Settling
Zelda woke suddenly, darting up in her bed. She had been dreaming. She brought her hand to her brow and massage it. She wanted to clear her mind of the dark dream.
She didn't remember exactly what had happened but the general theme still swam in her consciousness. Trouble had come over Link. She had been growing accustomed to these dreams, since they had haunted her often. At first she had been alarmed, thinking they were perhaps signs he was hurt, or worse, but his letters came periodically to soothe her and she passed the dreams off as her own idle worries. Still, she wished for a letter, but more his presence.
"You're awake," Impa said in a mothering voice, coming up the stairs. "Come on, get out of bed, and pick out a dress to wear. The feast in your honor will begin soon." She said the last fragment of her statement with a mocked aristocratic accent.
"If I must," she said in lighter spirits, mostly to mask her fear from Impa. She pulled out a folded light purple dress from her satchel, one of her favorites, and stepped into it while Impa pulled it up over her constrictive undergarments. She pulled her pendant out from underneath her clothes. She brushed her long hair, and Impa insisted upon painting her face. Zelda protested at first, but Impa won the battle. After all too long, she was made up and ready to go, and a dull pain of hunger drove her to hurry to the feast. She left arm and arm with Impa and crossed the bridge and proceeded back toward the mayor's yard. It was now decorated with several open-aired, brightly colored tents. From many yards off she could see a large fire burning, and the smells of food wafted towards her. Her desire to eat kept her going forward, but a little panicked feeling danced inside of her, and just as soon as she felt it she spoke it.
"Impa, I'm nervous," she stated plainly, fiddling with her necklace.
"Why Princess?" She responded with a giggle.
"Well, firstly, meeting new people always makes me a bit nervous-"
"Milady, haven't you grown accustomed to it? You are after all a princess."
"Well, I've only become accustomed to hiding my panic I'm afraid, and now it has a least double, perhaps tripled, for it's my own husband's family and friends I'm meeting. Say the don't like me? What will I do?"
Impa turned to her and smiled. "Zelda, you're being unreasonable, dear. This is hardly the most stressful situation you've been under! You've been paraded before the rulers of distant lands, your impression counted upon to unite nations."
"Perhaps this matters more to me." By now they had come onto the Mayor's yard and the revelry began to die down as the villagers stood. The Mayor's booming voice broke in.
"Town! Town! Please turn your attention to Princess Zelda and the Lady Impa, our guest this evening."
The townspeople greeted her in a friendly manner, and a bearded man stood up. "Princess Zelda, it is an honor to meet you. My name is Rusl, I'm the blacksmith of the village, and Link is like a son to me. I'd like you to meet my wife Uli, and our children. The boy's name is Colin, and the babe is my daughter Morgandy."
"I'm very happy to meet you all." She smiled sweetly at the people who stood before her. The man put an arm around his smiling wife and the other hand her placed upon the shoulder of his shy but happy looking boy.
"Please, sit with us, and eat." Rusl pulled two small chairs for them to sit upon and placed them under the table. Uli reached her hand out to Zelda.
"Won't you two come with me? I'll help you fix a plate."
"Oh, yes we will." Zelda rose, and followed Uli to a long, thin table, the legs almost buckling with the weight of the food atop it.
Uli handed them each a wooden plate and a goblet, and took a pitcher of cider and and filled each cup to the brim. They both filled their plates with the different selections of roasted meats and cooked vegetables and potatoes, as well as sweet pastries. They returned to the table and ate, while being amused by humorous anecdotes and far fetched stories presented by the merry villagers. When the sun fell completely behind the horizon, candles were lit to accompany the large fire, and a few of the people began to play instruments while the rest danced. Rusl left early to return Colin to his bed, and Impa had been pulled up to dance by some young man. Zelda had laughed at the scene at first, but stopped immediately to spare her the humiliation. She was left with Uli, who throughout the course of the evening she had become rather drawn to as a friend. Uli bounced her baby upon her knee, and the child giggled.
