A/N: Nothing to say here, I don't own anything. dan heron, you're right, the second part indicates the middle of the story (if I can keep it going that far…) Cassie, thank you. Comments like that make me so happy! To the other people who reviewed chapter 17, you have my sincere gratitude.
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Chapter eighteen: Starting over again
Zelda's POV
They stared at me. Literally stared at me, like their eyes would be popping out of their sockets any minute. Like I had been returning from the dead – which I suppose I had done, in a way. I held my head up high, smiling and sometimes even waving at people I recognized.
How far is it from the drawbridge to the hill where the Castle is situated? If I hadn't thought about it before, I surely did now. Returning home was almost exactly as I had imagined it to be, yet it was so different. Four years. It could have been a thousand.
I don't think I had realized how people in Hyrule Castle Town were living, or what they had to face every single day. During my time in the forest, and even in Kakariko, I had learned not to take anything for granted. But now I compared the Castle with its towers and pinnacles to the houses I saw on the streets. I'm not sure if 'houses' would make a good description; they were hovels rather than houses, small areas where the people had done their best to make the place their home, a place where they could escape and hide when their situation became too much for them to bear.
Sad, scared eyes of orphaned children were peering up at me, pleading gazes from the older people, people who had lived their whole life on the back alleys, stealing to make a living. When I looked at them, and tried to smile, to tell them I understood what they felt, I knew they didn't like me. And they didn't trust me.
It was the former Queen's government that had made them this way. She had let them suffer! A rage beyond any descriptions poured up inside me, and I decided that as soon as I could, I would give these people a better existence.
My mind was racing. There it is. My home. Home – what a funny word. How can I call that place my home now, after all I've been through? How am I supposed to live behind high stone walls when I've got used to the smell of fresh air and run through the forest barefooted? How shall I go on with my life and get used to be the one I was? Goddesses, I can't do this.
The Castle looked darker and gloomier than I remembered it. The walls seemed higher, the windows were all dark, and the closed drawbridge above the freezing water in the moat could not be a good sign. It was so different from the place where I lived as a child. Before I left, there used to be white doves sitting in the windowsills, beautiful butterflies fluttering through the courtyard, the sound of happy voices and laughter in the gardens and thriving red roses in the flowerbeds. My parents used to stand by the open drawbridge, watching me frolic in the gardens…
… or that was the way I always had wanted my childhood to be. I never knew my mother, all I had was a name and nothing more. I thought of her a lot. And Marth, too.
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We rode up the hill, approaching the drawbridge. I was so close, so close… any minute, I would be facing the Queen of this country. And what did I feel? I glanced at Link. He was so courageous… he would unsheathe his sword and face all the horrors in the world if he had to. And if I told him to, I was fairly sure about that. And all I felt was cowardice! A growing fear and a huge lump in my throat. Gee, what a Queen I would be.
I guess some of the soldiers on top of the wall saw us, because the drawbridge started going downwards slowly, until it landed on the ground with a loud thud. I stared at the drawbridge, the water in the moat - dark and surely polluted – at the high stone walls, and then I nudged Ophelia to go on.
As soon as we had entered the Castle, we all dismounted our horses and I heard approaching footsteps and a voice shouting something: "I beg your pardon, milady, but have you–" I turned to the person, raising my hand to silence him. It was a soldier, in his mid twenties, and he stopped dead in his tracks as he saw me. He sunk to his knees before me, unsheathing his sword and placing it next to him on the ground. I knew what that meant; it was the ancient sign of trust and respect. I could easily have seized his sword and killed him on the spot, if that had been my intention. Now, however, I had other things to do.
"Is it really you, Princess Zelda?" the soldier gasped. "Is it really…?"
"Yes, it is me", I said.
"I knew it was you when I saw you", he said in awe. Then he added, barely audible: "The true Queen."
I pretended I didn't hear what he said. "Tell me, where is Queen Rose?"
