Hey everyone, I'mNoOneSpecial here again,
I'm not quite sure why, but I'm kinda on a roll right now; maybe it's because the goal is so near now… because the end is near… because I am so close to finally post the ending which I have worked on ever since I first wrote "the silver dagger…"
Oh well, let's get to it! The countdown starts! This is the third to the last chapter! (Not counting the epilogue and the afterword.)
The fair Zelda once more found herself in the dining hall, sitting at the young king's table, with no one present other than the young king of Hyrule.
Sitting across from him, she wondered what she should say and how, waiting for the servants to bring in the evening meal. Once she half-opened her mouth as though to speak.
"Be silent for now," cut her off the young king of Hyrule, "We will eat first and then speak… I do not wish to lose what little appetite I have left."
The fair Zelda was very much perplexed by the young king's blunt attitude. Every time they had been together, the young king of Hyrule had been most courteous to the fair Zelda, even during his worst days. This sudden cold attitude of his came very much to the fair Zelda like a slap to her face. Nonetheless she took it all in in obedient silence. In a way the fair Zelda was grateful for this silence, uncomfortable and foreboding though it was, for it gave the fair Zelda time, time she needed to consider her words on how to best tell the young king of Hyrule all and everything she had to tell him…
…and from the young king's attitude the anxious, fair Zelda judged that she needed indeed the time to best consider her words.
"What is the matter with you?" startled the cold voice of the young king's the fair Zelda out of her thoughts, "Eat."
The fair Zelda blinked. She had been so deeply immersed in her own thoughts that she had not noticed that the servants had already brought in the food and set it on the table.
"Go on, eat…" urged her the young king again, "'ere the food grows cold."
The fair Zelda, due to her temporary banishment, had not eaten the whole day as the young king had ordered her thrown out before she had finished her first meal this morning.
Yet for some reason she found she even so could not eat.
It was then that the young king of Hyrule uttered a most rude thing to say,
"It is not poisoned if that is what is bothering you… if I wanted you dead, I'd much rather soil my sword than spoil good food…"
That had the fair Zelda up and alert! Her fire was lit and her eyes hardened! Whatever thoughts of food she may have had flew from her mind! Of a sudden she knew exactly what to tell the young king of Hyrule!
At once she flew up from her chair!
"Your highness…!"
The young king of Hyrule merely raised his eyes. So far these sapphire-blue eyes of his had been the height of indifference and disinterest. But now, these selfsame sapphire-blue eyes were alit with battlefire!
The message was clear: If the fair Zelda desired a fight, then the young king would happily oblige! But…
"I humbly beg your forgiveness!"
At last the fabled wits of the wise, fair Zelda had returned!
The young king of Hyrule eyed her questioningly.
"I had not meant to agree to your proposal! I never intended to become your betrothed… Alas, when you stood before me… so full of expectation… I simply could not bring myself to tell you so! And then, without realizing… without meaning to… I agreed! And in the days that followed… I could not bring myself to correct my mistake and tell you! I simply could not! And so I simply decided to go along with your scheme until the day you realized that I felt naught for you… alas I could not do so either! I could not bring myself to! I simply could not… keep up this act! …all this time, all I wanted was to return home… back to the great farm of the burly Master Talon's… back to my dear, old father… back to all my dear, good friends! Alas… I simply could not tell you so… not outright… I know I should have… but I simply could not! I simply did not have the heart… I simply did not have the courage! …so I waited and waited… until finally I could endure it no longer! I was so… so…! So frustrated! … and so… against my better judgment…"
Here the fair Zelda's voice turned truly regretful.
"…against all that is right and just… I took all that frustration out on you… your highness… you, who I took to be the cause of my dilemma…"
Now here the fair Zelda shut her eyes tight. After a deep, deep breath, she slowly opened them again and looked upon the young king of Hyrule.
Said young king's eyes still gazed sternly upon her… but the blue fire had dimmed. For a good long while silence reigned in the dining hall. Then the young king of Hyrule in an expressionless voice,
"Is there anything more you intend to say?"
The fair Zelda swallowed hard.
"Yes…" she said timidly, "I am truly ashamed of my behavior and of my actions… and I truly regret having carried them out… I leave my fate in your hands… your highness… to deliver Nayru's judgment upon me… and I solemnly swear… that I shall never again act out so shamefully against you…"
"Indeed you will not!" remarked the young king of Hyrule dryly.
