Hey guys, 'been a while, miss me? Sorry this took so long but you know how life is, (even if you don't have one)

Well… it's time that the fair Zelda answers for her "crimes," don't you think?

The fair Zelda was frightened, terrified even! It was the very next morning following the judgment of the cheating cowherder, and she had been invited to a private morning meal…

…with none other than the young king of Hyrule himself!

The frightened Zelda did everything in her power to keep from shaking… which was just not enough. The young king of Hyrule on the other hand was the perfect picture of calm… the kind of calm that heralded a coming storm!

"Fair Zelda…" began the young king of Hyrule to ask in a voice most gentle. All the while the young king of Hyrule kept his eyes half-closed and focused on the good food before him, "Why do you not eat? Are you perhaps feeling unwell?"

Though the young king's voice and been gentle and his appearance seemed calm, his aura was farthest from peaceful. The frightened Zelda felt as though just beside and behind the young king stood Nayru, goddess of law and order, and the Fierce Deity, the god of judgment and retribution, the goddess to declare judgment upon the frightened farmmaid and the god to carry out the sentence!

Nonetheless, the frightened Zelda forced herself to answer.

"F-forgive me, y-your highness," the frightened Zelda cursed herself for her stutter, "I s-simply find m-myself lacking a-appetite."

To reassure the young king, the frightened Zelda picked up knife and fork and ate a couple of little bits.

"Think you my judgment yesterday was just?"

The frightened Zelda swallowed heavily; the Fierce Deity had his sword at the ready; this the frightened Zelda knew.

"Y-yes y-your highness… I th-think your judgment was just…"

"I only wish I had judged the cheating cowherder rightly the first time…"

The frightened Zelda swallowed hard once more.

"Y-you need not fear, y-your highness… you did not… know-"

"Indeed I did not…" cut in the young king of Hyrule as he put down his tableware, hard, "However… I could have known… and I could have judged them rightly… if only someone had told me…"

A good long tense moment passed… yet the frightened Zelda dared not speak.

"Why… did you… keep… quiet…? And why did you not tell me you knew the whole time who the rightful owner was?!"

The frightened Zelda flinched back so quickly she nearly fell over, chair and maid and all. For the young king of Hyrule had at last raised his eyes to look upon the poor frightened farmmaid; his eyes were blue fire.

"And why did you have the ill-tempered Ingo make a fool out of me before the whole court?!"

Now truly fearing for her life, the terrified Zelda hurried to speak.

"I did not, your highness! I had nothing to do with-"

"Do not lie to me, woman!" half-roared the young king, "The ill-tempered Ingo himself said that all this, his odd behavior and everything was child of your mind!"

Hearing this, the fair Zelda froze. Then she felt cold anger begin to burn within her.

"And you believe him…?" she asked now unnaturally calm.

The young king's reply was cool and swift, "Since he had not meant to give you away… I do."

Again the fair Zelda froze. But then she felt her anger burn hotter and hotter.

"What have you done to Master Ingo?" hissed the furious Zelda, her prior fears completely forgotten.

At first the young king was stumped at the question. But then he narrowed his eyes.

"Beg pardon?" he half-growled.

"What have you done to Master Ingo?" asked once more the furious Zelda, "What did you do to him to make him… talk?"

"HOW DARE YOU, WOMAN?!" roared now the enraged king, "I did nothing to him! Neither did any of my men! I'd never order an innocent man be harmed!"

"Well then… man! Who made him talk?" shot back the furious Zelda.

The young king's reply was swift and flat,

"Beer, lots of it."

The fair Zelda blinked. Then she painfully held her head and groaned.

"…oh no…"

"Oh yes!" said the annoyed, young king of Hyrule, "Last day's eve, the ill-tempered Ingo was in the bar of the Lady Telma… celebrating his victory over, as he later that eve said, the foolish bratking of Hyrule! Can you guess how he celebrated?"

The pained Zelda said nothing. She merely groaned.

"Yes… you are quite correct, fair Zelda…" nodded the annoyed young king, "He put those rupees I gave him to very good use indeed… he bought himself the largest tankard full of the finest ale… one became two, two became three… three became four and then many, many more… needless to say all that ale loosened his lips… quite a lot…"

The fair Zelda, usually most wise and smart, had the odd desire to bang her head against the hard castle stonewalls!

"The ill-tempered Ingo said many, many things once he was drunk…" continued the young king of Hyrule, "Had I caught any of my men saying any of the things that foul-mouthed horse-raiser had said last eve, they'd be cleaning the castlestables every day from sunrise to sunset for a whole year! But there was one thing the foul-mouthed Ingo had said, that was most interesting… and that was about that little scheme of yours that had me humiliated in front of my own court and all other people present! When he was asked by another patron how he had come up with this strange plan, the drunk Ingo had replied that he didn't! It was all your idea he had said!"

The fair Zelda had to muster all her strength and willpower to stop herself from screaming.

