Bittersweet Elegy

by: Midnight*Starfire

Disclaimer: I own nothing about the Legend of Zelda. Sorry I cannot think of any sarcastic remarks at this current time.

Genre: Tragedy/Romance

Warning: Not like what I usually write.

Rating: high PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing about the Legend of Zelda!!

Note: Before I begin I want to take a second to thank all of the reviewers! Thank you very much for reading, I truly appreciate it!!





One shot # 5 : Bittersweet Elegy

Had I ever known that all my trials and tribulations had been in vain I would have never gotten myself involved. I take that back, I would have been involved yet only for her. Yet she is the mere reason I'm here now, the reason I'm partially alone. The reason I'm hurting and yearning for something more out of life. Without her legacy I suppose my life would have been rendered worthless. I suppose either way destiny and hate had an accustomed hatred for both of us. If I was to wait for her a thousand years, another thousand would be added. Perhaps even in a world parallel to ours two lovers have continuously struggled, never sitting back and watching as each time they were torn from each other. Such was my destiny from the start, to live a solitary life, to suffer....

I'll never forget the last time I was in her presence. She was one of those innocuous, lively beautiful souls. Truly one of a kind, just as they say snowflakes are. Her vivaciousness for life and her undaunted spirit made my courage and taciturn nature look submissive and ashamed. I would have been nothing without her, but I believed deep within my heart she could live without me. Even as we wished it to be, it could not be. I always wondered what a Princess wanted with a simple peasant, but it was then that she assured me I was much more than that. I was the Hero of Time and if that mattered not then at least I was her hero.

It was the winter of my nineteenth year, and it was a bitter one at that. The snow had been falling all night and it was impossible to see outside. I was alone in my house, nay should I say shack, and intent upon making myself some morsels to consume. There was a knock upon my wooden door, and dropping my dinner instantly I hurried to it. Opening it I found a set of familiar azure sky colored eyes. Eyes that could leave me breathless and enchanted. I knew those eyes well for I had looked longingly and lovingly into them many a time. It was Zelda. But what had caused her to seek me in the middle of the night?

Darting past me into the house, the first thing she did was remove the thick ebony cloak she wore. I blushed as I saw to my surprise that the woman wore a sheer nightgown beneath it. I turned my eyes away from her out of decency but hearing soft sniffling sounds I turn back immediately. I gazed upon her the very epitome of a paragon even as she was pummeled by a torrent of uncontrollable emotions. Never in this world or the next would I meet such a grandiose woman and yet her disposition was not pompous at all. Stunned by the fact that even as she cried she was beautiful I did not dare move an inch. Ivory snowflakes clung to her hair, the pieces that had stuck out of the cloak. The cloak was also blanketed with snowflakes, all clinging to her and snow had been tracked into my home by her. I did not speak a word, however it was of no consequence because she hurried over to me. Throwing her arms around me I felt her lithe body shake as sobs escaped her. She was holding me rather tight and for the life of me I could not figure out what ailed her, what would cause her to cry like this? Was it something I had done?

"Zelda, why are you crying?" I found myself asking when at last my voice returned.

I was not prepared for what I was to face next, however I dealt with it in the only way I knew. Silence. I could find no way to articulate my immoderate somberness. All I could do was hold Zelda in my arms and try to comfort her in her weak and vulnerable state. The warmth and closeness of our bodies caught up with us however and we found ourselves locked in a deeper embrace. I found my lips interlocked with hers in a way that I did not often experience and when she asked to stay I softly told her it was alright.

It would have taken every ounce of my being to make her leave that night, had I even wanted her to go. But yet I doubt I could, for I would never forgive myself. After she told me of her betrothal to a noble in another land she cried harder. It was as if saying it made it final and there was no running no escape. I cried as well, though not as she did. I would not undo my actions that night for anything, no matter how wrong it seemed.

When I awoke the following morning I found myself alone yet again. Feeling like it was a forbidden dream I smiled to myself in wonderment. Yet there was a familiar scent about me, almost like honeysuckle but softer. It was Zelda, she had been here. She had been with me in a way only lovers could be.

The next few months only served to show chaos and purgatory for me. When the King of Hyrule announced Zelda's unbreakable betrothal I tasted depression for the first time. My abhorrence for the King grew even more. I wallowed in my misery believing life was no longer worth living and had a hard time pulling myself from my bed. The day they were married several months later I packed everything I owned, which was not much. I was to leave within a couple days, and in fact it was luck, had there been such a thing that I was present in my abode when yet another knock was heard upon my door.

