To all my readers: I'm sorry for being such an ass the last chapter. I mean it.
I've had a very bad week back then and after that I was really looking forward to your reviews. I love reading your reviews; they cheer me up and there one of the very few things I have left in life that make me happy.
So when I logged in after that... unpleasant week and saw that single short review... it kinda felt that after giving me a week full of injury life was adding insult to it.
So, once again, my sincerest apologies.
At Goi Fucks:
Although I'm miffed that you gave me a zero, I know where it's coming from and that I deserved it. Next time though, if I'm being an ass take it out on me, not my stories! Don't leave a zero in my reviews for that! That rating's for my story; leave it out of it!
At AnriMia24:
Good to read from you again, I was kinda worried I wouldn't, especially seeing that you have no account and so I can't contact you.
Anyway, I think you guys will really like this chapter. It (comparatively) long. It makes our young king even more likable. It's got a little bit of humor. And it's got a little intrigue as well.
While the red-haired Malon and all the other farmmaids busied themselves in the kitchens, the fair Zelda led the young king around the farm, and the stern Impa followed them, just a few steps behind.
The pretty maid showed them the corrals, with the running stallions and the prancing foals. She showed them the orchards with the fruiting trees and the humming bees. And she showed them the fields with the ripening grains and the growing greens.
But the wise, fair Zelda soon noticed that the young king was not much interested in seeing what she showed him.
After a while, the prudent Zelda decided to ask, "Is there anything or anywhere in particular, here on this farm, that you would like to see, your highness?"
The young king shook his head, "No, no there is not. Lead on fair Zelda."
The prudent Zelda hesitated a moment before she ventured to say, "Your highness, if you will forgive me, may I ask you a question?"
The young king minded not, "Go ahead, fair maiden, ask your question."
"It does not seem as though you are truly interested in what I show you, your highness," remarked the wise, fair Zelda, "Your mind seems to be somewhere else. Is it that something troubles you, your highness?"
The young king looked only little surprised.
"You are as observant as you were back when you and your old father stayed in the castle as my guests," he said simply.
After a moment he spoke again.
"Fair Zelda."
"Yes, your highness?"
"I have heard that people come to you for your advice. Is this true?"
"People have indeed come to me seeking my advice," replied the wise, fair Zelda.
"Well then, today I have come to you for your advice."
The fair Zelda knew not what to say. True enough, many people had come to see her for her advice. Farmmaids, stableboys, the baker, the miller, the innkeeper, even the blacksmith and the village mayor.
But never a man or woman of high birth, let alone a king.
"But your highness," said the confused Zelda, "I am but a lowly farmmaid. What advice could I possibly give to the king of our land."
"Let us see," said the young king, "I shall tell you my troubles and then you give me whether advice you can think of."
The young king strode to walk in stride with the wise, fair Zelda.
"My troubles lie in the fact that I have to find myself a wife."
The fair Zelda was surprised to hear this, "Why does this trouble you, your highness?"
"Because I know of no one I would wish to wed. Truth be told, I do not wish to wed in the first place."
The fair Zelda said nothing but was again surprised to hear this.
Seeing this, the young king decided to explain, "When my good uncle still lived and ruled, it mattered little whether I wed or not. He was alive, he was well and I... I was free to wed whomever I wanted, whenever I wanted... if I ever wanted."
The young king looked up thoughtfully.
"Perhaps it was because I had this freedom that I gave so little thought into finding myself a wife... To me, my wedding was always a far away thing in the distant days to come... I was just a young man, eager to see the world, eager to find myself. So I spent my time playing with the sword, hunting in the wild, and riding through the land... and so spent very little time with the fairer sex..."
The young king sighed sadly.
"But now that freedom is gone... My good uncle has departed, slayed by the treacherous, vile Ganondorf. Now I bear the crown and I am all there is of the royal family. I have no successors and if I die the nobles in the land will take up arms against each other to gain the crown and plunge Hyrule into another war, this time against herself. Which is why I must find myself a wife, the sooner the better, so that she can bear my children and heirs, the sooner the better, the more the better."
The fair Zelda blushed at the king's words.
The young king sighed and shook his head.
"Had I known this was to happen I would have put my old freedom to good use and enjoyed the company of every lovely damsel that was willing..."
"AHEM!" made the stern Impa it known that she was still with them.
"Only during the rare times my knightly duties would permit such of course," was the young king quick to add.
The fair Zelda knew not what to say, what advice to give her young king.
"Is there truly no lady or maiden that has captured your heart?" she at last ventured to ask.
"None," said the young king at once with conviction and without hesitation.
"Is there no lady or maiden you feel yourself at least attracted to?" the fair Zelda continued to ask.
The young king took a moment to think before he answered.
"There is a girl or two whom I find attractive, most pleasant to the eye, but as to go so far as to say that I feel myself attracted to... no, I cannot say that I truly do."
Once again the fair Zelda was surprised to her this.
"But you are our king. And have been so now for two years," she pointed out, "Do you not meet with princesses and highborn ladies all the time?"
"These past two years I have pretty much met every single maiden and woman there is here in Hyrule, wedded and unwedded, highborn and commoner. Noble ladies and princesses from neighboring countries I have met as well. But there lies the problem, I have only met them, I did not actually get to know them. I had much to do to rebuild our land. Vile Ganondorf and his raiders saw to that!"
The wise, fair Zelda nodded solemnly.
