Hey everyone! Haven't been around in a while... but I am doing edits on this story! The plot will stay fairly the same, just with some tweaking here and there for better flow and also to update the exceptional writing styles of my 15 year old self *cough* a superfluous use of commas, terrible spelling, realistic scenarios, more extraneous commas *cough*. I am also working on a companion story to this that is primarily Link's view which I am pretty stoked about! So join with me again, comment your thoughts, or just you do you because that's okay too.

There were several memories that I truly cherished from my childhood. I could remember walking hand in hand with my Mom in the East side of Castle Town, near the park we would occasionally play in. Sitting under the trees on benches or blankets, we would talk over a simple picnic. She would tell me stories of how she and my father had met. Of how they fell in love at first sight, the happiness they experienced together and how blessed they were to have me as a daughter. She would tell me some of the crazy stories they lived together, or why it was never good to grab a cuccoo by its feet. But most often, she would tell me the potential I had to grow up and become a great queen.

"Zelda," she would say, "ruling is not measured by the piece of metal on your head, no matter its shine. It is measured by how well you as queen are able to relate to your people, the differences you can make to them. You are forever an example to your subjects and must always be a beacon of light when they are in need. You are what they look to for guidance. Never forget that."

My mother had always been an individual who not only everyone loved but also who seemed to have a proverb for every situation. "Patience is a virtue," for when I got frustrated with my studies, or "A chain is as strong as its weakest link," to remind me to not beat my father too bad when playing our board games. She would say each line with virtue and a smile on her face that I used to adore. Whether it was at the park, getting ice cream downtown, the town library-she would always be giving me wisdom even if I never asked for it. She encouraged a love of reading and learning, and by 10 I had read many of the classic novels and practically any other book I could get my hand on.

Besides being my personal role model, my mother and father were the perfect example of relations. One of my favorite past times was to watch them interact with one another. Of how at meal times, Dad would pull out Mom's chair for her like a gentleman, or how he valued her opinion over his educated royal advisers any day. Being Queen and King of all of Hyrule, they had more difficult problems and situations that came their way, yet they never failed to show how much they needed each other just as much as they needed their own independence. They had a special bond of love and friendship that I cherished watching when I was younger so much that I vowed at the age of six that when I was old enough to be married, I would find someone who would complete me just as much. And I knew that was possible-after all it would be my mother the Queen who would pick my husband from a list of princes and other men of high stature in society. I knew that any guy found would be perfect, because my mother had more wisdom than anyone and would be able to choose my perfect match. Fate, however, had extremely different plans.

When I was eight, tragedy struck. In an unknown illness, my mom got devastatingly sick in which no amount of treatment helped. My father tried everything he could to aid, but no such cure existed. It was that year that my mom passed away and life took away my best friend.

My father took the loss harshly, becoming reclusive and unable to look at me. As a child, I was never able to understand why until it was pointed out to me of my striking resemblance to my late mother. In a way, it was almost as if I lost both parents that year and even now it was hard to be close to my father after the distance he put between us.

I continued the next few years trying to keep going despite the less than ideal situation I was in. I excelled in my studies with private tutors and took an interest in the music lessons I was allowed to have, such as harp and piano, but I mainly took an interest in singing. English and literature were my favorite subjects while science was…not so much. Many of the servants became my only source of friendship and companionship, along with the few that had children my age. I got along with the other kids decently… but not very many of them liked me enough to be very 'bosom' friends or anything. After all, I was the snobby and reclusive spoiled Princess and was a natural target for teasing and mocking.

So I learned to be independent, to shut myself off from the world. To not rely on anyone and to be able to be comfortable by myself. Sure it got lonely after a while, but it was better than dealing with obnoxious children so that's what I did. I just spent more time outside reading, or at the planetarium charting the stars and wondering what it would be like to just leave into space and see them.

It was around this time that my Father decided I needed to be with people my own age by option of boarding school. It was of course Hyrule's most prestigious academy complete with luxury dorms, extensive library (the big emphasis of his sales pitch), stables, and a school planetarium. Personally, I felt that my father really just didn't want to have me around anymore, but I supposed that was the bitterness of him not caring about my life for those few years. Not having really any friends, it wasn't a parting goodbye to leave the castle and that part of my life to start a new one at school.

My Father's only conditions were that I would be enrolled in the school, but no one would know that I was the princess of the entire kingdom, including the rest of the student body. Luckily by the time I was about to go into school it had been years since the public had seen me in magazines or the local newspaper. My name was changed from Zelda Nohansen to Zelda Harkinian, a simple girl from South Castle Town, or the poor part of the city. The headmistress, Miss Impa, was obviously given full knowledge about everything with a promise that the "royal secret" would be kept with utmost confidentiality. And so it happened that one day I was taken to the school, dropped off with a few personal things, and at the age of 11 I became fully independent once again only going back home every summer.

Here I was now, 5 years later. Through the years I had eventually gotten a little out of my comfort zone and made a couple acquaintances at the school, though actual friends I considered close to me were few. My identity as a monarch had always remained hidden, and I would continue to do everything I could to could to keep it that way. I was in my last year at school and after this year my whole secret, the same secret I had tried so hard to stay hidden these last years, would finally be revealed. I would come out into the public again, and soon have a husband and fulfill my duties as the once and future queen. Even though I wouldn't get the romantic story I necessarily wanted, a duty was duty and I had to accept what was best for my people. This was, after all, my crazy life as the hidden Princess of Hyrule and nothing this year could change that.