"How old is she?" Zelda asked.
"Just a bit more than a year and a half," Uli responded, stroking the child's light brown locks of hair. "Children are just wonderful." She looked down toward Zelda's stomach. "When are you due?"
"Perhaps a month, but it is likely less."
"I'm the town midwife, so if need be, I can assist you, and deliver the child."
"Thank you," Zelda smiled. A comfortable pause passed between the newfound friends. "This may appear to be a strange question, but how do you spend your days? When I left the palace they told me little more than where I would stay. I'm not accustomed to not having others control my schedule."
Uli wrapped the child into her blanket, and looked up and smiled. "Well, when I wake I make breakfast for my family, and Rusl takes Colin to his shop. I care for my baby, and tend the house and garden, and I also barter my skill of embroidery, as well as I make clothes. And of course, there's the occasional midwifery. We all help during the harvest season, but of course thats a far way off.. Zelda, do you know how to embroider?"
"I did some in my youth, but I'm afraid I've forgotten how."
"Why don't you come by my house tomorrow, and perhaps we can sew some things for your baby."
"I'd love that." Zelda smiled sincerely. She turned to face the crowd and Ilia caught her eye. She sat near her father, quietly, and the mayor engaged in conversation with another. The music masked her gossip.
"What do you know of Ilia?" Zelda asked, "And why is she so...glum?
Uli laughed quietly, in an awkward manner, then sighed. "It is not my place to say, but I will say it anyways. There was a time when things were simple with your husband's life. He was a herder, and a close friend of Ilia. Now he never saw more than a friend in her, but the same cannot be said about how Ilia felt about Link. When he left, she was kidnapped, and her memory was erased. Eventually it came back, but I've always had the feeling she wishes it hadn't, for when she was reminded of her love for him, the two of you had been married."
"Oh." The situation presented itself in new light.
"Now don't you go on feeling poorly," Uli started. "This isn't your fault, the poor dear would have been heartbroken eventually, or Link would have been put into a relationship where he wasn't happy, where he wasn't in love." She paused, and knitted her brow. "I only wish she wouldn't mope all the time." She gestured toward a large, clumsy looking man bobbing his head to the lively music, darting his eyes toward Ilia every so often. "Now that man, see, was a friend of Link's, and he's had his eye on Ilia for quite a while now. He'll pass over her if she doesn't pay him some attention soon. His name is Fado."
"Hmm," Zelda sighed in thought. "Could we perhaps point them in the right direction?"
"I wouldn't know how." Uli brought her free hand to her chin. "Perhaps if we wait."
"I've never been much for waiting." Zelda rose, and placed and arm protectively over her stomach. She walked over to Fado and extended her hand to him in greeting. "You are the great Fado, yes?" The man's hand was clammy in hers.
"Oi, er, yeah, that be me." He gave her a goofy grin.
"Ah yes, you are the friend of my beloved husband, aid to him in his battles for the land! I am indeed honored to meet you." She bowed, and brought herself up slowly.
"Miss, no Princess, Princess, it's me that should be well honored to meet you!" He looked confused.
"Ah no, that is not the case at all. You are a fellow hero of the land of Hyrule. You after all, helped Link in his adventure, and you should be rewarded as well."
"Miss, I mean Princess, I just stayed here really, and herded me sheep."
"Yes, perhaps, but you took Link's place. You protected Ordon, and the sheep. Please, good sir, call me Zelda."
"I..er...Zelda-"
"Now if we were under ordinary circumstances, back in Hyrule, you would be called before the throne room and I would knight you, and we'd have a grand ball, and we'd all dance in castle, but sadly, we are not under normal circumstances. We'll have to postpone all that, but please, Knight Fado, will you dance with me now, to officiate your Knighthood?" She bowed again, trying not to laugh.
Uli looked on with great curiosity, and confusion.
