Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda, Nintendo, or any of these characters, nor the song that is an inspiration for this piece.
A/N: So I was listening to some singer-songwriters on youtube, and honestly, there was one original song in particular that caught me right in the heart. It was this beautiful acoustic piece written by an extremely talented person. Out of that song was born this fanfiction. I honestly loved writing this. Please Read and Review, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
You knew he was different. He'd always been different, ever since that single moment he strode up to you with that precious smile piercing every wall you'd built up after years of lies and deceit.
You'd taught yourself very early on in life that you weren't like everyone else. While most girls were absorbed in their thoughts of happily-ever-afters and sweet kisses, you sat in the library, absorbed by the ways of ancient worlds that were no longer in existence.
The Sky World. The fair beings that fell from the heavens to shape every indent of the land with a simple press of their thumb. The magic of that world bewitched you. Mystified you. Made you yearn to leave Hyrule behind and explore the fragile edges of the Earth. Feel it resist beneath your toes as you wandered freely about it.
But it isn't proper for a Princess of Hyrule to want such a thing. It isn't right or proper for her to yearn to leave the place of her birth, much less the land that she lives upon.
So you pass the years in silent decorum, growing accustomed to the strait-laced corsets that steal away your breath. You kill the spark of adventure in your bosom and you sit like a 'good girl,' waiting for her father to bring home a handsome suitor and fall into his arms like a clichéd fairytale.
And there was one man who seemed to rise up above all the pathetic suitors.
Apolo shone just as brightly as his namesake. Golden hair shining brightly in the morning sun, radiating a million beams of fine light with eyes as clear as the fair waters of Lake Hylia.
And a smile… a smile that would stretch across the thing contours of his lips and light his countenance.
For a while the two of you are happy. Your father approves. You think that maybe, just maybe fairytales are for you.
Until the day a scandal rips your happiness into minute little shreds of nothingness.
Apolo is nothing but a scam. A finely painted shell of a Prince that you thought was perfect and flawless. But he's anything but that.
He's a miserable man with a child on the way. A child borne out of union between his tainted blood and that of one of your Ladies In Waiting.
So you turn away from fairytales and shut your heart once more, retreating into the numbness that you now find a necessary part of your life. It's the glue that holds your shattering heart into a cheat, disfigured version of your beautiful heart. But it's a heart, it's a soul, and it will make do for the purposes of simply living.
You scorn every suitor thereafter, and your Father watches in understanding. He knows the mangled state of your heart and blames himself for it. You can hear him agonize over it every night in his study, crying silently as crystalline tears pour from his beard to the mahogany stain of his great desk.
But you don't blame him for it. You never should've believed in those ridiculous bedtime stories. Your logic, your other worlds… you never should have turned away from them in the first place. They were the only things about you that were so distinct and beautiful. They kept you grounded from falsities.
Yet you buy the trick again once you meet him.
He's younger than Apolo, and not as clean nor as polished in his appearance. When you first meet him, he's simply wearing the bottle green hunting tunics of his nation, shaggy golden locks falling messily into eyes far darker than your deceiver's ever were.
They are perceptive, kind eyes that pierce into your own deep violet. They are knowing and loving. Strong and wise. Sad yet jovial.
When you first walk into the room, he's staring out the window, those animal-like eyes turning shades lighter in the light of Din's orb. As you draw closer, those eyes snap to your face, piercing directly into your own orbs as he smiles.
It's a smile that sends you on alert, because it's so similar to his smile. It's the kind that slowly sends his thin lips arching up at the tips, spreading to every feature of the young man's face.
But there's something different.
It's a genuine smile. There's nothing false. It reaches those gorgeous eyes of his, lightening the room considerably with each passing moment.
He bends over your hand and graciously places a kiss upon the back, warmth spreading to each recess of your body and sending a pleasant tingle to the back of your spine.
And so your friendship starts. It swells to friendliness, spreads and strengthens every bit of your body. Rearranges the cracked portions of your heart and welds silver fastenings to every portion tenderly.
When he leaves to return home, you feel yourself lose a piece of yourself. Your heart returns to darkness and silver tarnishes and fades.
Your father watches you degrade, knows that you've fallen again. But this time, he tries to make a more active effort to keep this man in your life, simply because he's the best thing that's ever happened to you. He sends away to the Kingdom of Holodrum and formally asks assistance from the Captain of the Knights in training the Hylian Army.
