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            "I'm going to the market today," Elia announced.  "What would you like me to buy?"

            "I don't care.  Everything you make tastes good."

            "That doesn't help."

            "Sorry."  He could do little to hide the grin on his face.

            She sat down at his side.  "How are you feeling?"

            "Better.  I think I should be able to sit up soon."  He chuckled at himself.  "Isn't that great?"

            "It is," she said firmly, ignoring his joking manner.

            Link nodded.  He looked out the window at the blue-gray sky with eyes a much clearer shade.  "It's going to snow soon."

            "Indeed.  You can hardly it's six o'clock!"  Elia adjusted the sheets over him.  "Are you cold?  I'm afraid we put you in the wrong room; this one is on the edge of the house.  When you feel well enough to move around, you can go to my parents' room.  There's a bigger bed there, and it's on the innermost part of the house, the only room completely within the rock."

            "Speaking of your parents…"

            "Yes?"

            "I just wondered where they were."

            "I wonder too."

            He saw her eyes glistening.  "I'm sorry, Elia.  I didn't mean to be rude.  If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."

            Elia shook her head.  "They aren't dead or anything.  My family is all alive, as far as I know."  She sighed.  "My sister married and moved to the castle town.  My father went on an unexpected trip, I assume to avoid seeing his wife any longer.  And my mother…" She thought of the man who had tried to assume her father's place.  Grimacing, she told Link, "My mother ran off with some awful man and I don't expect to see her again.  The only one I might see again is my sister."

            "I'm sorry," was all Link could say.  He looked at her thoughtfully.  "You are a strong girl to keep going on like you have."

            "Don't treat me like it's such a big deal, like I'm little child who needs to be praised for taking a few steps," she snapped.  Seeing his surprised expression, Elia softened.  "I'm sorry, it's just that…  What else could I do?  Just give up and starve?"

            "There are many other paths you could have chosen.  All less noble than the one you have."  His voice was distant, his tone deep and considerate.

            "What about you?" Elia asked, trying to change the subject.  "Your family?"

            "Family," he mused, flexing his fingers.  "I never had any, not really.  I doubt I ever will."

            "That's awful!" Elia said.  "Whatever do you mean?"  She thought perhaps he'd disowned his parents or something horrendous like that.  After all, everyone had parents, right?

            "I was raised a Kokiri.  I thought I was one of them, an offspring of the Great Deku Tree…but I never belonged there.  All the kids hated me.  They thought I was one of them, almost.  But I didn't have a fairy at my side, and that made them hate me.  Who knows why?"

            "Didn't you have at least one friend?"

            "Yeah, one.  A girl.  Saria."  He smiled, remembering.  "But I found out later that my mother had died, saving me.  My father probably was dead before that.  I met plenty of people on my journeys," he said, a bit more lightly.  Then his voice dropped again.  "Of course, though, they all left me.  Saria was the Forest Sage--plus she, like all the other Kokiri, never grew up.  I came back after seven years, a stranger to all of them.  They didn't have a clue who I was."

            "You can't blame them, can you?"

            "I guess I can't.  Everyone has reasons.  But…you can't fathom what it's like, to be a boy one minute and a man the next.  You come back and everyone's forgotten you.  No one knows who you are, where you've been, and why you've been there.  And then these are the people you have to save.  You're the only hope of such a cruel world."

            "So you had Saria and no one else?  What about Princess Zelda, the one you were destined to save?" Elia asked, looking at him with curious brown eyes.

            "I was destined to save Princess Zelda, and I did so.  I always thought I loved her, but I hardly knew her.  And she threw me back and forth through time like a tool…  When I saved Hyrule, at last, she sent me back to live a 'normal life'."

            "And did you?"

            "Of course not!  What kind of normalcy can be attained when you're an alien in your own village?  When you've experienced being a man for months, and suddenly you're just a boy again?  I could never be normal.  And everyone expected me to be happy with it."

            Elia wasn't sure she wanted to hear more.  Finally, she gulped and asked, "What did happen to you when you went back?"

