Aderith fell asleep with a gentle smile on her face, her body feeling a bit better than usual. It was easy to fall asleep in his arms she discovered, and if it were this easy she decided that doing it more often maybe a better idea for herself.

The next morning Ader awoke to the sun gleaming in her face, and a bird chirping happily outside of her window. She smiled at the being with whom she was laying before scooting in closer to hide her face in him again. She sighed softly, and before long was climbing over him, out of the bed and now beginning to cook some good old breakfast.

When he woke up, he tried to give Ader a hug, but was basically hugging air, so he quickly opened his eyes and sat up, he looked around, but relaxed when he saw her cooking breakfast. "Good morning Aderith" he said, rubbing one eye open, he yawned a little bit, "I'm happy that you're feeling so much better now" he gave her a smile. He then got up out of bed to stretch his arms and legs and get dressed, he changed quickly and a minute or two later, he had his Hero's Clothes on. He walked over and gave Ader a kiss on the cheek, then he laughed and walked over to her table to take a seat.

Though completely unresponsive to Link and his words, Aderith smiled just a little, continuing to cook. Her hair was tied up, showing off just how pale she really was, but overall she looked alright she supposed. Scooping some eggs onto a plate, she hesitated and looked toward the door, toward a commotion that she could hear quite fine. Blinking a little, she placed the plate on the table and moved toward the door.

When she opened it, her eyes grew wide, and she blinked in disbelief and awe. Before her was a march of armored men on horses that seemed to be as equally and heavily equipped. All of the men wore the symbol loyal to their kingdom... : Lybrynaa. And in the middle, looking most royal and authoritative was none other than Prince Dioclese himself. He was glancing at the various doorways before his eyes fell on Aderith, a charming smile cracking on his lips. Ader couldn't help but to blush and look away..

She'd caught the eyes of royalty..

"Is everything alright Aderith?" He asked curiously, he stood up from his seat and walked over to the door, he jumped back a bit from all of the visitors at her door. "Hello... Can we help you?" Link asked them, he noticed the prince and kind of glared at him, he could sense some bad vibes coming from him. "What do you want?" He asked in a serious voice, he grabbed his sword's handle on his back just in case he'd need it.

Of course, none of the men stopped from their march, and that included the prince. Ader had only seen this once before in her life, only minus the prince due to the fact that half the king's army had been out to save the ass. All of the men looked straightforward, including the prince, who was eventually obligated to do so when one of his soldiers decided to say something to him. Ader's eyes followed the prince as all of the men marched and galloped past her and Link. She had to wonder why they had come to her village, of course.

He dropped his attack stance and stood normally, putting his hand back at his side, he watched them all gallop off, "what was that all about...?" He asked himself when they were out of earshot. "Now I'm curious... lets try and find out more about this after breakfast" he walked back inside and sat back down at the table, he waited for Ader to come back and eat.

Being the ever curious and intrigued, Ader didn't bother to return to her home. She simply grabbed her robe from the rack near the door and slid on some sandals, rushing out. She began trying her robe up quickly, moving into the crowds that had surrounded the troop from Lybrynaa. The prince was in the center, and with a grunt, the thin young man yanked off his helmet, revealing a handsome face and shaggy short, dark brown hair. He looked to be about right for his job, also a lady killer.. One could see why he was arrogant.

"Charming people of... uhhmm.." One of his men whispered to him, and he grinned at everyone to make up for his transgression. "Holodum." Most of the women swooned at the sight of him, and he winked at a few. He went more to attention when he spotted Ader, as if trying to look more mature. He cleared his throat, and in a deeper voice, he explained himself, "I, Prince Dioclese have been sent here by my father to protect the people. All people. We're all in danger of a threat to the west." He left it unnamed for a reason.

"Aderith? Wait!" He shouted as she ran off, he quickly gave chase after her, but she was already within the crowd by the time he got there, he could hear outside the crowd just fine, but he pushed his way through anyway. The crowd ignored him when he got up front and just continued to pay attention to the prince, he also began to pay attention to him as well. "Those dead men came from the west as well... its all starting to make sense now" he wanted to mention the men to the prince, but he waited until he was done talking before he would.

"Now," continued the prince. "I as well as my men have been alerted of the men who had come into your village heavily injured. I understand how upset you all are, but trust me, we are here to protect you." He really did know how to uphold attention.
With his glamorous smile, he nodded to the cheering people, eyes falling back to Ader where he threw a special, softer smile. She of course blushed again, but smiled back believe it or not, eyes falling to the ground.

