A Link Without Zelda [COMPLETE]

2. Link's Dream And Adel's Shadow

Link is heading back to the village. His head is down, all he can hear is the crunching of snow under his boot.

"Link! Link!" says a voice behind him, finally catching his attention. He turns around.

"How come you didn't hear me? I was calling out to you for a while."

"Oh. Sorry, Ellemy. I didn't hear you."

She frowns. "What are you thinking about exactly?"

He pauses, then he says, "what do you mean?"

"You didn't hear me because you're too busy in your own mind. So what is consuming your thoughts?"

He sighs. "Home."

When Ellemy doesn't respond, Link looks down at her. Her head is low, a shadow casts over her eyes.

"What?" he says.

"You're either kidding yourself or doing a shitty job kidding everyone else. It's not just about home, Link. Home can be anywhere. I think it's who's home that's the issue."

"I wish everyone would get off my damn back. I came to this village to get Adel. I had and still have no intentions of settling here."

He faces Ellemy when she doesn't respond and is shocked by the tears that are welling in her eyes and rolling down her face. He sighs. "It's not a personal thing. There is just no need to get close to me."

"Right, sorry for getting missed signals from all the times we spent together. I guess that meant nothing," she says bitterly which catches Link off guard. "I guess I was wrong about you. But while you're waiting for the portal to open, do you think Adel is doing the same?"

He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Then Ellemy takes a different path and Link is alone again.

"I thought the hero was supposed to have a happy ending," he says when he is in the privacy of his house. A vacant home that the villagers have been generous enough to give him. "I am part of the reason things are quiet and people are safe. So why did things have to turn out like this for me?" His mind flickers to Hyrule and then to Adel in Hyrule kingdom.

An emotion, he isn't sure which, consumes him and he tightens his fist and punches the wall. His fist still on the wall, he watches the blood trickle down. As he watches the blood, memories flashes before his eyes. Memories of countless battles he had endured over the years. Over the lifetimes. He rests his head on the wall. "I should be there with you." He feels the throb in his head and determines that the emotion must be anger.

He goes to sleep but his dreams prevent him from getting any rest.

*****

"Link... why are you doing this? We travelled to Hyrule together and worked... so hard to create peace... why, Link?"

Link has his hand tightly grasped around Adel's neck. He is squeezing tighter and tighter and he enjoys watching her as she turns from purple to blue to gray.

"Because I need to get home."

Link wakes up gasping for air. He looks down at his hands. He can still feel the warmth on his right hand that has wrapped so tightly around Adel's neck. What's concerning about the dream is not the contents of it. He has seen many battles which often morph into gory dreams. What's concerning is the joy he felt in the dream. Not remorse, not disgust. Just contentment.

He gets out of bed, though it's still dark, to wash up for the day.

"Why did I dream I was killing Adel?" he says looking at his face in the mirror as the beads of water drip down his neck and chest. He puts the dream aside, assuming it's the horrors of his reality playing on his subconscious and not actually blood lust. He is the hero after all, so it's pretty easy to convince himself that it's just a dream.