Told you I write slowly^_^. ~Animal Cracker

*Note: Zora's Domain melted, because I just couldn't get why it didn't in the game.

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Night had fallen on Hyrule Castle Town, and most of its citizens were already in bed, dreaming the night away. Link had gone to bed, but he just couldn't seem to fall asleep. He found that this was becoming a recurring problem, but he just couldn't help feeling like there was something he was missing, something important. There seemed to be a thought, a revelation just waiting to happen, sitting just out of reach of his mind. It had something to do with his host, but he hadn't the slightest idea what it could be.

There was a murmur of voices from the next room, and the rustling of bedsheets. Link heard someone roll over, and the sounds stopped. Link returned to his previous train of thought. He had been staying with Denna and Tekir for almost four months now, and Denna was expecting her baby anytime soon. Because of the pregnancy she tired easily, and couldn't do all of the house chores by herself anymore, so Link had stopped working in the fields and now stayed to help her do the washing and cooking.

It was when he was helping Denna, talking with her, spending time with her, that he felt the need to know at its strongest. Not for the first time, he wondered if it wasn't Destiny that was doing this, keeping the thought from coming to him. During his first quest to defeat the Ganondorf of his time, he had also felt like his curiousity, his questions had been suppressed by an outside force, to keep him focused on his job. After he had completed his task, he had been able to think back to what he had done, and realized that it wasn't exactly his sense of adventure that had kept him going through the many trials and horrors he had experienced. There had been times, especially during that wretched Shadow Temple, that he had just felt like giving up, for it wasn't *his* job to save the world. He *was* only ten after all.

But then he'd think about the Zora, and the way they had cried when they had been freed of the ice. And the Kokiri, the gratitude on their faces when they could once again leave their houses and walk throught the forest without fear. The Gorons had been crying with joy when he had freed them from their prisons in the Fire Temple, and everyone had been so happy, when they had finally realized that Ganondorf was gone for good. Maybe it was worth it, bringing peace and happiness to all of Hyrule. After all, what was the suffering of one to the suffering of many?

But sometimes, when he just happened to watching, he would see the look of love that passed between Denna and Tekir. They were obviously deeply in love with one another, but even so they always had time to talk to him and spend time with him, never letting him feel alone. They treated him like he was their own son, and he would at these times wonder what his life would have been like if his mother hadn't died and left him with the Great Deku Tree, if he had grown up with a mother and father. It was in these moments that he would resent Destiny the most for thrusting the responsibility of saving the world upon his young shoulders, but they always passed quickly, and he would always feel ashamed for thinking such things.

The elusive thought was almost tangible now, and he felt the need to finally grasp it at its most urgent yet, but then his eyes were closing and he was falling asleep and he dreamed of nothing throughout the night.

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To be continued...