A/N: I felt like this story needed a small dose of seriousness and action after that last fluff-filled chapter. (That doesn't mean there won't be more fluff in this chapter though! XD) Wow, this fic is turning out a lot longer than I expected! It may wrap up in the next 2-3 chapters. BUT THAT MAY CHANGE... anyways, enjoy this chapter! I think it may be my favorite so far. :)

Chapter 4: Scars and a Dress

Zelda could barely contain her excitement. As soon as Link's Loftwing retrieved her from the private grove and returned her and Link to Skyloft, the girl raced to the academy to show everyone her new ring and share the news. By the time Link opened the front doors, half of the academy had heard Zelda's excited giggles as she raced up the steps to tell her father.

After congratulating the couple, the teary-eyed headmaster patted Link's shoulder and said, "I'm happy for you both. You'll make a wonderful husband for my daughter, Link." Link beamed at this.

Karane and Pipit were especially excited; Karane gushed congratulatory compliments and hugged them both tightly. Pipit patted Link on the back in approval and gave Zelda a hug as well.

After the news spread of their engagement, Link and Zelda were flooded with visits by everyone in town. Those doing construction down in Hyrule even dropped by on their Loftwings to congratulate the couple. It seemed to Link that the entire town was ecstatic; it was as if the townspeople had been waiting for this moment for years.

That afternoon, the young couple sat on the steps overlooking the town center. Their hands were intertwined as Zelda excitedly babbled about her excitement. Link was only half listening, as he was still basking in the knowledge that the girl who he wrapped his arm around was now his fiancé.

"…been dreaming this moment would happen since-hey, are you okay, Link?" Zelda looked at him and asked at one point.

Link blinked and looked back at her, embarrassed. "Hm? Oh sorry, I'm still in a daze. You have no idea how much stress has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm listening…"

Zelda smiled and hugged him tightly. "It is okay, Link. I'm excited too." Suddenly her eyes got very wide. "The wedding," she gasped. "We have to make plans! Oh, when will we find the time!? We have to start building our homes in Hyrule!"

"Our home," Link smiled at the thought of building his future home with Zelda.

Zelda returned his smile. "Yes, our home… But the wedding has to be first! Oooh… How will we decide on everything and—" Link put a finger to her mouth and clasped her hand with his free one.

"Zelda, I think our wedding should be in Hyrule. You know, it'll be special, like you always wanted. The first wedding on the surface." Link watched Zelda's mouth open as she enthusiastically nodded at his suggestion. He continued, "I just want you to be happy. You can make all of the arrangements. While you work on that, I can handle helping out on the surface. At this point in the construction, we should have more than enough bird-power to keep the pace up. The plans for the town have already been approved by you, so all we have to do is build the structures."

Zelda smirked. "I've only seen you make animal carvings. It'll be interesting to see you build houses." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Alright. There's a lot of work that we both need to do! I want to wed as soon as possible!" She smiled before jumping up and lightly skipping inside to find Karane and Henya.

Link left Skyloft the following morning to help out with construction of the town on the surface. He was surprised when he finally glimpsed the plans and realized that a castle was to be constructed around the Goddess Statue. Upon arriving at the Sealed Grounds, he noticed many Gorons assembled to aid in the moving of thousands of massive stones that had arrived. It turned out that the Goron who was intrigued by the sky people had many friends. They, with help of the Mogma tribe, had transported carts filled with stone resources from the Eldin region to use as their thanks for saving Hyrule. The Kikwi were helping to create strong ropes out of vines they had collected.

As he stepped in front of the sealed temple, Link found Groose sending groups of people off to begin work. Zelda had placed him in charge of managing the workers while the elders from Skyloft oversaw the plans. Link set his supplies under a tree. He then removed his tunic and hat, rolled up his pants to his knees and tightened his boots. He knew he was going to get sweaty from working in the heat of summer without the breezes he was used to in Skyloft. He did, however, strap his seniority sword onto his back. Even though he knew that monsters wouldn't dare approach the busy Skyloftians, he didn't yet feel like he could trust being on the surface without a weapon.

The Gorons would be doing most of the work on the castle, which was projected to take many years to complete. The Sealed Temple would also be receiving a facelift. The exterior would be rebuilt out of Eldin stone and hand-crafted stained glass windows made by the Skyloftian artists would be installed. The architects who designed the building wanted to stress the protection and importance of the gate of time and the Master Sword. Small stone foundations of many small buildings close to the temple had already been placed and workers were already raising the wooden skeletons of the structures.

Link walked over to Groose to see how he could help. Groose eyed his exposed muscles, briefly, and then smirked. "Well, your majesty, don't you think you should leave the work to the townspeople?" When Link gave him a bewildered stare, he snorted. "Well, you're marrying a Goddess. You're pretty much our king. Or something."

