Over My Head
A sad little songfic I came up with while listening to The Fray. This song is Over My Head if the title didn't tell you enough, and I think it fits with this particular fic. Hope you all enjoy it.
Disclaimer: If I owned any of the Legend of Zelda merchandise, I would be rolling in riches because of these characters instead of writing about them. Please use your common sense-- I don't own the wonderful Zelda series.
THIS FIC IS IN LINK'S POV, IF IT WASN'T OBVIOUS.
ENJOY!
I never knew
I never knew that everything was falling through
That everyone I know was waiting on a cue
To turn and run when all I needed was the truth
Why didn't anyone tell me?
I mean, it's not as if I didn't deserve to know. I'm Zel's guardian, aren't I? Her favorite knight, her personal slave. I would do anything for that girl, anyone who would see us together would atttest to that. Anyone.
My apolegies. I'm Her Highness' guardian. I am Her Highness' favorite knight, personal slave. For some reason, she won't allow me to call her Zel anymore, not even when we're alone. We aren't alone all that much, anyway. Not since she'd began distancing herself from me.
Why didn't anyone tell me she was getting married?
But that's how it's got to be
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see
The smoke and who's still standing when it clears
I trudged up the dirt road, leading my trusty steed Epona along behind me. This particular horse was probably more of a friend than some of the people I spend my time with, and I could tell her anything and know she'd understand. She was acutely aware of the state I was in, and her sour mood mirrored mine as we walked. Looking back to that night, I should've ridden her home. We could've gotten attacked by any number of monsters by the dusk's light. Wolfos could've had Epona and I for dinner, but I was too busy waging a war against myself to care. Heart VS common sense, round one.
Common sense told me to stay put. To throw on a good face and be happy for her. Go to the wedding and dance, pretend like nothing is wrong, like my heart isn't being amputated from my chest without notice, without my consent. I mean, it's not like she could've ever loved me, right? I'm a lowly peasant boy, the Ordon cattle rancher who'd miraculously become head dog to Hyrule's military forces and the pet knight of both the princess and her father. Why would she even consider me when she's got all of the other princes, rich and born into royalty to wed. Right?
Like hell.
She just had to feel something for me, my heart raged, rattling in my ribcage like an impatient boxer ready for the ring. What about all of the time we'd spent together after I'd saved Hyrule from the Twilight King? After I'd fought the prince of darkness, Ganondorf himself? Even four years after that particular event, Zelda and I had remained good friends, confiding in one another like best friends do. All the pranks we'd played on her father's pompous and self-centered aquaintances, the ones who visited just so they could ramble on with the king about how wonderful a husband their particular sons would make for Zel. We'd drop knacksacks filled with ice cold water on them from the windows up in the towers, and we'd sneak into the stables and release their horses into the courtyard, making them look like fools. Whenever her father caught us, he scolded us like a couple of misbehaving children. Though he punished us, we always knew that he enjoyed our antics just as much as we did, and he knew we were only having fun. He saw something between us that, maybe Zel never expected. Something maybe she didn't want to expect...
Everyone knows I'm in over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
I'd found out the day before.
Zel had been trying to keep as far away from me as possible for around a week, and I was almost fed up. I'd gone to her maid and best friend, Malon, for an answer, and she just shook her head sadly, eyes downcast as she replied.
"I'm sorry, Link... She made me swear not to tell."
I'd gone to Impa then, her nursemaid from the crib. Surely Zel had told her what was going on. Impa was like a mother to her, since her real one had died while she was a child. The queen of Hyrule had been taken by a terrible sickness, and so Impa of the legendary Sheikah tribe had stepped in. Surely Impa wouldn't keep the secret from me. She knew how close Zel and I were, and she knew how I worried over her.
Impa kicked me out of her quarters. "If you cannot find out for yourself, then you should not know."
Let's rearrange
I wish you were a stranger I could disengage
Just say that we agree and then never change
Soften a bit until we all just get along
Impa had never liked me much, anyway.
After that, I still couldn't get Zel out of the shell she'd put herself in, so I went to the last person I could think of-- the great King of Hyrule himself.
I'd asked him why Zel had been ignoring me recently, and he looked at me with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean, boy?" I told him how she'd been distancing herself from me more and more in the past week, and I was confused and hurt by her actions. Seeing the expressions written all over my countenance, the king heaved a heavy sigh.
But that's disregard
Find another friend and you discard
As you lose the argument in a cable car
Hanging above as the canyon comes between
"Oh, Link... My daughter has chosen a suitor. I thought you knew."
"What are you talk-"
It hit me. She was getting married. To someone else. To one of those pretty-boy princes with their wavy hair and their expensive clothing and their royal heritage. To those with all the looks and all the riches and all the luck. She wasn't getting married to me.
Everyone knows I'm in over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind
And suddenly I become a part of your past
I'm becoming the part that don't last
I'm losing you and it's effortless
Without a sound we lose sight of the ground
In the throw around
Never thought that you wanted to bring it down
I won't let go 'til we torch it ourselves
But she had.
She'd torched it without a word to me, and I was left feeling like the biggest idiot on the face of the planet. Our friendship was gone, merely the remains of what it had been, ashes of the flame that had once existed. I was dropped, as much a part of Her Highness' history as the damn triangle on the backs of our hands.
I stopped and turned, looking into the distance from which I'd came from. There it was, the castle of Hyrule, backlit by the deepest shade of orange I'd ever seen while my sky, the sky over humble Ordon village was a dark blue, nearly black in comparison. It was like the sky was mirroring our situations, Zel's and mine. She was rejoicing, soaring upwards into a future that I could never hope to give her, past alliances and friendships all but forgotten while I despaired. I was spiraling into depression and anger over what had happened, doomed to remember for eternity the frienship I'd had with the princess. I knew that this was a situation that no amount of critical thinking, witty comebacks or weapon combat would get me out of. I, Link the cattle rancher/adventurer/slave to royalty was in a situation that I didn't think I could escape from.
I spent that night at the fairy spring close to my home, Epona tethered to a tree close by. I stared into the luminescent waters, watching the fairies fly daintily about and involuntary remembering the dainty woman I'd come to love in the past four years, her graceful appearance only flattened by the mischevious and curious girl I'd known the real Zel to be. I was probably the only one who had and would ever see that side of her, and a lone tear slid down my cheek as I mused, the drop almost as luminescent as the fairy spring itself.
Once that night, a fairy wandered over to me, bright cerulean eyes reminding me a little too much of Zel. "Does thou have wounds in need of healing, Sir Adventurer?"
I looked at her then, and I smiled. "Only one could heal the wounds I have sustained, little one, and she is mine no longer. Fear not-- if I need anything, I will not hesitate to ask."
To my response, the fairy cast a knowing glance over the treetops of the forest, in the direction that both of us knew the castle lay. Apparently she'd heard of the princess' marriage, too. Had everyone known exept me? The closest person to the heiress had been the last to know of her actions... How ironic.
And everyone knows I'm in over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind...
Fin
I LOVE that song! I was listening to it on my radio when I thought up this little oneshot. Please review-- I've been thinking about continuing it. Tell me in your reviews if you want me to, I'll await your reply. PEACE OUT, FANFICTION FANATICS!!!