-Zelda
"Everyone is tripling their efforts in guarding the camp! If you weren't on guard duty before, you are now! If you see a squirrel, you shoot it. If you see a fly enter this camp, you kill it. I don't even want to see a leaf blow in here. Now who was guarding the south woods so I know who to punish?!"
A few names were thrown at me, but I didn't care to take note on who was back stabbing who. I was getting sick of all my men.
My husband was fine after the ordeal that happened yesterday. If anything, he was just more alert and had even more energy than before, which was very hard for me to comprehend since the little man would use to tire if he walked too long. I forced him to rest, even if he didn't need it. Admittedly, I did it as pay back for when I was forced to do just that. Ha! Now was anyone else going to deem me crazy?! They couldn't take the King's side, if he wasn't present at the meetings!
I dismissed the men and started storming to the medical tent to find more people to harass. I needed to continue yelling at people, less I had nothing to do. The poor nurses had been subjected to my abuse the most. Physically sewing up a wounded man was more gratifying than trying to fight my husband in leading the armies. It helped calm me down, even if it made the doctors and nurses less so.
"We can't be wasting anymore time," I muttered to myself. Though muttering to myself had always turned to muttering to Lance. I didn't need him to answer, but he often did.
"The enemy is getting impatient. They will be after us if we're ready to attack or not. My whole being here is endangering everyone!"
"Well, we are here to protect you. It's kind of the point," Lance replied.
"What's the point of a safe Queen with all her subjects are dead! We almost lost the King! If it wasn't for Link... Where is he? Me need to start his mission as soon as possible."
"Okay, Zelda," With the way Lance started his sentence, I knew I was going to get more angry. I even knew what he was about to say. He was going to join the other side like everyone else! "I know, how much you hate Link, but is it really necessary to get him killed like that?"
I felt my entire body go on fire, like I was going to explode. I just needed to get enough air in my lungs so I could start screaming in the volume in which my statement needed to be screamed at.
"Hold up, just try to think of the other side for a moment," Lance quickly said, trying to stop the volcano of fury from unleashing. "Link's a very good fighter. Probably the best, has a great head on his shoulders, knows the castle and a lot about these types of enemies. He has a few tricks up his sleeve, he's very crucial in any sort of plan to regain the castle..."
I released a breath and took a step back, trying to regain my composure.
"... BUT... since we're facing a whole army of bad guys... shouldn't we also have a whole army of good guys?"
"Lance, are men have no chance against the forces of evil. These aren't simply other soldiers we're facing. It's dark magic, things that a normal man couldn't possible understand!"
"And Link does?"
"Yes!"
"Link's stormed a castle... all by himself?"
"As a matter of fact, he has!"
"Okay, I just don't remember that ever happening. But if he's cool with it, and that's what you want... I guess it's cool..."
I rolled my eyes, realizing that I was just going to have to ignore Lance's remarks like always.
I put a hand over my swollen stomach and felt a persistent pressure in my bladder. Everyday, I've been forced to relieve myself fifteen goddess forsaken times. It was manageable when we were still at the castle, but it was ridiculous now. There was no bathroom here, and I'd continuously had to find a safe place to pee without getting caught.
I looked around wildly. I had dismissed my maids during the ordeal with my husband, because the excesses people were making things difficult. "Where's Annabell?"
"Like I'd know," Lance huffed.
"I need her," I snapped and Lances eyes widened when he realized why. "There's no time in looking for her!" and I started to leave the camp and go deeper into the trees.
"Wait, yes there is! We can find her in time! Just hold it. You just went!"
"I can't just hold it when the living being inside me is using my bladder as a pillow!" I plowed through the brush, annoyed that my dress and skirts kept getting caught in sticks and branches.
"Wait, hold on! Do you not remember the attempt to kidnap you that just happened yesterday?!"
"They're coming from the south. I'm heading north!"
"That-that doesn't mean anything!"
I spun around to him. "Do you really just expect me to urinate right in the middle of camp in front of everyone?! I'm not going that far! I never go too far!"
"Okay, fine, fine! Just be quick."
I walked a few more paces then glared at him as he continued to follow me. "Excuse me!"
"What?"
"Some privacy?"
"I can't just let you wandering off on your own! Annabell's not even with you, and frankly, even if she was and you guys got attacked her screaming isn't going to protect you."
"Oh for heaven's sake! I'm not peeing in front of you!"
He took a step back. "Is that better?"
"No!"
"I'm not looking."
"Yes you are! You are staring directing at me!"
"I'm looking at the space around you! For potential danger!"
I let out a little scream, mortified by my current situation. "I'm going behind this tree!"
"Okay, go ahead!" Though as I stepped behind the tree, he also took a step closer.
