How A Princess Fights.

Love pulls through.

She stopped, everything fell silent after she heard her name being whispered in the dark of her room. She sat there, paralyzed, unsure of what to think. She heard it again.

"Zzzzeeelllldddaaa?" The voice was hoarse, croaky and barely audible but she heard it.

Slowly, she let go of her limbs and begun to untangle herself from her ball. Her entire being ached with pain but she managed to pull herself up onto her knees. She slowly looked over the edge of the bed and saw him...

Link still sat there, his body still and unmoving but as she examined him, she looked up at his face. His eyes were open and his lips were parted.

"Link?" Zelda sighed hoarsely as she carefully crawled on the bed over to him.

Link tried his best to smile but it must have tugged on some sore muscle because he winced in pain. She moved closer to him so as to make sure he was ok.

Her eyes welled up with tears but for the first time in over a year, they were tears of joy. She threw her arms round Link and hugged him close.

Link hissed in pain but he bid down on his lip to hide it. With what little strength he had at this point, he raised his arms and hugged her back.

***

Hable sighed and wiped the sweat off his brow before stricking the hammer down again. He beat the metal sword with all his might. There was something so satisfying when it came to shaping metal.

"I didn't know you were a blacksmith..."

Hable jumped at the sound of Karen's voice right him. He leapt into the air and dropped the red hot sword into the furnace and dropped the hammer he was working with on the floor right next to his feet.

Karen let out a girly giggle at how she had frightened him. She bent down and tried to pick up the hammer but it was too heavy for her to lift. As Hable recovered from the shock, he bent down and picked the hammer up with ease.

"Wow... You're strong..." Karen marveled at how easily Hable was able to lift the hammer.

"I guess so..." He chuckled as he carefully picked up the red hot sword from the furnace, "Must be years of practice in my dad's blacksmith's workshop..."

"Your dad owned a blacksmith's?" She inquired, seating herself up on the desk next to him as he begun to beat the sword again with the hammer.

"Yeah, I worked with him till I was fifteen before I gave it up and applied to the Royal Guard." Hable held the sword up so he could examine it before he plunged the red glowing metal into a bucket of cold water making a puff of steam rise from it.

"Why did you give it up?" Karen cocked an eyebrow as she stared at him working.

"Well, my father had also taught my future brother-in-law how to handle the forge and when my father died that winter, I took my mother to Hyrule Castle for a fresh start and I left my brother-in-law in charge of the shop. It turns out he was pretty good at it, so I gave him our family shop..." Hable sighed as he dropped the sword down onto the sharpening stone and begun to cut the edges into razor sharp blades.

"Well you are clearly good at it!" Karen gestured to how Hable was now working again.

"Yeah, since the war started, Princess Zelda wants more recruits trained and that means more need for weapons. My brother-in-law, Kyle, is over there," he pointed across the blacksmith's royal workshop to Kyle, whom Karen had already met in Hateno, "he's working round the clock too..."

"But why didn't you return to your workshop before? You and Kyle could have run the shop together as brothers?" She protested, sad that Hable gave up his talent.

"Well, my friends were the main reason I joined the Royal Guard... Pike was always bullied and so when he begrudgingly signed up, we all wanted to protect him. I think we owned a lot to Link, he was always there for us so we went with them to keep them company as well..." Hable sighed deeply as he hauled another sheet of metal into the furnace.

"I see..." Karen smiled and giggle mischievously, "You're clingy!"

Hable dropped the hammer again and begun to stutter his words as his cheeks heated up.

***

"Link's awake?!" Arthur yelped as they all burst into the room.

Pike, Siren, Hable, Arthur, Impa and Isaac all tumbled through the door, desperate to see Link alright. Zelda was by his side, holding his hand again but this time, she held a broad smile on her face.

Link sat there, his eyes fully open and his lips curled into a smile.

They all gathered round the bed and stared at him in awe of how he had managed to survive this.

"Who are you?" He nodded in the direction of Isaac whom he had never actually met.

"I'm the Devil, I've come to take you away." He joked.

Only Arthur laughed at the joke while the others glared at him, not finding the death joke very amusing. Arthur cleared his throat and kept his head down.

"I'm Isaac. Not to brag, but I helped Zelda rescue you so a thank you would be nice." He chuckled with a cheeky grin to which Impa elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Thanks..." Link said hoarsely.

Silence passed between them until Pike broke it, "Right, visiting hours are over! My patient still needs rest and I still need to give him his medicine, so out!" He ordered.