-Link

I couldn't let her go. If I did, she'd leave me. If I didn't put her down, she couldn't leave me.

As I held her tightly against the wall, I tried to convince myself to think again. We had to get back before anyone came looking for us. I had to go back to Mary. She must be uncomfortable by herself with the King. I had to let Zelda down. I was most likely ruining her dress.

I let her slide down so her feet were touching the floor, but I had yet to release her. It wasn't until she made a noise that my grip on her lessened. I wasn't sure if she had said anything or if it was just a noise to get me to move. I finally stepped away, my whole body shaking. Neither of us spoke. We looked away from each other awkwardly as we tried to fix our clothes. I bent down to pick up her underwear and wordlessly handed it to her. She stuffed it somewhere deep inside her dress. I watched her wipe under her eyes were her makeup has smeared from her crying and then pat her hair back into place. My fingers were wet from her. I wiped them on my pants.

She gave a deep sigh before saying, "Okay." I opened the closet door as we proceeded to act like none of that had happened. Zelda was always good at that. She was so good at pretending that she wasn't in love with me. All I could do was follow suit.

"Annabell!" Her voice was slightly hoarse. The maid poked her head out into the hall. "It seems I've had too much to drink. I need to return to the restroom." I watched her leave.

I saw Mary eyeing me from where she sat at the table. My heart started to pound in my chest. "Actually, I need to go too. To the restroom."

"Alright, sir Link, Elfons will escort you!" The King replied. I really didn't need an escort, but I was too dazed to argue. I followed the escort, keeping a good distance away, afraid that everyone could smell it on me.

In the bathroom, I washed myself up as best as I could, but I couldn't get rid of the feeling of being dirty. I gave up and returned to the table.

I was no longer sitting up against Mary like I had been. It didn't seem like she noticed all that much. She was actually having a great time taking with the King. Zelda was pretty much silent now. She was just sitting there, tracing the rim of her wine glass with her fingers. She wouldn't look at me, but I couldn't keep my eyes off of her.

Every once in a while, the King or even Mary would say something, and she would smile at them and say, "Oh, yes."

Mary leaned over to my ear. I stiffened. "I don't know what you said to her," Mary whispered. "But she's much more pleasant now!"

I swallowed. "Yea."

When dinner was finally over, we said our goodbyes. Zelda only looked at Mary when she bid us away. I didn't exist for her at the moment.

I wondered how she did that, so easily turning her feelings off. I admired her for it really. I wish I could do that.

Eventually she always forgot me.

I was no stranger to being forgotten. When you loose your usefulness, people tend to forget about you. It was alright really. I was used to it.

I spent the entire next day in the archery shop with people who would eventually forget me. The owner loved me because I always brought in a huge crowd. They gathered around me and always made a lot of noise. They especially loved it when the target was something that shattered after I shot it.

To make things more interesting, the townspeople made it a game whenever you miss, you have to take a drink. Except, I never missed, so they made me drink whenever I hit the darn thing. There had been bets on how drunk I had to be to finally miss the target. It hadn't happened yet so they were all just loosing their money.

Though they might have had a little bit of an advantage today. I was sorta already drunk before I got there.

I hadn't slept much the night before. After taking Mary home, I took Epona for a long ride until I fell asleep in the saddle. She was such a good horse. All night she had my ass on her back, but she didn't let me fall.

I pulled back on the string of my bow as far as my tired arms would go. The strain of it was slightly comforting. Maybe because it was the only thing that I seemed to be able to feel at the moment and I needed a reminder that I still existed. If I didn't exist anymore, I wouldn't have responsibilities. And if I thought I didn't have responsibilities I was going to do something stupid.

The crowd went berserk after I finished a level. "How many are there..." I tried to ask, but had to start again. "How many are there now?" I asked some kid beside me.

"Fifteen!"

I was seeing thirty so that meant I still only had double vision. When I started seeing triple I'd have to remember to change my tactic. Now I just had to aim between the two of them.

"Yo, Link!" someone had called my name, but I didn't know or care who. I released my arrow just as one of the ceramic pots moved quickly in front of my vision. Someone put their arm around my shoulder and I gave them a quick look before turning my attention back to the next ceramic pot. "Mary told me I'd find you here."

The heavy sick feeling that I was able to compress suddenly came back to me.

Shit. Mary. Real life.

"I should... I should probably go see her today. Haven't seen her today."

"I don't think that's such a good idea considering your current state." My vision cleared a little to make out who it was. It was Lance, the Queen's number one bodyguard when I wasn't around. Zelda never liked Lance. He seemed lazy, rude and liked to give her a hard time. I always liked him.

It didn't seem like it, but Lance could be super deadly. He would sit in the corners and watch everything when you thought he was dozing off, but once he saw danger, they were dead after only a moment. He had saved the Queen's life from assassination attempts before, and I was always thankful that he was there for her when I wasn't around.

There were wall to wall people in here, shoulder against shoulder and I didn't know how he was able to get through them all to get to me. "Why aren't you with the Queen?" Unless of course, maybe I was hallucinating and he wasn't even there to begin with.

"She told me to get my ass out of her sight. Don't worry though, she's in good hands."

I shot three more pots.

"You drink too much."

"What?" I shot another pot.