            "It was very weird," Link started, looking up at the ceiling.  "See, when Zelda sent me back, she created a paradox.  Suddenly, where there was once one world, there were now two.  And they were so closely related that they often overlapped.  At least for me," he added, noticing that this was the first Elia had heard of this.  "I somehow crossed between the two dimensions, again and again.  A few times during the seven years I escaped to other worlds, but I only had to save them too.  And be abandoned…"

            "Surely you had some good friends," Elia said, feeling an overwhelming sadness mounting in her heart.  She wanted to reach out and throw her arms around him.  She wanted to cry and scream out that she was sorry for his past.  She wanted to make it all better.

            "Friends, eh?"  He smirked.  "I suppose I found a precious few, but I had to leave them all.  Or they left me.  It always works that way, you know?"

            "It doesn't have to," Elia insisted, her voice firm.  She put more force into her words than she meant to, and she conjured a look of surprise from her companion.

            "You are so innocent, Elia," Link said.  This time he was the one to shake his head, knowingly.  "Perhaps friendship and love work for everyone else, but my life has been so damn screwed over that there is no way for me to attain those things."

            "How can you say that?" she growled, angrily.

            "What?"  Again he was shocked by her, watching her stand up to glare down at him.

            "How can you know that you won't find happiness?  Maybe you just haven't looked hard enough!"

            "Elia, I think I know about my own life," Link said quietly.

            "Maybe you don't!" she cried accusingly.

            "Elia, you have gone through tough times too.  You know what it's like…"

            "I haven't given up on happiness…I can't!  Don't you see?  You shall always bear those scars, Link, and you know why?  Because you lived.  You are strong and you keep going on.  If you didn't want happiness, you wouldn't keep living.  You would let yourself die.  But you didn't!"

            "You are sputtering nonsense!"

            Elia shut her mouth.  His voice had been incredibly loud, shaking the whole house.  Link had yelled at her--no, screamed at her.  She hurried for the door.

            "No, Elia--!"  He reached out after her with a weak hand, but it was quite futile.  The door slammed shut behind her.

            Elia ran and ran.  She went to the windmill and climbed up into the secret door, not caring if anyone saw her this time or not.  It was freezing cold and all she had on was a plain yellow dress, but she cared little.  She curled up in a ball and cried.

            That idiot!  Didn't he know how she felt?  Didn't he know that she wanted to take care of him?  Didn't he know…?

            The tears streamed down her face and she struggled to wipe them away.  Link had been mistaken.  She was not strong at all.

            "Elia?"

            Link was awakened by the sound of an unfamiliar voice at the door.  "Come in!" he called tiredly.

            "Excuse me?"  The voice was very deep.  Link wasn't sure if it was a man or woman.  He thought of the man that had attacked Elia and tensed, but when a burly woman with already graying hair walked by the door, he was relieved.  It must be Dain, Elia's boss.

            "Ah, are you the hero?" Dain asked, seeing the man on the bed.

            "I suppose.  I'm Link, nice to meet you."  Link struggled to lift up his arm and he shook her hand, surprised at the strength of her grasp.  Even had he been in his best health, he would not have liked to be on the wrong side of the woman in a fight.

            "Do you know where Elia is?" Dain said.  She didn't look tough today.  She looked worried.

            Again, Link tensed.

            "I see you don't."  The woman fidgeted, wringing out her big calloused hands.  "You don't have a clue?"

            "We sort of had a fight," Link explained, helplessly.  "She ran off."

            "Ach, Goddesses!"

            "She was supposed to go to the market this morning…could that be it?"

            Dain shook her head.  "She is never late for work unless she has a good reason.  Also, I walked through the market on my way here so that couldn't be it."  She looked down at him with her hazel eyes, worried.  Her gray brows were knitted together and wrinkles adorned her powerful face.  "I…I thought there might be something with you."

            Link scoffed.  "I doubt she would stay for me."

            "Then you are ignorant--incredibly so," Dain scolded.  "You can't tell me you don't know how much Elia cares for you!"

            "Then why did she rave on about happiness this morning…?  Why did she scream nonsense to me about living and happiness?"

