Two Graves
Since the cemetery was situated directly adjacent to the Hyrulian Park, it was no strange happenstance that the two lovers soon found themselves surrounded by the marred gravestones of the east churchyard.
"Marie, hurry up!" hollered Jansen, his face as rosy as a ripened apple. He leaped over the flowerbeds and landed in the shade of an almighty oak, which looked to be no less than one hundred years of age.
"Oh, Jansen!" Marie exclaimed, her face redder than even his. "In this outfit, I'll never make it!" It seemed like every unassuming blade of grass, every measly stone, and every stingy shrub had only one purpose in existence, and that was to snag and tear poor Marie's petticoat.
Jansen laughed as he watched Marie jostle with yet another herbaceous offender. The base of her pink gown was beginning to fray and her golden curls were on the verge of springing loose from the barrette which confined them, but she was still the prettiest girl Jansen had ever seen.
"Oh, how dreadful…" Marie pouted, staring hopelessly down at the tattered frock. She crossed her arms in vexation.
"Never mind it, Marie. Just get over here. …I have a secret to tell you..." He smiled impishly, and Marie instantly forgot her former displeasure.
"Oooh! A secret, Jansen? You simply must tell me…" Rushing over, she sat beside him in the soft grass. In the distance, Jansen could hear the sound of running water. He turned to Marie. The sun's spiraling light glittered on her hair, weaving tiny sparkles throughout her blond curls.
"The secret is…" Jansen stared into Marie's bright blue eyes, and she inched forward in anticipation.
"The secret is…" he repeated sluggishly. Now he was just teasing her and enjoying every second of the captivation Marie's upturned face allotted him.
"Out with it, Jansen!" Marie poked him playfully. "Tell me now, if ever, lest I die of eagerness!"
"I love you…" Jansen concluded, his voice confident and lacking the boyish jollity of previous responses. Marie's expression promptly sobered, fascinated by this unexpected confession.
"You…love…me?" she murmured, unsure if she had heard him accurately. He smiled and nodded. "But how do you know you love me?" she enquired earnestly. She couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the concept of being romantically loved by anyone, even dear Jansen, her very best friend.
"Well…" began Jansen thoughtfully. Having recently come to terms with his feelings, he thought that a full explanation was nothing more than should be required, and for a moment, he sought for the right words to express this new emotion rising inside him. "I know I love you because you are my best friend, and I would die for you."
"Die, Jansen, for me?" Marie mumbled incredulously. "But you mustn't die! I could live without you..." She shook her head fearfully, not wanting to even consider such a tragic situation. At her words, Jansen's perked his head up.
"Then you must love me, too," he exclaimed, "if you reckon you couldn't live without me." This came as a strange realization to Marie, and mingled recognition and amazement flooded her countenance.
"You really think I could love you?" she besought energetically. Her eyes glittered in wonder. Such a foreign concept as love had never before crossed her mind as ever belonging to a girl like her. To her, love had always been a thing to unite beautiful princesses with charming princes, not for little school children such as they. Yet, something deep inside her made her want to believe that love was not limited to those with diplomas, fancy gowns, and infinite rupees—that love could belong to her and Jansen and they, like the fairytales of old, could share it in a mutual bond. Only one misunderstanding clouded the beautiful dream of which she had recently become aware. What exactly was love, and when one had such a thing, what was one to do with it?
"Jansen, I'm not sure if I understand. …Is love a definite thing?" she murmured quietly, a little ashamed of her childish ignorance, but Jansen wasn't perturbed by her silly question.
"Love is definite, Marie, and I'll try to explain it…" Being so young, he wasn't altogether sure what definition to accurately assign such an unfamiliar notion as love. He glanced around for inspiration, and as if by some heavenly guidance, his sight descended directly onto two gravestones positioned aside each other in the posterior of the cemetery. They posed a spectacle in his mind, for they looked ancient, marred, and forsaken, and a pearly glow seemed to be illuminating their crippled forms. Although the heavenly illumination was no doubt a mere trick of the eye as the liquescent sunlight slipped through the wriggling overhead branches, Jansen seemed enchanted. Forgetting for some time the duty of the moment, he gazed in fascination at the odd pair of disfigured stones set so charmingly among the tall, swaying grasses.
"What is it, Jansen?" Marie murmured cautiously, noticing his distraction. "What do you see?"
"I'm not quite sure, Marie. They seem so strangely familiar…" Jansen rose to his feet and strode toward the mysterious gravestones. Marie followed closely behind.
"I can't decipher the writing, Jansen. It is so old!" Marie studied the distorted letters marking the face of each rock, but no sense could be made of their twisted forms. Jansen nodded. He ran his fingertips across one's tarnished epitaph. Although drenched in the sunlight, the stone seemed unusually cold. Suddenly, the evasive memory flooded his recollection.