And so the young man with the deep eyes and amazing smile return to your life as suddenly as he came.
Things pick up right where they left off. The two of you are in your own little world, happy and blissful together. Smiling, acting as though you are friends.
Even though you want so much more.
So one night, after a large Gala, you draw him after you into the Royal Courtyard, standing amid the night blossoms, taking in the way that the fireflies dance around in ghostly waves about that handsome face.
As your lips draw closer to his, he looks down at you in concern, prompting you to put one slight finger against his own before pulling it lightly away.
And you kiss.
It's not simply a light brushing of the lips either.
The world has turned on its axis. You feel as though there is nothing but darkness. No world, no titles, no rank… nothing. Nothing but him and his warmth. Him and his spicy scent.
Nothing but you and him, together forever, joined in heart, mind, and soul.
Heat consumes your veins as you lift delicate digits through golden strands, pulling him closer, willing him to stay with you forever. You're intoxicated by every movement of his lips and every slight brush of his tanned skin against yours.
And you know you've fallen in love.
And so you tell him, as you gently draw apart, looking up into his eyes as you softly phrase the sentence.
All he does is smile that wonderful smile, draws you closer to him, and kisses you once more.
After that day, he speaks nothing but promises that he'll take you from Hyrule someday. He's seen the way you longingly look at your pages. Pages of worlds he's seen and things he's done. Pictures of burning sands and lush green valleys that stretch for miles beyond the naked eye.
You believe him, because he loves you and you love him.
But promises are meant to be broken.
The Gerudo are bloodthirsty. Bloodthirsty, primal creatures that thrive on crimson falling to the floor in waves of silky velvet and pained symphonies that echo through ravaged villages.
And Ganondorf, King of them all, is the ringleader of darkness and destruction. The very definition of a walking nightmare.
So Hyrule saddles its military along with its fellow riders from Holodrum. They prepare to fight a war that will end all wars.
At the front of the lines, your Beloved rides, glittering in fine golden plate armor made by the finest smiths in both kingdoms.
He presses a kiss to your cheek, promising silently that he will return to you. That he will take you to Termina, to Ordon, to Koholint, to Holodrum. He promises that you'll be together forever.
And he rides off.
War breaks bonds and promises. Millions died that day, engaged in fierce battle against the desert warriors. Bravely died in the heat of battle, never once dying without taking another bloodstained scimitar with them.
Among them, your Precious.
He had taken down scores of them with his mighty sword, his roan mare speeding through waves of them in flurries of silent bloodshed. And it was by his hand that Ganondorf met his final end, impaled in the chest, straight through the heart.
But not without cost.
The King had done a ghastly thing, sending his curved blade gnawing through muscles, through tendons, through ligaments and slashing through the curve of his ribs, straight into one of his fragile lungs.
He had suffered. Suffered endlessly before he died, blood drawing him within his own body. Crimson fluid spewed forth from his mouth as he tried to voice his final words. A rattle haunted his lungs with every shuttering breath.
And with his last energy he had only muttered two words:
"I'm sorry."
His body was carried back to Hyrule and buried in the Royal Family's tomb. Your father will have nothing less than the best for the man he considered not only a friend and ally, but a son.
You feel nothing as they carry his cold body down the stairs and into the vault, doll-like figure hidden in white silks embroidered with thin gold filaments. You ceased to feel nothing the moment you left your room after days spent in agony.
Your beloved would not want this of you. This sadness, nor this guilt, nor anything of the sort.
He only wanted you to be happy.
One morning, the King finds the bed of his daughter empty, nothing but a note written in fine handwriting written upon the parchment.
"If he cannot keep his promise. I shall keep it for the both of us."
Standing there, clothed in his green clothes beside Epona, you smile faintly as you look upon the castle. You take in every aspect of the land, from the marble castle you've called home, to every fault in Death Mountain's stony face.
And you smile, mounting the roan mare silently, tears falling from your eyes as you look to the graveyard, where he rests peacefully.
"For both of us… I'm doing this for both of us, Love. Just wait for me, Sweet. I'll be there when my time is up."
You turn, flicking the reigns and urging the horse forward.
You never look back.
...But I've got no choice
Now that you've gone away
And now your voice, your name, your smell, your heart, our everyday
Things taken for granted till they're gone...
A/N: Just a little bit of fan love for an incredible song. Read and review. :)
Note: Don't forget to read and review more of Kurai Hitokiri's excellent writing and artwork over at Fanfiction.Net.
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