Chapter Ten – working honeymoon
Morning dawned brightly in Lurelin, but there were heavy storm clouds on the horizon. Link and I awakened slowly, with touches, hugs, and kisses, fanning the embers of last night within our bodies to a low, lusty flame. Link pulled me on top of him and we made love again, kissing and nuzzling within the curtain of my tangled hair. Afterwards, we enjoyed a light, refreshing breakfast of fruit and water, eschewing the mead for now. I had peeled a mighty banana and was eating it absently, holding the peel in my hand, still not fully awake, when I became aware of Link staring at me with that hungry look in his eyes again. I stopped mid-bite, a question in my eyes, and suddenly Link lunged forward and bit off the other end of the banana that protruded from the back end of my hand.
"I just had–" he said heatedly, speaking through a mouthful of banana, "the most amazing idea…"
Mystified and more than a little trepidatious, I asked what this idea was. He swallowed his bite of banana.
"You know how I love food," he started, and I nodded in agreement. "And I adore tasting you, too," he continued, grinning wickedly. I blushed as he continued. "Frankly, I'm surprised I haven't already thought of this in the last few weeks. But I couldn't help thinking as I watched you putting that banana into your mouth… what could be better than combining the two best things in life into one literally DELICIOUS experience?" He licked his lips, already salivating over his idea.
"Ummm, just what do you have in mind?"
"Well, for starters…" Link picked a wildberry out of a bowl and smashed it in his fingers, then knee-walked close in front of me and spread the juice across my lips. He licked it off, slowly and deliberately. His tongue on my lips lit a fire in my belly. He smeared the crushed fruit on each of my nipples, then sucked it off, finally popping the remains of the berry into his mouth and chewing with a mischievous smile.
I smiled back, catching on. "I think we could come to an arrangement," I told him, taking note of the obvious fact that he already had a raging erection. This man was insatiable! I chose a plump voltfruit, dug my nails into it to tear it in half, then caught his member between the two halves, pressing the tender, gelatinous fruit firmly against him as I moved up and down his shaft. He groaned in ecstasy. I bent down and sucked as much of him as I could into my mouth, savoring the combination of flavors: voltfruit and Link. Link's fingers twined into my hair and he held my head as I slowly sucked backwards, flicking my tongue back and forth until I got back to the head, where I swirled my tongue round and round, poking gently into the opening at the tip. He sucked in a long breath between his teeth and released it with a growl, flipping me quickly but gently onto my back then reaching for the fruit bowl to seek out the next delicacy.
I am rather embarrassed to share the rest of our escapades, as some were shockingly indecent, but I am not truly sorry to report that we were both sticky messes after a while, and the wash basins the villagers had thoughtfully placed in a corner of our tent were not going to suffice. Link poked his head out of the tent to see how many people were up and about.
Of course, this being a fishing town, all the village men had already headed out to sea. The women were busily cleaning up the remains of the feast. Many of our guests were either already gone or still sleeping off the night's drink and festivities; some were either helping to clean up or searching for leftover fruit or bread for their breakfasts. Everyone seemed duly occupied, but just to be safe, we crept out crouching in blankets, clutching the soaps from the wash table, giggling quietly, keeping ourselves covered until we were right at the waterfall, then dropped our blankets on the wooden walkway and slipped into the cool water. I thanked Hylia this was a much warmer clime than Kakariko – I did not favor the idea of ever bathing in such cold water again!
We bathed as quickly and discreetly as possible, keeping our eyes peeled for anyone who might come this way, but everyone stayed clear, continuing to give us newlyweds our privacy. Once we were clean, Link reset the travel token right inside our tent, threw on his uniform trousers and undershirt, and made a quick foray back home to retrieve a few days' worth of fresh clothing for us. When he returned, he helped me comb out and brush my long hair, which was horribly tangled after our escapades both last night and this morning. Riju had given me a jeweled hairbrush and comb set as a wedding gift – she knew that all my former luxuries had been lost when the castle was destroyed, and wanted to give me something both nostalgic and useful.
I was quite tender between my legs, but it was a pain I was glad to have. It meant that I was fully a woman and I had given my beloved much pleasure. Of course, I had certainly enjoyed my share, as well!
Dressed in our everyday clothes once again, Link and I saw off the guests with hugs and kisses and promises to get together again soon. Thanks to the Sheikah Slate, these promises would be much easier to keep! The fishermen's wives insisted on laundering our wedding clothes and the blankets we'd spilled mead on, and they replenished all the fruit, water, and mead we'd consumed, inviting us to visit their homes for warm fare such as meat and rice dishes, all cooked fresh. I enjoyed visiting them in their simple wooden huts, watching their children play while they cooked. They regaled us with stories of everything from sea monsters and giant storms to fishing contests and the ancient ruins down the coast. They praised Link for helping Garini solve the mystery of the ruins, for eliminating the huge camp of monsters at Aris Beach, and for dispelling the mysterious voices that had once been heard by sailors who ventured near Eventide Island.
