"For pity's sake, can't it wait another day?" Nabooru grumbled at Link, Zelda, and I as she knelt by Azeru's day-old grave the day after the battle. Link had just finished asking her if she was ready for what we hoped was the final assault on Ganon's armies before taking on the King of Evil himself. Unfortunately, she wasn't taking Azeru's death very well. After the battle had concluded, she had sat on the blood-soaked grass of the plain, weeping over her comrade's fallen form, refusing to leave until a grave had been dug for the Gerudo commander. Even now, she had spent all day at the graveside.
She was in good company, though. Azeru was one of some three hundred and fifty Allied soldiers who had died in the battle the day before. As such, the Kakariko graveyard was filled with soldiers grieving at the headstones of friends, brothers, sisters, and comrades. And yet, the loss of so many had not been in vain, we were sure, for when the bodies of the fallen enemies were counted up, it was reckoned that Ganon had lost around fifteen thousand of his minions in the assault, almost the entire force he'd sent against us, while our losses were out of a good twenty-five hundred troops that had we had started the battle with.
The battle had been a bloodbath for both sides, to be sure, but we had come out with a greater portion of our full strength left. This, of course, presented us with a good opportunity to smash what little remained of Ganon's forces and to finish off the man himself.
But Nabooru was grief-stricken from Azeru's death, as the three of us youngsters could now see. So Zelda told her, "Alright. We'll wait a day while you say goodbye to your comrade."
Nabooru nodded to us in thanks. Link, Zelda, and I walked out of the graveyard and into Kakariko's central square.
The atmosphere there was not as mournful. It was more a sort of subdued happiness. Most of the people in the square had not lost anyone close to them, but were well aware of how much victory had cost. Still, most of the soldiers managed to put on a happy face and celebrate victory. As the three of us sat down on an unoccupied bench, I marveled at just how much change had come over each soldier. Besides the obvious, physical changes, like the numerous new scars that could be seen in each face, there was a new attitude to each fighter. Everyone had seen battle and had come through it alive. It was the start of a hardened, veteran fighting force. It was surely something to be proud of.
"So what do you two think?" Zelda asked me and Link. We both looked at her curiously, forcing her to continue: "About our chances, I mean?"
Link took one look at the soldiers walking by. "I'd say our chances are pretty good," he replied.
"Let's just hope Ganon doesn't have another army like the one we just clobbered," I stated.
"According to Impa," Zelda returned, "he shouldn't. And if he calls more monsters from where he was sealed, they won't make it in time to keep us from facing him."
Link and I nodded in contented acknowledgement. Although, the way Zelda had phrased her statement - in time to keep us from facing him - put a little doubt in me. After all, we were definitely going to face Ganon. But to defeat him? I knew nothing about the abilities of this Triforce that Zelda, Ganon, and I shared, but any object with the word "power" in its name couldn't be good news for us. I just hoped Link was fast and strong enough to handle such a formidable opponent as I imagined Ganon would be.
Zelda seemed a lot more confident as she put her arms around both me and Link. "That means we've pretty much won already," she finished.
And she said I was the one with the Triforce of Courage, I thought. Still, I found her hopeful optimism refreshing after a full week of tense preparations for a major showdown. To be honest, her confidence was infectious, as I began to feel better about our chances of finally defeating Ganon.
My thoughts were interrupted by Link as he replied to her, "That's good. It means I'll get to see Ruto again before too long." I grinned at him. His relationship with the blue-skinned princess still managed to surprise me even after all the time I'd had to get used to it.
It was now, though, that I finally got a chance to ask him, "Say, how did you and she end up together anyways?"
My brother-in-spirit was up to telling the story. "I guess it all began when I was called into action to defeat Ganon the first time he rose to power. In order to claim the Master Sword, I had to obtain three special stones, the Spiritual Stones. In searching for the last of them, I ended up getting Ruto out of the belly of a great fish. In thanks, she gave me the Spiritual Stone, letting it slip that to the Zoras - that's what her people are called. Did I ever tell you that, Brian?" I shook my head, so he continued, "Okay, well now you know. Anyways, she let it slip that to the Zoras, that Spiritual Stone is basically an engagement piece given by their princesses. I didn't really think about it until seven years later, when I encountered her in the Temple of Water. She reminded me that I had unknowingly gotten engaged to her. It kinda surprised me at first. But after I defeated Ganon, I started warming up to the idea of marrying her. She is pretty, after all. So, last year, we finally tied the knot."
It was a strange story, to be sure. I looked at Zelda. I was about to ask if she had been bothered by Link's decision, but I figured that might put a strain on the conversation. So I merely looked back at Link and said, "That's pretty cool."
Link smiled and nodded at that. Looking at him and Zelda smiling like that was comforting. These two were a big part of what was keeping me going while I was still in Hyrule. In fact, after a silence of a few minutes, I turned to them and said, "You know what? I'm so glad I met the two of you. I've known you for only a couple months, but I feel like I already know both of you like my own family."
Both of them looked at me, their faces clearly showing that my comment had been a pleasant surprise. Then, on an impulse, I pulled out my cell phone. It only had a quarter of its battery life left. But it would be enough to take one or two more photos. "Everyone scoot in close," I said. Zelda and Link scooted in until we were virtually cuddled up next to each other where we sat. I held the phone up in front of us and said, "Smile, everyone."
The selfie that came out was easily my favorite picture from my stay in Hyrule.
