I went to Sunfest yesterday! So I didn’t get any writing done. Or editing this chapter to post here. But I did listen to some great French-Canadian music (Genticorum is cool!) and a live salsa band and a crazy Romanian band.
Chapter 6 is being hard and I’m only a couple pages in. : P
Chapter 5: Epona’s Return
There was an air vent out of the basement, and he used it to struggle out into the open.
He emerged behind the chicken coop and sniffed experimentally. He couldn’t sense any other pieces of Light in the area, and hoped he was done with collecting it.
He was on his way to the Spirit’s Pool, which was tucked away into a corner of the canyon – if it had been there when he’d visited Kakariko before, he could understand why he missed it. Goddesses, the last time he’d visited the place felt like it was in a past life.
A scrabble of pebbles was his only warning, and he flattened himself to the ground as a large black tentacle creature pounced at him. It missed, but Midna’s hair whipped up, wrapped itself around the thing’s neck, and slammed it into the dirt. Link hurled himself onto the monster and tore its throat out.
There were two more, swiping at him with their claws. He backed away, snarling and showing his sharp teeth, dripping with black blood, and he felt Midna tense for action on his back.
“Right. When I say go, I’ll immobilize one, and then you can duck behind the other one and destroy it. Got it?” He nodded once, sharply. “Go!”
One monster flailed, Midna’s hair holding it by its tentacled fringe. He darted at the other, dodging the slashing claws, and leaped clean over one arm. He twirled before it could turn, and sank his teeth into its upper shoulder – he missed. It flexed, trying to through him off, and he scrabbled against the ground and against its back, trying to find enough purchase to adjust his grip to something more lethal without exposing himself to attack.
“Better hurry up!” Midna squeaked. “I can’t hold it forev-”
She grunted, and Link was sent flying several feet. He landed on his side, Midna miraculously staying on, and scrambled up. The creatures turned to face them again.
Link growled, and before Midna could react, he was racing towards the monsters. He ducked a meaty blow from one of them and ducked between the legs of the other. He flipped in mid air and this time grabbed it by the back of the neck. Midna’s hair flew over his head and grabbed the other monster by the face.
The monster he was holding shrieked in pain and tried to pull him, off, but he bit down harder and heard something crunch. It collapsed beneath him and he bounced away.
The last monster had a mean look about it. He couldn’t tell where its eyes were, or where its mouth was, but he got the feeling anyway.
He growled back and took off for it, feinting right and going left instead. It managed to turn in time to block his attack, and Midna’s hair, as well. But her hair tangled around its arm and pushed it back, off balance, and as Link turned to follow it, pulled it forward. Sharp claws came at Link, who jumped back himself, but the creature tripped and fell on its face and he was upon it.
Speed really was one of his greatest assets. And he wondered if Rana were in his place, what creature she would be and how fast she would be. He knew he was not as fast as either Rana or Sheik. But he was faster than a great number of these ponderous monsters. And the past Hero was faster than him. The past Hero would probably find this whole adventure very easy. No wonder he scolded Link so much. His ears went back with embarrassment.
He sat on top of a nearby rock, watching the monster’s body explode into black particles, and caught his breath.
Midna rubbed his shoulder like he might rub Epona’s shoulder. “Good boy. You make a pretty good sidekick, actually!” He snorted in amusement. “I might tell you what we’re looking for, pretty soon, and why I need it. It’s a bit of a long story, however, and long stories bore me.” She stretched prettily. “Even in the telling. Are you done sitting around? Isn’t it time to wipe away this nice Twilight and replace it with that bright Light all you humans are addicted to?”
He patiently got up and went over to the Spirit’s Pool. Perhaps the water would heal his wounds.
It did, and the Light dropped in and lit up the entire valley. Dawn was breaking again. He had been up a very long time, exactly twenty-four hours, and he was starting to feel it.
The Spirit who appeared to him was in the shape of a great owl. “Greetings, Hero. I am Eldin. Thank you for restoring me. Now I have more to ask of you.”
“Tell me.”
“The Gorons are restless. They have shut out the humans. But you must win their trust again, because there is something that no one but you can help them with. You, and the one who travels with you.”
“I’ll do it. Where is Ilia? And Epona? The children are here, safe, but where are they?”
“Ilia… I do not know. She passed through this land. But I was weak, powerless, and could not see her for long. Your horse…” Eldin hooted softly, and Link could swear it was a gentle laugh. “You will see soon. Do not fear.”
