Disclaimer: I own none of the Nintendo characters in this story. Anything original is mine.
This is just a teaser chapter, read and review if you want more.
"You . . . you shouldn't do that, your majesty. It's not a pretty sight. If you lift that sheet . . . you'll see something you won't forget, ever. It's all you'll remember about him, how he looks now. You won't be able to think back and see him as he was this morning, so handsome, so brave . . . the heroic last prince of Hyrule. Please . . . don't lift that sheet." But she did. She grabbed a corner and ripped the sheet off the stretcher. The old soldier certainly had not lied. Beneath that sheet was a thing that now chiseled into her memory. Years later she would wake up in a cold sweat as the thing once again drifted through her dreams, floating in a river of blood. The thing which had once been the body of her son. Not that she would have known. If her son hadn't been missing from the battle worn company that passed through the gates, and if every man in the company hadn't been cloaked in sorrow thicker than their dented armor, if the highest ranking survivor hadn't told her what lay beneath the blood-soaked sheet . . .
He'd been handsome that morning. Stern icy eyes looking straight ahead, sunlight glinting off golden hair and silver armor, blood red cape billowing softly as he led Hyrule's finest to their deaths. He looked every inch the hero. But now his armor was rent into a fascinating and terrifying shape, his hair was stained red. The cape was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the eyes. But the worse thing was that this mass of armor, flesh, sweat, and blood was quivering, breathing ever so slightly. The queen looked down at her son with dry, blood-shot eyes. Then she did what everyone knew must be done. She approached the commanding officer and drew his sword. Returning to her son she raised the weapon high above her the dying prince. For a moment the weapon shone with an inner light. A bright flash blinded everyone in the hall as the blade plunged down towards the boy's heart. When they regained their vision the courtiers and soldiers saw the queen weeping over a scorch mark. The blade lay on the floor. An old woman walked over to the queen and whispered to her.
"You did what you had to. He would not have lived much longer." The woman had been the queen's nanny when she was a girl. Now she was again, comforting and teaching as she hadn't had to do in thirty years. "Zelda, I can not let you grieve. You've lost a son, but if you mourn him you will lose a nation. Come, we must make a plan." The queen stepped back and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
"This is Hyrule's darkest hour." Zelda addressed the hall. "The enemy is close, and our last hope has failed. Soldiers, we have no more generals. We have fewer officers now then we had generals when the enemy first came to our borders. I must meet with those officers we have left to discuss a plan of action. In an hour . . . All officers must meet in the Council Chamber in an hour . . . Except those guarding the walls . . ." Her voice started to fade. Her nanny gave her a ruby-eyed glare. "Soldiers, dismissed!" The queen shouted. There was a silence. When it became obvious she would say no more soldiers and courtiers began to drift away in groups, allowing the queen to be alone with her nanny and her grief.
"You are distressed," said the old nanny. "You should not let your subjects see you like this; it will fill them with fear."
"You're right, Impa. But what can I do?" The queen stood for a moment, silent. Looking into the old woman's face she heaved a sigh piteous and defeated, the sigh of a proud person who has no more pride. Turning to Impa she whispered, "Soldiers won't win this war. Summon the sages."