What will you do now?

Link's POV

The rest of the day was spent in celebration for all who were in attendance, though many of the Nobles left as they were now feeling the loss of their power. Link had worried about running an estate but Shad and Auru had both volunteered to help teach him. He had been trying to talk with both Princesses alone now for over an hour but with all the people around congratulating him or talking to the royals it had been difficult. At last Link found himself off of the main part of the party with both Princesses and he now felt compelled to ask the questions he had held back at the ceremony.

"Your Highness Princess Zelda, why would you save me? You could have taken his story and locked me away; by all rights I am still a criminal. Instead you saved me and have turned everything on its head when you could have rebuilt the Kingdom back the way it was and forgotten the war or myself ever existed."

"Please Link Hero of Twilight, call me Zelda, we are of equal status as far as I am concerned and we fought together, however briefly."

"Only if you will just call me Link," the green garbed man interjected quickly. Zelda nodded her assent to this then continued to answer his question.

"The reason I did not take Milos's word and did not let them throw you back into the dungeons is because it would not have been right. I decided many years ago that when it came time for me to take the throne I would make many changes to the Kingdom. You see I listened in on meetings and when opportunities arose traversed amongst the common folk, my people. I saw what was and wasn't being done to the Kingdom and how my father's neglect coupled with the greediness of the Nobles was harming those we were all sworn to protect.

Normally I would not have been able to enact any changes until my coronation but the catalyst of the Twilight War provided me the necessary means to take the reins fully. Now with the need to rebuild I can set things into motion much sooner and make a change to help my people."

Link nodded before replying, "So in a way you will benefit from the war?"

"Yes, though I would rather it had never happened and would gladly suffer through the politics of daily life here than to have let the war happen. However, I cannot go back in time to change things so I must make use of what has been dealt to me.

I should also say there is another reason I would not take Milos's word; you Link are far too good of a person to be locked away to rot. If even half of the stories I was told about you while in Kakariko are true you are far better than any man, woman, or child in this land and it would be an insult to the Goddesses to lock you away. Truly Link you are a blessing to this land and its people; I hope one day you can realize the truth of that statement."

Link nodded again before turning to Midna but before he could say anything she cut him off. "If you address me as Princess I'll have you hanging by your toes from the ceiling. As for your question, because I already know what you're going to ask, yes you can turn into a wolf at will now. The reason you always felt the dark instinct of the wolf before is because the Twilight that originally transformed you was set upon the land by Zant and Ganondorf; since their intentions were evil so was anything transformed by it. You being the extraordinary person you are managed to fight it off. The same went for the shadow crystal, Zant made it with a malicious intent, but what I did was different.

You see intent is everything in my tribe's shadow magic. The reason behind your spell casting will reflect in the spell thus since I gave it as a gift there won't be any evil influences for you to deal with this time. It'll be just you only fuzzier and with four legs; with the added bonus that you can't talk since you talk too much as it is," Midna finished while smirking.

Link clamped his mouth shut nodding and glaring at her but not willing to argue; he knew all too well it would do him no good and likely get him hurt. Midna scrutinized him for a moment though before rolling her eyes and speaking again.

"Really Link, if there's something else you want to ask just get it over with already. I was kidding about you talking too much. Enough of the strong silent type hero; it gets annoying after a while."

Link blushed slightly before he voiced his question. "What now, what do we do?" The two Princesses looked at him before Zelda slowly answered not quite sure where he was headed with this.

"I will have to stay here to begin organizing the rebuild of the Kingdom and seeing to the restructuring of the many officials and their estates. I do plan on seeing Midna back to the Twilight Mirror, though, so she too may return to her Kingdom."

Link looked at the Twilight beauty aghast but no words came. "What we didn't go through all that for nothing Link. The Twilight Realm needs me as the Light Realm needs Zelda. We have to pick up the pieces now and try to get back what was lost. I was hoping you would come with me though just to see me off along with Zelda."

Link nodded solemnly at their words he hadn't expected much else truthfully, "Yeah Midna I will see you back to the mirror since we'll have to traverse back the Arbiter's grounds again and I already know the terrain."

"Actually Link," said Zelda softly, "both Midna and I are capable of warping and now that she has blessed you with the ability to transform you too should be able to still use the warp portals. We will be able to make the entire trip in less than a day and without guard. Though Link I wonder what will you do after that?"

Link stared at her quizzically for a moment before replying, "I thought I had to look after that estate?" Zelda smiled at him but shook her head no.

"No Link the estate is to do with as you please. You can of course take over governing that region as Milos did before you; as you know both Shad and Auru are willing to help teach you. You may also choose to let someone else run it and continue on with your life how you see fit. I trust your judgment and do not believe you would leave it in less than capable hands. So what it comes down to is what you wish to do."

Link was a bit startled by that fact. His life was his own again and he was more free than he had ever been before; now he could choose his own path to take the only question was, which path he would follow.

A/N: Guess what folks I did it that was the last chapter for this story. I really hope you all enjoyed reading it and were satisfied with the outcome. I specifically didn't choose a pairing in this wanting to leave it ambiguous just as the game did so now you can imagine how it went from there. I know this story wasn't an action packed, cliff hanger; nail biting story but even in its early stages it was always meant to be just a kind of sweet little backstory tale to the game. With any luck I accomplished that

Now as a final sendoff I need to thank the last set of reviewers that I can before I click complete on this tale.

Arison Nakaru: Yes I wanted him to display his heroic traits even in his early years. I hope what happened with Sir Raol was satisfying enough for you.

winterrose782000: As always thank you for your input and I hope the last four did justice to the story.

Crankymcgranky: Thank you I'm glad to know it caught your interest. Here's your update hopefully it is to your liking and I will did my best, thanks.

Guest: Yes, the Twilight Princess Link always seemed rather fast and agile to me, which is surprising considering he herded goats but hey it worked. I tried to keep that up whenever the need arose in this story, which wasn't much I'll admit.

A special thanks to Crankymcgranky and CupcakePride101 for adding this story to their favorite/follows list.

Alright as they say this is the end my friend and unless another one off one-shot pops into my head you won't be seeing me again until I manage to finish the six or so chapters in my next story. Thank you so much to those who read this story and those who reviewed or put it or me on some form of alert list that is available on this site. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have people actually enjoy my stories. If you feel like it leave a review for what you thought of the end and the story as a whole. Thank you again everyone.

Later