Aw... not as many reviews as last time... Thank you to Silverbreeze, Veilius, Silence-Darkness, and AlmightyIshboo! Yep, Silverbreeze, school is very very very very bad. I think the class I hate the most is English. Ironic, isn't it? But writing essays after essays after essays really gets painful after a while. Veilius, I'm kinda following the manga, and I'm kinda not. See, I follow the game whenever there's a conflict between the game and the manga, but I still use the manga for some random ideas. Sorry if the explanation's confusing. Yeah, the guy in the painting is Link's dad. It'll all come together later on. Whee! I love it when people guess about the story! It makes it more interesting, doncha agree? But only I know what will really happen! Good job AlmightyIshboo! Nice observation! Keep observing and reviewing!
Hehe. I found on this website... that Kira means 'sun' in Persian! And Areon's the name of this winged horse... I honestly honestly did not know that... It was a total coincidence! I just took Epona's name, changed the 'p' to 'r,' switched the letters around... and voila! Come to think of it... that's kinda scary... it's the same exact name! As for what Kira has to do with 'sun'... only I know! HAHAHA! Oh and I also found that Zora means 'dawn' in Greek... strange... And there's a frozen fishfood company called RUTO! All that info was kinda random... wasn't it? On to the fic!
Chapter 9: Preparations
Knock. Knock.
"Go away!" Zelda buried her head into her pillows and tried to fall asleep again. She was still exhausted from the previous night's events and definitely not in the mood for any royal duties that she might have conveniently forgotten. And then there was the matter of the dream and the uneasiness that it brought. Like Link, she couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something... missing... from the stories they had heard the night before. But Impa wouldn't lie, would she?
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sounds came louder this time. Zelda groaned and called out wearily, "Who is it?"
"Your Highness, the King wishes for your presence at breakfast."
Zelda sighed. "Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Yes, Your Highness," came the reply, followed by fading footsteps.
The Princess of Hyrule slid out of bed, falling on the ground in a manner very unacceptable for a princess. Her arms and legs were sore, her energy was pretty much completely depleted, and she STILL had to get out of bed early. So maybe it wasn't THAT early, but it was still pretty early in the day for someone who had been knocked out, dragged a heavy sword up a whole lot of stairs, and run through a corridor, all in the previous night.
Link's probably still snoring the morning away.
Zelda slipped into a plain clean dress and proceeded to perform her necessary morning cleansing rituals. She skipped out the door quite a few minutes later, heading toward the dining hall. (A/N: Do they have a breakfast hall, a lunch hall, and a dinner hall? I dunno. I'm just gonna make it the dining hall if they're not using it for dinner.)
A cleanly dressed court servant ushered her through the doors, head hung down in subservience. Zelda patted the young man on the back and winked at him. She dismissed him with a simple wave of her hand, leaving him to fantasize over the fact that the esteemed Princess of Hyrule had not only noticed him, but had also treated him kindly.
"Father! I'm here!" Zelda shouted cheerfully, but her joyfulness quickly turned to disgust as she spotted another figure seated next to the King. Prince Lyson.
King Harkinan looked up from the steamy mass of food on his plate. "There you are, Zelda! Sit down! We just started a moment ago." He glanced down again, quickly starting to wolf down his breakfast in a manner not quite befitting a king.
Zelda took a seat as far away from the Prince of Calatia as possible, thanking the servant who soon brought her breakfast. Meanwhile, Prince Lyson was crankily picking at his food; moving the scrambled eggs around, poking the buttered toast. "You call THIS food? We royalty deserve much better than this! Chef! Do you have any more of those sumptuous Cucco brains?" he yelled at the bewildered head cook, who nodded his head hastily and ran off to prepare the delicacies for the prince.
"Stupid brat. We give him perfectly decent meals and he still complains. Hmph. I would tell him to be more like Link, but that would be way too hard for a spoiled jerk like him." Zelda grumbled under her breath, sticking her fork into the eggs.
"Your Majesty, the Cucco brains you called for."
"Excellent. Bring them here." Lyson rubbed his hands together in glee as the dish was set in front of him. Zelda gagged at the sight... and smell of the mass of gooey substance sitting on the plate. She hastily stood up from the table and was just about to run off when the King called to her.
"Well my dear princess. Are you excited that the ball will be held next week? I know how much effort you have been putting into it!"
"Of course, Father. I'm especially looking forward to dancing with Link! That reminds me, I'll have to find a partner for Kira! I'll be going now!"
King Harkinian nodded, satisfied. "Enjoy yourself. Make su- oh, Prince Lyson did you have something to say?"
