1-At Work

It was a dusky afternoon. Two men were sitting in front of a spring. A young man, and an older guy who was a swordsman.

“Tell me now,” the elder swordsman began. “do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls? They say it’s the only time when our world intersects with theirs.”

“Theirs?” the younger man asked.

“Yes. The only time we can feel the lingering regrets of spirits who have left our world.” then he paused. “That is why loneliness always pervades the hour of twilight. But enough talk of sadness, I have a favor to ask you Link.”

“What is it?” Link looked over to the older guy.

“I was supposed to deliver something to the royal family of Hyrule the day after tomorrow. And yes; the mayor gave me this task but…”

“Yes?” Link interrupted. He didn’t mean to, but he was just a little curious.

“Would you like to go in my stead?”

Link shot a confused look. “Why?”

The older man paused again. “You have never been to Hyrule before right?”

Link nodded slowly. “Yeah…”

“Well in the kingdom of Hyrule; there is a great castle. And around it is a Castle Town. A community far bigger than our little village.”

“Really?” Now Link was a little interested in this Hyrule town.

“And far bigger than Hyrule is the rest of the world, created by the gods.”

“Wow!” Link gasped in amazement. He had always wanted to travel and see the word, something a little more than this small little village.

“And you should look upon it with your own eyes. That is why.” Link smiled to himself, that would be something fun and exciting to experience.

Then the older man stood up. “It is getting late, we should head back to the village. I will talk to the mayor about this matter.”

Then Link stood up. “Okay then.” So Link got his horse, Epona, and he and the other man began to walk and talk on the way back to the village.

He thought of what it would be like in a kingdom. What would it look like? What would it feel like? What would it smell like? It might look better than this village. It might feel better than this village…or not since this village is his home. You wouldn’t feel better at any other place than your home…at least that’s what he thinks. But the smell should definitely be better over there than here. Link would admit, it does tend to stink over here in the village. The forest is filled with different smells. Some are delightful, like flowers and fruit and such. The smell of pine and sweet grass from the ranch is also very pleasant. Some are disgusting, like animal excrement or rotten fruits and vegetables. Monkeys and goats and dead fish that had been lying around lately. And maybe other animals in the forest. He could make a long list of things that stink in the woods, there were more things that stink than there are things that actually do smell good.

The village can be very filthy as well, he admits, though the only thing that does stay pure and clean are the springs in the forest. Ah yes…nothing was more pure than the water itself. The lake back at the village rarely ever gets dirty, even though wild animals like to bathe in it. Though the Ordon springs in the village and out in the woods always stay pure, so clean and uncontaminated that you can put it in a bottle if you wish and drink it whenever you like.

While walking over the bridge back to the village, Link gaze over gorge, looking down into it. He wondered how far the drop was, he didn’t know why but he was a little curious. Before, he couldn’t even care less. After crossing the bridge, the older man stopped and turned around to close and lock the gate. Link watched him, the gate was to be locked for a reason. It was to keep out intruders, curious monkeys and other wild animals, and…well…there were rumors about monsters wandering around in the woods. Same for some creatures known as Forest Trouts. It is said that they were a bunch of goblins that nest somewhere not too far from the village. These goblins are out wandering around the forest during the night, thieving. Right, they are like monkeys in a way…they steal. Though, no one has yet to spot one in the village. They probably never come down this way anyway. But that’s funny, shouldn’t they be able to see what’s down here? Maybe Link shouldn’t really question that, unless he wants a trout to suddenly rob the village. Though he can question this; why did those goblins call themselves ‘trouts’?

As they passed the Ordon Spring, Link stared at it as they walked by. He would admit it, he loved the view of the spring around this time of day. The sunset making the sand a pretty orange and the water nothing but a bright sea of gold. Whenever it is dusk, the Ordon spring was like a golden paradise. It was like looking at a painting. Maybe after they walk back to the village, Link could come back and visit the golden retreat.

Soon, they were back and made it in front of Link’s house, which was just right outside the village. The other man’s wife and child were waiting for him a few feet away. The old man said his goodbyes to Link and began walking home with his family. After he patted his son’s head; the child smiled at Link, who had smiled back before the family of three walked back to their home. Link turned around and looked at his, smiling happily as he placed his hands on his hips. The latter went up the ledge, where the house stood.

After little bit of staring at his house, Link soon realized he had to go to work. He sighed to himself, it just have to wait after work…or maybe tomorrow evening since it might be night time by the time he gets out and…tomorrow was supposed to be his day off anyway. He shrugged to himself, there’s always tomorrow, and walked over to his horse.

“I’ll be right back, okay? Don’t go anywhere.” Epona snorted, as if telling him she would stay where she was.

Link smiled as he scratched the horse’s face. “Good girl.” he then walked over to the latter. “Be right back, alright?” Link then climbed the latter and went inside his house.

