Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo or anything involving Legend of Zelda, but I am attempting to write a story about things that involve them for entertainment purposes only. Not for the money thing. That's bad.
It Won't Stop Running Down My Hand
To the west, the sun was setting over the kingdom of Hyrule. Within the town and castle of the fair kingdom, a huge battle had taken place, in the name of revolution. Away from the castle and the coup d'etat that was occurring there, was a large forest, which housed a large wooden cabin. The cabin was large, and it was obvious that much time, effort and money was spent on creating it. It had a large living room, a nice kitchen, a small pantry, a few rooms and even an upstairs with even more rooms. Within one of those bedrooms, lay Link as he dreamed away.
"No…" he mumbled in his sleep, showing that his dreams may very well have been nightmares. Tossing on to his back from laying on his stomach, the blankets flew off of him, showing his bare chest. Moonlight poured into his room from a window that was slightly opened, letting a soft breeze slide across his body, making him shiver. Then, just as his murmuring began to fade away, he shot up and let out a ghastly shriek. Looking at this left hand, he could see blood exploding out of his hand and splattering into his face.
"I should have gone to help those protecting the castle! I should have gone!" he thought to himself as screams erupted out of his throat.
After only about a half a minute of his ear splitting howls, his door flew open and light shone into his small bedroom. Looking up from his drenched hand, the form of Zelda holding a lantern stood before him.
"Link, are you alright?" she uttered in a sincere manner. Although her voice was nervous, it hadn't lost any of the power it usually carried.
"Ni-nightmares…" he mumbled under his breath as he averted his gaze away from her authoritative stare. Looking away from her eyes, his sight locked back on to his hand, which was pouring out blood. Zelda watched in silence as she watched Link's eyes fill with horror at the sight of his left palm. As Link glared in anguish at the blood that only he could see, he felt something very delicate wrap itself around his shoulders. Quickly turning his head, he saw that Zelda was now on the bed with him, with her arms around him, trying to comfort him.
"It's okay Link, they're only nightmares. Nothing more…" she whispered to him in such a soothing way that it reminded him of a mother reassuring her child. Link could feel his eyes growing heavy as he became more and more comfortable in her arms.
"I would have waited an eternity for this…" he thought he heard himself say aloud, as he drifted off to sleep.
As the darkness of his mind came together, it was suddenly pushed aside, and Link found himself in a small garden. Although not a fanciful and whimsical garden that one might find in a dream, it seemed real; in such a way that Link found himself wishing he could lie down in the flowers and just relax. Before he could continue contemplating whether or not he should nap, two beings began to walk towards him, unaffected by his presence.
"Oh Link, you're so kind," a soft feminine voice called out. As Link turned around, he let out a sharp gasp to see a young teenage version of Princess Zelda walking along holding hands with… himself?
"Impossible…" Link uttered, as he stared at a young teen version of himself. Though for some reason, he felt that this doppelganger couldn't be him, since this young form of himself seemed too soft compared to his large usual self.
"I'm glad you're back Link, I missed you while you were away in Termina…" Zelda said as she grasped his hand a little tighter.
"Termina?" the elder Link thought aloud, knowing that it was a land to the South of Hyrule.
"I missed you as well, but I needed to look for Navi…" the young Link sighed as he looked towards the sky.
"Navi?" the older Link asked aloud, to nobody in particular. Just as the older Link spoke this, both the young ones turned around and gazed at him.
"That's right, Navi…" the young Link stated with an innocent voice.
"Who are you two? Ghosts?" the more sagely Link questioned with suspicion in his voice.
"Maybe to you we are, but that's not how we see it," the pretty young girl with the guise of Zelda spoke.
"Then what are you?" Link asked while narrowing his eyes at them.
"We are what was, is and always will be…" she smiled at him as she took her young Link's hand and the world around them began to fade into darkness.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Link shouted as he felt his world turn black.
As light began to appear around him, it was obvious to Link that he had just woken up from a strange dream. Brightness flooded into the room as Link stood up to look out the window and into the woods, which surrounded the cabin, he now stayed at.
"Damn confusing kids," he mumbled under his breath as he glanced around his room.
"Something's missing from this room though…" he said to himself as he looked around his room, feeling that something was out of place. After a moment of tired thinking, he finally realized that Princess Zelda must have left his room.
"Well, even though that was a nice experience, being held by her, this might be a little awkward…" Link thought to himself as he walked out of his room, down a hallway and into the kitchen. Zelda was sitting at a table, looking up at Link. She wore a very simple brown dress that was probably given to her by the old man and a pink glow was across her face.
"What's wrong?" Link asked, hoping that she wouldn't bring up that she had calmed him into sleep.
"Erm, you…" she muttered as she looked away from him. Confused, Link looked himself over only to realize that he was only wearing a bare minimum of clothing that bordered on nudity. A wrap of cloth around his crotch area was all he had on, and even that seemed to be coming undone. He barely had time to shout out that he was sorry before rushing back into his room to put on some more clothing.
"What should we do for breakfast?" Zelda asked Link, who was now more clothed then before. No words were spoken about the incident before and Link was thankful that it happened since they now didn't have to talk about her putting him to sleep.
