Chapter 22: Afternoon

     

Ganon was charged with excitement. He raced up and down the solid ground. He claimed that he picked up tricks while being a Keeper. But the truth was he had sped up the process while he was a Keeper. Ganon breathed in the fresh, cool air. Death Mountain was fixed. Of course, the tunnels would have to be dug again.

"Sir," A moblin came up to Ganon.

"Yes, little one?!" Ganon yelled happily.

"The attack strategies on North Castle are finished. What should we do now?" The moblin asked.

"Tell everyone to relax, we have a big day tomorrow!" Ganon howled.

"Yes sir," The moblin skipped away.

Ganon shot a fist to the sky and screamed, "You fools! All fools! Of course Link can't learn to use the magic!" Ganon laughed wildly and sat down to enjoy the rest of the day.

***

Link and Zelda slowly walked along the path to Ruto. Both of them were uneasy and not talkative. _Love?' Link laughed to himself, _Impossible,' he had been thinking that lie since the very moment Zelda said the word.

_What is he thinking?' Zelda wondered. It was all she could do to keep from sweating, this wasn't going the way she had envisioned it, she thought it would be more open, but, they were walking to Ruto, for no real reason. Yippee.

Link was sweating under his tunic and on his palms and feet. This was either a mistake or just on the verge of it. Link took in a shaky deep breath. He eyed Zelda to see if she noticed, if she did she made no move to show it. Link closed his eyes as he walked continuously and slowly.

Zelda noticed Link breath shakily, what did that mean? Was he nervous? Or was he getting annoyed? Zelda didn't know what to think. She thought only of how crazy this was, she was engaged to Paul after all. Zelda chewed on the inside of her cheek. She bit until it became raw. She decided to speak.

"Link?" Zelda asked.

"Hm," He replied not looking at her.

"Link, we, um, alright, you know that we have one day, for, this, to, happen..." Zelda trailed off.

"Right, I, I know that," Link said. He felt very stupid not being able to hold the conversation.

_If only I were handling this as well as him, then we'd be fine by now,' Zelda thought.

_If only I were handling this as well as her, then we'd be fine by now,' Link thought.

***

"I called this meeting to point out a very serious problem in our group," Evere said.

"Join the encirclement, and let us discuss this," one of the Keepers said. Evere joined the encirclement.

"The emotions are disrupting us," Evere said.

"Agreed," A Keeper said.

"What do you mean, agreed?" Olosk snarled.

"I mean it is true, emotions are ruining our ways, we got in an argument last time a visitor came!" The Keeper said.

"Stop it you fools," Evere said, "both of you are using emotions as we speak, it will cause another outburst like when Olosk and myself began fighting-"

"Oh! Would you shut up! All of you! If we weren't meant to have emotions why do we have them?!" Jamar screeched.

"They repress by themselves when you become a Keeper, why does that happen, then?" A Keeper asked.

"Don't you remember!!!!! Chaos!" Evere screamed. Everyone was silent.

***

"Paul, I'm sorry, controlling weather is not possible anymore," the wizard said.

"The little fairy is doing it you damn fool!" Paul yelled. The small tower was letting Paul realize he was a bit claustrophobic.

"I live here, in Hyrule, if there was any way I could-"

"You are the most powerful wizard the world knows!! If you can't do-" Paul was spitting as he yelled.

"I CAN'T DO IT!!" At the wizard's words Paul found himself outside the tower. Flagnom, he was the strangest and most stubborn man ever. Paul didn't even know if he was an elf or not. He claimed he was an elf, of a land that no longer existed. He was a rambler.

Flagnom had been around as long as Paul could remember, Impa said he was around when she was a child, and Impa had lived a very long time. Paul sighed, this was hopeless, the storm would hit in less than a day. It was already afternoon, and impossible to travel to other lands for help now. Paul took a deep breath and headed for North Castle. Maybe he would stop by Ruto on the way.

***

Link and Zelda were in a restaurant in Ruto. They were sitting in a booth by a window. Zelda ordered a salad and other side dishes. Link ordered steak and mashed potatoes. Link wasn't really fond of potatoes, but he had ordered them for a different reason than to eat them.

Link ordered the mashed potatoes to break the ice. Link decided to take a little chance. Sometime into their little meal, Link dug a good gob of the potatoes in his spoon. Zelda didn't notice. Link drew back the spoon an swiftly, abruptly, and shortly shot his hand forward.

_Will she take this right?' He wondered as the potatoes flung from the spoon hurling toward Zelda. Link saw it in slow motion. He wondered if this wasn't such a good idea. He then wanted to take the food back, but he couldn't. Link stressed his jawbone.

Zelda wasn't going to look up from her food. She was afraid if she looked at Link's face he might say something. But that's what she wanted, wasn't it? Zelda drew in a deep breath. It was already mid afternoon. This had to move faster. Tomorrow the storm would hit North Castle. Zelda put down her spoon, made up her mind and looked up.

"Li-" Zelda started. But, she was interrupted by a force of a wet substance slap into her face. She didn't make a sound. She blinked a few times, and looked at Link. His face was expressionless. He held the spoon in a position very obvious to that he had sent the food into her face. She took in a deep breath, and unexpectedly burst with a slight laugh.

_Ah!' Link thought. "So, how's your, food Zelda?" He asked.

"Well," Zelda started. Link then shot another bit of potatoes into her face.

"What is it? You don't like the salad, why did you order it?" Link smiled and shot some more into her face. Zelda laughed and picked up her gravy. She threw the whole bowl onto Link, who pretended not to notice, and threw his drink onto Zelda. She took her food and moved over next to Link and started putting pieces of her salad down his shirt. He did a good job at pretending not to notice until cold slimy tomatoes went down.

"Ah! That is cold!" He jumped up and stuck his hand own his shirt, with his other he scooped a piece of Zelda's fruit and smeared it over her dress. At that point, they were interrupted by a waitress asking them politely to leave.

Link and Zelda left and walked around Ruto talking about when they were kids. They forgot all about everything else. Link was talking about the first time he defeated Ganon and rescued Zelda when quite unexpectedly she pulled his head down and kissed him.

***

Paul strolled along kicking dirt as he approached Ruto. He started whistling as he entered the town. People greeted him, tried to sell him things that _wouldn't be found after the storm ravages.' The people were actually taking the bad news quite well. There were very few riots. Paul took in a deep breath as he entered town square.

But his breath was cut short by a scene that shocked him. He saw Link and Zelda embraced right there, in public, kissing a bit to passionately. Paul realized he wasn't breathing and shot out a long shaky breath. They were still at it! What was this?! Paul backed up to a bench and sat down. He put his head in his hands. He waited for an eternity. When he looked up they were still there. They had stopped an Link was saying something to Zelda's smiling face.

"God," Paul whispered. He was mad, disgusted, tormented, and shocked all at once. Why did this have to happen? Link and Zelda began walking hand in hand out of Ruto. Paul looked up at the setting sun and at its sight he closed his eyes. What had he done wrong? Was Zelda mad at him? Or was this Link? Was Link doing this? Was he mad at Paul? Or did he want to seduce Zelda for some reason? Or, was this some crazy thing Flagnom had done? That son of a bitch!

Paul got up and snarled at the air. He knew Flagnom didn't do this, and he was willing to bet both Link and Zelda did this, together, maybe this was punishment, for something. Paul clinched his teeth and took another path to North Castle.

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