Favorable side

by Gladys Garcia

  Against his better judgement, Link relented and let Epona head exactly where she wanted ago. Though he knew he should have felt apprehensive about this, he couldn't

  help but feel somewhat relaxed instead as he passed through the woods. For a brief moment, it was almost as though he was just heading home after a long journey. A

  small, wistful smile crossed his features as he imagined what it would be like upon his return; Ilia would be anxiously waiting for him at the spring, and for the duration of

  his time there she would not leave his side as she smiled and laughed with him warmly. The kids would all run out to greet him, filling him in on stories of their latest

  mischievous escapades as they looked up to their longtime hero with stars in their eyes. He would happily go work a shift at the ranch with Fado and exchange stories of

  his own daring feats with Rusl. Even if it would only be for a while, things would go back to the way they used to be. Life would at last return to normal. He would be

  home.

  And yet, that fantasy was instantly and brutally shattered the moment he opened his eyes to see that he had arrived in the clearing where his home stood. Or where it

  had at least once stood. Now, only the charred remains of the dwelling remained, piles of ash accumulated around the solemn scene, though it no longer smoldered since

  it had been days since the fire that had destroyed it and instead a thin layer of snow covered the charred remains. Link didn't even have to dismount Epona to see that

  none of his possessions had survived, not that he really cared too much about that now anyway. The only thing that seeing the ruins of his home did was remind the hero

  of all of the pain he had endured, pain that he had hoped he had risen above by now, but still lingered all the same.

  Link was soon distracted by the soft sound of Epona whickering nervously, most likely in response to the eeriness of the entire area. The hero let out a sigh as he gave his

  steed a comforting pat on the side, shaking his head as he looked towards the entrance to the village in both remorse and regret. "I know, girl…" he said quietly and

  morosely, having been reminded of the truth of it all. Ordon was no longer his home. And as much as he might wish otherwise, it never could be again. "I don't know why

  we came back here either…"

  All at once, his desire to check on the village vanished. He wasn't sure where to go from there, but he knew that this was too close for comfort. And so, he turned Epona

  away from the village entrance and gently nudged her onward. The horse didn't protest against her master's command as she somberly trudged out of the clearing, and

  the hero didn't once look back. After all, this was just another bridge his own flames had ultimately burnt.

  Of course, despite the fact that Link wanted nothing more than to leave the Ordon province entirely, Epona seemed to be a bit more hesitant, especially as they passed by

  the light spirit's spring. The horse began instinctually pressing her way towards the small body of water, but the hero was quick to get a tighter grip on her reigns to

  discourage her against it. "Epona, no," Link said tiredly, not wanting to stay in the area for much longer, lest someone discover him. "Let's just go." For once, Epona

  resisted his command however as she continued to work against him, persisting on going to the familiar spring in order to quench her thirst. And though Link didn't really

  want to, he soon gave in, knowing that he couldn't deny his steed something as simple as a drink.

  However, as Link dismounted Epona and guided her into the spring, a sudden, unexplainable pain began to swell up in his chest, one that seemed to intensify the closer he

  got to the shallow water. The hero stopped short just before reaching the water, letting go of his horse's reigns and allowing her to wade into the shallows and generously

  drink from the pure spring. Clutching his chest tightly to try and suppress the nearly crippling ache now coursing through his entire body, Link glanced down at the water

  amidst his heavy breathing, taking in his reflection with concern. The teal Twili markings on his face had both increased and brightened, almost seeming to glow to the

  point that they illuminated the entire area as he stood before the spring. However, what startled him even more was that, for the first time, he was able to see that a few

  locks of his hair had somehow turned completely white, contrasting starkly with his natural dark blonde. Regardless though, the ache in his chest did not go away, but

  instead, it only seemed to get worse with each passing second, especially as a soft, subtle, warning whisper began to echo through the spring from an unseen position.

  "Hero of Shadows…" the voice, which sounded inconspicuously like the light spirit Ordona, which was whom the hero assumed was speaking to him, though he couldn't

  figure out the clear malice in its tone as it spoke to him. "The darkness of your heart has claimed you… A corrupted soul such as yours is not permitted in a pure spring of

  light like this… You have become a creature of darkness, and as such you are no longer welcome here… Leave immediately or face dire consequences…"

  Link didn't respond as he was finding that even breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. He let out a soft groan as the world began to spin around him, and he was

  struggling to keep his balance as the pain in his chest surged greatly. He had no idea what the light spirit was trying to do to him, but he found that he was too immobilized

  to escape it, even as the waters of the spring began to sparkle with dim light. And of course, just when the hero didn't think his current situation could get any worse, it

  did.

