Chapter Four
Link began the night very cautiously. This ball was his idea, and having Liam pretend to be him was his as well. Up until now, he had only been worried about what would happen if something went wrong, like if someone found out who he was. Now, he was worried about what to do. He didn’t know who to ask to dance with him first. Should he pick a pretty girl or a less attractive one? Should he pick the one in the corner or the one who seemed very popular with the other men? He hadn’t planned on what to do; he just automatically assumed that he would do it. And now, he was in the middle of this scheme and he was half-hiding like a loser. Immediately, he moved out of half-hiding so people wouldn’t wonder why he was half-hiding in the first place. He did it carefully so that not everyone noticed that he was coming out of half-hiding. Half-hiding is a very delicate art that Link was the master of, if not the creator of.
Link then decided to just ask someone to dance. He realized that if he pretended to be just another guy at the ball, no one should suspect him. The first lady he asked to dance was one of the unattractive loners that half-hid very poorly. She was dressed up as a Gerudo. It was not the best costume for her, but the assignments had been random, so it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Link found out the hard way that she was a loner for a reason. Not only could she not dance, but she snapped at him and accused him of messing her up. When the dance ended, she told him she had never had a worse dance partner. Later, Link learned that she told this to everyone. Shaken by this bad experience, however, he did not dance again for another song.
The next lady Link asked to dance was a popular one dressed as a milkmaid. After she finished dancing with a farmer, Link asked her to dance. As they danced, Milkmaid waved to friends and other men she had danced with calling out their names. After one short song of “Oh, hi there, Farore!” and “Oh, look, there’s Gibdo and Farmer and Knight!” Link thanked her for the dance, and then danced with someone dressed as Din. However, Milkmaid kept coming back to him, or pointing him out to her other dance partners. Geez, thought Link. She must really like attention. Or maybe she just likes guys to admire her. Indeed, her current dance partner was staring at her and listening closely to her every word.
As the clock struck ten, Link half-hid by the back of the room. The King forbade him to leave the room without a partner to prove that he was not running away, but Link needed air. The door was the only place he could get enough of it. He made sure to stand far enough away so that it did not look as if he was trying to leave or get air. As he stood, wishing that he had already met the perfect girl and the Costume Ball could end, he heard people enter the door. Startled, he went from half-hiding to complete hiding. Had they seen him? Apparently they didn’t because they continued to talk as they entered.
The late arrivals were two girls who knew each other, but they were being careful to call each other by their costume names. Link could tell they thought it was funny because whenever they said their pseudonyms, they exaggerated them sarcastically. One of them, a copper-haired girl of medium height, was dressed as a butterfly. However, she was not simply a normal butterfly. She wore a simple, long black strappy dress, a black mask, and black heels, but she had amazing wings. They were attached to the dress at the straps. They were made of a stiff material that was still flexible, but it allowed the wings to be open most of the time. The design on the wings was incredible. They looked like two great flames in the shape of the butterfly’s wing, but they weren’t glaringly bright colors. They had pale yellow centers, which quickly dulled to a burnt orange and then to a deep crimson near the edges, which faded to almost black. Her hair was done up simply to fall down a bit at the back, and her makeup consisted of crimson lipstick. In contrast to her costume, her eyes were baby blue. She also wore bronze wrist cuffs that, to Link, really made the costume work better.
The other girl was as well dressed as her friend Butterfly. She was a fairy. When Link had been developing the list with Liam and Zelda, Link had chosen “fairy” as a costume, but he purposely hadn’t specified what type. He wanted to see for himself what the lady would choose to be. Now, he finally saw what fairy would be attending tonight. She was fairy of the sky. These fairies were very rare, and few people had ever seen one ever. There were many pictures in books of what people thought they might look like, so Link guessed that either the girl had made up her own costume or she had found an idea in a book.
