Better Forget

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Zelda. I noticed that I never wrote that yet. It's a pity but true.

"They told me to not talk to strangers."

Her eyes were big and round as she blinked at the young man who was taller by more than two and a half heads.

He glanced down at the girl and lifted an eyebrow of his slowly.

"Then why are you talking to me?"

Her lips formed into a big smile and her eyes started to twinkle softly.

"Because!"

She had started to speak to him suddenly a few days ago and he couldn't understand why she chose him out of all people who surrounded them. He didn't remember how much time had passed since he had escaped this water temple and how he landed in castle town which had changed its shape over the years. It got bigger; it expanded and got livelier every single day. He hated it.

It took him long enough to at least move through the sunset light safely and now where he had found a bar for shelter during the daytime she appeared. A girl too young to be wandering alone like she did with unnatural green short hair, he wasn't the one to judge her because of that. He was pale like a ghost, had black hair and red colored eyes – not an average look you would say. But he wasn't normal either anyway. A shadow he was called, a mirror image of someone everybody loved and respected. Just because of that he wore a cape with a hood to hide his face, it only frustrated him that so many people would ask if he was a certain hero they heard of.

He was not.

"What's your name? I'm Saria." She leaned onto the counter and looked to her side curiously.

"I have no name." Was his answer, cold and aggressive.

Saria, so she called herself seemed to not care about his attitude towards her. She would only smile innocently and then continue to talk. At first he ignored her, it was bad enough that the barkeeper tried to start conversations with him; he didn't need a little kid to run after him now, too. But slowly a few words caught his attention and a very few sentences reached his mind.

"I'm lost, what about you?" She would ask on the third day.

He stayed quiet and turned his head towards her carefully.

"You just won't shut up, won't you?"

The girl glanced at him with a blank expression before she would again smile and laugh softly. She shook her head wildly.

"No! If I don't talk it would be too quiet."

"Silence is good."

"No it's not. It's just lonely."

It was a first for him to see her without a childish smile. Her blue eyes watched the counter regretfully and the young man was close to ask why she had such a face while saying those words. However it wouldn't be him if he wouldn't just ignore it and he grabbed his glass with his left in leather clothed hand. It took Saria a few minutes to finally speak up again, retelling an encounter with a stray dog from last night – as if she had never said anything else before that.

"I don't remember that much anymore." The fourth day was rainy. They could hear the raindrops crash onto the house loudly, drumming a melody which soothed his nerves.

The black haired one only glanced at her once, for Saria it seemed to be a sign to continue.

"Do you know this feeling…when you have experienced already so much that your memories start to blur?" Saria pulled at her green sleeves softly. "Memories disappear which I think, are important. But I can't do anything against it, they just slip away."

"Just…how old are you?" His hoarse voice scratched in his throat. He never talked much.

Saria smiled sheepishly. "I don't know. I…forgot."

The older one sighed and gulped down his drink. "Me too."

The fifth day arrived and like always he would sit at the counter. This time he was not the first to arrive because the very moment he opened the door to the local, a certain someone turned around quickly from the place where he usually sit. It didn't irritate him anymore, he even got used to it. To see everyday this weird green hair was close to being a habit he started to developed.

"Why are you always here?" Were her first words as he finally sat down next to her.

"Why are you here?" He countered casually.

"I…don't know where to go else."

"Same here." He answered and the barkeeper, a middle-aged man with a short grey beard, handed him a drink.

"Why do you hide your face?" Saria's small fingers caressed the glass of milk carefully.

"Why do you care?"

"I'm curious." She smiled brightly but he shook his head and took a gulp of the liquid in his glass.

"Why is your hair green?"

Saria stared at him confusedly but then started to giggle patting her head absent-minded. The young man only rolled his eyes at her childish reaction and continued to stare holes into the air; he had to wait for the night to arrive so that he could get out of here again. The drink suddenly tasted bitter on his numb tongue and he grimaced slightly. Time went by a lot slower than it did in the past. The pale young man wondered if maybe it was because of this child.

The sixth day appeared to be not a very good day. The sky was masked with a wall of dark clouds; the rain fell heavy and loudly onto the streets and you could hear the thunder crackle in the distance. It didn't really disturb him in the slightest, he even preferred such kind of weather because then less people would visit the bar and more less people would move around in the town. The one who had problems with the situation was the little girl next to him who hugged her knees to her chest.

"I don't like this weather." She sighed.

"You hate it?"

"No." Saria finally looked up. "Hate is such a strong word…I don't like it. It's loud, scary and depressing."

"I like it." He watched the glass in his hand with sudden interest.

"Really?" Her eyes widened maybe because he had started to talk more with her or maybe because he confessed that he liked at least something at all in this world.

"Yeah." He swallowed his drink in one gulp and took a deep breath.

"I like music." The girl suddenly said - her bad mood because of the weather forgotten. "I've always played on my ocarina but…" She furrowed her brow. "…I forgot the melody I used to play."

He glanced at her for a short moment and then turned to the barkeeper to order a new drink.

"Then create a new one."

The night which followed was endless. The young man who was called a shadow in the past wasn't able to enjoy the time like he always could. The wind was soft and quiet and the fountain was the only source of noise he could hear. A few stray dogs were rushing across the alleys but that was it. He leaned against the cold stone wall and started to count the stars to keep himself occupied. It was so silly for him to be waiting for the next day to hurry. The young man didn't want to wonder why or when it started but he was looking forward to see this weird green hair and hear her voice.

His numb guts would tingle so softly, when he thought about her.

"I wonder how the world looks like." Saria held onto her glass filled with Lon Lon milk as she stared at it, on the next day.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…I do remember a forest really well…and this town but that's it. I want to see more." The girl kicked out with her feet which hang in the air.

"Then travel." He answered uninterested while drinking.

"But where to?" She gave him a desperate look.

"You want to see the world, right?" She nodded. "Then just go."

Saria crossed her arms. "It's easier to say than to do and it's lonely to go alone." She sighed and furrowed her brow. "I guess it's better to just stay."

Words lay heavily on his tongue and he had to bit it from straining himself to say them. However in the end it didn't help anyway. The pain was numb in his veins and he knew that he wouldn't stay here forever, too. He had been here long enough, years. And this pattern started to bore him mercilessly.

"I'll come with you."

Saria's eyes lit up, like the sun would do he imagined. Her lips formed a smile so big and honest that her white small teeth show. And her cheeks turned red filling her face with warmth he dreamed of every single night. Suddenly shy she looked at her hands, breaking the eye contact they shared.

"Thank you…I…I had wished that you…would say that…"

The older looking one watched her with a quiet expression. A pulse so weak that he had to guess it could be the something people call a heartbeat sent shivers down his spine. He had never felt something like that in all those years but now he didn't want to miss it anymore. He didn't want to miss her anymore. With slow and careful hands he pushed down the hood which had hidden his face for so many years. The candle light was so bright, was his first thought.

He turned his head towards her and watched how Saria would stare at him in awe.

"You look kinda familiar." The little girl muttered thoughtfully but then she shook her head and laughed warmly at him with her puffed red cheeks. "But I forgot why."

His lips twitched ever so slightly into a cracked smile.

"To forget things is always better than to remember them."

Saria nodded as if she understood the hidden meaning as much as he did. Her right small hand grabbed his left one as she intertwined them bravely, for a second he thought he felt her beating heart through their touch. It was strong and fast, just like he had imagined. Just like he thought his own one would do if he really had a real one to begin with. The dark haired man noticed the urge in him which told him to finally leave this town, to take her with him and never let her go.

He squeezed her small hand in his big one.

Oh he would never let her go, he was sure of it.