Chapter Eight An Interlude

After Link had duly reported to the King the results of the excursion, he was dismissed from the Royal Presence and flew into the arms of his wife. The time spent apart had seemed a lot longer to both of them than the actual time in reality. Their reunion was energetic and prolonged to say the least, which amused the servants who'd been banished for the night; the Prince and Princess apparantly had no need of assistance that evening.

Even Impa, who normally was greeted most cordially by Link and for whom he had deep love and respect; only got a brief wave and a 'Hi Impa' as he ran by, chasing after his wife. Impa just smiled and rolled her eyes; vastly amused by the antics of the two young people that meant more to her than anyone else. She had seen them do incredible things for some who were only just barely adults now. She then smiled at Tarin and his sisters who had come out of their respective rooms after hearing the commotion of rushing feet and giggles.

"I do not suppose we shall see Link or Zelda at dinner this evening; they seem a little...preoccupied." Tarin said wryly. Impa just smirked at him as she replied in a very 'tongue in cheek' way;

"I would think not. Link must be so exhausted after his journey, he will probably rest tonight. I shall see to it that the kitchen sends up some food in a couple of hours for him in case his appetite for food increases later. I am sure Zelda will look after him and make sure he does not overtax himself." Then she could contain herself no longer and went of laughing. Her mirth would have been short lived however; had she seen the look on Tarin's face, as he could not help but overhear some of the sounds coming from the bedchamber he was standing outside.

He soon turned on his heel and clenching his fist, he strode back to finish his own dressing as he would be expected at the evening meal. The ever present groom, Tima was on hand to rub salt in the wound however. He enjoyed stirring things up and had hated Link ever since he had first set eyes on him.

"It is a shame Sire that you should have to put up with the lack of modesty and decorum in that uncouth Prince." He sneered; "A royal personage would at least do the decent thing and wait until such times when there are no others about to cause such a ruckus. Your unmarried sisters should not be subjected to such scenes of debauchery."

"It is hardly debauchery Tima, for a married couple, to indulge in a little playtime along the corridor; they were not overly intimate in public. My sisters were not exposed to anything inappropriate, even if they had heard what was going on. You presume too much and should learn to curb your tongue."

"Yes My Lord. Forgive me please." Tima however was pleased, he had noticed his master's growing desire for Zelda, no matter how hard the Prince tried to fight it and sowing yet more seeds of doubt, as to the suitability of Link to be classed as royalty; suited his purpose. After all, his master was a Prince born and as such surely had some influence over the King. Tarin himself could hardly wait to get out of his room and go to dinner as small, muted but still very obvious, sounds of love-making came filtering through from the next chamber.

Totally unaware of all the other goings on in the castle, Link and Zelda were making up for lost time. He'd chased her through the corridors towards the private chambers on the upper floors; following her through secret passageways where she tried to lose him, but her laughter gave her away too much. For Link, the hunt awoke a lust so deep and so far never felt before; his eyes were almost black with desire and his prey stood no chance of escape.

His prey however, was looking forward to being caught and was not really trying hard to escape; but when she saw the feral look in his face and the gleam shining in his eyes, a delicious feeling of fear and excitement ran down her spine and she gave a little shriek as she fell over her bed with her husband's body pushing her down. Their first coupling was fast and furious, to the satisfaction of both and Link forgot about the doctor's prohibition for Zelda. She was delighted except for the fact, that it was the wrong time of the month for her to conceive.

Once they had gained their breath and come down from their high, they dissolved in gales of laughter. Link thought that Zelda had never looked more beautiful than she did now; with her hair, damp and dishevelled and her eyes glowing with love for him. The fact that she was naked as well, obviously added to her allure and the thought made him smile again as he started to creep up the bed towards her. Watching him on the prowl, Zelda gave another little squeek and scooted up as far as she could before diving off the side and making a run for it.

But Link was fast and no amount of hiding behind chairs and small tables was helping, as they all were overthrown in his desire to reach his goal. Zelda vanished into the small private bathroom and tried to shut the door; once again to no avail, as Link pushed his way in and ended up tripping over and landing in the filled bath tub. Water went everywhere as he had pulled Zelda in with him. Splashing each other and still laughing; they barely heard the knock on the side door, before Impa came in with fresh towels for them.

"You will be cleaning up all of this water before it floods the rest of the castle won't you Link." she said in no uncertain terms and with a fierce look on her face. Link sobered immediately and nodded at Impa as she left them alone again. Zelda was in fits of giggles watching his face;

"Ha ha ha. You should see your face Link, you are scared of Impa aren't you?" His wife had her arms wrapped round her midriff as she laughed at him. Link stared at her;

"She can be one scarey woman Zel, I've been in her bad books once or twice. Never again." And he splashed her once again for good measure.

