"So,
did you tell him?"
Princess Ruto drifted lazily across the
fountain, her arms spread out and her eyes closed. When Saria had
returned to the Temple of the Sages, the beautiful zora had opened
one eye to stare at her. Seeing the girl's tear stained face and
puffy red eyes, she stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "Girl,
let me tell you. If you like a guy, you can't start crying when ya
tell him!" Ruto chuckled and placed a finned arm across Saria's
back. "Alright so tell me. How did our ol' hero boy take it?"
She grinned, ignoring Saria's moans of protest and fresh tears
spilling down her face.
"Aw, did he really say he still loved me? I just knew he would!" Ruto twirled around the fountain, her fins swirling around her like ribbons. "He still loves me! I told you! I told you!" She teased in a sing-song voice. She climbed a high rock near the fountain and dove in, spirits high. After a refreshing lap around the fountain, she popped her head up and breathed in deeply. "So, c'mon. What did he say?" Saria plopped down on a tree stump, and buried her face in her hands. "Oh Ruto it was just awful! And stop bothering me! You're being just as awful as he was! I never should have listened to you in the first place about going to see him! I'm going home!" She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and started to wave her hand when the zora reached up and grabbed her wrist.
"Wait honey. I didn't mean to upset you, really. Don't go, Saria, especially since we have that meeting tonight," Ruto patted her on the back. Saria sniffed, and let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, the meeting. I forgot all about it! It's a good thing he doesn't have to be here. If he did, oh god I wouldn't be able to…oh no," She gasped. "He does have to be here, doesn't he? Oh no oh no oh no…I forgot to tell him about it too, I was so caught up in the other thing I wanted to tell him, and gosh Ruto I was so nervous, and he wouldn't let me speak and it was just perfectly awful." She moaned and her eyes began to fill with tears again. "He was so angry, too! He kept yelling and yelling, and all I wanted to do was have a friendly cup of tea but he just wouldn't listen! Because he's so damn stubborn! Always trying to find a hidden meaning, never looking at what's right in front of his damn eyes, he never realizes what's right there! He just…oh!"
She
groaned and continued to babble on and on, when Ruto held a hand up
to her face and let a stream of water burst out from her palm, all
over her. Saria gagged, and wiped her face off with her wet sleeves.
"Ruto! What in the god's name was that for?" She waved her hand
and a green towel appeared in her lap, and she buried her face on the
soft terry. "Saria, dear, I love you to pieces but you just won't
shut up!"
-------------
Link lay on his side, his head propped up on an elbow, as he stared sightlessly at the blazing fireplace. What had he done? All he had done was say that the Sages shouldn't have sent her…which they shouldn't have. But he still felt guilty as he remembered the look of such utter hurt in his friend's face.
A tiny voice spoke in his ear. "Did you ever ponder, Link, that the lass might fancy you?" A dash of blue light came out from beneath his hair and hovered above his face now, no more than a pair of wings attached to a glowing orb. Link grinned, fluttering his fingers at the fairy. "Hey Navi. I'm glad to see you're better." He sat up, as the fairy wizzed around his head, before perching on his shoulder. It made a tsking noise, and jingled in his ear. "Well, what did you expect? I'm never down and out you know, and besides, I have to look out for you." Her words were meant as a tease, but they sparked an unexpected anger inside of him.
"Yeah, I guess. And besides," Link said with a small smile, "Saria doesn't like me that way. We've been friends for years, and she has never showed that kind of interest. And I don't think of her as any more than a good friend" He lifted up his shirt to mid chest, and examined the bandage wrapped tightly around his abdomen. It appeared that it needed to be changed. Sighing, he turned back to his winged companion. "Navi, be kind and bring me that red pouch over there, please?"
Navi flew over and picked up the pouch, but a sudden knock on the door made her drop it, and its contents spilled across the floor. Cursing slightly, she picked a roll of bandages, a tub of purple ointment, and a small bottle containing rich red liquid. Whoever was at the door knocked again, and she dropped the items on the table before zipping to the door. "Shoo. Nobody's home." She screeched through a crack in the wood, but the knocking persisted. She pulled open the door, and bobbed up and down, crossly blushing slightly red. "I said to shoo! Leave at once!"
A tall woman sheikah stood in the doorway, dark eyes scanning for the source of the voice. Upon seeing the fairy, she grinned, a surprising thing to see on such a hard face. "Good evening, Navi. I surely do hope you do not bid for me to leave. Is the young master home?" Her words were soft, but urgent, and the fairy paled in embarrassment.
"Impa, I am so sorry. Yes, Link's home, but…" She cast a glance at Link, still sitting on the couch, unwrapping his old bandages. "He's a bit…busy at the moment. Is it possible for you to come back later?" The hurried expression on the sheikah's face answered Navi, before actual words were spoken.
"No, Navi, I am afraid this is very urgent. I need to speak with Link, and he is needed at an important meeting tonight." Her eyes appeared thoughtful for a moment, a trace of concern in her furrowed white eyebrows. "Is…is he alright after his journey? Is he injured very badly? I heard that the battle with the demon was a close one, and he almost didn't succeed…" She tilted her head, as if to see past the glowing fairy, and catch a glimpse at the young hero.
Navi made a sound like a sigh. "Please, do not speak of his last encounter with the beast. He is quite sensitive to any comment of it, good or bad." Slightly glancing again at Link, she continued. "He is not hurt as badly as to stay cooped up here, which is very good, because after two days in bed, with yours truly at his side, he would be ready to choke me…" She giggled, but her anxiousness made it sound forced. "But his wound was deep…and I think he took the battle to heart, as well."
Link raised his head, wondering absentmindedly who was at the door. Dipping a swab in the tub of ointment, he rolled it over his wound, wincing slightly at the sharp stinging it arose. The intensity of the pain brought him back to the battle, the slashes of the sharp, curved sword slashing at his arms, his legs, his face, and ending with the blade sinking deep into his flesh, bringing forth the warm rush of bright red blood…the cruel, high laughter cackling in his ear, taunting him…"You think you can defeat me? Your life ends tonight, hero boy, along with your title. Nobody can save you now, and I shall forever live with the glory of slaying the Hero of Time…and how easy it was at that!"
He felt surprised to blink back tears, sitting in the comfortable couch of his sitting room. Oh, how the memory tormented him…he still didn't remember how he had managed to defeat the dark demon…perhaps the adrenalin pulsing through his throbbing veins, of a soldier's last victory before he died. Discarding the swab with the gooey purple ointment, he began to wrap on the clean white bandage, and with each area covered the memory seemed to sink back into him, lurking in some dark, hidden place. As he finished wrapping the bandage, the sound of someone clearing their throat beckoned his attention. He looked up, staring into the eyes of Impa, Sage of the Shadow Temple.
"It has been a while, Young Master. And of this while, so much there is to tell."
