Epilogue: New Pains, New Beginnings
Fierce Deity Link stepped over to Cremia hunching over Romani's bleeding body, tears flowing from the woman's eyes as she tried desperately to stop the bleeding with her bare hands. Link clenched his blood-covered hands in anger as he wished he had a healing fairy or red potion.
"I… I can't stop the bleeding… I'm so sorry Romani…" Cremia said as she collapsed over her little sister's body. Romani looked over at her crying sister, wincing as she gave a forced smile.
"I-it's okay Sister…" Romani squeaked with a low, barely audible voice.
"No, it's not! I'm your big sister! I-I'm supposed to take care of you…"
"Sister, you've always looked out for Romani… always taking care of me when I was sick…" Romani said as she coughed up some blood and looked back to Cremia. "You've yelled at me when I've done crazy things, but Romani knows you care… You're the best Sister in the world…. I love you." There was a long silent moment as tears ran down the cheeks of the ranch sisters.
Cremia swallowed hard in an effort to bring words to her mouth along with a forced smile. "I… love you too Romani." The elder sister breathed. Romani's eyes looked dull, but they clung to the last bits of life as they moved from her sister to Link.
"G-Grass… hopper…" she said weakly, bits of blood oozing from her mouth. Link knelt down and faced the young girl. "Please… take care… of Sister… she… needs someone… to make her happy and smile… can you promise me… that you'll… do that for me?" Link nodded silently, too filled with guilt to mutter any words to the little girl. Cremia however grasped at her sister's small hands with her blood-covered ones.
"You'll be here to make me smile too, Romani." She choked as she tried to fight back tears. "All three of us, together…" the words were meant to come with a smile but it was turned instead into grimaces of sorrow. Link and Cremia looked into Romani's eyes, they showed something like she wanted to say something further but that faint bit of life died away and the normally bright sapphire eyes turned dull. Cremia burst again into tears but this time into the chest of her now deceased sister. Link couldn't say anything but pat Cremia's back as tears began to run down his cheeks too, if however silently compared to Cremia's wails. Link didn't know how long he had stayed there with Cremia crying, it felt like hours but it could have been just a few minutes. Whatever it was he didn't care, he wiped away the excess tears from his eyes and cheeks and tried to lightly hold Cremia as she sniffled away her final tears. Link placed his fingers on Romani's face and closed her eyes to make her appear as if she was sleeping calmly. He guided Cremia to her feet and bring her inside the house, he guided her to the table and sat her down. He stroked her red hair and gently kissed her cheek, hoping that would comfort her.
"I'm… going to go dig a grave for Romani…" he stated with a quiet, hoarse voice. She nodded, not really fully noticing his words. He stroked her cheek with his hand and then held her chin to guide her absent gaze to his own. "Cremia, you and I… we'll be okay. I promise." He said quietly as he then gave her a small, light kiss on the lips. He didn't expect her to fully respond to it - if at all - but she lightly kissed back, however briefly. Their faces parted and his white eyes gazed into hers and smiled lightly, she weakly and briefly returned it. With nothing more needing to be said he walked out of the house and into the Ranch. He was instantly grateful that the mob hadn't done anything totally destructive but he couldn't help but feel his threats would eventually mean nothing to the people of Termina and they may try to return, and be more prepared for his godlike abilities in some way. He then remembered the bodies of the Gorman brothers that he had brutally murdered. As much as he wanted to let them rot in the woods like the pieces of garbage they were, he couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt and pity. He may have hated them but he should at least give them too a burial - however not on this Ranch. They didn't deserve that kind of benefit.
Link walked into the barn and found the shovel quickly, and walked outside to the space between the house and barn and began digging. He dug in the hard ground for a long time, his mind wandering since the normally straining labor did not seem to affect him. He tried to make sense of all the happenings, where he and Cremia could go or do. Hyrule probably wouldn't accept them, especially with how he looked. No town or village would likely accept him.
His shovel hit stone, and bent down his tall body, and with the superior strength of his god-like form, he removed the stone easily before resuming his digging, and thoughts which span in circles of anxiety and fear. Soon he had dug a deep enough grave for Romani, but decided to wait on placing her inside the grave. He instead took the remains of the Gorman Brothers and carried their corpses out of the ranch, down Milk Road, and into the Gorman Track. He went back to the Ranch and retrieved his shovel. With it in hand, he wasted no time in digging the bastards shallow graves near their shack. Within an hour the graves were dug and he carelessly dropped their corpses into the holes, then covered them. He did not bother with a headstone. They deserved to be buried at their home, but not a headstone. They did not deserve to be remembered.
