Impossible Love
Yaaaay!! I got reviews! ^_^ After I posted it, I started to get worried that no one would read it...cause not many people care for this type of fic...but you reviewed!!!! Thankies!!! ^_^
*gasp!* I forgot my disclaimer last time! Oh nooo!! *ahem* I do not own Zelda. *sticks tongue out* Na-ah! Now you caaaan't sue me!!
By the way................^^;; The beginning of this chapter may be a little boring...but it gets better at the end! I gar-on-tee!!
~*~
Zelda was jolted out of an uneasy slumber by thunder booming outside like a giant whip. Groggily, she looked around her dismal room, her eyes still blurry from slumber. Slowly, her room came into focus.
She yawned, raising her arms, and stretching her back. "I must have fallen asleep..." She sat up straight from her strange position- which was half sitting, half leaning on the bedside. She stood up, and stretched her muscles. Turning towards the large window on the eastern side of the room, she watched the outside world with interest churning deep inside her.
(A/N: She's been doing that a lot, hasn't she? ^^;;)
Gray clouds covered the sky, making it seem dreary and miserable. The pitter patter of rain formed an eerie rhythm
A gong which a servant manned suddenly chimed. Six sounds.
"Six o' clock..." muttered Zelda, turning to leave, and go into the dining hall for dinner, when she heard horse hoof beating on the ground below her. Glancing out her window, she remembered that her parents were leaving for Poleis. Their neighboring country.
She suddenly recollected what she was thinking about before she drifted off into her slumber; she sighed dismally. "Peasants don't know the luxuries they have...they're foolish to think I have it all."
She looked down at her now wrinkled dress. There was a tiny hole near the sleeve. She giggled in a distant voice, and twirled in front of her mirror. "This outfit isn't made to be slept in... Only a commoner would do something that foolish...I should pay more attention in Madame Loraine's Proper Lessons." She stopped twirling, and padded across the room, over to her vanity. She picked up her brush, and ran it through her golden locks.
She gasped when an idea came to her mind. 'A commoner!!' she screamed in her head. 'They have no rules! They have families! They live wonderfully!' She grinned to herself, as an idea formed in her head. Her brush glided up an down her hair while she thought; almost like instinct. Her smile widened as her plan came together.
"I could go out as a commoner!!!" she said suddenly- and a little too enthusiastically. "I could see what it's like!! For a day!! It would be splendid!" She started laughing, in less of a proper manner than Madame Loraine, her Proper Lessons tutor, would have liked. But, her laughter quickly died down when she realized that a pale pink dress, slightly wrinkled, with a tiny hole...and a ruby for Pete's sake...would NOT look commoner material. She would STILL look like a princess.
She smiled in spite of herself.
An idea snapped into her head forcefully. 'I COULD become a commoner!! I could...um...wear some rags or something and...and...and mess up my hair, and then I could go and see the common people!!'
Zelda set her brush down, and immediately stood up, and paced the room. "Hmm...." she muttered to herself. "First I'll need an outfit..."
Zelda knew that this whole idea was outrageous, not to mention dumb. But she didn't care. She almost ignored the fact that, if caught, she could possibly get locked up in her room, and only come out for food and marriage. But she wanted badly to know what it was like. Enough to risk the little freedom that she had.
When Zelda became curious, there was no stopping her.
She opened her bedroom door, and made sure nobody was looking. Tiptoeing quietly, she headed down the stairs. She knew she had to be accompanied, but she shrugged that rule off as she walked along the main hallway. She headed down another flight of stairs, and entered the inner courtyard.
"Oh....what shall I do about clothes?" she wondered as she looked around. She slapped her hands together. "I know!"
She hurriedly ran over to the door that the kitchen was in. Opening it ever-so-slightly, she peeked inside.
The cooks were busy preparing a meal for the rest of the servants, and were all facing the stoves and appliances on one side of the room. The smell of meat and potatoes wafted out of the room, and would have had Zelda drooling, if she had not been so set on getting a garment.
She crept inside with as much caution as she could muster, and looked around. 'Ah-ha!' she thought as she found the aprons. She grabbed one apron, with brown food stains, and then proceeded to creep back out. When she exited the room, she sighed, and sat down.
"What'cha doing?"
Zelda jumped, and turned around uneasily. She sighed in relief when she saw an eleven year old boy. "What are you doing?" he repeated, as if she had not heard the first time.
Zelda smiled at the child. "I was getting this apron, for something I plan on doing..." She thought a moment, and looked at him. "What are you doing here?"
