Thirty Three: Dirt

Zelda rested her forehead against the cool polished wood of the breakfast table, a steaming mug of coffee in front of her.

"Rough night?" Sheik asked merrily, plopping down next to Zelda.

"Ugh, the worst." She looked up at him, dark purple bags under her eyes plainly visible. "I had to have coffee before I could continue my day."

"That blows. Nightmares?"

"How did you guess?"

"An inkling. I've a good noggin on my clavicle here," he stated goofily, tapping his forehead with a finger. Zelda rolled her eyes.

"Sheik, your clavicle is your collar bone."

"So? Oh, dear. Um, don't look, but we have company."

"Whaa?"

"Zelda, are you alright?"

She shot up ramrod straight, bloodshot eyes wide.

"Sterling!" She fixed a fake smile onto her face. "How very nice to see you again. You look as though you've been doing quite well since last we met. What, pray tell, brings you to my humble abode?"

"You know," Sheik stated, chomping down on a carrot he'd produced from nowhere, "cheese is for nachos."

"And guard dogs are for kennels," Sterling replied, smiling merrily. "So away you go."

"I think not."

"I think so."

"I'm leaving," Zelda stated, standing and dragging herself out of the room, mug of coffee plastered to her hand.

"Woah, Zelda, wait!" Sheik scrambled to catch up with her, Sterling on his heels. "As your soon-to-be-step-brother, I think I should escort you to your room to be sure that you don't fall asleep on the way."

"As a friend acting in the best concern for you, I think that I should come along to hold doors and catch you if you fall over."

"I think I'm fine, boys."

"But…" Sheik began, only to find himself harshly elbowed out of the way by Sterling.

"Zelda, Sheik has been most rude to me ever since I arrived."

"Possibly because you're a chauvinistic egomaniac," Sheik sing-songed, moving over to stand on Zelda's other side.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Sheik," Sterling stated blandly, and then turned to Zelda. "I simply wanted to apologize for my behavior on my last visit here, and hope that we could start our friendship anew. You know, on the proper foot."

Zelda nearly spewed out the coffee she was drinking. As it was, though, she had to work very hard from keeping her gag reflex from exploding.

"No thank you, Sterling," she stated simply. "I think you've caused quite enough trouble in my life."

He scowled, and Zelda realized right then that he really wasn't all that handsome after all.

"I hope you re-think your decision," he stated calmly, and then nodded at Zelda. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go find my little brother." He turned around and walked back down the stairs, leaving an irritated Zelda and a fuming Sheik standing three steps below the second floor landing.

"What a jerk!" Sheik ranted, slamming a fist into his bandaged left hand. "I can't stand him. You can't stand him. Hell, our predecessors probably would have shipped him straight off to the Evil Realm to be a chew toy for… that guy. You don't think that he's the reincarnation of… that guy, do you?"

"No," Zelda stated calmly, looking down at her left hand, also bandaged. "My hand has never reacted around him."

"It could be a guise, a cloak." Sheik offered. "He's a skeaze. I really don't like him."

"Neither do I, but I don't think he's a threat of any sort, nor will he ever be."

"Famous last words," Sheik grumbled, helping Zelda to her room.

"Nah," she replied, taking another gulp of coffee. "Sterling's not our man, I'm certain."

"Might've been easier if he was," Sheik stated grumpily. "Then we just could have taken his triforce and been done with it. Or killed him, possibly."

Zelda shuddered, and then looked to Sheik, hopelessness in her eyes.

"How are we going to pull this off, Sheik? We're just sixteen… well, we'll be seventeen.. but we're still kids and this isn't a world where we can accomplish much. How are we going to save everything?"

"I don't know," Sheik stated, "but I'm sure the answer will present itself in time. Go get ready. If you decide you want to take a nap, feel free. I'll cover for you."

"You sure?" Zelda asked wearily.

"Positive. Go on, then," he stated with a grin as Zelda walked into her room. As she turned to shut the door, he stuck his tongue out at her and chirped, "nacho girl."

Zelda would've dumped her hot coffee all over him if the door hadn't already been shut.

&-

"Question," Zelda chirped.

"Answer," Aileen replied, not looking up from the thick tome of ancient text she was reading.

"Didn't Tetra and Link destroy Hyrule?"

"They buried it under the ocean."

"And what about the Triforce?"

"That can't be destroyed. Or couldn't, anyway. Now, though, it would be possible."

"Eh?"

Aileen sighed and put her book down.

