The New Life Part 1

Part One - The Nightly Routine


It’s been about five years since I turned into Zauz. Believe me the change was tough. I work with my wife and my young son on the ranch in the dead centre of Hyrule Field, the days are long, exhausting and hot, more so when we have the little one to consider.

Our little one is called Ziruh. He’s a good boy, mostly. He tries his best when working on the farm with us but he’s still a little too young at four years old. He turns five next week. My wife, Ciela wants to get him fabric for a new tunic for his birthday; poor Ziruh just has to twist wrong and the tunic he’s wearing just rips up the butt cheeks.

Oh, did I mention I have a little girl too? No? Well, she’s still new; Ciela named her Atei. She’s a beautiful baby with very fine blondish hair, Ziruh on the other hand has a good crop of ginger hair the colour of oats. Atei is a quiet child for a new baby; we’ve chalked it up to her just being lazy. Ziruh cried at every opportunity.

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“Daddy?” Ziruh mumbled shaking my arm. Before sunrise, he was Ciela’s son. “Daddy.”

I turned over. I wanted more sleep, I had been cradling Atei most of the night between myself and Ciela, she had star-fished during the night so we were both on the ends of the double bed with her head and grabby hands pressing against Ciela’s back and the constant kicking feet against mine.

“Daddy!” Ziruh whined a bit more urgently, pulling at the blankets.

I opened an eye to a slit and pulled my shirt down, the little miss between us had made it ride with her dextrous feet. I closed my eye and tried my previous tactic. Upon that note, he went for Ciela.

“Mommy?” he groaned pulling at my wife’s white nightgown.

“What is it, Ziruh?” she muttered into her arm that was resting over her face.

“I wet the bed and I’m hungry.” Ziruh complained curling his toes.

Ciela felt his legs for a damp patch. “Honey, it’s late, you’re not wet. Go back to bed.”
“But I’m hungry.” the boy continued to insist.

“Zauz.” I heard my wife mumble turning on her side so her back was to Ziruh. “It’s your turn.”

I pretended I was asleep. It was so not my turn. Ziruh had his own room now, he had had it since he was about one and ever since moving the rail to stop him falling out of bed, he was coming in almost every night about something.

Ciela gave me a kick on the leg. “I heard.” I grumbled sleepily, rolling over so I could climb out of bed; half realising that I was a bit close to the edge way too late. My body hit the floor like a tonne of bricks.

“Daddy, can I have a slice of bread?” Ziruh asked coming around the other side of the bed to see me in a daze.

I glared at him through the dark. Being a parent was harder than being a magic-murdering-evil…thing. And I had done my fair share of being a magic-murdering-evil-thing before I met Ciela.

I picked Ziruh up and hoisted him under my arm much to his complaint; my eyes starting to be able to make out shapes of the homely objects we had in the master bedroom. A tall pine wardrobe in the corner with a full sized mirror made out of Zora glass; a wedding present off one of Ciela’s friends, a chest of draws with some fancy nick-knacks that were a cleaning hazard, a writing desk with stacks of blank parchment and a handful of feather quills from an assortment of birds. As well as that, we had the marriage bed, a thick posted, toe stubbing block of wood with a mattress on top with a sea of pillows, I mean, how many pillows do we even need?!

Ziruh squirmed in my arms as I marched back to his room. I placed him gently on his bed and picked up his fallen blankets, a light blue patchwork and pulled them over his freezing cold feet.

“I’ll get you something to eat.” I sighed leaving the room for a moment and heading downstairs. It was just light enough to make the shapes of each individual stair in the staircase without tripping before lighting a candle at the bottom with a match; it brightened our whole open plan ground floor.

A small kitchen in one end with infernal lace on all of the windows that went clear whenever I did the dishes with a table in the middle of the room set for breakfast already; minus the food of course. Our living room was on the other side; a slightly paling red sofa made of some kind of soft fabric with a wooden frame.

It might sound like I hate my house; truth is, I don’t. I just hate the layout. I have hit every piece of furniture with my toes, knees and elbows more times than I can count. I can’t move anything around much though. Ciela needs it this way.

Because Ciela is completely blind, she has built up a mental map in her head of where everything is using her other senses. Despite not being able to see; she never hits anything when she’s moving around.

I placed the candle on the bench near the sink and sliced Ziruh a thin slice of bread from the bread bin then bent down to open a trap door in the floor to grab some butter. Handy thing that floor cupboard; because it’s underground it keeps things cooler. I don’t buy much cold food anyway, it goes off to quickly and we can’t afford to waste these days.
I scraped some butter onto the bread and took it and the candle back upstairs to find that Ziruh had gone to sleep waiting for me to get back with his late night snack. Typical. I sat on the edge of his bed and started to quietly eat. Ziruh’s bedroom was small and quaint with a bed in the corner of the room, a small pine set of draws under the window and a couple of shelves with story books on. His toys were in a small chest I had lugged up from the centre of Hyrule Field since no one else seemed to need it.

I got up and pulled his blanket up to his neck. He turned on his side and grumbled into the pillow. I rolled my eyes and headed back to my bed to find my daughter now lying fully on my side of the bed stretched out as wide as possible for such a small creature.
Do I move her or do I just go downstairs?

I decided that the best move was to go downstairs and get the remaining hours of the night on the sofa.