I do not own the rights to the video game franchise of Zelda, which is the property of the Nintendo Company, and them alone.

In absolutely no way do I claim the characters I have used in this story, with the same names, or places, events, to be my own.

This is my first small piece of writing, I would like to try my hand at, inspired by Zelda.

And Thank you to the Nintendo Company for the games and stories they've made.

Time~

By Stella Limegood.

The sun dripped through the window that morning the same way the due did on leaves. As the light shone, the room began to show itself to the day. A cold stone floor lied beneath an old woolen rug woven by the hands of a wise woman near the age of fifty. Whose name, know one remembers.

In one end of the room sat a fireplace dark now, lit only for the moon. Next to the fireplace was a great chair that had the Antlers of a stag mounted at its top. In the chair was a pile of blankets, quilts, and furs all wrapped about each other making it look as those the chair had a nest on it.

As the light came closer to the chair the mounds of blankets, stirred an out sprang one arm and one foot. Followed by a river of cold dark hair, disgruntled by morning's fast approach. Next came a face with pale skin, thick eyebrows, and eyes that were mostly taken to be brown, however when observed closely were in fact green.

Here was Zelda. Princess of Hyrule, holder of the triforce of wisdom, currently hiding in her family's remote cottage near the forest of Thalon. Which was quite close to the one near Kokiri, if one had a horse.

Yawning, Zelda got up and walked across the rug towards the table at the other end of the room. She picked up the basin, filled with water from the well outside the small cottage, and began washing her face.

Sometime later, Zelda had left the small cottage; she was dressed as a peasant girl happy with her brown dress and plain shoes. She had two daggers if she ran into trouble, along with a set of bows and arrows. She was used to the quiet of the forest now. She had not missed her life back at Hyrule Castle and was glad to be free of it. She found that she was in fact growing slowly more and more fond of life in the woods. There was not a single person around to remind her of the world, no voices to affect her inner world. In the abandon woods, Zelda was forgotten, yet more alive with herself then she had ever been. Save when she was alone at night occasionally in which fear would grip her.

As she walked along the small woodland path she had made sometime earlier that year, there was green all around her. Green leaves that hung in the branches, brown earth that led her way, small purple flowers like the color of her favorite dress, which she had put in a chest for safe keeping, and warm yellow light that when touching parts of certain brown trees turned them a light hazel color hue. Which made her think of his hair, he had beautiful hair. She sighed to herself as she thought of him. How she had loved him. How she had thought he loved her.

After their defeat of Ganon, she had asked for the ocarina back, it had been the right thing to do. Send him back in time to when all the trouble began, so that he would be free to live his life without the interference from monsters, and silly princesses who should have known better. The sages however had intervened; both Link and Zelda had retained every memory of each other they had, even though they were sent back in time.

This had complicated things, for them. Zelda had annoyed most of the royal family, she had changed in ways they never could understand and she was too mature for her age. Link left the forest earlier then any of the Kokiri expected and took to working at Talon's Stables as a young Stable Boy. Zelda had run away many times to visit him at the Stables. She chuckled to herself then, remembering how many times Talon had caught the two of them sitting outside the ranch under a great tree laughing at some odd thing over the years.

As she passed another tree she came to a quite glade, and found that the water made her want to cry. Water always made her want to cry, because it reminded her of Link's eyes.

The memory of their fun moments at the ranch also brought up another that hurt Zelda. Often Talon's daughter Malon would come and join them, originally the three of them had great fun together. But soon Zelda, with her old spirit eyes, saw something change in the manor of her dearest friend Link. She recalled how it had started slowly, he would turn his head toward Malon occasionally, and then he would sit and stare at her for a moment. He would offer her his help when it came to all their chores. Finally at the yearly dance held at the ranch, he had kissed her. Zelda had been hiding in the roof of the stable. When they left she cried her heart out.

Still she loved Link. So she left him to Malon, left him, and Hyrule for the peace of the woods.

As she sat by the water she dropped the bag that she was carrying and began working on a small project she had made for herself. Keeping her daggers and arrows on hand, one had to be cautious.

Her project was a small piece of fabric held with a wooden ring for she was making her own quilt, and needed many more squares to complete it. On it was the image of a pair of Zora's swimming in an everlasting circle for all eternity.

For about an hour the world was calm and Zelda got absorbed in her work, so much so that she did not notice at first the horses footsteps coming behind her; or the sound of a man getting off of it. Nor did she hear the sound of his footsteps when he came up behind her, and stood there watching her work.

