I very much appreciate the great reviews you've given me. I especially appreciate when you let me know what it is you like or offer constructive criticism. While I have a story I want to tell, I want to tell it in a way that is best for you, so keep the reviews coming to help me refine my writing ability!

Also, there may be some confusion as to why Link thinks he can't be king. It isn't political at all, but he is simply insecure about his ability to lead a nation and feels Hyrule's well-being should come before his.

Also, someone mentioned Zelda's feelings on all of this. You'll have to infer what she's thinking from Link's point of view for a while, but in a few chapters you will get her story!

At about three o'clock in the morning, Link finally gave up on the notion of sleeping. He simply could not keep his mind from thinking of her. In the past, this was fine, because they were good thoughts. But now, every thought of her brought a pain he had never known before. He loved a girl whom he could never be with.

He had complete joy right in front of his face. He would be living in the same building as that source of joy. Yet he could not reach out and have it. Time and again, the hope—the dream—came that perhaps he could be the King. But the hope was completely selfish. He was no king, and even if Zelda did want him, which he seriously doubted, there was not a chance he could lead a nation anywhere but into the ground. He could lead a military into battle—but not a kingdom into prosperity and happiness. And that's what Zelda's job was now. To lead her people to happiness. As fate would have it, she was sure to fail with one of her citizens—Link.

Link stood up and packed up the blanket he was failing to sleep in. He decided to leave Epona slumbering peacefully and try to distract his mind. The one thing he could think of that might distract enough was work. So, he made his way back to Castle Town.

The night air was cool, but he didn't mind. He had been through much worse in his travels. If anything, the cool helped him because it gave his mind something to concentrate on other than her. Unfortunately, everywhere he looked reminded him of her. Not necessarily because every blade of grass or every tree swaying in the wind had a memory of her attached to it, but because he was so obsessed with her that his mind latched on to every possible connection to her. And after a couple of hours of walking, he made it back to the castle, where the moat surrounding the castle made him think of the night she was to bathe, and he saw her in nothing but a thin towel.

Yes, Link reaffirmed to himself, he would need a distraction.

The drawbridge was drawn, and it was either a three hour walk through a river and treacherous forest around the back side of the Castle, or he would find a way over the walls, effectively measuring the capabilities of his military while he was at it.

Link walked for a few minutes around the outer wall before finding a good place. He waded through the moat to the city wall and began climbing. The water had been cold, and his feet were now slippery. Even so, he made it up the wall with relative ease. Link recalled the last time he scaled a stone wall like this. The first time he met Zelda…

The walls were about six feet thick, and at the top, there was a walkway for guards to patrol, with short, thinner walls on each side. As he neared the top of the wall, he expected to have to carefully time hopping on the rampart to avoid patrolling guards. However, as he peered over the wall, he found no patrolling guard.

This troubled him, but he hopped up onto the wall and began walking along its top, with thin walls on either side of him. For nearly a minute he walked until he found the first guard, who lay sleeping instead of keeping watch. Link took an arrow and etched, "you're dead" into the stones nearby, where the guard would surely see and realize how easy it would've been.

Link continued walking along the city's protection barrier only to find the next guard sitting with his back against the outer wall, throwing a ball against the inner wall. Link startled the young man as he began speaking. "You could at least be facing the outer wall, so you could see if an army was marching towards us."

The guard reached for his spear, but Link simply shook his head. "You'd be dead if I wanted to kill you. Don't strain yourself on my account. What's your name?"

The man got to his feet and grabbed his spear anyways and pointed it at Link. "Who wants to know?"

Link smiled, drew his sword and flung the spear over the edge of the wall before the young man could blink. Link waited for the splash of the spear hitting the moat before saying. "I'm Link, your new Commander. What's your name?"

The young man took a quick breath and stood up straighter. "Mako, sir."

Link found it strange, just for a moment, that this man, who was likely a year or two older than Link, would call him sir.

"Well, Mako. I'm grateful you were at least awake. And that you didn't remain sitting when a stranger approached you at your station. However, you should not have a station. You should be patrolling, am I right?"

The guard shrugged. "I guess that's what we're supposed to be doing, but Sergeant has never really made us do it. Nothing ever happens, so I guess he figures—"

"Nothing ever happens?" Link interrupted. "Less than three months ago, the king was killed in the middle of what should be the safest place in Hyrule! And you say nothing happens?"

Mako stuttered nervously. "Well…I didn't mean that…not at night…and he was, Ganondorf that is…he's not really…he couldn't be stopped, I mean."

Link held up his hand. It effectively silenced the man. "I stopped him. I'm not saying the man wasn't incredibly powerful. But you, the guards, were scattered, hardly fighting as a unit. You weren't trained well. You raised no alarm. So, no…it's not that he couldn't be stopped. It's that you couldn't stop him."