We stayed two weeks in Lurelin, continuing to spend our nights in our private tent by the waterfall. We spent our time sunbathing on the beach, rafting out to Eventide Island, and exploring the surrounding area. We snuggled and ate fruit with a blanket wrapped around both of us as we watched the breathtaking sunrises, and leaned languidly against each other during the sultry, florid sunsets. We ate our fill of seafood dishes at the lovely little inn. I thought I would never tire of the sweet firm meat of the razorclaw crabs that were abundant in the area, or the delicious palm fruit curry seasoned with imported Goron spice. I had never really spent much time in Faron before the Calamity, and I was thoroughly enjoying it, even the frequent rainstorms. My only forays there had been to the Spring of Courage for hours of useless prayer.
I thanked Hylia that those wretched days of feeling impotent and useless were over. She had finally shown me that love was the key that unlocked my power. Now I could summon it at will, though I kept it to myself in private moments, just testing to make sure it was still there and I could still do it. I even tried thinking of other people I loved, and people I didn't even know well but loved simply for being a Hylian under my protection. It worked no matter who I thought of, as long as I could feel love and protectiveness toward them. But it worked best when Link was my focus. My hero: over the ages we had been brought together repeatedly to vanquish evil, and our souls were bound.
Speaking of vanquishing evil, we couldn't just spend ALL our time enjoying ourselves on this lovely little vacation. We scouted areas to build more lighthouses and discussed whether we should even worry about any possibility of invasion by other kingdoms. After all, Hyrule had been decimated and vulnerable for a century and no one had disturbed us in all that time. We speculated about why that might be. It was possible that there WERE no other kingdoms outside of Hyrule, that the lands we could see from our borders were devoid of human life. If there WERE other kingdoms, then either they didn't know about us, didn't really care about us, or we were somehow completely invisible to them. The last possibility seemed far-fetched until we considered how much magic permeated our beloved kingdom.
In the end, we decided that, while it was a wise idea to build a new army and train them to be prepared for any possibility, our time and resources would be best used in exploration, as we had already discussed. To begin rebuilding our army, we needed a recruiter, and we needed new weapons, armor, and uniforms to be crafted. Link and a few select Sheikahs could be combat trainers, and in turn they could take the best recruits and train them to become the next generation of combat instructors.
We needed Castle Town rebuilt, so that once again we could have a central base of operations that was within reasonable traveling distance for everyone in Hyrule. I planned to ask Bolson for his services, but I suspected I might have to do some special negotiation due to his unorthodox business practices. We needed workers, too: stonemasons, carpenters, glaziers, et cetera. We had limited funds with which to pay anyone, but we were hopeful that the barter system would be successful, at least temporarily. In return for a day of work building new houses and shops in Castle Town, we might provide milk, goat butter, and Hylian rice so they could feed their families. Whatever we decided upon, we would need to draw up written contracts to make sure everyone was treated equitably.
We needed someone to make announcements and spread the word for us whenever we had need of support in our endeavors; Link suggested Traysi, since her Rumor Mills had been so widespread amongst the stables and had even appeared in Enchanted in Kakariko Village! She was a go-getter, and she knew how to spread information like wildfire – an obvious choice. Other than our wedding, Link had last seen her in Gerudo territory. He didn't know where her home base was or if she had one, but he himself could put the word out for anyone seeing her to send her to Hateno regarding a business proposition.
We needed intrepid explorers, preferably from Rito Village, who were able to travel by air to scout out what lay beyond to our north and northwest. We needed brave Gerudo warriors to find out what, if anything, lay to the west and south of the desert – surely it couldn't go on forever, could it? We also needed a few courageous sailors to cross the seas to our southeast and south. Lurelin was our only town capable of sailing, but there weren't enough people there to send any to sea. Perhaps we could encourage other Hylians or even Zora to go there to learn the art of sailing, so that we would still have fishermen to provide seafood for both Hyrule and their own families.
Link was a bit exasperated with me for being so impatient to start enacting plans. After the first few days, he actually set a curfew for me to at least stop talking about my plans at dinner time, even if I continued to think about them. He wanted me to enjoy a leisurely meal and watch the sun set with him before retiring to our wedding tent, where he wanted us to give each other our undivided attention. I couldn't deny him this; he was right, after all. I tended to get overzealous and would forget to relax and just BE, if someone didn't remind me.
We spent the rest of our honeymoon traveling to Gerudo, Zora's Domain, Rito Village, and – briefly – Goron City. Our gracious hosts gave us the best places to stay, the best food to eat, and showed us the most beautiful parts of their respective domains. We discussed my ideas and they contributed further suggestions, including prospective candidates for the exploration. I was feeling greatly encouraged, especially when we returned home to Hateno and found a note from Traysi tacked to our front door.
"Waiting at the Ton Pu Inn. Hope you had a memorable honeymoon. Look for me when you get back."