Chapter 4 - Believing He Could Smile

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Chapter 4: Believing He Could Smile



"Link!!"



The young girl ran toward him, curls bouncing on her face and smile beaming brighter than any other thing. Link held out his arms to welcome her in a warm embrace. Suddenly the image flashed and for a moment, it faded into a blackness. Link looked around... found nothing, then began to call his sister's name.



Suddenly the blackness faded into a room, where he was surrounded by people murmuring and whispering. There were so many he could not move. They were so tall he felt he was just a small existence in the large world until he called out, then they parted. They parted to form a path, a path that led to a bed that was not empty. Link came closer to it, the whispers faded and the murmuring stopped. As he approached his heart began to pound underneath his chest. It was like a burning sensation... an uncomfortable, unsettling feeling. As he at last reached the side of the bed it seemed his heart stopped at that moment.



What he saw was the lifeless body of his sister. Her skin pale and with no color of life in her cheeks. Her lips were now blue and shriveled as her curly blonde hair was now shaggy and contained no life in it. She laid under a deep red sheet covered with blood-red rose petals, laid sporadically on the sheets. Link froze with terror, and it wasn't long until he began to cry... tears immediately swept his cheeks and dispersed when they reached the cold, wooden floor. The air grew closer around his ears and the image of her tomb flashed in his eyes before he tore his eyes open...



Link sprung forward from his bed, bathed in his sweat and harsh, uneven breaths passed his lips. As he grew to realize it was a dream, he found himself lying in his soft, silk bed. But the more he realized it was a dream, the more tears streamed down his cheeks. His breaths became even and steady, but it wasn't long until he set his face in his hands and sobbed. The image was still clear as day in his mind... as clear as the blown out candle next to him on his windowsill. He had cried himself back to sleep.



~~~



The next morning Zelda walked gracefully on the balcony as her blue silk dress wafted in the wind and trailed behind her. The wind blew the red petals from the rose bush into the air and drifted across the fabric of her dress, presenting a fabulous contrast. The ivory curtains blew forward, trying to touch her, but who lay on the bench covered with red silk blankets caught her by surprise for she saw Link just lying there.



She approached him slowly as her hair was tossed by her cheek. The curtains parted for her and she saw Link there, laying down with his eyes gently closed and his hand gently set on his chest. He too was wearing the color blue, a blue tunic with white leggings and a blue cap draped from the back of his head. It brought his golden locks out brilliantly as they glistened in the sunlight. When Zelda had reached Link, a red rose petal had fallen to his face. She moved her pale and bare hand to move it aside, but it slipped and she stroked his cheek with her finger instead as the rose petal brushed away.



His deep blue eyes opened and saw Zelda as she drew her hand back and clenched to it as her cheeks now tingled with a warmth. He stared for a while before he stirred and arose. Zelda's eyes were wide with embarrassment and surprise, she did not expect him to wake up, nor did she intend to. When he saw her, Link immediately turned away, as if afraid.



"Why are you here?" He mumbled.



"I accidentally stumbled across you, Link..." She said moving toward the ledge of the balcony and gently placing her hands on it, "I'm sorry for waking you."



To her surprise, he moved to her side and placed his hands on the balcony as well. There was an uncomfortable silence between them, but it was filled by the whistling of the wind and the rustling of the leaves in the tall trees below them in the courtyard. Zelda sighed and inhaled the air, smelling the sweet scent of roses.



"Isn't it beautiful when the wind blows the roses through the air?"



Link only gave a slight smile, just a twitch of the muscle in his mouth. Zelda had glanced at him and she furrowed her eyebrows for a second and frowned.



"Stop forcing yourself to smile in front of me..."



"Oh," Link said turning his head toward her, "Sorry..."



"Why do you do that?"



Link looked up at the blue sky as the sudden gust of wind blew his locks back, "I'm not quite sure myself... To try to relive my childhood, I guess... the times when I was ignorant..." He started, "I envy little children... they know nothing of heartbreak."



Zelda looked down in dismay, his voice lowered and grew weaker as he spoke until it had finally stopped, but he spoke again as he did when he first began speaking and it caused her to switch her gaze once again toward him.



"But a rose seems comforting... as it passes its sweet sent it reminds you of the things you love." A small smile passed Link's lips as a sparkle of slight joy reflected in the vast sea of sadness in his azure eyes, "That's the only answer I can give you, Zelda."



Zelda smiled back at him. His voice saying her name was like a charolon sounding in a tower at the birth of a new hour. She thought to herself:



Someday, Link, a thing that you will give me... something that will pass your lips... a smile... a smile from the bottom of your heart...



I believe so.

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