"When Ganon returned to Hyrule with Link and Tetra in tow, he had one slight miscalculation- that the Triforce would be made whole again. As it was, half of the Triforce of Wisdom was missing. It was incomplete, and thus couldn't be destroyed- and the wish of the King couldn't be fully carried out. So as it was, Hyrule was buried underwater for about a month, and then air popped back up around it."

"What about all the peasants? How are they still alive?"

"They weren't alive when the land temporarily flooded, so it follows that they couldn't have died, either. They're still frozen."

"Okay…"

"And another thing," Aileen added. "As the Sage of Time, or possibly ex-sage since you're about to take the title of that, I'll give you my theory on why Hyrule was underwater for roughly a month… I told you how Hyrule manifested again on the other time stream, didn't I?"

"Ye-es…"

"Well, it was never destroyed in the first place there. It was never even flooded. I think," Aileen added, looking uncertain. "This whole thing is too complicated. But I believe that… hm." She stopped, biting her lip, and looked up. "Oh squash, this is all far too complicated for mortal minds. But basically, Hyrule was unwittingly restored by Tetra and Link, and then it came back here. You know, because it's a loop, and loops loop."

Zelda's mouth was half open, one eyebrow raised. "You totally lost me."

"I lost me, too." Aileen looked up at the watery sky, and then back down at Zelda. "There's times when I'm sure I've gone crazy here, all by myself."

"Ick," Zelda stated, for lack of anything better to say. She thought for a moment, and then opened her mouth again. "Hey Mom?"

"Hmmm?"

"Since this place is a loop, and since it loops and all, and I've met other dead Zeldas and their daughters, would it be possible for a mother to meet her daughter before she was even born?"

"We have precautions against that," Aileen stated, plucking a flower from a small plant. "Watch."

She looked for a moment at the delicate petals, and then crushed them in her hand. Zelda watched idly as Aileen opened her palm, revealing that nothing was there. Zelda glanced down at the little plant the flower had been growing on- there was another in its place, exactly the same as before.

"There are charms that keep things from happening if they aren't meant to be."

"I see."

Silence for a few more moments. Then-

"Mom, do you think two people can be 'meant to be'?"

"Are you thinking about Link again?"

"Yeah."

Zelda laid back on the grass of the courtyard and looked to the sky, cheeks a little rosy.

"I don't know, sweetie. It's hard to say."

Zelda looked over at her mother- Aileen's pretty curly hair was down loose around her shoulders, her pale arms clasped around her knees.

"Impa told me about a curse," Zelda began again. "That the Hero of Time and all his descendants would suffer… the horrors that followed them from life to life were so great that they would never find happiness."

Aileen was silent, thoughtful, ponderous. Zelda finally spoke again:

"Maybe it's like in all the stories. Maybe love can break the spell."

"Perhaps."

"And maybe love can break the chain that keeps me reincarnating and Link reincarnating and…" Zelda stopped short with a sigh. Aileen looked at her daughter, a soft smile on her face and sadness flickering in her eyes.

"You've been reading the book of fairytales."

Zelda nodded. "I have." And she resumed looking into the distance.

&-

Zelda was floating in the pool on a purple plastic inner tube in a swimsuit Sheik had bought her, oddly enough: a pair of black, white, and pink Hawaiian lei swimming trunks and a matching triangle bikini top. Her toes dappled the water as she floated across the lagoon and back, her English book in her grasp -Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, which had turned out to be depressingly interesting. Just reading it, however, was providing Zelda with an enormous (and nearly lethal) culture shock.

Link appeared on the patio in front of her suddenly, leaning on the railing, smiling that irresistible smile of his. Zelda cursed him and his insane attractiveness, cursed herself for being of a weak constitution, and cursed the goddesses for playing so many sick jokes anyway. Still, though, she smiled back.

"Hey," he said in that easy way of his, flicking some of his shaggy hair out of his eyes and adjusting his green baseball cap.

"Hey yourself," Zelda replied, dog-earing a page and closing the thick book softly. "What's up?"

He scowled. "I'm bored."

"I thought you were hanging out with Sheik," Zelda said, furrowing her brows, her voice lilting up at the end as though she'd asked a question. Link shrugged.

"He vanished somewhere, said something about termites and Dalmatians and damage control. I've been wandering around looking for something to do ever since."

Zelda quirked one golden eyebrow. "Termites and Dalmatians and damage control. Typical of him. I don't suppose," she added, eyeing the far distance to the nearest side of the pool, "that you want to help me get back to shore?"

