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“Link!” Aryll calls from outside, “Oh Link-”
I jump out from behind the bushes and tackle Aryll. She rolls away, looking breathless but amused.
“Aryll,” I say, in response to her wide eyes, “How many times have I told you not to yell in the street. You're going to give Tarin a headache. One would thing one little sister couldn't be so loud.”
Aryll sticks out her tongue. “Coming from someone who just tackled me in the street?"
"Fair. How about we call a truce?"
"Only if you carry me on your shoulders to work today."
I pause, pretending to consider the offer. “I suppose that’s a fair deal.”
Truth is, I enjoy being a hero to Aryll, so it's definitely a fair deal.
Aryll nods as she stands up, “Well Link, It’s time to go to work. Those cogs won’t clean themselves!”
A shadow seems to pass over me. Why is Aryll, a little nine year old girl, working in a clock tower? Why am I- just a teenager- acting as a parent?
I fake a smile as we made our way to the tower itself. It gleams in the sun, outer gears turning perfectly. The several hands check out with my own watch, which hangs down from the breast pocket of my work shirt.
Wait…
“Aryll. Do you have your watch?”
Aryll makes a face. “I lost it.”
“Did you fix your clothes? Even take out your pigtails?”
“No.”
More dread seeps into my mind, but I smile and spin her, making her orange skirt fan around her. I’ll have to buy a new watch. It’ll be hard with expenses so tight… but she'll miss all of her shift changes without one. And there's no way those expenses would be able to handle us losing our jobs.
I ruffle a hand through my hair, sighing and sticking the other one in the pocket of my green vest. One would think in a Hyrule as technologically advanced as we were things wouldn't be so terrifyingly close all the time.
We arrived at the tower a few minutes later. I crouch down and grab Aryll's hands. "Alright. Stay here while I go get you a new watch.”
She rolls her eyes, but stays still as I walk away.
The supply shop is only a few streets over, but I have to go through the bubble into castle town proper. It's beautiful, manicured, and perfect. And a place where Aryll and I will never live.
I skirt the edge of the block system, and soon I’m back in the city atmosphere.
The supply shop stands like a lone soldier in the middle of a trashed field. Broken machinery litters the ground. Our king tried to build a high-rise building here- because the only way for city people to get supplies isn’t more important than the aristocracy'ss need to stretch their legs.
Five stories higher.
Resentment begins to pulse through me, but I work hard to push it away. It’s not like I can do anything. When I enter the store the anger is subdued to the edge of my consciousness.
Shelves line the walls, stacked all the way up to the low ceiling. A springwork bulb hangs down from the center of the small room, unsuccessfully trying to light the space.
I walk past the different packed aisles until I’m at the front of the store. Past lifters and steamwands and desiccated dry food.
“I need a pocket watch,” I say to the burly looking man in the white apron behind the counter.
“How much do you got?” He says in his low growly voice, “I’m low on supply.”
“Only a few rupees. I’ll return it at the end of the day.”
He laughs. “Really! I suppose us city folk have got to learn to trust each other.”
I smile awkwardly. “Look, I-”
“I’ll give it to you, don’t worry.” He turns to fumble with some cartons stacked at the back. “You know,” he says, back still turned, “I could use an assistant. Got a nice place in castle town proper for you if you sign on.”
My heart skips a beat. Is this my chance? “You for real?”
He shrugs, “Sure. You’ve been a good customer. You could do pretty good. I had to turn down some other guy, he wanted to stay with his girlfriend.” He makes a tut tut sound. “Only got room for one.”
My shoulders slump. “Oh.”
Even still, my mind is exploring the idea. My stomach twists into a knot. How could I even entertain the notion of leaving Aryll. Falling from hero statice in Aryll's eyes to a piece of trash isn't on my bucket list.
The man turns and hands a silver pocket watch to me. “This one’s on the house. Think about it.”
I turn, exiting the store with a watch, but leaving my satisfaction behind.
