Time for chapter 70! With Ruto safe and the zola pirates dealt with, it's time to party at the beach!

"...and so darlings, I present you all with the soon-to-be leader of the zora, Queen Ruto!"

It was the day just after Link and his friend's quest to recover the Smooth Pearl and Ruto's transformation into the Zora Queen. Mystic Heremon made the announcement to the zora people as they stood just outside the Shrine of Lophela the next morning, and Ruto was met with great applause from the people of Zora Coast. By her side was Link, Nabooru, Zopem and King Hauvir Zora, the latter of which had tears of pride flowing down his face at his daughter's accomplishment.

Not too long after Link, Kesuta and Ruto rested from their trials and tribulations, Nabooru and the others arrived on shore with the aide of Big Momma Octo. The people were initially and understandably hostile to the giant octorok at first due to her working with the zola pirates, but after Zopem clarified what her situation had been with the zola blackmailing her, the people were somewhat accepting of her apologizes.

Ruto stepped up and smiled to the crowd before speaking out, "Thank you all so much for your support! I have great plans in mind for the future of the Zora, one of which being an official alliance with our new friends the Gerudo, as well as my marriage to their king Link! I presume there's no objections to my stance?" she asked with a smirk.

Ruto was met with great cheering, the zora having accepted Link and the Gerudo thanks to their deeds and accomplishment the other day in defeating the Zola pirates and saving their future queen. King Zora went ahead and officially declared a weekend-long celebration to honor the success of Ruto's ceremony, and the alliance with the Gerudo.

The next few days were devoted entirely to partying, feasting and fun at Zora Coast. The normally refined and prideful zora people just let loose and enjoyed themselves, and the Gerudo got along quite well with them as a result.

"Whoo!" Link shouted, coming up from the ocean and throwing his head back, allowing the water to fly off him. He had chose not to wear his Zora Master Tunic at the moment, and was just clad in his swim trunks, showing off his lean, somewhat muscular body.

"Hey Link, enjoying the water?" Aviel called out, along with Nemisa, Saria, Togau and Reirousa also in the water, the latter of which was being introduced to playing with Togau's beach ball.

"Sure am! I'm feeling refreshed from the other day!" Link nodded.

"Glad to hear, after what you did for Ruto I think you really deserve to relax and have some real fun! Wanna play with us?" Aviel grinned, then turned and shouted out, "Hey, hit the ball over to us Reirousa!"

"Uh, okay...?" Reirousa muttered looking down at it

"Just be careful, Nemisa nailed us pretty hard with it last time at the lake!" Togau said.

"Hey, I don't do that!" Nemisa shouted in protest

"Huh?" Saria asked in confusion, "But it looks so soft."

"Just duck and cover when she shoots it." Aviel assured her..

"Don't sweat it, I'll just give it a little tap." Reirousa said, then threw the ball up and hit it lightly with her fist.

The ball wound up flying through the air at almost light speed and smacked right into Togau. Reirousa watched as it ricocheted off the rancher and into the side of Nemisa's head, then it bounced and smacked Aviel right in the face. Saria herself was following Aviel's advice and was ducking in the water. She peeked out to see if the coast was clear, only for the ball to come right down and bean her on the head.

When it was over, the four of them were all laying in the water in a daze, with Reirousa standing there blankly. The beach ball itself just floated in the water.

"Uh, did I win?" Reirousa asked, only to be answered with the four splashing her in unison, "Gack, what'd I do?!" she exclaimed before Nemisa punched the beach ball right into her face.

"You big lummox!" Nemisa shouted.

Link chuckled to see the five of them enjoying themselves, then looked out at the beach to see Sarami, Kesuta, Korume, Sovan and Ifemi all hanging out on the sand, sitting on beach towels, "How about you girls, you doing alright?!" he called out to them.

"Just fine Link-sweetie!" Sarami called out waving, "You all have fun, okay?"

Link nodded and went off to join the others, while Ifemi herself sat with her elbows resting on her bent knees, staring out at the young Gerudo King.

"Mmm... Link's looking even hotter then before." Ifemi said with a grin, "His skin's getting bronzed by the desert sun, his hair's growing out, and he's been working out big time, he's got a killer bod!"

"I take it you didn't have much luck with the zoras?" Sovan asked.