            "Because she cares," Dain said, as if it were obvious.

            And it was obvious.  Link sighed.  "All right, I'm an idiot."

            "You're not an idiot, Link," said Dain, a bit more softly.  She didn't exactly want to challenge the Hero of Time, for the issue of respect and gratitude if nothing else.  He might be lying in bed and not able to get up, but he was still her savior.

            "I know I am.  A blind idiot."

            "No!"

            "Let's not argue that now," Link said finally.  "We have to find her.  And don't you have to get back to the tavern?"

            "Screw the tavern.  I'll go ask some people about her--"

            "Excuse me!"  There was a knock at the door.  Then another one, a bit louder.  "Is anyone home?"

            "That sounds like one of the guards…" Dain mumbled, heading for the door.

            A few minutes later, following a hurried, muffled conversation (it was muffled to Link since Dain had absentmindedly closed the door behind her), Dain came in, with a drenched Elia leaning heavily against her.

            "What happened?" Link asked, sitting up quickly without thinking about it.  He winced.

            A look of concern flashed in Elia's big brown eyes, but soon her expression turned to fierce determination again.

            "Honey, what happened?" Dain prodded, trying to get Elia to sit down in the chair by the bed.

            Elia refused.  Her little mouth was a thin line, her eyes staring straight ahead at something only she could see.  The only thing that gave away her humanness--and that she wasn't a statue--was a slight chattering of teeth and her body shaking with the dampness.

            "Can't you talk?" Link asked, staring at her intently.  "The silent treatment is something for children, you know."

            Elia opened her mouth and was about to say something, but she shut it quickly again and folded her arms.  She moved her gaze to the floor.

            Dain's toughness had left her completely.  Motherly, she knelt down and tried to meet Elia's eyes.  "Honey, you need a nice warm bath I think."

            With a few moments of hesitation, Elia nodded.

            "I'll go and heat up some water."  Dain got up and left.

            "Stop acting like a kid, Elia.  What happened?" demanded Link.

            Elia blinked away tears.  She was thankful of her mass of wet hair that concealed her moist eyes.  He was yelling at her again.  How could he be so mean?

            "I give up.  Goddesses, I only want to help."

            Yeah, right, Elia thought, rebellious.

            "Did you say something?"

            Silence.

            "I guess not.  Funny, I could have sworn you made some smart-ass comment to me, like you usually do.  Just my imagination I guess."  He grinned.

            Now she was really crying.  Ugh, why did she let that jerk treat her like this?

            Dain came in.  "The bath's almost ready, dearie.  I'll help you, and then make some herbal tea.  I'm no witch, but I've had my fair share of experiences with healing herbs."

            Elia reluctantly stood and followed the older woman out the door, not daring a glance back at Link.

            Link listened as closely as he could.

            "Dearie, you won't even talk to me?" Dain was saying.  There was a pause, and then she said, "You have been crying!  Please, Elia, tell me what's the matter!  Please?"

            Link couldn't hear anymore, and he didn't know if he wanted to.  What was the big deal, anyway?  Had someone hurt her…?

            All Link could do was wait, and wait he did.  He figured it had to be about midnight when Dain came in, looking terribly saddened.  She was bearing a small candle that was about one fourth of its original height, and fading fast.  She took no notice of this, however, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

            "She finally is asleep," Dain announced in a soft whisper.  Her harsh voice sounded funny in such a light tone.

            "Did she ever talk?" Link wanted to know.

            Dain gave him a solemn nod.  "She's just very confused, I think.  Ah, she went on, babbling things I couldn't understand for a while.  It was mostly about you yelling at her--"

            "She yelled at me too!" Link protested.

            Dain put a thick finger to her lips.  "Shh, she's just a child, sir."

            "Link."

            "Link, then.  She is still a child."  Dain sighed.

            "I know."  He looked at his hands.  "I think I was so upset because--"

            "Shh," Dain said again.  She stood.  "Don't tell me, tell her.  Tomorrow.  I have to go now."

            "Good night," Link said, politely.

            "She really cares for you, you know," Dain whispered, slipping out of the room.

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