The Legend of Zelda: Link's Desperation

Chapter 11: Bitter Payback

Link froze so abruptly at the sight of Ilia that Zelda bumped into him. Ilia heard it and turned around, her face immediately conforming into seething rage. She jumped to her feet and rushed over so quickly, Link barely had time to regain his balance from when Zelda bumped into him. Ilia started to yell, but she was so enraged that it only came out in loud stutters. Zelda was nervous and surprised, Link annoyed. Link put his hands out and did a motion to calm Ilia down, to no avail.

"Do you know what you did to us? To Uli? Rusl? The kids? Me?" Link began to think of a response, but not before Ilia started again. "You can't just vanish like that! What if you had fallen off of the bridge? What if one of us got hurt and you were the only one that could help? Fado needed help with the goats!" Link had felt guilty for a moment, but she began making up obvious lies. He realized that she was using other people to make excuses for her anger and her opinion of his actions. The others may have cared, but he knew that they respected his choices. All except Ilia. 

She began to start ranting when she noticed Zelda, who had grabbed Link's arm nervously as Ilia had run up to them.

"Who is that?" She asked rudely. Zelda didn't get angry, she was just taken aback. Link looked back at Zelda with a smirk and his eyes read a very clear message to Zelda: Just go along.

"Oh, this gorgeous gal? This is none other Queen Zelda of Hyrule." Zelda's eyes went wide, and she longed to slap Link until she saw the priceless, indescribable look over the rude girl's face. Zelda still didn't know her name.

"Queen... Zelda?" She asked, searching her mind for an excuse. "Why is she here, and why is she in regular clothes? You're obviously joking!" Ilia had a look of victory on her face, but Link wasn't done yet.

"When I left to, you know, defeat evil, you can assume that Princess Zelda was a very vital component to the adventure," he argued, "and that's how we met. They crowned her Queen of Hyrule, and that's why I left Ordon, to attend the ceremony. I mean, why would I want to miss my fiancé's crowning, Ilia?" Zelda's heart felt like it stopped beating at this insane scenario, but nothing negative could cancel the positivity of Ilia's facial expression. Her mouth dropped wide open.

"B-but, why did you bring her here...? And why didn't you tell us?" The dumbfoundedness began to transfer into rage once again.

"Because I proposed the day I left," Link explained with an incredibly convincing lie. The satisfaction of her bitterness being counteracted left Zelda overjoyed and holding back hysterical laughter. She realized that she had been standing there bewildered and just watching, so she decided to help Link with the payback. She walked up next to him, put her right arm around his waist and her left hand in the center of his chest, and looked up at him faking a loving stare. He looked down, returning the fake look. Zelda noticed a look of both jealously and disgust on Ilia's face in her peripheral vision. 

"He brought me here because I've never seen the kingdom," Zelda began to reply to the second half of Ilia's question that Link had forgotten about, "and he wanted me to pick where we'd go on the honeymoon." Link smiled, and Zelda giggled. She really loved acting, now that she had done it. They looked back at Ilia almost expectantly, as if they were silently asking what she was still doing there. Zelda removed her hand and turned to face her, her arm still around Link. Ilia wasn't taking the hint that they were sick of her.

"Ilia, how did you even get here?" Link asked. 

"Fado let dropped me off here," she explained, "in the carriage that we transport the goats we sell in, so I could look for you. I couldn't find you, so I was waiting here for Fado to come back. Now that I think about it, fi he was going to come back anytime soon, he'll be at the other end of town. I, uh--wish the best of luck to you two." She walked past them and away as quickly as she could, keeping her head down. Link and Zelda turned and began to separate until they saw her look back one last time. Right when she did, Link grabbed Zelda and passionately kissed her.