Forgive me | Legend of Zelda FF | ENG

21 ~ Forgive me

"Zelda?" gasped Link as he stopped abruptly and I sprinted right to his side.
"What's wrong?", I casually asked, whereupon Link simply sat down on the floor; legs drawn up and resting his head and arms on it.
"Link?", I inquired confused as I also sat down on the floor with him and put my hand on his back. Then I exhaled audibly.

In the meantime, we had been on the road again for several hours, after finally spending the night at the Foothill Stable after the descent from the mountains in Eldin. Mainly after the night shift, which we had pushed with Links weakening seizure and the eruption of the volcano, we had earned ourselves the sleep probably visibly.

But since we had set off from the stable, there had been repeated incidents and breaks, because Link seemed to be in a really miserable state overall. I would like to help him with that, but whenever I tried to find out what exactly was wrong with him, he always fell into a kind of speechlessness; he couldn't get a word out, except my name, to signal me that we had to stop.

So just like he did just a moment ago.

And now I was sitting here next to him again and didn't know what was going on. At first I was still a little angry, because he would not tell me why he was behaving like that, but after the tenth time I had given up and then only gave him emotional support. If I remembered correctly, he had explained to me that even if he did not speak, he could still perceive his environment. Accordingly, it was important to me that he at least heard my voice and felt my touch when he lost control again.

Even though we both probably didn't want to admit it, it looked like something in Link's head was connected to the Calamity. No matter how creepy this idea might be, it made sense, since Link must have come into contact with the Malice through the Master Sword. But it could never have been Ganon's intention to completely take over Link, because otherwise he would have already had every opportunity to defeat me and thus eliminate me; after all, I slept in the same room with Link at night, even in the same bed. If he had wanted to do me harm, he would have attacked me then.

My gaze wandered again to Link, who had calmed down in the meantime, whereupon I held out my hand to him so that he could get up. He gratefully accepted it and pulled himself up.
"We can go on," Link muttered as he quickly averted his eyes from me.
Pityingly, I looked over at him after taking him by the hand. Sadly, he looked at me as I could see his eyes glaze over.
"I'm sorry we keep having to stop because of me," he informed me brokenly as I just widened my eyes and stopped abruptly.
"Link-," I continued in shock as he interrupted me.
"I'm just slowing us down and it's killing me so much that you're moving so much slower because of me," he confessed honestly and then just looked down at the ground.
"Link listen to me," I pleaded as he looked over his shoulder at me. "Don't give up."

Still glum, he now turned all the way around to face me, at which point I walked up to him and put my arms around his waist.
"Don't listen to the voice inside your head," I informed him as he moved away from me a bit and then looked at me in confusion.
"Then what am I supposed to listen to?" he inquired desperately as I was already tapping my finger on his left chest.
"Exactly on that; listen to your heart," I enlightened him, whereupon I managed to elicit a slight smile from him. "You're doing a great job with all of this, and you're always doing your best to make sure you don't lose control. I give you a lot of credit for that."

Now it was Link who pulled me towards him by my waist, causing my feet to lose their grip on the floor.
"There's no one like you," he whispered in my ear as I felt him press a soft kiss to my cheek.
I noticed my cheeks instantly redden as he had already buried his face in my hair on my shoulder.
Unable to move, I looked over his shoulders with my mouth wide open until I did wrap my arms tightly around him and place my head on his chest with a big smile on my face.