Lyson glared angrily at Zelda. "Did you not say last night that I was to be the guest-of-honor? And is not the guest-of-honor the only one who can dance with the princess?"
"Ah. Yes. You are absolutely correct, Prince Lyson. Of course. Of course. How could I have forgotten that? Zelda dear, I am truly sorry, but that is our traditional rule. Let the Prince be the guest-of-honor this year. I know that you were planning on giving Link that position, but after all, he has kept it for the last few years. I am sure he will not mind."
"He probably won't, but I will," Zelda muttered under her breath. Then, in a louder voice, she complained, "But Father! I thought you would always let me pick the guest-of-honor!"
"True. True," the King answered sheepishly. "But you have not chosen yet, have you?"
Zelda gritted her teeth. It was true; she hadn't informed the King of her decisions yet. Lyson snickered rudely, but was quickly silenced by one of Zelda's glares.
I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! Why I ought to- hey! I know how to get out of this dilemma!
She flashed the King one of her sweetest smiles. "Father dear, I have an absolutely delightful idea. Would you like to hear it?"
"That would be wonderful! I would surely love to," he answered, not noticing Lyson's expression of dismay.
Zelda continued with her plan. "Well, I was thinking, that we could have this little competition. Teams of two would participate in events. And... the winning team will be personally rewarded by me!"
"Why that IS a marvelous idea! It would make waiting for the day of the ball much less tedious," King Harkinian exclaimed, but seeing Lyson's unhappy looks, added, "But of course, I will have to offer some suggestions."
"I'll listen to whatever you have to say, Father!" Zelda blurted out, practically about to explode with excitement.
"One, Prince Lyson will still be the guest-of-honor. Two... well... there is no two. I trust you will be ready with all the rules and regulations soon, am I correct in stating this?"
"Absolutely, Father! You can count on me! Oh and one more thing, our traditions don't demand that there can be only one guest-of-honor, right?"
"Not any of which I am aware."
"Great! I'll be off on my way now! Enjoy your breakfast!" With that, Zelda skipped merrily out the doors, leaving the King with a sulky Lyson, who immediately stalked out the hall the other way, heading toward his room.
King Harkinian looked around the empty dining hall, bewildered. "Young people these days. I never will understand them," he stated to the table and chairs.
Zelda ran the entire way to Link's room. She knocked excitedly on the door. "Link! Link! Open up! I've got something to tell you!"
When she received no reply, she turned the knob and walked in, planning on dumping cold water all over Link's lazy form. But the bed was already made, the pillows arranged tidily, and everything else in the room was organized and clean. Zelda walked to Link's table, confused, and spotted a note, written in neat handwriting. She picked it up.
"Dear Zelda, I went with Kira to the library. If we're not there then we're probably at the stables. Have fun finding us! Link."
The princess sighed. For once he wasn't being lazy. And she had really been looking forward to dumping water on him. She noticed writing on the back of the note so she turned it around. There, in messy handwriting was written a few more lines. She continued reading.
"PS: You're probably wondering why everything's so neat. Well, I just felt like being neat today, but this is proof that I haven't lost my messiness."
Zelda grinned. "Hasn't lost his sense of humor either." She put the note back on the desk and headed for the castle library. There, she found from the librarian that Link and Kira had left about an hour ago and that Kira had borrowed a book on Hylian ambassadors. Zelda thanked him for his help and started toward the stables, taking a route through the kitchens to get a few carrots for the horses. Along the way, she was greeted by various servants and knights, whom were all dismissed by a cheerful nod or wave.
The royal stables were filled with the sounds of horses stamping, neighing, and making other random noises. Zelda waved at the stablehand, who was busy tossing hay into stacks. He waved back and silently motioned with his hand toward the back of the stables. The princess nodded and followed his gesture to the last two stalls, but not before giving him the carrots she had brought.
"Hey Zelda! Looks like you found us! Had breakfast yet?" Link poked his head out from the stall on the left, as Kira peeked out from the one on the right.
Seeing Zelda, she grinned and said, "Link's been bragging that he got up earlier than you today. Did you have a good sleep?"
"I WAS having a good sleep, until I had to wake up and eat breakfast with Father and Lyson. Ooooh... that creep! Good thing I thought up a foolproof plan for keeping him away from me at the ball!"
Link stepped out of the stall, brush in hand. Epona tried to follow him, but withdrew when she saw that the visitor was only Zelda. "C'mon! Tell us! What plan?" Link asked eagerly.
