The Color Green

Rated T for mild violence and peril
Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda and, obviously, the title was taken from The Color Purple, which I don't own, either.
Ch. 1


It was spring time. Ew. At least that’s why my eleven year old mind thought. Spring was a time for love and niceness and girls being all well, girly. Not like I have anything against girls.
I live on Outset Island. A calm, nice, boring place. There’s the single lawn dude, whatever his name is. The old fisherman and warrior Orca and his brother Sturgeon. Their granddaughter, Sue-Belle, lives with the. We have one complete family. The dad Abe and his plump wife, Rose, are both obsessed with pigs, and their two little boys are Joel and Zill. Joel is my personal favorite. Then there’s my family. I have my little sister Aryll and our grandma, well, Grandma. Don’t ask my her real name.
At spring time Rose always carries flowers around and acts all happy. Not like that’s wrong, but it’s just . . .weird. Belle always looks around for some “handsome young sailor to come to our island looking for a wife”. Yeah, right.
One day I was out at the shore, trying to kill crabs by throwing rocks at them.
“Big Brother!” Aryll called behind me.
I turned to see her looking at me through a telescope.
“Leave me alone,” I sighed.
“Grandma wants you to come clean the house.”
“What? Why?” I gasped.
“She said no but’s or what’s. Now.”
Sighing, I went to the house and inside.
“Oh, you’re here,” Grandma smiled. “Could you dust the floor, make the beds, and wash the dishes?”
I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t I just walk Aryll while I’m at it?”
“Don’t be silly, hurry up. Oh, after that go on a walk with Aryll.”
I sighed. I had to ask. I began making the beds when I heard Grandma sigh happily and kind of wistfully.
I turned around. “What?”
“It’s just,” she said, smiling, “you’re eleven.”
I frowned. “You just noticed?”
She waked over and hugged me, and I got a big whiff of that old lady smell. There was a knock. I was saved!
Grandma opened the door and Belle stepped in.
“Hello, uh, Link’s Grandma,” Belle smiled.
Yep, she didn’t know her name, either.
“I was wondering,” Belle continued, “if Link’s free.”
I peeked around the corner. What kind of ‘free’ did she mean? Wasn’t she older then me?
“What for?” Grandma asked.
“I was wondering if he could take me on a sail around the island.”
“I can,” I replied quickly, grabbing her hand and walking out. “See ya, Granny.”
“Now, Link-” Grandma started, but I closed the door behind me.
Once out I bolted for the shore, dragging Belle behind me. I headed for the boats. I’d seen Orca simply run into one and push it out before, so I decided to try it. Bad move. I slammed into it and was flipped over inside. I’m sure Bell thought highly of me now.
I jumped back out and slowly pushed it into the water. We both hopped in and began sailing.
“Will you be in trouble?” Bell asked.
“Naw. Grandma loves me too much,” I responded. I glanced up as clouds formed in the sky. We’d have to be quick.
Suddenly, Aryll popped up from a bench. “BOO!”
“Ah!” I jumped.
Aryll giggled. “I wanted to come!”
I shrugged. “Whatever.”
After awhile we were at the back of the island. It was just spring, and the chill of the night was coming as the sun set.
Belle shivered a little.
Then, the boat hit a rock and stopped.
“What happened?” Belle gasped.
I checked it out and announced. “We’re stuck.”
“Will we die out here?!” Belle gasped. Talk about melodramatic.
“No,” I said, “we can swim back, let’s hurry before it rains.”
Just then, rain poured down, hard. My bad luck surprises me sometimes.
“It’s cold,” Aryll said.
I wrapped an arm around her. I had to something. We could catch pneumonia!
I stood up. “I’m gonna try to swim to shore.”
Belle gripped my ankle. “No! You could drown!”
I drew myself up, acting all hero-macho. I said, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”
Then the boat rocked and I completely fell off. Aryll laughed.
I began swimming. The night air was cold, the water was cold, the rain was cold, and I was freezing. Since the wind, which was also cold, was blowing so hard and biting my skin, it made the water more difficult to swim in. I could feel myself sinking lower as I struggled to keep my head up.
“Link!” Aryll shouted. “Come back! You’ll drown!”
I had to keep going. I can be so stubborn sometimes. But the water began splashing up over my face. I took one more stroke before I sank under. I thought I heard Aryll scream, but I couldn’t be sure, my mind was too foggy and I was too numb to care.
I looked down into the black abyss that would become my grave and called myself an idiot five hundred times over, but then I saw something. It was a light below me. It was coming at me and getting larger, fast. I thought it might be the gates of Heaven, but I could see it take on more of the shape of a woman.
She swam up until she was even with me, and I vaguely realized she had a greenish tint to her. She was beautiful. She smiled and said, “Rest.”
I would’ve been totally shocked, if I hadn’t been on the edge of unconsciousness anyway. So I closed my eyes and fainted.
I opened them to someone rudely shaking me and screaming my name. Correction, make that two someones. I looked up to see Sue-Belle and Aryll. I noticed I was back on the boat.
