Chapter 6

To Zelda, it seemed like ages before they arrived back at the castle and guards came to carry Link to the infirmary. For hours, there was silence in that corridor. No news of Link's condition came, but Zelda continued to wait. Now, as she drifted halfway off to sleep, her mind wandered back to what it was that had rescued then from the black dragon. All she had seen was that silver flash. What could it have been? Whatever it was it must have been awfully powerful. It seemed to slice through the black dragon's scale-covered body like paper. But, whatever it was, why had it helped them? Why had it been there to begin with? Had it just been passing by and seen the two in trouble? All these questions ran through Zelda's mind as she finally fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Zelda awoke to find herself back in her own room, but still in the same clothes she'd been wearing since the dragon had kidnapped her. After quickly changing, she rushed down to the infirmary. She lifted a hand to knock on the door to the room Link was in, but stopped. The events of the day before her kidnapping rushed back to her and she collapsed into a chair as a wave of guilt came crashing over her. All the horrible things she had said and done to Link, and yet he had still come to rescue her, and now he had nearly been killed, once again having placed her life before his own.

She slowly got up, raised a hand once more, and knocked on the door before her. She had to say something.

"Come in," came the reply. She slowly pushed the door open and walked in. "Oh uh, hi," Link said smiling weakly. A strip of bandages went diagonally from his shoulder, going down to cover most of his chest, where the dragon had cut him. "I've been wanting to ask you, what happened back there? I thought I was a goner." She cringed and gave an internal sigh of relief at the same time, glad he hadn't brought up the subject she feared the most, but sick at the thought of loosing him.

"Actually, I'm not really sure," she replied, gaining a bit of courage.

"After the dragon attacked you, there was this strange silver flash and just like that a huge cut appeared across its body. Then there was another flash and the wall of that prison cell I was in just… blew apart."

"Well that's not something you see every day," Link said with a small laugh, "but I guess I can't complain."

Zelda smiled halfheartedly back at him, but sighed internally once more; they would have to talk about it sooner or later and it may as well be sooner.

"Link..." she began slowly. However she was suddenly interrupted by a boom from outside, followed by shouts from the castle guards. "Oh no," she said under her breath, "what now?"

Link was already attempting to get to his feet and, though she tried to push him back down she knew it was useless. "Link, you should stay here," she said nevertheless.

He stood looking out a nearby window. "Uh... I think the guards will need all the help they can get."

She peered out the window as well and gasped at what she saw.

Soon the pair had rushed out to the castle entrance. Before them loomed another dragon, but this was not the dragon Link had fought, that was easy to see.

The creature's body was covered all in scales of shining silver, which flashed like a thousand swords in the light of the sun. Another thing that made this dragon different was that it seemed to have no intent of harming them. Instead, it stood at a safe distance, stepping back when the guards thrust their spears forward; though it was obvious they would have had no affect had they made contact.

The dragon's golden eyes quickly surveyed the gathering crowd before coming to rest on a certain young man dressed in green. It lowered its great head, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Pressing its body close to the ground, its eyes never left Link as he now stared back confusedly. Slowly, slowly he began pushing through the crowd, closer to the enormous creature.

At last he was at the front of the crowd and dragon and human kept their gazes locked as if a silent understanding passed between them.

Link took a cautious half-step forward. Immediately, the guards began trying to pull him back.

"No," he said easily breaking their grip, but never looking away from the dragon, still on his guard. "He's not trying to hurt anyone."

Suddenly Zelda's voice broke in. "Link, what are you doing?" she asked, struggling not to yell for fear of startling the beast just feet in front of her.

"Don't you get it Zelda?" Link asked still slowly continuing his advance. "This dragon... He's gotta be the one who saved us both."

She gasped once more. It was near impossible to believe, and yet made perfect sense, this was the silver flash. Without him, they'd surely both have been dead by now. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as well, but simply because they could not believe Link's daring. But, as if they hadn't heard Link, the guards once again advanced on the dragon. The creature hissed low in its throat when one of these men thrust his spear forward and it nearly hit Link; baring rows of razor-sharp teeth, it rose up off the ground slightly. "Whoa, whoa, easy," Link coaxed.

He sighed to himself; he already barely knew what he was doing and these guards weren't helping.

"Zelda," he said quickly, "could you?..."

He cut himself off as the men suddenly lowered their weapons. Slowly, the dragon lowered itself back to the ground and waited as Link, once again, began drawing closer. Now, he stood so close he could reach out and touch the dragon and slowly, carefully, that's just what he did. Another collective gasp from the crowd as the dragon allowed the young man to run a hand along his silver scales.

And that is how a brand new legend began.

Thump! "Ow! Saber, come on cut that out!" Link sighed in exasperation as he got to his feet for what must have been the tenth time that day. "Alright fine, I give up. Happy?"

The dragon snorted in reply as if to say 'yes, I am.' Link sighed once more, he was sure he was going to end up with a ton of bruises thanks to this little experiment. He wasn't sure where he'd ever gotten the idea to begin with, but that morning he had decided he wanted to see if the dragon he had recently named Saber, would allow him to ride on his back.

Now, morning was wearing into afternoon and all he had to show for his struggles was an aching backside.

Though the dragon seemed to be slowly growing to trust him, whenever Link attempted to climb on his back he was quickly thrown to the ground. It had only been a few days since Saber had defeated that strange black dragon, but at least Link's wounds were healing nicely. However, there was still one thing which nagged at his thoughts incessantly.

"Link," he heard a voice call from behind him. ...Speaking of which...

He slowly turned to face the princess with a halfhearted smile. "Link," she said stopping in front of him, "we need to talk."

He felt his heartbeat quicken slightly. That was what he was afraid of... "I just wanted to apologize... for what happened before. I... I didn't mean any of the things I said… or did... that day." she said quietly. "I was just frustrated."

He looked at her with that gentle gaze of his and slowly asked, "Why?"

"Oh it's nothing," she replied, still speaking quietly, "It's not your problem. I just...I. Well, I'm almost 17 and Father says I must chose a suitor to marry."

Link was frozen, standing stock still. He couldn't believe his own ears.

"M-Marry?" he stammered.

"Yes, that's the law." she said sadly, "If I haven't married by the time I'm 17 my father chooses a husband for me. And even though I'm not 17 yet, he thinks he's already picked out the perfect man." she scoffed, "Perfectly awful is more like it. He's a complete snob, just like all the other princes from the neighboring kingdoms. But, the other day I just couldn't stop thinking about that...and dreading it. So...so I lashed out at the first person unfortunate enough to step in my path..."

"But I-I…" Link's voice simply trailed off, unable to come up with a coherent thought.

There was a short silence and Zelda paused, taking a deep breath, "I'm sorry," she said after a moment, "I shouldn't have said that. It's my problem, not yours."

"No, it's- it's okay and...just, forget the other day..okay? I understand," he said, still struggling to regain his composure as well.

There was another uncomfortable silence between them for a moment, but at length Zelda spoke once more, if a bit quietly.

"I'm sorry," she said again, "That's not even what I came out here to say."

Link was silent, waiting for her to continue and still slightly stunned.

"I wanted to ask you… what it was you were going to say that day."

Link's face paled even further, if that was possible. ""I-I…"" he stammered hopelessly. "…Could… Could we talk about this later? I… suddenly I don't feel so good."

"Sure," she replied slowly, "are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll-I'll be fine. I just need to rest is all."

That said, Link hurriedly disappeared inside the castle.