"Not really. I don't know if it'd even work out for me right now anyway cause of the banishment." Ifemi said with a pout, "Maybe I'll just ask Nemisa if I can borrow King Link for a night..."

Ifemi looked back out at Link as he turned to grab the beach ball hurled at him by Togau and quickly tossed it back, giving Ifemi a good look at his firm rear end.

"...or a week or a month or a marriage or something." Ifemi continued, licking her lips a little.

Sarami at that moment glanced over at the eager look in Ifemi's eyes, then looked out at the ocean to Link, seeing him laughing as he brought up his arm to block a splash of water Aviel got him with. She smiled softly as her legs fidgeted and crossed a bit...

"I wish I could join him in the water, looks pretty fun." Kesuta moped with her cheeks puffed out, "But after the fight I had with that brine mage, I know my powers aren't anywhere near strong enough to resist the sea water."

"Honestly sister, I'm surprised that you were able to win against someone like that." Korume said, "Maybe your powers are developing more then you thought."

"You really think so?" Kesuta asked with her eyes lit up.

"...or perhaps you just got lucky and you could have ended up a drowned soggy twig instead..." Korume giggled darkly.

"Hey!" shouted Kesuta, igniting her body with flames.

"...but regardless, you stood up to that mage and helped save Ruto and the Big Octo's child." Korume continued, "I'm proud of you for that, dear sister."

Kesuta's flames died down and she smiled lightly with a blush, "Keeheehee... it's no big deal or nothing, I'm just glad Ruto's okay now."

"My, my, I rarely ever see you so humbled." Korume giggled, "I think Link's finally sanding off that massive ego of yours."

"You just don't know when to quit do you?!" shouted Kesuta, flaring up again.

"Hey, you're getting embers on my towel!" Sovan exclaimed, using a bottle of water to try and put out the small flames.

"So.. why am I wearing this?"

Link later found himself standing at the sandy beach, with Togau working on tying a blindfold over his eyes that completely obscured his vision.

"It's for somethin' fun, now hold still!" Togau said with a big grin.

"I haven't worn a blindfold since that one night I spent with Korume... I really don't think we should be doing something like that in public." Link said with a light blush.

"It's not what you think you perverted moron. It's just a fun little game the zoras play here." Nemisa said with amusement, handing Link a large wooden mallet.

"Basically you're gonna go track down a hydromelon on the beach and whack it with that hammer to split it open!" Aviel said, "We'll all be directing you on where to move and where to swing!"

"Huh, alright then." Link nodded, but that was when Togau and Nemisa grabbed him by his arms, and quickly spun him in circles, "Woooaaahh!"

Everyone watched as Link spun like a tornado around the beach, before coming to a slow stop and wobbled around dizzy.

"Do you think we overdid it?" Nemisa asked curiously.

"Probably!" laughed Togau, "Alight let's start then!"

"Someone stop the beach, I wanna get off..." Link said staggering around.

When Link recovered, he started moving around with his hammer in the air, the girls all shouting directions for him to go, but his dizziness and total lack of visibility made it impossible for him to have any idea where he was going...

"Move left Link!"

"Too far, go a little more right!"

"Now go forward!"

"Wait Link, go left!"

"Right!"

"No, go left!"

"Yeah, that's right!"

"No left!"

"I said left!"

"You said right!"

"Wait, was it my right or your right?!"

"Do a triple backflip!"

"You're not even playing the game Korume!"

…and it didn't help the girls started getting so frantic in giving the directions. Nemisa and Togau started arguing over which way for him to go, eventually breaking out into random squabbling, while Aviel started waving her arms around randomly shouting gibberish to join them in it. This meant Link started walking around in all directions, not aware of where he was going at all.

"Hey! Watch where you're walking!" he heard a gruff zora say.

"Sorry!" Link called out, when his foot bumped into something.

"Yo, what are you doing dude?!" shouted another tourist.

"My bad!" Link said, before stepping on something soft.

"Oooh, are you into this sort of thing, hot stuff...?" he heard a suggestive woman's voice ask.

"Girls, which way do I go?!" Link shouted to his three friends, backing up so he wouldn't bump into or step on anyone else.

"Go left!" Nemisa shouted over to Link.

"No right, right!" Aviel said.