"Just said you drink too much. Don't worry. You don't drink as much as her Majesty. No one in the world drinks as much as her."

I eyed him, wondering where he was going with this. I was able to make another shot without looking.

"Speaking of drinking," he started brightly, "last night was a big night for her. Loads of wine. We had a lot of fun, her and I."

I backed from the game with a loaded bow as I turned to face Lance, not liking his tone.

"Don't worry. It's not what you're thinking."

He would be dead so easily. Yea, Lance had some fighting skills but we both knew who would win if this turned into a fight. Lance would be nailed to the floor.

"I'm just saying we talked a lot. You know how she is when she talks?"

I swayed a little as I raised the bow for the next target. Lance backed up. I think he thought I was going to miss.

I don't miss.

"I know, Link," he said then, dead serious.

Now it made sense why Lance was here. Zelda had told him. Maybe she had told him by accident. She was drinking a lot. Or maybe she told him on purpose to make sure she got rid of me. She was so drunk during that dinner and I took advantage of her in a broom closet.

I cheated on my fiance and took advantage of the Queen in a broom closet.

I hit my next two targets. "You come here to kill me?"

"Well... execution wasn't part of my orders... but maybe I can fit you into my schedule."

I laughed dryly. "I'm free now."

"Look Link. I actually need to talk to you."

I knew what he was going to say. I was banned from the castle now. Zelda was cutting off contact like she always eventually did. That was fine with me. I didn't want to see her face again anyway.

I hit the last target, and the kid who had been retrieving my arrows couldn't pull the last one out from where it had struck the wood. I had shot that one a little too hard.

"Okay, buddy, it's time to leave." Lance put both hands on my shoulders and turned toward the door. "I have to borrow the Hero right now. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Everybody say goodbye." Everyone booed, but we were somehow able to leave.

Lance sat me down on a bench outside. I was sort of hoping my head would feel better when we left the loud building, but without the extra noise, the pounding in my head seemed to be even louder. Lance was staring at me with his arms crossed. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

The world around me seemed to be moving too much and my head was going to cave in. "Fuck..."

"Yea, that's along the same lines of what Zelda said, but once I was able to wrestle the wine bottle away from her, she was quiet as a mouse. In fact, all day today she's been quiet and pleasant. She's so much more easier to deal with!"

I grunted.

"I really should be thanking you. This is probably the best thing that's ever happened to her. If you make it a regular occurrence, I'm sure her personalty will be way better from now on."

I glared up at Lance. "A regular occurrence? Are you aware on the fact that I'm about to get married?!"

Lance shrugged his shoulder. "So what? You really think that this doesn't happen all the time? And you don't understand what she's like when you're not around. I have to be with her all the time! You only have to deal with her on occasion. It's especially bad right before and after your visits." He started to imitate Zelda's voice "That bastard coming up here after two whole months! What could he have been doing for two months! It doesn't take that long for his mission. He probably screwed up somewhere and got hurt, because he's such a dumb ass. Why do I always have to deal with dumb asses! The maid missed a spot! I'll just clean the whole castle myself!"

I sighed. "You know, she didn't always used to be like that."

Lance looked at me like I just grew an extra head.

"She used to be kind of care free before," I start remembering another time in another place. Zelda laughing mischievously as she hid from her parents to come out and play with me. Her eyes would glow as she put a finger to her mouth, signaling me to be quiet.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure she's had that stick up her ass since she was born. And then you took it out in the broom closet."

I break from my memory. "She's the Queen! This isn't a good thing. I screwed up the balance of the Triforce, and now the world is going be fucked up. I'm fucking the world!" It turned out I was starting to shout and Lance placed two fingers on my head.

"Shh, you're drawing a crowd."

I shut up as I tried to focus on the two fingers I couldn't see.

"You're talking crazy stuffs because you drank too much. The world isn't going to end. Everything is fine."

Lance just didn't understand.

"I think what we really should be doing is calming down. We don't need you keeling over because of liver failure."

I took a breath. "Did... Did Zelda say anything...?"

"Oh, she said a lot of things."

I glared at him. "I mean, did she say anything... about what's going to happen now."

Lance looked up as he tried to think. "I don't think so... It was mostly about how much of a whoring skank she was and how she has no decency left."

"Who else knows?"

"No one else. I made sure to keep her locked up in her room for a good while until she calmed down."

"I can't go back there."

Lance waved his hands. "So you guys had a little accident, no big deal. No harm done. If she gets pregnant, we'll just blame it on the King and everyone lives happily ever after."

I groaned and put my head between my knees as I tried to keep from throwing up.

"Really. She doesn't blame you for anything. I don't blame you! I'm surprised it took so long."

"If you don't stop talking... I'm going to kill you," I grumbled. He did stop talking. Instead he grabbed my shirt and pulled me off the bench. He lead me to Epona, where I had left her at an odd place because I was drunk, and somehow was able to get me on her back. Then he led me to Mary's wagon outside of town. I threw up a couple times on the way there, but it helped clear my head a little.

"Found him," I heard Lance tell to Mary.

She looked up at me. "What the hell happened to you?"

I'm terrible at lying and after a moment of trying to think of what to say, I decided to just say the truth. "I'm drunk," and then I fell off my horse.