Summary: Set seven years after Ocarina of Time in the child timeline. A jealous general, a rival country, and a romance fighting to even exist at all. Zelink. Ignores the events of Majoras Mask. Summary sucks, I know.
Okay, so this is my first fic, so please be gentle! This is set after Link gets sent back in time in Ocarina of Time and ignored MM. Please try not to flame if I have any of the little details wrong, but let me know so I can change them. I apologize for any mistakes, there shouldn't be any, but who knows?
Disclaimer, I do not own The Legend of Zelda, if I did Link and Zelda would have gotten together at the end of every game, I would also have a bunch of money. All original characters, countries, and events are mine, but if you actually like them you can PM me if you want to use them
Enjoy!
Lightning illuminated Zelda's posh bedchamber. She huddled under her duvets and coverlets as she waited. Zelda's mother taught her at a young age that after you see lightning during a thunderstorm, you should start counting until you hear the thunder. If you are able to count higher each time, the storm is moving away from where you are, and if the number decreases, well, you better be ready for an onslaught.
Zelda hates thunderstorms, and she always has. The walls of her room are half glass windows, and the way they rattle and vibrate during storms never helped. Although frightened, Zelda could not help but let out a small giggle. A seventeen years old women, a princess, cowering from a storm? But everyone, even princesses of Hyrule are allowed to be afraid of something, right?
She would feel a lot better if she wasn't alone, and she knows exactly who she would want to be with tonight.
Link and Zelda grew up together, well technically. He, after all, was the Hero of Time. After Zelda sent him back seven years, the first thing that he did was come to the castle looking for her. Somehow Zelda had convinced her father to let him stay in the castle, even though to the King and everyone else, he was a complete stranger. Not that anything that the King said would have kept them apart. They are bound by something way stronger than mere friendship. The forces of the Triforce held strong between the two through time and space. Zelda still held wisdom, and Link courage.
Power lay hidden and forbidden deep within the Evil Realm, with the evil man who took it. It is ready to be claimed in a later generation. This time by someone worthy of the name.
Zelda never quite understood why Link stay with her in the palace all these years, not that she wasn't grateful that he remained here with her, but she kind of thought that he would want to spend his lost years with his friends in the Kokiri Forest or travelling the lands, not shut up with her and the court in the castle. But he never seemed unhappy with his life, at least not towards Zelda. Link occupied most of his time in the palace training grounds with the army since he was about twelve and was aloud in. All of that training paid off, it also helped that he was naturally skilled with a blade.
By the age of seventeen he was the youngest man ever to not only be knighted, but the be named a Colonel of the Hylian Army. If the rumors around court were true, Link was soon to be named the General, the highest ranking point in the government of Hyrule besides the King himself.
General was defiantly a title he deserved, obviously he was not able to go around flaunting the fact that he was the Hero of Time, because no one in this world exactly knew who that was, or what that title entailed. But he made a name for himself in this reality. He's known as quite the hero from the wars he has fought in since the time that he was fifteen and allowed to be in the army as a foot solider. Now, fifteen does seem young for a solider, for the most part the age restriction was sixteen, but if the boy is able to pass a series of rigorous tests, he would be admitted as a solider of the lowest rank. Of course Link passed them all with flying colors. None of the wars that Hyrule has fought in the past two years could really be considered wars under the shadow of the Imprisoning wars with Ganondorf. They were more small skirmishes with the neighboring countries of Alicard, Sabenen, and Hisimum, all of which Hyrule now has peaceful relation, Alicard was a bit on edge, but things were stable, and Link was a hero none the less.
Another boom of thunder shook Zelda out of her train of thoughts. She counted to twenty this time, which was two seconds less than it was the last time, Damn it. Zelda had to fight with everything she had not to run out her door, down the stairs, and across the castle to the East Wing, where the military stayed. The regular soldiers on the bottom floors in large barracks, and the officers in their own chambers. As you climb the stairs, you climb the ranks. Link was one floor below General Rasche. But Zelda had to restrain herself.
It wasn't like that between Link and her. They were just friends, best friends actually, which was something that none of the courtiers seemed to believe. Oh, how they loved to talk. Not one day could go by without someone, Lord, Lady or even maid, making some comment about the princess and the young Colonel. Zelda always denied the fact that there was anything going on between the two, because there really wasn't. That only made them more persistent about it. The truth is, Zelda and Link were just friends, and that is all they will ever be.