"I remember now!" he exclaimed, but the moment following this jubilant outcry left his face dark and contemplative.
"What do you remember?" Marie urged impatiently, but Jansen hesitated before replying.
"My father told me about these two gravestones…" he began absently, recalling the withdrawn memory from the wayside of his reminiscence. "He said—my father—that is—while passing the cemetery when I was yet a few years old and carried upon his shoulders—he mentioned that these two stones are the last lingering reminders of two great heroes of the past." He paused in his narration to reflect upon his words. An icy wind cycled down through the air, causing the long grasses to twirl mysteriously. Marie slipped her hand into Jansen's and stepped beside him.
"How strange…" she murmured, her voice suddenly quiet and breathy. "I wonder who they were…"
"Dad didn't say very much about them, but I do believe he mentioned that one was a girl, one a boy…" Jansen continued, rather slowly. He secured Marie's small, white hand in his own, clutching it tightly. A heavy unease was beginning to settle over his rapidly-beating heart.
"Were they lovers?" Marie's voice was scarcely audible, and her head hung low. She strained her eyes at the last remaining remnant of the two mysterious persons of whom Jansen spoke. Although she and these lost individuals over whose graves she stood had never become acquainted, she felt oddly akin to them in ways she couldn't understand.
"Yes. I believe they were married…" Jansen answered at length, his tone quivering slightly. The sensation which had come upon Marie was equivalent in his own spirit. He too felt a strange kinship toward the departed people lying beyond his reach.
"Jansen, tell me about them… I want to know…how they died..?" Marie's eyes glittered with unshed tears, and her voice was quivering distinctly. Jansen turned to her and gave her hand an affectionate squeeze.
"Don't be sad, Marie. These people have been dead many years, and I'm sure they've all been forgotten by now." Although he spoke encouragingly, his words only grieved Marie's compassionate heart all the more fiercely.
"That's why it's so sad, Jansen," Marie stuttered. "They've been forgotten." Her voice broke on the last word, and she gazed up beseechingly into Jansen's concerned regard. "Now tell me, as I have implored of you," she persisted fervently. "How did they die?"
Jansen regretted ever bringing the mournful subject into the light of Marie's considerate perspective. Marie was too sweet and precious to be confronted with such dreadful reality, he thought with self-reproach; and if the flawless day he had planned was spoiled, he had nothing to blame but his own foolishness. Knowing that there wasn't a way for him to escape the trap he had laid, seeing that Marie's resolve was set upon the knowledge of which he had in possession, he gave her a refined smile and spoke in a soothing tone.
"They died for each other…"
Marie's brows knit, mingled curiosity and doubt replacing her distress.
"What do you mean?" she stammered. She yanked her hand out of Jansen's and glared at him as if he had told her a blatant falsehood. Jansen was taken aback by her sudden change in disposition, and for a moment, he stumbled to respond.
"See…they were in love, but a greater obligation came between them. A great evil had arisen in the earth, and only they could restore peace to the land and save the kingdom of Hyrule."
Marie smiled thoughtfully. "It all sounds so romantic! …Do you think we could be like that?" Marie and Jansen's eyes met. As the tragic thought begun its mesmeric journey through their imagination, a pensive silence perched upon their minds like a lost bird who had finally found a home.
A soft, playful breeze tugged on their hair like a child wearing silken gloves, and even the sunlight seemed a bit more cheerful as it danced through the grasses in its golden slippers.
"I only wish we could be like them…" Jansen finally answered. His voice was quiet, but determined. Marie glanced at him curiously. "See, Marie," he continued slowly. "I see so many hearts breaking, so much pain and sorrow surrounding my home and my family. Somehow, someway the words 'Until death do we part,' have lost its meaning…" Jensen fell silent for a moment, but suddenly he cried out with passion, pointing a trembling hand at the quiet graves, "These—these faced evil—faced death, even—and they never gave up on each other…and yet—and yet so many today are walking out over a disagreement or a problem of miscommunication. I only wish, Marie, that we, like they, could face eternity together and have no reservations. That we could set an example…and—oh, Marie…" Jensen's eyes, staring deeply into her own, filled Marie with courage.
"Yes, Jensen?" she murmured eagerly.
"I'd rather die for you than without you," Jensen finished tenderly. Tears streaming down Marie's face, she flung her arms around Jensen and held him tightly, whispering into his ear, "I feel the same, Jensen."
...
As the two lovers, hand in hand, strode homeward through the swaying grasses, the sun began its descent over the world, sending bright pink and lavender lights flickering over the sylvan landscape. Two gravestones, strangely positioned on the far side of the cemetery, watched Marie and Jensen's shadows fading into the distance.
As a gleam of twilight fell upon the face of the stones, their engravings glittered to life.
Zelda
-The beloved Princess of Hyrule
Link
-The valiant Hero of Time