Pieces of Time

Ch 3: Lake Hylia

"How much longer?"

Kali had to raise her voice over the rhythmic thumping of horse shoes smacking the grassy plain. There was a little bit of a whine to her tone. They had been travelling for the better part of about three hours without stopping, and she hadn't ridden a horse in years.

Her inner thighs ached from sitting in the same position for so long and her arms strained to keep a good hold around Link's waist.

She could feel his shoulders shaking with what she assumed was laughter that got lost in the wind. He turned his head so that she could see the blue of his iris peeking at the corner of his eye.

"Just a little bit further, I promise we're only minutes away." His cheeks were raised with a smile.

He was probably laughing at how petulant she was being. It had only been the fourth time she'd asked on this trip how long it would take for them to get there. It was difficult to keep track of time here.

Kali had always been so reliant on clocks and technology to keep track of the time, and now she had none of it. At least it seemed like time passed roughly the same as it did back home. But the only indicator she had managed to put together was that she got sleepy around what appeared to be the same time every night.

She gazed up towards the position of the sun , and quickly realized it would be hopeless for her to attempt to guess. The least she could tell it was past noon, since the sun was slightly past its highest point in the sky.

"What's so special about this lake anyways?" She called into his ear.

When she envisioned a lake, she thought of the only one she knew of back home. It was barely big enough to be called a lake, more like a pond really. The water was murky and brown and the water rippled with frogs swimming across the surface.

She wrinkled her nose at the image, remembering why she never really bothered to go fishing. Then again, she'd never done much traveling before.

Link looked back at her again, a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes. "You'll see."

He seemed awfully sure of himself, but it was hard to read him sometimes. So, she just nodded her head.

"It's just around this bend." he told her.

Kali nearly sobbed at the thought of the relief she'd feel after getting off of this horse and stretching her legs. She was practically ready to jump off as she tried to peek over Link's head and shoulders to see if they reached their destination. He was significantly taller than she was, unfortunately.

He made a sharp turn suddenly and Kali gripped his torso tightly to keep from flying from the saddle. When she looked up, she felt like the breath had been knocked out of her. There was so much water, almost like a sea. She would have thought it truly was the sea if she couldn't just make out the strip of forest on the other side of the lake.

Suddenly, she didn't feel like she could get off the horse on her own because of how stunned she was by the sheer size of it.

"Oh." she breathed, pulling the hood of her cloak down.

Link pulled his hood down as well, keeping his green hat on his head.

"Yeah." he said smugly, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Kali leaned towards the side and carefully slid off of his horse, barely keeping her knees from buckling both from aching muscles, and wide eyed amazement at the view. She didn't wait for Link to follow and jogged over to the water's edge. It wasn't murky at all. Instead, it looked nearly like glass in its clarity.