Chapter Two: Sleeping
Power Awakens
Zelda awoke harshly when she heard a taping noise on her
window.
‘Damn birds…always want food’… she mumbled angrily and
turned around in her bed, pulling the cover over her head.
‘Why won’t she get up?’… Link thought and took up yet
another small rock. He threw it once more on her window. He couldn’t yell her
name, because then the whole castle would awaken, and he also had to be careful
so he wasn’t spotted by the guards. ‘If she won’t get up…I will’ Link said to
himself and got hold of some vines and started making his way up the tower in
which she was resting.
When he had finally reached her window, he stopped climbing.
‘I have to open it quick so the guards won’t spot me’… (Link’s thoughts) he
gracefully got out a small elaborate dagger (which he had taken from somewhere
in his past adventures) slid it carefully in the space between the windows, and
with a small ‘crack’ the windows were open and so he sneaked inside. He left
the decorated windows open if for some reason he had to escape.
His gaze went to a large beautiful bed were he could see the
princess’s sleeping peaceful form. He slowly approached her, and at last he
stood by her bed side. He looked at her beautiful face, which slept so
peacefully. He didn’t have the heart to wake her up just now, so he decided to
sleep some too. Link carefully lay himself beside her, not too close, but not
too far either…he relaxed and slowly closed his eyes. Soon, sleep came over him
and he drifted into the realm of dreams. He wished he could lie like this
forever, together with the woman he loved, here in this bed…
Zelda’s eyes slowly opened. How long had she been sleeping?
She turned around and startled jumped a bit when she to her surprise saw Link
resting beside her. ‘How did he get in?’ she thought, but as soon as she had
thought so, Link opened his eyes and looked at her. ‘H-How did you know I was
awake?’ Zelda asked him, surprised. ‘Your hand let go off mine, dear Zelda’,
Link answered.
Truly, it had been so, but Link had been in deep sleep. He
wouldn’t have felt anything… in fact, he had strangely enough, sensed it. ‘How
strange’…Link thought. ’When did you come Link?’ ‘A while back ago it seems’
The sun was beginning to go down over Hyrule.
‘…Link, I am sorry that you had to wait so long, Zelda
apologized to him, why didn’t you wake me up?’ ‘Because you looked so beautiful
when you slept’…
Zelda blushed when Link took hold of her hand in a strong,
but gentle grip. He looked deeply into her eyes, with a tender affection shining
in them.
‘…Please come with me, Zelda. I want to show you something.’
Link stood up, facing the open window. ‘Jump up on my back and hold yourself
tightly around me, so you won’t fall off.’ ‘Link…what are you going to do?’
Zelda asked him a bit frightened as she climbed up on his strong back and held
herself tightly around his neck. ‘Don’t be afraid, Zelda…I will carry you
safely down…if you feel afraid, take a hold of the bandoleer of the sword
sheath.’ Link started to carefully climb down the vines slowly, while Zelda
held herself tightly around his back, closing her eyes as they went down. She
didn’t like heights that much…
‘You can open your eyes now, Zelda, we’re down here now’.
She heard Link say, and so she opened her eyes. She looked straight into his
deep dark blue eyes. He held her in his arms…the two stayed so for a few
minutes, lost in each other’s gaze. At last Link let the princess stand up and
so his arms left her. ‘Come’… Link took hold of her hand and pulled her gently.
The two sneaked out of the castle into a nearby meadow.
Link took some horse grass and called on Epona,
his beloved mare. Immediately, Epona rushed towards
them. Link helped Zelda get up before him himself swinged
up onto the saddle. Zelda was safely positioned in the front of the saddle,
while Link sat behind her, holding the long reins in his hands. ‘Hold her in
the mane if you’re feeling it’s going too fast or hold the saddle horn, Link
told Zelda. I will not let you fall off, dear princess’…and with those final
words, Link quickly set Epona into a full gallop.
Under Epona’s powerful gallop, the two came quickly
to their destination.
‘Now, look Zelda…look at the beautiful sunset over the Great
Bridge of Hylia’. Link said as he stood beside her.
It was a sight to behold…the great sun slowly setting under flames of orange,
red and yellow reflected in the water of Lake Hylia.