"Hmm... so he already knew" Link thought to himself, still looking at the prince suspiciously, but, he claims that he wants to help Holodum, so he just looked at him normally. He didn't like him flirting with the women around in the crowd, especially Ader, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it and just ignored it, he was messing with them anyway. "I wonder who the enemy really is..." He thought to himself.

Aderith nervously bit her lips, looking back to the prince who was talking to one of his men. It was time for them to set up camp; something that would be absolutely necessary before the rest of the troops could make it into the village. At the moment, Dioclese had about thirty men for him; nothing that could stand up to an army.

People began clearing out of the are, Ader following them, not paying attention to the royal set of eyes watching her leave. She didn't see Link, and assumed that he was moping in the house or something. With a sigh, she returned home, finding it empty, glancing back to the hill that the prince was setting up on.. the hill facing the field to the west.

He watched the prince and his small army set up camp, he would've said something and joined them, but he would do it later when they were done with their camp sites, he headed back to Aderith's home. "Boy... I'm glad I didn't leave now, or else I would've missed all of this" he said as he walked back and into Ader's home, he sat down at the table once again. He then started to think about the dead men who came from the west and what that one man said, "hey Aderith..." he started to say, "do you know who lives to the west of here?" His curiosity knew no bounds, but, he wasn't expecting an answer, so he didn't get his hopes up. He'd probably find out the enemy when he joined the prince's army, but he wanted to know now.

Ader shook her head after a moment or so of thinking. "As a matter of fact I don't," she said simply. "Never hear much about the west.. It's a wonder that anything is even out there." She froze in her place for a moment, suddenly remembering that there was in fact something out there... Link would figure things out on his own, however.. "Nope, I wouldn't know.."

"Hmm... thanks for your help though, I'll probably get an answer when I join the prince's army later today" he replied to her, "he may not want me... but I'm not about to sit back and not join the fight when I traveled hundreds of miles to get here to do such a thing." He folded his arms and sat back in his chair as he waited for Ader to finish her breakfast, when she was done, he stood up and stretched his arms once more. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to take a bath, I need one, I can just feel it..." he waved good-bye for now and left her home.

He then started to head down to the lake with a towel he got from his item bag, holding it over his right shoulder, he had his left hand in his pocket. When he reached the lake, he took a moment to admire the sparkling and clean beauty of it, but, then he stripped down and placed his clothes off to the side. He jumped in and swam back to his item bag, he reached in and grabbed a bar of soap from it, made from special herbs found only in Faron Woods back in Hyrule. He then started to scrub himself down with it, humming a little tune quietly to himself.

Watching Link leave in silence, Aderith sighed. However, being as curious as a village girl could be, she made a choice. She began to cook tons of food; eggs, bacon, everything she could possibly find within her kitchen. She gathered every sort of basket that she could find in her home and loaded them down with food. After dressing into something more presentable, Ader went and gathered the prayer group, giving them all baskets and heading toward the camp.

Dioclese was working on his own tent, which of course was much larger than the others when he spotted Ader. He wiped a bit of sweat from his brow from the back of his tanned hand. With his skin it was no wonder that the women went wild. All of the women Ader was with began to giggle and smile as the men flocked around them and their food, the baskets emptying crazily. Over walks Dioclese, the biggest smirk on his face as he took a bit of bread from Ader. "Why thank you," he said, smiling down on her softly.

After Link washed off all of the soap, he felt so clean and fresh again, he climbed out ad dried himself off with his towel, he then dried off the bar of soap and put it back into his item bag. He then began to get dressed, when he was fully clothed he dried down his hair more throughly and shook his head, turning his hair back to its original style. He draped the towel over his shoulders and started to head back to Aderith's house, he did feel bad leaving her alone, he assumed she'd be angry at him. But, when he reached her door, he knew that she wasn't home, so he looked all around him and noticed the campsite, he started to run toward it, he had a feeling she was there.

Once he was close enough, he noticed the crowd of women around the prince's tent and caught sight of Aderith's hair. He decided to wait, impatiently, until the women left before he'd talk to the prince about joining his army.

But the ladies weren't leaving.. They were too busy flirting and smiling, acting cute and providing food for the soldiers. Aderith was quite enjoying the handsome man before her, though his arrogance shown through. "You're very welcome," Ader told him. He took a bite of the bread, chewed and then thought on what exactly he could say to her now. "I guess what they say is true.." He said, fingering the piece of bread and looking to Ader with all seriousness. "What's that?" She asked. He laughed just a little. "That all good food must be cooked by a beautiful woman." He could only hope that she had actually had cooked the food. By the way she was blushing and laughing, he figured that his assumption was correct, "Thank you," she said.