Something about the way the young king of Hyrule said this unsettled the fair Zelda.
"What to do you mean, your highness?"
"Earlier this day I had a meeting with my council…" began the young king of Hyrule, "And everyone, including the wise, old Lord Rauru and the stern, fair-haired Lady Impa, has agreed that you are both unsuited and unworthy to be the next queen of Hyrule… Tomorrow morn you will be sent back to your father, back to the great farm of the burly Master Talon's."
The fair Zelda was dumbstruck by the young king's words. The next moment though she realized something perhaps even more shocking!
'How odd… all these weeks, every single day, I desired to go home… and now that it has finally come to pass… I feel not the littlest bit of joy…' Before the young king had called the fair Zelda back to the castle, she'd had every intention to make things right again and to make up with the young king of Hyrule…
…to leave now… like this… on bad terms…
…made the regretful, fair Zelda feel very badly indeed…
"When you returned to your quarters, gather your belongings," half-ordered the young king of Hyrule, "Tomorrow at dawn, as soon as you have broken your fast, you leave! Your friend, the good Malon, will be in the marketplace tomorrow, as she is every day… you can go with her when she returns to her father's great farm."
The fair Zelda said nothing, but nodded in a numbed manner.
But then, only Nayru would know why, she felt herself compelled to ask:
"Who is going to be your wife now?"
"That is none of your concern," responded the young king of Hyrule coldly.
…which truly irked the fair Zelda!
"Come to think of it… you might be right there… your highness…" replied the fair Zelda in a fakedly cool manner, "But it would be unacceptably rude if I just left without first expressing to her my utmost gratitude."
The young king of Hyrule lifted one golden eyebrow.
"Gratitude?"
"Indeed…" said the calm, fair Zelda, "After all… is not because you chose her that I am free to go?"
The young king's mask of false calm promptly cracked. The wicked, fair Zelda was getting the better of him; this the young king of Hyrule knew.
So… mustering his best to sound as calmly and uninterestedly as he possibly could be… the young king of Hyrule said,
"…as of now, I have yet to choose one to replace you…" purposefully chose the young king of Hyrule his words...
…just to irk the hateful, fair Zelda!
But here now, the young king of Hyrule could not help but to half-sigh, half-groan.
"But it appears that I will have to choose the archpriestess Cia…"
That caused the fair Zelda to sit up in alarm!
"Your highness, NO! You mustn't wed her!"
"It is no longer your concern who I shall wed," replied the young king if Hyrule coldly.
"You still mustn't!" persisted the alarmed, fair Zelda.
"Why ever not?" returned the young king of Hyrule indifferently, "She loves me, does she not?"
"'Love you?!'" repeated the dumbfounded, fair Zelda incredulously, for she has had the displeasure of making her acquaintance, "She's obsessed with you! And her obsession comes close to sheer madness!"
The young king of Hyrule responded by simply shrugging his shoulders.
"…at least I can rest assured that it is me she wants, and not just the crown…"
"Your highness, you won't find happiness with her!" tried again the alarmed, fair Zelda.
At that the young king of Hyrule lost his patience.
"It is precisely because I wanted to find happiness that I brought you here!"
Stunned, the fair Zelda could say nothing.
"Now listen carefully and listen well, you foolish farmmaiden!" began the young king of Hyrule, "I wasted a long time courting you and educating you… all for naught from the very beginning! Thanks to your irresponsible, long silence! From the very beginning you were both unworthy and unsuited! You are no longer my fiancée and you are nothing more than a poor, old farmer's daughter! Whoever shall be my wife, whoever shall be the next queen of Hyrule, is no longer your concern! You no longer have any say in it!"
"But why archpriestess Cia?!" persisted the desperate, fair Zelda, "Why not train another willing maiden?!"
"I wasted much too much time on you!" replied the young king of Hyrule bluntly, "My council won't agree to let me do this once more… and archpriestess Cia is the best candidate there is…"
"She loves me…"
'For better or worse…' muttered the young king of Hyrule to himself.
