I DON'T OWN THE LEGEND OF ZELDA OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.
Silent Winters
Once upon a time, there lived a king and a beautiful queen who loved their daughter very much. The kingdom was celebrating the child's first birthday with a ball open to commoner and royal alike. There were people Singing and dancing gaily. Bringing treasures of crops, fabric, and gold. That was until, the stroke of midnight when the shutters on all the windows slammed shut. Leaving the people in complete darkness. The people began to panic when a red mist began to enter the building and a huge flash of red light revealed a towering man with blood red hair. The tall man had two small children next to him. One was a small blonde haired boy hiding behind the older man's leg, he was about 2 years old. The other child was about 4 with red hair. He very much resembled the older man towering over him. The older man was recognized quickly as the King's adversary Gannon, he had been fighting for years for the Kings power. The air grew cold around them as Ganon spoke, "Well well well, look here my boys, it appears we have stumbled upon a party. I would give you my invitation for entry, but it appears to have been lost in the mail."
The King stood in front of his wife and child and said, "You weren't invited Ganon, what do you want?"
Ganon smirked and said, "I simply wanted bestow a gift upon your daughter and to introduce you to my two boys. The strapping one with red hair is my first born Ganondorf. He will be the next king. And this scrawny looking one here," he grabbed the small blonde headed boy from behind his leg and threw him on the floor, "his name is Link. He really won't amount to much I am afraid. Ah, but I have forgotten about my gift."
He approached the bassinet which held Zelda and the King pulled out his sword. Irritably Gannon stopped and said, "My gift to you Zelda is that you shall grow up with great beauty and wisdom. You shall make an excellent queen for my son. However, from this day forward people will cower from your touch. For anything you touch shall turn to ice. If you marry my son, the curse shall be broken. And, if you refuse to marry him this curse I bestow upon you shall freeze your heart and you shall die." With that his hand glowed and he aimed an ice blue blast towards the bassinet. He thought it had worked but when he looked up he saw his second born son, Link, had grabbed Zelda and was protecting her in the corner.
"Please Papa," he pleaded, "Don't hurt her."
Furious he grabbed the boy and screamed "I curse you with fire." Suddenly Link noticed the blanket wrapped around Zelda beginning to burn. Quickly he put her down and Ganon shot her with the ice blue blast. She started to cry and it began to snow. He smirked and said, "You shall soon learn that besides her cold touch, her emotions shall control the weather of wherever she shall go. And you my son", he turned to Link "shall never disobey me again otherwise I will add the segment of death to your curse."
The King screamed in anger, "Not only have you hurt Zelda but you would harm your own child! You're a monster! Guards Seize Him!" Before they could do anything Ganon and his sons disappeared into a puff of smoke.
18 YEARS LATER
A beautiful young woman with flowing blonde hair and violet eyes sat looking rather bored stared out of the window of a horse drawn carriage. Impa, her caretaker, had known Zelda better than her own mother had. She knew that Zelda was not happy about her arranged marriage but kept her emotions bottled up for literal fear of the storm that would come. From an early age Zelda had been taught that emotions were for the weak. Knowing that communicating lead to friendships and relationships, Zelda's parents locked her away and refused to let her speak to anyone.
Impa, her caregiver and her many tutors were the only ones allowed to see her, and even then they were not allowed to try to converse with her. If Zelda spoke to them they would instantly be fired.
Impa looked out the window and saw that they were near their destination, so she dug through one of the suitcases and pulled out a small box. Impa handed Zelda the box and said, "Here, your mother wanted you to have this."
Gently opening the velvety box, she opened it to find a locket and a note that read, "My dearest Zelda, I know that you are not happy about your arranged marriage to Ganondorf, but it is for the best. You would be smart to get to know him during your visit and learn to love him. He is the key to lifting your curse and you must join with him to save yourself and your country. I love you. Sincerely, Mamá.
Zelda crumpled up the note and stuffed the box in her bag. She refused to wear it. Impa couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. Zelda was isolated her whole life and then thrust into an unwanted marriage. Impa didn't know if she would be able to bare doing the same. As expected, it started to gently snow outside. It was the middle of July so it was obvious that Zelda was upset. Quickly, Impa pulled Zelda into a hug and the snow slowly came to a stop.
What her parents didn't understand was that Zelda although cursed, was a human being. More than anything she wanted to be loved. Locking her away only made her curse worse and this marriage would certainly not make things better.