"In her quarters, I think", the soldier answered. "But going to her would be a little foolhardy, Your Highness. I mean no offence, but-"
I didn't hear the end of his sentence, we were already on our way.
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Neither Link nor Roy had ever been in this part of the Castle before, since this part was the place where the Royal quarters were, and simple soldiers weren't allowed to be there. But they'd heard the officers in the army talking about the place, about the golden strips on the walls, the marble statues of demons, angels and heroes, the cold stone walls, the thick plush carpet that covered the floor, and the large oak doors that indicated the entrances to rooms people like them could only dream of.
"Hmm, could it be this one?" Zelda mused and tried the doorknob of one of the oak doors. They were fortunate; the door wasn't locked.
"Wow", Roy gasped. The room was magnificent; with a canopy bed, a huge fireplace, crimson, velvet curtains, and a balcony with a great overlook at the city. Yet there was something wrong with it, it wasn't like they had expected – it was empty. And it looked as though no one had been there in a couple of days.
"She obviously left before we could get her", Impa sighed. "I wonder how she knew what was going on? Who told her?"
"No idea", Zelda said, making her way through the room, leaning her elbow on the ledge and staring out the window, probably thinking of the next move. Link's sensitive ears suddenly caught an almost inaudible sound. Turning his head to the sound, he spotted a wooden cage, locked with a steady padlock. Inside was a tiny bird, with chocolate brown feathers and a creamy white chest. It looked at them with gloomy, black eyes.
"A nightingale", Zelda whispered. Link hadn't noticed she was standing next to him, he was too busy watching the bird. "I used to stand on my balcony late at night when I was a child, listening to the nightingales singing", Zelda continued. Then she added sadly: "And the Queen has done the same thing with the people as with this bird." Link cocked one of his eyebrows, looking at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"
"She's locked them up, in a way. They're not as free as they used to be, and it's all due to the Queen's government! Didn't you notice? We have to help them – somehow."
"You're talking in riddles, Zel", Link chuckled, watching the nightingale curiously. "You're right, I suppose. You're always right. But we have something else to do first."
"Speaking of riddles…" Zelda whispered. "I have something I want to talk to you about later."
"Poor dear", Impa exclaimed as she saw the bird, "we have to get it out of there." Using her Sheikah magic, Impa got the padlock to disappear in a puff of smoke with a snap of her fingers. Link opened the door to the cage, quickly clasping his hands together and seizing the struggling creature in his hands before it could fly away. He hold the squirming nightingale carefully, afraid he might hurt it. Roy opened the door to the balcony and Link stepped outside in the fresh air, raising his hands and releasing the bird. It took flight and seared through the air above their heads, and the four people watched it in awe. Then it dove downwards, just to dart up in the sky again, becoming smaller and smaller, until it disappeared into the setting sunlight.
"Now it will sing in the gardens again", Zelda said. Then she added, "Who could ever lock such a beautiful creature up in a cage?!"
"Don't worry", Roy said. "It's free now. I've never seen a bird flying in such a high speed before… I bet it's flying over Lake Hylia already."
Link chuckled. "Well, we saved the bird. Now it's just Hyrule left."
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Zelda was sitting in the room that had been her bedroom four years ago. The first thing she had noticed as she stepped inside was the size – it was larger than she remembered it. It was bigger than Link's whole tree house in Kokiri Forest, and about half the size of Impa's house in Kakariko, the huge closet included. The Princess actually felt a bit uncomfortable, the chamber was too roomy for her liking.
She went to the bookcase and ran her finger over the books there. Every single one of them implied special memories to her. She could remember which books Impa had used to read to her before she would go to sleep. A book with a deep red cover suddenly caught her eye; it was the tale of Hyrule's creating, the tale of the three holy Goddesses themselves. She knew the very first line by heart: "Once upon a time, before the life began, before the world had got its present form, three golden Goddesses came down from the Heavens to the chaos that would become the land of Hyrule."
Zelda sighed and ran her finger over the book's cover. Where did her childhood go? The years had passed by so quickly! And now she was almost at the age when she would become Queen and find a righteous husband.
