The glaring sun beat down, causing shimmers of heat to rise above the vast field. It drew sweat from the brow of a man, making his steady progress through the long grass. He moved with the considered grace of an expert swordsman, every nerve and muscle under full control. This was a man who knew precisely what his body could do, to whom courage was second nature.

As he passed a low wall, an ancient landmark long forgotten, he was met with the site of rolling fields, ordered and maintained, crossed by well worn paths and displaying an abundance of crops. This gave him pause for a moment, it was obviously not what he had expected. Old eyes made out a young man working the fields in the distance with enviable energy. He stood for a while, slowly scanning the scene, until his gaze lighted on the buildings to the left. There was a touch of the old familiarity there, but peace and success had worked their ways, the encircling wall was gone, there were more buildings, an extension to the main house. The man stared for a long time.

After his eyes had taken in all they could, he moved towards the gate, keeping a careful eye on the distant worker. Old habits were hard to lose, and for some reason he couldn't quite explain to himself he didn't want his presence announced by warning shouts. But after passing under the gate, his eyes took on a far-off look, and some caution was abandoned as he looked around. The house was the same, on his left, the recent additions hidden to the rear. The stable to his right now had open walls, and was much larger. He wandered over to it, advancing a short distance under the eaves, a smile lighting his lined face as he gazed around, his mind now lost in the past. Tattered gloves ran lightly over supports and beams, replaced many times due to age or damage, but still in some way the very same building he had known so well all those years ago.

"Can I help you?"

At the sound of the voice, all appearances of a reminiscing man were lost, he spun quickly on his heel and brought his hands up slightly. He still hated being surprised, even by...

A woman stood behind him, shorter than he was, wearing a simple work dress that was nonetheless obviously of good quality. Her hair had lost none of its fire, her voice still sweet and lilting. She had aged well, he saw, her figure fuller and curvier, her skin only lightly tanned. She seemed pleased to have a visitor, by the look in her sparkling blue eyes, giving an obviously often repeated welcome.

"Welcome to Lon Lon Ranch! It's always nice to have a visitor. My name is Malon, I'm in charge around here, since... since..."

Her voice trailed away as her eyes reached the visitors face. He had changed, his face worn and scarred, his hair greying at the temples, but the small, amused smile and the strength in his eyes were exactly as she remembered. She stuttered for a while, thought had abandoned her, the familiar speech swept away by this moment of recognition. She tried to form a few words, but they were lost on the breeze and the silence stretched.

The man broke it first, swinging his arms by his side as if embarrassed. His voice was hoarse, as though he was unused to it.

"I came back." He looked up to see her eyes start to glisten. She jerked her head to the side.

"I knew you would." The words escaped her as a whisper. "I never... quite gave up."

"It's... good to see you again. I was worried..." He didn't get to finish before her head snapped back to face him.

"Worried nothing would be the same?" The woman gave a small sigh. "Link... so many things are different now. You left, without telling anyone where you were going, or why. We needed you, the whole kingdom did! The princess sent out search parties, messengers and travelers were practically interrogated, and I..." Her voice cracked slightly. She had been speaking faster, obviously unearthing long buried pain.

"I had to go, it wasn't as if I didn't want to-" He tried to justify his actions, long ago but never forgotten, but she cut in again.

"Everything's different now. The whole country has changed, I've changed. Link... all those years of peace, all those years spent wishing... eventually, we all moved past it. It wasn't easy, but..." Malon looked down. She seemed worried, unsure, but then she drew a long breath and looked him in the eye. "It's all different. I married, you know. It turned out there were some men interested in the farm girl after all. I've borne three children, all long grown and started with their own lives, the ranch is more prosperous than ever. Dad would have loved to see it. We worked hard, for a long time, and lived happily for even longer."

She rubbed her arm almost unconsciously, and he noticed with a lurch of his stomach a black strip of cloth wound tightly around her arm. A widow's band.

"I've had a full and happy life, Link. I don't know what would have happened had you stayed, but what's done is done. You chose your path, wherever you went, and I..."

Her eyes had been scanning his clothing, the green tunic she knew was long past the stage of being wearable, but lived on under his belt. He was wearing a similar shaped garment, reinforced with chain mail, often repaired and strengthened. There was a battered sword over his shoulder, a pale imitation of the awesome power he had wielded before, but serviceable nonetheless. And on his arm, wrapped round the same spot as her mourning, the thing that had caused her voice to catch. A tattered, frayed and ancient scrap of yellow silk. It had obviously been through everything with him, and as such was only just recognizable as a scarf.

As the silence stretched on, he followed her unblinking eyes to his arm, before looking back to see those same eyes brimming with tears.

"That's...I..." she managed, before the tears threatened to overflow...

"You come back, ok? I'll still be here" She had smiled and hit him playfully on the arm, at which he had grinned.

"I shouldn't be away long, but it's one of those things that has to be done" His voice had been laced with unhappiness at the thought of leaving, and combined with the wistful look he cast over the corral, gave him an air of... something indefinable. Regret? Sadness? Resignation? It was something she hadn't felt from him in a long time, and it moved her to comfort him, give him something to keep him going.

She slipped the scarf over her head, his eyes widened slightly as she tied it tightly to his arm. She hardly ever took off her scarf, it had been a present from her mother, and he knew how much it meant to her...

"So you don't forget what's waiting for you" She had teased. "I'll want it back though, so take care of it!"

