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"You're leaving?"
"Yes." Link sounds apologetic.
Skull Kid watches the hands that deftly adjust Epona's saddle. They are the hands of a child, not much larger than his own, but they have slain monsters and saved kingdoms, and he feels drunkenly content whenever they touch him. He doesn't have lips, but they would be trembling right now if he did. He thinks Link can tell anyway, so he ducks his head. "Forever?" he asks in a small voice.
The hands stop. "No, not forever." Link steps closer, and steady fingers come to clasp around his own. "I'll be back. I promise."
Skull Kid nods. "Okay." He doesn't mind so much now that Link's promised. He will miss the hands, and the eyes that twinkle at him when he laughs, and the smile that catches him off guard, still, with its warmth, but he can wait. He's good at that.
In the weeks following Link's departure, Skull Kid ventures into the forest every day. His feet carry him to the spot where he carved proof of his friendship with the boy into a stump. Without the real thing, this crude likeness will have to do. It isn't until Tatl and Tael voice their concern that he realizes he has been spending hours at a time in front of the etching.
One day, on his way to the forest, Skull Kid spies a figure kneeling before a small tree. As he approaches, faint recognition tickles in the back of his mind. By the time he connects the dots, it's too late, and he's already standing in front of the man.
The Deku Butler lifts his eyes. "Oh. Hello." His voice is cordial, if subdued.
Skull Kid's instincts scream for him to run, yet he can't move a muscle. Tatl and Tael are markedly silent, having realized, too, just who this person is.
Before the imp can even think to reply, the Deku Butler turns back to the tree. "This was my son," he says quietly.
Skull Kid feels like splintering into a million pieces. He had suspected as much, but the truth still crashes down on him like a roiling tide.
"My boy loved to run." The Deku Butler's gaze is faraway. "He was the only one able to best me in a race, until that child came along." He shakes his head mournfully. "It's a shame he is rooted to the spot now. He hated standing still in life."
Skull Kid stares at the frozen husk of what used to be the man's son. The bark face is twisted into a look of anguish, mouth parted in a silent wail. He wonders if the boy had felt any fear in his final moments, or if sheer despair had eclipsed all else.
At last, the Deku Butler rises. "Thank you for listening," he says with a short bow.
Watching the man's retreating back, Skull Kid is struck with an idea. Link left the masks behind before departing, in a large wooden chest that he hasn't dared to open since. It isn't much in the way of recompense, but perhaps he can return a memento of the Deku Butler's son.
Back at the inn room he had shared with Link for a few happy weeks, Skull Kid rummages through the chest in haste, trying not to look too closely at soulless eyes and blank features. Finally he retrieves the Deku Mask, flinching instinctively at the yellow gaze. But after a second glance, the resemblance falls away. These eyes are distinctly mournful, as though they will start crying at any moment.
Sitting on the floor with the mask clutched in his hands, Skull Kid takes a breath. He wades through foggy memories, grabbing for the one with the Deku Scrub—but all he remembers is the mask's hysterical laughter. "Hey, Tael?" His own voice sounds distant.
The purple fairy bobs in the air and zips to his side. "Yeah, Skull Kid?"
The imp swallows. "You were there, right?"
Tael is silent for a moment. "Yeah." He has already forgiven Skull Kid many a time—the imp has a habit of babbling apologies every time he wakes from a nightmare—but it would be a lie to say that the memories don't haunt him still. Tatl flies up beside him, offering wordless comfort through her presence alone.
"Did he...did he say anything before it happened?" Skull Kid's voice trembles.
"No." Nothing recognizable, at any rate.
Skull Kid doesn't know when the Deku Butler will pay another visit, so he prepares to make as many trips to the secluded spot as it takes. To his surprise, the man is there the very next day.
"Oh, you again." The Deku Butler nods politely. "Good morning."
