The Legend of Zelda: The Heroine's Heart

Ilia woke suddenly to the Cuccoo's cry as it did every morning, bright and early. Every citizen of Ordon Village had gotten used to this routine, so normally this wouldn't be a problem for Ilia. That is except that she was in the middle of a really good dream. A dream concerning a certain goat-rancher-turned-savior-of-Hyrule.

'I can't believe I had that dream about Link again!' Ilia thought as she fought to rouse herself from her sleep, her covers, and the siren-like call to let herself fall back into the dream world to continue her dream. She sat down next to her dresser, and tried to wake herself up properly. 'I can't believe I keep having this stupid dream, I can't keep having these visions of my best friend, standing on top of me, looking down on me as I... dirty thoughts! I can't think like that, what's wrong with me!'

She got up to her dresser, and washed her face as she reviewed the recent events concerning her, Link, and all the children of the village. The kidnappings happened near 7 months ago in early spring, and it took five months until she and the children had returned to the village. It's been two moths since then, and it was going to be the Ordon festival in a few days. The Ordon festival was when the traders would come back from the mountains from south of the Ranch, to distant lands such as Holodrum, and Calatia, bringing supplies and money to the tiny little town, and they would stay the winter, and leave during the spring thaw to trade all of the products made by the villagers (pumpkins, goat fur, milk etc.), and go off to the distant lands to trade again. Everyone in the village was eager for the return of the traders, because for once, the people of Ordon would be spinning the tales of the capture of the children and Link's adventure. Ilia looked at her reflection, and deemed herself presentable. She came downstairs to the smell of Ordon Pumpkin soup being cooked by her father.

"Hey Ilia" her father greeted her "ready for breakfast?" he asked.

"Of course, sleeping builds up quite a healthy appetite, don't you know?" Ilia responded.

-----------

Link woke up from a nightmare, as he had for many nights. It had started after he had been turned into a wolf, but had fortunately stopped after he had returned to Ordon. Although, like tonight, the odd nightmare came about every now and again.

It had been odd one though, not one filled with Ironic deaths, and the suffering of his loved ones, It included Agitha the bug girl, waiting for him with Mayor Bo at the last room of the Twilight Palace. They two were married, and they were in the middle of grounding Midna for cheating on Zant with Rusl.

'I think someone must have spiked my soup last night.' Link thought to himself.

"HEY LINK!" someone outside his window yelled. Link got up from his small bed, and looked outside his window to see who it was. Outside he saw Fado waving outside "I know it's like only three days to the festival, but, would mind helping with the goats? They never seem to listen to me for some reason." He said.

Link simply got down to his front door, and came to meet Fado at the bottom of his ladder.

"You'll need Epona" Fado pointed out.

Link quickly turned around and grabbed his horses reins, and led her to the Ranch with Fado walking alongside them.

-----

Colin was fishing on the dock next to Malo's and Talo's house, with a wooden sword and shield on his back, patiently passing the time away. He soon felt a tug on his rod, and as he pulled the rod back, he pulled out a Greengill, at least 5 inches. Colin marveled at his first catch, he wondered if it could be served for lunch. Colin soon heard people passing by, and turned his head and saw link with Fado, his face instantly lighting up, he ran to Link to show him his catch.

"Hey Link, Link, look, look!" Colin said pointing at his fish "I just caught a fish, it's really big what do you think?"

Link looked at the fish thoughtfully, after some thought, Link told Colin in a small voice, "Looks great, took me forever to catch something that big, why don't you show Uli and your little brother?"

"I'll go do that." He said, then turned around to find his mother.

Link had always been an an object of affection for the children. Link was the only one who had time to play with the children. Not to mention, he was one of the oldest kids who hadn't become a trader. A tradition of the Ordanians was to have your child become a trader to learn of the world before choosing your career if you could afford it. Talo and Malo's parents had been unable to afford it, as had been Beth's, Rusl wanted to spend time with Colin, and decided to have him stay in the village, Mayor Bo wouldn't ever let something happen to his only daughter, and Link, being an orphan, barely earned his keep in the village, even though he only did it out of responsibility.

Link simply smiled at the fact he had made someone happy.

----

It took a while but Link had managed to get the goats under control. They always got skittish in anticipation to the Ordon Festival. Link sat down on a patch of grass, and plucked a piece of grass, and blew a mindless tune on it. Epona came down and sat next to him. The bond between the beast and the rider had become unbreakable after Links adventure in Hyrule. He didn't notice Ilia sat next to him until she felt the need to announce her arrival.

"Hey Link!" Link jumped slightly at being startled by his best friends arrival. "No need to be scared, it's only me." Link relaxed a little at this. "Hard to imagine after all you went through, you'd be content to herd goats for the rest of your days." Ilia said as she looked at the passing clouds.