"Nope," Link replied, leaning heavily on his elbows. "I'm going to watch you float and I'm going to enjoy myself."

"You're a jerk," Zelda stated plainly, fanning herself a little. Despite the cold winter, the day was incredibly warm. Go figure.

Link smiled wolfishly. "I am a jerk," he confirmed. "And you are quite the sight to see floating there in that little tube of yours."

"Greaseball."

"Brat."

"Skeaze."

"Loser."

"Geek."

"Ouch," Link stated, putting a hand to his chest. "You have mortally wounded me. And now I go inside to poison myself, just like Romeo did because he was an idiot, and you will cry because your precious Link is dead and give a long winded speech about pretty dresses and flowers and why turpentine smells bad, and commit suicide too because you're so distraught that I, Link, your guiding light, have abruptly died." He grinned, sticking his tongue out at Zelda, and turned to leave.

"Wait a second you ass," Zelda called after him. "I really would be upset if you died. Don't joke about it. And please come help me out of this pool. My butt's getting cold anyway."

Link muffled his laughter as he turned to inspect Zelda. "Your butt is getting cold."

"Well," Zelda stated, shifting uncomfortably in the innertube, "it's the only part of me that's in the water, and the water is pretty chilly."

"Ah-huh." Link nodded his head once, and then sauntered down the porch steps to the edge of the lagoon. "Well this is a dilemma. I'm wearing my good new boots and my favorite pair of pants."

"Link," Zelda stated with a frustrated sigh, "all of your pants are exactly the same. Khaki cargo every time. And you can take off your shoes. Come get me out."

"Say please." Link cackled.

"Please."

"Say it like you mean it."

"Please?"

"And tell me that I'm the most amazing and handsome funny nice considerate guy you know."

"You're practically begging to have this book thrown in the middle of your forehead, you know that?" Zelda growled, waving the Poisonwood Bible threateningly. "Come get me or else."

"Or else what?" Link asked, unlacing his boots nonetheless.

"Or else…" Zelda thought for a moment, and then shot Link a feral grin. "Or else I'll call my flying monkeys on you."

Link stopped, mouth open, mid lace, and then burst out laughing as he removed his other shoe and rolled up his pant legs.

"You're rich, you know that?"

"Yes, take a look at this house."

"You're a brat."

"Jerk."

"Spoiled little snot bag."

"Poo-head." And Zelda began to giggle as Link waded into the water and then reached out, grabbing Zelda's hand as she drifted slowly past, stopping her.

"Give me your book," Link commanded, and without knowing why, Zelda obliged. Link set it securely on the shore with his free hand and then abruptly flipped Zelda and her tube over, dashing out of the pool. Zelda splashed into the water with a squawk and came up spluttering, hair plastered to her face and shoulders.

"I'm going to kill you for that. Kill you!"

"Please don't. You'd be so distraught without me."

"Argh!" Still spluttering, Zelda waded up the fake shore, and then looked at Link, who was standing back and grinning at her.

"You know," Zelda began, sniffling, stepping slowly towards him, "I'm not feeling very loved right now."

Link took a step backwards. "Um."

"And I think that what you did wasn't very nice." She took another step forward, and Link took another step back, wide eyed, just like a deer in the headlights.

Zelda grinned menacingly. "I think you should give me a hug."

"No thanks." Link took two steps back for good measure.

"No, honestly," Zelda stated, coming for him. "I really think you should give me a hug."

And suddenly they were off, Link dashing away through the gardens and Zelda following close on his heels. She finally caught up with him around one particular corner, tackling him in the dirt and clinging to him.

"Get off, get off!" Link squawked as Zelda laughed and clung on tighter. "You're getting me all wet!"

"You should have thought of that before you capsized me," Zelda retorted, but rolled off Link nonetheless. They lay there side by side, panting in the dirt from their run. Finally, Link rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow, looking at Zelda, who had a little mud in her pretty blond hair. He tweaked her nose, smiling at her gently.

"You're beautiful even when you're wet and angry."

"Shut up, Link." Though her words were vicious, she smiled nonetheless. And she closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, content to lie next to her best friend in the dirt of her mother's garden.

&-

uploadedMonday, June 27, 2005

8:45 PM

A/N: Hurrah update. It's short. Bite me. I've had a terrible, horrible week, and that was all that could write, and I didn't proofread it because I have my final project due for my summer school classes tomorrow and am too busy agonizing over my stupid paper. Anybody have any useful anti-drunk driving pages they want to send me?

Thanks for reading. I appreciate it. Review, too, and make me feel better. Yay.