At this point, Zelda was covered with many different color strands of thread mostly of various shades of blue. So it wasn't until the voice behind her spoke that she turned to look around.

"What beautiful embroidery you have done," said Link. His blue eyes absorbing the quickest moment of panic across Zelda's face replaced by her usually strange otherworldly look that Link knew was her deep thinking expression.

"Link, why are you here? Did Talon or my father perhaps send you." Zelda asked, as his blue eyes were staring at her. She felt a strange struggle begin inside her as she looked at him. A part of her wanted to run for the entire world, to her solitude, to her freedom. The other screamed for her to beg him to stay with her instead of the woman he now belonged too.

"Well, as you guessed I was indeed asked to search you out, however I've come for a more personal reason. May I sit with you?" he asked.

"Of course Link. You may always sit with me," she replied stuffing her thread into the bag she had brought.

Link made himself comfortable then, he was not dressed in his usual attire, and his outfit was infact, besides his eyes, unnerving to Zelda in a way. He wore dark armor, and a blue cape to match his water like eyes. In his ear she noticed a small earring with a blue stone embedded in gold.

At first the two of them sat there in silence, breathing the wind in and out. Gazing at the natural world around them, while Link's horse Epona stood in the background flickering her ears back and forth at the sound of birds singing.

Link began the conversation,

"It's nice here isn't it?"

"I suppose, yes, I enjoy the woods."

"It reminds me of my home from when I was a boy."

"I can see what you mean. Tell me do you still miss the woods?"

"I believe that there is a part of me forever in the woods."

"Link why are you here?"

"Tell me why you ran Zelda."

Zelda bit the bottom of her lip, and looked out at the water for a moment. She felt Link put his eyes on her, waiting for her answer.

"I found myself. Hurt. Therefore I had to leave, or I fear I would have acted foolish again," she said holding her knees to her chest; it was one of her more recent woodland adapted habits.

"I see. Tell me would this hurt have anything to do with Malon and I?" Link asked very quietly. Zelda began to shake a little; the struggle in her was turning into a full-scale war. She decided to be honest. "Yes," she said in a whisper. Then she looked at him and repeated it, "Yes."

Link turned his head and a small smile of understanding and what Zelda took for relief began in the corner of his mouth, "I see." They spoke to each other then so softly that Epona could not even hear, should she have been human.

"Link."

"Yes. Zelda."

"I love you."

"I know."

"Link I'm sorry I'm such a child."

"Don't be silly, your honest and brave, but not a child."

"Link I will never get in between you and her. I will remain here." Pause.

"Zelda. Malon and I are no longer together; she's married a man from Termina.

Pause.

"I see I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"Why?"

"After we began our relationship, we soon realized we had greatly different temperaments," Link continued, "we argued a lot, we started hating each other, even. And then I realized what had happened."

He turned to look at Zelda.

"It was you Zelda. You had always been there to stop us during our fights when we were together. Then when you left, we fell apart. But you know. I'm glad you left. It would have been a mistake if Malon and I had joined. I know that now more then ever." At the end of his confession Link looked out at the water. Zelda simply stared at him, at the emotion in his eyes she had seen that look only once before. When he had given her the ocarina, a lifetime ago.

Suddenly Link turned and drew his hand towards her, and gently stroked her dark hair. He then leaned in, his eyes filled with that emotion. She froze. Then he kissed her softly, as the wind caught the leaves in the trees around them. It was a perfect moment.

When they at last parted. Zelda laid her head onto Links shoulder he continued to stroke her hair.

"Zelda."

"Yes Link?"

"Forgive me, for being a fool."

"I forgive you."

"Zelda."

"Yes, Link?"

"Do you know why I left Kokiri woods?"

"No, I don't?"

"For you, I left the woods for you."

"I'm glad you came back then."

"Yes," Link smiled as he said that. They then held each other till the moon above rose, and the stars splashed across the sky.

"Zelda," whispered Link.

"Link," whispered Zelda.

"I will love you for all of time."

"So will I Link. So will I."

The next morning the sun shone into the small cottage of Thalon woods, but it was empty. Yet somewhere a little ways past the cottage is a small glade. Where purple flowers bloom every year while a few strands of thread are caught in the wandering wind. That travels past a small trail where a horses hoofs once passed by leading onto a road that goes beyond the evergreen woods.