Chapter Text
5:00 AM, Riverside Stable
The cuccos outside the stable begin to cackle, waking up Link from his little slumber. "GOOOOOOOOD MORNING LOCAL STABLLLLLE!!" He yawns, shaking wildly at first before finding himself in the stable. The locals inside stare at him awkwardly, a couple chuckling as he was always like this every time he would take a rest at a stable.
"Good morning to you too, sunny boy." The clerk, Boon, greets him from the table. Link stands up and arches his back to fix himself, yawning as he does. He grabs his bag full of crops and rupees before heading out to the front. Boon walks to the other side of the front desk, facing outside now. They still have to work on dealing with one person running the stable beds and boarding and taking horses.
"So what'll it be?" He asks Link, "I wanna take my horse, Epona." Link answers with a confident smile. Epona and Link have been best friends since they met at the Ranch near Castle Town when Link was only 13. Epona was a wild mare horse that was scared of Link and would run away from him when he got even 3 feet close to him. That was until he managed to play a song on an ocarina to calm Epona down, it was also a coincidence that the Hero of Time played that exact song to tame his steed. The ranch luckily let Link take in Epona as his own and for 3 years, they have never been separated from one another.
"Alright, we'll get Epona for you," Boon replies, whistling over to one of the locals to grab Link's wild best friend. The first local, Kerry, runs to the back, holding Epona's lead to guide her toward the front. After walking to the front, Link immediately mounts on her and thanks Boon and Kerry for the assistance before telling Epona to hit the tracks.
Link looks toward the lone shrine on a mini island between the two bridges and sees the royal princess investigating it. The princess was always investigating these shrines all over Hyrule including the one that was in Hateno Village, his hometown. The shrines have been randomly glowing at times but since Thursday, they haven't been lighting up.
He looks away quickly after she snaps at one of her Royal Guards and continues moving through Eagus Bridge, not wanting to be a random target of an angry princess.
The Hylian and his best friend stop by Goponga Village to make bread off his crops, greeting a lot of the Zoras in town like they were family. "Hey, Link!" A familiar male Zora calls out from around the corner. Link looks to his left and sees his best friend, Bazz. He mounts off and rushes to the Zora knight, hopping off a wooden plank and doing a midair handshake with him. After he drops back on land, Link and Bazz collide with their chests as a final sign of their signature handshake
"It's been 7 years, man; How's Hateno?" Bazz asks. Link shrugs while smiling, "It's doing great! I just need to sell at least 102 rupees worth of crops and then we'll head home. How are Rivan and Gad?" The tiny Hylian asks compared to Bazz
"They're finishing up their training real quick. I was assigned to take watch over Goponga Village for the day so I should go home tonight." He answers. Link hadn't been to Zora's Domain since his father's death where they would visit almost weekly to purchase fish for dinner. Every time they would visit, Link would always run around with the young Zoras and get himself wet from the puddles everywhere.
The last time Link and his father were in the Domain, Link would meet Sidon, the younger brother of the Zora Princess, Mipha. He and the small Zora would get themselves into some sort of mess, leading Mipha to be rushing for their safety no matter where she is. Now, Sidon must be a lot more like Link, right?
"I gotta sell these crops real quick, talk to you some time?" Link asks, raising his hand for a show of goodbye. Bazz takes it and the two collide with their arms. "See you any time, Link!" He waves before walking in the opposite direction, holding his Silverscale Spear.
Link turns to Epona and continues walking down the southern road, eyeing a customer. The Zora was waving for Link to stop, holding a few purple rupees. Link pulls Epona to the side and hops off with the Hylian crops in his bag.
"How much for 5 sets sound to you?" He asks. "I'll gladly take them for 150 rupees, Link!" She answers, giving Link the 3 purple rupees while he hands the crops to her, possibly all of them. "Thanks for the service!" The Zora smiles before walking back into her home. Link mounts back onto Epona and leads her back out of town and together, they begin walking up north to venture out and get some rest.
