I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Life Is A Highway66

Legend of Zelda © Nintendo
Post Spirit Tracks

The Princess often found herself staring from her living quarters of Hyrule Castle, to the land that lay below. The paper work that she generally would have been happy to concentrate on was put to one side, and the spirit tracks were put to the forefront of her mind. Even though it had been years since the disaster, she could not help but wish that the engineer would appear from the doorway and take her to a better land.

Alas, she no longer knew what her old companion was doing. When asked what he was planning on doing once the tracks had been restored, he could only reply with a mere "I dunno". Now, every time she heard a train go by, her heart skipped a beat for the thought of her hero. Every time she heard the sound of swords clashing, her face flushed for the thought of her saviour. Every time she spied a guard standing aimlessly, exhaling ceased to exist for the thought of her prince. Rushing to the window was once a habit, but now it was only a distant memory. For no Rupees in a well, no wish upon a star had ever made her reverie a reality.

Although she had dreamed – oh so very long ago – of turning, and a now older Hylian, still dressed in the recruits uniform, taking her by the hand and showing her all the things that she had ever wished of seeing, she knew that they were young when they had first met, and now she had changed, and she suspected that he had too. However, she knew that this kind of romance only existed in books and stories that she had been told long ago. She shook her head; for far too long she had been yearning over him. She wished she had the willpower to put him aside and focus on work. She did try, although the words on the page eventually became incomprehensible series of letters, fashioned in such a way to look like a well written sentence. She rested her forehead in her hand. If she got this distracted by the thought of Link, she could only imagine what she would procrastinate with while he was actually in front of her. Thus, she concluded, in any situation, she would inevitably lose.

She looked to the window and sighed, wondering what harm would bring to check for him once more as she heard the sound of a train approaching. Rising from her seat, she made her way over to it. She remembered a time when Chancellor Cole would forbid her from looking out to the view, however much the pastoral landscape was where she felt the most at ease. Now she just stood, although she knew that it was going to be impossible to do so, she still wished somewhat that she would be able to see the spirit train on the tracks coming toward the Castle Town. She leant against it, and watched the movement throughout the land, pondering to herself what each members of the society were doing.

Link stood at the Outset Village station, trying to find the courage to board the train and simply leave to the castle; he was unsure as to what exactly held him back. As he stood on the wooden platform, he could only look to his and Niko's house. The man was older now, and needed him more than ever. At the same time, he came to realise his age, and yearned for that taste of independence – orlove– that he had seen in his early years with the Princess. The class divide, however, bore heavily upon him. How would it look to others outside of Hyrule, or in fact, the relationship, that Princess Zelda, whose face contained unimaginable beauty, whose eyes radiated with naivety and innocence would be seen to wed a commoner such as Link?

He turned as society once again called victory upon his wish. Expectations that had been placed upon him by the village still on his mind; both due to the story that had travelled about saving the Princess and that he had been a fully qualified engineer for years – since he was a young lad. However, there had been times when he had been incredibly distracted by the thought of Zelda, and had stopped paying attention to the tracks ahead; it was at these moments that everyone questioned if he was indeed qualified to control a train. He looked to the floor, peering at the villagers from the corner of his eye. They all looked to him; almost as if they were expecting something. Getmesomefish! Ineedsomeice! Iwannafly! He did not see his abilities as a burden – in fact, he quite liked the idea that many people would call upon him when they had a favour needing doing.

By this time he was in front of his and the old man's house. He smiled somewhat; even if he was able to move away from the village, he did not know where exactly he would go, after all, the only thing missing from the community was Princess Zelda. He shook his head, every so often his mind would go into a rut, and every thought that passed through would link back to her. Taking his hat off, he entered the house, where Niko was sitting in the corner and flipping through his stamp book, much as Link found him doing these days. He put the hat on the post of his bed and sat on it, looking at the uniform for castle guards that was folded upon one of the surfaces that outlined the room. The shield and the Sokomo sword leant against the piece of wooden furniture, and as he admired the detail and the memories that were upon the pieces of weaponry, he found himself smiling absent mindedly.

"I like stamps." Niko stated, eyes not leaving the book. Link could only titter slightly, the majority of their conversations (although he would be the first to admit that were very few) would revolve around the stamp book. He often thought that Niko's tales of how he had collected certain stamps would bore him, however, he often found himself closer to the elder man. While Link was content in listening to the tales of Niko (tales which revealed that he was, in fact, well-travelled, and that behind his old and spent eyes, he was much wiser than that of which most gave him credit for), Niko was still happy on listening to the story of the spirit tracks, although he had heard it so many times he could more than likely recite them.

"Yeah," Link chuckled, "I know. Wouldn't you like to get out at some point?" The older man just sighed; within the exhale of breath, Link could sense much of it was wrapped around sadness. As he waited for a reply, he got none, and so turned to face him. He was looking away from stamp book, and toward the open door which the younger man had entered through. "I'm sorry–"

"Wouldn't you like to get out at some point?" For the first time in a long time, their eyes met. Link wanted to tell him everything, but a look in those ancient eyes and something screamed to him that Niko was aware of everything. Every wish. Every desire. Every doubt. "I see you standing at the station," he continued, "I see you walking away dismayed. I see it. And I know why." A knowing smile spread across his face, and he finally rested the stamp book on the arm of his chair. He brought his walking stick forward and leaned against it. "I know how you feel about the Princess. I know you think that she being who she is and you being a mere royal engineer is going to get in the way." He stood; Link jumped to his feet and readied himself to catch the older man, however, he just stood a while as he steadied himself, and made his way over to the furniture on which rested the guard's uniform. "I'd rather know that you've tried than you just continue as you were – no good ever came from waiting for something good to happen."

Link just stared at the green tunic, and the weaponry. As much as he detested realising the truth; Niko was right.

