A Cherry Blossom - The Necklace

Chapter 12

By the time we got back to Clock Town on our horses, it was already sunset. The sun was halfway down the oceanic horizon. "The clock tower opens at midnight for the arrival of the Carnival. That's where we go to face Skull Kid."

"Again," Tatl added as we came up to the eastern entrance of the town. "I hope Tael is alright since we last saw him..." She lowered herself a bit in worry. "He's such a young child, and with Skull Kid with him..."

"He's fine," I sat on Rose, smiling at her. She flapped her small wings in response. "Since he's your brother, then I know he's okay, because he has your spirit with him. We will save him, too."

"All right," she said in annoyance. "Man! You're too nice sometimes; it's so annoying!"

"Tatl, knock it off!" Link scolded, turning Epona to the side a bit.

"Link, it's okay. It can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation, so she's right in a way." I grinned, then noticed something in the corner of my eye.

"Yeah? When have you not been in a situation where you couldn't be nice?" he argued.

I lost my smile, and gasped as I looked at Link's lower leg. "Link, you're hurt!" I started to feel overloaded with worry.

"Huh?" He looked down at his injury. "Oh, yeah...Twinmold kind of put up a fight. One of them popped up and scraped me. It's nothing."

"That-is not-nothing!" I scolded. "That is a deep gash! We need to close it, and fast!"

"No we don't." He chuckled in disbelief. "It's just a scrape."

"Don't give me that hero pride crap!" I snapped, and he flinched back in surprise. "Especially when I know about wounds like this! My mother was a nurse before she died, and she taught me a whole bunch about these things!" I looked away, and Rose whinnied softly. "Please, don't be a hero with this. Let me fix you up."

He took it in for a minute, and then moved Epona towards me. I looked up, and saw him smiling at me. "Okay," he said. "I'll do it."

I sniffed, swallowing my tears. "Good. Thank you. I'm sorry for snapping like that." I smiled at him again.

He chuckled, then swung his leg over to hop off Epona. I gasped, making sure to get down before he did. As I suspected, Link grunted and almost fell over from the pain. I caught him, holding him up. "See? I can't have you be in pain like this."

"Yeah, it's not really a walk in the park." I giggled from the joke, and he smiled as I ducked under his arm so I could hold him up as he limped into town. The first thing I had to do was find a place where we would not be disturbed. I thought about the inn and Anju, but decided not to go, because I didn't want to face her without any news regarding Kafei.

"Hey, do you know a quiet place where I can focus?" I asked Link.

"Actually yes. Do you know where the laundry pool is? Barely anyone goes down there. Just follow the small path from the stairs near the red postbox in South Clock Town." He limped along as we went across the eastern part of town and past the inn. I tried hard not to look at the green door, and we kept going to the southern part of town.

Once we passed through the doorway, I immediately saw the stairs, and turned us that way. I noticed that Link was starting to pant then, and I looked over to see sweat dripping off his face. "Just hang in there," I assured. "We're almost there." He grunted, the pain really getting to him.

I was very careful as we stepped up the staircase, and realized that Tatl wasn't talking the whole time as she followed us. I was about to ask her why, but kept my attention on Link instead, who really needed help. We stumbled down the path, and thankfully, there was a bench near a bridge that led across the small stream where laundry was done. The bridge then turned into a path that led to a small door, but I ignored it for now.