I do not own Legend of Zelda.

Epilogue: Resting in Peace

"Good to know you amounted to something, being the brother of the Hero Chosen by the Gods and all," Zelda said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, Mayor of Ordon," Mark spread his arms out wide, gesturing to the village around him. "I like the sound of it."

Zelda laughed. "Link said you make a good mayor."

Mark drew in a breath through his teeth. "Still the boy who won't tell it to my face, isn't he?"

Laughing again, Zelda replied, "You married his best friend and you're his mayor. What did you expect?"

"Not much more. Some things have a way of not changing. Even through memory loss and the reign of Ganondorf."

"I'm guessing you and Link are one of those things?"

"I suppose so. Has he found a girl yet?"

"Found one? More like sorted through the mobs."

"That too. Anybody interesting?"

"Not that I've noticed. I think Link's happy the way he is. He's still young He has time before he settles down."

"Yeah, I suppose the world probably still holds a couple of adventures left for Link." Mark grinned sincerely.

"Yes, I think it does." Zelda turned to Mark again. "How about you and Ilia?"

"Oh we're doing fine. Great actually."

Zelda smiled a knowing smile. "Of course you are. When's the baby due?"

In Faron Woods, Link paid his respects to Rusl's grave. He thanked him for a full and happy childhood, free of the fears and traumas that his previous one would have left him. He thanked Rusl for raising him as his own, even though they were not the same race, and promised he would take care of Colin. After all, what boy wouldn't love to have the Hero of Hyrule as a mentor?

Link got up and returned to Epona at the Spring. As he got aboard her broad back, he thanked the world for all it had given him, courage in the face of fear, friends in the face of loneliness, and a father and a brother who were just as much his own as the father he didn't remember and the brother he never had.

In the end, Hyrule was at peace, and at last, Link sighed as he smelled the deep earth of the woods and their silence punctuated by the growing of trees and Epona's hooves, so was he.

Long live the Hero.

So happy. Finishing this was the first time I have finished any story that wasn't a 7th grade humanities assignment. A huge thanks to anybody who stuck through the whole thing. As my gift to you, I give you this rant: the idea for this fanfic stemmed from The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I've always loved the book and when I saw the movie, I was captivated by the idea of a kid making a home for himself in the streets of Paris...and then I tied it into Link, as he is also an orphan. And that morphed into him having an older brother, and then I tied knots in Link's past to make it interesting. By now, the only thing you can recognize is that Link's house burned down, like the museum.

It thought about adding another chapter before the epilogue, where Link reunites with Lucia and Aria, but decided that would be mostly filler. If enough people review asking for it though, I'll be sure to put it in. Thanks again for reading!

Oh, and did anybody find Lucia?