8:48 PM, Woodland Stable
Link boards in Epona with help from one of the locals, Blake. "Your horse is in our care, Link. Come back here if you need anything else." The clerk, Tone, reminds the teenager. Link simply nods and walks to the cooking pot to make his dinner for the night: a pair of apples, Hyrule Herb he managed to grab all over Hyrule field without grabbing anyone's attention, and 2 hearty radishes.
Without a second thought, he tosses all of the ingredients into the pot, splashing some of the boiling water right near him which he dodged in a nick of time. Link tossing all the ingredients for a meal at once has always been his chaotic way of cooking that always splashes a mess and he would always be met with criticism for nearly burning himself.
He takes a wooden spoon and stirs the materials around, being ready to take them out and crave his dinner. Another traveler, Noah, sits next to him and watches his cooking. "You seriously never change, Link." He teases him. Link shakes his head with a chuckle, taking each ingredient out and putting them onto his plate. "Noah, show me your way of cooking, and let's see who's the crazier chef." He bets Noah.
The bigger traveler chuckles and takes out an apple and goat butter, carefully dropping the apple first and keeping the butter on a separate plate for his future meal. Then without hesitation, he dips his hand into the boiling pot and takes the apple out, putting it on the butter plate, spreading his greens around before melting the butter over the apple. “Bon appetite?”
”So who’s the crazy chef again?” Link counters, pointing his spoon at Noah’s boiled hand. “Hey, it’s not my fault my hands are somehow resistant to boiling water.” Noah shrugs, chuckling as he says it. Ever since Link would visit the Woodland stable, there was a chance that Noah, his first customer to buy Link’s crops, would be at the stable either relaxing or cooking a meal. He has a habit of dipping his bare hands into the boiling pot and not feeling pain from the heat somehow.
“Come on, let’s eat inside.” Link gets up, nudging his head toward the stable before he walks in, sitting at the only table and leaving the empty chair for Noah.
“So Link, how’s Hateno coming along?” Noah asks right when he takes his seat and eats his buttered apple. “Pretty good as of tonight. I just sold all my crops to the folks in Goponga; they always seem like family ever since…” Link can’t get that imagery of the Bokoblins murdering his father out of his head again
”Go! Get back inside, Link!” His father yelled, charging with his pitchfork right at the aggressive Golden Bokoblins. That was the last time Link would ever see his father. 30 minutes later, his body was carried out by Hylian soldiers, bloodied and a few of his organs were taken or bitten. Link couldn't believe it. "Link, dear?" His closest neighbor, Drew, caught the young Hylian's broken response at his father's corpse.
In a fury of rage, Link shoved Drew and grabbed the pitchfork his father dropped and immediately stabbed 2 Bokoblins in the mouth, sticking his new spear into a tree before hearing another wave of those man-bodied pigs. Link pulls back, dropping the dead golds and running at the wave with his newly war cry, slitting 3 Bokoblins on the throats in a single spin and kicking the 4th one, forcing it to drop its Dragonbone club. Link ditched his pitchfork and grabbed the club, constantly bashing the unarmed Bokoblin multiple times on the face, repeatedly forcing blood and teeth out its mouth.
"LINK. STOP!" "LINK, THIS WON'T CHANGE WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FATHER!" Another local and Drew called out, the first local grabbing his arm while Drew Locked the arm in. The feral Link was struggling to get out, wanting to destroy that Bokoblin corpse even further.
"Link?" Noah snaps the teenager back into reality, startling Link and launching tears out his closed eyes.
"S-sorry." He mutters, taking a quick bite out of his hearty greens.
"Hey man, look up." Link looks up at Noah, who shows his concern on his face. "I know how you feel, we all know. If you need a comfortable pillow to cry on if you're going through a crisis, you can rely on all of us here at the stable."
He offers a handshake to the broken Link, to which he accepts, and the two shake them before they pull each other into a collision. Link and Noah yell in the excitement of their handshake, laughing after they fall back to their seats
After they finish their dinner, Link walks up to the front desk, ordering a soft bed for the night. Adventures will never not be fun for him; even when he's journeyed further away from home when rent is due at midnight in 2 days. He drops his body onto the bed, feeling a bit drowsy not even a minute after lying down. Good night to you too, Link.