CHAPTER 4
He'd never forgotten anyone that he'd encountered – especially not the girls. Saria was, of course, the dearest friend that he'd ever known. Princess Zelda had entrusted him with the Ocarina of Time – and, with it, the very fate of Hyrule itself – when they were mere children and utter strangers, and she'd risked her life to battle Ganondorf right alongside him, once they were both grown. Malon was spirited and kind, and had the most beautiful singing voice that he'd ever heard, and. . . . . . . . .well, he'd certainly had some very. . . . . . . . .unusual dreams about her when they were both adults. Romani reminded him of her, as did Cremia. Heavens, even Nabooru – when she wasn't brainwashed – had her virtues.
But Ruto. . . . . . . . .she was different from the rest, and the differences weren't merely physical in nature, either. Between her and Malon, he wasn't sure which girl's memory caused a greater stirring in his chest – but he knew which one caused a greater stirring in his mind, and it wasn't Malon.
Now that Epona's coat was mostly clean, he proceeded to brush her mane. "Oi, Epona," he asked. "Do you remember when we met Ruto? When she ran away and hid inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's stomach, and was looking for the –"
Of course not. How absolutely silly of him. Epona hadn't even been with him then. He proceeded to tell her the whole story – how Ruto had reluctantly accepted his help in retrieving the Spiritual Stone of Water from Lord Jabu-Jabu's stomach (on the condition that he carry her on his back), how he'd protected her from Barinade (and saved Lord Jabu-Jabu's life by defeating it), how she'd rewarded his assistance by giving him the Spiritual Stone without a second thought. She'd been rather pompous and rude at first, but once they'd retrieved her lost treasure and escaped the Zora guardians innards, her kinder side surfaced. It turned out, she'd only intended to avoid an arranged marriage, and King Zora's obsessive fussing over his daughter's well-being didn't exactly help.
The Great Deku Tree hadn't deemed it necessary to explain the concept of marriage to Link – not at such a young age, anyway – but, nevertheless, he couldn't help but sympathize with her plight. Still, he convinced her to return home, as her absence was only hurting her people. Her family, especially. Besides which, the king might yet be persuaded to honor his daughter's wishes.
He'd departed from the Zora kingdom upon ensuring Ruto's safe return to her father, and now felt the slightest tinge of regret. "I should've stayed a while longer," he told Epona, brushing the last stubborn knot out of her mane. "I wonder what ever happened to the bloke that she was meant to marry?"
Epona cast yet another shrewd glance at her master and snorted. "Before she gave me the Stone, I mean," he clarified.
He'd only learned the Stone's actual purpose, with regard to Zora culture, after Ruto awakened as a Sage – much to his disappointment, he realized. By then, Ruto had grown into a lovely. . . . . . . . .woman (for lack of a better word) and Impa had explained what marriage and betrothal and wooing and love were (though only after having a good laugh at the expense of his youthful ignorance). What she hadn't thought to explain – possibly because she didn't know how to explain it – was how one could distinguish between genuine love and the mere infatuations of a pre-pubescent child.
He felt surprisingly flattered, though, that Ruto genuinely considered him – a boy of a completely different species, whom she'd only just met – a worthy fiancé. And he had to admit that he wouldn't have particularly minded spending the remainder of his life with her – but he was no longer the naïve fairy-boy who'd left Kokiri Forest all those years ago, either. Ruto's duties as a Sage would never allow her to wed, for she could no longer dwell within the mortal realm.
Moving his horse-brush from Epona's mane to her tail, he caught himself hoping that Ruto – now a child again, like him – wouldn't become a Sage now. This, he knew, simply wasn't possible. Ruto knew it also, for Princess Zelda had wasted absolutely no time warning Hyrule of the future that he'd withstood. For daring to ask such idiotic things of the universe, he chided himself yet again. Had he already forgotten for whose sake he'd kept these sentiments to himself – kept them even from Navi?