Link had half expected to be slapped. If he had been in Zelda's place, and some other idiot in his, he would have slapped them. He hovered uncertainly for a moment, waiting for Zelda's reaction, but all she did was turn her back on him and dismiss him from her study. He left the castle barely a day later.

Link had intended to leave with as little pomp and circumstance as possible, but of course Zelda had to be there and wherever Zelda was, her army of retainers was sure to follow. Still, it was still a relatively covert affair. The lords, happy as they were to see the back of him, would not insult the Queen by making a celebration of her broken engagement and so kept their mouths shut and their faces solemn during the entire ceremony. All of them except for Shad, who openly dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief.

Link knelt before the assembled peerage atop a raised platform while the High Priest pronounced benedictions over him, praying on his behalf for luck, health, wealth, strength, safety and various other blessings. Meanwhile Link's gaze continuously wandered over to Zelda, who was standing on the High Priest's left side, overlooking the proceedings. Her eyes were firmly fixed on him as well, but he could tell by the cold look behind him that she did not really see him. Her thoughts were far away, he guessed. Once he left, the Council would marry her to some pampered prince and she would never think of him again.

At the end of the benediction, Zelda assumed the High Priest's place in front of Link and, after a short speech wishing him good fortune, she bent stiffly planted a kiss on his forehead. "Safe travels, Sir Link," she said in his ear.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Link muttered, rising.

Then, with half the castle watching him, he descended the stairs and climbed onto Epona's back. He lingered a moment, watching Zelda's stony expression and Shad's tearful one, then he dug his heels into Epona's side and set the horse off at a gallop. Epona raced across the cobbled streets of Castle Town without trouble, shot under the portcullis and into the wide, green expanse of Hyrule Field.

Link half expected Zelda to come charging after him on her white palfrey to tell him to stop, to order him to come back to Castle Town in the name of the Queen, to finally give him the slap he so richly deserved, but after a day and a half of hard riding he reached Ordon without incident.

He could have only imagined the shock his old neighbours must have felt when he, Epona and all his things showed up at the entrance to Ordon Village. The familiar faces began to gather around the small dirt track that cut straight though the village to stare at him as he rode by. Link cleared his throat, urging Epona through the village and in the direction of his old house without saying a thing to any of them. This was terribly rude of him of course, but he was no longer Prince Consort and he didn't have to be polite to anyone if he didn't feel like it.

From the outside, the house was exactly as he had left it those two years ago, except the darkened windows were now full of cobwebs. Link unpacked his things and unsaddled Epona, stroking the horse's snout affectionately as he removed her bit and bridle. Epona nosed around in his clothes, looking for carrots, but when none appeared she tossed her head back in annoyance and ignored him. Link hitched her to a stake beneath the tree, where the veranda would protect her from the heat and the rain, promising to give her a treat for her efforts later. Epona lowered her head and began to munch on the sod as though she hadn't heard him.

Link hauled all his things up the ladder before he cautiously opened the door to the little treehouse he'd be calling home again. He was sure that, at the very least, Talo would have wormed his way in and made a mess of things, but except for the fine layer of dust that blanketed the room, the inside was as unchanged as the outside. Link kicked all his possessions inside and got to work.

Since he had taken his things quickly in his haste to leave Castle Town, there was no real order in his packing. In one bag, there was a boot, a few pieces of his ceremonial uniform, a ceramic cat, and some random items of clothing; in another, he found the other boot but no armour, and several of the trophies he had acquired on his travels. It was going to take some time to set everything to rights, especially since he had more things than he had left with although it still wasn't a lot. Someone knocked on his door while he was in the middle of fiddling with a parcel bound up in brown paper and string. He hesitated for a moment before answering. "Who's there?"

The door creaked open on its old hinges and the face of Fado, his old boss back at the goat ranch, peeped in. "Heya, Link," Fado said, somewhat uncertainly. "Mind if I come in?"

Link shrugged, his eyes returning to the parcel. "I don't see why not," he said. Fado had been a frequent visitor once, and he had never asked permission to come in before. It was odd, but the man who had once been his mentor seemed almost like a stranger to him.

Fado entered cautiously, as though Link were a wild animal that would snap at the slightest provocation. Link tried not to let that irritate him and continued to take the things from his pack one by one, setting them down around him until the floor was carpeted in random knickknacks and souvenirs.

