I'm hurt! My last chapter got only 2 reviews?! Seriously; I'm hurt!
I thought the little joke about the drunk ill-tempered Ingo proposing to our wise, fair Zelda would have gotten someone to laugh… or the passage where the fair Zelda told the old Daphnes that the reason she spoke… nonsense was because she had inherited her father's foolish tongue…
Nobody also reacted to what I wrote about our young king Link; about his ruthless side as a warrior… as a slayer.
How mean.
Or well, whatever tough crowd, I'll still write on…
This chapter I fear might not be to your liking, especially if you are a ZeLink fan(atic)… I'd say it is rather sad, so you may want to keep a handkerchief and/or a box of tissues at hand. And some good glue (in case your heart breaks).
Sleep had indeed not come easily to the troubled Zelda that night… and it continued to come in that manner in all the nights that followed.
By day she would go about her farmly duties, but it was an easy thing for one to see that the fair maiden was troubled and that her mind was far away. Day after day she struggled, cudgeled her brain to find a way out of her mishap. Alas, the only ways out she found lay in dishonesty and deceit, and these she dared not think to transverse. For one, her good, honest heart would not allow her to commit herself to such sin, and for two, she had seen and felt firsthand what dire consequences would fall upon her if she dared play the king false.
In the end, her plan, if one could call it such, was that she would go to the castle and follow through with the young king's plan. She would study and learn how to be a queen, how to speak and behave like a noble, how to speak and act in court, and how to rule and govern a country.
However, what she would not do, or rather would not allow, was for her and the young king to be anything more than good friends. She hoped that by doing so, remaining merely the young king's good friend, the young king would eventually turn his attention to another maiden, for she had most certainly not forgotten that the young king sought not only a capable queen ruling alongside him, but also a loving wife who would bear him his children. So, she reasoned that if she studied dutifully but allowed nothing more than a good friendship to bloom between herself and the young king, that she would eventually be allowed to return to her dear father and friends, and hopefully this way, the young king would not be disappointed in her or bear her any grudge.
The rest of the month passed much too quickly for the distraught Zelda. Day after day she grew sadder and sadder. Day after day, she grew more and more distraught. Little things she had barely thought about or paid notice to before, such as her daily chores, or even just her everyday surroundings, suddenly become most dear to her, almost like very dear friends, now that she had to leave them behind, just as she had to leave behind the rest of her joyful life, which she had built and come to love since the day the young king had sent her and her old father here on the farm of the burly landlord Master Talon.
The day the fair Zelda so dreaded had finally come; the month was at its end. While the others were out working on the farm, the poor Zelda stood in the room she had lived in these past two years and had come to share with the slim Anju and two other dear friends. Distraught, she gathered her clothes and packed them, praying desperately that by some miracle that the young king had forgotten about her and that the carriage would not arrive to pick her up.
"Child?"
The fair Zelda turned, and there in the doorway stood her grey father, the old Daphnes.
At once the distraught Zelda threw herself into her father's arms and sobbed.
"There, there, my child…" soothed the old Daphnes his distraught daughter, stroking her head and hair, just as he had always done when she had been a tiny, little girl.
From between his strong arms, the poor Zelda sobbed, "I do not want to go… I do not want to leave!"
The old Daphnes sighed and continued stroking his little girl's head.
"I know, child… I do not wish you to go like this either… against your wish and will…" here the old Daphnes gave a deep, sad sigh, "But I fear you must… this is a good, fine mess you have made and caught yourself into… while you did not mean to become our king's fiancée… you did give him much reason to believe so…"
A loud. Distraught sob sounded from between his old, strong arms, from his poor little girl.
Again, the old Daphnes stroked her head soothingly.
"There, there child… there is no need for you to cry so hard… it is not as though we cannot see each other again or that you will not come back to us… did you not say that you would only stay with the young king until he realizes that you hold him as a friend, but not as a lover?"
"But who knows when that will be? Who knows how long that will take?" cried the distraught Zelda, "For all I know, I could be spending many weeks, or even months, before our king decides to find another for his bride…"
Again, the old Daphnes let out a deep sigh.
"Well, child… I fear you will just have to wait and endure until our king decides to see you home…" said the old farmer, which caused the distraught maid in his arms to sob much more.
Just then, a light knock sounded on the door, and shortly after the door opened and then the slim Anju poked her head in.
"Dear Zelda?"
The next moment she rushed to her dear friend's side, "Dear Zelda, why do you cry?"
The teary-eyed farmmaid turned to face her.
"I do not want to go…" the distraught Zelda whimmered, "I want to stay here, with you and our dear Malon…!"
"Oh, my poor Zelda!" cried the slim Anju as she took her poor, distraught friend into her arms and wept with her, for as the day of the fair Zelda's departure drew nearer and nearer, both the slim Anju and the good Malon came to feel more and more how much they were going to miss their dear friend, their dear Zelda.
The grey farmer, the old Daphnes, watched the two farmmaids in quiet sorrow.
But then he spoke.
"Anju dear child, have you come to tell us of something?"
It pained the slim Anju to let go of her dear friend. But it pained her so much more what she spoke next.
"…the king's carriage is coming… one of the farmboys who had come from the cucco coops saw it approach…"
.
A frown marred the stern Impa's brow.