As the carriage came to a stop Zelda slid her gloves on to prevent her touch from harming anyone. The door to the carriage opened and presented two very handsome young men. One was a very tall red head with demanding red eyes and the other was a slightly shorter blonde man with beautiful blue eyes. They both bowed to Zelda and the red head greeted, "Good morning, my beautiful bride. I hope your Trip went smoothly. "Zelda nodded and he continued, "I am your fiancé Ganondorf and this is my younger brother Link."
Link nervously bit his lip and mumbled a quick, "hello."
Zelda nodded and gave soft wave of the hand.
Ganondorf scoffed at Link's greeting and said, "Please ignore my brother's conduct, he is just a bit shy." Link shot him a glare which Ganondorf didn't seem to notice as Ganondorf linked his arm around mine and escorted me into the castle. "Come my darling," he continued, "I would like to show you around my kingdom."
He helped Zelda up onto his horse and decided to start off by showing her the castle. Link, went into the opposite direction and Ganondorf explained that they would meet up again later.
The castle was magnificently large, and it housed many people, mostly other royals with a few servant quarters. On the second floor there was a large wooden door that was decorated with engravings of the forest. He opened the door and allowed Zelda to step in. He then said to her, "Zelda my darling, this is our bedroom."
To this Zelda scowled, there was no way she was going to sleep in the same room as this man. Especially not before marriage.
Ganondorf saw her countenance and started to laugh, he then explained, "You dearest will be sleeping her for your duration of your stay. I will be sleeping in another room until we are wed."
They continued through the castle and there were many places she hoped to explore further on her own including a library and a vast garden.
Once they finished exploring the castle grounds, they returned outside to the stables. They were going to be traveling into town to meet up with Link and to show her the rest of his kingdom.
Once they reached the town, to say Zelda was underwhelmed would be an understatement. In fact she was disgusted. The town was in such poor shape and his people looked sickly. She would never let this happen to her kingdom. She then caught a glimpse at Link kneeling on top of a roof, he was hammering in some nails to repair it while an elderly woman looked affectionately on. The odd part was the hammer was solid metal and was glowing. Why on earth would he use a hammer made of solid metal and why was it glowing. Ganondorf rolled his eyes at the sight and said, "My little brother, he is always wasting his time trying to help peasants in need. How charming, you know you would think he would put that time to better use and try to carouse with women or something."
Zelda cleared her throat to signal to him that he was clearly thinking out loud and quite frankly she was repulsed by it.
When Ganondorf realized what he said, he played with his cufflinks nervously and said, "Not that I would dare think about doing that when I have such a stunningly beautiful fiancé like yourself."
Link, being satisfied with his job then dropped off the roof in front of us and said, "Hey, are you two ready to get some lunch, I am starved." He then stretched and placed his glowing hammer on the ground next to the home. "I don't really feel like going all the way back to the castle, how about we go eat at Telma's?" Link asked.
Ganondorf didn't look to happy about it but Zelda nodded in approval so they headed slightly down the road to a small restaurant. It had seating for royals and peasants alike which is why Zelda assumed Ganondorf looked like he would rather eat a live bird than to eat there. The waitress brought them to a table in the corner with a white table cloth which was lit by candle light. All three sat down and Ganondorf said, "Zelda my love, I brought Link here today to not only introduce you to him because he is my brother, but also with your approval, I would like him to be best man at our wedding?" Zelda really didn't feel like assessing the matter of marriage so she just moved her finger around the rim of the glass she was given trying to make the glass sing.
Link could tell that she was not pleased about the marriage, he wouldn't be too happy if he were in her place either. While Ganondorf continued prattling on about their upcoming nuptials and Zelda sat there extremely bored. Link was deep in thought, he was a bit bummed out over his brother marrying Zelda. Zelda seemed like just Link's type, beautiful, polite, and loyal to her country. I mean you have to be loyal to agree to marry someone you have never really met. She also didn't appear to look down upon people of lower birth statuses like many other royals including his brother. He knew about her curse because that was the same day he received his. His fist clenched at the thought of his father's cruelty. But even with the curse he deemed her as perfect. If only he could have the chance to be with her, he could make her happy…but even if he could make her happy, without his brother's hand in marriage she would surely die from a frozen heart.
Link slumped in his seat and looked over the table at the beautiful princess seated before him. She looked very disheartened about the wedding and the weather outside the window of the restaurant seemed to prove it as a gentle snow began to fall. Link wished that he could comfort her but he knew his touch would burn her so he sat there quietly until each one of them had finished their lunch.