Link returned to Romani Ranch and found Cremia just exiting the house. She looked at him with reddened eyes from crying. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words formed. Link stepped slowly towards her, wrapping his arms around her. She buried her face into his chest, he stroking her beautiful red hair, kissing the top of her head. They stood for a moment in their comforting embrace, before Link broke their contact to look down at the young deceased girl. In stoic silence, he bent and carefully lifted Romani's body, slowly walking over to the grave he had dug. He looked back at Cremia, unsure of what to say. He gently placed Romani's body in the hole. Cremia stepped closer, looking down at her little sister resting in a freshly dug grave.
"She..." Cremia choked back a sob. "She deserved better than this."
Link nodded silently.
"I loved her as if she was a sister." He whispered, holding back his own tears. They stood for a moment, lost for words, unsure of what to say for Romani, who died far younger than she should have. Unable to deal with the silence anymore, Link took his shovel and began to replace the dug up dirt back onto Romani's cold body. It took only a few minutes, but they felt like hours. Their minds bringing up pleasant and not so pleasant memories with the young ranch girl.
Link patted the dirt of the grave with the shovel, before reaching for a large plank of wood and a dagger. He carved Romani's name onto the board, then shoving it at the head of the grave. He stepped back to examine his work. It wasn't much, and he felt she deserved far better, but he was sure she would understand that he and Cremia had to leave soon. They couldn't risk staying here.
"I'm sorry, this is the best I can do." He apologized, unclear if he was directing his statement towards Romani or Cremia.
"It's alright, Link." Cremia said as she moved closer to her lover, wrapping herself around him. "Where do you think we should go?" She asked after another moment of silence.
"I'm not sure. The mountains and canyon will be difficult to trek through, but Ikana would be ideal because we'd be getting away from people. People still think Ikana is haunted. The mountains, swamp and ocean are all fairly populated."
"Is there anything beyond Ikana Canyon?"
"I don't know, but I hope whatever there is, it's better than Termina or Hyrule." He sighed as he wiped away tears that had formed. "I don't know what we can do if..." He trailed off, his voice cracking from emotion. Cremia leaned on him, hugging him tighter.
"It will be. We'll make it, and we'll be alright." Cremia said with a sorrowful smile. "We... We have a small angel on our side to guide us." Link was unclear if he believed in angels in this harsh world, but he knew that she meant Romani. He put an arm around the woman he loved and smiled.
"You're right, we'll be okay."
The End.
Author's Final Thoughts:
FINALLY! This story is finished. I am sorry for the long wait between these last few chapters. I touched on why I was losing interest in past Author's notes. The comments being annoying and immature primarily (thank you to those who kept their comments mature) but it was also due to a general lack of interest. As some of my older readers will know; I'm a super sporadic writer. I'll have some stretches where I am writing and putting out a lot, and then I'll have loooooooong dry spells where I'm not putting out anything - possibly making people think I died or abandoned the story. I hoped when I was initially working on this story that it wouldn't suffer from my long dry spells, but it sadly did. At least this isn't like my Doom story where its still a WIP after nearly a decade.
Despite my distaste for some of the comments, I do thank you all for commenting, favoriting and following this story. I'm fairly certain this is my second most popular story on this site - only beaten by my DBZ story "The Unwalked Path". Which I have been trying to work on.
Actually, I was primarily focusing my attention on that story and a short crossover story that had been rolling in my head for a couple years which I started working on earlier this year (around the time I wrote that short Star Trek one-shot) when I was going through whatever files/chapters of my various stories I am working on, when I remembered I had more than half of this final chapter done. So the other night I read through this last chapter, brain stormed how to wrap it up, and then finished it up last night before passing out in bed.
Again; I am sorry for the long wait on this story, but at least its done now and I can move back to other stories/projects. I hope you've all enjoyed it. I don't know if I'll ever try my hand at another story like this - I want to say no because I really did not like the comments, and I don't feel like dealing with that again. If I decide to include a sex scene in another story, I'll likely not forwarn the readers and build hype like this one did. But there's a good chance I won't anyway since I've had my fun now.
