A Zelda: Twilight Princess collection
Disclaimer: I don't own TP (except a copy of it), and I don't own Zelda.
Chapter One: Wrong
The skies were crying.
They were smudged a charcoal black, the raindrop tears reflecting a dull gray. The earth had absorbed and held up the moisture, and by now all of Hyrule had no doubt been reduced to a spongy, damp swamp.
The residents of Castle Town suffered from the same conditions; crowded underneath the arcing eaves along the street. Those that weren't fortunate enough to cram themselves beneath shelter held cloaks, tunics, anything to keep the rain off them. The normally bustling town had been reduced to this; where usually citizens would stop to at least greet each other, they now passed each other by, too busy with their own business to worry about the etiquette they'd been raised on.
Zelda watched this through the high window of her chamber; eyes downcast to rest on the half-finished construction beginning in the courtyard, and that she knew spiraled all the way to the throne room. The workers had abandoned it for the day, given leave to hide in the stables until the downpour had passed.
The weather and state of affairs mirrored her mood and frame of mind. It had been less than a week since Hyrule's ordeal had passed; a week since things had returned to relative normal.
A week since Midna departed. A week since Link returned to his village. A week since she had seen the love of her life.
If you were to ask any number of her subjects about the topic in question no doubt most would chorus the same opinion, the same much-believed 'fact': the Princess and the Hero were in love, that they were destined to marry within the year. It varied from person to person, and even in the short time since the final confrontation on the plains the rumors had managed to reach her ears.
She sighed, her eyes shifting ever so slightly from one bunk of wooden pillars to another. Perhaps the only members of her kingdom who believed differently were the Ordonians; subjects convinced of his feelings towards a farm girl Zelda knew nothing about, but was said to be a close friend.
Zelda knew differently. She knew differently than all her subjects, all the members of her country, from the Zoras to the Gorons to the Hylians themselves, far and wide.
Link loved. But it wasn't known who.
And this was deeply disturbing. Throughout the history, the legend and mythos of Hyrule surrounding the Triforce there resonated a legend just as strong and just as dearly believed in. There would always be three wielders of the pieces: Power, Wisdom and Courage. One would forever be the great evil; the other the princess; the last the hero. And it was as dearly believed that the princess and hero were fated to forever love each other, brought together time and again by destiny only to be parted.
The Hero of Time was held to love his princess; though the records of history she kept stored away in her personal library gave introspection that might prove this idea false, they might not. There was a footnote by her ancestor that the Hero of the time had been very fond of his own farm girl, though it gave no definite evidence that such feelings existed. It was probably the cause of the 'destiny' complex held by the masses.
She couldn't help but draw parallels with this, her inherent wisdom batting against the human need to find something that could wreak sense into the situation. The Hero of Time apparently had two princesses and a farm girl battling for his attention; though it was implied he was unaware of it.
It sounded eerily familiar. Two princesses, one farm girl; except most accepted the ideology that he had loved his princess, the one to which he owed his allegiance, and accepted no other conviction.
The princess brought a crisply gloved hand to her face. Her fingers gently touched her lips in saddened contemplation; a realization that she had achieved seven days and six nights ago flowing into her mind as if a river carried it through the whirlpool of her hopes and thoughts.
"Link loves his princess…
…He loves the wrong one."
A/N: Short little ditty to start the one-shot collection. It's Midna/Link based, and though I was going to start with something different, this one has been demanding my attention for some time. One-sided Zelda…and if you can figure out the real meaning behind the last two lines, uber Kudos to you.