READ THIS NOTE OR DIE: Hopefully, for the last time, I will say this. YES. THIS STORY IS BASED ON DISNEY'S THE LION KING. Its basic idea is based on the Disney movie. So yes. Now please stop telling me about things that I already know and have already mentioned in a previous author's note, in my profile, in my 'upcoming stories' section and in every other note known to mankind—except for the summary, which is probably the only element of this list that you actually read.

And no, it will not stick to the plotline and spoken text like a leech. It's a LOOSE ADAPTATION.

Now stop reviewing about this and pleasetake timeto read author's notes once in awhile. They're not there for looks.

And no, I'm not mad at you all. But reading five reviews in a row that say pretty much the same thing can make one wonder if one hasn't been clear. I'm not talking about the funny and ironic ones. I'm not dumb. I don't think... Well. Maybe. But not dumb enough to not notice when someone is being ironic.

Okay, I'm sounding like a bitch.

Before I get on with this chapter, I'm afraid I'll be breaking the news to a couple of you: LoZ:Twilight Princess has been delayed well into 2006. Which sort of makes me pissed off. But there's nothing we can do about it. If you want more specific reasons, check out IGN Cube. They'll tell you all about it.

And maybe you'll see, like me, that's it not all that bad. Maybe that way we'll be spared the utterly long and tedious quest of searching for Triforce shards, like in LoZ:WW, and instead get uber cool dungeons at the end of which we'd get something like a Triforce shard. Or whatever.

Gah. Just go read the article.

Okay, on with the story.

Interesting fact: this chapter was written long before the rest of the story. Random? You tell me. But it had struck me and upon re-reading it, I realized it fit perfectly with this story.

Warning: Innuendos. You know. Link's a teen. And he meets a pretty girl. It's all common sense.

Hylian Kings

By CM

Fourth Chapter: Encounter

Summer was at its peak, and the sun beat down on Link violently. He squinted in the bright light, focusing on the task at hand. His shovel kept hitting a rock, and he knew that if he wanted to dig a fire pit for roasting, the rock had to go.

Darmani was busy sharpening the spit, and Mikau was out in the forest looking for firewood. This left the dirty and hard task to Link. He wouldn't have minded, but in the middle of the afternoon like this, with such harsh heat weighing him down, he'd had to discard his shirt and still sweat like a pig.

He wiped his sweat dampened bangs out of his face with a tired hand. His foot was placed on the shovel, holding it anchored to the ground. It was supported by the rock that still was out of sight, underground. He paused for the thousandth time to breathe and cool down.

"Hangin' in there, Link?" Darmani called from his spot a few feet away, sweating as well as he kept swiftly pointed one end of the spit. Link nodded, mouth open to catch his breath. Sweat trickled down his forehead.

Finally closing his mouth, Link got back to work, all along envying Mikau who was out there in the shade of trees.

Mikau grunted, pulling at a stubborn root. He'd tried getting a solid cord to tie the wood on his back, but this root just wouldn't give in… He kept pulling.

As he was about to give up, his eye caught sight of something moving to his side, in the bushes. He froze, briefly.

"Darmani?" He tentatively called, his voice sounding strangely lonely under the trees. The birds had stopped singing.

He didn't have time to call Link's name, because he was suddenly thrown off his feet and felt a dagger at his neck. He ceased all possible fighting. Eyes wide, he looked at his attacker.

"Eep?"

It was a young woman. Her hair was tied back, and her skin was pale. She wore rags, and she was excessively thin. She seemed starved. Mikau didn't have time to think more, because she spoke. Her voice was hoarse, as though she hadn't had anything to eat or drink or speak to in days.

"Your food," she roughly ordered.

Link looked up from his shovel, feeling something creep up his spine. He turned to Darmani, who was still busy. Apparently, the odd feeling hadn't reached him.

It was something he hadn't felt since the day of Darunia's death…

It was the impression that something threatening was about to happen. And Link knew. He wouldn't let anything happen anymore.

He had to find Mikau. Without a word of explanation to Darmani, he let the shovel fall to the earth and ran off into the woods.

He knew the place all too well. It was a matter of seconds before he found him.

Mikau frowned. This young woman seemed half-dead. How familiar… She spoke again.

"I said—"

Before she could end her sentence, she was thrown off of Mikau violently.

Link had pushed her off his friend with as much force as he could muster. He glared at the intruder menacingly.

Catching herself immediately, she lunged at her new attacker with a desperate strength.

Mikau stared as Link and the young woman fought. Link seemed angry, but the woman seemed so desperate that Mikau almost understood her reasons to attack.

Finally, she was disarmed, and she almost collapsed to the ground. Link caught her, anger fading to uncertainty. He was wondering what to do. He helped her to lie down. Mikau started panicking.

"Oh blast, we killed 'er!"

Link sighed loudly, with great annoyance.

"Mikau, go get Darmani."

