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alternate-triforce · 2 years ago

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Hyrule Herbology — Good Morning

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Link wasn't sure if it was the clatter of something in the common room or the vertigo that woke him up. This was the second time he had dreamt that dream. His mother and father–instinctively he knew who they were–had no faces but for some reason he felt the warmth of a smile emanating from their empty visages. He rubbed his face with one hand and ran his fingers through his hair to get out any tangles before rolling off his pallet and heading into the common room.

A powerful smell smacked into his nose as he entered. Link wheezed and doubled over, waving a hand in front of his nose to try and recover.

"Good morning," Fen said, hunching over a pot in the fireplace. "Did the smell wake you up?"

"No," Link said, grabbing a stool and dragging it closer to the table. He flopped onto it and buried his head in his arms. "Stupid dream did."

"With the faceless people again?"

"They're not just random people, Dad," Link insisted.

Fen grunted in discomfort. There was a slight pause before he spoke again. "I'm making this herbal tonic."

"Oh." Link raised his head a little. "For what?"

"It's supposed to give you a boost of energy," Fen explained. "Thought you might need it."

Link wrinkled his nose. "'M not that tired."

"You will be. You're on well duty this morning."

Link buried his face in his arms again. "Why did you have to remind me."

"So you'd drink this stuff," Fen said, placing a cup of the disgusting-smelling tonic on the table and pushing it over to Link.

The boy grimaced but obliged, swallowing the thick tonic in one gulp. He gagged after he finished. Why did good things always have to taste so bad, he wondered. Or, perhaps, a better question: why hadn't Fen added something to the concoction to make it taste decent? "You should have added some flavor," Link said, never one to leave his thoughts unvoiced.

Fen grabbed a small loaf of bread off a counter and pulled it apart, giving a piece to Link and keeping the other for himself. "Maybe, but I don't think we have much time."

"It wouldn't have taken that long to add something–" Link began, before coincidentally he heard a bell clanging outside.

"Would've taken too long," Fen repeated, sticking his bread in his mouth before rushing over to the door. "Race you," he said between bites.

To get rid of the aftertaste in his mouth, Link gobbled down the bread. It was fresh and soft–easy on the gullet. Then he trotted up to Fen. "I'll beat you, old man."

"No you won't," Fen retorted, opening the door. "I'm only thirty-two."

"Ancient," Link said.

"Ancient?" Fen laughed. "Okay, let's not waste any more time. On the count of three–"

Fen counted down, and they both were off, rushing down the path to the village center. As they rushed past houses, Link noticed Fen had gotten ahead of him and sped up a bit. His guardian's longer legs were a major advantage. He'd have to be smart to get an edge over him.

"Hey! I see Penna!" Link shouted.

"Where?" Fen skidded to a stop and started looking for her.

Link cackled and jogged ahead of him, making it to the village square easily before finding out where Fen had gone. He was talking with Penna, both of them making their way over to the bell, where all of the other villagers had gathered in a circle. Inside that circle was Ditri, the village leader. He was a tall man– a little lacking in hair, with a loud voice that he tended to use in the mornings. Link squeezed his way through two villagers so he could get a good look at him while he belted out orders for the day.

"Everyone's here now, right?" Ditri shouted.

There were murmurs, and someone raised their hand. Ditri pointed to them.

"Gorse got into a tussle with a rift the other day. She's resting right now." Ditri raised an eyebrow. "I see. Well, that's perfect timing, seeing as a group of soldiers is coming in today."

More murmurs. Link heard the people close to him say something like "I hope they haven't raised their rates again." The villagers gave each other looks of concern, but Link just crossed his arms and huffed.

"Be on your best behavior, that's all," Ditri said. "Move out. We have work to do." With that the villagers scattered, walking to wherever they had been told to go the previous evening– in Link's case, the well closest to the fields. When he arrived, he stopped in front of it and took a deep breath. Someone the other day had told him that he should be proud of being old enough to lug a water bucket around, but he couldn't disagree more. He wanted to go back to bed. Link began pulling up the bucket out of the well for the first of probably a million times today.

Or maybe not quite a million. Once he got into the rhythm of it, being on well duty wasn't so bad. Though it was tiring, Link hadn't lived five years in a farming village for nothing. He quickly got covered in mud and water from it sloshing onto him from the bucket, but once the sun came up it began to dry. When he gave villagers the water they needed they usually cheered him on and thanked him. Every once in a while he took a breather, absentmindedly humming some bastardization of a tune musicians had spread around Drinna, the nearest town.