"Just remember Link," called Impa; through the door this time, "I will bring you up something to eat later on and this time answer me before I come in. I dont want to walk in on anything that will scar me for the rest of my life." She smiled as yet more laughter from the couple answered her statement. But they waited until her step had vanished from the hallway before starting a messy pillow fight. They could still be childlike and that was for the good because they had both missed out on it the first time around.

The rest of the night was spent in doing whatever they felt like at the time and as neither was particularly tired, they didn't get a lot of sleep. Link however would not risk repeating his totally carefree response to his wife again. He was strong willed and she resigned; he would not spill his seed in her anymore that night. She hid her disappointment once again; Link still made sure that she was always satisfied physically and that only he really missed out on the ultimate closeness, that staying inside her would bring.

Eventually they slept; tucked up together and so satisfied and exhausted, that neither of them heard the maids enter the room and clear up all the mess that they had made. Impa had taken pity on Link and was not going to insist that he be made to tidy their rooms like a naughty child. The maids left laughing quietly amongst themselves and one even said in a whisper to her friends;

"Perhaps this time our Princess will find herself expecting again."

"Let's hope so, it has been so hard for her since she miscarried and to see her friend with her baby and not have her own."

"I thought that the Prince wont let them try for another baby just yet though..." The voices stopped speaking as they realised they were not alone. Tima had been on his way back to his master's suite to fetch an outdoor cloak when he rounded the corner and came across the three maids. He bowed politely as they passed and then carried on to complete his errand, a secret smile on his face as he stored away this piece of news.

Link awoke full of energy as usual, the gifts he'd been granted by Farore and Din at the end of his quest infusing him. After spending the neccessary time in the bathroom to relieve himself and freshen up, he grinned and thanking the Goddesses silently; he crept up on his still sleeping and unsuspecting wife. She awoke to feel her husband's hands caressing her and his lips nuzzling at her neck and as she became more aware, she realised that another part of his anatomy was also interested in the fact that she was now awake.

An hour or so later when the pair were once again basking in the afterglow of intense lovemaking; Link realised that the room had been tidied. Which meant that Impa had told the maids, which meant that girls had been in this morning, which meant that he and Zelda had been seen...had they been covered up after...how was he going to look any of the maids in the face again?

Zelda noticed his red face and wondered about it until he told her that the room had been cleaned up. She however was not a bit embarrassed; after all she had been brought up in the castle, as had most of the maids and it was normal for all of them to go about their duties, regardless of the state of the room's occupants. The maids were discreet; they had to be if they wished to keep their position and anyway, Zelda knew all of the girls on this floor personally. Link did not feel very reassured; it may have been her way of life, but up until fairly recently it had not been his.

"Don't worry my love, you have nothing to be ashamed off anyway. I already know all the girls are jealous of me." She laughed ecstatically when his face reddened even more and she was still laughing when Impa appeared and told them to get up.

"It was your fault Impa, that the maids came in wasn't it? I told you I would clear up the mess." Link was most indignant and it made Impa smile.

"Come on Link, it is good to have a new topic of conversation for the servants, it gets boring having the same old things to chat about. I expect they will be talking about your body for weeks to come. Now get up, or you will be adding fuel to the fire; with speculation about just what it is, you are still getting up to in here." Impa stood with her arms folded waiting and Link got up; no longer shy in front of her, she had after all been dealing with him since he had been forced asleep in the Temple of Time.

Zelda was by now dressed and ready to go down for a meal and found out that it was in fact lunchtime; they had missed breakfast entirely. As they walked together, down to the dining hall; Link was sure that everyone he passed and then everyone who served them dinner, was smirking at him and he blushed so red that the colour did not fade until well after dessert. Even Malon and Jardan later that afternoon seemed to be grinning for no apparant reason; Zelda just told him he was being paranoid.

In the afternoon, another picnic had been arranged; this time for Hyrule field and once again, all of Hyrule was informally invited. To Link's delight, a few of the young and more adventurous Moblins from the mountains turned up. They originally came to visit the market and to see how they would be received and decided to go to the picnic. There was a cautious welcome for them from most, but by the end of the day; new friends had been made. Link and Zelda were delighted; their feelings of happiness, doubled through their link.

But all good things come to an end and the picnic and brief holiday was no exception. Link was to be on the road again by the following afternoon as more refugee moblins had been contacted. These were ones who had had previous contact with those at Death Mountain and the old Moblin would go with Link, Gron and Darunia to try to contact them. They in turn hopefully, would know of others who could be helped and once a network of communication had been opened up perhaps Link could return home for longer than a day.