Skull Kid opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again. He thinks of the man making the trek into these lonely woods week after month after year, grieving a loss that can't be healed even with a lifetime of mourning. Tears prick at the corners of his eyes, and he scrubs at them furiously as he thrusts the mask forward. "Take it," he chokes out.
Startled, the Deku Butler stares at the familiar visage. "This..." He runs trembling fingers over the wood, committing every inch to memory. "Thank you," he finally murmurs. "I can feel my son's spirit within." Pressing it into the imp's hands, he entreats, "Please, hold on to it. It would make me happy if you could bring it with you to all sorts of different places."
Skull Kid shakes his head frantically. "But I was the one—"
The Deku Butler holds up a hand. "You are quite familiar with masks, aren't you?" he asks, seemingly out of the blue. He turns his gaze skyward. "They can hold tremendous power within. Enough to make us more than what we are, for better or worse."
Skull Kid can't help it—the tears come hot and heavy then. His sniffles echo around the secluded clearing, deafening in the silence.
The Deku Butler pulls a handkerchief from somewhere and offers it promptly. "Again, thank you. It brings me great joy to know that my son has not been confined to this stump here. In a manner of speaking, he was able to have his adventure." He inclines his head toward the mask in the imp's hand. "I hope, with your help, he will be able to have many more."
Skull Kid nods. He feels thoroughly drained yet strangely at peace, like a rag that has been wrung clean and left to dry in the sun.
He doesn't visit the stump that day.
From then on, the Deku Butler extends an open invitation to his home in the swamp. Skull Kid comes over for tea and brings back stories of his adventures, delighting his host to no end. They take walks in the forest and go fishing when the weather permits. The man even brings him mushroom hunting, remarking that his son used to be quite good at it thanks to a special mask.
Skull Kid recalls Link using such a mask on one of their own foraging trips. "The one that looks like a pig?"
"Why, yes." The Deku Butler look at the imp curiously. "Forgive me if I am mistaken, but might you be acquainted with that fellow in green? Link, I believe he was called."
Skull Kid nods. "He's my friend."
"Then you must give him my thanks as well. The Deku Kingdom owes him a great debt."
"I will." And the imp tips his head up to the scrap of sky above, sending out a wish to the endless horizon beyond for Link to come back soon.
Taking the man's words to heart, Skull Kid ventures further and further across Termina with the Deku Mask in tow.
One such trip takes him to the ocean. The day is blustery, and he grips his hat with both hands as he approaches the shoreline, failing to notice the silhouette standing on the beach until he's a few paces away. With a start, he finally spots the lead singer of the Indigo-Go's.
"He's really gone, isn't he?" The winds die down as if in respect, allowing Lulu's voice to carry across the sand clearly. She stares at the makeshift grave without really seeing. "I thought that he played with us at the carnival, but that was someone else, I suppose." Her hand touches her heart. "Although, perhaps he was there in spirit."
Skull Kid remembers the heady rush of that concert. He had spent the whole time looking at his friend on stage with stars in his eyes.
"Sorry. I'm going on and on...you don't even know who I'm talking about."
"No, I—I know who he is." The guitar on the grave is recognizable to any Indigo-Go fan. "Was he your friend?"
"Yes. A close friend, someone I loved dearly...whom I had hoped to build a family with." Lulu smiles sadly at the bundle swaddled in her arms. It squirms, and the imp glimpses a tiny, inquisitive face. Noticing his stare, she brings the child closer to allow him a better look. "Her name is Mimi."
Skull Kid's expression is awash in curiosity. He sticks out his tongue at the little Zora, and the squeal of delight it earns him has him giggling in turn. His mirth fades when he glances over to see Lulu watching them fondly. Gathering his courage, he blurts, "Can you come back here tomorrow? I have something to give you."
The next day, Skull Kid hands over the mask of the Zora guitarist he retrieved from the chest. The woman is by herself this time, and he swallows as the full weight of her attention falls on him and his offering.