"Didn't expect to see you back here anytime soon," Fado said at last, apparently unable to bear the silence any longer. "I heard tell you were getting hitched to the Queen."

Link struggled to swallow around the lump that had formed in his throat. "I was," he replied. "I'm not anymore."

He saw Fado's mind forming the obvious question and rushed to intercept it. "Sorry, it's been a very long trip. Can we talk tomorrow?" Link said, with deftness and aplomb that would have done Zelda proud.

Fado looked taken aback for a moment, then he recomposed himself. "'Course," he said easily. "I'm fixing dinner at my place, if you feel like swinging by, and if you're wanting a job back just know it's yours, no questions asked. My door's always open."

Link thanked him and went back to his unpacking, not so much as looking up as the door creaked shut again. Once the distinctive creaking of Fado's footfalls on the floorboards and the old, rotten ladder faded away, Link abandoned his unpacking. He dragged himself over to his straw mattress, threw himself down on it and slept the rest of the day away.

The following day was entirely uneventful. He rose early from bed, sorted through more of his things and then went to the ranch to see about getting his old job back. Fado, as promised, welcomed him back with open arms. His original position herding goats had been usurped by a big, shaggy dog with white fur, though, and Link was relegated to carrying around bales of hay and shovelling manure. Although he knew he was hardly being fair, Link couldn't help but reflect bitterly on the fact that everyone he knew seemed better off without him.

At night, his sleep was always restless. Zelda's face, the sound of her laugh, the way she smiled, her dry, acerbic jokes, the heartbreak in her eyes when he had told her he was leaving, they all disturbed his dreams and made his rest fitful. Then he would wake up at the crack of dawn, Zelda's laugh still ringing in his ears, and do the whole thing all over again.

"Link!" Fado's voice yelled.

Link looked up from the hay he was tossing and stuck his pitchfork in the ground. "What?"

Fado eyes him warily. "You seem a little worse for wear," he suggested. "Maybe you should go home for the day."

"Are you telling me to leave?" Link demanded.

"I'm telling you to take a load off," Fado said. "You're beating that hay bale like it owes you money."

Link scowled, looking sullenly down at his boots. Even he'd noticed that ever since he'd returned to Ordon he'd become sullen, short-tempered and was generally turning into a nasty piece of work, and if he could see it surely the others could too. Yet he couldn't bring himself to stop. Fado was talking again, and Link strained his ears to listen.

"Come on, Link, take the rest of the day off," Fado said. "It'd do you good."

Link didn't answer at first then, at length he said, "You're right, I haven't had a rest in a while. I guess a little break wouldn't hurt."

"Attaboy," Fado said, patting Link on the shoulder with an encouraging smile.

Reluctantly, Link yanked the pitchfork out of the ground, returned it to the barn and wandered off the ranch on foot. He was at a loss now. He'd hardly had any free time before, even in the days before the Twilight had fallen on Hyrule and he'd been forced to take up his great-grandfather's mantle and he might be miserable now, but at least his work helped. What am I supposed to do? he wondered, worried. Didn't he even know how to relax?

He marched himself to the outskirts of the village, picked a hill, lay down on it and squeezed his eyes shut. The sun seemed much warmer in Ordon than in Castle Town, he realised. It felt nice. This is relaxing, he thought, willing himself to believe it. He could hear the summer breeze blowing through the branches of the trees overhead and the long stalks of grass. With his sharp hears, he could hear something else as well.

"Talo, Beth, I know you're there," Link said, without opening his eyes or troubling himself to get up. "You can stop sneaking around now."

"Aww," Talo's voice replied. Link heard footsteps approaching him as who he presumed to be Talo and Beth plunked down on either side of him. "You're no fun."

"No way, I'm mister fun," Link said, cracking an eye open to look at him. How Talo had grown in the two years since Link had last seen him, and Beth too, if you really stopped to look at her. Link wondered if he looked any different to them, too. He certainly hadn't grown any taller.

"It's just that we've hardly seen you since you got back, Link, and we just wanted to ask you about your life in Castle Town," Beth said, fluttering her eyelashes at him endearingly. "It must have been so wonderful, working with the Princess and going to all those fancy parties and stuff."

"Yeah…" Link said, his mind filling with thoughts of Zelda again, "It was certainly…something."

