I Live to Serve

Chapter #13: Knock Yourself Out

Link was getting used to sleeping in stables. Although his sleep was still light and often fragmented, he was able to rest much more than he had in the past. During his 11 month journey around Hyrule, most nights have been spent half asleep beside a fire. A frog's croak had been enough to jerk him out of any semblance of sleep. There wasn't need for such hypervigilance now.

He woke up with the sun around 6 in the morning. Some of the other early risers were outside already, chattering away. The scent of morning dew and cooked bacon wafted through the air. A low grumble settled in Link's stomach. Although money wasn't a legitimate concern of his', he remained averse to the idea of buying breakfast from the stable. It was never as good as it smelled, anyways. Link settled on the idea of catching something instead.

Pico Pond was off to the immediate east of the stable. Perhaps he'd get lucky and find eggs to pair with fish...

"So I tells her, 'Litta, we are not having your sister over if she's gonna be such a sow'!" He heard a man retort nearby. Link, though he would never admit it, was always intrigued by gossip. It sometimes floated into his ears at stables or in towns. Little snippets of people's grievances. Sometimes, he tried to piece together a narrative in his mind. A fun game to play when hours of travel grew tedious. Perhaps Litta's sister was a yellow haired woman with thick eyebrows and a mouth full of complaints. Maybe the last time she was over, she had told Litta that she deserved better than a rotten man without a job...

Link smiled to himself, thinking of the plotline. He liked to imagine what it would be like to have a life full of such gossips and concerns. Simple things like a bickering wife or a loudmouth friend to keep one preoccupied.. It felt homely. Appealing, almost.

As he passed the tables towards the pond, he noticed a little child looking off aimlessly. A small girl with a whimsical look in her eyes. "Balloons... Floaty balloons..." she babbled, rocking back and forth on her heels.

Balloons? Link eyed her curiously.

"I sometimes see it in my dreams! Do you think that a long time people used to live in the sky? I think so..." She turned around absentmindedly. Link smiled at her. He quite liked children. Even if he hadn't exactly spent a lot of time around them, he always found them to be quite amusing whenever he did interact with them. Tiny little people with tiny little problems.

The little girl caught sight of him and waved her hand. "Hey, mister! Just once in my life, I want to see balloons float right up into the sky! If you'll help me realize my balloon dreams, I'll give you a treasure I got from the sky as thanks!" she spoke a little louder than was necessary.

Balloons?

Link frowned. He knew what the word meant, but he didn't know how. A piece of vocabulary from before. Had he seen balloons as a child? Played with them? It bothered him that he knew of something so simple, but without any amount of context as to how.

He looked at the little girl who was peering up at him expectantly. He thought for a moment, before his face brightened.

"Leave it to me," he replied.

"Thank you! Now put some balloons onto a barrel and make it float up high!"

He slung his bag off from shoulders and began to hunt through it. Strangely enough, he had something that could make the barrel 'float up high'. Octoballoons, dropped down from the aggravating octorocks that occasionally popped out of the water to hurl rocks at him. He hadn't had much use for them in the past, except for selling. But now...

He pulled out two. The little girl grinned as he approached the barrel she was gesturing at. A few slivers in the wood gave him the perfect knock to loop the octoballoons through and...