  "Link?!" a familiar voice gasped in surprise from directly behind the hero, causing him to spin around in shock. However, as he did so, he completely forgot about his own

  lightheadedness, and he was only able to see Ilia standing a few feet away from him for a moment before he at last lost his footing. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as

  Link fell backwards towards the spring, the pain in his chest spiking to the point that it felt as though he had been stabbed straight through. And though Ilia attempted to

  reach out to him to catch him, she was ultimately too late. The hero landed in the shallow, shining water with a splash, and the moment his skin made contact with it, he

  felt as though he had fallen into a pool of boiling lava instead. He was unable to hold back a scream of raw agony as the water somehow began to burn his skin, though

  his clothes were left unaffected.

  Ilia gasped in horror as she numbly watched the hero suffer for a moment, having no idea why the actually rather frigid spring water appeared to be burning him or why

  the strange markings on his face were glowing a crimson red, but after her initial shock wore off, she didn't hesitate to rush into the shallows to help him. Interestingly, the

  glowing water didn't have anything close to the same effect on Ilia as it was having on Link, as the girl was completely unphased by it as she grabbed the hero, who was

  thrashing about wildly in an attempt to escape the pool as he continued to cry out raggedly. Even though Link was instinctually resisting against her hold as he tried to

  scramble out of the spring on his own, Ilia insistently used all of her strength to pull him out of the water, ignoring the fact that Epona was rearing in a panic nearby,

  completely spooked by the whole ordeal.

  As soon as he was free from the spring, its sacred water ceased to have its burning effect on Link, even if the pain still lingered heavily as Ilia propped him up against the

  stone walls of the area, giving him some space to catch his breath as she rushed over to Epona to calm her down. As the hero slowly recovered from what had just

  happened to him, he cast a glare over at the spring, its waters no longer softly glowing as they returned to their usu
al, peaceful setting. Gingerly, he took off his gloves to

  see that his hands had been savagely burnt, the skin on them red and raw. He figured that he suffered from many other similar burns across his body as he could feel the

  painful stinging sensation all over, though thankfully he had managed to keep his head above the water, which spared his face from enduring such agony. Even if he wasn't

  sure it would help, Link focused his efforts into conjuring a small shard of ice, which he compressed tightly in his hands in an attempt to cool them down as his mind raced

  with questions, none of which he had the answers to.

  After a moment or two, Ilia turned to face the recovering hero, who had quickly turned his focus back to the ice in his hands after the brief moment their eyes met. On

  one hand, Link was glad that it was just Ilia and no one else; after all, she was the only one from Ordon whom he had really confided in about everything that had

  happened, which meant that she would most likely show the least of outright fear towards him. On the other hand, seeing her again only served as a reminder that he had

  to ultimately let her go, even if it was for her own good and safety and even if she, much like Midna, was one of the only people he still cared genuinely cared about.

  "Link…" Ilia said softly as she approached him cautiously. The hero noticed that she didn't get too close to him as she kneeled down next to him, glancing over the burns

  on his hands with a bewildered frown. "What…" she began to ask, but she quickly pushed the obvious question away to say something else. "You're back…"

  "I was just leaving," Link said succinctly, his voice a bit hoarse from his bout of painful screaming moments ago. He glanced away from the girl with the most emotionless

  expression he could muster as he prepared to pick himself up off the ground, only to find that the fresh burns on his legs brought him too much pain to even do that.

  "Careful…" Ilia cautioned, helping to ease him back down to a sitting position. "I… I'm not sure why the spring burned you like that but it looked like it hurt pretty badly…"

  "I'm fine," the hero said resiliently, trying not to think about the clear concern for him in her gentle tone. He was lying though, and he knew it; not only did the burns sting

  immensely, but he was still bothered by what the light spirit had said and the fact that the waters of its spring had hurt him in such a way at all. The spirit had mentioned

  something about his soul being corrupted, but he wasn't sure what that meant. Not that he had much time to ponder it however as Ilia quickly broke through his train of

  thought.

  "So… you're not staying?" she asked somewhat morosely.

  "Ilia… You know I can't," Link said with a resolute sigh.

  "Then why'd you come back at all?" Ilia asked a bit harshly. "Where have you even been all this time anyway? After you ran off, everyone thought that you actually ended

  up getting captured after all, but here you are. What happened?"

  The hero couldn't help but feel the slightest bit relieved that she didn't mention the fire in Castle Town, meaning that she most likely hadn't heard about it and therefore

  she didn't know of his involvement in it. He wasn't sure why, but the thought of Ilia finding out about him single-handedly destroying an entire city didn't sit very well with

  him. "I escaped," Link said rather vaguely, not particularly wanting to go into much detail. "And that's about it. I've just been… wandering around since then. Nothing else

  has really happened. I only came back here to check on things."

  "Oh…" Ilia said in disappointment. "I see… So you just don't care about Ordon anymore, then?"

  Link set his jaw upon hearing this, knowing that Ilia loved to twist his words and intentions around far too often. She was guilty of doing this ever since they were little,

  and he wasn't about to let it stand now. "Stop it," he said in controlled frustration, in no mood to get in an argument with her.

  "Stop what?" Ilia asked pryingly. "Worrying about you? Well, I'm sorry, Link, but you know I've never been very good at that."