"Well, we have the bare minimum, but that won't do for too long…" Link trailed off as he glanced out a window as they sat at a table in the kitchen.
"What should we do about that then?" she asked, concerned about how they would survive without much food.
"Don't worry too much, we could survive at least a week or so with only water, but you probably aren't used to that…" he trailed off again as he looked away from the window and focused his eyes on a blue vase which sat upon the top of the deep brown wooden table. After a few moments of silence, Link began to feel a little uncomfortable at his frank remark.
"This morning though, we'll just have some bread and butter…" he trailed off as if such a simple meal was completely natural for him.
"Bread and butter!?" Zelda nearly shouted, not realizing that such simple meals probably WERE completely natural for him.
"Arielle and," Link hesitated thinking to himself for a moment, "Gramps didn't leave us with too much…"
"Well, fine." Zelda then turned in her chair, away from Link and crossed her arms, as if her pouting would let her get her way. For a few minutes, no words were spoken as Link began to contemplate what he should do to break the awkward situation.
"The evenings have been getting colder," he stated, finally thinking of something to do.
"Yeah?" she asked, giving him a suspicious look.
"I don't think this place has any fire wood stored, so we should get some. There's a fireplace in the living room that we can use for when it begins to get cooler…" he trailed off, hinting that she should readily agree with him.
"Fine, what are you going to do about it?" she insinuated, reverting back to her more regal princess manor. Link laughed at this for a moment and gave her an odd look.
"What do you mean, me?" he chuckled as he got up from the table and motioned at her to follow him. Walking outside, he led her to a shack, which was located behind the house and stepped inside it. Less then a moment later he appeared hold an axe in his hand.
"You're suggesting that I chop fire wood?" she sulked with a look of displeasure on her face.
"With my shoulder messed up, I can't very well do it for at least a few days…" Link trailed off as she quickly grabbed the axe from him and gave him a sneer.
"Come along your majesty…" Link sighed with a smile.
A few hours later, Zelda stood panting in front of a tree stump, with many pieces of chopped wood around her. Leaning on the handle of the axe, with its blade on the ground, it seemed as if she had never worked so hard in her entire life. Wearing a gray tunic, white leggings, brown boots and her golden blonde hair in a pony tail, it seemed as if she was made for the 'part.'
"You did great, this should last for at least a week," Link smiled whole-heartedly at her. Zelda turned away and began to wipe 'sweat' off her forehead, when in actuality she was blushing from the smile Link had given her. Through the entire time she had chopped wood Link had sat on a tree stump nearby and watched her, giving her pointers on how to swing the axe more efficiently.
"If you'd like you can come with me?" Link asked, as she realized his voice was no longer coming from the tree stump he sat at.
"Huh?" she muttered, turning around to see him holding a fishing pole with a sincere look on his face.
"Didn't you hear me? I'm going to see if I can find a river and catch us something for dinner tonight…" Link trailed off as she started at him with an intent look on her face.
"No, that's okay," she finally said, "I'll tidy up around here and just relax for a while…"
"Alright, but call if you need any help, alright?"
"Okay," she smiled at him as she began to pile up the firewood in a small shelter near the house. Walking away from her with a smile, he was determined to give her a meal that she would actually like.
Hours later, as the sun began to set and both of the residents of the cabin had already washed up, a fire was roaring in it's hearth and a metal tray was above the fire with two fish sitting on it being cooked. Link sat in front of the fire, doing the cooking while Zelda sat on a comfortable looking sofa that seemed as if it could fit into the decor of a castle.
"So not only are you a perfect body guard and survival expert but you can also cook?" she smiled at Link, while now wearing a dress, which seemed to fit nicely into the image of her in a log cabin. The dress was a dull brown color but for some reason, in Link's eyes anyway, it made her beauty stand out even more.
"I traveled a lot, so I had to teach myself how to cook…" he trailed off with a smile at her compliment.
"I wouldn't be able to do any cooking if you hadn't cut the fire wood though," he slightly turned his head to look at her for a moment before turning around and looking back at the fish he was cooking.
"I guess I did do a pretty good job," she smirked with pride, allowing some of her royal behavior to shine through. Link had to grin at this himself, because even if she could behave a little bratty at times, deep down she was still that little girl who had saved him from becoming nothing more then an average devil. Finally, as he thought to himself, the fish seemed to be done so he placed them on a plate and told Zelda that dinner was ready. Just as they sat down at the kitchen table they both began to eat quickly, devouring the fish. About half way through the meal, Zelda looked up from her nearly skeletal fish to see Link blankly staring in her direction.
"Link, is there something wrong?" she asked with concern, noticing a single tear was rolling down his face.
"Is," he paused for a moment, as if choosing his words, "this what it's like to live?"
Author's Note: AHH! I've dragged myself out of Hell itself…! Sorry about the long wait folks, but lots of things have been going on. College, family, friends, relationships (Haha, or a lack there of,) and then to top it off, the day I put aside to finish this chapter up, my basement flooded with sewage. Yeah, the computer is in the basement along with ALL my stuff. Needless to say, that kind of set the schedule back… I hate to sit here and make excuses, but it's the truth. As always, your reviews really make me happy… Yes, even the ones complaining that I'm lazy and need to review. …Mainly because it's true…!
