Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Link ran until he was out of the village and stopped. If he charged ahead blindly, he was going to miss the trail.
Unfortunately, there was not much, although Saria had trained him well in tracking, and Moblins were well-known for being clumsy. That was part of the problem; there were so many Moblin tracks in that part of the island that to find Marin’s tracks among them was extraordinarily difficult.
He headed in the direction of the mountains when the trail grew so hard to find that there was basically nothing.
And all the time his heart was full of fear.

He came to the mountains and paused. If he was a fat lumbering Moblin, burdened with a light, slim girl, how would he get up?
That posed a problem for him, as there was only one way to go up into the mountains, but many ways to go after that. Link wrinkled his forehead in frustration and anxiety and ran again. There was a tower on the eastern horizon.
Through tunnels, not forsaking the darkest corner, and to the most remote plateaus, he jogged along. Already he was getting tired, and the day was almost gone. The caves were dark enough, and he had no lantern.
He came to the tower and sprang in. Continue reading →

Chapter 5     Chapter 7

Chapter 6

The next day, Link went to the shop and bought a bow. It wasn’t as good as his old one, but it would do until he could find or make a better one. Thus armed, he went exploring to the east past Kanelet Castle, scouting out the land to see if he could get to the mysterious village Marin had hinted about. The river flowed deep and fast, and he hesitated to dive in.
He found a cave, and it didn’t smell like monsters, and no monster noises came out of it, so he went in with a makeshift torch he had fashioned out of wood and old cloth and magic powder. The tunnel got very tight at one point, and he could hear water trickling all around him, but it was not a dead end. The exit put him on the other side of the river, and Link smiled.
“I wonder if I could make an easier way for Marin to cross,” he wondered out loud. “Well, at least there is one safe-ish way.”
He set off on the well-travelled path south, and it soon bent to the left. There was a large sign overhanging the road that said ‘Animal Village’.
Link blinked at the sign and stepped forward.
Five white rabbits, a blue baby bear, and a small raven rushed up to him, and stopped, their faces showing disappointment.
“…” Link stared at them. He had met talking monkeys, but never talking rabbits… if they could talk. “…Hello?”
Two rabbits turned back to him and smiled politely. “I’m sorry, stranger. We thought Little Marin had come.”
“Oh. I’m a friend of Marin. I just arrived on the island. She was going to come, but the bridge is gone.”
“Yes, monsters got it. I don’t know where they came from! Anyway, what’s your name?”
“I’m Link.”
“Pleased to meet you. Are you a swordfighter?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Wow! We’ve never met a swordfighter before.” Continue reading →