She had not stayed long in the castle being the king's guest but she had seen busy the young king had been in those few days. Back then he'd had no time for leisure. As soon as he had resolved a dilemma, another had been brought before him. And more often than not when he had made a decision, the lives of dozens if not hundreds had rested on it.
The wise Zelda also still remembered the dark, frightful day... the night, the vile Ganondorf's raiders had come to her province, to her farm, astride their long-tusked great-boars. She had not forgotten how they had rained fire upon her farmhouse, her home, and upon the homes of many others. She had not forgotten how they had fallen upon her friends and fellow villagers like a starving pack of wolves upon a frightened flock of sheep. She had not forgotten how her dear father, the old Daphnes, and herself had barely escaped with nothing but their own lives.
"To make matters more difficult..." brought the young king's voice the wise, fair Zelda back to the present, "Among all the noblewomen and princesses who have been presented to me so far, not one gave me the impression that she would not only make a true, loyal wife but a strong, capable queen ruling alongside me as well."
Again, the fair Zelda was surprised by the king's words.
"You intend to have your wife rule alongside you?" Back in those days there were not many men who would let their women or any women do so.
"I see no reason, or sense, in placing a crown on a woman's head, or anyone's head for that matter, and seating her on a throne if she then does not rule," replied the young king, "it has no appeal to me to have a wife who does little more than squander my rupees and bear my children. Nay, If I am to wed, it must be to a woman that I can be proud of to call my wife. A strong woman who is proud of who she is and is right in being so. I want a proud queen who will rule by my side, and one who is strong in mind, will and spirit, and will not break if I have to go to war and fall, and who will carry on with life, and will continue to rule the kingdom and raise our children."
The wise, fair Zelda took a moment to think over what her king had just told her.
"You ask for much," she said at last.
"I can hardly ask for less," replied the young king, "It is not just my happiness that is at stake here, but also the good of Hyrule, and that of my children as well."
"Yet it is cruel of you to expect your wife to take on your responsibilities, both as king and as father, while you go off to fight in a war, perhaps never to return."
"Do you think it is kind to us men that we must leave our warm, cozy homes and the company of our loving wives and dear children, to go off to bloody fields of battle to meet hostile men, armed with blade and spear, and who mean to kill us?"
The fair Zelda knew not how to respond to that.
The young king sighed.
"Were the Lady Impa not twice my age, old enough to be my aunt, but younger, as young as myself or you, I would consider taking her as my wife."
"Were you not my king now, but still the young lad entrusted to me to train in the art of swordsmanship and the code of chivalry, I would pick up a good sturdy cudgel and give you a hefty whack on the head for those insolent words."
"Well then..." said the young king, not daring to look behind, "I thank almighty Din and all-knowing Nayru then that I am the king and bear the crown."
"Well then, your highness," came the fair Zelda to rescue her young king, "aside from the lovely, fair Impa, who else would you consider to take as your wife?" she asked with a wink at the stern Impa.
"Careful now! Be mindful of how you speak of the Lady Impa!" warned her the young king, "If you think she will let you off easy simply because you are a maiden then you are quite mistaken. She is a woman herself. That whack on the head she promised me? If it would be any harder than the one she would give you, that would only be because she knows what my head can endure. But since you asked," continued the young king, "There is a princes from a neighboring country who has caught my eye, but I will not have her. Nor will she have me."
The fair Zelda was confused by the king's reply.
"What do you mean your highness? Why won't you take this princess to be your wife if she has caught your eye?"
Because the princess I speak of is none other than Princess Hilda of Lorule," responded the young king, "She will make a mighty queen one day... nay. Truth be told, she already is the undisputed queen of Lorule, even though she has yet to be crowned as such. One such as her I would be proud to call myself her husband. But I cannot have her. She is the last of Lorule's royal family, just as I am the last there is of Hyrule's royal family. If we were to wed, one of us would have to leave their homeland. I have no intention of leaving Hyrule, and Princess Hilda would sooner die than leave her homeland for another. Furthermore, although she is a capable ruler, she is also known to be somewhat ruthless. She also cares for Lorule and her people alone, she pays other countries no thought nor mind. Not if Lorule does not profit from them. If by some strange design she did agree to become my wife, I fear it would be for Lorule's sake, regardless of what that would mean for Hyrule."
The fair Zelda grew silent and thoughtful. Then she sighed.
"Forgive me your highness but I know not how to help you. I can think of no advice I can give you."
"Very well then," said the young king, "in that case I would like to know your thoughts in regards to a plan of mine."
The fair Zelda curiously tilted her head.
"What plan is this you speak of, your highness?"
"A plan that will bring me the wife that I wish for, and Hyrule the queen she needs."
Well, what do you think?
That part about the young king wanting a capable wife... that wasn't part of the original tale, that was me. In the original it wasn't mentioned why the king decided to marry, and what kind of woman for what reason.
As for me... well, the idea of having some dumb trophy wife doesn't appeal to me one bit. And I can't really understand why some men would want such.
Bad news everyone:
That's all folks. That's all I got.
For now!
Although I have already started writing the next chapter, just just a teeny-tiny bit so...
I don't know when I will post the next chapter. Maybe two weeks from now, maybe more.
To make things worse... I'm about to face another financial crisis. I got a plan but... well, you know how life is (I hope).
Well, you know the drill:
Please review and comment. All forms of reviews, comments and criticisms are very welcomed and appreciated. You are also welcome to send me private messages.
If you do not have the time to leave behind such, a numerical ratings from 0-10 will suffice just as well.
0 = Delete this shit. 10 = Perfect.