Around midday, everyone retreated from whatever they happened to be doing for lunch– Link included. Fen usually had something prepared ahead of time, so he wandered around looking for him.

"Link!" Someone's voice– definitely not Fen's– called. "You're covered in dirt." Link whipped his head around to look at the speaker. It was Packard, of course. They had been friends for a long time. "You're covered in hay."

Packard picked a single piece of hay out of his hair and snorted. "Uh huh."

"What did you think I'd be covered in? I was busy walking around in mud and dirt and stuff," Link said haughtily.

"Flowers," Packard retorted, grinning impishly.

"Shut up," Link groaned.

Packard rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I found this weird flower near the border, and I think it might be good, so I wanted you to take a look at it."

"Oh." Link put his hands on his hips. "I want dibs on half of it if it's edible."

"Aw, c'mon, I found it. Quarter."

"Two quarters."

"That's half!"

"Four eighths, and that's my final offer," Link said.

"Fine. Whatever. I bet it's bad anyway." Packard stuck out his tongue. "Come on."

The two boys walked along, Link behind Packard as they entered a small forest on the edge of the village's land. A border of painted stones marked the border– once they went beyond it, they were technically breaking the law. Not that either of them cared. Going a little outside the border was something everyone did from time to time; it really only mattered if you spent a day or two out there. Packard wove through the bushes in the forest expertly, pushing back a bough so he could move through. When he let go of it, it smacked Link in the face.

"Ow!"

“Huh?” Packard looked back at Link, who was rubbing his nose. “The flowers are right over here.”

Packard stepped back to give Link a better look. In a small clearing, a web of yellow and brown flowers grew thick on the forest floor. Link crouched near the flowers, examining them for a moment before tugging on one of them and uprooting a small tuber about the size of his finger.

“These are dancing ladies,” Link explained. “They’re pretty good eating if you cook them.”

“Oh,” Packard said, leaning over to watch Link work. “How many of those do you think there are?”

Link scanned the thick bed of flowers. “Dozen or so, maybe,” he replied. “These are small, so it might be better to leave them for now.”

There was a faint sound of rustling grass and something sniffing. Packard and Link both raised their heads in alarm.

“What’s that?” Packard hissed.

"It's probably just a rabbit or something," Link said dismissively, striding towards the noise. He made it through a few bushes before stopping in his tracks.

A small creature about half his height stepped forward. She had large ears almost twice as big as her head, with strange markings in them that resembled the eye patterns on a moth. Her long, fluffy tail twitched slightly as she looked over the boy, tipping her large glasses down. On her back was a small satchel– something inside it was moving. "A rabbit?" she asked.

"Not a rabbit," Link said, scratching the side of his face. That was a pol, and probably one of the visitors Ditri had been talking about. Link guessed she was probably a mage–or at least some sort of magic user. She didn’t seem to be armed and her arms were so tiny she probably could punch a fly without it noticing.

The pol nodded. "You're…covered in dirt."

"I told him that earlier!" Packard said.

"I like dirt," Link retorted. "So, hi, ma'am. We were looking for plants."

"You're a little far from home to be doing that, don't you think?" the pol said.

"Not that far," Link said. "No one cares if somebody goes beyond the border for five minutes."

"Hm. You people are spoiled here, really," the pol muttered before looking back at her bag. It was moving even more now. "What're you doing, Slither?"

She opened her bag, and a vine shot out of it, grabbing Link's right hand and wrapping itself around it as it grew more rapidly than Link had ever seen a plant grow. He yelped and pulled back, but the more he moved, the faster they pulled him back towards the pol.

"Aha!" the pol exclaimed, pointing a tiny finger at Link. "I knew something was fishy about this village! You've got contraband!"

"No I don't!" Link said, trying fruitlessly to get away. "Leave me alone!"

"We'll see about that when we get you in front of Sergeant Sporpos," the pol said, gleefully trotting back towards the village and attempting to drag Link along with her. She quickly stopped as she realized she didn't have the strength to pull him along. "Uh, do you mind coming with me?"

"Why?" Link challenged.