  The hero didn't immediately reply as he averted her intent gaze, instead casting a glare towards the spring once more. A small part of him really did want to indulge her by

  staying, by releasing all of his pent up apprehension and going back to the good old days, long before all these problems and complications had crept their way into his life.

  And yet, in reality, he couldn't; nothing was the same as it had once been, and chances were they could never be the same again.

  Gaging his lack of a reaction, the girl pressed him once more, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as she changed her tone to a tender, gentle one. "Link…" she began,

  her expression downcast and tentative. "I… I know you've been through a lot… I know that you've been hurt by Zelda and Hyrule… and maybe even by all of us. But you

  need to know that no matter what has happened, no matter what might happen… I… I still want to be here for you…"

  "Ilia, no," Link said firmly, not even needing a moment to think over her selfless offer.

  "Why not?" Ilia retorted before the hero could properly explain himself. "You're my… best friend, Link. You always have been, ever since I can remember. I'm not asking

  you to open yourself up to the world, just to me. Why can't you just trust me and let me do this for you?"

  "Because you don't understand!" Link exclaimed rather harshly. "You don't understand any of what I've been through or what I'm going through!"

  "But that's just it! I want to understand! I want to know!" the girl argued, desperation leaking into her tone as she threw caution to the wind and gripped the hero by his

  shoulder a bit more tightly, ignoring his hiss of pain in reactions to the still burns upon it. "If you would finally just tell me, then I maybe I could-"

  "You don't get it!" the hero said, trying his best to keep the flames that wanted to burst over his hands under control. "There's nothing you can do, Ilia! There's nothing

  anyone can do about this! I'm just not like you anymore!"

  "Yes, you are! Nothing's changed!"

  "Everything's changed!" Link exclaimed in exasperation. "I'm so tired of hearing everyone tell me that!"

  "Link, you know very well that these… these powers of yours aren't you!" Ilia said, trying her best to rationalize a situation that she, in all honesty, didn't really understand

  much about.

  "This is about more than just my powers," the hero said, shaking his head stubbornly. "And this is more than about what happened with Zelda. It's like… it's like the ground

  was taken right out from under me. Everything just sort of fell apart all around me at once and… and I wasn't prepared to deal with it…"

  "Then you could have come to me…" Ilia said, her tone softening upon hearing the sheer vulnerability that had entered the hero's voice. "You know you can tell me

  anything…"

  Link shook his head once more, struggling to fight back tears now as the last thing he wanted to do was actually break down in front of Ilia. "You still don't get it, do you?"

  he asked, his tone uneven and somewhat shaky with raw emotion. "Then again, how could you? You've hardly ever been out of Ordon before. You didn't have some huge

  destiny thrust upon you that you never wanted or asked for. You haven't nearly died several times. You don't have chaotic powers that can barely be controlled. You

  haven't been branded as a traitor by someone you thought you loved. You… I… I just…" He finally trailed off as a stray tear did escape him at last, something that certainly

  did not go unnoticed by the girl as her heart moved with pity for him, as well as something else.

  Ilia was silent for a long time as she took all of this in, knowing that he had never been willing to speak so openly about all of this before. But as much as his pain brought />
  her grief, she couldn't help but draw a bit closer to him, and for once he did not resist, even as she moved her lips close to his. "Link…" she whispered, tears also on the

  verge of her tone as she gingerly placed a hand on the side of his face, unceremoniously brushing his tear away with her thumb. "I… I love you…" With the message that

  she had been dreaming of relaying to him for years now finally delivered, she pushed herself in towards him even closer, her heart pounding as she closed her eyes before

  she could even see his reaction to what she had just said. And yet, before she could finally kiss him, his fingers gently pressed themselves against her anxious lips,

  ultimately killing the kiss before it could even be born.

  The girl opened her eyes just a moment later as the hero slowly pushed her away, his startlingly silver eyes still wet with oncoming tears as they bore into her light green

  ones. "Link-" Ilia began to say as she pulled herself away from his hand, fear and confusion filling her, though she quickly noticed that those very same things filled his

  expression as he quickly cut her off.

  "Ilia, no," he said morosely, his voice but a small, almost broken whisper as ice began to slowly spread out on the ground around him. "You can't."

  Not knowing how else to react to hearing what had all but shattered the hope filling her heart, the girl simply laughed nervously as she asked the most obvious question.

  "Why not?"

  "Because you just can't," Link said with a sigh, knowing that love had been what had led him to the miserable state he was in now. "I just can't do this again, not even

  with you. I've been burnt too many times before…" he said with the best apathetic shrug he could manage, thinking of not only the love he had lost with Zelda, but also

  the close friendship he had ruined with Midna, and the trust that had been betrayed by Verona. He couldn't handle having someone else who was as important to him as

  Ilia was being ripped out of his life because the disaster that seemed to follow him around wherever he went.

  "Link, I would never, ever even think of hurting you like Zelda did," Ilia said with clear distain in her tone for the Hylian queen. "You know that."