It's not the fact that she didn't want to. Along with the reality that Link was technically just a commoner and Zelda a princess, who was not allowed to officially court anyone but nobles, Link did not return her affections.
He would kiss her hand and loop his arm around her elbow on occasion, and every time Zelda's heart would soar, but she knew that it was all just a formality, a ceremony of sorts. When they were children they would embrace and he would casually sling his arm over her shoulders. She would in turn kiss him on the cheek often and snuggle into that perfect little crook in his shoulder. On a daily basis they could be seen walking around the palace gardens hand in hand. But when he was named Colonel last year, that all changed.
When they would be around each other after that, it was all "m'ladies" and "your highnesses" on his part. Link would barely make eye contact while talking, let alone touch her. Every so often he would break out of his shell, and they would talk all night, about anything and everything. Then in the morning, it would all go back to the façade. This kind of behavior practically killed Zelda every time she had to endure it. She longed for it to be back to the way it was, but that will never happen, those people that they once were did not exist anymore.
Link was a strong and valiant warrior now. He no longer had messy hair and a lumpy and crinkled tunic. Link was poised always looking smooth and collected. Hair greased down, and forest green tunic and hat ironed and vibrant. His brown boots no longer were creased and covered in dirt, they were clean and shined. To Zelda it was as if he was a completely different person on the outside, and in some ways she believe that he had changed on the inside as well. His boyish charms grew into dashing good looks. You could see his rippling muscles through his undershirts, and his perfectly sculpted and tan face could entice almost any young women in all of Hyrule and beyond.
But, Zelda was guilty of change as well. In the past years she had exchanged her thin sun dresses, bare feet, and wavy hair freely flowing down her back for elegant gowns with sweetheart necklines. Her feet were now donned with high heels that pinched her toes and were embedded with jewels, and her hair was always twisted into some new design by her hair dresser each morning.
Zelda was truly beautiful in every way possible. She was ghostly pale, the effects of being confined to the castle almost her entire life, but her pigmentation was perfect for her. She has dark blonde hair, that when worn freely cascaded down her entire back and curled at the ends. Zelda's green eyes were always full of life and her smile could instantly brighten up any room. Although she was only seventeen, her father has already been sent dozens of letters and requests from princes and nobles all over the world for her hand in marriage when she comes of age next year. Honestly, Zelda has never looked at one of the requests twice, she always tells her father that she is simply uninterested. She would never tell him the truth, it would only add fire to the rumor mill.
She finally got down to only eight seconds between lightning and the thunder, and she was officially to scared to sleep or stay in her room for the rest of the night. Zelda slipped out of her cover and wrapped her fluffy robe, that was stuffed with Cucco feathers to keep her warm in the Hylian winter. It was only November and the castle hallways were freezing, as they all lacked fire places. She padded out of her room and down the stairwell to the main part of the castle, but the East Wing was not her destination. She received many an odd look and question from the night guards about her whereabouts, but Zelda assured that she was only going to library, as she could not sleep.
But, the library was not her destination. On nights like these Zelda always retreated to the Grand Hall, which was completely empty, no guards patrolled here at night. Her foot steps caused echoes through the vast corridor as she walked across the marbles floors to the center of the room, her candle lighting her way. As she reached the center design, she plopped down on the lower left hand golden triangle of the Triforce, the emblem representing the Triforce of Wisdom.
The main reason that she choose this room was that there was absolutely no windows on the walls. Zelda could only faintly hear the storm thundering outside. Finally, a wave of exhaustion hit her and she yawned and slowly laid down on her side. As she slowly slipped into unconsciousness she smiled.
Zelda defiantly did not choose this room because all soldiers had to pass through this hall on their way to the training grounds every morning. She also didn't pick it because a certain solider was always up an hour before anyone else to do extra training, and he would be the one to find her and wake her up.
No, that's not why she was there at all.
Thanks for reading! I know that the first chapter was slow and barely got into the story, but I promise that it will soon be fraught with adventure and romance this was more of a general background. Expect updates!
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