My heart raced as my eyes turned towards the door, in astonishment. I never received many visitors and most generally it was Zelda who came to visit me. Rushing to the door I hurriedly unlatched it and pulled it open.

But it was not Zelda.

Just as it would never be again.

Days flew by and months came to pass giving birth to a new year. After you have weathered one year, the passing of a second is no matter to you as well. I've grown older and wiser, stronger and braver. But I carry her in my heart always. I've seen many new lands for it was the very next day after Impa came to visit me that night, that I left Hyrule and never looked back.

But I did not leave alone.

I suppose part of me had figured that Zelda was at my door, just as she had been on that blustering winter's night. Yet the rational and sensible part of me reasoned it could not be she. As I opened the door to my disheartenment I found that my sensible side was victorious.

There in front of my stood there aging Sheikah woman, with her now long ivory tresses dancing in the wind. In her arms she held a whimpering basket....

If I would have known that night would have been the last time I would have seen Zelda, I would have chained her to my house forbidding her to leave. Impa told me how unhappy Zelda was with her husband and that there was no love between them. And when it was discovered that she was with child her husband immediately came forth claiming there was no way that the child was his. Zelda had hid her pregnancy for quite awhile, but she could no longer do so, as it became quite obvious to anyone who looked at her.

One night after Zelda had delivered the baby, she had decided to flee the castle. For if she did not leave she would face the penalty of adultery that she was being accused of. She snuck out of her room carrying her child in a basket, intent on returning to her love. All was well until Zelda had to cross a deep river near the castle. She tripped and hit her head hard upon a stone knocking herself unconscious and dropping the basket leaving it to float downstream....

It was several days after Zelda was declared missing that Impa found her....floating face down in the river. I could tell by looking at Impa that she was destroyed at the loss of Zelda and that she would never be the same again. She had lost, what she considered to be her daughter, since she practically raised Zelda. Zelda never knew her mother and Impa had pretty much assumed that role since Zelda was quite young.

"But all is not lost, Link. Zelda left behind something...something I know you are a part of..." she said thrusting the basket into my unsuspecting hands.

"Daddy what are you doing?"

I turned around to face my savior, the only reason why I live today. Zelda's and my child, a daughter, named Zinnia after Zelda's favorite flower. Flowers that I always picked and brought to her. Although she is my exact likeness yet female (part of the reason Impa suspected she was mine), she has her mother's intense bright azure eyes. I watch her as she ambles forward, blonde curles bouncing in the wind. She sits down next to me outside our small home, upon the rock I am sitting on.

"Are you playing your flute again, daddy?" she asks me.

True the birth of my daughter has helped to ease the pain, yet I still blame myself for Zelda's death. We should have run away together that snowy night, I should not have let her leave. I should have not taken no for answer when she said she could not runaway with me. It was my fault that she died, she died trying to find her way to me.

"It's called an ocarina, dear," I correct my daughter gently.

Zinnia smiles brightly, big azure eyes shining and sparkling in a way that her mother's did. I feel my heart being pulled on and I force myself not to cry.

"Will you play that song for me, daddy, you know the lullaby," she says.

I began playing Zelda's lullaby to the child the night Impa brought her to me. I found it to be the only thing that would sooth the child's nerves and help her sleep peacefully. It was more of a bittersweet elegy than anything now and as much as I detest playing it, I know Zinnia loves it.

I oblige at her pleading look and begin to shakily play Zelda's lullaby for her. The child smiles and doesn't know the metaphor behind it. To her it is a gleeful soft tune that comforts her, it is something entirely different for me.

I sometimes think Zelda knew what was to happen that snowy night. There was a tenderness in her voice and twinkle in her eye. I almost feel like everything was meant to be this way. Yet we have always hated destiny, but without destiny I would not have my daughter.

I play the song once more time, praying that I shall see her again and that Zinnia shall know her mother. Zelda, who even those blessed with the most eloquent speech could not begin to describe. I close my eyes and listen to the woeful melody coming from the ocarina and the sound of my young daughter next to me humming the song she knows by heart.

Goodbye Zelda, I'll never love again. Maybe one day we will meet once more, but until then you'll be everywhere I turn. There hasn't been a single snowfall when I haven't seen your face.

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A/N: Told you it wasn't like what I normally write. My apologies to anyone who is feeling blue now. I'll be posting another fic soon, this one will be a cheerful fluffy Zelink! I have decided to try to post a few one-shots all at once.

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