I turned away from him, back against the tree, as I tried to figure how to arrange my skirts in the best way to do this. It was indeed looking impossible. Not to mention even if I was naked, squatted in general was going to be a problem with my swollen stomach.
"Do you need help?"
"Shut up! Don't talk to me!"
"I mean, doesn't Annabell usually help hold your skirt up or something? Are you sure you don't need an extra hand?"
"Do you really think I am going to let you hold up my dress while I urinate?!"
"Fine. Pee on your dress. I don't really care."
Leaning on the tree, with my legs spread apart, I started to gather up the endless sea of fabric. Just when I was about to reach the end, Lance came out of no where, pinning me to the tree with one of his arms while another held a dagger in front of us. I let out a very loud scream.
"Show yourself, intruder!"
There, standing five feet away and trembling was the small red headed girl I had seen with Link's horse, a small toy bow in her hands. Her blue eyes were large and threatened to spill over her plump pink cheeks.
I smacked Lance as hard as I could on the shoulder. His shoulder be quite harder than I expected, wasn't satisfying, so I took up smacking him wherever my hands landed. I was so angry at him, unintelligible cries escaped my lips. How could he be so stupid to mistake a girl as a threat?! Part of me thought maybe he did this all on purpose just because he knew how much the ordeal was pissing me off.
I remembered the girl, and tried to ease up, backing up and fanning my face while I took deep breaths. "Why hello there, dear! Whatever are you doing here?"
"Your Majesty!" she cried out, a bit loud, before crashing onto her knees. "I'm running away! I'm sorry that I troubled you, but is this pervy old man harassing you?"
I crossed my arms and lifted an eyebrow, very amused.
"What?!"
I lifted my hand to silence Lance. "Now, now, don't concern yourself with him. Why is it that you are running away?"
The girl blushed. "My parents are stupid. So I'm going away on a mission. I'm going to find a fairy!"
I smiled. "What is your name?"
"Lana, Your Majesty."
"Well Lana, it has been said that fairies have been extinct for a very long time."
She frowned at me, her small lower lip jutting out in disapproval. "I saw one," she stated.
She seemed so sure of herself. "Well, I'd have to believe you then. Good luck on your mission."
She stared back at me surprised, probably trying to figure out why I, a grown adult, was not stopping her.
"Well, the mission isn't going too well," she said guiltily, blushing and looking to the ground before looking back at me hopeful. "But I hear that you're the wisest person in the world!"
Lance snickered at that. I ignored him.
"Surely, if I had your help... we could find a fairy."
I was about to open my mouth to explain why I couldn't do that, but she interrupted me.
"I don't have any money, but I could be of service to you, Your Majesty!"
I bit back my laugh. "What is it that you offer?"
"Well," she blushed again. "We're both girls, Queen Zelda. And if you need someone to help you with... you know... I can help. And I can also protect you if you get attacked by monsters. I brought my bow!"
This girl was too cute.
"Okay, do you want me to just grab her and we can go back to the camp? Then maybe we can find Annabell or something," said Lance, bored with the child's company already.
"I know how to use it!" she cried, offended by Lance ignoring her. "Watch! Let me prove it!"
As she raised it, both Lance and I immediately flinched and attempted to make a grab for the bow before she released her arrow. Lance's arm was violently flung back against the tree as the arrow embedded his sleeve into the bark.
"See? If I wanted him dead, he would have been."
This girl was her father's daughter.
"You little shit!" Lance cried out, before ripping out the arrow quickly to free his arm. "Can I kill her?" Lance asked me. "Can she be considered a threat so I can kill her?"
"No!" I glared at him. "I think I shall acquire her services. Lance, go somewhere else."
"You can't be serious!"
"I am very serious. Now leave! Go over there somewhere!" I shooed him away. Lana had the biggest grin on as she slung her bow over her back and then poked out her tongue at Lance. Lance very immaturely returned the gesture. I looked at her very seriously. "Miss Lana, would you please, hold my dress for me?"
"Yes!" and she hurried over to me.
I went back to my awkward position before gathering up the skirts once again, but this time for the small girl to hold. I wasn't really sure she could hold it all in her arms, for the dress seemed to swallow her up, but she managed to lift the fabric over the ground, her small head buried in it.
"This dress is so pretty...!" I heard her muffled voice say as I was concentrating on my position and not making a mess all over my stockings. Thank goodness I had decided to stop wearing underwear.
I had a small pouch that had a silk clothe for wiping myself. A Queen would never use leaves for such a task! Yet another thing my hand maids thought I would need in the evacuation of the castle. Actually, I found myself quite grateful for this. It was just one slight comfort in all the other bullshit I was going through. I would have to thank them for that. But I was starting to run out of wiping clothes.
Lana must have known I was done because she could feel me struggling to stand up. I saw one of her little arms surface from the fabric and blindly reach for me. I smiled at it, doubting she could have the strength to pull me up, but took her little hand anyway.
