Key Quest: Air and Fire by Judy Colella (first color ebook reader TXT) 📕

“Link!”

“Aah! I’m up! Really!” He jerked upright, eyes snapping open. “Okay. Where are my clothes?”

“Over here, Link! Malon brought them back.”

“What do you mean by ‘back,’ Navi? Where did they go?”

“Silly boy – Talon took them away after you’d fallen asleep last night, and she brought them back this morning. From the smell, I’d say she washed them for you.”

He nodded, suddenly embarrassed. “Yeah. I, um, they were a bit stinky from being worn so long, I guess.”

Navi giggled.

Link glared. He threw off the covers, shivered in the slight morning chill, and got out of bed with great reluctance. When he was standing, he noticed a table on the other side of the loft that held a large water-filled bowl, a thick towel folded neatly beside it, and a cube of soap on top of the towel. He smiled. Getting clean was probably the next best thing to being able to sleep in that amazing bed, and he went at it with a happy smile.

Dressed, clean, and well-rested, he headed down the stairs, feeling better than he had in a very long time. Now all he needed was something to eat. He went outside, inhaled deeply and stretched. The day was slightly overcast, which suited him fine. The sunshine in the world outside the Kokiri Forest was glorious, but he wasn’t yet as comfortable with that as he was with the less boisterous light of home. Besides, the cloudy sky reminded him of his dream…he smiled, thinking of Zelda…

“Good morning, m’boy!”

“Oh! Good morning, sir.”

Talon had emerged from another door further down in the same building. “How did you sleep?”

“Better than I think I ever have, to tell you the truth. And thanks for cleaning my clothes.” He blushed.

“No problem, no problem at all!” Talon clapped him on the shoulder and grinned. “So! Are you hungry?”

Starved. “Yes, sir. A little.”

“Come inside, then! I have plenty of breakfast left. We all get up pretty darned early around here, so me and Malon have already eaten, but I asked her to leave out some food for you.”

As he spoke, he led Link inside. The room they entered was large and pleasant, the walls plastered and whitewashed – something Link had never seen before – with various tables against the walls and one large, round one in the center. On this was a huge bowl of fruit surrounded by platters, one holding a stack of sliced bread, another with several big chunks of cheese, still another containing shelled nuts of varying types, and one with a pile of something yellowish, almost gelatinous-looking. The fruit, bread and nuts were familiar, but Link had no idea what the other things were.

“Have a seat, boy. Here you go.” Talon pulled a chair out, waved at it, then sat himself in one adjacent. He reached for an apple. “Help yourself. Malon baked the bread this morning, and believe me, it’s wonderful. Here.” He picked up another dish, one Link hadn’t noticed before, and placed it near the boy’s plate.

“What’s this?” he asked, taking a thick slice of bread.

“What? Haven’t you ever had butter?”

“No, sir.”

Talon laughed. “My goodness! What do you forest folk eat, then?”

“Fruit and nuts, mostly. Bread, too.”

“So you’ve never had scrambled eggs, I take it. Or cheese?”

“Afraid not.”

“Well, let me introduce you, then!” Talon took Link’s bread and smeared the whitish substance from the small plate onto its surface with a flat knife. Then he cut a chunk of cheese from one of the bigger pieces and put that next to the bread, followed by a scoop of the yellow stuff which he identified as the eggs.

“Wow! This is delicious!” the boy exclaimed after swallowing a mouthful. “Where do you grow them?”

“Grow…oh! No, no, the cuckoos lay them!”

A totally new concept, Link wasn’t sure he liked the idea, but there was no denying how good they tasted, nor how nicely they filled his stomach. The same was true of the harder, salty chunk of what the man had called “cheese.”

“Where does cheese come from, then?”

“It’s churned cow’s milk, just like the butter, but the process is longer.”

Link had never experienced milk, either. This was turning out to be a very educational morning for him. He got full more quickly than expected, and now needed to move. He also needed to relieve himself, and mentioned this to Talon.

“Use the outbuilding next to the stables. It’s closer than the one near the storage silo.”

Link gave him a blank stare.

“Never mind – I’ll show you.” Talon smiled and stood. “Follow me.”

“Thank you, sir. And thank you for taking such good care of me – I never expected you to do all that.” The fact was, Link wasn’t used to anyone being so kind to him, and wasn’t sure how to handle a sudden wave of emotion that made him swallow hard several times.

“Not at all,” said Talon over his shoulder, unaware of the boy’s overwhelming feelings of gratitude.

They had gone outside and past the buildings, turning right at the end. They passed a huge double door on the right, and several yards beyond this was a smaller one. It belonged to a building that was so close to the stable, it might have been part of it except for a barely-discernible space between their walls. The building itself was narrow, and when Talon opened the door, Link could hardly see what was inside. A window had been cut in the back wall, but it was high up, and did nothing to illuminate the lower part of the interior, but after a few seconds he could make out what looked like a low bench with a hole in it.