"She's the Queen, not the princess, stupid," a new voice said. "Do you have rocks for brains or something?"

Link looked up at Malo, who was cresting the hill hand in hand with Ilia. Due to a stern word or two from his mother, Malo was home 'on vacation' from his stressful job in the world of business. The plan had clearly backfired since it seemed like abandoning his business to hang out in 'the sticks', as he had come to refer to it, seemed to be stressing him out more than anything.

"When are you going back to Castle Town, Link?" Malo grumbled, swatting at a mosquito. "I'll hitch a ride with you, I want out of here ASAP."

"Sorry, kiddo, but I'm not going back," Link said. "I've gotten out of the hero business."

"What!? Well get back in the business, damn it," Malo fumed. "You were my best customer!"

"Hey," Link tutted. "That's not the kind of language a kid should be using!"

"Wait a minute, what do you mean you're not going back?" Ilia demanded. "What about your fiancée?"

Link bit his lip. He still hadn't told the kids and Ilia that he and Zelda were over. What would they think of him if he told them he'd left her? And Ilia especially would be particularly furious. "We broke up," he said simply.

The kids and Ilia stared at him in stunned silence. "Huh," Malo mused. "She dumped you didn't she?"

Link didn't dignify that with an answer.

"You broke up?" Beth fumed, stamping her foot in frustration. "Why would you do that? I thought you were in love with her, or whatever, and you would've been king, Link! King!"

"Actually, I'd have been Prince Consort," Link replied without thinking. "It's not the same thing."

Everyone seemed confused, except for Malo who nodded his understanding.

"Well, what are you now?" Ilia asked.

"Now? Now, I'm just a simple ranch hand from Ordon," Link said, plucking a reed from the grass and into his mouth for effect. "Trying to make a living of the land and so forth. I don't think I was ever cut out for this adventuring business."

Ilia regarded him suspiciously, and Link turned his head to avoid her accusing gaze. "You guys shouldn't be up here," he said. "I'm supposed to be relaxing."

Ilia stared down at him, her pretty mouth screwed up in disapproval, but gathered up the kids anyway. "My dad asked me to tell you that we're having a get-together to welcome you back to the village," she said. "You better come."

"A welcome-back party?" he said, smiling fondly. "I've been back a good two weeks."

"Yes, well, if you'd had the manners to talk to anyone, maybe we could have invited you sooner," Ilia said.

Link pressed his lips into a flat line. "I'll be there," he promised.

Ilia nodded at him and left, taking the children with her. Link stretched himself and let out a long groan. So much for relaxing then. He made himself lie in the grass for another hour at least, even though it felt scratchy and the sun, which had been pleasantly warm a moment ago, now felt burning hot. He spent the greater part of the afternoon puzzling over what to wear. Obviously the formal clothes that he owned would be too posh for the occasion but all of his normal clothes were to plain to fit the bill. He eventually settled on a plain black shirt and black pants, before wandering outside.

The festivities were being held outside. There was no one house in the entire village that was big enough to hold everyone. Several small tables had been pushed together to form one giant, long one that everyone could fit around and the entire thing was lit up by a multitude of candles and the oil lanterns hanging from the trees.

The kids were nowhere to be found although Ilia was leaning against a tree, gazing vacantly at the lanterns. Her bright eyes fixed on him as he approached her.

"So you decided to come," she said.

Link couldn't decide whether the comment was intended as sarcastic or not. Rather than remark on it, he said, "You look nice." Ilia smoothed out the white cotton shift she was wearing. In truth, the dress was nothing fancy. It was a white cotton shift, entirely plain save for the embroidery around the neck and sleeves, but she looked nice just the same.

"Thanks," she said. "You too."

They stood together in awkward silence for a bit. Although he couldn't fathom why, he sensed that Ilia was angry with him and the annoyance radiated off of her in waves. Desperate for something to break the silence, Link tried at conversation again.

"There's more people here," he ventured. That was a nice, safe topic.

Ilia stopped glaring at him. "Oh yeah. A couple of new families moved in here after you left. That's Meredith," she said, pointing at a girl with a huge mass of red hair who was circling the table. "And that's her dad over there. Stay away from them, though. They're…eager."

Before Link could enquire after what she meant by 'eager' and arm hooked itself around his neck, hauling him into the bone-crushing grip of Mayor Bo.

