You wake up and know you have been dreaming again. It was about Link this time.
You glance at the night sky out the window by your bed and from the position of the moon in the sky, you wager it must be just past three in the morning. That awkward time not quite five past, but long since the hour. It is rather indecisive.
As you have raised your head to glance up out the window, something slips down your cheek. You raise your hand to wipe it away and find it is a small drop of water. You presume you have shed a tear in your sleep again but there is no need to tell Link, he will just worry about you when he has more important things to focus on.
You have noticed how clingy he has been the past few days but you do not question it. When you were merely sat in a room reading or listening to the travellers along the plains tell you news from the city, he had to hold you, hold you so close as though if he let you go you would disappear.
He knows that, if he needs you, you are always there to talk. Like you always have been. You remember one time talking about Zelda when they were little. You smile to yourself at how clueless he was and how that it took a further three years to see you. Always there for him, always ready to help him, always wanting him. Thinking of Link, you roll over to face him but the thoughts about your magical night last night are abruptly cut short in your mind.
He is not there. He is gone.
You presume he is just gone to the outhouse and will be back shortly so you wait up for him.
You have been waiting up for him for almost a year now.
You have long since overcome how furious you were with him when you realised, he had gone without you. That left you a while ago. Almost instantly, in fact. When it dawned where exactly he had gone and whom he was going to face alone, without you. That is when the fear clawed at your heart and the pain overrode all logical thought and you collapsed in a crying heap.
You just want him back safely. You just want him to come back to you.
You have received a few letters, but all are short and far between and say nothing more than his wellbeing and his love for you. You keep them with you at all times something to remind you of him. You even keep the one you found the night he went away.
Malon,
When you find this, I will have long since gone. I am sorry I could not tell you in person but you would have found a way to convince me to let you come with me and I could not allow that. You see, I am going to kill Ganondorf, once and for all. The bastard has long since over stayed welcome on the planet and I have left with the Royal Guard to find him. We have been making progress that I have consistently failed to tell you about.
I am sorry. It is too risky to let you come, and it would be even worse if you knew what we are planning. I could not stand it if anything happened to you. I would be too worried about you and your whereabouts to concentrate on the task at hand. I cannot tell you how long I will be away but I will try my hardest to come back to you as soon as possible.
I love you so much that as I watch you sleeping while I write this. I can barely find the strength to leave you here all alone. Please forgive me.
Yours forever,
Link
You have taken to dressing in his clothes as well, and stay awake all night sometimes trying to remember what he looks like. You are so scared that you are going to forget and hope desperately that the next day will be the one, the one when he comes back but so far you can only hope.
You have lost a lot of weight as you are barely eating. You are constantly tired as you are not sleeping, you dare not sleep. Last time you slept properly, Link left you in the night and you woke up alone. No, you will never sleep properly until his definite return.
Ever since he left you, your dreams have become more frequent. At the demolished wreck your parents once called a house, your childhood home. Inigo takes the role of Ganondorf. It is not always your parents you find slaughtered in the rubble, though, it varies between them and Link.
Many a time you have awoken screaming his name, sweat mixed with tears clinging to your icy skin. Half of the time you spring from your bed and dress ready to go after him then realise it would be a waste of time. You have no idea where he is and it would be suicide to try and find him. He is risking his life for you and you would only be repaying him by getting yourself killed.
The other half of the times you are awoken you turn instinctively for him to hold you and protect you but then you realise he is not there. That makes you cry even harder.
You were always strong, you were always independent, but even you have moments of weakness and Link is the only one who can hold you, it is only his embrace you can feel safe in. When you wake up from these nightmares its him you need. It is him! Yet, he is not here.
He is not here when you fucking need him.
He is out saving the world, the world that has had a mixed opinion of him all his life. Fairy boy. Peasant. Hero. Unstable. Whereas you have always loved him for who he is, well it seems that long. He is out risking his life for them because he has to when you need him.
Screw being selfish, screw this righteous hero crap. You need him, you want him, you are his girlfriend and he is not here.
You are so alone. Well, not in the physical sense, your father is there and you have to go to work but rather, you are alone emotionally. Emotionally, you are isolated from everyone. You envy all the couples around you kissing each other, hugging each other or merely holding hands. You miss Link but you believe no news is good news. That is all you think you have to believe in at the moment. No news. The thought that Link would defeat Ganondorf using his head, heart and martial ability no matter what is slipping away the longer he is away.
You have been in so much pain since he left, you constantly feeling a dull ache that accompanies you wherever you go. You just want it to leave, you want to stem the waterfall of tears that come every night. You want him to wrap his arms around you in his protective embrace and you want him to tell you he loves you again.
Crying, you lay your head onto the pillow clutching his shirt close to your body. He will come back to you, you know it. You have to believe it. You pull the duvet cover closer round your small body pretending it is his embrace.