Lance knocked on the door three times. He was nervous. This was his first date that wasn't chaperoned by his parents and with a noble.
He looked down at his hands. They were sweating. He didn't want Marin feeling his sweaty palms when they held hands (which was a guarantee) so he quickly wiped them off on his tunic.
Marin answered the door with a cute smile. "Hi, Lance," she said. "Hey," Lance replied. She gave a sweep of her arm to invite him in. He complied and removed his cap.
"Would you like to sit down?" she asked. "Yes, thank you," Lance said and he sat on the couch. Marin sat next to him.
"Now… how did your parents react to the previous night?" Marin asked. Lance sighed and said, "They didn't take it so well. Or at least my dad didn't. My mom was okay with it once I had explained it, but my father was very angry."
Marin nodded. She seemed a little… mellow. Not as excited and lively as she had been the previous night.
"Marin… is something wrong?" Lance asked. Marin sighed. For a moment she just sat there, and then she burst into tears. Lance didn't know what to do at first.
"What is it?" he asked sympathetically. She sniffed back her tears. "My… my grandpa's dying. You know, Talon?" she sniffed again. "He's had three heart attacks in the past week. If he has another one, his heart will give out for sure."
She started sobbing again. Lance quickly wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his chest. "It's okay, Marin. His time's come," Lance said. This didn't seem to help.
"I've always had such a special relationship with him. We were really close, and I don't want to lose him," she said. Lance started to rock her back and forth and stroked her hair sympathetically.
Suddenly she pulled out of their hug gently and sniffed back her tears again. "I'm sorry, you didn't come over here for this, did you? I'll go ahead and make us some dinner." She sniffed again and left the house.
What was she doing? Lance watched her leave for a moment. Then he decided to follow her.
She was going over behind the house. Weren't there cuccos back there?
Now Lance understood. She was going to kill a cucco to roast for dinner. Lance made a bet with himself that he could roast cucco better than her. So he went over to her.
"Marin, let me," he said. She was startled by his voice. "It's okay Marin, go back inside and I can roast the cucco." She seemed surprised that he was doing this.
"Don't you have your meals cooked for you at the castle?" she asked nervously. Lance laughed and said, "Yeah, but my dad, having lived by himself for a long time, taught me how to roast cucco really well. I can do it."
Marin hesitated for a moment, and then entered the house.
Lance felt really bad for Marin. He never knew his grandparents on either side, and his parents weren't even close to being old enough to die. He supposed that eventually they would and he would feel the same way Marin did, but that wouldn't be for a long time. He could be married and have children by then!
Lance drew his dagger and quickly jabbed it into a cucco's throat. It squawked for a moment and then crumpled. Lance then sawed off the head with the back of his dagger and wiped off the blood with a nearby rag, then, as his father had taught him, tied a small rope around its neck to keep the blood from spurting too much.
He then went to the stables, where they were bound to keep firewood or small sticks for roasting their cuccos. He found some sticks and a slab of flint and went back outside.
"Wow, this is really good!" Marin said after she had swallowed a bite. "Thank you," Lance said.
"I don't think my dad's ever roasted cucco this well!" she said. Lance was beginning to get embarrassed. Marin could seem to tell. She laughed.
"Sorry," she said. "No, it's okay," he replied. There was a rather awkward silence afterward that made Lance even more uncomfortable. They ate in silence for almost twenty minutes before another word was uttered.
"So… how exactly did your father defeat Ganondorf?" Marin asked. Lance found that to be a rather random question, but it was better than silence.
Lance put down his part of cucco, which he had just finished, and wiped his mouth. He leaned forward to emphasize the seriousness of the new conversation.
"Well… I'm not exactly sure of all the details, but I do know that my father did not do it with ease. It all started when my mother had a dream about Ganondorf, one of her father's… associates, so to speak, taking over the kingdom, but someone carrying a green stone defeated him. I'm guessing you know who that is," he said. Marin nodded.
"In the meantime, my father, being only ten years of age at the time, was sent inside the Great Deku Tree, guardian of the Kokiri Forest, to remove a terrible curse that had been placed upon him. But by the time he had, it was too late. But in doing so, he proved himself worthy to carry the Kokiri's Emerald, one of the Spiritual Stones.
"The Great Deku Tree, in his last words, instructed my father to go to Hyrule Castle to meet my mother, Princess Zelda, for she had some important information to tell him. When he arrived, she told him of the dream she'd had. Afterward, he was instructed to go to Death Mountain and Zora's Domain to retrieve the Spiritual Stones of Fire and Water. On his way back from Zora's Domain, he saw my mother and her guardian, Impa, retreating from the castle away from Ganondorf, who had just assassinated the king. My mother had thrown something from the back of the horse, the Ocarina of Time."
Lance went on to tell her the long story of how Link had recovered the seven Medallions needed in order to cross the gap to Ganondorf's Tower and to destroy the King of Evil with the almighty Master Sword.
After the long tale, Marin's eyes were wide and understanding. Lance guessed that she had never known why her mother was afraid that Hyrule Market was attacked. Even more afraid than she normally would be if it had been attacked by anyone else.
"So… Ganondorf's back? And Hyrule could end up just how it was before?" Marin asked apprehensively. Lance nodded.
Marin sat back and covered her mouth. Lance looked at her for a moment to emphasize the gravity of the situation, then leaned in closer.
"Ganondorf has declared war on Hyrule. This is the first full-fledged war in centuries. Luckily our soldiers are heavily trained. This helps the fact that their armies are much larger than ours. Although, personally, I do not think that this will be an easily won war. My father will have to awaken the Master Sword once again if he is to defeat Ganondorf," Lance explained. Marin nodded.
Lance stood in the doorway as Marin swayed back and forth flirtingly.
"I had a good time with you tonight, Lance," she said, her trademark cute smile on her face. Lance knew what she wanted. He just didn't have the guts to deliver it.
"I-I, uh, had a good time too," he said. Just get it over with! he thought. He leaned in quickly and held about three inches from her face. Their noses nuzzled for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes, and their lips met.
Lance didn't want his first kiss with her to be one he'd forget, so he placed his hands on her face and deepened the kiss. He held it for almost thirty seconds, until he broke the kiss.
Marin smiled, satisfied. "Good night, Lance," she said. "Good night," he replied. She closed the door slowly until Lance walked over to the stable and retrieved his horse.