My
Princess
PinkyTheSnowman
Summary: Link thinks about one of the
few things that ever mattered to him. Companion to My Hero.
I have grown old and bitter since I last saw her.
I was merely 10 years of age at the time. Now at 17, I am not married, have no children, and now have no home.
For seven years I have toiled, serving the King, fighting and destroying those who oppose him. Ganondorf's minions still wander the Earth. My job is to annihilate them. But my post has not been easy. I must be away for many years. The hardships are never-ending. They all know me as the obliterator of their master. And so they loathe me, filling then with hatred and strength against those who believed in me.
All I had to give me the determination I so desperately needed was thoughts and memories of my princess. The beautiful princess I was forced to leave behind.
Her name was Zelda. She was the Princess of Destiny.
I worked for seven years with her, to vanquish the evil forces in our land. But then she sent me back. I never made a decision I regretted more than this. Please let me stay with you, I begged of her. But soon, her convincing words and saddened face persuaded me. And I have never been as happy as those seven years, spent working with the princess in an attempt to conquer Ganondorf. And so I left.
Visions from my dreams led me to a nearby kingdom, called Holodrum. And there, a new demon arose. One so powerful that a new Hero was born. And so I was shunned from the town. Try as I might to help the new hero, he refused my help. And the kingdom crumbled into nothingness. It seemed clear to the rest of the world that I was the "true" hero, and without my help, their lands would be destroyed. And so I was sent on missions to triumph over evil in foreign lands, near and far from Hyrule.
But now I have returned. As I make my way back through the courtyard that I had traveled through so many times throughout my childhood, a new thought gnaws at the back of my mind: is she betrothed? Married, with children, even? I creep past the guards, clutching a small bouquet of flowers, and ducking behind the larger hedges. My height has increased dramatically since I've been here.
But that doesn't mean I've gotten any worse. I can still sneak through, as I have just proved. Zelda, just as I expected, is sitting in her special place in the courtyard. Right where all the roses are.
But she's not alone. Sitting next to her, in the same place that I used to sit, was a prince. The Prince of Termina, I quickly realized. In the back of my mind, I strangled him. He was the same man who challenged me when I entered their kingdom, only to save it from certain doom. I watched in agony as he stroked Zelda's face, lifting it up towards his own. He stared at her, his eyes questioning. She only turned her face back to her lap, examining the flowers. She plucked three roses out of the ground. Red, pink, and white. The three colors of roses I left at her doorstep before I took my leave. The three flowers I had clutched in my hand.
I didn't want to watch anymore. I turned away, leaping over the tall hedges. I ignored the calls and shouting of the guards. I ignored the scratching of my face as I ran through the tall plants I could not dodge. I only ran, and kept running until I entered the stable.
"Come on, Epona, we're leaving. Who knows where."