Wherever she had found the idea, the costume was spectacular. Unlike some costumes, it wasn’t elaborate at all, but it got the point across very simply and looked very nice on her. She wore a strappy dress not unlike her friend’s, but it only went to her knees and it was made of a strange, iridescent blue material. She must have made her costume with Butterfly because the wings were almost the same. They were also attached at the straps of her dress, but the wings were made of the same material as her dress, and they were in the shape of fairy wings. She also had the two smaller wings attached to her straps at the same places as the longer ones. Her heels were the same as Butterfly’s as well, but they were pearly blue, as was her mask, and she wore silver wrist cuffs. Her hair was pulled back elegantly, but still let down in the back. The colors of her hair and eyes were just as mysterious as the color of her dress. Her hair was somewhere between light brown and blonde, but it also had a few red highlights in it, almost daring someone to try and guess its true shade. Her eyes were a different story. While her hair was all different colors at once, her eyes seemed to be some color that wasn’t blue or green, but not an intermediate shade at all. She also wore shimmery pink lipstick. Link suddenly felt that she would have made a great water fairy because her eyes were like the ocean.
Butterfly and Fairy were perfect standing next to each other. One costume reflected light and the other absorbed it. Link realized that they looked even more magnificent because none of the other costumes could rival them in any way. These girls must be very creative, he thought, or they just really want to impress me. Link skulked to another spot closer to the two ladies so he could hide and hear some of their conversation.
“…And we wouldn’t have been late if you hadn’t worried so much about your wings being recognizable as fairy wings,” scolded Butterfly. “You must really have a crush on him to want to meet him so badly.”
“Shut up, or else I’ll tell someone that you have a poster of him on your wall,” retorted Fairy.
Butterfly laughed. “Very funny. I don’t have any posters on my wall, so you can’t prove that.”
“Sorry, I meant to say that you had a poster of him on your ceiling.” They both giggled. “Besides,” continued Fairy, “you were late, too. You couldn’t find your black eyeliner, and then you just borrowed my crimson one.”
“Yeah, yeah. You know I’m just making fun of you. What are friends for if they can’t pop your big head once in a while.”
“Good point, although sometimes they are needed to boost your ego, especially when self-esteem is low.”
“Don’t get all sappy on me. If I cry I might muss up my makeup.”
“Very funny. I know you could care less about your makeup right now.”
“Right. Now I’m worried about my shoes.”
Link was finding himself drawn deeply into their conversation. They sounded a lot like him and Liam, although he and Liam didn’t talk about the same types of things. He was also happy to find girls at this ball that weren’t completely antisocial or shallow.
Suddenly Fairy gasped. “There’s a guy at the refreshment table looking at us!” she hissed at Butterfly. “Which one of us do you think he’s looking at?”
Link looked at the refreshment table, and to his dismay, Liam was staring in the direction of the girls Link was spying on (It’s spying even if it’s harmless. Link’s no criminal, but he was spying). The expression on Liam’s face was odd, almost as if he could not stop looking in the direction of the girls.
“I’ll go to the table,” said Butterfly in an odd voice. “If it’s you he’s looking at, I’ll walk away and circle around, and then you can walk up. Otherwise, I’ll probably see you in a couple dances.” Both of the ladies looked excited about this. But before she left, Butterfly turned to her friend and asked meekly, “Do you think it’s Link?”
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” replied Fairy. They both knew this did not answer the question, but Butterfly left anyway. As she approached the table, Link could see his friend’s eyes moving with her. Soon the two of them seemed to be talking shyly near the table. Link then took his chance before ditsy Milkmaid came looking for him again.
He made his way a little more around the room and then carefully came out of hiding. Then he slowly meandered over to Fairy, who was still watching Butterfly. As he neared her, he changed his mind about her eyes. She would have not made a good water fairy. Her eyes didn’t remind him of the ocean anymore. Carefully he stepped next to her.
“Your friend’s costume seems to be missing something,” he said softy.
Fairy turned around sharply to see who had spoken. As their eyes met, Link felt something odd snap inside his chest. It wasn’t very painful at all, and it felt almost like magic, but not quite. He quickly dismissed it because he didn’t know exactly what it was. He saw Fairy’s face change a bit, like she was startled, but Link could see a little something else. Like the feeling in his chest, however, he could not identify it, so he ignored it.
