Chapter 1: Not As It Seems

Zelda excitedly bounced up and down as she impatiently waited for her friend to arrive. As Impa, her nursemaid and bodyguard, told her before that if she wanted to see her friend she had to be wearing her royal regalia. This meant crown, dress, apron and lightly armoured cape. Zelda hated wearing them. She liked when she didn't have to wear them and she could run around playing without having to look, as she called it, 'princessy'. However, she loved playing with her friend so she wore her 'princessy' stuff to appease Impa. She had on a white dress with two pink rings at the bottom. She had short puffy sleeves also with two pink rings on them. Her apron had the Triforce on it as it was a symbol passed down from generations.

Zelda was an energetic young girl with sapphire blue eyes and auburn, medium length hair. While she didn't like wearing her dress, she wasn't a mean person. She helped with the chefs in the castle when they needed one extra hand, and she always tried to keep her room neat. Even though Impa cleaned it for her most days. The towns folk would often call Zelda a kind and benevolent princess. She wasn't always like this, but we'll get to that later.

Zelda waited with a slight frown on her face. She seemed upset but she couldn't be more excited to see her friend that day. She had a surprise for him and she couldn't wait to see his reaction to it. Zelda's friend wasn't much of a talker, and really only said things when necessary.

The young princess finally saw her friend from across the castle courtyard and she ran to go and meet him. Her friend waved at her as Zelda came rushing over angrily.

"Link!" she exclaimed to her friend who seemed out of breath, most likely due to running. "You're late!"

Zelda crossing her arms and seeming quite upset with him. She couldn't be too mean to him. It really wasn't who she was.

Zelda's friend, Link, appeared to be around the same age as Zelda. He had dirty blonde hair and lighter blue eyes than Zelda's. He wore a baggy shirt that he tied down with a belt and wore baggy pants with brown boots. His clothes looked too big for him but he was told he would grow into them. Eventually.

Link scratched the back of his head in embarrassment for what happened.

"Sorry Zelda, I was helping my uncle with the Cuccos." He explained to the frowning princess.

"Well…alright. I believe you." Zelda said turning her back to Link. "But next time, don't make me wait, okay?" Zelda turned her head back at him with a smile.

Link smiled back. He was about to say something else but before he could, Zelda took him by the wrist.

"Come on! I want to show you something!" Zelda pulled him off into the town excitedly.

Zelda had found something in the graveyard behind the castle that she had been dying to show Link. She dragged him all around the busy town before getting to the castle's graveyard which wasn't directly behind the castle but it was close enough. This was a sacred graveyard that only the royal family could access. It was guarded by two guards and a locked gate. Zelda had a plan however. She knew she wasn't allowed in because she was too young, but she found a bent piece of the gate on the other side she managed to get through before. She crawled underneath the gate getting her dress dirty, but she didn't care.

"Come on, Link! It's your turn." She said beckoning him through the other side of the gate.

Link crawled under the fence and came up on the other side also with dirty clothes. Nevertheless he didn't seem to mind since his clothes got dirty from working on a farm all the time. Zelda grabbed his wrist again and pulled him into the graveyard further.

The graveyard was quite large, and was filled with many tombstones and final resting places of past Kings, Queens, royal guard captains, and trusted friends of the royal family. Zelda brought Link to a special tombstone that seemed to be by itself among all the others.

"See this one? This is my mother's." Zelda said a bit sorrowfully yet she kept a smile on her face. "I never really knew her, but when Impa told me that she was here, I had to come see for myself."

Zelda looked at the grave never taking her eyes off it. She looked happy to be near it.

"But this isn't why I wanted to bring you here. I came to show you this."

The princess pointed to a small bud next to the tombstone. It was from a flower seed that Link had brought for Zelda from his farm. It grows wildly out there and since Zelda wasn't allowed to leave the Castle grounds, Link brought it as a gift.

"I loved your gift so much that I knew I had to plant it somewhere special. So when Impa told me about this place, I just had to plant it here."

Both children were so happy to see the flower starting to grow.

"So? What do you think? Do you think more might grow here?" Zelda turned to Link and started to bounce up and down again.

Link nodded and smiled. Zelda knew to take that as a yes. Zelda and Link had known each other for 3 years now. So it wasn't hard to tell what he meant to say when he didn't speak.

It was pure accident that Zelda met Link. The young princess, only at the age of five at the time, decided she wasn't going to wear any of her 'princessy' clothing that day. She took a hooded robe and set out into the village to live a day as a commoner. She wanted to see how her people acted when they knew it wasn't her. She also wanted a day away from Impa. At the time, The young princess was quite rebellious. As she is now, but even more so back then. She was very bossy and rude. This was due to her father always being busy and her not having any friends. Because of her bratty behavior, she was attacked and pushed to the ground. Zelda, for the first time in her life, was terrified and didn't know what to do. Luckily, Link was there and stepped in courageously to stop the person from harming the trouble making princess further. Zelda and Link had been best friends ever since and spent almost every day with each other. Zelda from that day forward tried her best to be more kind and be more like Link.