Soon, he came back out of the house. “I’m back Epona!” he called, before jumping down the later. Though, there was no response. He looked to see where he had parked the mare, but didn’t see her. Link soon had a worried expression on his face.

“Epona?” Link looked around for his missing horse, until, something popped into his mind of where Epona might be.

Ilia. Then he ran out the area and walked through the forest towards the beautiful golden paradise he was staring into not too long ago. This was the gorgeous Ordon Spring. He then entered the small golden beautiful picture. He closed his eyes, inhaled then exhaled as he spread his arms. He was taking in the sweet scent of flowers and fruit nearby.

“Hi Link!” a sudden voice said. Link popped his eyes opened to see a blonde-haired girl looking at him with Epona by her side.

He froze for a minute, before raising both arms over his head and faking a yawn. “Hey Ilia.” he said afterwards. “What are you doing here?”

“Me? Oh!” the girl turned and petted the mare. “I hope you didn’t mind; but I washed Epona for you.”

Link yawned again, for real this time. “Not at all. Thanks Ilia.”

Ilia smiled. “You’re welcome.” Link placed both arms behind his head  and crossed both legs. The girl looked at him. “What are you doing here?”

The sudden question caused Link to stumble. He sheepishly scratched his head. “Um, well, I was looking for Epona…and…here she is!”

Ilia rolled her eyes. “Just take her already!” she said jokingly. “You two should be at work by now anyway.”

“Don’t have to tell me that.” Link said as he climbed onto Epona’s back. “Thanks again!” he called to her before riding back to the village.

He soon then entered the village which was called Ordon village. He closed his eyes and sniffed the air. He could smell the pine trees nearby and a hint of hay, probably coming from the ranch. He opened his eyes and strode Epona forth, over to a family of three, the mother, her husband, and their daughter.

“Well if it isn’t young Link!” the woman called. “Are you going to shut the ranch down for today?”

“Hi Sera!” Link said. “You know me, helping Fado round up the goats and such.”

“Well I just closed down the shop myself. And I’m sure you know about the mischievous little monkeys coming to the village lately.”

Link raised a brow. “Really? I have not been told that.”

“Those things worry me a bit.” she continued. “So I better lock up good here. I just couldn’t stand having any more goods stolen.” Link’s eyes widened, the monkeys are stealing things from the village as well? But how and why do they enter the village? He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Sera growl, “Can’t trust that good-for-nothing husband to do anything right…”

“C’mon dad!” he heard a little girl exclaim. “You can’t catch one silly little monkey?”

“Uh…Well…” the man then sighed. “No…I can’t.”

Link tried not to roll his eyes, but he couldn’t argue with him. The monkeys might be too fast to catch anyways…for the man anyway. He wasn’t saying he could catch the monkeys, maybe he could try, but he doubt so.

“Oh listen to us babble on!” Sera exclaimed, snapping Link out of his trance. “I didn’t mean to keep you. Now off to work with you!”

Link just smiled before pushing Epona forward. It wasn’t before long when he was back, lost in his thoughts. He had never seen or heard of any monkeys hanging around this part of the forest. What did they want? Why are they coming to the village to steal things? Were the ‘Forest Trouts’ up to this? Did they have some kind of control over the monkeys in the woods? Were the Monkeys mysteriously working for the Forest Trouts?…Link soon burst into laughter, that was ridiculous. Goblins brainwashing random monkeys just seemed a little too ridiculous. Besides, what would an ugly goblin want from a smelly monkey?

“Ah, Link! Great timing!” a voice suddenly called. Link was so surprised that he almost fell off his horse. “Sorry about that. There was something I had forgotten to tell you.”

“…What?”

“My son, Colin, is making a fishing rod so the two of you can play together.”

“Really?” Link said while looking at his son who stood next to him. He got off the horse. “That’s awful swell of you, Colin. Can’t wait to see it.” he smiled.

Colin beamed. “Yeah! It’s almost ready too!”

Link chuckled. “I’ll come pick it up at the house tomorrow.” He sent the little boy a wink. The boy giggled as Link climbed onto Epona and took off for the ranch, which was located on top of the hill, pass the mayor’s house.

Ordon ranch was a ranch that herds goats. There was a big brown barn to the right of the entrance and there were ten goats wandering around the yard. Link closed his eyes and sniffed the air. Ah…the smell of sweet, sweet grass never gets old…But there’s always the smell of goats to ruin some of that. The smell of hay was a lot stronger now that he was here, and the scent of goat milk was almost as strong. Though there was no scent that was stronger than the sweet grass, and especially, the goats.

Link parked Epona by the gate and climbed off the mare. Soon, a girl came from the side of the barn carrying three buckets of goat milk, one in one hand and two in the other. She was wearing a white dress with a blue apron, whit ruffles, brown boots and a black ribbon which held her blonde hair up and a ponytail.