At the sight of me opening my eyes, Belle fell back with relief and Aryll hugged me fiercely.
“I thought you were dead!” Aryll screamed, crying hysterically. “I thought you were dead! I love you!”
Wow. That was pretty cool.
I tried to sit up, but ended up puking out water, so I laid back down.
“Kids, we’re coming!” I heard Orca shout.
Great.
They pulled their boat up alongside ours Orca and Abe were in it.
“Link nearly drowned!” Belle just had to announce. Then she said in one breath, “He sank under and was gone forever and we thought he was dead and suddenly he surface don his back by our boat except he was out cold!”
I tried to sit up, but Orca pushed me down.
“Get in,” Abe said, helping Bell and Aryll.
Orca carried me in like a baby. So much for my pride. They sailed back to shore and took us inside Grandma’s house.
Aryll and Belle sat in chairs with blankets wrapped around them and Grandma brought them soup.
Orca laid me on the bed and pulled tons of covers over me. I realized now how much I was shaking. I was so cold.
Later Belle went back home and Aryll went upstairs. I had to drink a lot of soup. Overall the night went smoothly. I thought Grandma would blow up at me, but she didn’t.
However, in the middle of the night, Grandma pulled up a chair beside the bed.
I opened my eyes, figuring I was about to get it big time.
“Link,” she said, “I love you.”
Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that.
“I love you so much and I don’t want to lose you,” she continued. “Today, you disobeyed me by leaving the house and Orca for sailing to the back of the island. Aryll, too. And you took Belle, who knew no better. You got stuck out in a storm, you could’ve been killed!”
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
Grandma sighed. “Link, your mother and father trusted me with you and Aryll. After their death, you’re the only family I have left. Please, be safe.” With that she kissed my forehead and left.
I thought about what she said for the rest of the night. I tossed it and turned it over in my head until I came to one decision. I didn’t want to live safe. I didn’t want to be cautious all my life. I wanted to act on instinct, live on the edge of a knife. Grandma just couldn’t see that.
So that spring I became extremely physical. I ran laps up the hill, scaled cliffs, swam routes, trained with Orca, and by the time summer came I was the best fit on the island . . .except for Orca, of course.
Training had also taught me something else by summer: a respect for life, for living things. In the forest I never killed a bug, because they were the only company I had. I didn’t kill crabs, for when I was on a swim route and I made it back to shore, they were there as a welcoming party. And sometimes during sunsets I’d sit on the edge of the cliff and watch the sea gulls soar, hoping to one day be free like them.
Wandering also taught me a fierce independence, how to count on yourself for everything.
One summer day during a walk in the forest, I heard something. It sounded like a deep voice.
I decided to check it out. I pulled myself up onto a ledge, crouched by a tree and gazed into the valley below.
Two purple moblins carrying large spears were talking, too quietly for me to hear. I tried to pick out words.
One said, “Searched everywhere . . .difficult.”
The other said. “ . . .very angry . . .the boy.”
I frowned. Any sensible person would’ve ran away then, but I stayed. I leaned forward.
And fell off the ledge.
The moblins charged at me. I ran for my life. I leaped over a ledge and raced up a hill. The moblins were grunting behind me. I heard the swing of a spear and felt a sharp pain across my back.
I sped out the entrance. Going across the bridge was two other moblins.
I made my next move in a split second. I bolted for the cliff edge and dived off. I closed my eyes and held my breath.
I hit the water like it was solid. I sunk slowly down, recovering from the pain. When I came to myself, I threw my head up out of the water. I took a huge breath and swam to shore. I dragged myself onto the sand and laid down.
Catching my breath, I sat up and gently felt my stinging back. When I looked at my fingers, they were stained with blood.
“Big Brother?” Aryll said.
I looked and saw her standing beside me. Panic struck me. She’d seen my gash and would tell Grandma and she’d be fuming mad at me and I’d be grounded for the rest of my life! I had to do something.
I gripped her wrist and yanked her to a hidden ledge on the side of the island that was cut into the cliff side.
“What?” Aryll asked.
I explained to her what happened and made her promise not to tell anyone.
After that, I picked a nearby flower that has healing juice and struggled to pull off my soaked shirt. I wasn’t embarrassed, I had a little muscle underneath.
Once I finally pulled my shirt over my head, which caused my hair to spike all up, I struggled to squirt the flower’s juice onto my wound.
Aryll laughed at me. She sure is nice.
“Want me to help, Link?” she asked.
I laid on my stomach and sighed. “Sure.”
She smeared it over my cut, saying, “Yuck. Why Can’t I tell anyone about this again?”
“Because Grandma will get mad at me and say I was being dangerous.”
“You were.”
I sat up. “Aryll . . .thanks.” I struggled to pull on my wet shirt again as Aryll fiddled to fix my hair.
Then we climbed back onto the island.

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