Chapter Seven

The journey to Zora's Domain had been long and exhausting, but the journey back to Hyrule Castle was nothing short of tedious and painful. At least on the journey up, Link held the promise of adventure, of seeing old friends. On the way back, he held nothing but dread of being trapped within four walls, surrounded by those who hated him, dreading the life he had ahead of him. Compared to life in the court, handling Ganondorf had been easy.

It did not help that it had rained constantly since returning to Hyrule Field.

One night in particular was worse than all of the others. After a long day of riding, after being ambushed by a horde of bulbins which Link had taken care of and gotten no recognition for from Zelda's guards, the caravan had finally set up camp. Link had lay outside, staring at the stars, remembering similar nights like that one, nights spent sleeping on the ground, no one beside him but Midna in his shadow. Nights in which he slept while on his quest were rare, too much time was lost because of it, but nights like that... No, he couldn't remember those. He couldn't focus on those. Those days were gone, and she was gone with them.

"You should head inside," Zelda said to him. "You'll become ill staying out here."

"I've slept in worse," Link reminded, not moving. Zelda sighed and crossed her arms. Reluctantly, Link sat up.

"Why must you make this so difficult?" Zelda demanded, her tone sharp. Link stood at that.

"I make things difficult?" he had demanded. "I wanted to go home!"

"And I wanted to have a perfectly peaceful rule," Zelda responded. "But now we have people and races and clans in uprising after we have been invaded. We can't always get what we want. Come inside."

Link ignored her and sat back down in the field, staring back up at the sky. He heard Zelda huff, and he heard her footsteps heading back toward her tent. Despite the muddy conditions, he lay back down, resting his head on his arms, and he thought of home. At that hour, the village children were surely asleep. Rusl and Uli would be caring for their newborn, wondering when Link would return to them. And Ilia would be waiting, always waiting for him to return.

He was never more relieved to see the gates to the castle than he had been after that journey. He and Zelda had ridden the rest of the way in silence, listening to the crude jokes the guards shared. Without a word, Link headed to the stable. Zelda had insisted he let the servants care for Epona, but Link wouldn't let them near her. Almost automatically, he removed her saddle and blanket, carefully cleaning each before hanging them back up. "You did well," he praised her and brushed her coat. At least he had something familiar to worry about. He heard her sigh sadly, and patted her neck. "I know," he said softly. "I miss her too."

He carefully rode Epona from the ranch to the village proper. Ilia smiled at him, her perfect, warm smile greeting him. Quickly, she made her way to Link and walked alongside him. "Done herding for the day, Link?" Mayor Bo had asked him. Link had nodded in reply."Well, nice work." Link dismounted and walked over to him. "The royal gift Rusl told you about is ready, so you should get ready for your trip to Hyrule Castle. Now the Royal Family requested this gift specifically, so it's real special. It'd be... bad if the representative of Ordon would be late for such an occasion, you get me lad?" Link smiled and nodded. From sleeping in to losing track of time, it seemed as though he was always running late.

He smiled a bit more when he heard Ilia speaking to Epona. Sometimes he thought Ilia loved her more than he did. "The path before you is a long one, my sweet horse... but please bear Link safely along it" Link paused when he heard Ilia make a sound of disapproval, and tensed a bit. "Wait, what's this?" he hesitantly turned to face her. What's happened?" Ilia demanded. "She's injured, isn't she?" Link flinched. He had promised not to work Epona too hard, and he had broken that promise. "Link!" she shouted. "How could you? You were pushing Epona too hard again! I bet you hurt her jumping fences, didn't you?!" He hadn't. She'd gotten injured when he had gone to rescue the children, but she was too quick for him to explain.

"Now now, Ilia, there's no need to get so hot with him," the mayor had come to Link's defense, as he always had.

"Father!" she had shouted back at him. "How can you be so easy on him? You're the mayor! It's time you start acting like one!" She turned back to Epona, concern in her eyes. "You poor thing. It'll be alright, Epona. I'll take you to the forest spring right now. Once we soothe you in the spirit's spring, you'll be better in no time."

Life had been so much simpler then, so much happier. He sighed and led Epona to a stall. He patted her for one last time before returning to his chambers, knowing nothing could be happy or easy or simple ever again.