Before there was twilight, before there was war, before there was a green-clad hero and a mystic mirror that shattered hopes and dreams, there was a princess.
Zelda was born in the dead of winter during a snow storm. The doctor couldn't arrive in time, and six nurses had to aid the mother in childbirth.
She grew quickly, able to walk before she was even a year old. Zelda was a prime athlete. Guards taught her archery and fencing, and she had mastered both within the first ten years of her life. Nobody knew what to do with her. She was so extraordinary for a princess that she gave everyone a run for their money.
Princess Zelda was the first and only child of the King and Queen of Hyrule. Her parents did nothing to stop her from her strange behavior. At the age of eight, she cut her hair short like a boy's. She was the perfect tomboy—she dressed like a boy and acted like a boy, and there was even an incident once in which she successfully fooled an entire dinner party into believing she was the prince of Hyrule, and that there was no princess.
Servants to the royal family got a real kick out of the young princess, never growing bored in her presence. She knew a dozen different passageways out of the castle, and used them frequently. Guards lost sleep in the endless hassle to keep her indoors.
She couldn't sing, she couldn't dance, she couldn't sew—there were times when the King and Queen considered bringing in one of Zelda's more proper cousins to take her place.
But they never did, because they knew that Zelda would become a powerful ruler and that she would make the right decisions for their kingdom. She was bright and knew how to read. At the age of twelve she could point out fifteen loopholes in every contract signed, and despite her lack of artistry or musical talent, she could tell when somebody was hiding something.
It wasn't impossible to dress her up, but it was fairly difficult and didn't last very long. The only person who could fit a dress on Zelda was her mother. She always held a sort of respect for her mother that nobody—including her father—received.
That was why, when her mother died of pneumonia, everything changed for the young princess.
She was only fifteen. It hit everybody as a shock to realize that Zelda was no longer the princess, but the Queen of Hyrule. She changed so suddenly that nobody even noticed it happening until it was over. She had matured, and now it was done.
She grew out her hair and dressed in royal robes and garbs. She stopped sneaking around and manipulating people. She learned manners and how to play the harp in record time. By the time she was twenty and her father, too, had passed away, Zelda became a favorite among the people. She was a supporter of all of her subjects, she displayed a passion for politics, and she began a courtship with the Duke of Calatia. (As it will not come up again in the future, the courtship lasted and a marriage took place between the two. There was a son, but he died soon after taking the throne, leaving the rule of Hyrule to a noble family from Snowpeak.)
Then came Zant and Ganondorf and War. But Zelda was more than trained for such matters.
It's so short. Meh.