Shades of Blue

Hestu

Why...can't I...remember...

Help...please...

Where...did you go...

Can't...remember...

Something is...wrong...

Where are you?

Epona came to a slow halt, and Link lifted his head from where it had come to slump in their slow ride. Once they were out of sight of the stable, he had slowed her down to a quiet walk, and his thoughts had escaped him just as quickly. He was lucky to keep any sort of grip on the reins at all, with how exhausted he was. But Epona seemed to know where to go, and he was too...tired to try to take control for himself. So he let her take the path, holding the reins loosely in his hands and falling forward onto her neck.

It was only as she stopped at a curve of the path that he was able to rouse himself enough to sit properly in the saddle, looking blearily around the fast darkening path. The sun had slipped below the horizon only moments ago, but the sky was rapidly turning an inky black. There were a few lanterns lighting the sign posts, and some along the bridges, but besides that, it was almost completely dark now.

He found he didn't like that very much. Urging Epona forward again, Link tried to stay awake for a little longer.

The mountains encroached on the path the closer to Kakariko it went, until there was less than a ten feet width from one side of the path to the other. Wind blew lazily along, not nearly enough to get rid of the stifling atmosphere of the path, though. Not enough to blow away this feeling of emptiness that had somehow taken hold of his thoughts.

He didn't like these memories...he didn't like the vast nothingness they left him with, all the blanks he couldn't fill. It was like being offered a scrap of bread when he was starving—the little he had been given was nowhere near enough to make things feel right again. And for the life of him, he could not drag any more of his memories from the fog, no matter how hard he tried.

Take Epona for example. He could now remember the day he had first gotten her. But he could not remember what had happened before, or what had happened after. He couldn't remember going home with his father, or waking up the morning of that day, or anything more about the people in the memory than the little glimpses he had caught therein. His father was a confusing set of half remembered feelings, none of which seemed to make much sense. He had the lingering feeling of other memories, the sense of the strain of their relationship, but no context to pin it down with, except what he could remember from one encounter they had when he was very young. He had no idea what had happened to his father, or why their relationship was so confused. All these vague notions the memory of Epona had given him were of no help.

And Revali, who slipped his mind too easily, leaving him with a crushing amount of guilt. Or the princess, Zelda, who was still silent wherever she was. Or Impa, a name which he knew he ought to remember, but could not. Or any number of other phantoms in his thoughts that could not form shape or name. They were all still lost to him, still floating around in the ether while he stumbled his way toward his next required task.

He was very tired.

Epona stopped again, and Link roused himself for another moment. He had no idea why she had stopped, leaning toward a turn of the path and sniffing at the grass. Sighing, he dropped the reins and dismounted, content to take her hints as they came and check the area.

The path shot off into two directions. One branch clearly lead toward Kakariko, candlelit lanterns occasionally flickering in the wind, and the sounds of village life drifting over. The other branch lead to a little alcove of sorts, the remains of a camp clustered around a tree. It was likely a monster camp at one point, but the beasts seemed to have deserted it, leaving their stubby watchtower and scorched ground where a fire had once been.