The snow crunched under the hooves of the two horses and the three travellers as they wound their way through the thin forest of Forhas. The trees rustled slightly in the winds above, but below their boughs there was utter quiet and stillness. Not a thing moved.
Except for the travellers.
Donalbain led the way of the small party, tracing a path that he had traversed for many years toward the nearest village where the much anticipated Mid-winter Festival was to be held in two days time.
Next in line came the horses, Silvermane and Winter, brought to the land by Link and Vincent on their quest to find their friend and princess. Atop the horses rode Zelda and Hecuba along with the many supplies and goods they would need both on their trip and stay at the distant village.
Last came Link with Vincent, the walking comatose being led by Link's careful hand. Link had decided to bring his sword despite the assurances by Hecuba that it would find no use. Her argument had fallen on deaf ears as the tool of a warrior is seldom far from his grasp, just as the tools of any tradesman are always at hand to their masters. She had not been pleased.
"How much farther is it?" asked Zelda from atop Silvermane.
Donalbain sighed and did not even bother turning his head to answer. "Still about a day's travel. Please stop asking- we get there when we get there!"
Zelda sniffed loudly to show her displeasure at the attitude of her host but said nothing. Behind her, Link and Hecuba were busy trying to mask their laughs as coughs at the princess's behaviour and the resulting reactions from the old man. They immediately masked their faces when the girl turned angrily at glare at them.
"And just what is so funny?" she demanded.
Link shook his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." He coughed briefly and turned to Hecuba, wishing to change the subject. "So Hecuba, tell us more about the festival."
Zelda's mood immediately changed and she turned upon the old woman in excitement.
"Yes, Hecuba! Please!"
The old hostess nodded and held up a hand. "Of course, children. There is no need to beg so loudly." She paused for dramatic effect and began.
"Many, many years ago, before anyone lived in this forest, there lived the sprites. There little fellows inhabited the trees and the earth and all living things. One day they were playing in a field when all of a sudden a man fell out of the surrounding brush. Startled, the sprites vanished, but one of them stayed behind. This sprite was Needle. Needle was a sprite of the pine trees and had never seen a human before, so naturally she was curious.
"She moved closer to the man and discovered him wounded for he had been in a battle several days before not far from the fringes of the great forest. This man was the great Lord Cuthbert who had so bravely defended Forhas from the tyrannical Nobles and their armies. Wounded during battle, his faithful steed carried him deep within the trees until the poor thing had died of exhaustion. Cuthbert had crawled the rest of the way. As soon as her eyes fell upon the wound, Needle promised to save the man.
"For three days and three nights little Needle cared for Cuthbert tirelessly. The other sprites called her wasteful and stupid for tending to a human, but Needle did not care, for her heart had gone out to the lord. On the night of the third day, Cuthbert finally opened his eyes and gazed at the little sprite next to him. He smiled and gave his thanks to the creature. Seeing his eyes and hearing his thanks made Needle all the more dedicated to aiding the lord but it was futile- That night, Lord Cuthbert died from his wounds and poor Needle buried him.
"The other sprites were furious that a human should be buried within their sacred forest and tried again and again to exhume the body, but Needle stood bravely atop the grave, still crying from her loss and refusing the sprites their anger. Where the little thing's tears fell, they carpeted the land with pine needles, hiding the grave from the sight of the evil sprites. This is why the pine trees cry every autumn in a ring beneath their boughs- to protect the grave of the sprite's lost love from those who would see it destroyed."
Hecuba sighed. "And from that day, there has always been a celebration to commemorate the death of a great man and the pure sprite who helped him. A festival of three days and three nights in the middle of winter attended by everyone within the forest boarders."
"How many people are usually there?" asked Link.
Hecuba thought for a minute before responding. "I would say about forty or fifty. Of course, every year there are new additions to the families and a few less on some. It is always a time of great fun for everyone. If you hadn't noticed, there isn't a lot to do to amuse yourself in the middle of a forest. Just work and sleep."
"And you only have one festival a year?" asked Zelda, shocked.
The old woman smiled at the girl. "Of course. We wouldn't want to spoil ourselves, now would we?"
Zelda groaned and looked back to where Link was walking. She rolled her eyes and frowned. Link smiled in return. He knew exactly what she was saying. As princess, Zelda had gone to hundreds of parties and festivals in Hyrule- such things happened all the time among royalty. After all, they had neither fields to plough nor livestock to feed. They only had time and money. The past few weeks in the home of Donalbain and Hecuba have probably been the most that the girl had ever worked before in her life.
