The Legend of Zelda: Link's Desperation

Chapter 4: The Need to Escape

Link was about to break every pot in existence. He thought that Beth had a problem similar to his, but it was the same problem! And she probably just solved it! She wasn't the one who lost everything. She wasn't the one who bled and screamed and fought for this land, but yet she felt like she had a problem with all of that knowledge!

I need to calm down. I need to breathe, and I need to not get upset. She's just a kid. She doesn't understand, Link told himself over and over. It was nightfall anyway, it was probably a good time to go to bed early and get some sleep because there wan't a doubt that Fado would be waking Link up at the crack of dawn. He climbed the two ladders to his bed, and crawled in without taking any clothes off, and fell right to sleep.

~~~

"Link..."

"See you later..."

~~~

"Hey, Link!" Fado called. Link shot awake like a lightning bolt had struck him. That memory kept playing in his sleep... Midna's tear floating towards the mirror...

No. Stop thinking about that! Link yelled at himself in his head. He heard a muffled shout from Fado, once again, and reached over to a chair to grab some clothes to put on, but he realized he had fallen asleep with his only clothes on. He pulled himself out of bed and dropped down where the ladders were and made his way outside.

Fado was standing a little ways away from the base of the ladder.

"Come on, Link! Time to get back to work!" he shouted. The word 'back' bothered Link for whatever reason. Fado turned to leave, and Link looked down to where his horse usually stayed overnight, but she wasn't there. A deep feeling of dread washed over him as he realized where his horse was.

He could do two things; go get the horse, or he could go to the ranch and pretend he doesn't need Epona.

Hey, he was the holder of the Triforce of Courage, wasn't he?

He hopped down and sprinted along the path to the spring, just to make sure he doesn't have time to change his mind. He was at the entrance in a split second, and what he figured was confirmed. Ilia stood there with Epona in the spring, washing the horse.

"Hey, Link," Ilia said. "I washed Epona for you," she said

Link's heart raced, but not because of the sprint. What was she doing? The last time we were here, she got kidnapped! I got turned into a freaking wolf! And I remember exactly what she had said the time before that: Hey, Link, I washed Epona for you. Is she trying to drive me insane? What is she trying to pull? Link was furious.

"Link...?" Ilia said timidly. She noticed something was wrong with him. He snapped out of his internal rage.

"Oh. Sorry. I need her," Link replied. He roughly walked up and snatched Epona, climbed on and left. He said a thanks over his shoulder, but Ilia didn't hear it. She wasn't angry about his rudeness; she was worried. She didn't understand what she could have done to anger him like that...

~~~

All Link could imagine while he was working was Ilia in that spring with a twisted, wicked smile, reading his thoughts and learning his innermost insecurities and the darkness within him. Its as if she knew that his mind was conflicted with itself; half of him was hurt and broken and scarred by his experiences and the things he saw and watched, the other half is perfectly content with his normal life again. Somewhere, deep inside, he felt as if the latter side was winning.

He couldn't focus on his work any longer. he finished up what he could and asked Fado if he could leave for the day. Link knew that it was still quite early, but he knew Fado was persuadable.