“What’s missing? Can’t you tell that she’s a butterfly?”
“Yes, but she’s missing her antennae.”
Fairy chuckled. “We had a pair to go with the costume, but they made her look ridiculous. You don’t think she’ll be kicked out for not having a perfect costume, do you?”
“Not at all,” replied Link. “Speaking of costumes, where did you get the idea for yours? Not many people know what sky fairies look like.”
“I know. I got the idea from a picture that Butterfly drew of what she thought they looked like. She likes fairies a lot.”
“Then wouldn’t she have wanted the fairy costume?”
“Of course she did.”
“Then how come you’re the fairy? Didn’t she want to trade?”
“Oh, she wanted to trade. She likes fairies much more than I do.”
“Why didn’t you trade?”
“Because I’m her friend.” Link didn’t understand at all. He shrugged.
Fairy laughed. “You’d understand what I was saying if you knew us better.”
“Where are you two from?” he asked.
“Are we allowed to say?” questioned Fairy. “I’d hate to tell you and then get in trouble. Then again, I’d hate to not answer you and find out later that I could.”
Link smiled. “I’m sure it’s okay, and even if it wasn’t, the King won’t find out. That is, unless you run to the dais, weeping, to confess.”
“That sounds like fun. I hope he wouldn’t have me slapped in irons and thrown in the dungeons. I don’t want to ruin my dress or muss up my hair.”
Link liked her sense of humor. Most girls wouldn’t joke about that sort of thing. “So where are you from? I mean, what country? I don’t want your address or anything.”
“Ha, ha, ha,” she said, sarcastically. “I’m from Racona. What about you?”
“Hyrule.”
“Oh, so you’re on the home team. Do you live in the Castle?”
“Yep. Are you staying in Hyrule, or are you making the trip everyday?” Racona’s capital city was not far from Hyrule Castle Town, but it would have been rather obnoxious to make the trip twice a day at odd hours.
“We’re staying at Lon Lon Ranch right now.”
“Oh, is Malon here?”
“Yes, but I won’t tell you which costume. And don’t you dare come to the Ranch and try to see Butterfly and me unmasked. I’d slap you.”
“Yeah right. I doubt you’d even recognize me. My bet is that some poor, innocent guy will stop by the Ranch tomorrow for some eggs and you will think he’s me, so you’ll slap him as hard as possible. Then, tomorrow night, you’ll make fun of me, and I’ll say, ‘I haven’t been by the Ranch since last Thursday,’ and then you’ll feel shamed.”
“Is this some sort of plan? If it is, I’ll have to come to the Castle and find you.”
“You won’t be allowed at the Castle.”
“Why not? Will you tell the guards that some girl, you don’t know her name or exactly what she looks like, will come by and they shouldn’t let her in?”
“No, you won’t be allowed in the Castle because Link lives here.”
“Oh.” She got rather quiet.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
Link doubted that. Was it about him? “Him” meaning Link. He was the reason for the balls. The ladies here weren’t here just for the hell of it, they wanted to meet and maybe marry him. Thinking about Fairy like that made him uncomfortable for some reason. Maybe it was because he hadn’t thought of her as someone who wanted to marry Link. Suddenly, “Link” became another person to him. It was an odd feeling, nothing like the one earlier, but odd all the same. He realized that at the ball, he had to be two people. Link, the man who had to pick his bride from among the many women, and Hawk, the man who was at the ball, but was not as important to the women as Link. It was as if the ladies wouldn’t fall for him because they were falling for him…Ouch, he was getting a headache.
Before he could think, and as the next song struck up, he said, “Would you like to dance?”
Fairy looked uncertain, as if Link could be walking up this very moment, and dancing with Hawk could spoil her chances. But then, she looked thoughtful. All this lasted in about a second. “I’d love to,” she replied.