The small party continued in silence for many minutes before the sharp sounds of movement caught their ears from nearby within the woods. Link immediately placed his hand protectively on the hilt of his sword, ready within a moment to strike at danger. The movement continued for a few seconds before a shout was raised, immediately ending the tension that had been building in Link's shoulders. A tall man appeared from behind a thick group of trees and yelled happily, waving his arms frantically at Donalbain.
"Hello there, old man!" the stranger called, strolling up to the travellers, adjusting the massive pack on his shoulders as he extended his arm to grasp Donalbain's. The old man grinned widely.
"Hello, Jagger!" laughed the old man. "Has it really been a year since we saw each other?"
The tall man nodded, his neatly cut hair shaking snow like an avalanche as he did so. "Almost to the day! And Hecuba, lovely as ever, I see."
The portly woman smiled warmly at the man from her horse, reaching up to hug the man. "It's wonderful to see you, too, Jagger." She said happily.
"I'll ask again, my dear woman: come away with me and leave the old man behind! Embrace your hidden love!"
Hecuba blushed deeply and laughed. "You know perfectly well that Donalbain is the only man for me, despite your asking me to run off with you every year. Ask again next year!"
The three old friends laughed together and hugged many more times before the stranger, Jagger, finally turned to the new guests from Hyrule.
"And I notice a few new faces here, and unless Nature has started birthing children fully grown, I'd say that the forest has some new hands to work it." He turned to Donalbain expectantly. "Well? Aren't you going to introduce us?"
Donalbain coughed lightly and began introducing the newcomers to his old friend.
"This is Jagger, an old friend of mine, who lives a good two day's journey to the south of us, harvesting the wild jelly from the trees to sell to the nearby town. Makes a fortune." He paused. "Jagger, this is Zelda, Link, and Vincent. They are spending the winter with us."
The tall man shook hands with the two travellers (Vincent only looking blankly at the offer) and immediately joined the small caravan on their way to the festival.
"So what are Hylians doing in this part of the world?" asked Jagger after a while.
Link and Zelda exchanged glances and Link explained. "Zelda here was banished from Hyrule for a crime she didn't commit. She came here, and I followed along with Vincent here."
The tall man looked to the Calatian. "Doesn't speak much, does he?"
"The boy has had a very rough couple of weeks. Some very nasty surprises, from what I can tell," explained Donalbain. "That'll do something horrible to a young man's mind."
Jagger nodded thoughtfully. "That it will." He paused. "Strange seeing a pair of Hylians travelling with a Calatian these days."
"How do you know he's Calatian?" asked Zelda.
"That is the uniform of a Calatian guardsman, isn't it?" asked the newcomer.
Link nodded. "So?"
"Haven't you heard? Calatia was invaded by Hyrule. They're at war."
This news hit everyone in the company by surprise. Even Hecuba and Donalbain looked shocked for a moment.
"When did this happen?" asked Zelda, her voice barely a whisper, her face drained of all colour in shock.
"About a few weeks back. From what I hear from the villagers I deal with, war was declared just out of the blue. That's not even the surprising part- everyone knew a war was brewing. No, the surprise was that Calatia fell within a week!"
There was a stunned silence as they walked on, each thinking about this new turn of events. Open warfare was rare in the Seven Lands. The last war had been the better part of a century ago, involving every nation in the known world against the invading Sunians in the south. Both Zelda's father, the late King Gerrik, and the Calatian King, Eridanus, had fought in that war, and so had their fathers and brothers. Even today, so many years after the war, there were still tales of the horror the Sunians had brought upon the Seven Lands- whole tracts of lands were destroyed by the mighty magic of the Sunians which Hylian magic was only just able to defend against. Much of the Southern nation of Arkhas had been obliterated and turned to wasteland from the warfare and disease following it.
To have the two most powerful nations of the Seven Lands fighting each other seemed unthinkable. And for Calatia to just roll over within a week to Hyrule was mind-boggling.
"Trine," Zelda whispered after a while.
All eyes looked to her in confusion and expectation. She continued.
"When Trine became king of Hyrule and of Delabor, he must have thought he had enough power to take on Calatia."
Hecuba added her thoughts. "But to tackle Calatia in such a short time… Hyrule must have had very powerful magic on it's side. Very powerful magic."
Link and Zelda again exchanged glances, and both knew what must have happened.
It was not until hours later, when they band of travellers had stopped for the night, and dinner had been finished, that the two Hylians found enough solitude and time to talk with each other.
Suddenly everything made sense.
The last few months had been set into motion by the escape of the wizard Ashir from Hylian custody. A follower of the evil wizard, Aghanim, Ashir was undoubtedly the most likely wizard to help Trine accomplish whatever goal he was after.