Link rolled his shoulders impatiently. "I am just as much of a citizen of this town as you are. Point me in a direction to start in and I'll get to work." Groose rolled his eyes and pointed to a structure that several people were working on. The studs and joists had all been placed. The roof was being constructed. Link trotted over and nimbly maneuvered onto the roof with ease. He grabbed a hammer from his pouch and began pounding nails into the roof at the instruction of one of the workers.

Several hours passed before Link felt his throat beginning to protest from the lack of water flowing inside. A summer afternoon sun had been heating his back all day. The roof was done and it was time to move on to building the next building. Link wiped his brow with his arm and climbed down from the roof. His throat seemed to be silently screaming at him now, so he went to his pile of things under the nearby tree to fetch a bottle of water and fruit he brought. He sat under the shade of the tree, felt sweat cool his body, and allowed himself a short break.

As he leaned against the tree, he watched Groose, Stritch and Cawlin install a stone foundation several meters across from the building Link had just helped complete. It was a bit entertaining to watch Cawlin and Stritch struggle to lift the heavy stones. Link smiled as he remembered how hard that had been when he first started his mission. He had eventually built up his arm muscles from combat and climbing around through dungeons and temples. Sighing, he bit into the stamina fruit he held.

He looked down at his bare chest. There were still many scars plainly visible on his pale skin. The first one, a small mark on his left shoulder, had been received upon being rescued by his Loftwing from Ghirahim's magic tornado. He was unconscious after impacting the storm, but he was pretty sure that his Loftwing had caught him in the talons and dug a claw into his shoulder because of the chaotic catch. Many of the random scars on his chest and back had been from getting hit from clubs and swords from random monsters early on in his quest. These weren't as severe, luckily. His arms had slightly worse scars on his biceps from where the chainmail had failed to cover. A large remnant of a gash was visible on his right arm from where he had been clipped by a Stalfo's sword on the Sand Ship. But some of the worst marks had come from Ghirahim and Demise, his toughest opponents by far.

Ghirahim had left a large gash on his right shoulder blade during their first clash with a direct hit from his sword. Back then, Link did not have much experience with real combat and he blamed himself for giving Ghirahim the easy opening. Link could still remember the sharp pain, ripping sensation, and the feeling of his own trickling blood followed by Ghirahim's sadistic giggling in his ear. And that tongue. He was lucky he had some red potion to ease the bleeding after the battle, but the wound had left lasting pain behind. There was a small cut that had left a scar on his left cheek from one of his encounters with the Demon Lord as well, but he couldn't recall which.

On the other hand, Link had faced Demise at the end of his mission and had thus acquired many prior weeks of intense combat experience. Even so, he had several scars on his sides from the burns of lightning bolts that had dared too close. Demise had also managed to get a demonic swipe of his abdomen that struck even through his protective chainmail. This was perhaps his most noticeable and distinctive scar. It was jagged and spread from the top of his right hip, crossed his abdomen, and stopped on the left of his pectoral. He had to drink two bottles of red potion and use a fairy before he got that injury to stop bleeding.

Look at who you've become. You're an ugly mess, Link, he thought to himself with a sad smile. After finishing the fruit, his energy returned and stood up to go help raise the walls of the next building

….

Dressed in an emerald strapless dress, Zelda stood in the dining hall of Skyloft's academy, surrounded by a group of females who were taking measurements of her body and chattering about fabrics and dresses. The construction of Zelda's wedding dress would take the longest amount of preparation out of all of the wedding requirements, so the elder females had requested to begin their sewing immediately. Henya, the elder woman who worked in the academy's kitchen, was scratching down Zelda's measurements as the other women measured around the Spirit Maiden's body. Karane, Orielle, and Kina sat at the table with Piper and young Kekiel. Goselle and Mallara—Pipit's mom—were telling Henya each of Zelda's numbers. The women were excitedly discussing the dresses they envisioned Zelda wearing.

"Ooooh I can see you in a sleek sparkly white dress. We can use fairy dust for the sparkles!"

"Naw, I see her in a big poofy dress with lots of lace and ruffles."

"I think she should go with something simple. An elegant white dress with a pickup style skirt."

"Something with a diamond pattern. It has to be FABULOUS."

"AWWW I WANNA PRETTY DRESS TOO!"

Zelda giggled as the ideas were tossed around. Ultimately, it was her design to pick. She wished Link was there to help. With his natural artistic abilities, he could sketch a dress and adjust it for Zelda until she thought it was perfect. But of course, he wasn't allowed to see her dress until the wedding. She sighed, still feeling blissful about her future. Looking down at her engagement ring, she grinned. She knew the women's group effort could produce a design she loved.