After a moment of silence, Link said "If I have to go through everything I had to last time after leaving Ordon, then I would lock myself in my house until the day I die."

Ilia giggled slightly at his comment. Ilia prided herself in the fact that she was one of the few people Link would openly converse with, and the only one who knew of all Links adventure. For instance, he told everyone that he had been successful in delivering the Ordon sword and shield to Princess Zelda, she was the only one who knew that he was there when the castle had been partially collapsed, and that Link had to fight off an ancient evil there. And of course, she knew that she was the only one who would believe him too. If he had told any of the adults that he had met four light spirits, on top of being able to turn into a wolf with the aide of a living shadow, they probably have his head examined.

But still, despite his adventure in the outside world, he still was about as talkative as the average stump. It wasn't that Link was dumb, or something, but when they were younger, the children that got to travel with the traders would always make fun of those who couldn't go, and Link would always get insulted and chided whenever he said something. As a result, he was shy, and somewhat antisocial, and would only say something when important. Ilia herself was also made fun of by the other children, but it didn't bother her, since, as her father put it, she had inherited all of her mothers wrath, fury, anger, and hellfire that a woman could muster. After that he would say he pitied the man that would ever spite her.

She decided to ask Link "Then why do you ever come out them?"

"Well if I never came out, I'd never be able to see you, would I?" He replied.

Ilia turned her head away from Link so he couldn't see her blush. She cursed the way his stupid comments would send her heart beating out of her chest.

They continued their conversation, until Fado pointed out that the sun had started to set. Neither of them had noticed how much time the had wasted simply talking.

"Hey Ilia..." Link said.

"Yeah Link, what is it?" Ilia responded.

"I know you don't approve of this, but it would be much easier if we did it like this, and faster, and you can't say there haven't been worse times..."

"Spit it out Link." Ilia said, trying, and struggling, to ignore what a small, naughty part of her mind was telling her what it could mean.

"Well, do you think we could simply ride Epona over the fence?" Link said.

While partly relieved, and partly dissapointed that he wasn't talking about what that small part of her mind was telling her what he could have meant, a larger part of her was angry that Link would risk injuring Epona over something so stupid, that naughty part of her mind held her back for a few seconds, and Ilia couldn't help but listen to it's siren-like call.

"Okay, just this once." She said

Link was slightly taken aback, as he had been expecting a shouting match, but he didn't complain, hey another chance to get close to Ilia right? "Okay..." Link saddled up, and held out a hand for Ilia to grab onto "Come on." She firmly gripped his hand, and sat right behind him.

Link lined his horse with the fence, and felt Ilia wrap her arms around his chest. With a 'hiyah!' Epona started running towards the fence, and timed the jump perfectly, and her hooves landed solidly on the ground. Ilia was breath-taken at the experience, and was glad that Lik couldn't see the expression on her face. It was as though the Goddesses had slowed down time for her, just to be with Link those few more seconds.

"There, good job Epona" Link said praising his horse.

----

Ilia was having problems getting to sleep. Her fathers excellent dinner had helped her feel tired, and her bed was a comforatable as it had always been, and she had read a book from from her bedside shelf. However she couldn't for one second, stop thinking about Link. She had always been in love with him, he was the only kid in the village that didn't make fun of her. When Link received Epona as a foal, Ilia helped raise her with Link as a way for them to get closer. While it may have been hard for someone to tell, as Ilia would often yell at link for rather silly things, and not even give him a chance to say something, she only got angry at the fact that she couldn't let Link know how she truly felt, and took out her horrible temper on him, to which she would always regret. They would always be best friends, but Ilia wanted to be able to freely show him her affection for Link. Even when she had lost her memories, she had felt a sense of belonging with Link, and when she recovered her memories, she had learned that Link was not only the man of her dreams, but the man of anyone's dreams. But nowadays it was getting worse, as she figured that she was finally starting to hit puberty, and as a result was beginning to have wet dreams of Link. She despised herself, and her late-blooming body, for having these dreams, because unconfessed love or not, Link is, and always will be, her best friend. The best way she figured, to stop the dreams, would be to finally tell Link that she was crazy in love with him. She knew he would most likely reject her, she had even heard tell of a Link fan club somewhere in castle town, but she needed to get it off of her chest.

She got off her bed, and kneeled on the floor as she let out a prayer to Farore: 'Farore, goddess of courage, please let me summon the bravery I need to confess my love to Link.' with that she tried to let herself drift to sleep, which led to another dream about her and Link.

In the middle of the night.

In a bed.

Without a shred of clothes on.