Even if he hadn’t been sure what this was, the odor coming from its depths defined it as a place for eliminating body waste. What he couldn’t understand was why they’d enclosed it. In the Forest, one dug a shallow hole in the earth for solid waste, covering it back up afterward, or stood behind a tree to…well. This was really strange, he thought. And smelly.

Talon had left him, shutting the door as he went out. Several minutes later, Link emerged, grateful to be out of there, and realized he was facing the gigantic enclosure he’d noticed the night before. Or had it been the morning before? Wait – how long had he slept?

And what were those huge animals running around in the enclosure? They reminded him of his recurring nightmare for some reason…

“Why don’t you go say hello to Malon?” the man suggested, nodding toward the fenced area. “After milking the cows, she works with her horse in the corral.”

“Horse?”

“Yes – haven’t you ever seen a horse before?”

“No.” As soon as he said that, he realized that he must have, because now he recognized them as the same huge, four-legged creatures in that terrible dream.

Talon nodded, obviously surprised, but didn’t say so. “Those are horses.” He waved toward the spindly-legged creatures. “I don’t own them, of course. My ranch is for raising cows only, but part of my income is from letting horse owners use my corral to exercise their animals. One of them gave Malon a horse of her own, a foal that she named Epona. See?” With a hand on Link’s shoulder, he brought the boy to the entrance of the corral.

In the very center Link could make out a small figure. Nearby was one of the horses but it wasn’t much taller than Malon herself.

Closer to where he stood, the larger horses were trotting about, and he was somewhat shocked at the size of them. Even in the dream, he couldn’t tell they were this big. “What do you do with horses?”

“We ride them, of course. What else?”

Link’s dream-people had been riding them, too. Even in real life they looked very fast and he imagined riding one would make travel both quicker and easier. “Oh.”

“Malon says Epona is very special – she would say that, of course!” He chuckled. “Well, you go on, then. Go say hello. I have lots of work to do today and should really get to it.”

Link nodded, not sure he was comfortable with walking into the corral with all those horses running here and there. He could easily get stepped on, he thought. He heard Talon walk off, and figured he may as well go see Malon. Besides, if a little girl wasn’t afraid to be in there, he certainly shouldn’t have a problem with it!

After narrowly avoiding the indignity of stepping in horse poo several times, and once or twice having to wait while a horse galloped past, he made it to the center at last and greeted Malon, thanking her for taking care of his clothes.

“It’s the least I could do, Link!”

So she’d remembered his name. Cool.

“I could see you were enjoying your sleep, so I didn’t wake you earlier. Did you eat?”

“Yes. Your father gave me breakfast. It was delicious.”

She giggled and wrinkled her nose at him.

He cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable. Why did girls get like that? Saria had shown the same kind of cutesy-coy behavior periodically, and he simply didn’t understand. “Um, nice horse.”

“Oh! You like Epona?” She turned and whistled a pleasant pattern of notes and the little horse trotted over, her reddish coat gleaming in the light of a sun that had at that moment emerged from behind its cloud. The horse nuzzled the girl’s shoulder, then turned to Link, snuffled at him, and ran off.

“She’s not used to you,” Malon explained. “Here – let me teach you her song. That way, when you come back, you can call to her and she’ll know you’re a friend. Do you know how to whistle?”

“Not really. But I do have an ocarina. Will that work?”

“Yes! That’s perfect, in fact!” She began to whistle, and when she was done, Link repeated the melody on his instrument.

“You did it!” The girl clapped her hands, delighted. “Oh, and look! Here’s Epona!”

Sure enough, the horse had returned, and now she was pushing her nose into Link’s chest, almost causing him to stumble. “Easy, there!” He laughed and put a hand to Epona’s muzzle. Stroking it gently, he was amazed at how smooth and silky she was.

“She really likes you, Link. I have a feeling she may be a good friend for you when she grows up.”

“You’d let me visit her? I mean, she’s your horse, right?”

“Hmm. Well, yes, but not really. I mean, the owner gave her to me to raise, but she’ll choose who she wants to serve. I have nothing to say about that. Besides, girls don’t usually ride horses – only the Gerudo, from what I hear, and they’re pretty wild.”

Gerudo. There it was again. “Who are they? And are there a lot of girls or something?”

“Why, that’s all there are! Only one boy is born to them every once in a while, but, well. I’m not that familiar with their story, but I do know they’re very fierce and scary. For women. You never heard of them?”

“Once, a long time ago, but only about their prison, so I wasn’t really told anything about who or what they are. Not until the other day, that is, and then only a little bit.” He purposely didn’t mention Ganondorf. Zelda had asked him to keep all of that a secret and he’d die before breaking his promise to do so. He patted Epona’s neck and took a deep breath. This line of thinking had reminded him of his quest. He was pretty sure he should get back to it, despite how pleasant it was to be here with Malon and her horse. “I ought to go now.”

“Where are you going, Link? You