"As for how I came to know about all of this…" continued the young king of Hyrule in a concluding tone, "The pub of the Lady Telma is very well-liked here in Hyrule Castletown… the food they serve is very good… and their ale? Many times more! There's many a person here in Hyrule Castletown who come and visit the pub of the Lady Telma… I myself have often eaten and drunken at the Lady Telma's back when I was still just a young knight… and I was most definitely not the only one! To this day, many of my men, knights, guardsmen, servants, like to eat and drink at the Lady Telma's after a long day of hard work… And it was such men, a group of castleguards, to be precise, whose shift for the day had just ended, who happened to be present that eve and heard everything the drunk Ingo had said that eve… and it was one of these men that decided that I ought to know as well!"

The fair Zelda had her pretty face in her hands and groaned, once more, in despair.

'Oh Din… burn all men and their lust for ale!'

"Well?" brought the young king of Hyrule the fair Zelda out of her thoughts, "What have you to say for yourself?"

It had been a while, but once again, the fair Zelda, who was renowned for her wits, found herself deserted by those very same wits, once again, at a time where she needed them most.

A good long moment passed before the young king of Hyrule began to ask again, "Why did you remain silent, back when the ill-tempered Ingo and the cheating cowherder first came before me? Not only did I mistreat the innocent Ingo and wrongly accused him… he could have also lost his foal for good!"

At that the fair Zelda's head snapped up, her pretty brow knotted in confusion.

"Indeed he could have…" answered the young king of Hyrule the fair Zelda's unspoken question, "Well… granted… seeing that it was a foal I do not think that the cheating cowherder would have anything done to it…" admitted the young king of Hyrule, "But had it been a calf or a piglet… What if the cheating cowherder had chosen to have it slaughtered? And what if he had sold all the meat or eaten of it? What could I have done then to make things right? What could you have done to make things right for the innocent Ingo?"

At that the fair Zelda felt her heart sink; for all her thinking that day, she had not thought of that.

"And lastly… why did you scheme against me like that?! Why did you scheme to have me humiliated?!" continued the young king of Hyrule angrily, "Why did you not just tell me that I misjudged the innocent Ingo and the cheating cowherder? You are my fiancée-"

At this the fair Zelda simply felt something within her snap.

"I never wanted to be your fiancée!"

Immediately her hands flew to her lips to cover her mouth. Alas, too late.

Silence reigned the room. The first to recover from his shock was the young king of Hyrule.

"…what do you mean you never wanted to be my fiancée? Did you not agree to be her? Is that not why you are here?!"

Frantically the frightened Zelda searched for an answer. Alas, her wits still had not returned to her.

"Hold on…" began the young king of Hyrule, the tone of his voice and the expression on his face of one who had realized that he had been under someone else's deception, "…is that why you have been performing so poorly in your studies? Is that why you have been so indifferent to me whenever we have been together?!"

Again the frantic Zelda sought for an answer, but her fabled wits had still not returned to her.

"Well then why in Din's name are you even here?!" demanded the young king of Hyrule to know, "Do you know much effort and time the wise, old Rauru and the stern Lady Impa spent looking after you and teaching you?! Do you know how often and how much I had to fight with my council and nobles just so that you could stay here?! Just so that we could be together?!"

Here the young king stopped, though it was plain to see in his burning eyes that he was far from finished!

But the poor Zelda still had no answer for the young king.

"Get out…"

"M-my lord?"

"GET OUT!" roared the young king at the height of his voice. Usually soft-spoken, one would never imagine him to have a voice like a lion! "GUARDS! GET HER OUT RIGHT THIS INSTANCE! DO NOT LET ME SEE HER AGAIN UNTIL I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HER!"

Well guys, what do you think?

In the original tale it was very different… and very unjust. The king, wanting to know who came up with the scheme that had him humiliated, had the farmer, who had almost lost his foal due to the king's oversight, tortured(!) until he revealed whose idea that scheme was.

I didn't like that. I didn't want that.

That's not the kind of king I want Link to be.

So… I tweaked things a bit to make the ill-tempered Ingo give away the fair Zelda himself. I thought it'd fit his character. At first I was thinking of having him break the promise he made to our fair Zelda; more or less fully intentionally.

But then I had a change of heart.

I hate traitors. I hate promise-breakers. There are already way too many in real life… so I sure as s**t don't want them to be in my fanfic as well!

So, nasty though the character of LOZ's Ingo may or may not be, I didn't want him to be THAT nasty. Some people have had it rough, some people have had it bad… and as a result they turned out not so nice. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad people. (I should know… I'm kinda one of them.)

And Ingo, as far as I know, is not an evil LOZ character; and I wanted to keep that.

So… I made the ill-tempered Ingo reveal everything because of a little… accident.

Ingo is a man. And men celebrate by drinking alcohol. Alcohol loosens lips, and loose lips sink ships. Perfectly logical; or at least I think so. 'Never happened to me, cos I HATE the smell and taste of alcohol, masculinity be damned! (Yeah… I'm a guy… and I hate alcohol… but in my defense… alcohol is a product of rotting food! Wow… yummy…)

Back to the story:

Well… it's a little ahead of time but, yeah, the third and final trial of the wise, fair Zelda is coming up soon.

Bad news: I'd say just three chapters more and you will have to bid farewell to the wise, fair Zelda. Not sure if you guys will miss her, but I'm pretty sure I will…

Please review and/or comment. All forms of reviews, comments and/or 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.

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1 = Why the hell did you even bother write this?!

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