Zelda was going to say something else but she heard the call of Impa from afar. Zelda froze for a moment and turned around to look to see if Impa was around. She wasn't yet, but she was close. Zelda knew she couldn't be seen in this graveyard. And Link definitely couldn't be seen in the graveyard either.

"Link, we have to go. Now! I don't want to be caught in here. And neither do you. Come on, let's go."

Zelda ran back to the hole in the gate and climbed back underneath it followed by Link. She brushed herself off as best as she could before running behind a nearby house peeking around the corner to spy if Impa was close. Link wasn't sure what to do. He had been in situations like this before with Zelda. It was hard not to. Zelda was a born troublemaker and Link was her trusty sidekick. Her partner in crime. Her accomplice. They got into so much trouble all the time, Zelda was surprised that Impa hadn't split the two up yet.

Zelda didn't see Impa and snuck out from her hiding spot motioning Link to follow her. Zelda only got a few feet before Impa came out from nowhere.

"Princess! Where were you? Didn't you know I was looking and calling for you?" Impa asked the young princess

"I did know! I just didn't care! I was playing with Link!"

Impa noticed that both children had dirt and grass stains on their clothing. She got suspicious.

"Where did you go? You didn't go into the Royal Graveyard did you?" Impa asked sternly looking down at Zelda who was also looking a bit angrily up at Impa.

"We most certainly did not! We were just playing tag!" Zelda lied.

Impa raised an eyebrow as she knew that Zelda almost never told the truth. She decided to turn to Link who was still standing nearby.

"So...Link. Were you doing as the Princess said? Playing tag?" Impa looked judgmentally at Link hoping to get an honest answer out of him.

Link looked to Zelda who was prompting him to say yes and looked back to Impa nodding his head shakily as he knew he was lying to someone high up in Hyrule ranking. Impa was hesitant by Link's answer.

"Fine." Impa sighed. "I believe you your highness, but I'm watching you."

Impa walked off giving Zelda the 'I'm watching you face' before going out of sight. Impa wasn't an ordinary Hylian like Zelda, Link or any of the townsfolk. She came from a race called the Sheikah who are very much like ninjas and are vowed to protect the Royal Family of Hyrule. They have extended life spans and live close to 100 or more years. After the Hyrulean Civil War, many of their race had been wiped out. As far as everyone knew, Impa could very well be the last of her kind. Once she was gone from Zelda's sight she turned to Link with a big smile on her face.

"Thank you Link! Now we can continue to hang out!"

Zelda started walking away from the graveyard and Link followed. Zelda strolled into the town like nothing ever happened. She waved at the townspeople as she and Link walked by. Zelda may be a little rascal, but she had a kind heart and would only be rude to the people she cared for. It was her way of showing appreciation. And she showed a lot of appreciation towards Link and especially towards Impa.

"Link! Doesn't the town smell so amazing?" Zelda asked turning her head to glimpse at Link who was following behind. "I always loved the way the natural outside smell merged with the smell of pastries and flowers and other things being sold by townsfolk. There is something so amazing about it. Don't you think?"

Link nodded in agreement. Although he was raised on a farm just outside the castle's boundaries, he too enjoyed the smell of freshly baked pastries in the morning.

"You know, I really want to go outside someday. You know, like outside in the fields and farm lands and run and play until sunset." Zelda explained to Link. "I really want to. But Impa says it's dangerous to go out there." Zelda pulls aside for a moment to speak to Link face to face.

"That's something I don't understand, you know. We're about the same age aren't we? Yet you come here from across the field all the time!" Zelda pouted crossing her arms again. She looked frustrated.

"Why am I not allowed outside? I should be...shouldn't I?" The princess looked almost sad for a moment as she looked into Link's eyes.

Link felt bad for his friend. He wanted to bring her out to his home at least once, but knew he may never get the chance. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder smiling comfortingly. Zelda smiled back.

"Yeah. I guess maybe it's because I'm the princess. I haven't even been trained for battle or anything. Maybe it's a good idea I'm not allowed outside." Zelda said trying to come to terms with the arrangement. Still, she had doubts.

Zelda, now back to her playful self, grabbed Link by the wrist again and started to drag him off into the town once more. The two children ran off laughing and playing in the streets of Castle Town. But elsewhere a dangerous force was growing. It was only a matter of time as to when that strong force would arrive.