Chapter Two: Time

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The rope bridge that connected both sides of the deep ravine creaked and groaned as the draft mare calmly walked across them. The chasm marked the border of the Ordona Province and crossing it heralded the departure of Link from his home region. The man hung his head in thought and let Epona find her own pace. The morning was clear and bright, though clouds in the distance whispered rain into the breeze. Link would have liked to have left an hour earlier but he had been... held up. The Hylian adjusted his seat as his mare crossed the threshold of the bridge, her great hooves stepping onto the stone of the path of the other side. Sighing softly, the man stretched his neck a bit. The Hylian cast a glance back towards the way he came, towards Ordon, and he furrowed his brow slightly as he recalled what had taken place just minutes before.

After Ilia had left him the previous evening, Link had sat before his burning hearth well into the night having forgotten his intention of having supper. His thoughts were too loud for him to even try to think about sleep. Instead he sat there, occasionally poking at the flames, and weighed his options. He couldn't stay in Ordon any longer, what had happened with Ilia had made that clear. At the same time, however, Link wanted to make sure that if he left, that he wouldn't be doing so just because he had made things majorly awkward between them. The teenager did not want to stay simply because the village was where he'd grown up and was familiar with. Many times during the night, Link found his eyes gazing around his home. He watched the fire's light flicker across the walls and memories of his parents peeked into his mind.

Being eighteen now, his birthday having been a couple of months ago, meant that it had been over eleven years since Link's parents died, leaving him an orphan at the young age of seven. Sigurd and Jola... his father and mother. Their faces had all but faded from his memories by now, with only fragments remaining. Happy moments... precious moments. Thankfully Link hadn't witnessed his parents' death, but often he thought that having to wait for them to return home was worse. They never did, well they did eventually, but Link wasn't even allowed to see their faces one last time because of their caskets. The boy had been told what had happened, that they had drowned while returning from a delivery trip of Ordon Goat Cheese. Link and his family had actually owned Ordon Ranch and Fado had simply been a farmhand at that time. When the boy's parents died, Fado had bought the ranch to continue the business. No one is sure exactly what happened to the ranch owners. The bodies of the couple had been found floating in Lake Hylia by the Zora and whether foul play had been involved or not had never resolved. There had been just too little evidence and no motive.

Their wagon was unmolested, no money nor goods taken, nor the family's old grey gelding stolen, so no investigation took place. Link had to bury his parents with zero answers to his questions. After the funeral, Link hated his house, which had been so warm and safe all of his life. It had suddenly turned cold and far too large for the young boy. Thankfully he hadn't needed to worry about being alone in that house for long. Rusl, a long-time friend of Link's father, had invited the orphaned boy into his home and would not take no as an answer. At first, as was expected, Link had retreated into himself and was angry at the world. Slowly, over time, Rusl was able to take him under his wing. The man introduced the boy to the practice and study of swordsmanship. Rusl, like Link's father, had been a Hyrulean soldier before retiring for the quiet lifestyle of Ordon Village. The focus required from the teachings of swordplay was what the distraught boy had needed, for it distracted him from falling into his grieving. Rather than brood and wallow in his grief, Link was able to divide his time between practicing with his wooden sword and helping Fado at the ranch.

For three years Link lived with Rusl and during that time, he didn't return to his home once. The boy learned how to be happy again and to live without his parents thanks to Rusl and the support of the entire village. When Link was ten and just when it seemed to him that his life had perhaps returned to normal, everything changed once again. Uli, Rusl's wife, became pregnant. A joyous occasion without a doubt, but the prospect of a baby in the household brought Link into perspective that he needed to leave. Uli herself tried to reason with him, as she had always been so kind to him, but Link had made up his mind. The night before Colin was born Link returned to his family's home on the outskirts of the village.

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