Chapter 1
"What in the…" Zelda exclaimed looking out of the window to see a person hanging on the sill.
"Zelda, please here me out, if you would just listen to me!"
"You have thirty seconds, and believe me I'm being generous in the time slot department." She said as he clamored into the room.
"Zelda, why won't you marry me, I have so much! I have money, and fame, and I'm incredibly good looking, if I may say so myself."
"You are crazy! I won't marry you because I don't love you, I don't care if you're wealthy, and famous, or even how you look! That's not what I'm looking for in a man. What matters is the inside, besides, you don't think I have enough fame and fortune on my own!"
"Well… wouldn't you like to have more?"
"Ugh, my lord, George, you are hopeless, besides, your thirty seconds are long gone."
"But…"
"Out!" Zelda said before pointing out the door, indicating for him to leave, "Now" she added her voice threateningly low. George slowly dragged himself out the door like a chastised child, muttering to himself on the way.
He stopped just as he reached the shingles of the door, and said "This doesn't mean I've quit, far from it, I will devote myself only to you."
"To my money you mean, OUT!" At this George winced and fled.
"Aye, aye, aye!" Zelda sighed once she was alone, "If only those arrogant, conceited, self-absorbed suitors would just leave me be! They already have more money than they can handle, why do they need me for my money? I'll never understand them." Zelda walked out the door into the hallway; she quickly descended the long spiral stairs. "You know I wouldn't mind if my father had locked me in a tower with no doors or windows, away from all suitors…" she mumbled, referring to the frequently told fairy tale of Repunzil. "Speaking of father… I'll just stick my head in to see if he's is ok…." Zelda loved her father with all her heart, but it pained her to visit him sometimes she even dreaded it… "Oh, there's his room." She stated, almost passing it. She heisted, and then slowly opened the door. "Father…" her voice cracked and failed.
"Rosie, is that you?"
"No, dad… It's me, Zelda, Rosie's… mom…moms… gone."
"Gone…where is she, when is she coming back?"
"She's not coming back dad…" tears sprang from Zelda eyes.
"Of course she's coming back, why wouldn't she?" Zelda couldn't answer, all she could do was sit there and shake her head. "If she's not coming back, then I'll just have to go and get her."
"No! NO, please no! Stay here stay here with me, I want you, I need you, oh dad please don't leave don't go where mom is, don't die…" Her dad's eyes just became dazed and had a faraway look; Zelda knew he had forgotten all about her, he probably didn't even remember she was alive yet. He was in his fantasy world, where he and her late mother were still young and happy. Zelda stroke her fathers white hair, his pale, almost white, face was droopy, and splotched, looking very much older than he actually was. She sighed and wiped her face with her skirts. As she walked out she took one last look at her father in his bed, he was going insane, and soon, very soon, she knew, he would join her mother, and Zelda would be left alone, she knew she had to get a husband, for herself and her father.
When her father was still mostly sane, before her mother had died, he had told her, " Zelda your so lovely, I just want to see you settled down before I am wasted away to dust and blown across the wind."
"O dad, you and I both know that you are still fairly young and you are not going anywhere anytime soon, so stop exaggerating" that was less than a year ago, how little she seemed to know back then.
