Prologue
Chel sat quietly at her desk, eyes fixed on the bruises that were nestled on her caramel-colored knuckles in squeezing closeness. It had been the third time that week she had gotten into a fight with the popular girl in school. Of course, they never fought on school grounds, unfortunately. The fights always began the same way; Jess would mock her looks, shove her, and then tear her art up – it was the tearing of her pieces that would get Chel to even bother fighting, of course, everyone else thought all the things in between.
"Ugh," staring at the scabs that were lined on the jutting bones, Chel frowned to herself, "why?"
As always, the fights were fought in the park right outside her neighborhood in the forest – in the middle of the jungle gym so no one would notice what was going on. Chel would, of course, laugh and wait as Jess' 'posse' would find places to sit around them so that no parents would send their children their way. Though, Jess was obviously not at all intimidating, Chel was afraid at times. Afraid that she'd put her in the hospital and have her parents get sued. Even though Jess was an evil witch, Chel was kind enough to leave all marks in concealable areas, never on the face. Though, she was good at hiding anything that was given to her, she always seemed to get caught by her parents.
"How many times has it been huh," those were always the last words to leave their mouths before the yelling began, "it's your final year, you are a fully-grown 18 years-young adult, when are you gonna start acting like it?"
"I do act like it, I only retaliate when she swings at me," Chel would never yell, she was always calm, "I protect myself since no one else will," yelling never seemed to change anything, so she quit after her first year being in that high school, never let her emotions show. She couldn't recall the last time she let herself cry.
"It doesn't seem to be that way," her dad was more on edge rather than her mother; he was a man of business and success, so it was only natural that he'd always expect the best from her, "you seem to come home everyday with," at this time he'd yank her sleeves up to prove his point, exposing all the scratches she'd adorn in her battles, "with a new scar or injury to sport."
"Trust me, she had the worst of it," Chel would only roll her eyes at his obliviousness on the matter while readjusting her sleeves – she protected herself, nothing more, "I don't get why you're so worked up about this, you should be glad that I'm not dead."
"That's not the point, Chel," he would rake his hands through his hair while she stared at her mom who would stand and watch her, blonde hair swaying against her back, and blue eyes so big and full of sadness, it could've made God cry, "the point is, you have a potential future because of us, and you seem to just want to throw it away because of some...some piece of paper being ripped up," he would always hit the mark on what actually upset her about the matter and that's when her mother would leave the room as if she were never there in the first place, "something so small and pointless to-"
"It's not something small," that moment was probably the first time Chel let herself express what she felt about his words. Of course she'd probably never know why, although it was probably so obvious that it didn't need explaining – it was her final year of school and graduation was right around the corner, her parents refused to accept her decision in attending an art school and instead pushed her with a university for higher-ups that wanted nothing more than a larger shot at making a million bucks. She hated it, "it's my life."
"You're being ridiculous," he'd turn her down immediately and that was when she'd stop trying to fight and just listen – this time was different.
"No I'm not," Chel stood from the table and gave him the worst glare she could muster, "how could you say something so cold?"
"It's because you have bigger shoes to fit," his smoldering blue eyes contrasted from her blazing brown ones – the only things they had similar were the few little specks of gold that decorated their rims, his hair was a light brown as if the sun was always shining on his head and hers was a walnut so dark it was almost black, "and I don't have all the time in the world to make you understand-"
"And I don't have the time to make you understand," she finally yelled at him for the first time in years, "those 'pieces of paper'... my art...is who I am, it's me, the 100% definition of me," she could feel the burning in her nose that she hadn't felt in ages, but letting her tears roll in front of him was not going to happen, "if you can't accept that...then you can't accept me," turning her back, Chel walked away, not fast enough to seem like she was running away, but not slow enough to seem like she was waiting for an answer, "I wish we never came here."
"Chel...Chel," he called for her, but there was no point in continuing the conversation. Making it to her room, she silently let it click, before sitting at her desk, bringing everything back to the point that she was at the moment.
For some reason, she couldn't get anyone to understand, her parents most of all. It was as if they didn't even know there was a 'her' that existed, just a target to take all the punches of their stress. Their relationship with each other was so misconstrued, she never even called them by intimacy. It hurt to even call them her parents.
"Seriously," her nose scrunched up as she kicked the chair from under her and dropped on her freakishly too-large-for-comfort bean bag that had it's own corner where she was able to curl up into a ball and feel so tiny to the world that it was almost 'sweet' to her tastes, "I've never done anything wrong," holding herself, Chel felt for the first time in a long time that a good cry was necessary. However, she was never able to fulfill that desire since the sound of knocking caught her attention.
"Chel," the sweet resonating voice that reached her ears told that it was her mother, "Chel are you in here? Well, of course you are-"
"Aldez," she muttered under her breath, low enough so that it was hopefully not heard, but for some reason, mother heard everything.