"Wait, do ya mean his right or our right?!" Togau asked.

"Left then!" Aviel shouted.

"Which left?!" Togau asked in frustration.

"Left is right!" Nemisa shouted.

"That's it Link! Now turn around and swing down!" Aviel said.

"Wait, is that- Link, hang on!" Nemisa exclaimed.

But it was too late, as Link was already fed up with all the yelling, and swung his hammer down right in front of him, bashing it against an incredibly hard surface. He pulled up his blindfold, but rather then a split melon, he instead saw a large muscular Gerudo woman sitting on a towel, facing away from him, seeming to be eating something.

"Reirousa?" Link asked in confusion.

"Huh? Link?" Reirousa asked, looking behind her, with traces of hydromelon pieces around her mouth, she was holding the very melon Link was supposed to whack and was eating it.

"Oh jees, did I hit you? I'm sorry!" Link said desperately.

"Hit me? Was that the tap I felt just a second ago?" Reirousa asked. Her bulky body was so strong she apparently barely felt it. Link then looked down at the hammer and saw it had mostly shattered from impacting against Reirousa's back.

"Darn it Reirousa!" Aviel shouted in frustration, "You ate our hydromelon! Link was supposed to split it for us!"

"Huh, really?" Reirousa asked rubbing the back of her head, "I just saw you girls all arguing about something while Link was dancing. I saw the melon and got hungry all of a sudden, sorry about that."

Nemisa just groaned out and smacked her own forehead while Togau just laughed wholeheartedly.

"So what do we do now then?" Link sighed, "That hydromelon sounded good."

"Hmmm..." Aviel folded her arms and tilted her head left and right in thought, "Oh, I got a idea!"

"So how much does it have to be shaved?" a zora chef asked at a local outdoor restaurant on the beach.

"Keep going! Make sure it's good and thin!" Aviel said.

Link, Aviel, Nemsia, Togau and Reirousa were all sitting at a table at the restaurant, as Aviel was practically hovering over the zora, looking over what he was making with a large bowl of ice.

"No, no, you're doing it wrong! Make it look more like... uh... what snow is like!" Aviel pointed out.

"Oh, I see now!" the zora said with lit up eyes, going to work on the ice.

"Okay, now take that juice, add some sugar and pour it on!" Aviel instructed.

Eventually their little project was finished, and the zora went over to Link and the group's table and handed him each a bowl of the ice with a reddish-pink juice on them.

"Shaved ice? Heh, why am I not surprised Aviel would get the chef to make this?" Nemisa chuckled, looking to Aviel indulging in her bowl already.

"Alright! Let's dig in!" Link grinned, taking a small bite.

Reirousa took a small bite of hers and her eyes lit up in surprise, "H-Hey, this tastes like hydromelon!" she then started eating it faster.

"Uh, I wouldn't do that if I were yo-" Nemisa started, but was cut off by Reirousa's blank stare.

"GRAAAH! WHAT THE HELL?" Reirousa shouted, throwing back and clutching her head.

"Aaaand she got brain freeze!" Togau laughed out, "It's getting' ta be a rite of passage with all of us!"

"Huh, so this stuff actually sells?" the zora chef asked.

"Yup, even Sister Ruto likes it! Add this to the menu and the tourists will love it in the warm seasons! You can mix it with just about any kind of fruit juice too!" Aviel grinned.

"I see! Well thanks for the advice. I was going to be in the cooking competition for Princess Ruto but I was told to donate my food stock by order of the royal family." the zora sighed.

"Well don't you worry about it, King Zora has already said you boys will be compensated for your loses." Ambassador Oton said shuffling up to the restaurant stand with his cane, "What you did was important for the new Queen Ruto and they both thank you greatly for it."

"Hey Ambassador Oton, how's Ruto doing?" Link asked as Reirousa rolled by on the ground clutching her head in agony.

"She's doing just fine, getting fitted into her new queen's gown as we speak." Oton chuckled at the eager look in Link's eyes, "As for the competition though, we're not going to need it after all. Lady Nabooru recommended someone that suited the role perfectly!"

"Nabooru said that?" Link asked curiously, wondering who it was.

"She didn't get Sovan to do it did she?" Nemisa asked.

"Better not be, the diner wouldn't be the same without her!" Aviel said.

