Throughout the series, many brave NPCs take up the dangerous task of tending to the deadly Cuccos pecking their way through Hyrule. In Ocarina of Time, a young lady with auburn hair looks after a flock of Cuccos terrorizing Kakariko Village, and is aptly named the Cucco Lady. Unlike various Links through the games, the Cucco Lady loves the white feathered birds and looks after them with passion — despite how her body rejects them.
The Cucco Lady can be found across from the entrance to the Kakariko Graveyard, standing anxiously by her empty Cucco pen. She worries about her birds freely roaming around the village where she is unable to care for them. Fortunately, Link — the young hero he is — is up to any challenge and wrangles the Cuccos for her, returning them to her pen. She would have gathered them herself but she is allergic to the Cuccos; they give her goose bumps! It’s why she keeps them all in a pen in the first place. One would think that an allergy would create an aversion to the bird, but not this lady. Instead, she works hard searching for a way to overcome her barriers.
One of the Gossip Stones talks about how the Cucco Lady spends her free time at the Lakeside Laboratory studying how to breed a hypoallergenic Cucco. Seven years after Link’s first encounter with the Cucco Lady, she successfully breeds the Pocket Cucco: an allergy friendly, pocket sized Cucco. She gifts Link a Pocket Egg, which is not as useful as her first reward, an Empty Bottle, but hatches into a Cucco that the Cucco Lady can pick up, feed, and tend to without worrying about sneezing. And it’s pocket sized, capable of remaining on Link’s person through lava, underwater, and across deserts, patiently waiting for Link to return to the side quest.
The Cucco Lady specifically gives Link the Pocket Cucco hoping Link can look after it and make it happy. Busy with her studies and tending to her flock, she doesn’t have time to make all her Cucco’s happy — something that can only be achieved if they wake a heavy sleeper. It seems Cuccos enjoy annoying people’s days. If Link is able to make the Cucco happy and returns it to the Cucco Lady, she decides to give Link a rare Blue Cucco named Cojiro. It belonged to her brother who has disappeared and ever since, the bird stopped crowing.
While Link ventures off on the trading side quest for the Biggoron Sword, the Cucco Lady remains in Kakariko Village tending to her Cuccos and wondering if her brother is okay. The side quest reveals that the Cucco Lady’s brother is the Master Craftsman’s son and, in turn, that the Master Craftsman is her father. While the Master Craftsman constantly complains about the laziness of his workers, including his son, it seems the Cucco Lady got her father’s hardworking traits. Her role may come across simple but she is dedicated to her role as a Cucco farmer and worked hard to find a way to continue her passion without causing harm to her body. And anyone who is brave enough to look after Cucco’s day in and day out is a strong, hardworking person in my eyes.
