A Prologue

I’m a sucker for Link as a character and the story below is evidence for that. This comes from a longer story, which if there’s interest I’ll post more of.

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I knew Link once.

Everything you heard about him is true. He was smart and brave and kind. He had a wit that could cut glass. He was fast with a sword and faster on his feet. He was heroic, which is a rare quality these days. But of all the things people say about him, the most true is that he was beautiful. Beautiful beyond words.

I first saw him as he argued with Old Yen on the price of stabling his horse for the night. The former sailor wanted a ridiculous sum. A number only reasonable to those whose wits had left them on the journey over the sea.

The stranger faced away from me. He was clad in a tunic the colour of delphinium. An intricate pattern wove itself in white across its neck and shoulders. A sword hung loosely at his back, its pommel angled to the left. He was leaning against the counter, leather boots drawing circles in the gravel at his feet as he spoke.

He made a helpless gesture to Yen, turned towards me. I hadn’t seen him yet or knew who he was. All I saw was that Yen was in some kind of fit, and anything that bothered the old sailor was bound to be entertaining to me.

He looked up at me and I saw an elfin face with a nose like a smooth stone. High cheekbones and a narrow chin. But it was his eyes that drew me in. They were like the sea, or the sky after a storm. They felt like yearning, a tumbling into spaces and cast away. But there was an edge to them, like a dagger snicking from a sheath. They were like gemstones of burnished azure, cleaved facets cutting like blades.

His features were framed with hair the colour of straw. He wore its silky length tied back, and what escaped the knot rioted around his brow and draped over his ears. Pointed ears, like marigold leaf. Ears of those who came from the east. Hylian. The wind caught a handful of locks as he looked at me, sent it covering one of his eyes. He reached over to brush it aside and smiled.

Later, I showed him a nice place to swim along the shore. We stood there in silence for a moment as he looked out at the sea, silky voice tinged with sadness as he talked of home. In the distance, the gulls cried. The smile came out again, slower this time, and he pulled the tunic over his head.

Now, I’ve seen the way old sailors like Yen looked out at the swells of the deep, eyes distant as desire rose within them. I’ve heard the way bards sang of maidens who had captured the hearts of kings. But let me tell you this: these men know nothing of beauty. What they see is ordinary, bound to the world by its limits, like fragments. But he was a distant memory to this place; merely flickered briefly amongst our kin on his passage through. Otherworldly, ethereal.

I looked at him now, skin like the sun-kissed beach, tunic discarded in the soft sand. He had a slender frame, lightly muscled, as if he had spent his whole youth swimming in the sea. Slight hips, almost boyish in proportion, gave way to a smooth waist and lean belly. Lines of flat muscle ran the length of his chest and upper arms. Wide shoulders accentuated a thin neck, the nape of which flexed slightly as he shook the hair out of his eyes.

He pulled off his trousers in what looked like a dance move, revealing firm legs that met a pair of plump globes hidden under tight underwear. Like peaches in autumn, ripe and sweet with nectar.

He saw me looking and his smile shifted to something wry. He whispered a phrase, something melodic in a language I didn’t recognize. His lips parted slightly, glistening in the afternoon sun like gold. The laugh he made at my expression played like lutes singing harmony. Like wind chimes carried by a soft warm breeze.

I could hear the ocean now. Its crash against the shore reflected the desire I felt kindle within me.

He started off towards the beach, spared me a glance. His slender back looked almost delicate in the way the light played off his smooth skin, but you could see the flex of muscle beneath as he walked. The sinews ran the length of his spine, meeting at the small of his back in a deep V right above his buttocks.

The fire in my belly had grown from a slow burn and now licked at my heart and lungs. I took a deep breath and followed him into the sea.