I’m almost grateful to be back with the smoke and grime when I get to the clocktower again.
I return to Aryll, and usher her inside without saying anything.
She stands there awkwardly for a moment, then points at me, “why is your face all scrunched up?”
“Because I’m annoyed.”
“Did I do something?”
“I got your pocket watch,” I say, changing the subject. Please don’t press me.
I toss the pocket clock to her. She catches it and pins it to her pocket backward, making a face.
“Happy?”
I run my hands through my hair, frustrated. At myself, at Aryll, at the clock managers, at the whole world. Why is this so hard? Why can’t Aryll just listen as I fumble into the role of guardian?
After a moment, Aryll tosses her pocket watch back to me. “I don’t want to wear it.”
I catch it and put it in one of my pockets. “You-”
Mrs. Bonoir comes in from another hissing, steam spitting side room.
“The shift is starting,” She says in her official sounding accent, and gestures into the room she exited from.
I grab Aryll’s arm and smile. “Yep! Just going there now.”
I half drag Aryll to our workstation, and we’re nearly there before I can relax. If only that was the hard part.
What follows is a mind-numbing set of tasks. We climb down between spinning gears and pumping pistons to fix kinks and jumpstart the rotors. We only have one steam wand to share, so when we need to clean out the spaces between gears we have to throw it to each other.
It spins above the cacophony of rotating pipes and chain link lines.
One misstep, one slip on the shiny bronze ladder rungs could send us plunging to our deaths.
The seconds blur into minutes, and minutes into hours. Time becomes a smear as my limbs grow heavier and heavier. Just a minute to rest. Just one. The gears can wait. Aryll-
Aryll. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her gesture above her head. I assume she wants the steam wand, so I toss it to her. She ignores it.
Annoyed, I rotate on the ladder.
“What are you-”
She’s caught. In the gears. Her dress is caught and the clock is going to eat her alive.
Time stands still as I step precisely on the gears and wires I’ve watched from feet away for years. I shoot across the yards to get to Aryll. I’m inches away from getting caught on chain links, but that doesn’t matter.
Aryll pulls at her dress, tugging and tugging and making no progress and the clock is going to eat her.
I jump up and grab for a pipe, steam pumping through it. It’s so hot I can hardly hang on, but I’ll manage.
“Grab My foot!” I scream at Aryll. She stops tugging at her skirt, and turns to try to reach me.
She’s just too short. How…
I slip one of my hands from the pipe and put it into one of my pockets. The one I put Aryll's pocket watch into.
I get an idea. A stupid, terrible idea, but an idea nonetheless.
I pull the watch out, crunch up so I can reach my boots, and string the watch chain around the laces.
“Try again!” I call,
She pushes against the pipes with her feet, trying to get more height. She reaches up.
Just short.
I glance around for another pipe. Nothing. So I just stretch as far as I can and call for her to keep going.
“I’m trying!” She yells over the hissing sounds of the clock tower.
And then, she makes it, grabbing the clock with desperation.
I pull my knees to my chest, somehow both hoisting Aryll and ripping her skirt free of the machine.
I drop down.
Aryll's safe. She’s safe. She’s safe. Suddenly I’m so grateful for her my heart feels like it’s going to burst.
I cup her face in my hands. “You okay?”
“Yah. I’m fine. I’ll have to get a new skirt though. This one’s a little worn,” She says, gesturing to the huge rip down the right side.
I laugh, tension cascading off me like a waterfall. Down into the clock tower. Down, down down. Away from me. Away from Aryll.
The rest of the shift whizzes past.
Until, “Oh!”
I look at Aryll, like what?
“I found my watch!” She’s about to drop it into the cogs, but I snatch it out of her hands.
“Don’t even think about it. I need to return the new one.”
And after the day is over, we do.
Walking through smoke and ash isn’t as bad with Aryll. Who cares about castle town and wealth. I have the chance to be a hero for my sister, right here, right now.