The leaves rustled calmly in the cool morning breeze, the birds hadn't moved from their cosy nests, it was too early even for a dawn chorus. There was not a sound to be heard from the sleepy village of Epona, consisting of only five families, and seven buildings. Two of those being local amenities, such as Mr and Mrs. Trusse's shop, for all your local conveniences, and the bright red farmhouse belonging to the richest man in the village, Mr. Emil Embar, who lived alone with his beautiful, but shy daughter Emilia. He never worked on the farm, instead he chose two farmhands to maintain his land while he gallivanted about throwing both his money and weight around, he was not an unkind man, but an extremely proud one. He didn't pay his farmhands' Link and Talo, half as much as he should.
Link was nineteen years old, nobody knew very much about his background, except that he was an orphan and had been living on his own, in Epona for just over a year, he was a sweet, quiet boy, and absolutely adored by all the local children. Talo on the other hand, was the village idiot. Often after Link had completed his own chores on the farm he would have to go back and do Talo's as he had messed them up. He was too busy trying to impress Emilia, which usually resulted in him getting a slap from Emil. Opposite Mr Embar's generously sized house, lived Mr and Mrs Iola in a small one bed roomed, and one storey house. They had two gorgeous 9 year old twin children, although they were twins Bee the boy, and Gee, the girl were very different. She was fiesty and reckless and he was usually frightened and nervous. They played with the other three Trusse children, Lettie, Toria and Lenex. The Trusse family were a large family, but always loving. Mrs Trusse was a little bit overweight and Mr Trusse was tiny, she clearly wore the trousers in their relationship.
Talo lived with his handsome older brother Lamus, he was very strong, but a little bit conceited. He worked as a messenger, always riding his trusty steed Lance backwards and forwards from Epona, to the big city of Titania, he too battled Talo for Emilia's affections, she rejected both of them, taking a shine to Link, but of course she never said anything, making excuses to spend time with him instead, he suited her, he didn't say a lot and she preferred it that way.
Emilia hadn't been to bed, she had been up all night making something for Link, Lamus had offered to take Link to the big city with him one day, but for that he needed a sword. She had been working hard on a wooden sword for him for weeks, and had finally finished it. She couldn't wait to give it to him, so she tiptoed quietly out of her bedroom, past the door of her father's and carefully climbed down the ladder to the living room. Stopping to listen just in case her father had awoken, not surprisingly, he was sound asleep and snoring loudly. Her cat Quim, miaowed happily and loudly at her as she came down the ladder. She picked him up, he purred loudly and appreciatively as she stroked his thick ginger fur, rubbing her nose with his, her heart thudding through her chest with what she was about to do. She took a deep breath and with one arm twisted the door handle, her eyes watering as the cool air hit her face.
In Link's house, he hadn't slept much either, but was awake as usual after his reoccurring nightmare. He scratched the match against his wall, lighting the candle on the desk by his bed. He picked up his quill, dipped it in ink and began to write. He liked writing, it soothed and calmed him. He kept a journal and wrote in it every night, recording the dreams he'd had the night before and what he'd been doing during the day. He tickled his nose with the quill, trying to remember the dream he had just had, he wanted to write it down whilst it was still fresh in his mind. But he knew it would be exactly the same as all the other bad dreams, it felt so real he could not forget it.
He would rise from his bed, as if it was a new normal day, and when he walked out of his house, things would seem different, eerie and unfriendly. There would not be the usual children running around with their slingshots, or Mrs Trusse singing loudly outside her shop, Lamus would not be setting up his horse for his daily trip to Titania, and Talo would not be waiting for Link outside his house, he carried on through the village, and kept looking behind him as he felt as if he was being followed. Then he reached the farmyard, and a pungent aroma filled his nostrils. The smell of death filled the air, there was blood all over the crops, all over the white picket fences keeping the animals in which were unusually not present in their pens, and all over the hay bales. As he pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the farmhouse, there would be, every single resident of the village, laying dead amongst dead animal carcasses, rotting and decaying with flies and maggots everywhere. He would scream, but his scream would fall silent. Emilia's dead eyes stared up at him, her hand clasping Talo's as he laid beside her his eyes were closed but the open wound on his head leaked blood and pus. Mrs. Trusse was flat down on her front, she was missing a leg, the haunting look of terror on Lamus' face was one that stayed with Link even when he woke up. There was nothing he could do, he couldn't save them, for they were all already dead. Suddenly behind him, the doors would bang shut. And he would be left in total darkness, the only thing mildly glowing in the dark were usually the staring eyes of the bodies, he would flinch, and turn round quickly, and then struck hard on his head, he felt no pain, just the extreme force of his murderer. Pretty soon he would wake up, shaking and sweating and would not be able to sleep until the next night, where it could, or could not happen all over again.