"Listen I...," the pause was good enough to let her relax a little, "...I understand that you're stressed, but we're trying...we're trying really hard to do what's good for you. I mean, you...you're not like most people-"
"Gee thanks, next thing you know, you'll tell me I'm adopted, granted that'd be a wish come true," Chel turned in her bean bag to try and shut her out.
"I know you don't mean that," she could hear the sadness in her voice, "I love you Chel...we love you. You'll understand what I mean when the time comes, but I want you to know that...you're important to us, you're my baby," the words were genuine, but a little too late to be spoken.
"Hmm," Chel narrowed her eyes and stared at the drawings that hung on her wall, if they don't accept my art, they don't accept me, "goodnight."
"I-i...goodnight Chel, I love you," she listened to her footsteps fade into the background noise before curling further into herself.
"...Aldez," it was true, Chel was envious of her parents, but her mother even more, "what does she know," unlike her, her mother was loved and adored by everyone even though they shared the same personality – quiet, kind and respectful, yet it seemed like everyone in the world saw her as some kind of demon spawn. Why?
"Ugggh," getting up from the bean bag, she snatched her sketchbook up from her desk and rested quietly in the corner of her bed, head against the wall, "whatever," letting her pencil take over, she felt her frustrations melt almost instantaneously at the touch of the paper. Most of the time she didn't draw anything in particular, but for some reason, she couldn't stop drawing landscapes – large fields, weird creatures hanging around them, the weirdest part was the large castle that ended up in most of them. Usually she'd draw a little triangle in the corner of the page, but that time, three seemed like a good numberb – Two on the base and one stacked on top. They looked so familiar it was strange.
"Hmm," staring at the page, she couldn't pull her eyes away from the weird shape. Gently running her fingers over the little scribble, Chel found herself growing extremely tired, "...I hate Hylow...why do I have to be here," her head lightly bobbed on, "I want to be anywhere else but here," those were the last words to run through her mind before sleep overcame her.
"Alright sweetie," her mother laughed while she tugged on her hand to catch up to the ice cream stand that hummed a soft tune over the crowds of people that giddily made their requests.
"Mommy mommy, huwwie huwwie," jumping up and down, Chel squeeked as the line seemed to just fly down, "I want chocowet! Chocowet!"
"Alright, alright," she smiled at the stand person, "Hi I would-"
"Noooo," Chel tugged on her legs so she could be picked up, "wet me ode-uh wet me ode-uh!"
"Okay babe," wrapping her arms around her, she set her on her hip and turned so she could see, "go ahead."
"I want chocowet pweee-" her request was cut short when a beautiful woman with long strawberry blonde hair looked back at her, her eyes a brilliant gold, "...woooow," she looked almost exactly like her mother just with a different color palette.
"Oh my what an adorable little child you've got there," her smile was so bright, Chel could've sworn she was looking at the sun, "she's so grown, giving requests and all."
"Thanks," her mother laughed lightly, "we don't know where she gets it from."
"So...you wanted chocolate huh," the woman waited for an answer, but she simply nodded, mouth still agape, "...alright let me-oh no. I think I just ran out."
Finally snapping out of her distraction, Chel frowned, "mommy," her lip turned out into a pout and tears began to form, "...mommy I-I-I wanted chocowet."
"I know," before her mom could say anything, the lady smiled at her, "how about," looking around, she leaned over the counter as if trying to be secretive, "I give you a 'special' ice cream...for free?"
Chel couldn't speak, so she nodded with a sniffling 'okay' in between. Watching the lady lean into the storage, she held onto her mom's hand while she wiped the tears away from her chunky little cheeks, "...uh-huh, here we are," the woman pulled out an ice cream cone that had a big scoop of ice cream that swirled into three different colors – red, green and blue – with gold sprinkles on top, "it's very special, for very special children like you," handing it to her, the lady smiled, "I think you'll love it," it was the first time she noticed the three gold triangle earring that she wore, it looked fairly solid at that.
"What do you say sweetie," her mother bumped her up with her hip.
"Thank you," looking at the ice cream, Chel took a big lick and instantly felt as though she were in a field of flowers, butterflies filling her tummy with excitement, "...mmm."
"I knew it," giving her a wink, the lady laughed, "would mommy like anything?"
"Oh no, I'm okay, thank you very much," setting Chel on the ground, she took her by the hand, "c'mon Chel, daddy's probably back home."
Licking her treat once again, the question reappeared in her mind as she stumbled to follow her moms wide steps, "m-m-mmmommy, is dat wady yowh sistuwh?"
"What," her mom looked at her in surprise, "don't be silly sweetie, she looks nothing like me."
"uh-huh, yes she do-," looking back, Chel stopped talking as her eyes stared back at a woman with dark skin and a short brown bob cut smiling back at her while waving, "-oes?"
So this is a sudden story to pop up out of all the other ones I'm working on. I have no idea when I'll update again, but I'll try as soon as possible. That is, if people actually enjoy the read. This is my first Zelda story to be submitted. Hopefully it's none too terrible. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the read.