Link smiled. “Hey Peach!” he called. The girl, Peach, just smiled, she couldn’t wave since her hands were full.

Peach was another close friend of Link’s. She would tell him stories of an ancient forest where a temple lied, which was used as a castle. The temple/castle lied deep in these woods…the Sacred Grove. A mysterious forest, where you could get lost in. So many paths to take to reach the temple which lied deep in these wood. Though it was impossible to reach, since, well…heh…the forest had been completely blocked off. As far as you could get into the Sacred Grove was…the entrance.

Honestly, the people living inside the “castle” do not like trespassers. Yeah, just setting foot into the forbidden woods is considered “trespassing”. It is said that the princess(Peach), and the prince, who lives there with her, rule the forest. Though not too many know about a prince and princess ruling a poor little village, not too many knew or saw Peach as a princess. The funny thing about it is that there really was such thing as a prince and princess ruling the little village, though the location of where they live is unheard of by just about everyone in the village. It’s almost like the prince and princess doesn’t even exist. It was like a myth, a myth that was so obviously untrue and extremely impossible to prove. Yet only a few people outside the forest had heard of such a thing, but no one in this lousy village had ever heard of such a folktale! In fact, the entire folktale was like a lie, a big, fat, fictional, fallacious lie…

…Though that’s why Peach had kept it as a secret from the villagers in the forest. If any were to search for that temple, it would be extremely hard to find…The temple was excessively impossible to reach. And that was what it would appeared to be…nothing but a myth that someone, who had nothing better to do, went out of their way to make. And she couldn’t be that someone, she has a reputation to keep as pure as her soul. And telling anyone that story would not help. It would rather make her seem…immature.

She walked over to him before placing the goat milk beside her and her hands on her hips. “Well, well, finally decided to show up to work?”

“Hey, I was busy!”

“Busy? We’re busy over here too!” she exclaimed while playfully shoving him. She then picked up the buckets of goat milk and began walking over towards the barn with Link following. “You’re pretty late you know.” she continued. “What will you tell Fado?”

Link smirked. “What do I have to tell him? He already knew I was coming in late.”

“Sure, late. But not this late.”

“Bah!” Link scoffed as he waved a hand. “Late is late.” Peach just smiled before walking into the barn with the buckets of milk.

Fado, who was at the other side of the ranch, spotted Link. He was the owner of the ranch and the boss of Link and Peach who work extremely hard for him. “Link, you’ve finally showed up.” the ranch owner walked over to Link.

“Alright, bud, how’s about you an’ Epona herd ‘em real quick into the barn? Then we can shut ‘er down an’ go ‘ome.”

Link nodded. “You got it!” He raced over to Epona and climbed onto the horse. He walked Epona over in front of the barn. “Stand clear! Goats be comin’ into the barn! Clear off and stand by!” he suddenly called.

Peach then suddenly ran out of the barn, standing towards the side. “Standing by! Operation: Roundup Rush! Standing by!” she called back.

Link’s gaze then switched to Fado. “Mooooove along partner!” he said, waving his hand. Fado scratched his head while moving out of the way, his two employees had always done whenever they were in a rush to close down the ranch for the night. He would never understand his two and only employees.

Link smiled as he placed both hands on his hips. Looking good so far. Now…to handle these goats. Link cracked his knuckles before grabbing the reins with one hand. He then pulled it back, making Epona rear as she neighed loudly. Epona then took off, the mare also knew the ‘operation’ quite well.

“Yaw goats, yaw!” Link shouted as Epona ran around the barn. The goats zoomed left and right into the barn. All of the goats were inside the barn, except for…hm, one. Link looked at the goat that hadn’t gone into the barn.  He pulled on the reins, making Epona turn around, facing the goat.

“I said yaw goat! Yaw!” Link shouted. The goat still refused to move. Finally, Link pushed Epona forward, charging at the goat. That was when the goat made a dash for the barn. Soon, the yard was cleared out.

Link took deep breaths, not much effort needed, but it was a good exercise. Afterwards, he started posing as Peach clapped. Fado had went inside to lock up the goats.

“Okay, I’m going home now!” Peach called. “I’ll see you both later!” she then left the ranch.

Fado soon came out. “You can go on ‘ome bud, I still have work to do. And remember, you both have a day off tomorrow.”

Link nodded. “Okay! If you need anything, you’ll know where to find me!”

“Oh! wait! You wanna jump some fences?”

“No thanks. I’ll see you later boss!” Link and Epona soon left the ranch, having to jump over the face since Fado closed it. Link tried not to jump too many fences. Besides, if Epona injures herself doing so, Ilia would get angry and…well Link didn’t want to think about it right now. He and Epona jumped over the ranch and left for home.