The young Princess felt her body growing cold and numb at the thought of a husband. Her father would never approve of her marrying someone less than a Prince! Suddenly Zelda realized that she hadn't seen her father in the Castle. Where could he possibly be? If the Queen had known about her arrival, the King would most likely know it too! Strange, it's almost like I don't miss him at all. I should miss him! He's my dad! And what a daddy he's been, she thought sarcastically.
"Zelda? You wanted to talk to me", a soft voice said, and Link shut the door quietly behind him.
The Princess suddenly snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of his voice. "Yes. And I think it's important. Come over here", she said, opening the door to the balcony. The cool night air swept into the room, bringing the smell of flowers from the courtyard. There was a stone bench on the balcony, in which Zelda had used to carve lines and figures with any sharp object she could find when she was younger. Now the couple sat on it, Zelda biting her lower lip and staring at the lines in the stone surface stubbornly, and Link watching Zelda quizzically, thinking of what she might tell him.
"I had a vision the other day", said the Princess eventually, lifting her gaze and meeting Link's anxious eyes. "Nayru appeared to me."
"You can't be serious, Zel! Nayru?" Link chuckled.
"It was her, Link, I know it was her", she said. "And she claimed that I once knew my mother. But I didn't, I never met her, because she died when I was born!"
"Maybe she's still… alive?" Link said airily. "And you have met her sometime, without realizing it was her?"
Zelda snorted. "Excuse me?"
"What if the former Queen still is alive? Well, not alive, but sort of."
"That's ridiculous! You just have to use your common sense to realize it. Veilla can't be alive. If she indeed had been, I highly doubt she wouldn't show herself to me in seventeen years."
"I think you should use your common sense, Zel. How much do you know about spirits? Maybe they appear only if you tell them to…" Link said.
"You're so naïve, Link", Zelda said. "You always think of life from the bright side. But what you don't understand is that life isn't always bright. A person dies – the person remains dead."
"I wouldn't be so sure", Link said, his voice trailing off. "But since I obviously can't convince you, it's no sense in talking about this, so… why don't you tell me more about your vision?"
"Well… Nayru told me that I am her daughter, and that I had met her, though I don't remember it. And she said that the important matter isn't where we are, but where we are going."
Link nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think she meant our task to destroy the Queen?"
"Yes, I think so. Nayru told me that… that they would help us. Maybe they will. Perhaps they will give us the power and courage to do it." Link looked at the back of his left hand. The Triforce mark wasn't glowing, it just looked like an ordinary birthmark, but they both knew it wasn't.
"I know they will, if we just have faith in them", Link said seriously. Then he smirked. "If the holy Goddess Nayru appears to you in a vision, then I believe anything can happen. I can even believe in spirits. And I really do believe that the Goddesses will help us. Good night, Zelda."
"Good night, Link", she said in a whisper, watching him leave with sad eyes. Then she stood up, walking over to the balcony rail, leaned forward and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. She let her gaze travel from the velvet sky to the city, dark and quiet. A bird was singing in a nearby tree beneath the balcony, and the Princess smiled slightly to herself. It was just a few hours to the break of day, and surprisingly, she was looking forward to what was going to happen.
"It is something that grows over time…
a true friendship.
A feeling in the heart that becomes
even stronger over time…
The passion of friendship will
soon blossom into a righteous power
and through it
you will know which way to go."
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A/N: I actually finished that chapter! I've been writing on it for a while, and it turned out to be very short. But I've been working instead of going to school in a week now, and I was so tired afterwards I couldn't even turn on the computer. -_-;; The next chapter is the chapter when Queen Rose – hopefully – will be destroyed. I'm considering to let her suffer a lot! *evil grin*
I'll go skiing and snowboarding next week, so you won't see another chapter in a while. I'll use my time off to figure out new events for this fic. Review, please! See y'all in the next chapter.
..::Hylian Heroine::..