Author's Note:
Hello to all. This is a romantic Link/Zelda fic that I've decided to write.It's a romance/drama/smidgen of comedy. It takes place in the Ocarina of Time setting, after Zelda sent Link back and they grew up to be 18. There personalities are a little unlikable in the beginning but that's only because I wanted to make believable strife between them. There wouldn't be much conflict if they were both wonderfully pleasant and perfect people, now would there? No adult themes or swearing in this story. But since there is some heated passion (i.e. deep kissing and groping) I have decided to remove my "Good for the whole family" bit just encase anyone actually does take me literally and reads this story with their whole family!
It's Love; Now Or Never
By*Jasmine*
Part Four: The Prince
Farore gazed into the rock pool and her brow was creased in confusion. The soft shimmering green hue of her perfect skin radiated in the setting sun, as it cascaded over their Realm in auburn and burnt orange bands of light, and her short emerald hair was tucked behind herears. She knelt by her sister and inquired in perplexity, "Why were they just fighting and now are kissing? It makes no sense at all."
The Goddess of Power was lying on her back on the rise of a close hill, watching the flaming globe fall belowthe hills with her hands behind her head. She was still within earshot however and called to them with a superior tone in her voice, "Because humans make no sense, sister. There is no order to their chaotic and petty lives." The glow of the sky reflected in her scarlet eyes like a twin set of setting suns and her long silky red ponytail laid spread out among the fluttering grass blades.
The beautiful Goddess of Wisdom looked just as shocked as her younger sister and her jaw was agape as she looked down upon the embracing pair of mortals. Her long wavy cerulean strands of hair were now thrown over one shoulder and the pallor of her skin was illuminated with an inner light. "I'm not sure, Far," Nayru replied, ignoring Din's comment. "But getting those two together was not quite as hard as I had imagined it to be."
The Goddess of Courage nodded her small head and beamed up at her wiser sister with an expression of adoring admiration, "Yes, good thinking. I would never have had the notion to make a hot spring appear near their encampment. You're so intelligent, Nay."
Nayru's face only furthered in its contortion of confusion as her slender blue eyebrows arched upwards into twin peaks. "That wasn't any of my doing, sister. I thought you were responsible for that..." the Goddess of Wisdom said with curiosity, to which Farore reflected her look of bewilderment and merely shook her head.
There was silence between them until finally Din sprung up into a sitting position, her hair flicking up like the end of a candle flame, and she exclaimed in humiliate, "Ok, Ok, I admit it was me!"
Two twin faces turned to her like surfaces of harvest moons, surprised and amused eyes shining at her, and Farore questioned, "You placed the hot spring there in the wood, Din?"
The Goddess of Power's usually scornful face was now flush with embarrassment and she cast her eyes away. She nodded solemnly and bit her scarlet lip; caught in an unusual and indignant moment.
"But I thought you did not concern yourself with those mortals, sister," Nayru spoke and she could not halt her lips from rising at the corners into an amused smile, illuminating her pail face.
Din looked at her sister and her original expression of harshness and superiority had already returned, chasing away the crimson blush from her cheeks. She said curtly, "It's still true. I just couldn't stand by and watch you two muddle up those Hylians lives any further... I wouldn't want you getting the impression I actually care about those weak beings or anything though."
Nayru let her smile dance across her face as she replied cheerfully, "Yes of course. But all the same, thank you, Din."
The Goddess of Power pressed her lips together in a pout and then swiftly fell reverse onto her back, with her arms crossed over her chest.
The sapphire haired Goddess of Wisdom turned her gaze downwards once again to the reflective surface of the rock pool and her voice was full of vagueness when she finally said cryptically, "... For some unknown reason though, I don't think this is the last of the Princess's nor the Hero's troubles. We will just have to wait and see..."
~*~
Zelda felt the heat of the sun dappling her face and became aware of two strong arms wrapped gently around her slender waist. She felt the soft breathing of another close by break against her smooth cheek and heard the slight wrestling of tree leaves swaying above in a placid breeze. Gradually and cautiously, as if she was hesitant to wake and find all this a mere dream, the young woman's eyelids flickered open to gaze at a pair of dark sapphire eyes with flecks of ice caught in them starring directly back at her. Calloused, perfect, tan skin and rugged cut lips completed the face that was watching her so intently.
The gust caressed her just below her slip hemline, on her bare thigh, and she was vaguely aware that Link's hand rested there. "How long have you been watching me?" she asked softly and her full, pink mouth was so close to his that she was unsure if at any moment they might end up kissing again.