Link glanced at Zelda in the vanishing light and felt an
affection for her so strongly that it out blotted all his other feelings or
thoughts at that moment. He felt a pain in his heart, a pain of not being able
to express his true feelings for her.
Suddenly, a shooting pain hit his left hand, and he clenched
his teeth not to let a scream out. His gaze left Zelda and instead looked on
his hand. Instead of a hand, he saw his triforce
glowing faintly while his fingers more resembled claws and, above all, his hand
had long hairs protruding out of it (or at least it seemed so), the hand was
covered in short, sharp hairs and it hurt like nothing else. Link became scared
and quickly hid his hand behind his back (he noticed that Zelda somehow would
turn around at any moment and face him) and so she did.
‘Link that was the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen!
Thank you!’ Zelda smiled at him and he smiled back at her. ‘That’s strange
(Link’s thoughts) I don’t feel any pain anymore’… he felt with his right hand
over his left but all he could feel was skin and nothing more. The hairs were
gone…
‘Well I better get back to the castle…’
‘Oh, right’ Link said and he and Zelda sat up on Epona once more and rode back to the castle under the
essence of the full moon. After that he had said good-bye to Zelda Link made
his way back to Ordana province. He was tired. That
moment with Zelda had taken all his energy…
Upon his arrival to his house, Link collapsed in a chair,
where he let out a big, heavy sigh. He closed his eyes and was just about to go
to sleep when he was brutally awakened by Midna’s
high voice:
‘Hello! Are you awake or not?! I want to know everything!
Every little detail! Did you kiss her? Did you do something foolish in front of
her?! Tell me! Tell me!!
‘Midna, Iam
tired, go away!’ Link murmured angrily and turned around in his chair. Midna, unaffected by Link’s anger continued pursuing him
with questions until he would answer her. ‘Nothing special happened Midna, I was just showing Zelda the sunset over Lake Hylia, nothing more,’ he
half-lied. ‘Oh, I don’t think so, Mr. Hero, Midna
said as she ran her fingers across her hair. I think you’re hiding something from
me…she came face to face with Link and looked into his eyes with an evil glint.
Say… didn’t something happen with that left hand of yours? Something
scary? Haven’t you felt it strange that you can smell and hear things
better than before? That you know what’s going to happen before it happens?
That that hand of yours suddenly changed? She said as she glanced on his left
hand. Link was scared…how did she know what had happened? Had she...spied on
him? He remembered that Midna could still hide in his
shadow even these days when the twilight was gone…she must have spied at him
through his shadow while he was with Zelda!
‘Midna…did you spy on me?’ ‘I did
Link; I did because I wanted to know…what you two were up to…’ ‘That’s not the
only reason, is it? You wanted to see how I was together with Zelda…how
I…changed…you know why, you must know why I started to transform into a wolf
again…I felt it...something, a desire, an urge in my heart…’ Link looked at his
hand, its triforce mark not glowing. ‘I know why you
begin to transform like this, Link. I notice a lot that you almost constantly
have one feeling which is stronger than your other feelings depending on the
situation you are in, a dominant feeling which controls what you feel and think
and do in a situation. That’s why Link. The triforce
responds to your feeling by transforming you into your animal self, for it were
by force that the triforce made you transform in the
first place, not the twilight or me…the Gods made you transform into a wolf, so
you could save Hyrule from being in eternal darkness. Courage is the attribute
which your heart reflects the most. You remember the story about the triforce, don’t you Link? An evil heart with unequal
balance of Courage, Power and Wisdom will get the part which their heart
reflects the most, and the triforce will split up
into three separate pieces, while a heart which is fair and good and has an
equal balance of them all, will make the triforce
stay together as one and allow the one who holds it to house all its powers.
You don’t transform as quickly now, because in the twilight I could use my
power a lot more than I can now, and I used it to speed up the transformation
process to make it less painful for you. The stronger your dominant feeling is,
the faster you will transform. Like a curse rather than a gift I would say.’
‘Is there no way I can stop myself from transforming? Please Midna; I need your help…’ ‘If you learn to control your
feelings so that none is dominant, then perhaps you wouldn’t transform as quickly…but
I am not sure Link. If you are calm, you won’t transform I guess…’
She left him to be on his own, where he stood in the
darkness of night, all alone with his thoughts…