"Link! Glad to see you back, boy!" cried the Mayor. "Got sick of that city life, eh? I don't blame you!"

"Glad to be back," Link said, not entirely untruthfully. "You're looking well."

"Nice of you to say," Mayor Bo replied. "I feel as strong as an ox!" He gave Link an extra clap on the back for added effect. "Well don't just stand there, take a seat!"

Link disengaged himself from the mayor's grip and made his way back over to Ilia where she sat beside Colin. At formal events, seating was carefully arranged so that no two people of the same sex sat beside each other. In Ordon, nobody seemed to care about such niceties so Link just plopped down between them.

"Hi, Link," Colin said, offering Link a shy smile.

"Hey Colin," Link said. "It's nice to see you again."

The sound of Mayor Bo ringing a brass bell drowned out what Link had been about to say, and all eyes turned to the Mayor as he began his speech.

"My brothers and sisters, we've gathered here tonight for a great cause. To enjoy each other's company and to celebrate the return of one of Ordon's most distinguished sons, Link," the Mayor said, to a smattering of applause. "May your hearths burn brightly in the dark!"

Everybody reached for the food at once. Link's hand closed around a small pumpkin pie at the same time as his neighbour. Link let go and moved to apologise to them before realising that it was the red-haired girl that Ilia had warned him about.

"Sorry," he said. "You can have it."

The girl stared at him, then a coy smile spread across her face. "Oh don't worry," she said. "You can have it."

When Link demurred again, she simply dropped the pie back on his plate. "I'm Meredith," she said. "And you are?"

"Link," he replied, looking around for cutlery but finding there was none, much to his relief.

"You're the one they're throwing this fancy party for," the girl observed.

"True," Link replied, biting into the food.

The girl batted her eyelashes at him, which seemed to annoy Ilia. Suddenly he realised what Ilia had meant by 'eager'. He gave the girl a puzzled look. Surely she couldn't have set her cap for him, could she? That would be absurd, since any girl who became his wife would be very unfortunate indeed. It would be unfair to ask anyone to wait the amount of time it would take him to get over Zelda. It had not been his intention, but he was beginning to put some real thought into becoming a wandering hero. The idea had merit.

"Listen…I'm sorry, Merys was it?"

"Meredith," the girl supplied.

"Thank you," Link said. "Meredith, you're a charming girl, but…"

"Are you really the Hero of Twilight?" Meredith asked, eyes shining brightly.

"He's eating, Meredith," Ilia said, narrowing her eyes at the other girl. "Let him alone."

"No he's not," Meredith replied saucily. "Link you're not eating right?"

Link stuffed a sweet potato into his mouth. "You see?" Ilia said, triumphantly.

Meredith glowered at her. "You know what, Ilia?" she said. "Why don't you just mind your own business, alright?"

Link opened his mouth to try and diffuse the situation only to choke on his mouthful of potatoes. Both women were on him in an instant, clapping him on the back to stop his coughing. Ilia was hitting him with unnecessary force, as though it was Meredith she really wanted to beat and he just happened to be in the way.

Link swatted their hands away and suddenly got up from the table. "I'm so sorry you two, but I think I forgot to remove Epona's tack," he said, managing to disguise his irritation with their behaviour. "Please excuse me!"

If Ilia had every truly suspected that he had done something so careless as to leave Epona in her tack she would have beat him bloody before everyone assembled. Instead she just looked at him solemnly and went back to her food.

"Hurry back!" Meredith cried after him.

Link nodded his assent as he left. It was better that the lie did not pass his lips. Back at the treehouse, Epona was standing perfectly comfortable beneath the lip of his veranda, sleeping upright as horses do. Link climbed up the ladder, curled up in his bed and went back to sleep.

That night, Link dreamed of Zelda. The two of them lay side by side together in a field of flowers, fingers intertwined with each other's, eyes fixed on the clouds. And they were laughing as though they had not a care in the world. Soon after Link pointed out a cloud that he said looked like "a squatting bombling", Zelda suddenly sat up and she forced him to sit up too.

"Link," she said, biting her lip anxiously.

"Yes?" he said.

She smiled at him. "Link," she said again.

Here it comes, Link thought, bracing himself for the declaration of love that he was sure he was about to hear. How sweet it would be to hear those words at last! Zelda laid her soft white palm on his cheek and looked directly into his eyes.