"Because if you don't someone bigger'll come by and grab you by the scruff," the pol replied. "Oh–other kid. You should probably come too."

Packard, all too happy to be ignored, jumped at the suggestion. "Yeah."

The three of them marched their way back over to the village square, where a gaggle of soldiers were talking with one another. Ditri was a few feet away from them, nervously wringing his hands.

"I've caught someone!" the pol shouted triumphantly. "I told you it would work."

One of the soldiers– probably the sergeant the pol had mentioned earlier, judging by the red uniform and armor– chuckled. "Lepy, that's a kid."

"A kid with a lot of magic power!" Lepy insisted. "My plant is still attached to him, so he's definitely got more than usual."

"I don't have any magic, sir, I swear," Link said. "The stupid plant just attacked me."

"Yeah, I've never seen Link use magic," Packard said. "This is a mistake."

"...We do use those things on smugglers," Sergeant Sporpos noted. "And they've never lied before."

"Exactly! Why would a chuwis lie to anyone?" Lepy replied, waving one hand dramatically.

"Maybe you made it do that with weird plant magic!" Packard said, glaring at Lepy.

The sergeant raised an eyebrow. "You do seem a little desperate."

"You can look at my bag if you want, sir, but I don't have anything with Forest magic," Lepy said. "Actually–wait." She took a pair of scissors out of her bag, and cut off some of the vines leading to Link's arm. They immediately grew back. "See?"

"Hmph. Alright, we'll do a search of the area." Sergeant Sporpos turned to Ditri, who was staring at the commotion wordlessly. "Where are the boy's parents?"

"I'll get him," Ditri said, taking a step back.

The sergeant chuckled as the village leader scampered away like a frightened rabbit. After a few minutes, Fen came rushing over.

"What happened–" he blurted out before two soldiers grabbed him by the arms. A fire lit up in his eyes, and he pulled back, but it quickly cooled as they yanked him into place.

"We need to look through your house," the sergeant said. "Your son may have been messing with things he doesn't understand."

"He wouldn't do that," Fen said, glancing at Link for confirmation. Link shrugged and shook his head. The vines had almost completely covered his right arm.

"Chuwis plants don't lie," Sergeant Sporpos replied, gesturing for the soldiers to let go of Fen. "Now, if you wouldn't mind leading us to where we need to go, we'll do a quick search."

Fen nodded sullenly, and they began the walk back to the house. Well – "walk"; it was more of a despondent trudge. Packard followed around ten feet behind the main group, curious, but careful to keep his distance. He didn't want to get in trouble.

As the vines began to bury Link's arm even more, Lepy frowned. "It's still sucking magic out of you?"

"I guess," Link replied.

"You have a really high capacity for magic." She sighed. "I guess I should put Slither back in his bag." Taking her scissors again, she cut through the vines in a few swift chops at the base of the plant before shutting her satchel. Then she looked between Fen and Link. “You look a lot different from your dad.”

“Huh?” Link stared at Lepy. “I guess so. I mean, we’re not blood related.”

Lepy tilted her head. “You really are a strange kid.”

Once they made it to the house the sergeant ordered the other soldiers inside. Link winced as he heard clattering and crashing, then the sound of something rolling on the floor. A few times they called out like they thought they found something, then dismissed it a few moments later.

"There's nothing here," one of them said after some ten minutes of searching the tiny house.

"We'll check around the area," the sergeant replied. "Leave them alone for now."

The soldiers and Lepy both left to find more places to search, the latter giving Link a look of confusion as she walked away from the scene. As soon as they were gone, Packard trotted up to his friend.

"It sounded like they broke something," Packard said. "Are you guys going to be okay?"

Fen sighed. "We've lived through worse. You should probably go find your mom. They might be looking through other houses."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. She might need you."

Packard started off towards his house, then stopped, glancing back at Fen and the house for a moment. "I'm sorry about all this."

"It's not your fault," Link replied.

Packard furrowed his brow, but he nodded and ran off. Once he was gone, Fen put a hand on Link's head and gently tousled his hair.

"I didn't do anything, Dad."

"I know," Fen said. "Are you still manning the well this afternoon?"

"Yeah."

"You'll need some good food for that." Fen smiled. "Let's have lunch."

#hyrule herbology #link #loz au #fen #packard #lepy #this still feels a bit rushed to me but overall I'm happy with it