"You know, Zelda, we will incorporate some of your Loftwing's feathers into the dress as well. Have you thought about that?" Henya asked as the last measurement was recorded.

Zelda nodded. "Yes, I think I know how I want them." She began describing her vision as Henya wrote her words down. Karane whipped out a piece of parchment and tackled the monstrous task of drawing the dress. Zelda smiled and took her quill, adjusting the sketch to the best of her abilities. The girls gasped as the dress Zelda was envisioning began to manifest on the paper. She even sketched her veil's design.

"It's beautiful," breathed Goselle as Zelda finished her rough drawing. "It is among the most stunning of all designs I have seen…" She smiled. "I'm so excited to begin work on this!" The rest of the women nodded.

It was a tradition to have some women of Skyloft create the wedding dress while the bride made sure the design was perfect. The women would ultimately make each of their friends' wedding dresses over the years. This way, the women had plenty of social time together, away from the men, and formed strong bonds that stayed for the rest of their lives. Zelda thought it was a beautiful tradition and she wanted to keep it for her Hyrule wedding.

Zelda looked to Karane as the women began gathering materials and spreading fabric on the table. Even little Kekiel already knew how to sew a little. "Karane, would you like to come with me elsewhere? I think they'll need the whole kitchen today! Who knows where the students will eat come dinner tonight?"

Karane agreed to go with Zelda and followed the Goddess Reborn up to her bedroom. On the way up, Karane chatted with Zelda about how excited Pipit was to take his first knightly duty in Hyrule to protect the Triforce the next day.

Zelda shut the door and they sat on some of the soft pillows lying on the ground. Zelda smiled and put her hand on Karane's shoulder. "Karane, you've been a wonderful friend and roommate over the years and I know I am making a good decision when I ask; will you play the Goddess at my wedding?"

Karane laughed. "Zelda… aren't you the Goddess or something? Wouldn't that be…uh, strange?"

Zelda lightly smiled. "I have her memories, but I'm still Zelda. I may have some sort of divine soul and maybe some sort of magic, but I am no Goddess. Besides, I really want you to be a special part of my wedding."

Karane put her palm to her chin and beamed. "Well, I would be honored, Zelda!" She sat up straight. "So, what kind of plans are we talking about? We've been daydreaming about this our entire lives! This is your day, Zel."

Zelda laughed. "You know, I always thought, since you're older, that you'd get married first. So I was going to see what you did and figure out what I liked from yours and what I wanted to do. I honestly don't know what I want it to be like, besides the fact that it'll be in Hyrule."

Karane found a piece of parchment on Zelda's desk. "Well, let's start brainstorming, then."

Several hours later, the sun had moved in the sky, and Zelda came up with a few ideas she liked with Karane. She told her friend she wanted to let them set in her mind overnight and talk again in the morning.

Zelda walked by the kitchen and saw that the ladies had made some progress on her dress. They had constructed a simple stand for it to hang from and she saw the soft architecture of her dress forming slowly as the women operated. Zelda teared up a little as she saw them working. She had only once gotten the opportunity when she was young to help with Piper's wedding dress, and back then she couldn't even do much to help. But she remembered how thrilling it still was and now she watched as Kekiel excitedly observed Piper's work and played with the purple feathers plucked from Zelda's Loftwing that laid on the table.

Zelda turned and left out the front door of the academy. She adjusted the top of her dress and squinted as she walked towards the setting sun. It casted a warm orange glow over Skyloft. She knew it had been a hot day so she grabbed a stamina fruit from a tree nearby and placed it in her flying bag. She then leapt off the dock and called her bird, who carried her gently down to the Sealed Grounds.

She looked around and saw several buildings standing around her. They were in no ways complete, but their wooden skeletons were built and the roofs finished. They looked habitable, just not completely weatherproof yet. She felt a jolt of excitement at the realization that she was actually starting to see a real town forming in Hyrule.

Zelda stepped quietly through a narrow grassy area between the wooden structures. Eventually, a road would probably be placed under her feet. The empty shell of the town was peaceful and quiet. Zelda looked ahead and saw some workers raising a frame of a large building on the right side of the "road." She stopped and watched as they held and bolted the frame into place, noticing a familiar head of hair doing some of the heavier lifting.

Link was holding up the weight of the wall as workers attached the roof plate to the frame. She could see his back muscles, tense against the weight of the wall. Groose was up precariously perched on a ladder and was also working hard on finishing the final wall of the building.

After several minutes, the workers seemed to decide they were done for the day and began walking towards their camp inside the Sealed Temple. Zelda waited for Link to see her and then approached him.