“Thanks.”
“Rest, Hero.”
Rather than argue, Link turned away to go to the mayor’s house, and saw the door partly open. Four pairs of wide eyes were peering through it.
“Green!” Talo was the first to yell, flinging the door open wide and running to meet him.
“You came to save us!” Beth cried, second to follow him. Colin had been in front of her, but Talo’s wild dash had knocked him down. Malo waddled past him unconcernedly.
“I told you he’d come save us!” Talo was saying, hanging off one arm, as Beth hugged him around the middle, laughing. Even Malo reached out and touched his boot. “The monsters left us to die in the middle of nowhere, but Mr. Renado saved us! And then we waited for you to come get us!”
But Colin…
Colin was still sitting in the doorway, looking at Link with anxious eyes.
What was he thinking? Link gently disengaged from the other children and walked towards Colin. Colin brightened and jumped up, and Link picked him up and swung him around before setting him on his hip like a rather smaller child than he actually was.
Then he had Talo jumping at him, saying “Swing me, swing me!”
So he put Colin back down and hugged all the children at once, grinning. He was covered in small arms and Beth kissed his face.
Link looked up to see Renado watching him with a gentle smile on his stern face, with his daughter and Barnes beside him. “Welcome, Hero. I am Renado, and this is my daughter, Luda. I take it you are the one these children have spoken of.” Barnes, angry at not being introduced, and apparently not thinking to introduce himself, stomped away down the street.
“Why are you dressed, you know, like the actual Hero of Time and stuff?” Beth asked.
Link blushed. “Well. Um. I owe you four an apology, because I am the Hero of Time. I had… issues, and chose not to live in Ordon under my own name.”
“Awww,” Talo whined. “But being the Hero is so cool! Why would you change your name?”
“A man has his reasons,” Malo said.
“Well,” Link said. “It’s a long story. But yes, Mr. Renado, I am the Hero, and I am the one these children were counting on, and I am back to save Hyrule from the Twilight and the monsters.” His face fell. “I heard what you said about Lauri and the others earlier tonight. I’m so sorry I wasn’t in time to save them. How many are dead?”
“Enough,” Renado said gravely. “I can list them later if you truly wish to know. But for now…”
“The monsters are gone,” Link said. “I don’t think it will be safe for the children to return home to Ordon yet. The roads are still rough and I don’t know how many monsters there are on Hyrule Field right now.”
“They are safe here, with me. But I am glad to know that the monsters are gone from Kakariko. We guessed it when we saw you standing there so calmly.”
“Gree- Link, you have to let my dad know I’m okay,” Colin said softly. “He and my mom must be worried sick. Have you seen Ilia?”
“No, no I haven’t. She’s not here in Eldin Province. Epona might be, though, and once I get her back, I can search for Ilia more quickly. But the Spirit, Eldin, said I need to help the Gorons first.”
Renado turned troubled eyes to Death Mountain. “It’s true. Something bad must have happened up there. They turned threatening only a week ago, and a few days ago they turned back all travellers in a very hostile fashion. But they will let you up, of course.”
“If I can just see Darunia, or get word to him, they’ll let me up.”
Renado sighed. “That’s partly it. Darunia is no longer chieftain of the Gorons. Shortly after Ganondorf’s fall, he announced that he was stepping down and left the chieftainship and the guardianship of his son to his cousin, Darbus. Darbus is a lot more aggressive than Darunia.”
“And I never met him,” Link finished. “Well. I’ve been awake for a long time, so is it possible for me to have a nap before I head up the mountain?”
Renado smiled. “Certainly. Although the hotel is… awaiting new management, it has plenty of rooms. Come. We will get you settled in.”
“Thanks.” Link’s head was starting to droop. “If you see Rana… you know Rana, right? Tell her where I am. She helps with the nightmares. Don’t look so sad, Colin. I’ll be up in a few hours, and then you can tell me what happened. I want to hear everything. Maybe…” He yawned. “Maybe it will give us a clue as to where Ilia is.”
He didn’t have any nightmares. Perhaps because it was not nighttime. He woke up a few hours later, just past noon, by the look of it, and wandered outside.
Rana had just arrived, covered in dust and still out of breath, talking to Renado. She squealed when she saw Link, and ran to hug him. “How are you? Still in one piece? Any nightmares?”
“No, not this time. How was your search?”