"No, no, someone a little more local." Oton said smiling.

Reirousa meanwhile was laying on the floor with her eyes turned to spirals and foam rising from her mouth from her brain freeze.

"Someone want to clean up the oaf down here?" Nemisa asked.

Meeting up with Kesuta and Korume on the way over, Oton led Link, Aviel, Nemisa, Saria, Togau, Reirousa, the twins to the royal cabana near the end of the beach, which was enclosed by a tall wooden fence. Upon arriving in an outdoor dinning yard, they were greeted by Nabooru and Sarami sitting at a long wooden table.

"Hi Nabooru, Dr Sarami, how's Ruto doing?" Link asked.

"Just fine, she's recovered quite well, and I couldn't find any serious physical side effects from what happened to her." Sarami said.

"I'll just warn you in advance that she's been itching to take you into bed tonight to break her new body in!" grinned Nabooru with a wink.

"Heh... looking forward to it." Link chuckled, "So I heard you got someone to help Ruto with her diet...?"

"Yep, take a look!" grinned Nabooru as she gestured over some distance away, where they saw a familiar indvidual going to work on the remaining food supply that had been meant for the cooking competition.

"Geeesosososo! Hello little ones, good to see you all!" laughed Big Momma Octo, she was using all eight of her tentacles to work on various parts of the cooking process; one tentacle was cutting vegetables, one was stirring a pot, one was kneading bread dough, that sort of thing.

"You got Momma Octo to handle it?" Link exclaimed, "And you're sure we can trust her?"

"Yes, the two of them had a chat on the way back to the coast, and Ms. Momma Octo decided to swear loyalty to the zora royal family when she returned. Nabooru vouched for her, pointing out she was only aiding the zola because they had kidnapped her child." Oton nodded.

"And I have you fiery little one to thank for saving him! I could kiss you for that!" she said to Kesuta, puckering her snout at her.

"I'll pass." Kesuta said throwing her hands up immediately, "So where's Ruto?"

"Right here everyone!" called out a voice that they all recognized as Ruto.

"Hello sweeties! Take a look at your our new queen's lovely wardrobe!" called out Mystic Heremon.

Ruto now wore a bluish-green gown that wrapped around her curvy figure down to her waist. The right side of the gown trailed all the way down to her knee, while the left side stopped just before her thigh, showing off her leg. She wore a silk cape that was done in the style of her father's, but made from light purple silk. She had glamorous bracelets on both arms, as well as a leg bracelet around her exposed thigh. She wore a dazzling tiara on her forehead, while the fin extensions hanging form her head had been wrapped near the bottom in white and blue ribbons. But what really caught Link's eye the most was the sapphire and silver necklace she wore around her neck, the very same one he bought her during the Desert Goddess Festival.

"She looks gorgeous!" gasped Nemisa.

"Dang, ya lookin' just like a real queen now Ruto!" Togau grinned.

"Naturally I would!" Ruto smirked with her nose stuck up in the air, she then delicately strolled down the cabana steps, the fin extensions on her head swaying left and right as she walked down, and went right up to Link, whose mouth was still hanging open. She grinned lightly and pushed his chin back up to close his mouth, "You enjoying yourself here at the beach, my darling?"

"Y-Yes!" Link said snapping out of his trance and looking her over, "Ruto, look absolutely beautiful."

"Thank you... my dear husband." Ruto said a light blush, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Now I hope you all haven't eaten anything too heavy today, because I'm inviting you all to feast with me!"

"Oh yes! Prepare yourselves, cause Momma has a huge platter to fill up all of you scrawny little things!" the giant octorok laughed.

"I-Is that so...?" Kesuta asked nervously, as the smells coming from the cooking were enticing her.

Ruto smiled and took Kesuta by her hands, "Come on sister, you earned it."

"O-Okay..."

Soon the group were seated around a long wooden table as the zora servants handed out the various foods Momma Octo prepared. It was multiple different trays of seafood, as well as a few beef, cucco and fried potato dishes.

"Wow, this is a lot!" Link said with wide eyes, then looked to Ruto, "I don't think even I could finis-"

He was cut off seeing the amount of food in front of Ruto's part of the table. While he and his friends were given platters to pick and choose their fill, she had been given her own personal portions, and there was multiple plates of food around her, even one plate with a giant grilled fish that looked bigger then Ruto herself was.

