He was approaching the Kokiri Forest's entrance when a silhouette in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He slowed Epona down and turned her around in a swift move, pulling her reins hard. He directed her to the bushes before him where sat the shadow, slowly, cautiously.
It's her, it's her again! She followed me!
But when the shadow's face looked up at him and greeted him by the warmest of smiles, he forgot about everything.
"Princess Zelda..." His voice trailed off as he spoke her name, mesmerized. She gave another friendly smile and giggled joyfully.
"Link! It has been so long! Come and have a... seat?" That laughter again, music to Link's ears. Yes, it has been so long, too long, Link now realized. He shook his head slightly and cleared his throat.
"What are you doing here, Milady, at such a time of day?" He asked politely, dismounting Epona and sitting in the long grass near Zelda.
"I was just enjoying the sunset a bit and-- oh, by the Goddesses! What happened to you!?"
Link looked at himself; he was still covered with unhealed bruises and wounds. Looks like he really did forget everything when he was with her.
"Oh! Don't bother." Link flashed an embarrassed smile, scratching the nape of his neck. Zelda chuckled; when Link did that, it was sign he was either very embarrassed or nervous. How cute.
"I went to the renewed Gerudo Training Grounds today, quite the challenge, I'd say." He laughed nervously and that made Zelda grin, even though worry still shone in her eyes brightly.
"You just can't play outside without getting dirty can you?" They both laughed before a rather uncomfortable pause set in between them. Zelda was the one to break the silence, her voice low and uneasy.
"Why don't you... spend the night at the castle? Proper care could be administrated to your wounds, and I'm sure a warm bath and comfortable bed wouldn't hurt you either..." Her turn to feel nervous. Link giggled in an odd way, because he was trying to muffle his laugh with his hand.
"This look rather tempting to me, why not?" He answered, unconsciously rubbing his right arm wound with his left hand. Zelda sighed silently and got up, dusting off the twigs and blades of grass on her beautiful blue dress.
"Let's go now, I'm worried about you Link..."
She offered her hand to him and he gladly took it. To his surprise, he did have trouble getting up now, his legs must have been more sore than he thought. They slowly walked back to the castle, Epona following close behind, and they talked about what had happened in the past months. The Hylian Guards greeted them as they went through the castle's gates, and soon enough Link and Zelda were climbing up the stairs to the main castle entrance. Epona had been taken to the royal stables for the night, where she would get some fresh food and water.
Princess Zelda slowly opened the big oak doors and gestured for Link to enter.
"I'll make a bath prepared for you right now." She said as she closed the doors carefully. She then pointed to one of the many halls of the castle on her right.
"Your room will be just there, the last one." She smiled to him sweetly, and it made Link's heart melt in his chest.
"Expect me to visit you for the heal a bit later, after you first relax a bit." She said before leaving, walking to someplace Link didn't know. He lightly smiled and directed himself to his room, feeling a bit nervous to be sleeping in the King's Castle.
When he opened the door, he let out a long, relieved gasp of surprise and joy. The room was huge! All basked in a pure white color, except for the lush, light pink carpet under his boots and the soft-looking drapes that hung around the humongous four-poster bed. Several drawers and room furniture truly added a royal look to the scene. At the far end of the room was another light-brown oak door, closed. It was the washroom, and the more Link thought about it the more he felt dirty. He slowly sat on the bed, sighing silently as he took his boots off carefully. He felt like his feet were going to explode when they came in contact with the ambient air.
And I don't even want to think about the shape I'm going to be in tomorrow morning, hah!
But then someone knocked on the door, startling him in his first truly calm moment of the day.
"Enter?" He said loudly, unsure of himself, and certainly not used those kinds of manners. A tall, black-haired woman shyly peeked inside the room.
"Sir Link?"
Link chuckled at the title he was suddenly given.
"Yes, it's me."
"I'm here to prepare you a bath." Ever so shyly, she slowly entered, revealing her dark blue nursemaid's dress.
"Then enter, please don't look scared, am I looking this bad?" Link joked and smiled to her as she was walking to the closed door. She let out a good-hearted giggle, not without blushing, and got into the washroom. She looked one last time at the hero before closing it behind her.
How Link wanted to just lay down on the bed and fall asleep for a million hours, but he didn't want to stain it with his sweat or blood, and after all, he was eager to relax a bit. After some time the nursemaid got out and startled the poor hero again, who had managed to fall into a half-sleep. She cleared her throat quietly.
"S-Sir Link? Your bath is ready..." She said in the faintest of voices before briskly leaving. Link painfully got up and chuckled to himself; he always found it funny when people got all uncomfortable and excited in his presence, him being the savior of Hyrule's beautiful kingdom.
And I won't even get it started with women.
