The Silence Between Them | ✔

8) Sudden

⚔ In which everyone loses someone important ⚔

Link

Three weeks earlier

When we return home, father says he was able to get a week to stay with us, instead of returning to the castle right after taking me back to Hateno.

That first day back at school was chaos. Klaus, Linebeck, and Avery apparently said I was going to Zora's Domain, so to keep the class quiet our teacher called me to the front of the classroom so I could answer questions the class had. It feels good to talk again, after reverting back to almost-silence with the princess. Except for that one night I offered to make her cake.

Don't ask me why I did it. I just wanted to try and be kind to her. I don't think it worked very well. She didn't even say thank you.

Mother is quick to notice my new piercings, and inspects them to make sure they're not infected. I tell her that if there was an infection, Mipha was quick to quell it before it got too bad.

"They suit you," she says. I smile.

Instead of just a week, father stays with us for two. It's amazing. We got a letter for the king saying that Zelda went on a trip, and that his leave could be expanded. Father took the offer, of course.

In those two weeks, father went with me, Klaus, Avery, and Linebeck on our adventures. He teaches us some things about surviving outdoors, how to hunt and cook meat, how to filter water, and how to make shelter. He says these things are important for anyone to know. He also helps them with their swordsmanship, and their aim while using a bow. They all take a liking to him, and when those two weeks come to an end, they are all sad to see them go.

Those two weeks came to an end faster than anyone expected. In the afternoon, he packs his things and gets his horse ready. By that evening, he's ready to leave. After dinner, he and mother want to go on a walk alone. I don't protest. Instead, after they put me to bed, and I'm sure they've left the house, I slip out of bed, clean the kitchen and the dining room, put fresh flowers from mother's flower garden in the vase, and clean up their room a bit. When I'm finished, I sit at the dining table until they return.

But I fell asleep.

I don't know what time it is when I wake up, but it's still dark outside. I check their room. It's exactly how I left it earlier. They're nowhere to be seen. I start to panic

I grab my sword and run outside, and the panic only grows. I hear voices, urgent ones, and lights lining the main road of the village.

I break into a run, across the bridge, down the hill to the main road.

There's a crowd lining the road, holding lanterns or candles or whatever they could've grabbed in a hurry to see what was happening.

"Who is it?" "Where were they?" "Poor things," are all things I hear among the crowd.

I stop dead in my tracks.

Four people carry two stretchers toward the inn. They're covered in white sheets, but I don't need to see their faces to put the pieces together.

"No-" I whisper. What comes out of my mouth is out of my control. "No, no, no."

"Link?" The sound is far away. I barely hear it. "Link!"

"Poor dear." "Can't imagine." "What will he do?" "Thier only son."

"Link!" Someone shakes my shoulder. I can hardly feel it.