"Oi, um, well whatever my Princess asks."
Lost in the drunken merriment, the rest of the village did not notice Fado and Zelda dancing, as they waltzed around the makeshift dance floor. Fado tripped a few times, and after Zelda managed to pull him over to where Ilia was sitting, now alone, she stopped and pulled her hands stomach.
"Oh ow! Ow! Oh no, I'm cramping up. I shouldn't have eaten all that food. It isn't good for the baby. Excuse me dear Knight Fado, but I must stop our dance for my own health." Zelda put on her best dramatic face.
"You'se sure you'se okay Princess?" Fado asked with concern.
"Oh yes, but it is such a shame, oh yes! Such a shame." She plunked herself down on the chair next to Ilia, who was now watching intently. "Knighthood is not official until, err, an official dance has been danced. Front to end I'm afraid, and in my eyes it's a shame to waste any dance." She turned to Ilia, hoping the two believed her story, however shoddy it was. "Ilia, I did not see you there! Oh my perhaps I can ask you to dance with this gentleman, the great Knight Fado, please. As a favor to the entire kingdom." Zelda prayed the two would buy her story.
Ilia stood and for a moment Zelda feared she would turn and run, or yell, but she did neither. She extended and arm to Fado and they danced away. Zelda stood and walked back to her original seat with Uli and sat, and by the time she made her way across the room and turned back, a smile had broken across Ilia's face. Zelda burst into a giddy laughter along with Uli.
"For goodness sake, what did you do?"
"I haven't the slightest, but it appears to have worked."
"Zelda, you are not what I expected in the least."
For the first night since Link had been gone, she felt happiness and warmth in her spirit.
The heat was getting to her. The heat was intolerable. A month and a week had passed, and even though it was now only late spring, it was hotter than ever. It didn't help matters that she had yet to give birth, and now she was bigger than ever. She silently cursed the medicine man that said she would birth early. Incompetent. It also did not help matters that she had not heard from Link yet. She was hot, worried, and very, very pregnant. She sat with her newly made close fried, Uli in front of their house, upon two stumps where they usually met to embroider and talk in the afternoons. Morgandy napped in a basket on the grass, and Zelda sat embroidering a nightgown for her unborn child. She already finished two other outfits and a blanket, as well as a dress for herself. She forgot she was actually quite good at it.
A breeze came, giving her temporary relief. She stretched her neck, her straight hair took flight in the light wind. She could see Ilia in the distance, near the stream with Fado. Ever since Zelda's first night they'd been getting closer, and for the past half and hour Uli and Zelda had been spying on them. Her eyes were drawn away by a rider entering the town, a strange man she suspected of being a courier. She raised herself up slowly. She walked, more waddled closer to the man, who now looked around form atop the horse, searching. She came closer, and a swarm of apprehension attacked her. She was nervous now, even though she would be receiving news she had long waited for. The possibility that it could be horrid news flooded her mind, and suddenly she was aware of nothing but the courier. Even as she quickened her pace, the walk seemed to take forever. Eventually she reached him, and her hands trembled with fear.
"I am Zelda, have you news for me?"
"Yes a letter for Princess Zelda," he responded. "I'd like to introduce myself. I'll be the new courier for you and Link, being that we can't let your location out to too many people. They call me Milo. Link is well, and sends his best wishes, and is eager to know how you and child are after the birth."
The tension melted away at the news he was well.
"-But I can certainly tell that hasn't happened yet," Milo continued, as he passed her the letter.
"Excuse me!" She exclaimed in a playful tone, taken in by the relief and joy the letter had brought.
"Begging your pardon Princess," he laughed. "Now I can wait until you finish your response if ya like."
"Yes, thank you." She started for her home. "Come with me, I'll find you something to eat."
Through the hot haze she walked back to the cottage.
"Right through here," she called back, but suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks.
A sharp pain racked her body, and a pool of liquid began to form at her bare feet.
The baby was coming.