He reached out and grabbed my wrist, the soft warmth of his long fingers curling around my hand a strange comparison to the rough leather of his glove. I shook my arm halfheartedly, a weak gesture to show my discomfort, and Link loosened his grip and stepped away.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking like the child I had met years earlier, "I didn't mean - that is, I didn't want-" He stopped and exhaled a heavy breath before dropping to the ground. He stared up at me for a moment and I folded my legs neatly, lowering myself down to sit next to him. "Look Malon," he tried again, his voice pleading and begging like a wounded dog, "Everything's all jumbled up. I can't decide if I'm a man or a boy. And that sounds odd, I know, but my body's old but my mind's not, but it might be, since I didn't really jump into the future, I just slept through the present." He paused again and then threw his sword aside with an angry growl. "How can they expect me to do this?"

My gaze slid across the meadow until it reached the castle - a dark thorn in the countryside. Ganondorf, Ganondorf... Could one man really destroy so much? Was the situation really so desperate that time itself had to be rearrange in order to stop him? My fingers dug themselves into my hair, twisting it into knots. I couldn't share Ganondorf's blame, could I? A placid and dumb farm girl couldn't affect fate, surely.

"He'll kill me for sure. He almost did kill me, last time we met. How am I supposed to beat him? They made some sort of mistake. I'm not a hero! It's hopeless... It's hopeless..." Link's desperation rolled off him in palpable waves, but I could do nothing but stare at him uselessly. What words could I say? What solution could I present?

My mouth locked shut. Between my pounding heartbeats, I could hear the frantic hum of the last insects of the autumn, singing their existence before the frost killed them off. Finally, a numb hand touched his shoulder, and I patted him as if he were a horse. "I don't know." I said, because I spent my childhood mucking out stables and singing to cows and painting barns, not learning conversation or rhetoric or anything of use outside of a ranch. I stood suddenly, moving as quickly as I could in my long, heavy gown and layers of petticoats and ruffles. It had been vain of me to wear it, and foolish, too, but I had stared entranced at the creature in the mirror and brushed away my good sense. Now it gave me an excuse not to look at Link and I busied myself picking seeds from the dress' folds.

I untied my horse's reins from the tree that had served as a convenient post. As I prepared to hoist myself onto the saddle, Link came up beside me and sliding his hand under mine for support. The gesture unnerved me again, and Link, too, apparently, because he took a quick step backwards as soon as I was settled and then turned away to claim back his sword. I watched as he sheathed it in a single fluid motion and then continued watching as rubbed Epona's nose affectionately.

When Link climbed onto the saddle and the light of the setting sun basked him in gold and reflected off the silver shield on his back, I suddenly realized that I knew that he was the hero, I knew it with as much certainity as I knew my name. Link was the hero, Ganondorf was the villian, and I was a ship caught in their gale. I pulled me hood up and nudged my horse toward the castle. "Goodnight, Link," my voice spoke automatically for me, a polite reaction I'd stolen from the royalty.

Link refused to be so easily shaken off and I could hear Epona's hooves on the dry ground as they approached. I clamped my teeth shut and squinted into the burning sun, but I could still hear him call after me, "Wait! Malon, wait! Where are you going? Will I see you again?"

"I'll be here again tomorrow!" I answered without thinking, letting my wayward emotions trample my logic, and then raced away across the field, losing his reply to the wind.