Link sighed frustratingly and grew tired of waiting, "excuse me, ladies" he said politely, able to finally get past them and stand near Aderith, "prince Dioclese, I wish to join your army and help you and your men fight the upcoming enemy." Even if they didn't accept him, he'd still stay and fight anyway, he waited for a response from the arrogant prince, arms folded and tapping his fingers against his arm.

Even though she was obviously flirting with Dioclese, Ader found herself in the presence of Link and sighed with exasperation. "Lovely.." She muttered under her breath, eyes falling to the ground as she began to move away from the two. She practically elbowed Link in the chest quite harshly, an angry glare moving toward him. The prince looked from the two before laughing nervously and glancing after Ader. "The army is not looking for any new members," he told him simply, eyes moving back to the woman who'd left. "Excuse me," he said simply, bowing and then running after Ader. "Miss," he said simply. Ader turned around a smiled sweetly, engaging in more conversation with him.

Link didn't notice the fact she elbowed him until after the prince basically said no and left, the women had left after the prince did, leaving him alone by the giant tent. He sighed as Aderith started to talk to the prince, "I really hope she won't make a stupid mistake and fall in love with that stuck up jerk." He folded his arms, Midna had soon appeared behind him and stuck her head over his shoulder, "come on Link, you should know by now that Aderith wouldn't do such a thing, she knows how the prince is... I hope." She too seemed a bit concerned for Ader, even though Ader hated her, they both sighed, but Link grew a little angry.

He scoffed, "I don't need the army, I fight better just alongside you anyway, lets get out of here before I puke" he walked away with Midna following him, right past Aderith. He started to head back to the tree upon the hill, he didn't really want to talk to Ader right now, when he reached the thickest branch, he rested his head on his knees and sighed again. He had a look on his face of both disgust and boredom, he could just be jealous for all he really knows, Midna sat on the branch with him, the same look on her face and similar posture.

Aderith watched Link leaving from the corner of her eyes and she couldn't help but to feel a bit bad. She seemed more absent now, and Dioclese noticed. He himself found her boring now.. and it really was hard to get a woman to bore him. "I'm sorry," Ader said suddenly. "I have to go." Dioclese smiled his sly smile designed for women and nodded. "It is fine," he replied, taking her hand, his smirking lips kissing it.

It had been an hour since she'd left Dioclese, and that ever growing guilt and sadness was beginning to overwhelm her. She frowned now on her bed, arms crossed under her as she stared at the sun that began to escape the sky.

He sat there for a little while longer before he growled shortly and stopped slouching, "damn it! What am I getting so worked up about?" Midna smiled and looked at him, "face it Link, you're jealous of Mr. Player down there" she said, pointing down at the prince's tent. Link blushed a little bit and folded his arms, growling quietly, "I am not, whats there to be jealous of from that asshole?" Midna looked down at the camp, "well... for one, hes alive" Link's face turned from anger to sadness. He looked at the back of his left hand, "I don't understand it Midna... if the gods who made the Triforce can keep me alive with it... why can't they revive my body?"

Midna flew up and put her hand on his shoulder, "I have a feeling you'll be alive one day, I can promise you that." She smiled, Link returned it with his own, weak smile, but it went back to a hopeless frown. She sighed, "well, while you're still alive, you should try to go talk to Aderith now, shes probably feeling just as bad as you right this moment." She gave him a hug and then disappeared, returning his shadow, he sat there for a second, then jumped from the tree and started to head back to Aderith's house with his hands in his pockets.

He gently knocked on her door, "Aderith, you home? Its me, Link" he waited for an answer, sulking a little bit.

Looking up to the door, Aderith blinked, pouted and then got to her feet to open the door. "Oh, it's you.." She said simply, a small smile beginning to tug at her lips. She poked her head out of the door, glanced around and then pulled him in swiftly. She quickly locked her door, then threw her arms around him. "I'm sorry," she said softly, obviously remorseful for what she'd done.

"Yeah, its me... I just wanted to sa-whoa!" He shouted as Aderith pulled him inside, when her arms were around him, he did the same for her, hugging her gently, "its alright Aderith" he said, finally able to smile. He kissed her once more, hugging her a bit tighter.

Ader smiled softly, eyes closing as she felt her lips on his. She didn't know what it was. Whether she found herself attracted to him or not she was unsure, but there was something that made her want to be with him more since the moment they first kissed.. if that was what you could even call it. As the two parted slightly, she smiled at him, her arms slipping around his neck sweetly. "I-- I'm sorry.."