"Well I don't know if it's enough to make up for what I've done." Big Momma Octo said wiping her brow, "But hopefully this will help you with your new diet, Queen Ruto!"

"Hey, hang on a second, how is she supposed to eat all of that?" Nemisa exclaimed.

"It's okay, her metabolism requires it! Until her powers are properly stabilized this will be her mandatory diet for a while." said Mystic Heremon.

"Dang, and here I thought Link was a big eater." Togau said with wide eyes.

"Hmm... I'm still not quite sure if I can eat all of this..." Ruto spoke hesitantly, she took a small portion of one dish with a fork and delicately tasted it.

Everyone paused and watched as she ate it slowly, before her eyes widened, an brought a hand to her mouth.

"Ruto?" Kesuta asked, worried it might had been poisoned or something.

"This is... delicious!" Ruto said cheerfully, as she went to town on the meal before her.

Everyone stood there blankly as they saw Ruto eat plate and plate within minutes, then go right for the next one without even stopping. The giant grilled fish was practically swallowed whole by her before she took a drink of water and went back to eating the next dish.

"I don't know if I could eat at this point..." Korume muttered with an uneasy look in her eyes.

"Hey, if anything I'm gonna take it as a challenge! Time ta chow down!" Togau cheered out, lifting up a fork and knife. She had changed herself into her Lynel form so she could have a bigger appetite and eat more of the platter.

"That's cheating Togau!" Aviel protested with her mouth half full.

The others realizing Ruto wasn't going to stop to talk or anything, just went ahead and ate from their own platters.

Within about an hour, everyone had just about finished, and looked with astonishment to see Ruto's part of the table was now picked completely clean, and the zora girl was delicately dabbing at her mouth with a napkin. Despite the absurd amount of food she had eaten, her figure didn't look the slightest bit different.

"H-How did you even do that Ruto...?" Nemisa said with her jaw dropped.

"I was a bit surprised myself, but my escalated appetite is just a temporary side effect from being infused with my powers." Ruto said with a smirk, then let out a loud and long belch before covering her mouth, "Oh, excuse me!"

"Link, can you believe this?" Nemisa asked, only to see Link stroking his chin with a grin.

"Looks like I got some competition in eating." Link grinned, "Not complaining though, I love my fellow gluttons."

Nemisa was a little bewildered at how casually Link took it at first, but then shrugged and smiled, knowing that this wasn't anything weird as far as their family was concerned after all.

"Her mother went through the same thing when she completed her rite." Heremon said, "And she was such a prim and proper dear as the queen!"

"Lucky her..." Sarami muttered with a pout, as she was still trying her hardest to diet, but kept giving into temptations like the food plate before her.

"So just to keep up with everyone, does this mean Ruto's the official queen now?" Aviel asked.

"Not right away, there's still some legal procedures to jump through with the Hylian Parliament first." Ruto said, "Lots of paperwork and all that, it's definitely not as simple of a bunch of hoops to jump through as me and the boys did over at the Zora Grand Prix!"

"Yes, I could understand. Me and Halei just finished sending out the paperwork for Link to be recognized as the Gerudo King a month ago." Nabooru said, "We should be getting confirmation from them shortly."

"I don't get all the legal mumbo jumbo, but I'm just glad we're making progress." Link said, biting into a cream-covered roll for dessert, "I'm looking forward to the meeting, Darunia's already given us his full support as well."

"And I'll be representing the Kokiri." Saria said, "Even Lady Impa's said she'll put in a word for us."

"I hope our alliance will make things go easier for you then. The Gerudo deserve to make themselves heard to those blowhards!" Ruto said.

"Well thank you for everything you've done for us, Princ- I mean, Queen Ruto." Nabooru said.

"Anything for my family." Ruto nodded. It was then the new zora queen took a small glance at Kesuta, who quickly looked back down at the remains of the food on her plate she was picking at, and Ruto just smiled a little at the fire mystic.

The day continued to pass, as Link and everyone had a fine day at Zora Coast, they played in the water, they all watched the beautiful sunset, had a bonfire later that night, and eventually everything wound down. The group soon all went ahead to the guest cabanas to wash up and get to bed for the night.

