Link's True Love
Deep in the Sacred Realm, a corner is occupied by Zelda, the fair princess, weeping over the death of her father. Link is crouched down behind her, out of sight, but close enough to hear what she was saying:
"I can't believe he's really gone. How could even someone even like Ganondorf kill someone just for his luscious greed? Oh well, at least I still have Link", at this thought, she began feeling better, but still couldn't stop the tears.
Link was so moved by what she had said, without thinking, stood up, walked over to the princess, knelt down, and kissed her on the cheek. He got back up, leaving the sacred realm, holding back tears. Zelda had followed him back into the Temple of Time, where he stood at the doorway between the room with the master sword's pedestal, and the main room. She ran, and embraced him.
He hugged her back, and they held each other for what seemed like forever. Suddenly, four imperial guards appeared before the two. They were separated, and dragged away. Directly before they were grabbed, Zelda teleported herself and Link to an open space in the temple, where in a matter of seconds, they sealed the door, because they automatically assumed Ganondorf was not far behind these guards. They then tried linking hands, but the Guards were too strong. Then, everything became dark, except the triforce design above the now sealed door, which was blinking. Ganondorf appeared in a flash of dark energy directly in front of the only exit. He grabbed Link and Zelda, by the hair, from the guards. He dragged them to the sealed door. He summoned enough strength to destroy the only obstacle in his way. He tossed Link in front of the pedestal.
"Plant the sword in, or she dies a most painful death" He commanded, and his voice boomed and echoed across the whole temple, which made him sound even more threatening then he meant. He couldn't think of what to do: should he have the woman of his greatest dreams killed, and watch her suffer painfully, or expose the entire sacred realm to Ganondorf?
"Don't do it, Link!" Zelda yelled, and Ganondorf tugged her hair harder, "silence, wimp", Ganondorf snapped at her, "or shall I have you suffer the same fate your pathetic father did?"
Just then, they both had a flashback of how the King's life had ended: Ganondorf was holding him by his neck, threatening his life if he didn't hand him the Triforce. He wouldn't, so he killed him, slowly and painfully.
"So what'll it be, kid?" Ganondorf asked him once more, "Can you risk saving your precious girlfriend? Or do I have to rip her to shreds?"
This angered Link. "No", he thought, "I can't bear to see her suffer". So, he did what any brave, and blunt, warrior would do; he cast the master sword into Ganondorf's throat, which made him release his grip. Zelda had run to a safe distance, and shot a light arrow directly into his heart. It had been over, Ganondorf had been killed, but they just found out that he had planted a bomb in the heart of the Temple! Zelda hurriedly grabbed Link, and teleported them out in the Hyrule field, at a safe enough distance for the castle.
They had watched the castle explode, crumble, and eventually finish smoking out. Zelda had burst into tears, and buried her head into Link's shoulder, and he had held her head ever so gently. They held each other for hours, Link now and then kissing her and telling her everything will be alright. But it wasn't going to be. No one could've possibly built another castle, let alone replace all its memories, and Zelda's childhood. Eventually, even though she was still crying, Zelda looked up to Link.
"Link," she said in between tears.
He held her closer and whispered, "Yes?"
She whispered back, "Promise me you'll never leave my side, please?"
He whispered softly into her ear, "I promise", he continued, "and I promise I'll never let anything hurt you"
The next morning, Link remembered waking up in the temple of Light, surrounded by the seven sages. He noticed that the perimeter of the temple was locked down.
"What's going on?" he asked Saria, since she was the first one he met eyes with.
"While you dozed off, we discovered that Zelda had run off with your third of the triforce, and had made an alliance with Ganondorf, who for some reason ran off to the Kokiri forest, which scares me. If you need, we'll escort you down to the Hyrule field, since the Temple of Time, and the castle, are now both in smoldering ruins."
"Ok" Link said, now fully awake, "But, why is the Light Temple locked out of the Sacred Realm?"
"We'll, Zelda had told Ganondorf you were here, so we had to cut off his access to the Light Temple, so we used our combined power to seal this Temple."
"Ok, I'd like to get back to the field."
"Very well, but take caution, and Link," Saria had hugged him, "good luck" she began to sniffle.
He hugged her back, "I'll be fine, I promise" right when he said that, and as he was being sent back down to Hyrule, he thought of what he promised Zelda the night before, in the exact same spot he was standing in. "How could she do this?" he thought to himself as he trekked back to the Kokiri forest.
