Everlasting Seas

"Hey Marin, wake up. I want you to come look at this with me." Link gently roused the red-haired maiden from sleep with a gentle hand. Outside their small beachside shack, the calls of gulls could be faintly heard as they passed over the foamy waves. Link was met with a quiet sleepy grunt with Marin pulling the patchwork quilt up around her shoulders and turning over facing Link. She opened one hazel eye towards him and gave him a sleepy smile.

"Good morning, Link. What's going on?" Marin yawned and curled her legs up as she looked into the eyes of her hero.

"The sunrise is going to be one like you've never had this morning. I want us to watch it together." Link's hand moved unconsciously towards the pocket in his tunic. Marin replied with an endearing sigh before responding.

"Alright. I'm getting up. Just let me get dressed. Is Felicia already at work?" The fiery redhead pulled herself up and out of bed and put on her favorite blue dress and then ran a brush through her hair a few times.

"Yeah, she left a little bit ago for the bakery." Link's hand once again traveled to the hem of his pocket. "Besides. I want to spend this with only you." Link took Marin by the hand and in the waxing morning light, followed the path from his house down through the trees to the shoreline. As they got to the beach's crashing waves, the molten sun had already begun peeking over the horizon and basked the waves and the world in a magnificent orange glow. A contented sigh escaped Marin's lips.

"You were right, Link. This is truly breathtaking. We come out here all the time, but I never get tired of the incredible view. The way the sun bathes everything in this orange glow is amazing." Marin sat down on a piece of driftwood beside Link.

"Yeah. This sunrise is especially beautiful this morning." The two sat in silence for moments that seemed to stretch into a tense eternity as Link clutched his sweaty palm around the object in his pocket.

"Link? Are you okay?" Marin covered his hand with hers. Link suddenly turned quickly towards her with determined eyes even though he felt like he could vomit.

"I love you." Link blurted out these words while locking his sapphire eyes onto her emerald gaze. "I love you…Marin. I…uh." The blonde vigorously scratched the back of his head in frustration. "I don't know what I'm going to say or what you'll say, but please bear with me to the end." Link retrieved the small stringed object from his tunic pocket. "I don't know what I'll say. I had this all planned out, what I would say, how it would go, everything. But now that it's here, I can't remember any of it. I love you, Marin. Every moment of every day, I love you. I love everything about you. The way you make me want to be better than what I already am, the way you make me laugh, the way your hair looks like flames when the sun hits it just right, the way your nose scrunches up whenever you get mad about something, it's so cute I can't ever keep a straight face and I love it. I love it all. And I want to wake up every morning, after every dream I have, every nightmare and every adventure in my sleep, I want to wake up to your face, to your fiery mess of a bedhead. Which is why I have just one thing to ask of you." Link uncurled his fingers to show a small turquoise bracelet inset with a small, seemingly glowing agate stone and knelt in front of his love. "Marin of Koholint Island, will you do me the incredible and distinct honor of marrying me and being my wife?" Link was no longer aware if his heart was beating, if the waves were crashing behind him, if the world was even spinning anymore. To him, the world had faded and the only things that existed in the universe were him, Marin, and the bracelet in his hand. A single moment stretched on and on into eternities for Link, the overwhelming need for any sign of an answer mounting in his mind. Tears formed in Marin's eyes and began to stream down her face as she threw her arms around Link's neck and sobbed into his neck.

"Yes! Of course, yes! A thousand times yes!" Marin cried. She gingerly picked up the small bracelet and lightly ran a finger over the smooth rock in the socket. "Link, this is beyond beautiful. When did you get this? How did you get this?" Link kept her in his embrace.

"So, there's this royal armorer who specializes in jeweled accessories and armor that I talked to about two weeks ago in the castle. When he heard that a personal friend of Her Majesty and Hyrule's champion warrior needed an important job done, he said he would make it for free so long as I chose him for all my future jewelry needs. I told him you were from Koholint so he suggested something like this. I have to say, it already looks incredible. But you make it look even better." Link beamed as joyful tears started to trickle. He placed his forehead against hers as they laughed in euphoria. The laughter faded into a kiss as warm as the tide in the summer sun.