"Link, I brought you a fruit! I knew you'd be tired and I didn't know if you had packed enough…" Zelda trailed off as Link approached. She hadn't seen him shirtless since the end of the Goddess's mission and so she hadn't ever seen his… newly developed muscles.

She tried to resist the urge to stare at him when she handed him the fruit. I knew he was strong but man… he looks so fit it's like he's part god or something, now, she thought, blushing. She immediately shook her head. She needed to keep her cool.

"Thanks, I needed it," Link breathed. He took a large bite. A few seconds later, still chewing, he asked, "How was today?"

She flicked her golden hair behind her shoulders. "Oh, I didn't do much. Got my wedding dress all planned and started. Don't go in the dining hall at the academy tonight if you know what's good for you…" She interlaced her fingers in his and looked up at him. "Karane agreed to play our Goddess! We're still working out details for the ceremony."

The forest was now glowing with the mysterious aura of twilight. They stopped walking near the tree where Link's supplies lay and turned to face each other. They stood alone in the dim evening light. Link finished the fruit and looked down at Zelda. "That's great news. I'm sure it'll be nice, no matter what." He scratched his dirty blonde hair and looked into her eyes. "Nothing can ruin it as long as I'm with you."

Zelda smiled as he leaned in to kiss her. Just as his lips brushed against her warm cheek, his ears twitched and he suddenly shifted into a protective position in front of Zelda, drawing his sword from his back. "Get back, Zel, against the tree!"

She did as he said and backed up, terrified, as he whirled around into a fighting stance. His ears twitched again and she watched as he swiftly leapt into some tall grass to the right, holding his sword with both hands. A shadowy creature emerged and crossed blades with the hero. They sparred for a moment until Link knocked the creature over with a spin attack. She watched as there was a flash of silver, followed by the screaming sound of a monster dying, and then saw a small puff of dark energy as something exploded in the grass beneath Link's blade. He stood completely still, listening for others, and sheathed his sword only after a minute. He turned back and looked at her with exhaustion stained in his blue eyes. She gulped as he approached, "Link, what was—"

He cut her off once again with a tight hug and another one of his mind-numbing kisses. After a moment, he parted from her lips and put his forehead against hers. "It was just a stray bakoblin. Probably just curious about us. But it was so close to you. I couldn't risk it," he said quietly, his voice still a little shaky. "By the way, you really look beautiful today."

Zelda blushed and cupped her hands onto his cheeks. "Link…" She dared to move her gaze downwards and for the first time she noticed the collection of scars on his body. She paused, looking at them. They ranged in severities but the most impressive was the large jagged scar that cut across his abdomen. She had seen the psychological effects that the quest had on him since they reunited, but up until now, he had hid most of any evidence of physical trauma.

She swallowed back tears. "You've done so much to protect me. You know, this is the first time I've actually seen you fight something…. I can't believe you beat it so fast. But I can only imagine how many monsters you had to face to get to this point." Her hand softly touched the large scar upon Link's chest that Demise had so thoughtfully cursed him with. He flinched slightly at her cool touch. Her hand lightly traced the mark until it ended and she found it resting near his left pectoral. "You've suffered so much."

He looked away. "I'm sorry I have so many scars. I know they're ugly,"

She shook her head. "No, Link, they're just a part of you now," She sniffed. "They aren't ugly, they tell your story. I… I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you for the pain I've caused." Her hand gently pressed against the skin covering his heart. She could faintly feel it swiftly beating under her palm. She felt tears starting to stream down her cheeks. "You'll always be amazing to me, Link, inside and out."

The sun was becoming dangerously close to the horizon and Link knew that they would be losing light soon. He held Zelda in his arms as she quietly cried, unsure about what to say.

After a minute he found some words. "Zel, I don't want you to feel guilty. You know I would do anything to keep you safe. I guess this is just my proof," He smiled. "Please don't cry. I'm here, I'm healthy, I'm alive, and I love you. That's all that matters."

She lightly smiled through her tears. "Link, I never want you to have to go through anything like that again. I promise to help and protect you in any way I can from now on." Her crying slowly dissipated as they embraced.

Link reluctantly released her before he whistled for his Loftwing. "I think it's safe to say that we'll be just fine as long as we're together." As the Crimson bird landed, he helped Zelda onto its back before gathering his things and jumping on its back. "I think there's going to be a full moon tonight."

Zelda looked over her shoulder and smiled at Link. "Sounds like a perfect time for night flying."

Link grinned. The activity was banned from academy students yet he and Zelda had often snuck out to fly in the moonlight over the years. "My favorite kind of flying." He patted the bird's back. "What do you think?"

The bird chirped happily and rose into the twilight sky, carrying the couple into a sea of glittering stars.