The Legend of Zelda: The King's Sword

Part Twenty-Four: Health

Zelda's POV:

"Wake up..." he croons. A feather caresses my cheek. "Wake up, Flower."

My eyes refuse to open.

"Please..."

Is that...joy I hear behind his whispers?

A kiss at my ear tickles the back of my neck, stirring my body alive.

"Wake up~..."

"...Is it raining?" my eyes open. The search for his face is severe until he comes into focus.

"Yes."

"Am I alive...? It's so bright in here." my fingers grasp for him and meet with his hand.

He chuckles through his nose, "Mostly, anyway."

Something stirs me to sit up. We aren't in our bedroom, but one made of fluted pillars. The Alconians were right. The Sacred Realm looks just like this.

"It's beautiful here."

"And look," he smiles and takes my hand. "Your skin is all clean now."

"Link," I worry, slinging my legs over the edge of the bed. "How did we die?"

"The sickness took you," he sighs, helping me to stand. "I had fallen asleep in our bed with your body in my arms." he takes me into his embrace. "Before I knew it, I...wasn't alive either."

I gasp at my reflection in the mirror across the expansive, echoing room, "Look!" I rush to inspect my image in the glass. "My wings," they bend back and forth, their luster shifting between indigo, pink, and gold.

"You look beautiful as always, Flower."

"I can't believe it, Link, and you too!" I pull him toward me, eagerly showing him his reflection. "You're glowing."

"I see, Zelda."

I run my little finger down my nose that has gone slimmer. This new roundness, smoothness of my face is...unreal. But...it is...

"If you can't believe that," he holds my hand again, leading me to the part in the pillars against a white sky. "Wait until you meet them."

We cross a glassy bridge to a lower island where two women and a man converse with each other. Link's eyes shine with a most unusual sparkle. It accents the white flowers that sprout in a ring through his hair.

A golden woman who looks just like me stands there.

"Is that..." I glance at Link for a moment. "Is that my mother?"

She grins with tears in her eyes and opens her arms as I leap from the foot of the stairs. Oh, my mother, my mother's here!

"Mama!" I cry at her heart.

She withdraws, holding my face in her warm hands, "My daughter, you're so beautiful."

"You're here-"

"You're so young, my darling." a waterfall of tears trickles down her cheeks rounder than I ever noticed in my childhood. "It is so good to hold my baby again."

"Where's father...?" I wipe tears with my fingers. "Is he alright?"

She makes a smaller smile, then looks at the polished white floor, which turns to glass.

He stands in his office with his hands behind his back, staring out his window.

"He's still alive!" I sigh.

Link suddenly takes me from my mother's arms, holds my cheeks, and presses our foreheads together. In this paradise, his touch is even more amazing.