"I love you, Link." Marin whispered, their foreheads still resting against each other.

"I love you too, Marin. "Link whispered back. The sun had now risen fully and shone its warmth upon the two.

As soon as the trio had delivered the news to Koholint and returned, the shores of Hyrule were greeted by a fleet of merchant ships, sailboats, and even fishing boats all filled to the brim with assorted inhabitants of Koholint island including citizens of Mabe and Animal village. Chief among them was Tarin, who came running ashore after docking. The wedding was to be a simple one. Her Majesty decided that the least she could do for her best friend in Hyrule for his wedding would be to guarantee the best the kingdom had to offer to him. At the very same place overlooking the vastness of Hyrule where Link confessed his love to Marin for the first time, the ceremony was held. A piano was moved from the castle to the hilltop to accompany the dozen instrumentalists. Link, having no family to speak of, asked his close friends in Hyrule's guard, Felicia, Cedro the royal armorer, Flynn the baker, and the Dread Pirate Roberts and his crew to be his guests, with Mabe village and Animal Village in full attendance. Leading the ceremony, draped in a sparkling silver dress with a modest open back, small jeweled necklace and a thin crown, was Queen Zelda of Hyrule, who met any dissenting argument against her ability to officiate the wedding with a simple 'I am the mortal incarnation of the goddess Hylia last time I checked.' Her self-satisfied smile was still evident on her face as she stood next to Link, dressed in Hyrule's Royal Guard's formal dress uniform, refitted by the queen's personal tailor.

"Link, relax. You're going to sweat right through your clothes. It's okay to be nervous on such a monumental day, but still, calm down a little bit." Zelda chuckled behind her hand.

"You say that, but if I remember correctly, you were the same way on your big day." Link retorted. The pianist began playing as the attendees stood and faced a small privacy screen. Link breathed deeply, held it, and then exhaled before he found himself breathless at the sight of his betrothed. Down the aisle walked a beauty unrivaled dressed in an exquisite white bridal gown trimmed in aqua, wearing earrings that shone like the sun at dawn. Not a word was spoken as she captured the breath of all attendants. The wind blew through her hair causing her earrings to shimmer and sparkle all the more as the light poked through her swirling hair. She stepped onto the platform and faced Link as Zelda took a step back between them. As Link gazed at her and she took his hands in hers, the courageous, unshakeable, stoic hero let a few tears flow Zelda draped a white cloth emblazoned with the crest of the Hyrule Royal family over and around their hands, tying them together.

"Link, Honorary Royal Guard to Her Majesty, Queen Zelda Hyrule, and Hero of Hyrule, do you take Marin, Daughter of the Windfish, as your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold, to defend with your life, in sickness and in health, for rich or for poor, until death do you part?" Zelda recited the given vows.

"I do!" Link smiled through a few rogue tears. Zelda smiled softly at the answer.

"Marin, Daughter of the Windfish, Friend of Her Majesty, Queen Zelda Hyrule, and Official Ambassador to Koholint Island, do you take Link to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, to support with all that you are, in sickness and in health, for rich or for poor, until death do you part?" Zelda asked with a beaming smile.

"Yes!" Marin squeezed Link's hands as she answered. Tarin could be heard crying in the front row as

"Then, by my power, both as Queen of Hyrule, and as the incarnation of the goddess Hylia, I now pronounce you man and wife. Link, you may now kiss the bride. May fortune shine brightly upon the two of you." Zelda removed the cloth and walked over to the pianist.

Many tears were shed that day, many more from then on, be it hardship or joy. Felicia moved back to Koholint to be with other fairies again and give the newlyweds their space, Tarin cried every time he saw the two of them for the next year, and even Zelda cried after the wedding ceremony. Years later, in the same house on the same shore, the couple would raise two children, a beautiful blonde girl, fearful of nothing, and a redheaded boy, reserved but always by his sister's side. Their names would be Farin and Ifa. And they would all live happily ever after, blessed with only pleasant dreams at night for as long as they lived.

The End