Link knew what he had to do. He knew that as long as he was a part of her life all that she would experience would be pain. He sighed. Zelda was still warm against his body. She was absolutely beautiful. His arm was still firmly around her and her head still upon his chest. She looked content as she slept, completely unaware of the horrible sin the young soldier felt he was about to commit. “What have you done, Link! You've just tricked the Princess of Hyrule out of her virginity! But…no, she wanted to make love with me!” His mind was going about a mile a minute. He felt ashamed at what I had done…what he was going to do. He couldn't even tell her to her face. The fire had died, and all that was left to light their world was the stars. Link's mind wouldn't stop. “You are a monster for doing this! No better than some prisoner!”
He felt a hot tear fall from his cheek. He didn't want to hurt her, but he knew it was for the best. He carefully got up, trying desperately not to disturb the beautiful woman beside him. He took another deep breath, plucking his tunic from the sand and shaking it out before sliding it back over his head. He dressed himself slowly; a large part of him didn't want to go through with this. He then dug out a piece of parchment from their things, and settled back down next to Zelda. He wanted to…to hold her as long as he could.
Link sat the inkwell in the sand, pulling her to him with his right hand and preparing to write with his left. He balanced the parchment against his knee, and began to write. He thought carefully about what he was going to say, to try and hurt her as little as possible, but in the end could think of no other way to say what he needed to say.
As he wrote, the tears came. Oh, he loved her, and writing these words was becoming just too difficult. He couldn't fight them and he couldn't hide them…he just let them come. He had to cry…he had to cry because he was sorry for all of the horrible things he had caused this woman and all of the people of this country…he was sorry that he had to break the promise he had made to her so many times. He wasn't sure what would happen to her after he was gone. She had made him promise her so many times that he would be with her forever…
Link was glad that Zelda could not see him, for if she had, he thought, he wasn't not sure what she would have done…with her so-called gallant hero bawling like a baby right in front of her. The tears feverishly ran down his cheeks, finally being released after all of this time. He tried desperately to quiet his sobs, so that he didn't wake her. ‘My deepest love…' He could barely see as he signed the bottom of the parchment, his hand nearly shaking.
He wiped his eyes, carefully folding the parchment in half. He gently slipped the note between the princess' delicate fingers, and loomed over her for a moment. He tenderly covered her with the blanket, hiding her beautiful body. “Well, Princess Zelda, I guess this is…goodbye…” He sobbed, pressing his lips to hers as she slept. “I…I love you.”
Zelda stirred, and Link was stunned. That…was a bad idea. “Mm...Link…” Her voice was soft and sounded only about half awake, and she didn't open her eyes. She simply smiled slightly and snuggled deeper into her blankets.
Her smile was beautiful…oh, he thought, if only she knew…what he was doing.
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