Twenty Years Later

He gently stroked her cheek with a shuddering hand, taking in a deep breath. He'd always loved her, he knew that much. Nothing could change that.

When Link thought hard, he could still remember the feeling of her heart pounding against him on the day he first met her, and her ragged breaths echoing in his ears. The feeling of her smaller hands clasped in his the day they were married and the beautiful white gown that she wore. No one could have worn it better in his mind. Her smile beamed up at him and happy tears streaked down her cheeks as she said "I do."

"Dad? Are you here?" Kera walked into the large room, her voice resounding off the walls.

Link peered up from his sleeping wife to look at his darling daughter. She wore the same dress that Neri wore that day. Kera looked almost exactly like her mother, with her slightly squared jaw and blue-gray-gold eyes. The only difference was her dirty blonde hair that flowed down her back. It was tucked into a thick braid that was pulled over her shoulder.

Kera briskly walked down the aisle to her father, her white dress flowing wildly around her feet. She looked down at her mother with a melancholic gaze. "Are you sure you don't want to move the date? Tristan would be more than willing to—"

"No," Link sighed, "it will continue. I couldn't force my beautiful daughter to move such an important date that she's been planning for over a year."

"But dad, after what happened—"

Link stood and embraced his daughter. "We will continue with this wedding. It's what your mother would have wanted."

Kera couldn't hold it back anymore. Despite the fact that this day was meant to be her happiest, so far it was anything but. Kera returned the hug, but her sobs shook her body. Link sat down and pulled her into his lap like he used to do when she was little.

It was obvious that she was trying to stop herself. After all, she couldn't be crying on the happiest day of her life. Link took in another big breath. Neri was crying on their wedding day—but it was because she was overjoyed. Kera was distraught.

"Mom's going to miss it," she gasped, her voice breaking. "She a-always teased me about this d-day. S-she said she w-wouldn't miss it for the world."

Link rubbed her back and held her tight. "She isn't going to miss it. Your mom is always with you."

Right then, the heavy oak doors of the church opened again. Light flooded through the cracks as Ryer stepped in. He wore a soldier's uniform, the standard for any aristocrat wedding. His thick brown hair stuck up in small tufts like always.

"Dad, everything is set—" Ryer stopped and his bright blue eyes dulled when he saw his older sister crying.

He silently walked down the aisle to them and patted Kera's back. Eventually the grief took over in him as he tried to console his sister, and soon he was sniffling and breathing heavily as well. He sat down next to Link, holding his head in his hands and took off his green cap. Ryer ran a hand through his hair and twisted the cap.

Link gave him a sympathetic glance. It made him miserable to see his children cry. Right next to him laid Neri, who wore a thin blue silk gown that barely touched her bare toes. A silver-embroidered veil hung around her shoulders and fell to her knees and bouquet of white roses was held by her pale stiff hands. Link studied her face.

She looked so peaceful and relaxed, like she was in a pleasant dream. Her skin was the palest white, like the snow that fell in early autumn. Her brown hair had begun to curl near the tips the way Neri had always hated it—Link remember the countless mornings that she would constantly comb through her hair in an attempt to straighten it. Her chocolate brown hair framed her face perfectly. To him, she was perfection. The only word she could ever use to describe her was perfect, even as the roots of her hair began to show silver and the crows' feet defined themselves after the infinite hours she spent smiling. Whenever he thought about her, she was always smiling or joking around. Her porcelain skin made her look like nothing more than a doll in its box.

Ryer stood abruptly, rubbing his eyes furiously. "We're meant to be happy and all we're doing is crying while everyone's waiting across the street."

Link felt like smiling. That was something Neri definitely would have said. "If we don't go now, we'll be late."

Kera pulled back from her father's arms, wiping her eyes. She took a breath and fanned herself, then stood up grinned an almost-believable grin. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Link nodded and smiled sadly. It was time to finally give away the last girl in his life. "You two go, I'll be there in time."

Kera's mustered smile faded. "Promise?"

Link nodded and gave a warm glance that was real. "Promise. Now get going, you don't want Queen Zelda or your Aunty Midna to be waiting."