Lulu gasps. "Mikau...?" She cups the face gently, smoothing the cheek with a delicate thumb. "Oh, my love..." When she looks at the imp again, her eyes glimmer with unshed tears. "How...? No, never mind. Thank you."
"Don't," Skull Kid says in a small voice, and shrinks away from her questioning gaze. He knows with unerring certainty that it must have been his fault, somehow. "Sorry," he offers at last, because it's all he can do.
Lulu is silent for a moment, considering him with a thoughtful expression. "We'll be rehearsing next week. The Indigo-Go's, I mean. You can come and watch if you like. I'm sure Mimi would love to see you again." At his hesitation, she spies the instrument strapped to his side. "You know, we don't have a flutist. Would you like to play with us?"
Skull Kid brightens a little on hearing that. It has been a long time since he has made music with other people. Invariably he's reminded of Link, of flute and ocarina harmonizing in a sun-dappled clearing. "Okay!"
The other band members welcome him with varying degrees of surprise, but Lulu's high spirits keep the would-be naysayers quiet. Skull Kid's enthusiasm makes up for any disparity in talent, and even the bandleader cracks a smile at the imp's childish awe as he works the keyboard.
Sometimes Skull Kid doesn't jam with them, instead playing with Mimi and her siblings while the band rehearses. On occasion he accompanies Lulu's family to the beach, whiling away afternoons cavorting in the water or building sand castles. The children always clamor around him when it's time for him to go, and Lulu never fails to send him off with a packed lunch.
Skull Kid's heart feels full to bursting and he only wishes Link were here to share this happiness, so he writes the boy a letter and casts it into the ocean in a bottle, hoping that these feelings will reach his friend, wherever he is.
One day, on returning to the inn, Skull Kid witnesses a mustachioed man haggling with the innkeeper at the counter. "What do you mean, the rate increased? It wasn't this high last time!"
The red-haired woman sighs. "I'm sorry, sir, but there's no longer a discount now that the carnival is over. We simply don't have enough customers."
"Come on, Gorman," the woman behind him urges as her twin nods. "It's not that much more. We've booked a full week of performances, we can afford it."
After some grumbling, the man tosses another handful of rupees onto the counter and disappears with his troupe upstairs.
Skull Kid tiptoes up nervously. "Um...how much is it? The room I'm in?"
The innkeeper peers down at him with a smile. "Don't worry, honey. Link paid for your stay indefinitely."
The imp nods back shyly, insides bubbling over with warmth. It gives him a giddy feeling, to know that Link thought of him so. He nurtures hope that the boy might still keep him in his thoughts, just like he thinks of his friend every day, without fail.
In his room, Skull Kid's gaze falls on the chest. There's one last transformation mask. One last soul that the voice had tortured and imprisoned. Maybe...maybe he can help it find its way back home, too.
Snowhead in springtime is beautiful. Skull Kid itches to take his time frolicking among the flowers and butterflies, but he has a mission to accomplish. Tatl's directions lead him to the graveyard where Gorons are laid to rest, though it's no easy feat to clamber up the cliffside with melting snow dogging his every grip.
Sobs echo from the cave as Skull Kid approaches, and Tatl and Tael's hushed conversation about possible ghosts has him shivering from more than just the faint chill in the air. Still, he forges onward, because he knows that there are things out there much scarier than ghosts.
As it turns out, the source of the weeping is a young Goron curled up into a ball next to the largest grave.
"Isn't that the Goron Elder's son?" Tatl mutters.
"Are you okay?" Tael ventures to ask.
The child uncurls and throws them a watery glance. "I miss Darmi." His face scrunches up. "I miss him! I miss him! I really, really miss him!"
Skull Kid suddenly realizes that the visage on the headstone looks awfully familiar. As Tael attempts to comfort the bawling Goron, he pulls out the matching mask, only for the child to gasp and leap up, bouncing from one foot to the other.