“Oooh, you know what? There was a bunch of Bokoblins, all wearing the same outfit like a uniform. I think they’re organized somehow.”
“I see. And did you know Darunia stepped down?”
“Yeah, he’s doing some travelling. Not sure why. He said he’s on a quest, but he wouldn’t give me the details or let me help.” She pouted. “Darbus is all right but I really like Darunia better. He’s much more level-headed. Hey, did you know the Gorons are all obsessed with sumo wrestling now?”
He blinked. “That was random.”
“I know! It’s completely random. But… it kind of suits their culture, you know? They’re certainly heavy enough for it. Little Link is growing, and he keeps challenging me. So far, I’ve usually won, but that’s not going to last long, that’s for sure.”
“And they’ve shut all humans out in the last few days.”
“Ooh. That could be a problem. Well, even if Darbus doesn’t know you, I know Darbus. I’ll introduce you! They have to let you in.”
“Let’s go right now!” Navi said. “This is so exciting. I want to see how much your namesake has grown.”
Link rubbed the last of the sleep out of his eyes, and followed Rana to the base of the Death Mountain trail.
There was a Goron at the top of the first cliff. “Hoi! No humans allowed! Get back down the trail!”
“But it’s me!” Rana called back. “And the Hero of Time! He’s come back!”
The Goron’s expression didn’t change. “No humans means no humans! Sorry, Miss Rana, but Darbus’s word is law!”
Link sighed. “So much for that idea. Think I could run past him?”
“You wouldn’t make it to the top of the mountain. You’re going to need a better plan than that.”
“What about sumo?” Navi perked up from where she lolled on the top of Link’s head.
“What? I’m not wrestling with a bunch of Gorons. I’d get flattened.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You just need a bit more mass. You need your Iron Boots back!”
“Navi…”
“No, no, we can make this work!” Rana said. “I remember who has your Iron Boots. It’s a village mayor named Bo. He knew the Gorons in his youth, and I guess Zelda knew him from somewhere? But I don’t know where he is, so he could be hard to get to…”
“Rana,” Link said. “He’s the mayor of Ordon Village.”
“Oh well don’t I feel like an idiot!” Rana laughed and slapped her forehead. “Well that won’t be difficult. We can head back, then. Maybe I can head back and grab them for you?”
“No, I should go. The parents need to know their children are safe, and I need to apologize and explain that my name is actually Link.”
“Yeah, that was kind of silly. We’ll both go!”
“We won’t make it before dark.”
“We’ll stay at the Ranch. That’s where I stayed last night. While you were probably fighting things.”
“Yes.”
“I knew it! Well, you’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight. And then you can learn sumo tomorrow. All right?”
“I wish travelling didn’t take so long…” Link grumbled.
“Less talk, more walk!” Navi cried, rolling over on his head. He poked her until she fell off, and she began to yell at him, but he just grinned and kept walking like she asked.
Then he heard a wild whinny behind him, and his heart leapt. That was Epona!
She galloped down the main street, bucking crazily. Two Bokoblins flew from her back, slammed into a fence, and slid to the ground, dead. She snorted and reared and kept coming.
“Epona!” Link shouted, but she didn’t react. It wasn’t because she hadn’t heard him; if he could shout through a tropical storm at sea, he could certainly shout through three hundred feet of rocky canyon. He stretched out his arms to force her to stop, but had to dive out of the way when she nearly ran him over.
Rana had scrambled out of the way onto a fence. “Go get her, Link!” she called.
Link had the Ocarina out and was playing Epona’s song. It made no difference; she was whinnying too loudly to hear it. So he whistled the song, as loudly as he could. She turned and ran at him again. He dodged, again in the nick of time, and grabbed at her neck.
Of course she tried to buck him off. But he pulled himself up and stroked her mane, murmuring in her ear. “It’s all right, Epona, I’m here, I’m back. Calm down, calm down, girl, everything’s all right.”
Gradually, she pranced to a halt, half reared one more time, and came down solidly on all four hooves, quivering and trembling. He sat up and stroked her neck again. “Good girl, that’s all right. No monsters here. Nothing’s going to hurt you.” He slowly dismounted and moved around to her front, patting her nose.
“Wow,” Navi breathed. “She was so spooked! I’m glad she got away from those guys. Where’s her saddle?”
“I hadn’t saddled her the day everything went crazy,” Link said. “I’ll have to take her back to Ordon to get it. I’m not hauling it back on my back.”