Ryer patted her shoulder to coax her to come. Finally she tore her gaze from her father and mother and walked down the aisle. He opened the door for her as she nodded her thanks and walked out. Ryer gave one last glance to his father, who he knew was grieving for their mother more than any of them. The door closed with a hollow thump behind him and the church was dark once again.

Link's steady gaze turned back to his sleeping wife. He dragged his chair closer and leaned over the edge to trace her cheek with his fingers. She was so cold under his touch. Link played with the curls at the tips of her hair and almost smiled—it was just as soft as the day before yesterday. He was disappointed with how everything had played out. It hardly took any thought at all to play back the past events that had led up to this.

For the past few years Neri had been growing increasingly weak. Her heart had started failing her despite only being middle-aged. Her first heart attack happened when she was only forty. From then it only became worse even though Neri eventually had Hyrule's best doctors helping her. She couldn't run because of how weak she had become, walking launched her into a cold sweat, and she couldn't even pull back her bow halfway within the last year.

Due to her decreasing health, Neri never again visited her family or friends back in her world. They had probably assumed that she had gone missing or passed away mysteriously, but Link doubted that they thought she was still alive after what little contact she had with them—after she gave up her old life for her new family in Hyrule.

Link didn't want to admit that she was fading, even though he had known it the whole time. He was sure that she had accepted that reality well before he did.

For the past few months Neri had been bedridden. She would constantly be coughing or sleeping, but whenever she was awake Neri would always make an effort to get up, go downstairs, and let him know that she would get through it, that she would get better soon. Within the first few minutes of her being out of bed, she would fade in and out of consciousness and Link would carry her back to bed.

The day before yesterday Link had been called as the army's general to fend off an invasion of bokoblins, so he had been out of town with a troop of only two hundred of his best men for the mission. He couldn't remember fighting the bokoblins, he only remembered Ryer running to him when the battlefield had been quietened. He was huffing as he sprinted over, and Link knew immediately what was wrong.

Ryer slouched over to collect his breath, and after a few seconds of collecting himself, he muttered the two words that Link would never forget: "Mom's gone."

Link fell to his knees in the blood that splattered the green grass, his breaths becoming shallower and faster, trying to collect himself in front of his son, but screamed out to the sky instead.

Once Link had gained enough control of himself to walk, Ryer, who was sobbing silently, led him back to their house. It was the longest walk of their lives.

By the time Ryer had unlocked the door, Link took off running upstairs and slammed open the door to their room.

Kera was slouched on the bed, wailing as tears of grief shook her body. Kera's hand held Neri's, which was still warm. His daughter pushed herself up, and her face was a mess of tears and hair that she made no effort to push back. She opened her mouth to say something, but Link unsteadily walked forward and grabbed his wife's other hand, collapsing and crying for the first time since... Since the first time Neri had been almost fatally hurt.

Tristan, Kera's fiancé, rubbed her shaking shoulders as she mourned for her mother. He had never had a mother himself, so for Tristan, Neri was the next best thing. She always considered Tristan to be part of the family after just a few months of him dating Kera. Neri had always been so sweet to him and welcomed him—so had Link, but naturally, he was protective of his little girl at first.

Tristan's curly black hair shaded his coal-black eyes. Tears silently traced his cheeks as he tried to reassure Kera. Link didn't care that he was crying so hard in front of his children—he only cared about the fact that the love of his life had just died.

And he didn't even get to say goodbye.

He didn't even get to spend her last moments with her.

He never even heard her last words.

By then, Link was sobbing as he stroked his wife's cheek in the gloominess of the church, but the scenario continued to play out in his head.

It was then that he realized that he'd never have any more joking coverstaions with her, never hear her voice, her laugh, see her smile, see her...alive.

The whole day had been dedicated to mourning. Kera and Tristan were comforting each other, while Ryer disappeared to god-knows-where to grieve in his own way. They had left Link in the privacy of their room to let him have some alone time. The moment the door shut, all they heard was one loud wail.

Unfortunately, Kera and Tristan had been planning their wedding for the past six months, and Neri promised each and every day that she wouldn't miss it for the world. "I'll manage. I'll make it. It's what moms do!" she would say in her ever-enthusiastic voice.