He had grinned again at this, and planted a light kiss on her forehead. "Don't worry, I'll bring it back"

"I kept it, and I've brought it back. It took me longer than expected, but I did promise." He looked down and rubbed the cloth between his fingers, as he had done countless times in foreign lands. "Malon... I never forgot you. Wherever I was, in the heat of battle, halfway up a mountain, strange and wonderful places no one here would believe... it's this that's kept me going. I've fought in wars, I've been wounded horribly, but I never gave up, because I had this and everything that had gone with it."

Malon didn't reply, her hand was covering her mouth, trying her hardest to hold back a sob. Her legs had gone weak, and she had to lean on a stall for support. He remembered, he didn't forget me, he really didn't want to leave...

The silence returned, small, tearful gasps did their best to dispel it, but it remained, in the heat of the day, wisps of hay and dust gleaming in the sunlight between them.

After a time that seemed like an eternity, a distant whistling reached their ears. The young man who had been so engaged in the field was ambling past the buildings on his way to some chore or another. He cast a glance into the stables, and stopped at what he saw. From this close, the resemblance was plain, and the visitor stayed silent as the boys eyes took in the scene. He saw his mother on the verge of tears, having clearly stifled a sob, and a stranger across from her, a tough looking old man he had never seen, but who had the look of a brigand. The boys eyes narrowed and his grip on his pitchfork tightened.

"Mother, what's wrong? Who is this?" He advanced cautiously, but the man made no move, almost ignoring him, and his supreme confidence made the boy falter.

"It's... it's nothing. This is..." She stared at him, and he knew that she was weighing up what to say, what to tell her son of this strange man who had appeared out of the past, and that whether he should stay or go hinged on her response. She had moved on, become happy and successful, and now he was intruding on her comfortable life, dredging up old pain and memories...

"...a very old friend." His eyes shut almost involuntarily at this, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips. The boy did not seem convinced, and continued to look warily between the two adults. "He is my guest, and we're just having a chat. Go on now, those cows won't feed themselves!" She smiled and waved him away, and he left, not thoroughly convinced, casting glances back over his shoulder as he crossed the corral.

Malon drew a deep breath, and looked back at her visitor. She stepped closer, the dust of the stable floor swirling round her feet, halving the distance between them.

"I never forgot either, you know. I never gave up hope, even though I hid it away. I have to confess..." She stepped even closer, easily within arm's reach; "I didn't marry for love. I married out of necessity, out of hope that I could have a good life. And I did, we were happy, everything went well. But... it was never for love." At this, she stepped closer again, her arm slowly raised to brush an errant strand of hair from the man's eyes, as she had done so many times long ago.

After this first touch, this first contact between them in decades, her walls crumbled and she fell against him. He caught her, strong arms supporting her body, his shoulder soaking up another sob. Holding her again, her nearness, the warmth of her body, it brought back memories long treasured. A childish giggle in the market; frantically chasing cuccos back to the pen; a flash of red in the hay in a game of hide and seek; the moment of recognition after seven long years, in these very stables, the hope in her eyes as the horses thundered round the corral; the stinging pain of wounds being treated; nights on the roof counting the stars; red hair and pale skin in the candlelight....

The memories came thick and fast, and he held her tighter with every reminder of those perfect days, he held her as he had long ago. Eventually, they broke apart, and she smiled, bringing her hand up to stroke his cheek. Shocks ran the length of his spine, then his eyes flicked sideways as he registered the touch of cloth. There, around her finger, just under the old wedding ring, was a strip of green, wound round and round to make another ring. It too was frayed, as it had been when it fell away from the ragged tear in his tunic, after he had stumbled to the ranch one evening, almost torn apart. She had nursed him back to health then, picked this fragment from the ground, and he hadn't seen it since. Had she kept it, all those long years, reminding herself of what she had done, how they had depended so much on each other?

She saw him staring, and smiled. "I felt bad, sometimes. A happily married woman, with a family to care for. I had no business dwelling on an old love, on someone I was sure had abandoned me. I didn't want to surround myself with relics and stay in the past, but I kept this. He never quite understood, and I felt awful when I thought of you, but to forget would have been even worse, in my mind..."

Their eyes locked again, and she smiled, the lines fading, her eyes sparkling, the energetic young woman she had once been shining through again. She wasn't sure whether to trust him, to forgive him entirely, thinking about the pain of the early years, the long nights sat by the window. But all that was pushed down by relief and a girlish excitement she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Just seeing him again had been enough to set her heart stirring, and he had clearly never forgotten her...

They stood there, hands linked, foreheads touching, in the stable they had been reunited in before, for a long time. After what could have been days, they were brought back to reality by the distant slam of a door. Malon broke away and made towards the house, suddenly talkative again.

"This changes a lot, you coming back. You can stay here if you want, you know your way around. Or you used to... and the Queen should be informed, and we'll have to-"

Link caught up with her at the door, taking her by the arm, he spun her round gently to face him. He met her with a grin, the same stupid grin he had left with.

"Surely all that can wait a while? I kind of want to relax a bit, and we have so much to catch up on..."

Malon smiled as she opened the door to let him inside. "That we do, Fairy Boy. That we do."

The door closed gently.

---

Author's whinging: It's odd, but usually I hate stories like this. Set long after the game, with children and so on. so it was odd to find it in my head, and I just had to get it out. It also represents my first shot at dialogue, and is therefore pretty crap. The middle part is weak, horribly so, but.. I don't really want to change it now. It's out of my head and can stay there. Reviews would be greatly appreciated :)