Many a dear friend of the fair Zelda's had come to see her off and to wish her well before she would leave and act as the king's overseer on another farmer's farm, for that was what had been told to all the farmfolk who lived and worked on the farmlands of the burly landlord Talon. They did not know, nor were allowed to know, that the young, fair Zelda was to be their young king's fiancée. They knew nothing of the king's plight of expected marriage. They knew nothing of the king's unknowing of whom to marry. They knew nothing of the young king's plan to teach and train a commoner's girl to become his wife and Hyrule's next queen. Many a hug was exchanged, and countless tears flowed, but none cried more or harder than the fair Zelda.
It was the way the fair Zelda cried that had the knightly Impa frown and decide to speak with the young farmmaid once they alone inside the carriage.
It seemed as though the tearful good-byes and heart-breaking farewells would never end, but at last her dear friends let the fair Zelda go.
"Are you all ready to depart now, young Zelda?" the stern Impa's brow was still furrowed, both in concern and in something not much unlike suspicion.
The poor Zelda sniffled, and struggled to brush away her tears, but nodded.
"Then let us be off now," said the stern Impa and climbed into the carriage.
The poor Zelda, torn by her desire to stay, turned once more to see her dear old father, and all her dear good friends. Then, with a break of heart, and a new break-out of tears she climbed into the carriage and took her seat opposite the stern Impa.
"We can depart now, Master Driver," said the stern Impa.
The carriage driver at once snapped the reigns and the horses started to trot.
The instant she felt the carriage move, the distraught Zelda felt her heart break for what felt to her the hundredth time. But this heartbreak, she felt, was by far the worst, and she felt her eyes burn once more.
It took the fair Zelda everything she could not to cry.
It took the fair Zelda everything she could to remain seated.
It took the fair Zelda everything she could not to scream at the driver to stop.
It took the fair Zelda everything she could not to bolt out of the carriage.
It took the fair Zelda everything she could not to run back to her dear, old father and all her dear, good friends.
She had barely left, and already the sickness for one's home struck and tormented the poor Zelda like the cruelest plague.
"Fair Zelda."
The stern voice of the knightly Impa jolted the distraught Zelda out of her stupor.
"Are you feeling ill? Your face is frightingly pale."
The fair Zelda lowered he eyes and shook her head.
"No, Lady Impa, I am not unwell. Bidding farewell to my dear father and all my dear friends has merely struck me harder than I had thought," she said while brushing away some tears, "I had not the faintest idea that bidding farewell could sting your heart so badly…"
The stern Impa rose an eyebrow but said nothing.
Two years ago, back when the vile Ganondorf had invaded Hyrule and slayed the old king, the present young one's uncle, many, many of Hyrule's soldiers had fallen before the war had truly began. And when, after many gruesome days, the young then-prince Link had gathered and rallied what was left of Hyrule's army, all he had was but a small force, too little to oppose the armies of the vile Ganondorf's.
As such, not only was the young then-prince forced to recruit volunteers… but he was also forced to add any able man into the militia. Whether that man wanted to or not.
And it was one such instant that had come to the stern Impa's mind, when she had seen the fair Zelda cry with her friends. That time, the stern Impa had seen a young lad being taken from his mother and sisters to be taken into the militia. The luckless lad had just reached the age when a lad was considered a grown man, even though his mind and heart were still much that of an immature child.
The stern Impa would never forget how the lad, the mother, and his sisters had wept.
And if one were to ask the stern Impa, she would swear that the fair Zelda had cried very much like them.
In case someone wants to know why the fair Zelda is being so distraught… in this chapter I kinda modeled her after myself. I was in her situation not too long ago. My readers from "the silver dagger" might still remember that I went through some rough time; a period of unemployment. Well, I found a job but… it cost me my hometown. For this damn job of mine, which I never really wanted, nor enjoy, I had to leave my hometown, the place I spent my last 10 years of my life.
It was scary as hell for me.
I had never been outside of my hometown all those 10 years… not even during summer break or things like that 'cos my family couldn't afford it, and then just like that I had to leave everything I knew behind; practically from one day to the next; all by myself. The place I went to… where I am no… I've never been here before, I didn't know anybody here… I did want to get out of my hometown someday, but on my own terms and only once I was fully prepared. When I left, it was neither on my own terms, nor could I prepare myself for it… I was broke and I needed the job.
Before I get carried away… I was damn close to having a nervous breakdown.
I don't know about you people out there… but moving to a new place, possibly permanently, without really knowing anything about the place or any of its people, and not really having the option to return home…
It was damn scary for me… and damn hard on my mind.
If you still don't get it; try to picture this, girls:
How would you feel if by accident you agreed to marry some guy you barely know but do not love, you can't break off the engagement, and now you have to live with him for good; you can't just go back. You don't know the place, you don't know the people at his place, and you have to go all by yourself, no friend, no family to accompany you.
Sounds fun doesn't it?
And if somebody doesn't like the fact that our fair Zelda acts so childish… I don't like it either; things just… turned out this way, 'wasn't my plan or intention but once I wrote it down, this is what came out.
Oh well, an adult, more so a young one, or an adolescent, is just a big child… and any adult who isn't has grown or is growing cold-hearted.
And come to think of it, I never had a group friends and family to wish me good-bye and shed tears for me 'cos they'll miss me, nobody really wanted me with them so… I guess it's not too surprising that I may have messed this up.
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.
PS: And if you find any clerical and/or grammatical errors; LET ME KNOW! SERIOUSLY!