, its light seemed much more vivid than usual. Link squinted at it.
Not vivid, just…closer. Am I falling asleep?
He noticed two pairs of transparent, insect-like wings flapping around the moon and sighed. The teal fairy floated away from blocking the face of the moon and swooped down at him. Remembering how it had been her plight that had stopped him from going through the gate of light after Auru, Link closed his eyes, deciding to just ignore her.
"So, how are you going to do that?" she asked, her voice quite mild. Still, he did not answer.
"I said, how are you going to go after that man? That man the monsters took?" She must have floated down very close, because he heard a faint tingling noise, like a bell, sounding as though it was right next to his ear. Warming his face was a glow of warmth, like a small flame.
Still, he ignored her.
"Because you don't know anything about monsters, do you?"
Link finally opened his eyes to see her floating mere inches away from his face as he said, "I know enough. I can get help if I need it."
"So, you don't know what you're going to do."
Link sighed, and kept his voice even as he asked, "Do you want something?"
"Well, I was just curious." She flew even closer to him, though he did not move. Because she was so close, he could see a figure inside the teal ball of light.
He remembered a scroll that Purel owned written by a scholar named Klien that detailed a great deal about fairies. According to Klein, hidden by their veils of warm light was the real shape of a fairy: a young woman, inhumanly beautiful in all traits and features.
Link blinked quickly, adjusting his eyes to her light, clearing his vision.
He was surprised to see perhaps the strangest looking woman he had ever laid eyes upon, aside from her miniscule size. She did have a fairly cute, full face with a pointed chin. Her skin was the same teal blue shade as her light, though where a flush of red would have been on a Hylian, such as the lips, she only had a lighter shade of blue. Her pointed ears were unadorned and her eyebrows were so small they looked like mere dots.
Klein described at length how all fairies as had long, luscious, flowing locks of bountiful hair. This fairy's head seemed to have been mostly shaved, so only hair on the very top was growing, pin-straight and dark blue, spilling down in the front in long bangs, while almost all behind her pointed ears was pulled into a single braid, falling down her back and reaching down to her waist.
Her build itself was highly irregular; Klein had regaled visions of voluptuous, healthy, mature beauties. And yet this fairy looked much like a fourteen year old who has been so poorly underfed that she was bordering on so skinny it was painful to witness.
Lastly, to completely discredit Klein, she was not, as he described, "only wrapped in a fine, sheer gauze of faint light." Rather, she was wearing strips of rags for clothes. She had a short-sleeved dress with a single very dirty strip of cloth for a belt, as well as shoes, one of which was just some old, softened, thin rope, while the other was a rag that was tied in place around her foot.
Link was mentally tearing Klein's scrolls to shreds.
The fairy quickly realized he was staring, and his surprise must have been evident, for she crossed her arms and sneered at him, flying away, once again appearing as just a mere ball of light with wings. Link decided it might be an improvement.
"Do you want something?" she snapped, her voice no longer mild in the least. She flew around quickly, pacing back and forth alongside his bench.
"I just wanted to know what you wanted," Link replied, sitting up. "What were you doing out there in the field last night?"
"Well, that's…" The fairy slowed, and then started flying in a tight circle. "I was just looking around for a place to sleep. It was noisy where I was, so I was trying to find somewhere quiet. I just ran into trouble."
Link swung his legs off of the bench, looking up at her. "Do you want anything else?"
She did not answer, so he stood up, making to leave when she suddenly flew down in his face, saying, "Listen listen! I wanted to, uh…" She floated away a little, then began to fly in a circle above his head. "I mean, thanks for saving me. Again. I didn't think you would, since your friend was being taken away."
"It was nothing."
"But really! I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if you blame me."
Keeping his mouth firmly shut and his words bottled down, Link began to walk away, not wanting to say anything he would regret. Still, the fairy followed him, prattling, "And look, since you did that for me, I mean…well, it was NOT my fault you didn't save your friend, let's get that straight first, okay? But hey, since you did do that for me, I want to repay you, alright?"
Link just shook his head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The fairy flew in front of him again with a sharp, harsh shimmering sound that hurt his ears. He tried to walk around her, but she kept getting in his way as she continued, "I know you're trying to find your friend, and I can help you!"
Link finally stopped. "How? You can't even save yourself when you're in a bottle."
"Just because I can't beat up people or smash things like an oaf doesn't mean I'm worthless!" Her voice was becoming so high pitched Link had to fight against laughing at it. "I'm great with magic in other areas! I can help you find your way around Hyrule, you'll never be lost! And tracking, I can track people I've been around, even a little. How do you think I found you out here?"
Before he could stop himself, Link replied, "You followed my scent. I could get a dog for that."
"WHAT?! I am no ugly, stinky, furry, disgusting, filthy mutt! You little—" She stopped flying all together, hovering in one spot, vibrating in fury. Link could hear her muttering to herself furiously in her tiny voice for a few moments before she finally began to flutter normally, speaking in a very patient voice, "I can track people over immense distances, better than any dog, Hylian, horse, with my MAGIC. And I can sense magic, like the magic those Wizzrobes used to take your friend and the Moblins! I can track their magic really well! And I'm the only one who can help you find him quickly, before anything happens."
When Link did not reply, she floated down in front of Link's face, saying in a more sincere voice, " Listen, I owe you. I won't lead you astray. We can travel Hyrule and find him together, alright?"
Link was about to nod in agreement, but then hesitated, saying, "Can you turn yourself invisible?"
"What? Why would you ask that? Don't you want to be seen in the presence of a lovely lady like me?" She fluttered her wings in what Link guessed was supposed to be a flirty kind of way, but it just looked like she was having some sort of seizure.
"People might keep trying to capture and sell you."
"Humph. True. Well, I guess I'll just hide in your shirt again—"
Link furiously shook his head no.
"Well what do you want me to do?!"
Frowning, he scratched his head absentmindedly and noticed that he was still wearing his hat.
"How about this?" Link took off his hat, holding it open. "If someone comes along, you can just hide in here."
"Hmm…"
Link put his hat back on, and the fairy floated over to his head. After flying around it a couple times, she swooped down and squirmed inside of his hat. She kicked him a couple times, but was able to slide inside quickly. He felt her flying around inside for a moment, and then she quickly swooped back out again.
"It's so stuffy in there!"
"I…I guess I could poke some holes," Link said, taking his hat off and looking at it.
"Well, I guess it will do." The fairy flew down little, in front of his right arm. She stayed there for a moment, hovering, and then snapped, "Well, let's shake on it!"
Link hesitated, but then held out his right hand as if for a handshake. She flew forward, covering his hand in her light and the warm glow. He felt her miniscule hands grab the end of his pointer finger and let her shake it up and down a couple times.
"There!" She flew up, resting down on his head. "It's settled. We'll leave tomorrow morning, before dawn!"
Link nodded, only for her to scold him. "Don't move your head! I'm sitting up here!"
Keeping his head as still as he could, Link turned and walked for the doors, ready for sleep. Before they went inside, he asked, "What's your name?"
"A gentleman goes first, or so I've heard."
He gulped. "Link."
"I'm Truett. What kind of a name is Link? You've never had a nickname in your life, have you?"
Link paused with his hand on the doorknob, but decided to just keep quiet and hurried inside.
The Legend of Zelda and characters copyright Nintendo
"The Legend of Zelda: Deluge" writing and original concepts and characters copyright Mahira / Mahira-chan
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