Chapter: IV
"Darkness and Pain"
Written during the COVID19 Quarantine of 2020
Link quietly made his way out of the throne room, down the corridor, and finally out to the lake's edge. He kept his expression blank and indifferent, but his heart was hammering away inside his chest. Something very strange had just happened between himself and the princess and he had no idea what it was. Not far from the Temple Entrance, a lonely willow tree leaned over the water's edge. When he was certain no one was near, Link leaned against it with his hand, for support, while he tried to control his breathing and steady his pulse. "What did she do to me?!" he wondered as small beads of sweat began to form on his brow.
As he knelt in the throne room, his mind had been focused on forcing his own emotions out and remaining calm; but as Zelda drew closer to him... new feelings began to come over him. He suddenly felt... apprehensive, though he did not know why. There was nothing here that frightened him. He was... worried... worried that Link would not understand. But this did not make any sense to him... he was Link. In his chest, he started to feel a second heartbeat, much lighter and faster than his own. The sensation truly frightened him, and caused his own heart to beat faster. He closed his eyes, and willed his body to obey him. His heartbeat would slow... his breathing would steady... and these strange feeling would leave him... he would not let these things take control. In the darkness, behind his eyelids, a ghostly white figure gently glided toward him. Panic slowly began to rise as Link began to fear that he had lost control of himself. He had to say something... stand up... Alfon needed to know that something was wrong... that he was ill. He nearly rose, when the figure drew closer and became clear to see.
Zelda was standing before Link, in his mind, wearing a soft, white silk dress. Her crown was missing, but her hair was braided and arranged in an elegant form. She was wringing her hands nervously and looking down at him with an anxious face. He felt her anxiety, her fear of him, and at once he wanted to leap up and... and... in that moment he wanted to both strike her, and embrace her. His anger toward her burned red hot against a new desire to comfort and protect her. "Why is she afraid of me? I wouldn't hurt her." he wondered in his confusion. "No... No! She burned the forest... she took my life away from me! She deserves to pay for what she has done!" his own anger burst back. His mind was slowly breaking apart as he fought to understand what feelings were his own, which were Zelda's, and which... came from somewhere else entirely. His stomach clenched with the tension and he nearly became sick, when Zelda's voice echoed to him from some distance: "...Link, I know you're angry..." everything inside him snapped back into silence, "... I'm sorry..."
The rage; An unquenchable fury, flashed in the pit of his stomach and roiled and surged upward towards his lips... "She knows I am angry?!" he thought to himself, "What does she know of my anger?! What right does she have?!" When he did not answer her, the princess slowly knelt down before him, trying to look into his eyes, "Link... speak to me." she whispered. He could not contain it any more... everything she had let happen, everything she commanded he do, everything she had done to him... she was going to pay for it... NOW! Link snapped his head up and looked directly into her eyes. "You're sorry?! You don't get to be sorry!" he snarled menacingly, as he rose to his feet and stepped toward her. Zelda's anxious face turned to complete shock as she stumbled backward away from him. He seemed to grow larger and more threatening with each step. "You sent me on a suicide mission! After the Deku Tree sacrificed himself to protect us! You... sat in your comfortable castle while I crawled through the most terrible dungeons to find your precious stones! I pulled the sword that you told me to pull! I tried, desperately to stop him princess... and what did I get for it?! Navi is dead! The capitol was burned! You let them destroy my home... FOR NOTHING!"
As Link advanced and shouted these words to her, Zelda's mind was now flooded with his feelings & memories. They came so rapidly and with such intensity that she could no longer keep her bearings, and fell backward onto the ground. Link did not seem to notice, and kept walking toward her, eyes blazing. The princess desperately crawled backward away from him, "P-please... Link... I... can't... I... too much..." Images or sensations of loved ones, familiar places, terrible enemies, unbearable pain cascaded through her... he was in agony... they were in agony. Her eyes burned with tears and her voice began to choke; the pain in her head felt like a knife was being driven into her brow. "P-please..." she whimpered to him, but he did not listen. Her pain, her fear, her suffering pleased him. She was going to know her place. She was going to learn what true pain was... very soon.