She pulled, and with me pushing myself off the tree, I found myself standing up without having to step in the puddle I had made. Lana let for go of my skirts and helped me smoothed them out around me.
"Thank you very much, Miss Lana. I am so grateful for all of your help!"
"Yea, yea, hurry up so we can go back to the base!" Lance cried over from his position away from us.
"But I need help looking for the fairy!" Lana cried out distressed.
"Of course, pay him no heed," I said as I walked over to a fallen tree. I rubbed my hand on the mossy bark for a moment to make sure there wasn't anything nasty on it before I sat down. "Tell me, you said you saw one? Do you have any idea of what type of fairy it was?"
Lana sat on the log with me. "Type?"
"Well of course there are the Great Fairies, who rule over all other fairies."
"Yes! I know about them! But this wasn't a Great Fairy."
"No?"
"No, this one was small, like this." She made a circle with her hand. What she described was too big to be a fire fly. "I think it had four wings... but I'm not sure. and I think it was pink, but maybe yellow."
Lance came closer to us clearing exasperated, not as eager as humoring the poor girl as I was.
"And it was leaving a trail of fairy dust!"
"How do you know so much about fairies?" I asked her.
"My daddy. But I didn't know they left fairy dust until I saw it!"
"What do you mean? What's this fairy dust?" Honestly, I hadn't believed the girl right away when she first started her story, but now I felt something tighten deep within me as she went on describing this 'fairy'. Even if it wasn't a fairy at all, I had no idea what she could have seen. But I believed that the girl had saw something. Something strange enough to be magical.
"Okay, we've been gone too long. Let's grab the kid, bring her back to her parents and return to the camp before people start freaking out that they can't find you."
"No! Don't bring me back to my parents! I'm running away!"
"Awe," I lifted a hand to stroke the distressed girl's beautiful hair. "Running away isn't good, little one. You could get kidnapped."
"Yea," Lance agreed quickly.
Lana pouted as she subconsciously leaned into my touch, kind of like a purring cat. "I might want to kidnap you," I said instead. "Lance, can I keep her?"
"NO! Zelda, you're already about to have a baby, you don't want two!"
"Awe, but this one's so cute!"
Lana beamed up at me. "You're really pretty, too," she said bashfully.
I returned my hand and placed it over my chest. "How sweet!"
She looked at Lance. "You're just funny looking."
"WHAT!? Well you're short!"
"I'll get taller when I get older. You'll always be funny looking!"
"Okay, can I kill her?"
"No." I stood up, brushing my dress off. "But we should be going back. I doubt your mother will be please when she realized I have taken you," I told the little girl.
"My daddy says that the Queen couldn't kidnap or take prisoner of anyone, because they'd go with her willingly!" Lana said as she scrambled off the log and started to follow me.
"Did he now?"
"Yea, but he says a lot of weird things about you. Like he can't decide if he should say nice things or mean things. But I like you. I think you're a cool person! If I live in the castle with you, would I get to wear pretty dresses?"
"You can have as many dresses as you like!"
"Okay, Okay," Lance muttered as he tried to heard us and make us go faster. "Back to camp we go. Wait a sec..." I noticed Lance had paused in his walking so I turned around to him. He was staring off at something in the distance.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something large coming in our direction. I grabbed Lana by the shoulder instinctually, and stepped in front of her before I even knew what was happening.
Of course Lance bounded in front of me, blocking my view, and I didn't see what hit him, shielding me from his body. He crumbled to the ground, and only then did I see the large bullbo and Bublin riding toward us. The sound was deafening as it crashed through trees. I had to give the Bublin credit for keeping the bullbo quiet until now.
I only had seconds to bring up Nayru's love. As the bullbo ran into us, it pushed back the blue crystals and squealed as shards of the magic hit it in the face. We were pushed back several feet, yet I somehow managed to stay upright. I hadn't realized that the unconscious form of Lance had not made it into the protected forcefield.
Bullbos don't normally stop. I was never really sure how Bublin trained to ride them, since most bits or other aids were easily ignored by the large pigs, but this one managed to get its bullbo to slow down and delicately turn around through the trees. I realized that there was an arrow sticking out of the bullbo's head, and wondered if the projectile had given the creature some sort of crude lobotomy.
The Bublin brought the bullbo to Lace, where the beast sniffed him once before opening its large mouth to munch on my poor bodyguard.
"Lance!" but even as I took a step forward, an arrow flew past me, landing in the bullbo's eye socket. I turned around, thinking more enemies were behind me, but the arrow had come from Lana, her bow still raised as it trembled in her small hands. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates to what she had just done, and probably just as surprised that the bullbo was still moving.
