Wake Me When You Leave

By Beverly

Caution: Abstract! Romantic! Weird! You get the idea. Please enjoy.

Seven years ago, the world changed beneath our feet.  Or rather, didn’t change.

Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance, echoing through the stone walls and into Zelda’s mind.  She shivered, even under the warm blankets.  Something was happening.

It was darkest midnight, the darkest the young Queen had seen in a very long while.  There was something wicked, terrifying, hiding in that darkness.  She wanted to cover her head with the blankets, curl up like a child, especting the cotton and down to protect her from whatever demon it was that haunted the strange shadows.

She reached through the bedsheets ever so slowly.  It seemed hours had passed by the time she had her arms stretched out.  He wasn’t there.

Of course not.  He was out there in the darkness, keeping whatever it was that was so frightening away.  But she wished he’d at least said goodbye...

It took her a time to wake fully.  The dream had taken her deep inside, deeper than any other dream before.  It was morning, wan light filtering in through the drapes over the tall windows, giving the royal bedroom a hazy appearance.

Zelda turned, huddling into the covers and Link, sleeping soundly next to her.  It didn’t seem he’d shared the dream with her this time.  Her husband did often, but now his breathing was steady, gold locks falling carelessly over closed eyes.  He would wake soon, she thought.

"I should be going, and you know it!"  Cerulean eyes glittered angrily, stubborness that was a birthright of the royal family beginning to expose itself.  However, it was not about to win.

"You know you can’t.  You have to stay here.  I, however, can go.  We can’t both leave Hyrule," Link came forward, gathering his queen into his arms.  Twin pairs of sapphire blue eyes gave vision to each other’s soul.  "You know I hate leaving you.  But someone must go."

She sighed.  Her determination could not argue too long with his love.  The two rulers embraced for a long time.  Bars of gold light slanted ever farther on the floor.  Zelda’s eyes were moist when she finally looked up.

"I know.  But please, Link, beloved..."

"Wake me when you leave..."

She whispered quietly to him, toying with the ever-unruly strands of gold that fell on the pillow.  He’d been asleep for hours now, and she watching him.  She didn’t want to face the morning, the dark shadow of her dream, the clouds that hid the ocean from her view.

The ship sailed at first light.  He would be on it.  That was the way things were.  They were King and Queen now, responsible adults, not carefree youths.  As if they had ever been that.

It was not unusual.  They always had the same fight.  The only fight, really.  She didn’t want him to go.  But he had to.  Only, wake me when you leave, she asks.  And he does.

Only in the dream does he forget.  But it was because he didn’t know this.

The Hero of Time stood silently in the darkness, watching the woman he loved search for him.   He ached to run to her, press his lips to hers, smooth the flaxen hair, and tell her to sleep again.  But Ganondorf still lurked in the shadows.

Indeed, seven years ago, the world changed beneath our feet.  Or rather, didn’t change.  Only the Hero of Time could remember the change that did not really happen.  And he could never wake her to it.

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