"She desires not the crown…"
'So hopefully she won't abuse her power…'
"And she is the headpriestess of the temple of time… she is Hylia's chosen. And there is no good reason why I, one descended from Hylia herself, should refuse to be wedded to a woman who was chosen by that selfsame goddess…"
The fair Zelda was stunned; all this time she had thought that her life and fate had been in the hands of the young king of Hyrule…
…yet it now turned out that it was his fate that had been in her hands! His fate, his life… his happiness!
Right then and there, the fair Zelda decided, this time for real:
"Your highness… allow me to be your fiancée… this time… for real."
There was no falsehood in her voice; not even the slightest bit of doubt; which is probably why the young king of Hyrule was so taken aback, so stunned by the fair Zelda's sudden declaration. For a moment the fair Zelda thought that the young king of Hyrule would accept…
But then he scowled.
"You say this now?! After all you have done?!" asked the young king of Hyrule incredulously, "It shall not be! You had your chance… and you spurned it! You will not have another!"
The fair Zelda looked upon the young king of Hyrule imploringly… pleadingly!
But the young king's eyes were as hard and cold and unyielding as an old mountain! The young king of Hyrule had set his mind and he was not going to change it! This the fair Zelda knew; for the young king of Hyrule was known, nay, infamous to be as stubborn as a hardheaded, thickskulled Goron!
Once the young king of Hyrule was certain that the foolish, fair Zelda had come to accept this, or at least accept that there was nothing she could about it, he decided to resume his evening meal.
…and the saddened, fair Zelda eventually did so as well…
But although her hands moved, the fair Zelda did not taste the food… for her mind was deeply immersed within itself.
'What shall I do now…?' wondered the lost, fair Zelda sadly, for she now truly desired to be the young king's fiancée… she now truly desired to know if the goddesses had intended them for one another…
It was then that the lost, fair Zelda heard the teasing, joking voice of her dear friend's, the good Malon, back from that cheerful picnic so long ago:
'You are the wise, fair Zelda… you can have any man you desire… if only you put your wits to it!'
At first, the lost, fair Zelda did not react…
But then…
…gradually…
Slowly…
A mischievous, nay, wickedly cunning smile spread upon her lips…
The young king of Hyrule saw it…
…and liked it not!
Not one little bit!
And there we have it: The last trial our wise, fair Zelda has to overcome! The last time our wise, fair Zelda has to "defeat" the young king of Hyrule…
She has to get him to accept her again!
Girls, any ideas? Any suggestions? Anybody care to guess what she's going to do? 'Doubt you'd get it any way!
'Wasn't planning on using Cia in my story but… oh well, nice move I think; on the spot or not.
On a side note; there's something that's been bugging me for a while, so I'd like to ask you guys' opinions:
Should I quit ffnet? Should I quit writing fanfics?
You see… barely anyone reads my stuff! Back when I was still writing the silver dagger and the early chapters of this story, the queen's treasure, I had lots of readers and commenters…
But now… I dunno how to describe it; it's all dead? It's like I've lost practically all of my supporters… like: there's no real point anymore in doing this! Like… time's up; you've had your fun, it's over, time to move on.
I have a couple of ideas though I had planned to do after the queen's treasure, rewritten fairytales as well:
The first, which I have already started writing the first chapter of (before I focused on this story)… well… it's not a sequel to the queen's treasure… but(!)… I suppose if you really, really want to, you could consider it as one. This one would be a more romantic story.
The other one; or rather the other two, are going to be a pair of sister-stories, with Colin as the main character!
White like snow, bright like day,
The arrow of silver, drives evil away
Expect rhymes like that in the second story!
I also had a crazy idea floating in my head: It involves Linkle as Little Red Riding Hood. The crazy part is not though that her trademark green cloak is going to be red, but that I intend to combine the story of the Little Red Riding Hood with another fairytale and create a hybrid story so to speak!
And I'm currently on another sideproject, another rewritten fairytale with Link in it.
So… what do you guys think? Want me to continue writing rewritten fairytales? Tell me in the comments!
And speaking of comments…
Please review and comment. All forms of reviews, comments and criticisms are very welcomed and appreciated.
If you do not have the time to leave behind such, a numerical ratings from 0-10 will suffice just as well. You are also welcome to send me PMs.
10 = PERFECTION!
9 = Awesome!
8 = Very good!
7 = Good
6 = Nice
5 = Not too bad
4 = Not so good
3 = Bad
2 = Why did you post this?
1 = Why the hell did you even bother write this?!
0 = Delete this shit… NOW!