Surprised at Link's commanding presence, Mikau brought up no objections, and ran off. Left behind, Link stared down at the young woman whose head was laid on his lap. He heard her rough breathing, and saw the wild pulse in her neck. She was so thin it was almost inhuman. Her skin was pulled tight in exhaustion, and he wanted nothing more but to help her get her strength back.

He noticed, however, that she would have been quite beautiful.

Link had rarely seen women wander into the forest. This was the first time one ventured so far. He wasn't ignorant. He knew what women looked like, but to see one from so up-close was his first time in many years. And he took time to notice things that his twelve year-old self would have bypassed as just another weird difference.

Her long hair promised, under the grime, to be quite spectacular. He wanted to offer her a bath just to see if his intuition was right.

Although, his mind suggested traitorously, he wouldn't have minded seeing her bathe even if he was wrong anyhow.

No, this wasn't the sort of thing to think of right now.

He heard her sigh and cuddle closer to him. Her pale hands took hold of the side of his trousers to pull herself tighter against him, and he realized how full her chest was.

He swallowed a lump in his throat.

She muttered some, before opening an eye weakly. At seeing his face right in hers, she started, before letting out a weak squeak. He thought he heard the name 'Link' being breathed as she sat up, propping herself on her hands and arms, trying to get at a safe distance away from him, eyes wild. He reached out quickly, stopping all movement. She started flailing her arms, unwilling to let him get a hold on her. She started crying some more.

"No! Wait! Stop moving!" Link tried desperately, but she wouldn't listen.

Thinking of nothing better to do, he shook her by the shoulders, forcing her to face him, and spoke directly in her face, "Did you call me Link?"

She froze. Her lips trembled. Link peered at her face.

"Who… are you?" He hesitantly repeated.

Their eyes met.

A flash of recognition hit them both, and they let go of each other, as though singed by their respective touch.

"Link!" She cried as she stumbled backwards.

"… Zel… Zelda?"

Her hand flew to her mouth, and his jaw dropped open.

"L—Link!"

"Zelda—Prin—Princess!"

A long, shocked silence followed. And, suddenly, Zelda ploughed forward, throwing her arms around his neck to embrace him, and held on so tightly he could hardly breathe. He wondered where the energy came from as he brought his arms around her waist.

"Oh, Link!" And she started sobbing on his shoulder.

Link's heart was hammering in his chest. He had come to a few conclusions. First off, she was alive. That meant that his concerns weren't founded. Had Hyrule ended up okay?

Would that mean he'd get to go back? If so, then she'd be queen of—

Queen!

He tried to pry her from him, but she clung to him to the point where his blood ran at a thousand acres a minute inside his veins. Breathing became difficult, but not because she was holding on tightly.

No, he'd just realized how close they were. How his previous thoughts came back with a vengeance. She was too well shaped under his fingers, and her skin begged for his touch…

He had to get away.

Now.

With a surprised squeak, she was thrown off and fell to the soft ground.

Link lay on his back, before propping himself up on his hands and trying to get away. Both their chests were tight, in need of air.

The only thing Link allowed himself to keep in contact with were her eyes.

They hadn't changed much, but if possible, they'd grown haunting. And they were crying.

Oh Din, Link realized, he'd made her cry. He'd done something awfully wrong. He'd pushed her away. He had to redeem himself somehow. He had to do something.

"Link…" She breathed between gasps (which made her chest heave in a too distracting way, he noticed, angry at himself), her eyes wide, "Link, why are you here?"

He didn't have the opportunity to answer with a similar question, because, hacking their way through the thick brush, Mikau and Darmani surged over to them.

With a single glance between a pale, exhausted girl and a breathless, panicky looking Link, Darmani sighed and reached out to pick her up.

Zelda saw the huge man come close and screamed weakly, treading as far as she could away from him. Darmani paused.

"Oh, come on now," he gruffly said, "I mean you no goddamn harm."

Link sighed, turning to her. "Don't worry, Darmani only looks big and nasty."

Darmani shot a glare at Link, who grinned. Hesitantly, Zelda allowed Darmani to come closer, warily let him gather her up. With a single heave, she was high up over the ground, and Link stood, brushing himself off. He was smiling, and it struck her how handsome he'd become.

She had wondered how he'd grown, but it had mostly been on the intellectual side before. Now, it became blatantly obvious that he'd also grown in other aspects.

And had nothing to be discarded.

Clearing the way for Darmani, the muscles in his back—he'd been without a shirt and she hadn't even noticed? Shame on her!—bulging under his skin as he pushed the branches aside, Link showed definite physical betterments.

Shame on her to think of her childhood friend this way.

Shame on her for noticing how his dark skin had been really warm as she'd embraced him.

Shame on her for wanting to take him away from this life he'd been leading so long.

Zelda didn't have much more time to think. Link had paused in front of a thick foliage and turned back to Darmani, or rather, herself. He was smiling, his eyes bright.

"And now, Princess," he announced, making Darmani tense in surprise and Mikau, who was wading his way behind them, gawk at her without subtlety, none of which went unnoticed to Link, who continued, though with less assurance, "I present to you: our humble abode."

