Because I am a Princess
I wrote this because there aren't enough Spirit Track fics out there. One of the good things about that game was how the princess wasn't as useless as usual. She was actually help! This was inspired by 'The Soldier Princess' by IFiWEREaROBOT. It's a really good fic, but so short! Anyway, this is still my story, so enjoy it. I'm also planning to write more chapters of this, including Zelda as a Phantom and Zelda when Malladus takes over her body.
I don't own The Legend of Zelda, savvy? On with the story!
Since I am The Princess, I'm divine and remote
And you are too puny to be worthy of note,
So, please do stop saying you think it's unfair,
It upsets me, you know, and I mostly don't care.
Oh, God made me special, and made you all poor.
He mustn't be questioned, you deserve it, I'm sure.
I am the Divine One, so what can I say?
Y'all should feel honoured to bow and obey!
Sometimes the truth can hit you so fast and hard that you have no choice but to let it bullet through your head and into your consciousness, settling down like a cancer. A disease without cure. Looking back you should've seen it coming, but you did nothing about it. You let it tear you apart. You tell yourself you had no choice.
This was one of those times.
Awakening to find yourself dead is the shock of a lifetime, or maybe the afterlife. It didn't really matter anymore. But to find your only hope lying in the calloused palms of a train engineer was possibly too much to handle.
Zelda was a princess, so it was a given that she was spoiled. My dress is dirty. Don't clean it! Make her a brand new one! This food is too hot. Don't leave it to cool! Make her the meal again, and quickly, before she dies of starvation!
Life was full of petty worries for Zelda. She had people to worry about the big things for her, so she fretted over smaller things. Manageable things. Things that wouldn't curse her with crow's feet in the years to come. While Chancellor Cole practically ran New Hyrule for her, she stood as tall as her childish body would allow her, which wasn't very tall at all.
That was another thing. She needed a growing potion, and fast.
Life had never been any different from that ever since she could remember. She was sure she could remember faintly the feel of an emery board scraping against her fingers when she was a baby. She had a nurse back then, nameless in her entirety, yet another mothball in the cupboard of life. She couldn't remember her mother.
Then she was old enough to walk, which also meant old enough to throw tantrums. Her toys weren't made to fit her exact size – a bit under average due to her strict diet – so she wouldn't play with any of her toys until they were all taken away and replaced with toys that were better, and by better, she meant exactly the same. Looking back, she hoped the toys she carelessly discarded were given to the needy, though she doubted that very much.
And then she became ten, and Chancellor Cole showed up. She hated him at first. How dare he steal her spotlight?! She would pout and whine, even at that age, demanding that she got her way and he was kicked out of the kingdom and forced to live on cucco seed.
Only this time, they wouldn't relent.
Zelda was still too young to rule over her own playground, yet alone a whole kingdom, they said. Cole would run the country until she was old and wise enough to rule herself, they said. Who were they? Probably the whole continent and their mothers, she figured.
And never once was she permitted to leave the castle. She might have had everything her heart desired within the stone walls, but having all that was like having nothing at all when she looked out the window and saw the Spirit Tracks sloping on for mile, carving up the land and dividing it, yet bringing it all together at the same time.
She had only seen trains. Princesses had their own private carriages, a technology that only her and Chancellor Cole had access to. It ran off its own engine, and wasn't bound to the tracks like the trains were. It was called an 'automobile'. Zelda called it 'boring'. And of course, trains were deemed too smelly and common to be within whiffing distance of the castle.
So when the new engineer arrived, she fumed.
He was her age, which struck a chord deep within her that she didn't know could chime like that. He was a commoner, with messy blond hair and blue eyes, and a slightly mismatched-looking suit. She was a princess, with perfectly coiffed locks and robes made of the finest silk imported from lands she'd never heard of.
But she was jealous.
He might have been the lowest of the low, but she envied him. She hated him, because he had what she didn't, and princesses always got whatever they wanted. And she wanted that train of his so she could run off and find a new castle with new servants that would let her have whatever she wanted, instead of what Chancellor Cole thought she wanted.
So, after reluctantly granting the boy – demon, should she say – his engineer qualification, she slipped him a note in with his certificate, and waited for the boy to come find her. There was no way that he wouldn't come – she was a princess! Who would pass up the chance to have a personal conference with the remote and beautiful princess Zelda? Not the boys who had already tried to win her hand, and not this little ragamuffin with her train. Well, it should be hers.
Waiting for the boy – Link she thought he was called – she took up the Spirit Flute which her great-whatever-grandmother Tetra had left in her possession and played. She always did whenever she was anxious. Something about its mellow tones calmed her nerves, and she'd need to be calm if she was going to make it past the door.