“I could carry it for you,” Navi offered.
“True. Well, we’ll take her with us to the Ranch, right, Rana?”
“Sounds good,” Rana said. “We can go slowly. We have enough daylight for that.”
They made it to the Ranch, walking, by sundown, where Malon fed them leftovers from supper while Ingo rubbed Epona down and made her comfortable in the stable. Link practiced his form in the dusk, until Rana told him to go to bed. He wasn’t yet tired, but he knew he would be if he stayed up again.
Malon had a guest room with two beds in it, and Rana started out in one, but halfway through the night, Link woke, and found her wrapped up in his sheets, next to him. He smiled. Well, he hadn’t had any nightmares so far that night.
He felt… called. Like something was calling him.
The fairies were asleep, both of them one dim blob together on the desk below the window. He smiled, and guessed that they had been doing some more serious catching up, probably whispering at decibels audible only to fairies late into the night.
He crawled over Rana, careful not to wake her though she muttered incoherently in her sleep at the disturbance, and stepped carefully onto the wooden floor. He parted the curtains and peeked out the window. The fairies stirred at the motion, but didn’t wake. At least, that he knew of.
A golden wolf was watching him from the ground below.
He picked up his sword-belt, his boots, his tunic, and his gauntlets, and tiptoed downstairs, skipping the squeaky stair that was still squeaky even though the Goddesses had relocated the whole place.
He made opened the front door and found himself in a shadowy world.
“Good evening, Link,” said the skeletal Hero. “I hope you slept well.”
“Better than usual,” Link answered. “I’ve been practising.”
“Show me.”
It felt like hours later when his next session was over. The Hero had been reviewing his sword plant, and critiqued it mercilessly. But now, at least, it was much improved, and he’d hit his target nineteen times out of twenty instead of nine out of ten. He felt good about that. Someday he’d even hit it twenty times out of twenty.
He only had one question before he left. “Is my spirit still troubled?”
“You will know when it is not,” the Hero told him, now back in the form of a golden wolf even in the spirit world. “When everything in your life is in place, when you have no doubts about who you are, what you are, what you do, or how you connect to everything around you, then, despite the evil you face, you will be ready.” He sighed and looked away. “Of course, if pinch comes to shove, of course you must play your part even if you are not ready. Trust in the Triforce to guide you and have confidence in your abilities and your friends. I learned that much in my own adventures.”
“Would you tell me about your adventures?”
The wolf smiled and waved a paw at him. “Shoo. You have too much to think about without adding my long-winded tales to them. Besides, they’re in the castle library. Ask your Princess about them.”
“But what’s your…” Link started. He was standing outside the door of the Ranch’s main building, and the wolf was nowhere in sight. “Name,” he finished lamely, and went back inside.
Rana was not awake, and neither were the fairies, when he crept back into the room. He laid down his gear by the head of his bed and crawled back in, slightly less carefully this time, and wrapped Rana in his arms. He fell asleep almost instantly.
In the morning, they set off again, this time with Link riding Epona – bareback for now, until he could get her gear from his house – and Rana riding her own horse, Falone. Falone was Epona’s cousin, but she was lighter in colour, almost yellow instead of Epona’s brownish red.
The horses were happy to see each other, and there was a lot of tail-flicking and mane-tossing on the ride to Ordon.
When they arrived, Rana offered to take care of the horses while Link went to speak to Bo.
His quick jog through town attracted as much attention as when he had first arrived. It seemed people remembered the Kokiri Tunic. He knocked on the door to Bo’s house and glanced around to see Jaggle, Talo’s dad, and Uli, Rusl’s wife, doing laundry by the stream, both watching him curiously. He waved awkwardly, and turned back as Bo opened the door.
“Green! My word, lad, what are you wearing? Come in, come in. Good to see you!”
“Well, um,” Link began as he entered the house. “I have to apologize to you, and to everyone in Ordon. I’ve been deceiving you since I got here. I’m Link.”
Bo nodded and glanced at Navi, lolling on Link’s head again. “I guessed, the other day. But it’s all right. You must have your reasons.”
“They were pretty silly reasons, in retrospect.”
“Hindsight is twenty/twenty. What can I do for you? You surely didn’t come back from whatever adventure you’re on just to tell me that!”
“Well, the first thing I can tell you is that the four younger children and Epona are safe. Colin, Beth, Malo, and Talo are in Kakariko Village with Renado. I… still haven’t found any trace of Ilia.” The last words almost stuck in his mouth.