He was shocked to find it had burned down: he found the woods in ruins, the children of the village dead, even the ground, as far as he can see, charred and blackened. He went to the Great Deku Tree, he knew it was dead, but when he was a child, he would always come here to calm himself down. As he sat down, he heard a blood curdling scream from the forest temple's direction, which sounded like Zelda.
Ignoring how angry he was, Link ran through the destroyed ruins of the woods and at the front of the temple, he saw Ganondorf, but he wasn't exactly sure what was happening.
"Zelda!" Link asked loud enough for her to hear from where he was standing.
When he called her name, Ganondorf leaped so he was directly in front of Link. When he leapt, Zelda had been thrown onto the ground. He found that her dress had been torn to shreds and had barely covered her flawless body. Link had also noticed as he looked fro her legs, all the way up to her shoulders, and literally everywhere in between, she had been covered in scars, cuts, and tears. On her face, she had a giant gash across her right cheek. He couldn't believe his eyes, "No one hurts my princess!!" he thought to himself. He's ready to kill Ganondorf, who was now standing behind him, ready to strangle him to death. But Link simply turns around, and with the master sword, impales his armor, and cuts into his heart. Ganondorf falls to the ground, dead.
Link stands back up, and walks over to Zelda, but as he walks to ward the shivering princess, both her and Ganondorf's dead body behind him vanish into thin air. Link was now the only soul in front of the forest Temple.
Within minutes, Link could've sworn his hand was talking to him. He realized someone was talking to him through the Triforce; it must've been Zelda; they were the only ones who knew how to communicate through it after the King passed away.
"Link, please! Help; I'm dying!" Zelda had been screaming before being cut off.
Link immediately went to the Temple of Time, and when he reached the pedestal of Time, he sees the seven sages in a circle around it.
Before any of the sages could tell him what was happening, a tear-filled Saria runs up to Link and hugs him.
"Oh Link! I never thought I'd see you again! How does the Kokiri look?"
He didn't have the heart to tell her the truth; the Kokiri village and forests had been sacred to her before her capturing into the Forest Temple. When the Great Deku Tree had died, it took Saria two weeks to get over her sadness. In fact, Link could swear he had not seen her smile once since before that day. How could he tell her their home and forests have been burned black? But from her face, Link knew she was about to get on her knees and beg him until he told her. He couldn't bear to see that. He was stuck.
He held her close to his tunic, and whispered to her, "Saria, you have to promise me you'll be as tough with this as I was, ok?" When she heard this, she gasped, and said to him, "I promise" He held her especially close to him, and whispered very softly, so the others couldn't hear him. "All the woods, and our village has –" he stuttered, "has all been burned down"
She held him tightly, and burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Link, I just can't help myself!" He just held her saying, "It's ok, Saria, I understand what it meant to you. He had a single tear in his eyes, but Saria hadn't seen it.
After she dispatched from him, the other sages had explained why they had been standing around the pedestal of time.
"Ganondorf had summoned the hidden curse of the royal family, and had locked us out of the Sacred Realm, until we had access to the master sword. The curse hadn't been used for centuries; I'm surprised he knew it."
Without saying anything, Link had planted the blade into the pedestal and they entered the realm outside of the Light temple, it had been sealed tight. The Realm had shattered! It now looked of a barren wasteland. As soon as Link and the others, Ganondorf is seen standing over Zelda's body. Her condition was visible from here; barely clothed, and covered in cuts and bruises. Ganondorf turns around as he hears them come, and before being able to even move, the sages kill the surprised dark lord with a simultaneous attack. After he falls, Link runs to Zelda's body. When he looks into her face, he finds that the princess is dead.
Link actually, for the first time in his life, recalls crying. He retreats back to the sages, carrying Zelda's body across his shoulders. He looks at Saria, and she looks at his tear filled face, then looks at Zelda's body, and gives a huge gasp. She runs to him and holds her head up against his tunic.
"Link, I'm so sorry" she whispered to him.
He hugs her back, "Thank you, Saria" and tries to smile, but she understands why he couldn't.
"It's ok Link, let it out" she says softly.
Link then leaves the Sacred Realm with the Sages, and leaves for the Kokiri Forest; it has always been his favorite spot when he was depressed, no matter what state it was in. Saria followed after, and left the other six in the Hyrule Field. To be continued…..