Link arrived, insisting he hadn't been seen. That was good. She was sure the kingdom would love the news that princess Zelda invited a boy into her throne room! She placed the Spirit Flute back on its pedestal (protected by a state-of-the-art security system, of course) and told the boy some nonsense about the Spirit Tracks disappearing.
It was true that they were vanishing all over the country, but there was talk. Talk about the fact that some bandits might be pulling them up and selling the metal for big wonga. She knew that somebody might have the arrogance to steal from something that kept the economy and indeed the whole kingdom up and running, but it wasn't likely.
She figured, as the princess, it was her duty to check it out. Even more so considering Chancellor Cole, in all his stuck-up priggishness, wasn't doing anything about it. It was her time to shine, and just try and stop her!
So together they snuck out of the castle and through the gardens, the blond boy distracting the guards while she hefted up the hem of her dress and snuck by. She was getting all dirty and she felt like she was sneaking around like a rat, but she supposed that if it got her to the train, then she would have to bear it.
Alfonso, the chief engineer after leaving the castle guard, was standing waiting for Link to appear, jumping in disbelief at the sight of the princess waltzing around with his protégé. Zelda simply batted her eyes at him and he agreed to help. He said he wanted to protect her, and it was just as well. Link looked like a clown in those clothes.
They boarded the train and were scot free!
Or so they thought.
For her first time on a train, it was a bit... shaky. The kid obviously didn't have as much experience as Alfonso, who should definitely have been driving if he didn't have to stare out the windows every three seconds looking for danger. She joined him several times; watching the country go by. It was much nicer down in the fields than stuck up in the highest room of the tallest tower during peak times.
She had only gotten a fairly short distance from town when the train suddenly started swerving violently. She clenched the seats with all her might, trying not to fall over, but to no avail. Both her and Alfonso ended up lying on their sides, plastered to the window, which was now facing the grass. She was going to demote that kid back down to poop scooper for that!
Pulling herself to her feet she tore out of the cabin to see that the tracks had disappeared. OK, so maybe it wasn't Link's fault. She could forgive and forget. After all, she was using his train. Speaking of which, he was sprawled out on the ground, his eyes rolling about dizzily. She suspected brain damage and a broken nose. Poor kid would never play the nose flute again.
She could've stared at the ground where the tracks used to be forever, but Alfonso had to ruin it by noting that the Tower of Spirits was in a state of flux. Ominous black clouds had gathered around the pinnacle, swirling around like murky water in a sinkhole. To her horror, the tower was ripped apart by unseen forces, malevolent as that octopus thing that was rumoured to terrorise the Great Sea.
Now they were gonna need a builder as well as a track maker.
It was unbelievable no one in the town had seen this! Where was the cavalry to evacuate the locals? And why hadn't anyone realised Zelda was gone and come to save her before she was kidnapped like every single other princess who loses her way?!
The black clouds that engulfed the sky spiralled down to the ground to reveal a phantom train, glowing with eerie black light, its horn screeching like a banshee. It dove down, barely missing the locks of Zelda's head. It felt like her brains were being sucked out while it was above her. It was no ordinary train, that's for sure.
Then Chancellor Cole appeared. She was hoping for a brave and gallant rescue, but he only revealed himself to be an evil demonic being in charge of everything that had gone wrong. Typical. Alfonso stepped in front of her to protect her, just like her promised he would. That is, until Cole's fiendish helper swatted him about like a fly. Followed by Link, who ended up unconscious a few feet away.
She was defenceless.
So when Cole attacked her with a ball of dark energy, she couldn't protect herself. She succumbed to the darkness and fell hard into the void. It was like sinking through water, the tendrils washing over her skin without sticking. She was impervious, and she could've floated there forever.
But what about Link and Alfonso? Never mind them, what about herself?! What happened? She kicked her arms and legs trying to fight against the current, but it didn't yield. She felt a tear leak from her eye as she was dragged further down. She was supposed to go on an adventure. Discover a new world. This wasn't what she had in mind.
But a princess never cries. A princess is always strong for her people.
She refused to give up like a wimp!
And with that she was free.
Not as free as she expected to be. She was lighter, like a passing gust of wind, and her voice was as soft. Her hands were see-through, and a bird flew straight through her. She figured she was dead, which made her want to sit down and start crying all over again, but she promised! She promised she wouldn't cry, so she wouldn't.
She just needed help.
After flying around trying to get help from the guards, only for them to see through her and her words to pass straight through them without leaving an imprint, she was ready to give up.
Until Link arrived again. He could see her. How on Earth did a little nobody like him manage that? She would've expected a shaman or a sage or something like that to perceive her deceased form, but this guy? Was she stuck with him again?!
Or Lord, she thought. Please let this all be worth it.