Link himself had just returned from his shower, wearing a bathrobe and with a towel hanging off his shoulder, going down the wooden walkway to his room.

"Oh Darling...!" Ruto called out, getting Link's attention, he turned to see the zora queen strolling up to him, "Did you have a fun time today?"

"Course, it was a blast." Link grinned, "Heremon told me you just finished your dinner while we were out. Is Big Momma Octo working out for you as your new personal chef?"

"She's wonderful, and such a dear!" Ruto said cheerfully, "This whole process is only temporary, but I'm going to enjoy eating like this with you and Togau for a while!"

"That's great. So I was just wondering..." Link trailed off suggestively, "If you've already digested your meal, are you ready for a little fun before bed...?"

"Oh yes of course! I can't wait to see how you take to me with my new look!" Ruto put a hand to her hip and giggled, bringing a hand up and stroking her new head fin which hung down like a ponytail. She then paused a little and glanced behind herself, "Oh Kesuta, you can come out dear!"

"Um.. keeheehee..." Kesuta laughed sheepishly, coming out from between two cabanas, and walking up to the two, "I was just going to see if Link might had been interested in a night with me and sis or something, but if you got him for tonight that's oka-"

That was when Ruto took Kesuta's hands, surprising the mystic and causing her to blush red.

"I have a better idea, how about you join us tonight instead?" Ruto asked with a knowing smile, "Do you mind Link?"

"Eeehh?" Kesuta exclaimed.

"Not at all." Link grinned, as Ruto pulled Kesuta over and Link brought his arms over the two of them, guiding them both into his cabana room.

"Uh, you two sure about letting me join in...?" Kesuta asked embarrassed as the three walked into Link's cabana. She saw the bed was indeed big enough for the three of them. She then took a glance over at the zora queen. The moonlight was shining through the window, and it reflected off Ruto's wet scaly form, making certain spots of her body illuminate beautifully.

"Of course Kesuta, you've had experience sharing our husband with Korume, right?" Ruto pointed out, "Nemisa even told me how she shared him with Togau back at the hot springs, so he's well-equipped for the two of us!"

"Yeah, but..." Kesuta said looking away, "It was one thing with my twin identical sister... but you're a lot more beautiful now then you used to be, you're almost like a water goddess yourself... I... dunno if I can really compare..."

"Don't say that Kesuta, you're gorgeous in your own ways." Link smiled, kissing her on the cheek.

"Yes, you better listen to him! Don't forget, you're going to become a beautiful queen yourself, you'll get all those lovely perks that come with it, and you and I will be equals!" Ruto giggled, referring to the words Kesuta said to Nemisa a while back about the royal life.

"Y-Yeah..." Kesuta said with a light smile, as Link and Ruto both led her to the bed.

The three of them all got on top of the soft bed, sitting up on their knees. Despite their encouraging words, Kesuta still seemed a bit awkward about what they were about to do.

"So uh, how do you want to start with thi-" Kesuta started, but was cut off by Ruto taking Kesuta by the shoulder and pulling her into a mouth-to-mouth kiss. The fire mystic Gerudo's eyes became the size of dinner plates from how much passion Ruto put into it.

"W-Wow." Link said with his jaw dropped as Ruto broke the kiss with Kesuta and licked her lips.

"That's for yesterday." giggled Ruto, "But I think there's a certain someone who needs to kiss the both of us now, right?"

"Yeah." grinned Link, as he pulled the stunned Kesuta into a kiss. The fire mystic got back her senses, enjoying the warmth of Link's lips and kissed him back. When they broke the kiss for air, it gave Ruto a chance to kiss Link as well. Soon enough the three of them started making out with each other as they fell back against the bed...

And the three of them shared a lovely night together, under the luminous moon shining over the coastline.

Some time had past, and Link was laying back on the bed with his arms folded behind his head, with Ruto and Kesuta on opposite sides of him. Ruto trailed her finger along his chest, while Kesuta was holding him close to her.

"So did you girls enjoy it?" Link asked.

"Amazing as ever Link." Ruto said laying her head against him, "You weren't too bad yourself Kesuta, we're going to have to do this together more often, maybe even get your sister involved if she wants."

"Thank you..." Kesuta grinned, hugging Link closely.