Though neither of them had noticed it yet, a metallic hum... almost like some kind of musical tone began to hum from the darkness behind the Princess. Link gnashed his teeth, and raised his whip above his head to lash her. This was it... he was going to have his revenge! Zelda's eyes were shut tight as the pain increased tenfold. "Please... Link... You're hurting me!" The musical tone suddenly intensified and rang out across the void. Link's focus was broken and he blinked his eyes. All of his anger... all of his blood thirsty hatred... suddenly dropped away from him. "What... what am I doing...?" he wondered to himself as he looked at the whip in his hands. It slowly melted into smoke and drifted away into the darkness beside him. He looked down at Zelda. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she held her hands out... almost to shield herself from some attack. Seeing her like that he felt... terrible. "Why is she on the ground? Did she fall?" he wondered as he reached for her hand. "SQUIRE!" Impa's voice bellowed through his mind.
Steadily, as Link breathed deep and tried to relax his mind, he was able to calm his frantic heartbeat and bring himself under control. He had heard rumors in the camp that the princess possessed some kind of magical power. Apparently she had even healed Sir Alfon and some other wounded Hylians. "That's it... she's just bewitching me." he thought to himself and shook his head. "It won't work." Link trudged off to his tent and began to gather his gear for a long journey. Though he did his best to focus on the task at hand, the image of Zelda cowering on the ground kept floating into his mind. He should have felt angry, or satisfied to see her like that... cowering and afraid of him. But he only felt regret, pity, and an overwhelming desire to pick her up and brush the tears from her cheek. "What is happening to me?!" he growled angrily as he tightly rolled his spare tunic and several other essential items and tied them within his bedroll.
Once his gear was gathered and ordered, Link returned to the shield the Princess had given him. He lifted it, and moved to strap it across his back when he noticed the scorch marks around its edges. Narrowing his eyes, Link slowly turned the shield over and examined it thoroughly. This shield had been blasted, intensely, with fire... but not the fire of a smith's forge. Whomever used this shield last, was attacked by fire. Examining the shield's reverse, Link ran his fingers over the smith's proofing marks. He recognized them; they were the same crests and symbols of the smith he had purchased his Hylian Shield from before traveling to Death Mountain. He had crouched behind that shield to protect himself from King Dodongo's fiery breath. Link turned the shield to its obverse once more. "She kept it... why did she keep it?" he wondered to himself as his eyes noticed the delicate smudge left by Zelda's lips. A strange sensation rippled up his spine and his heart seemed to skip several beats.
Several minutes later he slowly led Epona toward to the road to Central Hyrule. Fastening the last of his provisions, and tightening his scabbard and shield against his back, he mounted his trusted mare, and left the lake behind. Saluting the guards as they passed through the iron gate, Link turned Epona up the Hylian road and unfocused his eyes; Epona knew these roads so well, he rarely had to guide her. He let himself see her again... sprawled on her back before him, looking up at him in fear. He especially remembered her eyes... a soft light blue, like a gemstone... large... innocent... vulnerable... and filled with fear. Link's stomach clenched as shame washed over him. "You did something... you made her think you were going to hurt her!" his conscience berated him. Link tried hard to remember what had happened... what did he say to her?... why did he say it? He had been angry... but why? He had walked toward her... shouting... why was he shouting at her? He had something in his hand... where did it come from?
Despite his best effort, Link's memory of what he had done remained cloudy and uncertain. All he was certain of, was that he had frightened Zelda... and it made him feel ashamed. "You should not carry so much hate around with you." his conscience warned, "It could hurt her." As the Lake-Gate and its towers receded into the distance, Link made up his mind: He was going to try and push his anger away, and focus on what needed to be done, rather than let it consume him. He never admitted it to anyone, but Link suspected that he had been prepared to harm Zelda... maybe even kill her... and that disturbed him deeply.