Bo’s mouth crinkled up unhappily. “Well, well, I’m sure you’re doing your best. I’d like to know she’s safe, I would! But I have to think of all those poor kids, not just mine… Well, that is good to know. Rusl’s gone off to search as well, and hasn’t returned yet… Uli’s fretting, and it’s not good in her condition!”
“I’ll let her know as soon as I go back out. The other thing is… the Gorons are in trouble, but they won’t let me in to try to help. Rana told me that Zelda gave you the Iron Boots…”
“You’d like them back, eh? That I can do for you.” He gave Link a shrewd glance. “Is Miss Rana at all connected to your temporary name change?”
Link blushed. “Yes.”
Bo laughed. “Come in back, lad, and I’ll get those boots for you.” They rose and went into the back room, where Link was surprised to see a raised wooden platform. “What were you planning to do?”
“Rana tells me the Gorons are crazy about sumo, now,” Link said, eyeing the platform. “So she thinks I should beat them at their own game or something. And then Navi decided it was a good idea and said I just need to be heavier.” Navi snorted.
There was a knock at the door, and Bo turned to get it. “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
Rana jumped through the door. “Hi, Bo! How are you?”
The mayor smiled. “You want your boyfriend to learn sumo?”
“I’m not learning sumo,” Link said. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Come on,” she wheedled. “It’s another fighting style!”
“I already have too many fighting styles.”
“Just do it,” Navi said unexpectedly from his head. “It can’t hurt.”
Link sighed. “You’re all against me, aren’t you?”
Bo rubbed his chin with a hand and pointed at the platform. “Well I’ve been a sumo enthusiast since before it was a Goron thing. I went up against a few Gorons in my youth! Would have liked to have had boots like these to help me, but I did the best I could. I’m an honorary brother of a couple of them because of those experiences.”
Link eventually gave in, and he and Bo stripped down to their trousers. That alone almost made him send Rana and the fairies away, so they wouldn’t see him mess up while half-naked. But the face-splitting grin Rana wore made him change his mind. If it made her so happy, why not?
Bo was faster than he looked, and Link was hard-pressed despite his reflexes. He reminded himself that while wearing the Iron Boots he would be even slower. Bo was winning, but Link’s eyes were gleaming with the challenge.
“Come on, boy!” Bo said, panting. “When you can beat me, you can beat a Goron!”
As he pushed the older man back across the platform, he heard Rana mumbling incoherent gibberish and spared the time to give her a sceptical glance. Her grin hadn’t diminished in any way, and she gave him a thumbs up.
Bo tried to take advantage of his distraction to push back, but Link gritted his teeth and held on. The mayor went tumbling off the edge of the platform, and Link wiped his sweaty hands on his trousers.
Rana clapped, squealing. “Oh my gosh! SHOULDERS!”
He laughed self-consciously. What was she going on about?
Bo picked himself back up. “Good work. Fight with confidence and that’ll make up for all the inexperience, hey?”
Link shrugged, still breathing hard. “It sometimes does.”
“I don’t suppose this is something I could learn, too,” Rana mumbled, almost to herself.
Bo looked at her appraisingly. “I don’t know, Miss Rana. You’d get thrown around like a leaf, even with Iron Boots.”
“And apparently you’d have to take your shirt off,” Link pointed out, going to collect his own.
She looked at him and turned bright red.
“Yeah.” He pulled on his white-ish undershirt – he was going to have to wash it pretty soon.
He turned around in time to see her yank her blue tunic off over her head, and stumbled backwards. There she stood, in her shorts and chest bindings, still blushing furiously, but with a challenge in her eyes.
He froze and blushed darker than her. There was a long awkward silence.
“Well, just in case you thought that was getting in my way,” she said at last, and Naeri bonked her in the head for her unintentional double-entendre.
“Ah… I didn’t…” Link stammered, and Bo chuckled.
“I’ll just let you two sort things out, all right?”
The silence stretched on and on, while the two Hylians stared at each other in various states of undress.
Suddenly Rana stirred and began pulling her tunic back on. “I’m sorry! I just… Gah.”
“Um.” Link really still didn’t know what to say. “It’s… all right… I guess…?”
She fled the room, not even looking at him.
“Good job,” Navi said to him.
“Well what do I say? I… Nothing ever prepared me for that situation!”
“And come on, it’s not like you haven’t seen girls showing that much skin before.”
