A Wolf's Love Howl

The Gentle Act of Courtship

A Wolf's Love Howl
Chapter 4
The Gentle Act of Courtship

   Link woke up earlier than usual to start his day. He ruffled his hair and stretched his arms out, yawning as he did so. He cast his sleepy, icy eyes outside still seeing the night sky with a slight tinge of yellow sunrise just on the horizon. He flung the sheets off of his legs and made the bed back up properly before starting up the shower. He let the water fall over his hand as he checked for just the right temperature. "Now this is something I'll always miss." He innerly thought. When he eventually goes back to Hyrule there won't be any shower contraptions like this, so he made sure to use this invention as much as possible. He slid his tunic and the shirt underneath off and started working on his pants when he felt the familiar pain in his chest. He looked up at himself in the slowly fogging mirror and saw that the wound on his chest was reddening and some parts of the skin around it was full of pus. He grabbed a knife and lighter from his satchel and went back into the bathroom. Slowly he heated up the edge of the blade as he looked around for a small hand towel.
   Locating one, he waited until the knife was glowing red, dropped the lighter, and shoved the towel in his mouth as he began cutting the infected skin, letting yellow and black pus drain. He groaned into the towel with each slice, but was rewarded with a feeling of pain relief in his chest. He squeezed over the opened wounds as much as he could bare, pained tears beginning to tip at his eyes, until most of the drainage was out. He went into the shower then and lathered up his body with soap, careful not to touch too much on the wound. He let the water run over him as if it was washing all the pain and who he was before away, starting anew. Link thought of all the possible enemies he'd have to go through today. Zelda was a formidable foe, but she was most likely going to stay in her middle class despite her high class way of life and hidden abilities. He wished to see her at the elite level, but she seemed content with where she was. She seemed to only come to the arena to make sure her Hero of Time was still in one piece and a way of being an ambassador of her people. "If I find myself against Marth, I'll target his left leg. He seemed light on that leg, I bet he had an injury to it within this past year. It could be a weak spot for him… if it's Wario I could use my endurance to tire him out first since he has very slow movement speed.." He thought on and on about the possibilities and how to best beat his foes. "If it's Ganon…" His stomach clenched in a very familiar way it always did before battling his archnemesis. A sense of unease and nervousness never went away no matter how many times he went against the Chosen One of Power. "I've done it before and I'll do it again just like I said yesterday." His nervousness slowly disintegrated as he stopped the shower and started patting himself dry with a large bath towel. Readying up his gear he quietly opened and shut his door to not disturb other sleeping bystanders. He saw room 44 and thought about how his neighbor was going to do on his first day in the tournament. He smiled thinking about how easy it was for the two to get along and their exchange in the garden. "I like having you around" reverberated in his head making his heart skip a beat, all nervousness completely vanquished. Link unconsciously touched his head remembering the crown and quickly went back inside to retrieve it from his bedside table. "I should take it.. As a luck charm." He removed his hat and placed the crown underneath and put his green headgear over it back in place.
     He stealthily made his way to the training grounds taking a shortcut through the garden. He was always the first to be training and it sure paid off in the long run. He started to feel chilly with his damp hair in the brisk air and looked to the horizon. "I got about an hour before this whole training ground will be filled with people. I must make use of the time I ha-" his thoughts were halted by the sound of the clanging of a sword on armor. Link pushed aside some thickets to make it to the training grounds trying to see who was already here. He walked a little further towards the figure when he saw the telltale sign of the green bandana protruding from a blue mess of hair. Link leaned against a nearby training dummy like the one the mercenary was currently engaged in a heated duel with. Ike's movements were fluid and powerful, like swinging the massive blade was as easy as breathing. As if it were another full extension of himself. His muscles tightened with each redirection he took for another angle he imagined his attacker would take. Ike took his sword and pounced on the metal heathen only to miss by nearly a foot. "How long have you been training out here?" Ike jolted away from his position and saw where the voice came from and relaxed his rigged posture almost immediately. "A few hours. I wanted to be sure I worked out all the kinks and jitters early." Link chuckled and unsheathed his master sword. "You're already getting tired from training all this time. Perhaps you should go back and rest up." Link started working on his own practice dummy. Ike scoffed at the suggestion. "I've spent longer without sleep fighting in the war. I think a few hours should be okay. Maybe I'm just tired of fighting my imagination." Link turned his attention away from the battle dummy and smiled at Ike. "I think I can help with that."