Ilia flopped onto her bed and sighed.
It was still early morning. She and Link had arrived the day before.
"Do you want to marry my daughter?"
"She knows you. She trusts you. She loves you, and you're a good man. What more could she want?"
Her father wanted her to marry Link.
Of course she did. But did he?
He had sounded rather reluctant.
Was he nervous?
Probably.
Most likely.
Her father was right. She did trust him, and she was in love with him.
If she had to marry, it would be Link.
She sighed again.
Would he propose?
Hopefully.
"Link."
He turned. "Yeah, Dad?"
"Bo told me that he asked you to marry his daughter. You accepted, didn't you?"
"Y-Yeah..."
Rowan smiled and pulled out a small box from his pocket. He held it out to him.
"This was your mother's. I want you yo use it for Ilia."
Link nodded and opened the box.
Inside was a small silver ring. It was made in the likeness of an ivy crown, with silver tendrils curling around tiny leaves.
Link smiled and thanked his father. Rowan nodded and pulled his son into a hug.
"You're growing up, son."
Link smiled.
"You're getting older."
Rowan let go and looked at his son. Link smiled again.
A grin broke out on his father's face and he laughed.
"You think I don't know that, do you?"
"I never said that."
Ilia sat on and upturned pail as she watched him work.
Milk the goats, feed them, herd them out, muck the stalls…
Link was sweating.
After he finished the morning routine, he sat next to her. She kissed him.
"You look tired. And you smell like..."
"Smelly stuff?"
She laughed. "Yeah."
"Well, it is rather warm for this time of year."
"Yeah..." She stood and led him outside. The forest wasn't green; instead, it was colored brilliant shades of red and gold.
They told the youngest children that in autumn, the Faeries would come out to paint the leaves.
Ilia smiled and sighed.
"You're turning twenty tomorrow."
He nodded. "Yeah."
She smiled and they walked down the well-worn path through the village.
Link nervously fingered the ring that his father had given him the day before.
They weren't really paying any attention to where they were going. After about thirty minutes, they found themselves at the old willow tree.
Ilia smiled and sat. She beckoned him to sit next to her.
He obeyed, and she kissed his cheek.
They sat there for several hours, just taking in the silence around them.
Ilia sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.
Link smiled and pressed his lips to her forehead.
She smiled and sighed again.
"Ilia..." Link asked her nervously.
She looked up at him with those emerald green eyes.
"Yeah?"
He blushed lightly. "Never mind."
She looked at him, a hint of confusion and disappointment in her eyes.
"Link?"
"Yeah?"
She kissed him.
He smiled slightly and kissed her back.
"Ilia..."
"Yeah?"
"Marry me."
She looked up at him and smiled. She nodded and kissed him again. He slipped the ring onto her finger as the parted.
"I love you." she whispered to him, barely loud enough to hear.
He got this feeling as she said those three words. Similar to love, but...different. A desire. He felt as if he was closer to whatever it was. This desire...it felt good. Peaceful, unlike the hungry love that some people shared.
He smiled and lied down on the mossy ground. She laid next to him, and he pulled her close and fell asleep.
The next day was Link's birthday.
His twentieth birthday, to be exact.
Link didn't want a big party, but Ilia objected
He was turning twenty. A big day for an Ordonian.
He was considered a hero in Hyrule. That counted for something.
And, to top it off, he was her fiancé.
She was not going to let him have his way.
Frankly, he didn't really care.
Uli, Pergie, Sera, Maeri and Ilia spent half the day in the kitchen,talking and laughing as they cooked.
Maeri hadn't heard of Ilia's betrothal to her stepson. Link had asked his fiancée not to announce their betrothal to everyone in the village and instead to just hint at it, for fear of unwanted attention. Mostly from Fado.
And Beth.
Uli, on the other hand, did know of his proposal. She, too, knew better than to tell everyone.
While the women of the village spent most of their day cooking, the men were outside. Most of them were out because their wives had sent them out due to the fact that they found them rather annoying at times like this. So the men spent their day setting up tables and chairs.
The children (most of whom were thirteen or fourteen) sat at said tables and made the decorations. Paper lanterns, leaves strung together to be used as streamers, snowflakes (maybe), and flowers (Beth did those).
Andi and Ava watched.
After the men had finished their job, Link and Rusl grabbed their swords and started fighting. Bo challenged everyone to a sumo wrestling championship (no boots allowed).
Rowan, Hanch and Fado refused to compete. They knew close to nothing about sumo.
It was around this time when some of the women came out for a break, Ilia among them.
Jaggle and Bo were first.
Jaggle did pretty well, which surprised a lot of people. He was thrown out anyways.
Rusl had challenged Link as soon as Bo proposed his idea.
Link had laughed.
Rusl had no idea what he had just asked him to do.
The match lasted five seconds. Link had stepped behind him, hit him and shove him out. Rusl laughed. He couldn't do anything.
Then it was the Mayor against his future son-in-law.
And, well, you probably know how it ended.
Bo sat on the ground, rubbing his lower back.
"I'm to old to fight you, boy!"
Ilia laughed and helped her father up and gave a kiss to the winner.
"I'm surprised."
He smiled.
"Why?"
"You won."
The rest of the day was filled with dancing, eating, and more eating. Ilia begged Link to let her tell everyone the news. He sighed and said yes, in which she jumped up astood on the nearest chair..
"Everyone! I have something to say!"
They all turned to face the excited eighteen-year-old.
"Link and I are getting married!"
Maeri looked as if she was going to faint.
Bo ran up to his daughter and shook the chair she stood on.
"Don't stand on the furniture!" he said happily.
She fell down and Link caught her.
"Normally you would get mad if someone did that to you,"Link said, surprised.
She threw her arms around his neck and screamed "We're getting married!"
She laughed smiled and kissed her startled fiancé.
And Bo grabbed them both and hugged them until they couldn't breath.