"I'm really happy to see you two get along. Still don't know what it is that made you squabble so much to begin with." Link said.

"Not really sure myself." Kesuta said, "Sometimes I just can't hep myself, like it just came naturally."

"Naturally, huh...?" Link pondered. He took a look to Kesuta and Ruto and thought about it for a while, "Hey, you don't think it's because..."

"Because...?" Ruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"Kesuta's a fire elemental, and you're a water manipulator..." Link said, "You don't think it's because the two of you react with each other like fire is to water...?"

There was a moment of silence, before the two of Link's fiances faulted over, groaning out loud at how bad Link's observation was, while the Hylian just burst out laughing at their reaction.

"Oh come on, it's cute!" Link said in his defense.

"That's it darling, you are SO dead!" Ruto said, grabbing a pillow and whacking him with it.

"Ack!" Link said, defending himself from the pillow assault, until Ruto accidentally whacked Kesuta as well. The two of them sat there as Kesuta twitched a bit with the pillow on her face.

"Okay, it's on now!" Kesuta said, pulling away the pillow and sporting a sadistic grin, as she took the pillow and started whacking Ruto with it. The two girls started laughing and giggling as they started having a pillow fight.

'Really glad to see them get along.' Link thought to himself again, only to get whacked in the face with both pillows. The girls both grinned smugly, before Link grabbed a pillow of his own, "Okay then, you both asked for it!"

The three of them then engaged in a fun and wild battle with soft pillowy weapons of doom, accompanied by much laughing and screaming. Even as intimate as they could get, Link and his fiances would still always find time to just have regular stupid fun like this.

It eventually ended with all three of them laying back on the bed worn out, and their pillows discarded.

"So uh, who won that?" Kesuta asked.

"I dunno, I lost count at some point." Ruto said, "Who won Link?"

"Um, I didn't even know we were supposed to keep score?" Link asked curiously.

As the other two thought about that, Kesuta turned over to look at Ruto, and took in her new form again.

"You know, back when I was training to enhance my powers and take on my fiery form, I was a bit nervous about what I would become." Kesuta said to the two of them, "I was told about the risks of using my elemental power to transform, if I didn't do it right my body could have become pure fire and been snuffed out of existence, or the possibility of me becoming a fire spirit monster and losing my mentality... Then I saw what you were going through, when you started swelling up and didn't recognize any of us... it was like all my old fears of what could happen to me were happening to you..."

Link was a little surprised at hearing this about Kesuta, as Ruto just stared at Kesuta, who kept talking.

"What I'm saying is I was really worried for you Ruto." Kesuta said sadly, "I didn't want to lose you, not just for Link's sake, but for me and everyone. You're our beloved sister."

"...thank you Kesuta." Ruto smiled warmly.

"Love can really drive you to do things you never thought were possible. I know that feeling more then most." Link nodded.

In that moment he thought back to a time in the dark future, where he stood before a certain woman. He took a breath and told her something with all his courage, and she replied by sported a somewhat sad smile and nodded, before bringing up a blue ocarina to her lips and starting to play it...

But then Link was pulled out of those thoughts by Ruto tickling at his pointy ear as Kesuta running her hand across his bare chest.

"Well then, why not prove that by showing your love to your goddess of water again?" Ruto grinned, now reaching up and kissing him.

"As well as your love for your mystic sorceress of fiery arcane!" Kesuta rhymed, as she kissed at his neck.

"Sounds good." Link nodded, pulling the two girls against him, their contrasting feelings of warmth and coolness was quite a sensation.

It didn't take long before the three of them then fell back onto the bed, and got right back to their business from earlier...

That ends this week's chapter, but there's still one more for this arc before we move on.

I found in reading 'harem' genre stories how often the lead girls are very disconnected from each other. Often they're little more then just rivals or enemies for the main character's affection, sometimes even in the stories where it does end in a 'marry them all' situation. One thing I knew I wanted to do going into this story was have the girls bond together with themselves as much as Link, which was why there was such an emphasis on Kesuta and Ruto in this story. The girls aren't just a concubine for Link, they're all a family that love each other as much as their mutual husband.

Next time Link and Ruto discuss what's been going on in Hyrule, and we finally get to meet the ones behind the Gerudo Banishment Law, and just what could possibly be in store for Link and his people in the future...

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