Emilia took another deep breath, she was standing staring at Link's door. She could see a flickering light in his bedroom, maybe he was up? She stopped, and walked over to Link's horse Rose, she was beautiful, a chestnut colour and very strong, she snorted warmly as Emilia stroked her nose, she heard a movement from Link's room, he had heard her. She froze, Rose looking at her strangely.
"Emilia, is that you?" Link had stuck his head out of his window, his honey blonde hair swaying slightly in the breeze, his intense blue eyes locked onto Emilia's green, she smiled shyly and looked down at the floor, covering the sword with her long pale green dress.
"Uh huh, will you come down for a sec?" She shifted her feet, trying to avoid Link's gaze, the gaze which made her weak at the knees, but it wasn't as bad as his smile, the smile which sent shivers down her spine as he opened the door. He ushered her in, and lit the lanterns with his candle. She leaned against the back of the sofa, everything in this room Link had made himself. He made the wooden table and three chairs in the corner, he knitted the patchwork quilt covering the sofa, he even painted the pictures hanging up above the fireplace. He was good with his hands, although they were shaking, she noticed. He placed the candle down on the table and went over to where she was standing.
"What are you doing awake?" Link asked, leaning his head forward so that now their faces were inches away, she looked back down at her feet, and spoke towards them.
"I made you something." Emilia pulled the sword shaped package out from her dress, she had wrapped it with some brown paper and tied it with string, but the shape it was it was very obvious what she had made. Link almost snatched it from her hands, he eagerly tore at the paper and pulled off the string, his eyes widened when he saw what it was. He looked from the sword to her, and back again.
"You made this? It's incredible."
Emilia smiled widely, pleased that he liked her gift, he began swinging it round the room, practising. She laughed a little, for a boy of nineteen this made him look nine years old. He got a little vigorous with the movements and narrowly missed her long, ash blonde hair, she gasped.
"I'm sorry, maybe I should practise outside," he grinned and tucked the sword into his belt buckle, he sauntered over to Emilia slowly, she didn't know what was coming as he opened his arms and embraced her tightly, she relaxed, falling into his body shape and enjoying his scent. He always smelled good, kind of like a pine forest. And she never realized how strong he wise, she could feel hard stomach, and his strong arms. After a few minutes, she let go, and blushed. "I should be getting you a present, it is your birthday today, right."
She nodded, seventeen today and then shuddered, one step closer to her Dad's promise. He told her that when she turned eighteen she was to be married to Prince Geo, the King of Titania's son. Of course he was gorgeous, with black hair and chocolate brown eyes, but he was obnoxious. He made her feel uncomfortable whenever he came to visit. All the girls lusted after him, but not Emilia, he didn't notice. Still pulling her onto his lap whenever he came round and playing with her hair, she didn't like the way he played with her hair, he was rough and pulled it, or ruffled it into a mess. Not like the way Link did, gently stroking it and sometimes even plaiting it for her.
Link returned from his bedroom holding a gift he had for Emilia, he hadn't planned to give it to her here. He was going to wait until she came by the waterfall, to give it to her. It had took him ages to think of something good to get her, and then it hit him. She loved jewellery, her arms were always full of bracelets, some hand made, some expensive that her father had bought for her, all colours of the rainbow, some wooden, some glass. He knew he had to come up with something special, so he made her a necklace. He went right down to the beach in Everwood, and picked lots of different shells, pearlescent and beautiful, he shined them up and strung them across a thin silver piece of string. He didn't stop a pearls, he found some pretty rocks and made holes in them with Mr Trusse's borrowed screw. He saved up enough to buy an amethyst stone for 100 rupees, it was the middle pendant, and he put that on there too.
"Close your eyes."
Gently, he placed the necklace around Emilia's neck and tied it up at the back, felt her hands touch his as she felt his gift. She opened her eyes, and gasped. Rushing over to the mirror above the kitchen sink, she smiled widely and done something strange. She ran over to Link and kissed him on the lips. So happy she forgot herself for a second, Link reacted to her kiss. Enjoying the touch of her soft lips, he opened his and gently kissed her back. Emilia pulled herself apart, half smiling, half shocked at what had just happened, she blushed again and Link smiled.
"Thank-you." She said, turning on her heel and leaving Link's house. She skipped happily home, enjoying the warm sunshine on her face, the birds were beginning to wake and were starting to sing, her heart skipped a beat as she replayed the kiss in her mind, it had been her very first kiss, on her seventeenth birthday with the man who had her heart, she skipped all the way home, smiling like a Cheshire cat.