"Call it the Shack," Mikau said, as Link revealed a small cottage with a thatched roof and a large clearing around it, with a small stone path leading to a clear, sparkling river, and a barn in the back, and thick green grass all around and a small square patch of lined dirt spotted with bright green sprouts. There was a small wooden fence surrounding the vegetable plot, clearly made to keep woodland animals out more than to be aesthetic. The shutters on the cottage weren't coloured, simply made to keep the rain out.

A fresh smell of trees and cooking smoke and heat and water and food hung over the place.

She could see an open-air kitchen annexed to the building, with pans and pots hanging from the wall, a fire hole and a table with vegetables that had been halfway cleaned and cut.

The simplicity and charm of it made her fall in love.

Not even the fineries of Ganondorf could match this heart-warming sight.

Her expression turned sour as she recalled the tyrant. Link noticed and misinterpreted it. He brought a hand to scratch the scruff of hair at his nape, apology in his voice, "I know it's not exactly what you might be used to, but it's comfortable and it's well-kept."

Zelda, snapping back to reality, shook her head, hair flailing into Darmani's face as he prepared to put her on her feet. "That's not it! It's absolutely lovely! I was just thinking of something else! Oh—" She stumbled as Darmani put her back on her feet, and they almost gave out under her.

Link instinctively outstretched an arm for her to hold on. "You're too weak for this kind of thing. Mikau, can we let her stay until she gets better?"

Mikau scratched his head, looking blankly at Darmani, who shrugged. In turn, Mikau answered, "Well, it's your house as well as ours. I sure don't mind, but we don't have a fourth room for guests."

Link shook his head. "She can sleep in my room. I'll be sleeping out. I don't mind," he added as Zelda was about to protest. "I'm quite used to this kind of thing."

"Do we eva' know," Mikau blandly commented, before sighing and heading to the low door of the Shack. "Well, I don't know 'bout ya three, but due to a lil' interruption, I dropped all my wood. As soon as I get a good rope, I'll be right back and help ya with the pit."

Link nodded, country business kicking in. He turned to Zelda. "Let me show you where you can sleep. We'll be preparing supper as soon as we dig a new fire pit. Come."

Slowly, she followed Link and Mikau, the latter disappearing into the winter kitchen while Link indicated her to come over to a set of steps that lead up to an area right below the roof.

"My room is up here. The kitchen is where Mikau is standing. Their respective rooms are on the ground floor. Darmani doesn't like these stairs: he's too heavy. And Mikau just hates the sound of the rain on the thatch. So it's my personal area," Link explained, beaming, turning to look at her as he bounded up half the way. She was still at the bottom, looking at the long way up. He frowned, "Zel—Princess?"

She shook her head, weakly smiling, and brought a hesitant foot up to the first step. She seemed to find the exercise exhausting.

In a few seconds, Link was back down and let her lean on him as they went up the stairs. Her eyes seemed to be closing of their own accord, no matter how much she fought to keep them wide open.

Seeing as how they wouldn't progress this way, he put an arm behind her back and the other under her knees, making them buck and let her fall precariously against him. She didn't even complain. Her forehead in his neck, her eyes fell shut.

He carried her as carefully as he could, bringing her up to the low-ceilinged loft, with the wooden baulks joining a single, long beam that went from one end of the cottage to the other. In her tired haze, Zelda discerned a single bed under the sloped roof, with a crate beside it that served as bedside table. There was a small instrument on it and a metal knife that could unfold. The bed itself was covered in many blankets, probably to keep out the winter chill, and they looked well worn. The place smelled like wheat and something like him.

He carefully lay her down on the bed, and it sunk a bit under her. It was comfortable, she decided as he tugged the covers undone and tucked her under them.

Then, deciding something, he pulled the covers off again and helped her sit up. She weakly protested, eyes drooping.

"Please, Princess, you're wearing a bodice and I don't think sleeping in it will be all that good for your back. Promise you'll take it off. I'm going back downstairs. If you need me, just call."

Bewildered at his show of concern—and knowledge of feminine fashion—she mumbled his name. He turned back to her, genuine curiosity and a sincere desire to help on his face.

"Princess?"

She smiled faintly. "From now on, please call me Zelda. Could you please untie the lace? My vision is all hazy and I would only fumble with it."

Blinking in surprise, he came back towards her, reaching out carefully towards the front of her rags. With a dexterous hand, he quickly untied the knots that had tightened over time. He didn't dare touch her more, especially not in that general area.

She smiled, tugging it over her head with slow movements, revealing her pale undershirt. Then, with equally sleep-weighed movements, she lay on her back again and pulled at the covers. He helped her, making sure she would be warm enough to sleep peacefully.

She smiled, eyes already shut. "Thank you, Link…" She breathed.

Her breathing became even, and he had to consciously snap himself out of it. He just had had the urge to cuddle in with her.

But that was wrong. Wrong!

He stood, making his way back downstairs before he imagined other stupid ideas.

He needed to focus. Nothing like a good ole session of physical work to get a proper thought train.

He hoped she was warm enough…

Reviews? Please?

Love,

CM