Kera and Tristan were going to cancel, but Link encouraged them to continue it—that there was no way Neri would ever forgive them if they cancelled because of her. The next day, which had been yesterday, Neri was briefly sent to the undertaker to be fit into a parting box and prettied up among other less appealing activites. That was the same day Neri's will was read, stating that Ryer was to inherit Fi and carry the Goddess Sword down the line, and Kera was to inherit her bow. 

That next morning, the funeral was held. Link could never forget it.

Zelda and Midna both wept heavily, having only heard of Neri's departure the previous night. Midna was stone-faced as the tears fell, but Zelda's face was buried in her hankerchief the whole time. Fi was extremely melancholic and carried a saddened aura. Link could have sworn he saw one crystalline tear of Fi's fall from her chin. Kera sat between Tristan and her father, who both comforted her as the priest spoke. Ryer was silent and his shoulders shook occassionally. Link could never forget the attendance of the funeral.

All of Castle Town had come to say goodbye.

Neri was the type of person to be friends, or at least civil, with everyone. The bakers, bankers, merchants, aristocrats, everyone came to see. No one attended from Link or Neri's side of the family because neither would be able to—they were either dead or in another realm. All of Kera and Ryer's friends and families had come too, which was another half of Castle Town. Link often wondered why young people such as Ryer's friends and Kera's were concerned, but he knew.

When their children went through the terrible twos, Neri met their parents at daycare.

When they went through their rebellious teenage years, Neri would constantly embarrass Kera and Ryer in front of their friends purposely for fun.

When they were young adults, she would always pretend to be old and wise.

That was just who Neri was—and everyone knew her for it.

The funeral had been held that morning, the wedding and the reception were to take place in the afternoon, and Neri's burial would be held off until the evening—her favourite time. He still remembered watching Neri gaze out their window every night as the sun receded into the horizon line. Even in her sickness and old age, she would sit up and watch it every night. He would watch it with her, tuck her in, and then come to bed later.

Link finally calmed himself, gulping back the last of his tears. However, when he clasped his hands around her smaller ones that encased the white roses, he felt something.

Something stiff and sinewy, then something cold and smooth.

Link peered at his wife's cold hands to see that beneath the bouquet, an aged wooden wolf necklace was entwined with her slender fingers. It had peeled with age and splintered in some spots, but it was still there. The necklace he gave her twenty-five years ago.

He almost broke into a new round of sobs, but instead gently pulled the necklace from her fingers and straightened the broken leather strap that had held it together, then draped it across her corset bone like she had worn so many times before. She had looked empty without wearing it, but now she looked complete. The only thing she needed was a gray hoodie and blue jeans with her worn sneakers, a bow across her back and hilt sticking up from her shoulder, and she would have looked the same.

He leaned on the edge and continued to gaze at his wife. Across from him, a woman sat.

She glanced at the body between them blankly, then smiled up at Link. His eyes were steady.

She cupped his cheek, and he shuddered like he had been hit by a cold breeze.

She plucked a petal from one of the roses, and it floated down like a feather.

Link looked up, meeting her gaze for a moment, but looked through her. He took a breath and straightened his red uniform, and leaned down to give her a kiss. His lips barely touched the body's cold forehead. "I love you," he whispered ever-so-quietly, like it was a secret.

"I love you too," she replied.

He looked up from the body as though he had been startled—for thirty seconds, he didn't move, as though he had...heard her.

She smiled, a true, wide smile, and leaned forward to peck his cheek. The moment she did he was snapped out of his trance, and continued with what he was doing.

Finally, with one last glance, he closed the casket and gradually turned to walk out of the church.

She followed behind him, the silk blue gown cascading around her bare feet as she walked in tow. The silver of her veil was wrapped around her shoulders and flew out like a tail as she strived to keep up with his pace, and the wooden wolf necklace around her neck laid against her corset bone. She grinned and gracefully floated down the aisle with a smile that made her crows' feet stand out. Her grin never faded, even as she combed her fingers through the curls forming at the tips of her faded brown hair, of which had streaks of gray near the roots.

Neri said only one thing as she slipped through the door and into the light of the outside behind Link.

"I said that I would never miss this day for the world—or any of them, for that matter."