The Visitor of Kakariko Village

There was a boy who visited Kakariko Village. Though the visits far in between, the children always found stories and gifts. Sometimes he arrived by horse, other times on foot, and even over the city on a glider with markings Koko had never seen before.

The first time he arrived, he didn't speak, wearing ragged clothes whose dyes had faded years ago and hardly fit him right. His shoes were splitting at the seams.

"Did he climb the mountain alone?" Koko asked asked the cucoo keeper. At first he hushed Koko and moved her aside, eyeing the boy as he walked past father and the other guard to the temple.

Hours past and the stir of the village had died down. Cottla played in the rain while Koko asked the innkeeper to use her pot to cook.

While staring at the device he would wear at his side, he ran into Cottla, knocking her down and into a puddle. Koko had saw it happen outside the window. But the boy helped her up, and Cottla grinned then dashed off in excitement, then the boy followed.

For payment for making her fall, he played tag with Cottla.

He came back weeks later in a red tunic, his face clean and eyes bright when Cottla met him at the entrance of Kakariko for hide and seek. They stopped only when father called for story time. Before he could step away, Cottla took his hand and led him to just below the fern tree and together they listened to father's tale, one he happily shared of the great fairy fountain.

"She must be pretty!" Cottla told the boy.

The boy waved his goodbye when father went back to work and Koko saw at the corner of her eye the boy trek up the hill to the location father said the fairy fountain would be.

He joined Koko at her cooking pot the next day with a picture on his sheikah slate. When Koko asked if it was the fairy fountain, he nodded. Koko was happy the boy found success, but it only made her dinner seem more and more sour.

He questioned her pout.

"Koko wants to make dinner like Mama, but Koko doesn't have enough sugar." Koko taste tested her meal only to spit it out. "Mama always got it right." and then she thought. "It needs more honey! But where does Koko get more honey?"

Koko didn't even notice when the boy smiled and reached into his pack. He pulled out between folded leaves combs from a hive and presented it to Koko.

"Honey! For Koko?"

He nodded with a gentle smile and handed the sticky combs to her. For the next hour Koko stirred the pot as the boy showed her pictures of the Zora domain. Cottla arrived soon after for dinner and the three sat together looking through his pictures. Some were of the local Zora and his meals while in the domain, sometimes it was of flowers and lankscapes. But what caught Koko's attention was that none of the pictures were of him.

"Where are you?" Cottla asked. When he gave a quizzical look, she asked, "Why aren't you in the pictures? You should take pictures with you!"

He took the offered meal from Koko and was on his way once more.

The next time he visited it was in the dead of night during a downpour. Mr. Cado brought in his cucoos and the village was silent except for the white noise the rain provided. Cottla nodded off next to Koko, but Koko must wait for father to get home. That was when Koko saw the boy clad in nothing more than the "shiekah ninja suits," as father had called them.

"They are made of the finest spider silk, woven by our elders most skilled hands, and worn by our best warriors."

But the boy shivered, rubbing his hands together and movement ridged. Koko nudge Cottla awake. Cottla stared from their doorstep until she called out, nearly frightening the boy.

"Sir, sir! Stay with Cottla and Koko and father!" She turned to Koko. "Can he stay with us? Please! Please!"

The boy moved his hands frantically as a no no, but Koko and Cottla ran to his heels and grabbed the spider silk fabric of his pant legs.

Father had walked behind the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't see why not."

The boy looked funny in father's clothes. Everything smothered him from its size, but he seemed grateful, holding his hands out the hearth in their house. He slept on the floor near Koko and Cottla watching the door. He spoke with father until Koko could not stay awake.

The next time Koko saw the boy he brought ingredients Koko had never heard of. The label read Goron spice. He showed pictures of his travels once more, but this time of his heat resistant suit, some with him and the local Goron.

"You look funny," Cottla giggled out then proceeded to walk wide and awkward, stomping her feet and saying "boom, boom" with everystep.

"No, no," Koko argued, "like this!" She held her body rigid and straight, moving her arms stiffly and compressing like a machine, her steps with mouthed sound effects of released steam. The two circled around the boy's feet, marching in their step, and the boy spun to follow their movements until he snorted and his laughter behind his hand.

It was the first time Koko had heard his voice, for the boy to make any noise beside soft huffs of agreement. Koko liked her new friend.

The boy stayed to catch fireflies that night and held Cottla when the blood moon rose.

"It's scary," Cottla explained to him.

The boy thought for a moment then brought out his sheikah slate. He opened the camera and put it in Cottla's hands, something he had never allowed before. Carefully, he placed her onto the ground then stood up in front of her, between her and the blood moon. He pointed at the sheikah slate, then at himself.

He cupped his hands to the side and grinned cheesily. At just the right angle, it seemed . . .

And Cottla laughed.

The camera shuttered, capturing the boy holding the blood moon in his hands. He did it once more, this time on one knee and his arms high cupping the blood moon in his hands. Another shutter of the camera.

"Cottla wants to try!"

Koko took the sheikah slate and captured the boy holding Cottla up to grab at the blood moon.

Koko didn't see the boy for a long time. Months felt like years to Koko, but when he arrived, for the first time he brought someone along with him, a girl. They both wore the same shade of blue, one father had called "the color of heroes" in their stories. He took her to chief Impa.

"She's pretty! Like the fairy fountain!"

Koko agreed with Cottla.

When the boy and girl left the temple, the boy greeted Koko and handed her combs of honey and goat butter. Koko thanked him and greeted the girl. Cottla asked for the boy's sheikah slate which he gave freely in spite the girl's quizzical look.

This time there were images of the Rito, one playing the accordion, another of the divine beast on top of the village with the boy waving just meters away from it. Then there were pictures of the girl he brought with him. Many were of the two of them on their travels, some of the two of them eating, others of the beach. The girl must have taken a photo of the boy climbing a tree to grab the purest of red apple.

"Is this your girlfriend?!" Cottla asked with excitement.

The boy laughed as the girl turned red. He said nothing, but he smiled all the more.

The town knew of this boy well. He was quiet, but sometimes he spoke to the youngest of children, sharing tales of his adventures, hunting lynel, taking out Master Kohga of the Yiga Clan, meeting the Gorons, Rito, and Zora, even sneaking into Garudo City in womanly garb. He even had photos to go with his tales and spices so exotic Koko didn't know how to cook them and would ask the women who owned the market to cook it for her.

He was loved by both elders and the young, but especially by Koko and Cottla. Only years later would the two understand they had become something special to the hero of time, a friendly face when no one else was, who provided a home and a reason to keep fighting.

They never even asked for his name.

Can you tell who my favorite NPCs are? Sorry, I needed more link making friends with locals and being brotherly to these two. I wanted it to feel like the story came from Koko which is why I so often used her name so often.

Please leave a comment on your thoughts and thanks for reading!