Zelda sighed, creating patterns on the windowsill idly as her mind continued to swiftly run through multiple thoughts at once. You're stupid, she wanted to cry to herself, her heart hanging low from the expectations that she had hung for Link. He was simply an engineer, why would he of all people be interested in the Princess of Hyrule? She shook her head again, and shivered as she noticed the dark clouds overhead grow closer. She watched them, memories from the dark realm that they had faced before finally coming face to face with her body in possession of the Demon King, Malladus. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to get all of the thoughts from her mind. The danger was over, that moment of time was just a memory, and the young companion was never to be seen again. She heard the door slam shut behind her; as usual the majority of the guards were more than likely wanting to ensure that she was still in her living quarters, and not have been kidnapped. She looked to the reflection of the window.

If I was lucky.

"Princess?"

She paused. Looking past her own reflection to the other side of the room; she squinted, and although the voice was somewhat unfamiliar, thatface! That face was almost as it were when they had last met. Her heart skipped a beat, for there was her hero. Her face flushed, for there was her saviour. Her exhaling ceased to exist for there was her prince. She turned around, and without thinking about it, she began to pat down her dress, and making herself look more presentable. She turned to see the Hylian she had been wishing to see for as long as she could remember in front of her. Able to tell him everything that she had been gradually gaining courage toward saying.

The two stood in their places. Silent. Frozen. No noise came into the room, no noise left the room. The two paused; stuck in each other's visual embrace. Link dropped the sword and shield that he was holding tightly, and they clashed on the floor. Instead, he continued to investigate her newly found curves, and her mature face. The rumours were wrong; her eyes. No naivety, nor innocence, was contained within them, but it was clear to see that she was hiding a story. She was hiding experience. She was hiding desires and thoughts and dreams that no one would have thought was appropriate for a Princess. He took a step forward, and stopped; watching the Princess carefully as he wondered if it was just he whom wanted to meet in the middle of the room.

Her muscles tensed, he saw this, especially within her face. Almost as though she was trying to conceal a smile. A smile that would give him permission to make his way over to her. However much she wanted to him to join her by the window, it took – what felt like – every ounce of her strength not to run forward and fall into his embrace. She stayed, however, and nodded as if to give him permission to move forward. He only moved as close to her as the desk, stopping to pick up the picture of the two of them while they were attempting to restore the spirit tracks. He chuckled, looking up to her. "You've gotten more beautiful, if you don't mind me saying."

She found herself unable to resist. Before she could stop herself, she had ran toward him and threw her arms around him, burying her face deep within his chest and sighing deeply, she allowed herself a small smile as she took in his scent, holding tightly onto his tunic and pulling him toward her. He unsurely wrapped her within his arms, and rested his head upon hers. The two stayed like a sculpture, carved into one place, cursed with the inability to move – a sweet hex that allowed her the tiniest piece of heaven for the rest of time. He attempted to look at her, trying to move as little as possible, however, he caught sight of himself in one of the windows, and allowed a broad smile to grow across his face. She looked happy, even more so than when she had gotten her body back.

He held the back of her head gently, and regretfully she pulled away from him. The height difference was even more apparent now as he looked down to her, the two found themselves lost in the labyrinth of each other's eyes. He found himself moving slowly toward her, resting his hands upon either side of her face. She froze for a moment, staring straight ahead; still they were fixated on gaping into each other. She moved closer, the two smiling unsurely; knowing what each other wanted and not knowing who would be the first to make the move. She closed her eyes, and Link tried his hardest to breathe a sigh of relief as he moved closer. He closed his eyes in reply, and found himself growing almost giddy as their breath gripped. Their lips were about to close the gap between them, when Zelda pushed him away, "Wait…" She looked up to him; the two still being inches away from each other, their noses almost touching. "We haven't seen each other in so long. I know nothing about you. We can't just rush into these kinds of things."

He refused to let go, refused to discuss about the innate desire that both burned through them. "What is there to talk about? About how everything we're doing is more than likely wrong?" He looked to each of her eyes individually; there was something different about them now. They seemed awake with a cold terror that gripped her and every thought about her reputation as the ruler of Hyrule. Just as he thought. What would everyone think of Princess Zelda marrying a commoner such as Link? "I don't think you've realised exactly how much it took for me to come here today. In the end, Niko had to tell me to come. I'm scared too, alright? About how much I shouldn't be doing this, about how many people would die to be in this position right now, and you have the pick of them all. Why? Why choose someone you met when you were young and haven't seen since then? Especially someone who has very little to their name?" The silence hung in the air between them now; a stale silence which took the Princess by surprise. Years of dreaming about this moment, and yet she was trying to think of any way of getting out of it. But as he held her face tight, restricting her from moving away, she accepted her fate as he moved closer once again to seal the gap between them.

As soon as his lips brushed over hers, she found herself at ease. He felt her relax and released her, hands travelling down to rest upon her waist, and pulling her even closer. Now there was no gap between them; not between their bodies or faces. She responded, and deepened the kiss, taking her hands from her sides and allowing them to travel up his arms, to the top of his back, and made their last stop to the top of his head. She smiled through the kiss as his hat was knocked from its place, and done its best to separate the two. It worked momentarily, as they took a breath and ensured that this was what the other wanted, however, as they exchanged smirks, it became too clear that this was where they were both always meant to end up.

The two clashed again. Everything about them becoming intertwined in an incomprehensible weave of love, lust and passion. As Zelda fell backward to be pushed upon the desk where she had first felt the fluttering of adoration, her mind raced with thoughts of where this would lead. And as they renewed their love for one another in the ignorable silence, they could have sworn that they heard the spirits of Staven and Anjean leave; muttering their approval and blessing for the new relationship, and anything that it may throw at the two.