"Link," she said, slightly louder.

This confused him. Why didn't she say anything? "What is it?" he asked, plucking her and off his cheek and squeezing it tightly.

Zelda only shook her head and let out a little chuckle as though he had just said something charmingly endearing, then she opened her mouth and shouted, "Link!"

Link's eyes snapped open. Someone was calling his name, he realised. The voice was definitely not Zelda's, but it was familiar, although it seemed to be coming from very far away. Too far to discern who it might belong to. Link ignored it. "Link answer me!" the voice cried again, clearer now.

The voice's owner pounded heavily on his door. "Link!" the voice cried, and this time it was clearly Ilia. "Link! I know you're in there! Let me in!"

Link made no move to get up. She was probably just going to scold him for leaving the party and ask him what had happened between him and Zelda, but he could hardly forget about her if Ilia was constantly bringing her up. I'm not home, Link thought, willing it to be true. Unfortunately Ilia was as stubborn as a goat and refused to leave.

"Link, answer me now! This is important!" Ilia shouted. "A carriage came into the village just now! It's the Queen, she's here to look for you!"

Link scrambled free of the sheets and threw the doors open so suddenly that Ilia let out a little shriek of surprise and leaped out of the way. "The Queen?" Link demanded. "The Queen is here?"

"Yeah, my dad sent me to bring you to her," Ilia said. "So let's go. It's not good to keep royalty waiting, you know, even if they're your fiancée."

"Ex-fiancée," Link said sternly, pressing his lips into a fine line. He ducked back inside, grabbing Epona's saddle and taking her bridle from its hook by the door. "I'll go to her right now. Thanks for coming to find me, Ilia."

He descended the ladder in a flash, saddling Epona up and fitting the bridle in place over her head without a word. Ilia sidled up to him as succinctly as possible as he fiddled with the straps and buckles. "What do you think she wants?" she asked.

"I don't know," Link replied truthfully.

He climbed into Epona's saddle in one smooth motion and, before Ilia could climb in beside him, he snapped the reins and bolted away from her.

"Hey! Just where do you think you're going?" Ilia shouted. He looked over his shoulder and saw Ilia's rapidly dwindling form waving its hands at him. "Take me with you! I don't wanna walk all the way back!"

Link only urged Epona to go faster, sending them hurdling away from her at an alarming rate. Instead of heading to the gates to the village proper, where Zelda would undoubtedly be waiting for him, he lead Epona deeper into the woods where he knew no-one would dare look for him. He couldn't bring himself to look at Zelda again, knowing how badly he had hurt her.

He spent the entire day roaming the tall, thick trees that made up the ancient woods, traversing the paths that only he knew how to find. He lead Epona on foot, unwilling to risk her taking a tumble by setting her hooves down in the wrong place. The forest might not be as magical as it was in the days of legend, but it was still treacherous. Even he would trip occasionally over a stray tree root or get scratched by a reaching branch, and that was when he was paying attention.

He only dared to return to his house when it was too dark to see anything under the forest canopy, although by that time a rainstorm had rolled in from the east and he and Epona had been completely drenched. By the time he got home he was cold, wet and utterly miserable but from the lack of activity going on in Ordon he could at least say that Zelda was probably gone. He tied Epona under the shelter of the treehouse before venturing inside but before he could remove any of his cold, soggy clothes a new voice said, "Here you are. I've been waiting for you for hours."

Link's mouth dropped open. Zelda was waiting for him, dressed in a fine white silk dress with accents of baby blue as though she were going to call upon the favour of a king, not some raggedy peasant boy in straw sandals. Her beautiful face bathed in the warm orange light of the fire she had started in his fireplace and she looked radiant, the sort of radiance that hurt your heart instead of your eyes when you looked at it.

"Zelda," he said, walking straight past her and making as if he was wholly distracted by some small task. "What are you doing here?"

Zelda quirked a smile at him. That same wry smile that haunted him, the one he thought was so attractive. "It's quite simple really," she said archly, resting her chin in her palm. "I came to find out why you've been avoiding me lately."

A/N: Ah finally, lucky number 13! This one only took forever to write because I spent a long time worrying about how the sentences flowed into one another. No matter what I did it just never seemed right to me, but eventually I just decided that it was as good as it was going to get. They can't all be winners, I guess :/