"I don't know. Maybe a minute… maybe forever?" he replied in a whisper and a soft lopsided grin fell over his face, but it wasn't comical, and a haze was over his eyes, the kind that only resides in the minds of young men in love.
Zelda spoke again after a long, pregnant moment, "Am I a dreadful snore?" She was trying to awaken in him all the things he had only a morning ago hated about her, all the faults in her that he had scorned. Yet it was if she was a perfect angel in his eyes today.
He chuckled, "Yes. But I'd say it was a cute snore," and his hand reached out to push a strand of her flaxen hair behind her pointed ear, brushing against the creamy rise of her cheek with his rough thumb.
The Princess bit back the tear that threatened to fall at his touch and the guilt that rose up in her throat. She had to stop him now; no matter how much it hurt, it was better now then later. Why couldn't he just hate her like before and she have gone on secretly pining for him? It would have made everything so much more simple. "Link, listen, I have to tell you something…" she began and caught his hand in her own small silky one, her crystal eyes looking up into his.
Yet Link ignored her, or rather he wanted to deny what he knew was inevitable, and he said, "Do you know you smile in your sleep?"
Zelda cast her eyes upwards at the sun breaking through the canopy of leaves and sighed, "O it must have been that silly dream I had."
"Silly dream? Well now you must tell me!" the young man chortled and yet gained no laugh from thePrincess.
The young woman rolled her frosty eyes fringed in a dusting of long golden eyelashes and said, "Alright. If you must know… I dreamt you proclaimed your love for me and we got married right here in the forest. All the woodland animals were there to hear our vows and a bullfrog was our cleric. Then you made a house out of sticks and moss and we lived out here and had five children together. See what a fool I can be."
Link met her gaze and he said softly, "That wasn't so silly… Well except for a frog as a priest..."
Zelda's lip trembled as if she was resisting her words and yet she said bluntly, her voice drenched in unshed tears, "Link, this was a mistake."
The Hero of Time's brow creased in surprise and he asked, "What is a mistake?"
"This… This whole thing," she responded. "I should never have let it happen, it's wrong."
Link kept his hands wrapped around her waist as if to hold her and make her stay with him forever. "What shouldn't have happened; our kiss? How can two people, who love eachother, sharing in a kiss be wrong?"
Zelda pulled her gaze away from him, unable to bare the pain in his eyes any longer, and said resolutely, "But we don't love each other. It was just the intensity of the moment and the heat of our argument. I may have just been trying to deny my fate…"
"So I was just a toy then to be used to take your mind off your troubles?" he asked and his voice was harsh and condemning. He pulled his arms away from her and almost immediately again yearned to feel her skin under his fingers. His heart felt heavy in his chest, as if it had been crushed by her words, and his response was to lash out in defense. He sat up and the Princess followed him.
The young woman did not know how to respond and her frosty pail azure eyes glimmered like shards of rain-slick glass. Her unruly flaxen strands of hair had blades of grass weaved within them and it trailed down her back. "Even if we did share love, it would never have worked. I am royalty and we are not allowed to marry someone not of noble birth. My father would disown me and so would my nation. The Fawaee Prince too would probably send out scouts to find us and we'd have to run for all of our lives. You know all this, Link," Zelda said and her voice quivered.
His eyes looked at her and they were narrow with pain and betrayal. "How could I forget? You are a Princess and I could never be more then a common peasant to you," he whispered bitterly. Then he stood up, his still bare chest glimmering in the sun and his golden hair reflecting back the gilded rays of light.
Zelda hugged her knees to her chest with her slender arms, feeling strangely cold without his presence beside her, and said softly, "I'm sorry…" That was all she could say, there was really no words that could explain her actions. Her heart felt weighted with sorrow and a solo tear plummeted down her cheek, making a lonely glistening trail along the map of her skin.
He looked at her and wanted to hold her, kiss her. But he couldn't, their night together was gone and now all that was left was bleak reality. "I'm sorry too. For ever thinking you could love me," he replied and he tried desperately to hide the trembling in his voice as he turned and walked out of the clearing, holding his broken heart in his palms.
The beautifully sorrowful young woman sat alone and placed her head on her knees as the tear fell. Why, if this was what she wanted, did it suddenly feel so wrong?
~*~
They traveled in silence across the endless tundra of long, swaying grass. Epona snorted as the green blades licked at her trotting limbs and Zelda sat motionless behind Link, her face stone and her thoughts seeming to be miles away. They'd cleared Lost Man's Wood around late morning and were now trooping across the Fawaee grassland, which seemed to be an endless emerald sea. The Hero of Time kept them at a quick pace; the sooner they reached the Castle and he was able to go on his way, the better for the both of them. His spirit was still mournful over the rejection he had suffered earlier.
