Link's Love: by Deborah Newburn On the road leading to nowhere. Two young hero's. Link and Epona the horse, were walking lazily side by side, in the land of Kalama across the dusty plain, in the burning heat of the sun. Kalama is a lifeless desert. Full of monsters and evil. There were no trees and no mountains, only sand dunes and dirt. They had been travelling for days, their minds were blank. Link, an Elf boy of young age, only seventeen years, was used to being alone, with no family as his parents died many years past saving him from terrible war for freedom, he only had his loyal horse Epona and his love, the beautiful Princess Zelda. He has long blonde hair, in two thin Platts running down each side of his head, blue eyes and fair skin. He wears green Elf clothes, and long brown leather boots. Everything he owns is right there with him. His weapons, magic power, his instrument the ocarina, his horse and his precious Emblem which his love Princess Zelda gave to him. His horse, a red chestnut mare with a white blaze running down her face, was called Epona. She walked silently beside Link with a majestic air, her white flowing mane swaying softly, her four even white socks glistening in the sun. These hero's were inseparable, for they go everywhere together... Best friends at heart. After helping the people of Clock Town from the evil, but harmless Skull Kid, The two hero's from the land of Hyrule thought, why do we always commit ourselves to fight evil? why don't we have a normal life? but what is normal Link thought? The truth was that... Link longed for Princess Zelda. Life without her love, is no life at all... Suddenly! Epona stopped dead in her tracks! she stared at the road ahead. Link asked her confusingly ''What's up Epona, what do you see?'' Link looked up and stared into the horizon. A huge dusty cloud of sand and dirt was coming closer and closer. Link could make out the thud of horse hoofs and the jingling of bridles and stirrups. Then he could see clearly men on horseback, there were ten riders, fast approaching. Link then suddenly mounted Epona, and drew out his Fairy Bow and Fire Arrows. He was ready to fire at the riders. The riders came closer and closer, until they were only a few feet away form Link. The riders were all dressed in silver armour, apart from one, which had gold armour. Their horses were palomino in colour and one horse was black. A man dressed in gold on the black horse dismounted and walked up to the brave and fearless hero Link. ''Are you Link of Hyrule?'' ''Who wants to know'' replied Link. ''I am Sir Lord Strider, I have rode for many days and nights. I have been sent on a quest to find Link of Hyrule. Are you him? I mean no harm... Princess Zelda of Hyrule asks of thee?'' ''Yes I am Link of Hyrule, what is asked of me?'' ''Princess Zelda has fallen ill and only the Emblem of Hyrule can save her.'' Link gasped in horror!, is his love dying? oh woe thought Link, ''My precious love'' ''I have the Emblem, she gave it to me as a gift.'' said Link. ''Her majesty's lifeforce is falling, and only can be restored by her love's Emblem'' said Strider. ''Then we must ride at once!'' said Link ''We must make haste, if you are to save the Princess, Link'' said Strider. And on they rode, back to the 'Land of Angles', Hyrule. The fellowship rode for days on end, until finally they reached their destination, Hyrule Castle. Link walked into the enormous castle. Everything was just the same as it has always been. Fresh flowers, paintings of the Royal Family hung on the castle walls. Red carpets, Beautiful tapestries of white horses and riders. The castle had not changed a bit, since Link had left. But something was missing. The life and spirit of which the castle owned, was no longer there. Like an empty shell. ''This way'' informed Strider. Link followed the warrior up the castle stairs to the Royal Families dormitory. Link opened the huge wooden door. The room was huge, with a big ivory fire place. There were lots of painting's on the walls, and an enormous book shelf. Over in the far right of the room there was a four poster bed next to a window with the curtains closed. You could see thin sun beams of light escaping from the closed curtains. And there on the bed, his love lay, the Princess. Link could hardly recognize this future Queen. Her face was pale and lifeless, her eyes once blue as the deepest water, were as shallow as a rock pool. Her skin, once the colour of fresh milk, was now sour. Her hair once the colour of the golden sun, now was dull as trampled straw. Link rushed to her bedside, knelt at the side of her bed and held her frail hand... ''Link I have been waiting for you, oh I missed you.'' struggled the Princess. ''I have missed you, so very much...who did this to you?'' link asked. ''Ganondolf the evil emperor, even though now in his grave, has been trying to kill me, from the flames of hell. When I gave you the Emblem, in it held half of my life, then Ganondolf took the other half of my life. When he took it away he knew that I was to die.'' the Princess replied. ''That monstrous beast'' Link cried. ''Have you thee Emblem?'' the princess asked. ''Yes it's here, close to my heart'' Link replied. ''When I gave this to you, my beloved, I gave you half of my life. My lifeforce.'' the Princess said. Link pulled out the Emblem, from a pocket, next to his heart. The Emblem was gold in colour, but in the same time was silver, swirled into a heart shaped jewel. This was encased by young gold hands covering the bottom side of the jewel. Link passed the Emblem to the dying Princess. She took the jewel from Link and placed it over her heart. Immediately swirls of gold and silver smoke rose out of the jewel. Higher and higher the smoke swirled up, touching the ceiling, then started to close in on Princess Zelda, forcing it self into Princess Zelda's mouth. Link was frightened for his love... But after a couple of seconds, the smoke vanished... The Emblem then dropped to the floor with a chink. The once beautiful emblem had changed, it was now a grey dead stone. The hands that once covered the stone were now old and wrinkled... Suddenly the Princess bloomed, back to her beautiful self. Her eyes, blue as the deepest water. Her skin, fresh milk. Her hair, as blonde as the golden sun. Slowly she sat up right in the bed, then threw her arms around Link. They rejoiced together. ''Thank you so much link.'' said the Princess. ''Anything for you my love'' Link replied. They then spent the rest of the day riding, on horseback together, around Hyrule. Link on Epona and princess Zelda on Emporium, her beautiful white horse. Then together, they rode into the sunset and lived happily ever after...