Blood Moon: A Story Before the Calamity

Chapter 31

It was another few days. Link and Zelda had gone back to silence, broken only by polite greetings and absolutely necessary communication.

Yet another thing Zelda hadn't completely appreciated until it was gone was how safe Link made her feel. When she talked with him and laughed freely with him, it felt like no harm could befall her. But now, with the strangely formal and stiff way Link spoke to her, she felt distant, slightly hurt even when they were at last doing exactly what they were supposed to do.

On Link's side, he could tell himself as much as possible that they would be happier this way, that they would finally be safe and free to do their duties without interference, but he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt whenever he thought of what he had done. Strange. Before he became closer with Princess Zelda he wouldn't have given a button about how others would feel about him and his behavior, but he supposed he was becoming soft. This problem, however, still wasn't his biggest concern.

Zelda knew. Oh, she knew. She was quite right about his cowardice, let's admit it. Almost six years, and he still couldn't get his stupid emotions under control. His worst fear? That someone was to find out his one weakness, the one place nobody was to enter. And now someone had.

Link lay awake in the semi-darkness, feeling the sun stroke down his face as it set, the dying dregs of light painting the clouds a soft, rosy colour.

I wasn't able to convince my father not to go to battle.

Sickness coupled with the terrible wounds of battle had killed him. If Link had tried a little bit harder, then perhaps he might not have had to leave for the battlefield while he wasn't well.

I wasn't there with Aryll when she died.

She had left all alone, cold and burning and writhing with illness in a small bed in the Hyrule Castle Town hospital with no one there to comfort her.

I couldn't protect my mother from the Yiga.

The death he was the most guilty about. If he had gotten to her side a moment sooner, she might not have died. He could have fended off the Yiga, could have nursed his mother back to health, if only he hadn't dawdled for too long, trying to make dumb twelve-year-old-overthinker decisions. A fresh wave of pain almost swept Link away.

Everyone he had ever loved, all the friends he had made in training, everyone he had come to rely on and to trust, they had a nasty habit of dying. That was but a part of the reason why he wanted to distance himself from Princess Zelda. Hyrule couldn't afford it. The Champions couldn't afford it. The people counting on them couldn't afford it. Link couldn't afford it.

Letting loose a troubled sigh, Link turned over, gripping his pillow tightly. Right at the corner of his sight, the Master Sword glinted golden, catching the last of the sunlight spilling through the window, thrown wide open.

Then it all happened at once. Link felt a rough hand close over his mouth, muffling the yell of surprise he made. Writhing, battle instincts kicked in. Link crushed his heel on the toe of his captor and heard a grunt of surprise and pain. Freeing himself, he whipped around to get a good look at the one who attacked him, but suddenly, from behind, a sharp pain exploded over his skull and the world melted away to black...

****

Suddenly Zelda woke. Rubbing her eyes, she groped around for her lamp and lifted it in the direction of her grandfather clock. Around five thirty a.m. in the morning. What could have woken her so early? She closed her eyes and lay back down to return to sleep.