The Legend of Zelda: Time and Tale

Chapter 1: Part 1

Aryll and I never knew our mother or father; in their stead, our mother's brother raised us as his own in Ordon. The small cottage we called home was where Uncle had retired after a long life best described as a life lived in two phases.

In phase one, while a youth, Uncle served in Hyrule's military and later as a body guard to the King—lining the walls of his bedroom were mounted medals, medallions, swords and parchments describing fine deeds. I spent many an as hour as a little boy reading each of them in detail, learning the story of his life from the formal words engraved deeply onto metals rather than through his eyes. He spoke little of his days in Hyrule except to Rusl, who served with him long ago... In fact, he never seemed particularly proud if his achievements, I could almost say he acted as if the life he led was just a dream, except that the proof hung on every inch of his home like a haunting memorial to something long vanished. I often wondered if something terrible happened, if perhaps he saw awful things, or knew some awful secret. I never asked him for a declaration; the pain which creased his forehead when villagers mentioned his past was enough to paint a clear picture of the gaps in his bedroom.

Phase two of his life was as parental figure to Aryll and me here in the quiet routine of Ordon. Though little was ever spoken in regard to our mother, I was told often that I mirrored her features, inheriting her shape of face and her vocal eyes. When she passed, Uncle retired early from duty, taking us back to Ordon where he and my mother had grown up as children, in the same cottage they known in their childhood. I felt a sting of guilt every now and again that perhaps we were at fault for his unspoken sadness over phase one of his life ending too short. Uncle guarded pumpkin patches instead of kings these days, exchanged battle blows with foxes and wolves rather than warriors of equal skill.

He and Rusl worked together as blacksmiths, creating swords and weapons as well as tools for the villagers, or to sell at market in Hyrule. Rusl's wife  

I made my living working for Fado, owner of the Ordon Ranch, herding his livestock in and out of the grazing fields each morning and evening. He owned the second largest ranch in Hyrule and sold work animals, horses and all sorts of meats, milks and cheeses produced from his ranch animals to provinces and towns all over the Kingdom. The cheese wheels Fado helped produce were world famous, in fact, our village was known mainly for the cheese.

During the grazing hours, I did odd jobs for Fado—repairing broken items, lugging wheat or pumpkins to be stored for market, feeding the other animals, training the horses. I had a deep affinity for horses, and sometimes I felt the animals returned the sentiment. Fado told me often he would go "bankrupt and die" if I weren't around to take care of his large ranch. Fado was known for being a bit on the clumsy side, and more often than not, I was catching escaped goats at various hours of the day all over the village.

Fado led me over to the barns one morning after I had led the goats out to graze. "You do such a great job, boy," Fado said, "but you could do better..."

My heart sank for a moment.

"...If you had a horse, you could herd larger groups and grab those strays."

He opened the barn door to reveal a magnificent horse of chestnut brown. I felt tears spring to my eyes.

"Fado...I couldn't possibly..."

"Her name's Epona," Fado said. "She's all yours. A gift from me and Bo."

                               ***

One afternoon Rusl, my Uncle and I were helping Fado move large pumpkins from his silo to be shipped to Hyrule Marketplace, and as we were lifting and chatting I heard a scream in the distance. I put down the pumpkin I was carrying to see Mido shoving a smaller boy repeatedly into a tree trunk. In Mido's hand was a toy, which he held high above his head as the smaller boy kept jumping between shoves to get the toy, but he was too small to reach and too weak to stop Mido's shoves. As Mido's three friends stood by laughing, my Uncle's eyes narrowed at them, Rusl placed his pumpkin on the ground as I had, his foot wanting to press forward to break up the fight. Fado looked very worried. Their reactions made me want to do something to help, so I took a deep breath, and without thought or hesitation, I ran to the tree and jumped up, snatching the toy from Mido's teasing hand. Mido's eyes were wide with shock that I had taken the taunting prize from his greedy grasp.