Shadow of the Fallen Lands

~Time~

"Faaaairy Booooy!" Malon sing-songed to me in her lilting accent, tapping my foot with her well loved shovel, "You've been standin' there in moody silence for ten minutes straight! Say somethin', will ya? Stop thinkin' at the very least. You'll drive yerself mad will all that." 

I drew myself out of my slowly darkening thoughts before they sent me spiralling, breathing in through my nose, then out again. Malon knows when I go silent that I'm thinking about my journeys, both of them. All my hurt, all the pain I suffered too soon in my life. Hyrule, which cost me far too much to begin with. My childhood, friendships, and my fairy. After that, in search for Navi I'd found myself trapped in the horrible, endless, hopeless three day loop of Termina; it'd robbed me of my last vestiges of love for the Goddess, the feeling of calm from watching the distant beauty of the moon... the the sight in one of my eyes. All I remember is lunging for that fateful blue Ocarina, falling... down, down, down, into the dark-

"Link. C'mon now, it's far too early to be broodin' like a hen."

After yet another poke, I moved to her side, taking one of her hands and kneading her knuckles. She dumped her shovel with an earthy thump,  Today was a bad day for me, there was too much happening in my head. I shifted so I was leaning on my left leg, looking down to talk to my wife, but as soon as I even went to open my mouth a horribly timed vortex of red tore up the mud by my feet. 

"What in the name of Din?" I muttered, stepping back before I realised it was, in fact, totally harmless.

 Growing, it hungrily ate up the mud around its edges, It enveloped my feet in the oddest sensation I'd ever felt. The black lightning almost fizzed against my boots and though I couldn't feel it on my skin, I imagined to myself that it'd be almost like spilling a potion on yourself. Regarding it, it responded to my gaze, crackling and fizzing like one of the Lake Scientist's more rare failed experiments, the ones that actually do something.

 "Malon" I looked to my wife, and watched as the light in her blue eyes faded somewhat. So she'd realised it too. She always able to read me like a book; very perceptive. "I can sense Hylia's light. I think she wants me to go thr-" 

I was interrupted by Malon yelling back in her lovely accented honey voice, "Then go, Fairy Boy! I know how ya hate her, but she sorta is the Goddess. I'd hate to lose ma husband to divine intervention." 

I smiled slightly, letting the sides of my mouth twitch upwards at her jape. That sweet but hotheaded farmer girl I'd first met as a ten year old was still there. I was glad for her presence in my life, really. She really did know exactly how to make everything better. Then, cracking my neck both ways, I relaxes and let myself fall into the abyss outside our barn.

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I was deposited forcefully on what felt like hard dirt, the harsh crunch of my head on the ground sending uncomfortable jolts up my neck and shoulders. My rough landing had done nothing good for my old man back, that was for certain. A few minutes must have passed of just lying on the floor, sprawled there before my fuzzy thoughts stopped flowing like they'd had the Inverted Song of  Time played to them. I could almost hear Malon's playful complaining about her hero getting lazy in old age. Truthfully, neither of us knew exactly how old I was mentally, but she always said my body was in its late thirties. In her mind, an old man. And exactly like said old man, just starting to get my bearings again, I slowly shuffled backwards to sit myself up against a rotting stump. My one eye was blurred and unfocused, not much help to me in this unfamiliar place. Blinking didn't clear it. and when I stupidly tried to stand I fell hard on my side. Such an upset in my centre of gravity prompted a warm burning at the back of my throat, and before I even knew what what was happening, I was retching on my hands and knees. Staring down into the puddle of my recently evicted stomach acid, I began to realise that maybe a concussion wasn't too far out of the question. A brief rest cured me of my stomach problems, so I dragged my unwieldy body onto my hands and knees once more. It felt like hours of shakily crawling until I knew I was over the more soft grassy ground, not bare dry earth before I tried standing again. This time, however, I found myself upright, swaying slightly. I nodded gently, grimacing as my head span, before I staggered away. Grasping out with desperation, I found the steady trunks of the forest's silent inhabitants and I advanced, leaning on the obliging trees for support. Aside from a hard hit to the forehead by a thick low hanging branch that caught me by surprise, I was on my feet walking, or rather, shuffling, for nearly the whole day; as night began to steal the sky I stopped to rest my weary legs. A soft whine passed my chapped lips. My head pounded. Letting my thoughts roam as a distraction from the warm throbbing near the back of my closed eyes, I wondered what I'd eat tonight. Nothing, probably. Malon said any food I made would be stored as an emergency weapon in case someone tried to rob the Ranch, so eating my own cooking with a possible concussion wasn't the greatest idea in all of Hyrule. I fell slowly asleep to the quiet buzz of the night's insects.