It gave a grunt, turning its head in out direction before making a few steps closer to us, but the life was finally leaving the mount, and without getting far it fell, crushing Lance underneath it. I winced at that, but despite a few broken bones, I was fairly confident Lance would survive, if whatever had put him unconscious in the first place wasn't deadly.
The Bublin started to wiggle itself out from under the bullbo, but before I could let it escape I grabbed it with my mental hold, raising it above the ground. I had planned to use the poor filth for questioning, but before I could carry anything more out, I heard a scream.
I whipped around, still somehow managing to keep a hold of the Bublin while witnessing a Bokoblin holding Lana up with one arm. It grabbed her bow from her before breaking it, and then got a better grip on her as she vainly struggled.
"Ha, ha, ha! Got some nice young meat here!" it said in its whiny voice.
"Let her go," I commanded, "and I shall release your friend as well." I brought the Bublin around me, having it hover in the air before us. The Bublin couldn't move, but its eyes fretted around nervously.
The Bokoblin laughed. "I don't care about 'im! You're gonna have to offer something better than that, Queen Zelda!" It spit out my name like a nasty piece of fruit, before it took out its machete, poking Lana in the side with it, and she let out more cries of fear.
"Well then, instead how about I'll show you what I'll do to you if you do not let her go?" I kept my glare on the Bokoblin though I concentrated on the Bublin. I tried to make as little hand movements as possible to make the efforts of my actions seem easy. I clenched my fist, and crushed part of the Bublin's skeleton. The noise was quite audible. Then I released just part of my hold so that the Bublin had the freedom to scream. The sound was truly horrifying, but I did not let that unsettle me in the least. I watched the Bokoblin's face lose its confidence.
Then I regained my hold on the Bublin, squeezing its throat until its eyes were popping out, turning the creature inside out until finally condensing the whole thing into half of its size, letting blood spatter in every direction. Lana had screamed. I hoped I hadn't given her nightmares, though it was probably unavoidable now.
I let pieces of the once Bublin fall to the ground as I watch the Bokoblin shake with fear. "Are you rethinking your decision?"
The Bokoblin shook his head and then laughed. "You maybe able to do that to just one of us, but can you do it to all of us at the same time!"
I hadn't noticed the other Bokoblin surrounded us. I had put too much concentration on killing the Bublin.
I raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps? Would you like to find out?" I couldn't grab all of them, but I made sure to go around and touch each and everyone. They didn't have to know I couldn't hold them all at the same time.
There were eight Bokoblin and one very large Big Blin. Big Blins weren't very fast. We could out run that. I wouldn't be able to outrun the Bokoblins, but if I fought them off, I could give Lana a head start. And then I could use Farore's Wind to reach safety. Hopefully Lana could make it to the people and warned them about the threat. The soldiers could easily handle this small handful of enemies.
The Bokoblins were all whispering to themselves in fear, each one feeling my mental touch.
"Even if you killed us," the Bokoblin who had Lana bravely said, "You wouldn't be able to do it before we killed the girl. Because if you could, you would have already done it!"
"Well what's the worth of some lowly girl's life to yours? Is it truly worth your own? She's not even special. She has poor parents and is worth nothing."
"Ha! Maybe so!" Good they didn't know how important she was. "But the Queen is too sentimental to let a small nobody die and save 'erself!"
I was running out of ideas. I needed them to let go of Lana. "Then what are you proposing?"
"The Master wants you! Come with us willingly, and we'll let the kid go."
If I went with them now, I could easily escaped later, but, "How do I know you won't kill her anyway?"
The Bokoblin rolled its eyes. "I'll let 'er go...You can try and kill me if I don't. Guys, circle 'er! But don't make a grab for 'er just yet."
The circled me, and the main Bokoblin left the circle.
"See...? I'm putting 'er down right 'ere... Nothing to be all nervous about..." It dangled Lana by one arm again in front of its body, Lana struggling in the air. It was paying more attention to me, so it didn't see the kick in the face it was about to get.
It dropped Lana in surprise, and as soon as she was on the ground, I grabbed hold of the Bokoblin so it couldn't chase after her.
Concentrating on him, there was no hope for me to fight off the others, but I had assumed that they would capture me. I would escape later.
What I hadn't expected was the great Big Bin to swing its mighty club, with all its might, and hitting me right in my pregnant stomach.
Pain enveloped me so I could feel nothing else. I was aware of nothing else. I wasn't even sure if I landed on the ground. My entire body just screamed at me.
Through the pain I was trying to think, my thoughts flying as I tried to think of any possible thing I could do to save the baby. But I came with no answers. Time was racing and I could do nothing. I couldn't even move.
I couldn't move, but I must have been still conscious. Yes of course, because I could feel all this pain. The only thing I could do, once breath had returned to me, was let out a wail of despair of what had just happened, tears running freely down my face. It was all I could do. I wasn't able to think rationally. I wasn't able to calculate a plan.
I just screamed.