He chuckled again, pushing the door almost clumsily, if ever that was possible. Yes, many women were seeking his love, and if Link wanted he could have chosen in this load of ladies who wanted him to themselves. One particularly flirty Gerudo Guard once said to him that he could 'pick more than one' with the Gerudo race, since he was now the only male allowed in the fortress. Link had kindly refused and hurried Epona out so things wouldn't turn around on the bad side.
But his heart belonged to one person, and has been since the first time his eyes crossed hers. The odds didn't matter to him, and he could well-enough understand if they couldn't be together; her being Hyrule's next Queen and him being but a mere peasant... but he would always love her, more than anything.
He would be her ever-faithful and loyal knight.
Until the end.
As he entered the washroom, he was immediately engulfed in the hot mist coming off of the bath's water surface.
Simply refreshing.
It smelled like lavender, and the soothing effect started as soon as Link breathed in and out several times. To his greater relief, he started to slowly, carefully undress himself, and had to rip his white leggings at his ankles because apparently they had swelled up really bad. His thoughts then surprisingly turned to the cat-girl, whom he had not given any more thoughts until then. Her weird frame, her face, her hair, those eyes, the markings.
The eye of truth painted on her clothes.
Could she be a... ?
But the voice in his head stopped abruptly as he put one foot in the deep bath. The cat-girl was very far in his mind once again and he didn't give her another thought. His muscles loosened one by one as he slowly slipped completely in the boiling hot water. He sighed silently, flexing his cracked fingers ever so slowly in the goodness of it all. But when the water-level reached his burnt upper-arm and shoulder, his breathings quickened and he restrained a painful cry in his throat.
This wound is getting even worse.
The bath was hot enough, but on his arm it was like Death Mountain's lava. He carefully washed himself and, lingering a little bit longer in the medicinal waters, finally seemed to relax. he got out a little bit after, because he feared he would simply doze off and fall asleep in there. He noticed the maid left a pair of simple dark brown pants for the night.
As he closed the washroom door behind him and turned around to go to bed, he jumped in surprise, once again, by a knock on the door. This time he went to open the door himself, for a reason himself didn't know, and it was more out of some reflex anyway. Quickly attaching his pants he almost tripped on a chair near the door. He weakly opened it, and the creaking sound it made oddly reminded him of his aching bones. Little did he know he had forgotten he was still shirtless.
Zelda's eyes widened. Link felt his cheeks blush furiously and the little hairs on the nape of his neck rise up.
"I'm sorry, I-- uh..." Link finally blurted out, scratching his suddenly itchy back of head.
"Link! What happened to your arm!?" Zelda asked worryingly. Link felt a huge wave of relief wash through him. She didn't seem to be shocked by his upper nudity.
"Oh I... I've burnt myself quite bad, eh?"
Zelda, still wide-eyed, put a gentle hand on the worse of his wound. The skin wasn't just burnt; it was cracking and coagulated blood was infecting the blackened 2-inch large scratch near his shoulder. Link let out a silent grunt of pain, even though she touched him in the greatest delicacy, and grimaced.
"Let's hurry, you must feel horrible." She said with the same hint of worry, gently pushing him back into the bedroom.
Link smirked.
Actually, not at all.
She gestured for him to lay down on the bed on his right side, so she could inspect the wound more precisely. He grimaced again as she ever so gently took his left wrist, while placing her other hand on his burnt shoulder. She slowly lifted his arm straight, and with her other hand felt for the bones and muscles in the damaged area. A low, cracking sound was heard from deep within' Link's back. Zelda stopped moving his arm and stared at him; he was panting heavily, eyes shut hard and biting his bottom lip.
"I'm sorry..." She whispered to him, guilt flooding in her. Link slightly opened his eyes and gave her a weak smile.
"It's alright, do what you must, I've seen worse... did I?" He puffed his chest in pride. Zelda giggled; how he always managed to keep his sense of humour in times like these escaped her, but it was surely to make her (Well, both of them, really) more comfortable with the situation. After more manipulations with his shoulder, Zelda moved down to his wrist. It was bad; all cracked by the burn and infected. He had continued to fight with his quite heavy sword after being burnt, and that was the result of it.
"How bad is it?" Link asked, chuckling nervously.
"Oh Link, this is going to hurt a lot..." She said with a great look of concern in her big, azure eyes. Link only answered with a weak nod, then closed his eyes and awaited the time for pain.
Zelda positioned one of her hand on his shoulder, and the other rested on his wrist again. A blue light started to emanate from them, and the cleansing pain soon enough kicked in, purifying the wounds.
It hurt to be pure.
Link bit his bottom lip so hard he could taste his own blood on his tongue. As the pain went up to his shoulder it was just too much to take. He let out a short, not too loud cry of pain that tangled itself in his throat halfway up. Sweating all over, legs trembling, ears whistling, he heard Zelda's distant, faint voice to him;
"It's almost over, hang on, my hero..."
But then the room he was in shut itself to complete darkness.