"Wow! That's Darmi, all right! How come you have this? Can you give it to me?" Without waiting for an answer, he snatches it from the imp's proffered hand. "Wow, wow! I knew Darmi would come back to us!"
"How?" The word escapes before Skull Kid can help himself.
"Because we're important to him!" The Goron Elder's son nods firmly. "You always return to your important people. That's what Daddy said!"
They return to find the village of the Gorons in an uproar over the missing child. Skull Kid is congratulated roundly for his help in finding him, and thereafter the Goron Elder invites him to all manner of festivals and gatherings. He meets a Goron with the same name as his friend, and this simple coincidence is enough to forge a fast friendship. The Goron Elder's son takes a shine to him as well, dragging him to watch the Goron races at every opportunity.
All the while, Skull Kid keeps those words close to his heart: You always return to your important people. Will Link always return to him? The thought makes him dizzy with breathless hope.
Residing in Clock Town as Skull Kid does, it's difficult not to bump into its various inhabitants. The group of children called the Bombers corner him one day, recognition burning in their eyes.
"What?" Tatl hovers in front of the imp protectively.
"Tatl, Tael, why're you still with him?" The leader points an indignant finger. "This kid, he's no good! He almost killed us all!"
"Be quiet! It wasn't Skull Kid's fault!" Tatl flutters angrily. "Besides, it's thanks to Skull Kid that Link was able to see through his mission to stop the moon!"
The Bombers recoil. "What?"
Tatl flies up to the similarly stunned imp's face and bobs earnestly. "Why do you think Link tried so hard and endured so much to save Termina? He wanted to save you, Skull Kid. Because you're his friend."
He hardly dares to breathe. "Really?"
Tatl scoffs. "He was always talking about you. It got kind of annoying." In truth, she's a bit jealous, because Link knew him first, even though she and Tael thought they were Skull Kid's closest friends. The boy has seen so many sides of him that she hasn't, knows all these things about the imp that she doesn't, and it's a little odd to watch them together sometimes, because it's almost like they are off in their own world...one where they need nothing else and nothing can disturb them.
Skull Kid's eyes are as wide as saucers, his entire frame vibrating with joy.
The Bombers mutter amongst themselves. "Fine," the leader announces. "Link's an honorary member, so if he vouches for you, I guess you're okay. But don't cause any more trouble from here on out, got it?"
The group scatters as Tatl blows a raspberry at them.
The days pass like cascading raindrops. Skull Kid still visits the stump, but now he brings gifts he gathers with the Deku Butler and plays tunes he learns from the Indigo-Go's and shares stories he hears in the Goron village. Some of the more curious Bombers even seek him out to play, and the one called Jim starts dropping hints about overturning the ban on non-human members.
Skull Kid had expected waiting for Link to be hard, but the realization that it doesn't have to be painful is like a burst of honey on his tongue: sweet and wholly unexpected.
Just as the imp readies himself for bed one night, there comes a knock at the door. He swings it open, words dying in his throat as his heart seizes. Despite imagining this moment a thousand times, the sight of his friend in the doorway still catches him off guard.
The sun-stained hair sways as the boy takes a step forward, and the sky-seared eyes crinkle in a devastating smile when they land on him. "I'm back."
"You're back!"
"I'm home."
"You're home!"
"I missed you."
"You missed me!" Skull Kid is speechless with joy, only able to repeat Link's words back to him. The boy's golden laugh jolts him out of his trance, and he leaps at his friend, arms outstretched. "I missed you, too! A lot!"
There's a soft grunt as they collide, and familiar hands come up to encircle him. The imp drinks in the feeling greedily.
The two friends talk through the night, telling each other of all they have seen and done in their time apart. Skull Kid doesn't let go of the boy's hand once, and Link doesn't seem to mind. They fall asleep like that, nestled against one another on the same bed as Tatl and Tael come to rest at their side.
Dawn glitters through the windows, pale light illuminating the room in a delicate glow.
A new day has come.