There was a long moment of silence before Mako broke it. "Yes, sir."

"I thank you for your service, Mako. We will be changing things around here, and I would appreciate it if you helped set an example for the other guards. We'll be getting some new recruits as well, and I hope that they don't learn to play around during their shift from you."

"No, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Goodnight, Mako."

"Goodnight, sir."

As Link clambered down a ladder, leading to the inside of Castle Town, he happily realized that he had been distracted. Maybe, just maybe, he could get through this trial by jumping headfirst into his new work. He would exert as much time and energy to this calling as mind required for distraction.

He decided he would be the greatest commander Hyrule had ever seen.

For over three weeks, Link and Zelda had been getting more and more comfortable around each other. It was just a natural consequence of spending nearly every hour of every day together. And for the most part, Link enjoyed this very much. They knew of each other's childhoods and upbringing. They understood the other's hopes and dreams. Link was terrified to learn that Zelda's greatest fear had already occurred in losing her father. Zelda seemed suspicious but impressed that Link could not honestly think of a fear he had.

"Maybe women," Link had said jokingly.

Zelda laughed before responding quietly, "I think you do just fine."

However, with the closeness, there were certain boundaries Link could not cross. For example, he required complete solitude when excreting waste. Fortunately, Zelda felt the same. Another boundary Link had thought to exist was complete privacy while bathing.

This boundary was still in place, but was steadily eroding. Two weeks earlier, Zelda would take the cloth they used for a towel, disappear for thirty minutes, and come back looking almost the exact same, but with wet hair. But over the weeks, they had become more comfortable with each other's presence.

Link likely started it a week earlier, when he realized his tunic was extremely dirty while bathing and washed it. He then came back to the campfire with the towel wrapped around his waist with nothing else on while his clothes dried. Zelda had been surprised initially, but like everything else, they quickly got used to it.

Now, they were halfway up Goron Mountain resting for the night near a hot spring they found. Alternating nights, it was Zelda's turn to bathe. Link stared deeply into the fire, trying not to think of Zelda behind the tent. It was obvious she was stripping down, and would wear just the towel down to the spring to bathe. Link determined to stare at the fire the whole time, not just to give Zelda her privacy, but also to keep his thoughts from drifting too much.

Unfortunately, Zelda came out from behind the tent and walked towards Link.

"Could you hand me the soap, Link?"

On their way to Goron Mountain, they stopped in Kakariko Village for basic supplies, including food, proper sleeping attire, another set of clothing, and soap and mouth wash. Link thought it would make the rest of their journey much more pleasant.

And as Link turned to look at the woman asking him the question, it was quite pleasant. The proper towels they had picked up in Kakariko Village were quite thin, and showed off Zelda's curves a little too nicely for Link. The towel was fastened just below Zelda's arms, revealing flesh that Link had never seen. The moonlight and firelight danced on Zelda's creamy skin, as her hair fell smoothly over her bare shoulders. The towel came to a stop well above her knees, showing off long and shapely legs that had been hidden by Zelda's dress for weeks.

"Uhh…yea," Link cleared his throat. "Yea, just a second."

Link turned around as he felt his face heat up and reached for the saddle bag to his side for the soap. He turned back to Zelda, unable to meet her eyes, and held the soap out to her. As she grabbed the soap, her hand brushed against his and sent an unfamiliar tingling up his arm.

"Thanks," she smiled, and turned around, trotting towards the spring. Link could not take his eyes off the retreating form until she disappeared behind a large rock, where she…

Link shook his head. He couldn't think about that. He couldn't think about her being just a stone's throw away, bathing in the hot spring. He stared back into the fire, but that didn't help. He could not keep certain images from popping into his head.

He needed a distraction. He looked around desperately, looking everywhere but towards the spring, until his eyes landed on his bow and arrow.

"I'll practice," he mumbled to himself. Link had always been an excellent shot, but he couldn't help but remember the arrow he fired at Ganondorf's retreating form, some weeks earlier after he had sliced into the King. The arrow had been short and left. Had it hit its mark, Ganondorf may have fallen that day.

So Link grabbed his bow and a quiver of arrows and walked in the opposite direction to shoot target after target. He shot moving targets, such as birds, and faraway stationary targets on the mountainside. For thirty minutes he practiced, becoming more and more confidant in his accuracy, and reflecting on the shot he had fired at Ganondorf.

This proved to be the distraction he needed, and when he returned to the fire, Zelda had already returned and was completely dressed. She had ditched the dress, however, in lieu of a more form-fitting garb used by the Sheikah, which she had received in Kakariko Village.

Link decided he would be the greatest archer Hyrule had ever seen by the end of this quest…

There you have it. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!