Chapter Text
My dearest Malon,
I apologise for not writing to you in such a long time. You must be beside yourself with worry. How long has it been? weeks? months? It is hard to tell when we keep travelling through those portals across time... Perhaps one day, my adventures won't involve any time foolery. Or better yet, perhaps I will be allowed to live life by your side, without any fighting, free from the danger and the excitement that I have grown so tired of.
If you knew how much I miss your comfort at the moment. At night I lie awake for hours, unable to sleep, and I imagine myself back home, close to you. You have always been able to lay my fears and my anguish to rest. I imagine your warmth next to me, your sweet voice lulling me to sleep, away from the harshness of the outside world.
I would be lying if I said the only thing that prevented me from writing to you was the uncertainty of travel. In truth, I have terrible news to give you, and I put it off as much as I possibly could. But I know it is unfair to you to keep my silence any longer, and in fact I miss you so much I cannot stand doing so. What a Hero of Hyrule I am, once bearer of the Triforce of Courage and yet unable to write those words to you, those words that I have tried to set down on paper again and again over these last few weeks and that I have been unable to bear seeing written.
Malon, we lost one of our own.
The rancher, whose build you immediately recognised, the one who is was our descendant. He fell in battle unexpectedly, casualty to our foe's formidable abilities that none of us could predict. No fairy could heal him. No magic could revive him. We did everything we could, and it wasn't enough.
Just pulling those lines out of my pen took me several minutes. I can no longer look at them. Neither can I imagine the pain it will be for you to read them. Oh, Malon, if you knew how I regret that I will not be there to grieve with you when you receive my letter. This is something I should have told you in person; but to write to you without mentioning it as if nothing had happened, when it has taken up all my thoughts and weighed on my chest like lead ever since, when all of us are still reeling from this devastating blow, was inconceivable. You and I have always taken pride in being able to tell each other anything, everything, and it is in the name of that honesty that I ask you to forgive me.
Forgive me for not being there with you, for being stuck out here on this endless quest and, no doubt, increasing your worry by my words. Forgive me for failing these boys, all of them, but especially our own. I still recall those happy days, safe at home, when he and I gently laughed away your concern for him; but you were right. Our job is dangerous, and our rancher was strong and capable, but one unlucky blow was enough to take him away. We should have listened to you, taken your warnings more seriously, even though I doubt it would have changed anything.
Forgive me for wishing, however briefly, that you hadn't taught me how to care again.
But those thoughts are only my old demons rearing their heads, now that I am away from you and in so much pain. I could never truly regret the happiness I have found in you, the strength that the mere thought of you, leading the farm with your usual fire so far away from me, manages to give me. Neither could I ever regret meeting those wonderful boys I travel with, and who manage to keep me standing day after day just by being there. In much the same way, I will cherish the memory of our ranch hand until my dying day, no matter how much sorrow it currently brings me, for he was like a son to me.
I miss you, Malon. The day cannot come soon enough that one of those cursed portals brings me back into your arms. I long to hear your laugh again, to be woken by your strong voice carrying over the ranch and commanding your father, the horses, the cows and the cuccos alike, to come back to this healing sanctuary you always offer me. I pray you will then once more have the patience to pick up the pieces of a broken man, the way you first did so many years ago.
Yours always,
Link