Trine helped Ashir escape from Hyrule. With such a high profile prisoner escaping, it was to be expected that Link, the royal protector would be hot on his trail. With a fake trail leading off into Calatia, Link would be gone for weeks tracking down a wizard in a land notorious for its hatred of magic. With Link out of the way, all sorts of underhanded dealings could be accomplished. The death of King Torvus could be pulled off, and with Sir Rampt- very likely a conspirator with Trine- heading the investigation into the death, no evidence would be found. Under the eye of Ashir, Trine could control Queen Mira and then his own mother, Queen Julia, until he was ready to take the throne, making sure along the way to remove any potential problems, such as Zelda and Link and Auldric.
Zelda was furious. "How could we be so stupid!?" she screamed. "We let him just walk in and grab power! We may as well have given him the throne!"
Link barely said a word to vent his anger and frustration. All this time he had thought of Trine as nothing more than a strange noble, with a morbid fixation on being able to inflict pain in others. Now Link knew the truth. He was a smart and cunning mastermind to have thought up a plan so complicated and subtle, that no one in the entire world had seen it. Coincidences suddenly made sense, and personal choices now seemed expected and planned by others.
"So should we head back to Hyrule?"
Link snapped himself out of his brooding thoughts at Zelda's sudden question.
"No," he replied. "We can't just walk in and ask Trine to leave. We would be arrested as soon as we set foot inside the castle."
Zelda looked solemnly at the glowing campfire around which she and Link now sat, the others sleeping soundly only a few feet off. "What about going to the people of Hyrule? If we tell them what has happened, surely they would join us against Trine. He wouldn't-"
"No," Link said sharply.
"Why not?" asked the princess indignantly. "It's not as if everyone in Hyrule is stupid and just follows the orders of the king!"
Link just shook his head. "Not everyone is that stupid, but too many are. Have you ever been outside of the castle walls? And not just to journey around the country, but just remained inside of the city? The orders of the king and lives of the nobility don't really apply to the average person- the average person just wants to be left alone to do what he wants and to feed his family. Even in war, it is the same thing. People who sign up for the army are doing it not for the king, but for their friends and maybe even for their country; they could care less about the whims of the royals and the politics of the world."
"But is we told them the truth…!"
"They wouldn't believe us. A few would demand proof, but most would just say 'we didn't go to war to fight for a corrupt king, we went to war to fight for our country and its honour!', or even more likely, 'I could care less, as long as there is still food on the table and money in my pocket.' Besides, who would believe a banished princess and her lackey? I'm sure that not just a few would think that we just wanted revenge against Trine for giving you the boot. The truth would not apply to such an argument- you of all people should realize that politics and wars like this one are all about the façade and the impression. Reasons don't matter; as soon as someone influential claims that the nation's pride has been slighted, people are queuing up to join the army and avenge their nation, regardless of the truth in the claim."
Zelda said nothing but stared at the fire for minutes as Link's words sank into her head. "Do my people really think like that?" she asked quietly.
Link nodded. "All except for a few, such as the Court and some merchants. The populace doesn't care about royal feuds or politics, just personal safety and national pride."
"Do none of them care about the injustice that has been done to me and my family?!" Tears began freely streaming down the girl's face and she began to visibly shake from the realization.
Link moved closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders, comforting his friend. "Most people don't know what really happened. What goes on in the court is never truthfully told to the people. The world of the court and the world of the people are two different worlds, only slightly overlapping. The cares of the royals are not the cares of the people and vice versa."
The former princess suddenly glared at her protector.
"Do you feel that way? That the cares of the royalty are nothing to the people?"
Link shook his head. "I'm just saying how I see it, and as a commoner who rose up to join the ranks of nobility, I can see it much more clearly than anyone else at the court."
Zelda sighed in resignation. She knew he was right, despite how much it hurt to admit how little her own subjects actually cared about her life's current devastation and humiliation.
"So as a commoner," she said, "what would you do to fix this situation?"
Link was silent for a while, thinking her question over. "Going back to Hyrule right now would be suicide. We need to be able to take on not only Trine and his supporters, but also the Hylian army."
"So we need an army," Zelda said quietly. "A large army."
Link nodded. "The only question is where to find one."
The princess shrugged. Link smiled slightly and said, "Wherever we find one, it will not be here and now. Get some sleep."
Zelda, her mind obviously heavy in thought, merely nodded and stretched herself out on the ground, covering herself with a blanket as she did so.
Link sighed at his friend's worries, but found himself very tired from the day's journey. Despite his own mind's frantic searches for a solution to their problems, he fell asleep almost as soon as he covered himself with his own blanket.