He was her protector, her guardian, her knight in shining armor; always so strong and courageous, always a source of comfort and reassurance. He remained calm whenever darkness came, his powerful hands guiding her through and shielding her from evil. Nothing frightened him; he had taken on beasts and monsters of all sorts, found his way through countless traps and dungeons, and yet not a single tear he had ever shed until that moment.
The princess's mind was still deep in thought when they approached the door of Saria's house. “Link?” She looked at him as he turned the doorknob. “Are you alright?”
He simply nodded as the door cracked open, his ten-year-old figure looking deeply solemn.
“Hey! Glad you're here!” Saria greeted them at the door, her green haired tied up in a bun and the rest of her donning a sky blue robe. “Come on in! We're just about to start a game of truth or dare!” She ushered them into the log cabin and led them into a room where Mido; the Know-It-All Brothers, as they were called; and a few other young Kokiri that the two didn't recognize were sitting in a circle on a dark rug, sleeping bags lying about.
“Hello!” One of the female Kokiri greeted them as they sat down. She too had green hair, though a bit darker then Saria's and that hung straight to about her shoulders.
“Nice to meet you,” Zelda smiled at her and settled down on the rug, Link following suit.
“You're not from around here, are you? My name's Hara.” She looked at Zelda, smiling.
“No, I'm from Kakariko,” She answered, “my name's Cecilia.”
“Oh, that's nice, I wish I could go there…no, where I really want to go is Castle Town, have you been there?”
Zelda had to struggle to keep herself from smiling, “No, but I'd like to go…”
“Yeah, I bet it's great. Just think of how much more exciting it would be than a place like this!”
“I suppose…”
“So,” The Kokiri changed the subject, “are you and Link good friends?” She winked.
“Oh, uh…” She smiled, “Well…”
“Come on! Let's get this party started! You can start, Hara, truth or dare.” Hara looked toward Saria, thinking, forgetting completely about the conversation she was having with Zelda.
“Dare.” She finally said.
“Ok…let's see…” Saria looked around evilly, “I dare you…to say the F-bomb.”
“That's easy!” Everyone leant closer to her. “F***.”
The room burst into laughter, everyone pointing at her and gasping.
“Ok…ok…whose next.” Saria managed through her laughs. “Hara, you choose someone.”
“Ok,” She nodded and began to scan the room, “I choose,” She smiled devilishly at Zelda, “Cecilia. Truth or dare?”
“Oh, uh…” She looked at the floor, “truth…”
“Your question, then,” She squinted, “is this: Do you like Link? As in like-like?”
Zelda broke into a grin as everyone stared at her; even Link was grinning ear to ear as he caught her eyes for a moment. “Well, Cecilia, do you?” Saria raised her eyebrows, looking hungry for the next piece of gossip to spread around Kokiri Forest like wildfire. Mido simply stared dumbly, not wanting to bring up his crying incident that Link had caused him earlier.
“Yes,” The room filled with gasps and Zelda beamed even more, deciding to give Saria even more to talk about, “I love him.” The gasps were louder this time; everyone knows the “L” word should never be uttered.
Link glanced at the princess, raising his eyebrows and smiling as the rest of the children gathered in a close circle and began to whisper frantically. “You do enjoy this too much…” He whispered softly into her ear as the rest of the party rambled amongst themselves, “the “L” bomb…gee, picturesque, you probably just about gave nearly all of them heart-attacks!”
“Hey, Link! You're next!” Saria's voice came as if on cue as the huddle broke up.
“Ok,” He shrugged, “dare.” He could see the look in the other children's eyes, and knew what they had plotted.
“We dare you… to kiss Cecilia.” Everyone in the room began to snicker.
“Ok,” He shrugged again and quickly grabbed Zelda by the shoulders.
“On the lips?” He asked casually, beaming.
“Yup.”
“Ok,” He then swept her into his arms and kissed her, taking care to make it as dramatic as possible. They both listened to the gasps and “eww”s coming from their audience, thoroughly enjoying the fun they were having with the minds of their comrades. They both nearly burst into laughter as they attempted to keep their lips together, beaming mentally as they each knew what the other was thinking.
They quickly pulled their mouths apart, leaving their tongues to play with each other. “WAHH!! They're Frenching!!” The entire group gasped even louder, and both Link and Zelda swore that they heard at least one person vomit.
They stopped after a moment, opening their eyes to a shocked party of Kokiri. “Um…wow…” Saria even seemed flustered.
“You know what that means, guys!” Mido yelled out of nowhere his first words of the evening. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage!!!” The entire party joined in the chant after a moment. Link and Zelda soon looked at each other, the statement cutting them unusually deep. The smiles soon faded from their faces. It seemed they could once again read each other's minds:
I wish.
They were once again reminded of the meager amount of time they had left to be together, and that they were approaching the end of the first of their three days. In truth, Link had thought of proposing to her quite a few times already, but knew that he would never actually be able to wed her if they were already not even supposed to be seeing each other, and so, decided not to ask. And as for the baby thing, well, a child would, to say the least, make their predicament a lot worse than it already was.
The chanting soon died away and eventually everyone had made their way to their blankets. Link and Zelda lay next to each other, their hands lightly touching as they stared at one another, attempting to get one last good look at their lover as a little 10-year-old, as they both knew they would never get another chance.
Back to Part 3 | Continue to Part 5