"Yeah! I wanna know too!" Kira exclaimed, fully appearing in the hallway.
"That's what I came for. Oh! Is that Areon?" Zelda pointed to the gray horse whose head was sticking out of the doorway.
"Yeah. C'mon out Areon. That's a good boy!"
The stallion obediently stepped out of his stall and looked at Zelda.
"He has such a pretty coat! And he looks really strong too!"
Epona poked her head out again and snorted in annoyance.
"You're really pretty too, Epona," Zelda added, prompting a satisfied whinny from the mare, withdrawing her head again.
"Aw, C'mon Zelda. We're not gonna wait here forever y'know." Link complained as Kira directed Areon back to his stall.
"Fine. Fine. I'll start. See, Father wants me to dance with Lyson because he's the guest-of-honor. But then that doesn't mean that I'd still have to dance with him if I had MORE than one guest-of-honor. Sooo... I'm planning something that will definitely put you two into that position." She paused there for dramatic effect. "A competition."
Kira looked at her, puzzled. "What kind of competition? And why would we be guaranteed to become guests-of-honor? And why can't you just make us guests-of-honor instead of Lyson?"
"Well, first of all, Lyson's a foreign visitor so we have to treat him honorably. Second, Father had me promise that Lyson would remain the guest-of-honor. Third, I just said that the winners of the competition would receive a prize, but I didn't specify what the prize would be. And lastly, since it's going to be a two-person team competition, I'm going to make the events ones that you two excel at," Zelda explained. "By the way Kira, did you find what you were looking for?"
"Wha? Oh. You mean this?" she asked, holding up a thick book. "There's a couple chapters in her 'bout my father, but it just says that he mysteriously disappeared a few years before the war. It's OK though, 'cause I got to learn some more things about him, like how he worked his way up from a scholar to ambassador."
Zelda smiled. "That's good. I'm glad our library was of help. But, anyway, any ideas for competition events? Got any suggestions, Link?"
"I dunno. But maybe we could do some chariot archery thing. Y'know. I could hit the targets and Kira could control the chariot." Link said thoughtfully.
"Hey, not a bad idea, Link! We could use that..."
"I have one! How 'bout a sword-fighting event? Link and I both have swords..."
"That's a good one too! We should get just one more idea. Hmm... how about a tracking contest? We could let a pig or some other animal to run around a set area of Hyrule Field, and the first team to bring it back would win. And it would probably be easier for you two because you and Link know Hyrule Field very well, I think, and your magic would really help, Kira."
"Sounds good enough to me! All in favor... um... all in favor raise your hands!" Link exclaimed, as three hands shot up simultaneously into the air, joined by whinnies from both sides.
"Then it's settled. I'm going to go tell Father about it so we can start spreading the news. You two can start training. Oh and Kira, did I tell you that you'll be coming to the ball whether you like it or not?"
"Me? Ball? But... but... I don't have a dress! And I've never been to a ball before! I wouldn't know what to do!" Kira stammered.
Zelda giggled. "All that can be arranged. Link, would you mind letting Kira choose one of your many saddles for Areon? Father's probably going to require it for whatever reason he'll decide to give."
"Yes sir! Can do sir!" Link saluted sharply to the princess, who gave him a slight punch in the stomach as she left, giggling.
Kira turned to face Link. "Well... should we get started?"
"You bet."
Almost an hour later, Prince Lyson burst into the throne room, just as Zelda finished explaining her plans and ideas to the King.
"King Harkinian, sir, your Majesty, I would like to join that competition that Princess Zelda was talking about," he blurted.
"Why of course! Do you mind if I ask why?"
Lyson smirked. "I want to represent Calatia in these... events."
"Quite a worthy motive, I must say. But do you realize that this competition requires two-person teams?" King Harkinian asked.
"I do. And that is why I already sent for our best knight. He will be arriving in a few days or so. Calatia, after all, is not that far away from here." Lyson sneered at Zelda. "And as for you, princess, tell your little commoner friends that they should give up now."
"And how would you know that they're entering?" Zelda questioned defiantly.
"I have my ways," the prince replied haughtily.
"Now. Now. It's only a friendly contest. No need to get bitter. We have much work to do if we are to inform the whole of Hyrule of this decision!" the King said, cutting off the argument before it could get out of control.
A/N: How many people think that Lyson is the 'Boss?' All will be revealed... soon... MWAHAHAHAHA! The story's gonna start picking up speed after two or three more chapters so keep the reviews coming in! Remember, reviews make me really happy! And a happy authoress updates faster!