Blood Moon: A Story Before the Calamity

Chapter 36

A/N: Guys I just realized, this chapter is almost entirely fluff... Well, enjoy anyways :D

     Zelda lay in her bed, wide awake. She wasn't sure what was keeping her from the bliss of sleep. She had just returned from knife training the Knight's Barracks, emptied a few days ago from the last of the returning soldiers. Her progress was slow and indecisive, unstable. Link had said that it would take time, but time was the one thing she didn't have anymore.

     She wasn't made for battle, and it wasn't just her lack of skill. Every time she pictured blood staining her smooth, uncallused hands, she felt a violent urge to be sick. She told herself that she was being childish, that Link and the others did this every other day, but she couldn't forget the splattered crimson on Link's face, that scary emptiness in his eyes whenever he returned from battle.

     Zelda didn't want to kill. Killing takes something from you that you would never get back. Link, she reflected sadly, was living example.

     She sighed and sat up in her bed, head spinning with weariness, but she knew that sleep was a long way off.

     Might as well prepare for the other pointless, utterly draining chase while she was awake.

     She reached into her closet, searching through the mounds of dresses for her field clothes. After rummaging through the messiest part of her room, she pulled out her crumpled blue clothes and changed. She ran a brush through her hair a few times, then, nor bothering with any accessories other than her usual pouch, went to find Link to pray at the Spring of Courage.

     Another morning passed with Zelda shivering in her white dress and Link looking at her in concern. The water was particularly cold that morning, a sure sign that autumn was fast approaching. Her feet had fallen asleep while she stood there with her eyes closed, praying to herself, having given up every last trace of anything close to hope.

     When she finally couldn't stand it anymore, her strength spent, she hobbled out of the water and managed to make her way to a nearby tree. There she fell on her knees, her back to the trunk, breathing in its scent of fresh life. The world seemed to swim before her tired eyes. 

     Link sat down beside her, pressing his warm body to her frigid, trembling one. He let her head lean on his shoulder, felt her relax slightly, trying to find words of comfort, but deciding that this silent support was enough for now.

     "Hey Zelda?" He eventually broke the quiet between them. "Shall we go home?"

     "Nah." She shuffled closer. "Don't want to."

     Link smiled to himself. This girl was hopeless. "C'mon."

     "Five minutes." She begged, her words slurred, her eyes not opening.

     "Don't you want to sleep in your bed?" Link wheedled, inwardly agreeing with Zelda. The presence of her body made him strangely comforted. "It'll be warmer."

     "Won't be." She murmured.

     "Aren't we breaking rules anyway?" He subconsciously leaned closer to her. "I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed, Princess Zelda."

     "Kiss me." She whispered, turning her head up to give him a lopsided, sloppy smile. Her eyes were still half-closed.

     Link rolled his eyes. Her senseless babbling was starting to worry him. "All right, all right. It's time to go home, sleepy."

     Zelda didn't object to being called "sleepy" by someone so much lower in rank than her. She grumbled mutinously when she was pulled up and saddled up on her horse. Apparently, she had no idea that she had just outright said one of her biggest desires and fears, especially to the one person that it involved.