It was far into the afternoon when finally Fawaee Castle could be seen just emerging beyond a rolling hill, its white washed sandstone gleaming in the hot evening sunlight. It was quite large, even more massive in size then Hyrule Castle, and its many spires jutted into the horizon. Yet even as beautiful as the palace appeared, there was a lurching in Zelda's stomach at the sight of her future home. The horse gained an extra spurt of speed in her step and soon they were nearing the castle. The colorful stained glass windows dotted the walls like fireflies in a night sky and a velvet royal blue banner flew from the top-most turret.
A man surrounded by a legion of guards, all dressed in shiny etched armor, stood out on the drawbridge. His brown hair was neatly combed to his head and his body was thin and pail, almost as slender as Zelda herself. His face was long and drawn-out but clean-shaven and handsome as well and his eyes were a rich amber hue. He had a broad smile on his lips and he wore the most expensive of fabrics over his lanky frame. "Hello and welcome to my kingdom of Fawaee. It's been ages since I saw you last, Princess Zelda," the Prince said and his voice was loud and held a tinge of arrogance.
He approached her, ignoring Link entirely, and took her small smooth hand in his. Bringing it to his lips, he kissed her warm skin and said, his eyes regarding her like a prized trophy, "It seems as if you gained more beauty for each year we were apart. You were certainly worth every rupee spent on your dowry, milady." Then he helped her dismount the horse gently as if she would break.
A faint flush spread across the young woman's cheeks as she replied, "Thank you." Then recovering her thoughts, she said, "How rude of me, I've forgotten my manners. Prince Gaelith, this is Link, our Hero of Time."
The Prince of Fawaee looked down his long pointed nose at Link and sneered smugly, "O, so your Hyrule has a hero? How utterly quaint. Do you live your life fighting off the big bad monsters and such?"
The young blond man snorted defiantly, "Partly," and couldn't hide the distaste that glared in his blue orbs.
Zelda chimed in, coming to Link's defense, "He has saved Hyrule many a time. Actually, I would not have made it to Fawaee without him."
Gaelith's raven eyebrows creased into twin peaks as he inquired, "O how so?"
"We were traveling through Lost Man's Wood yesterday when a band of these shadow things attacked us and killed off all my guards. The only reason I'm standing before you is because Link rescued me from death," she said matter-of-factly and liked the way the smirk on the Prince's face melted away.
The black haired royal sighed, "You had a run in with one of Fawaee's greatest nuisances I'm afraid.Those creatures are called the Lost Men and they inhabit the wood, protecting it from harm. I have done some research and I have come to the conclusion that they are closely related to your Sheikahs, perhaps a similar race. Anyway, when I was having a section of the wood deforested they turned to looting and raiding travelers in protest. The fact that I've sent in some soldiers to remedy the situation has only made things worse and frankly, I am at the end of my rope with them. I may be forced to just eradicate them entirely."
"Why were you cutting down the trees?" Zelda asked curiously.
Gaelith replied in self-absorbed sorrow, "I was planning on building a summer home there… But now those silly Lost Men have ruined my plans."
The Princess blanched at the idea. She had always been taught that all natural resources were precious and a vital lifeline for a kingdom. No reason, especially one so foolish, could justify vandalizing a beautiful forest. Zelda forced herself to hold her tongue and merely nodded her head.
The Fawaee Prince turned to the Hero then with a wide smile and trumpeted, "A reward is in order I think, for saving my treasured Zelda! What is it you would like, Link? Anything can be yours; beautiful women or riches, just say the word."
Link shook his head and said, "No, I was merely doing my job."
"You heroes are all alike, too courageous for your own good," Gaelith sighed and then said, "Well at least stay a few more days for our celebration in honor of Princess Zelda's arrival. That is the least I can offer."
The young man had wanted to leave as soon as possible and break away from his denied love, that would make everything more easy on his already shattered heart. He didn't say anything in response as he looked down at Epona and contemplated his answer.
Gaelith chortled snidely, "O come now, you can certainly wait a few days to travel home and slay a mutant slug. Guards, take his horse for him."
And so it was decided for him. Link dismounted and Epona was lead away by a soldier to the royal stables.Then Zelda and Link followed Gaelith down a brick path and into the Castle, listening the whole way as the Prince went on and on about his many riches.
~*~
Closing Notes:
Already at Part Four! Wow, I just can't stop writing! This chapter is short, however there is much, much more to come. So far things like bleak for the Princess and her Hero, will they discover their love before its too late and Zelda is wed to the Prince? You'll just have to wait until next time to find out! Muw ha ha! I love being evil! ^_^