“No, but it’s Rana, not some random Gerudo pirate.” He sighed. “And now everything’s going to be weird.”
Navi snorted. “You sound like when you were fifteen. Grow up.”
“Navi, I don’t think you understand the bizarreness of this situation.”
“Maybe not, but I wasn’t the one teasing her. You don’t think she’s going to let a dare go unmet?”
He thought back to when they were kids, although Navi hadn’t known her then, and smiled. “I guess not. She was always like that. I just didn’t expect it… now. Like this.”
“I bet if you dared her to go skinny-dipping in Lake Hylia, she would take you up on it.”
“Stop it!” Link flushed again. “You’re not helping.”
Navi giggled. “Helping is only part of my job.”
Link buried his face in his hands. “Save me from impish sidekicks when the world is going to pieces!”
“The world will wait five more minutes. Come on, finish getting dressed and come talk to Bo.”
He did, but he’d reminded himself that Ilia was still missing, and he was grave by the time he came out.
Bo was still looking amused. “She’s a fine, brave girl. Stood up for me the last time I visited Hyrule Castle. You’re a lucky man, Link.”
“I need to go,” Link said. “The sooner I can save the Gorons from whatever’s troubling them, the sooner I can find Ilia. They might know where she is, though I doubt it. Eldin the Spirit said she wasn’t in Eldin Province.”
“It’s all right, lad. You are doing all you can. You don’t have to stop smiling just because you can’t save everyone at once.”
“I couldn’t save the people of Kakariko. So many of them died when Zant’s monsters attacked.”
“But see here, Link, it’s foolish to transfer feelings of guilt from one situation from three years ago onto every other situation that comes up.” Link started. Bo was more perceptive than he had guessed. “I can’t help worrying about what trouble Ilia is in, and I do wish I could just drop everything and go help her, but I can’t. I have my duties as mayor, real duties,” and he smiled, because Malo and Talo often insinuated that Bo just sat around all day doing nothing. “But I’m older than you. I understand you’re still allowed to smile in the midst of cares and troubles, even life-threatening ones. So take that long look off your face!”
Link sighed and shrugged. “I’ll try. Thanks, anyway. And thanks for the boots and the lesson.”
“Off with you, now. Go help those Gorons. They’re good folks. And I’ll go talk to Uli and Sera and Pergie. They’ll be wanting to know that their kids are safe.”
Link nodded and left.
Rana was waiting at his house with the horses. She’d saddled Epona, though the sumo lesson had taken longer than either of them thought and now the horses were restless.
She still wasn’t looking at Link. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He watched her fussing with Falone’s saddle for a minute. “Did you get to see my house?”
“Not really?” She looked up, shyly, and he smiled encouragingly. They’d just pretend all that awkwardness didn’t happen, and things would be fine.
“Come in and I’ll show you around quickly.”
She loved it, of course. “It’s like a bigger version of your home in Kokiri Forest!”
“That’s one reason I like it so much, yes.”
She liked the skylight above his bed. “You must watch the stars a lot from here.”
“I did.”
He wanted to get going, back to Kakariko, do some exercises and go to bed, and she picked up on it. “Okay, I’m done. Let’s get going! It’s a long ride back.”
“Hopefully we don’t run into many monsters along the way.”
The ride back was quieter than usual. Rana was still embarrassed. But she still mustered up cheerful chatter on the butterflies and insects she’d been looking at, and people she’d met in Hyrule Castle Town, and the weather when it wasn’t Twilight outside. Link encouraged her as he could.
In the early evening, they came to the gate of Kakariko. Rana finally fell quiet. “Doesn’t the air feel funny?” she asked, tilting her head to listen. For answer Link urged Epona faster.
Around the bend in the road, he could see a disappearing cloud of dust ahead of him. Glancing around, he saw Beth, who looked to be on the verge of tears, and Talo, who looked shaken. Renado was looking out his doorway, looking grave again.
Malo pointed down the road. “Monsters got Colin!”
That was all Link needed to hear. “Come on!” He gritted his teeth and Epona leaped forward, leaving Rana and Falone behind. His sword rang in its sheath as he drew it and clenched it tight in his left hand.
All he could hear was the thunder of Epona’s hooves, the rush of blood in his ears and the wind on his face, and his own half-conscious chant to his horse: “Come on, fly for me, girl… faster, fast as you can…”
If he was lucky, he could save his young friend and redeem himself for not being there when they needed him.