The boy looked down at his feet. "I was just...hungry, and I smelled the food, so I came here..."
Zelda smiled, and patted his head. "Well, I think you should go back before your parents get worried about you! Dinner is in a matter of minutes!"
The boy smiled, and scurried off down a corridor.
Zelda watched him leave with a smile. When he was out of sight, she set about her task once again.
Hurrying up the stairs, and down the main hallway, she examined the apron she attained. It was just a regular white apron, as was regulation, but a careless cook must have spilled a bowl of curry or gravy on it, for the was a large brown splotch right where her stomach would be.
She walked up another set of stairs, and down the hallway to her room. Opening the door, she set the apron down on a chair and closed the door.
Turning to the western wall of her room, she opened a large closet which held all of her shoes. She dug around, and pulled out a pair of fuzzy brown slippers from two months ago that she had yet to wear.
Zelda frowned. "Hmm...with a little work...I could make these look more like peasant shoes..." She opened her vanity drawer, and pulled out a pair of scissors.
She cut some of the fluff off the top, and then ripped a few holes in them. She turned them over in her hand, and shrugged. "This is good enough for now."
She took off her pink high heels, and slipped them on. "Great!" she said happily. The fuzzy slippers were comfortable, and Zelda almost regretted ruining them.
She slipped off her pink dress, and dug through her closet to find her short, brown one. When she found it, she quickly put it on, and tied the apron over it.
She looked into her mirror. 'Wonderful!'
She grabbed a bathrobe, and put it on over her outfit. She took off her shoes, and placed them in the robe pocket, putting white slippers on instead.
She opened the door, and looked around. It was about dinner time, and most of the guards would be in the dining hall. Not that it mattered much to Zelda. If she was able to sneak to the kitchen, surely the guards were off playing cards or something.
She tiptoed out of her room, and walked over to the stairs. She raised her right foot to step down on the first step, when a voice called out:
"What do you think you're doing, Princess??"
Zelda was suddenly relieved that she had thought of putting a bathrobe on. She turned around to come face-to-face with Adele. One of the elder servants.
"I was...going to take bathe!" chirped Zelda, trying her best to sound convincing.
Adele looked at her suspiciously, and Zelda got considerably shy under her gaze. "Well then, call for a servant next time. Come, Princess, I'll escort you."
As they walked down, Zelda sighed inwardly, out of relief. Adele was probably very hungry, or else she would have questioned her even more.
They turned a corner, and stopped at the giant door to a bathroom on the right wall in the main hall.
Adele turned to Zelda. "Would you like me to bathe you?"
Zelda shook her head, becoming annoyed at the customs. "No thank you, I'll be just fine."
Adele smiled, and started walking off. "I'll be in the dining hall!" she called, obviously eager to eat.
As soon as Adele turned a corner, Zelda looked around. There were no guards in this hall.
She made her way to the inner courtyard, and saw a few guards scattered about. Zelda frowned, trying to decide how she could get out, when she got an idea.
"Guards! Come quick!" she shouted, clutching her bathrobe, and running over to them. "There's a giant bug in the bathing room in the main hall!! I order you ALL to go and kill it! Immediately!!"
The guards rolled their eyes, but did as they were told. Each and every one of them- which was only about three or four- ran off to the bathing room.
Zelda, for the first time in years, was glad that she had a false reputation of being a "dainty", and "delicate" princess. Those rumors were, of course, spread by Madame Loraine; to make it look like she was doing her job.
When the all guards had left, Zelda ran to the gate, and opened it to the outer courtyard. It was still raining cats and dogs, and the guards must have gone inside so they didn't rust in their metal armor.
Zelda walked out into the rain, and closed the gate.
It was dark out, and Zelda shivered slightly. She walked along the path to get off of the castle grounds, and into outskirts of the peasant village. As soon as she was off the castle grounds, she removed the bathrobe, and slippers. She put the slippers that she hoped would pass for a peasant's on her feet, and folded up the bathrobe. She placed it on the ground, and put the white slippers on top of it.
She turned back to the trail, and smiled. She kept walking, until she got to the peasant village. She shivered again; the rain kept coming down, and her hair was matted to her face.
Zelda looked around, and as she should have expected- but didn't- nobody was outside.
Zelda mentally kicked herself. What was I thinking?! Going out on a rainy day like today! She scolded herself, and frowned. Nobody in their right minds would be out right now!
She sighed dejectedly, and turned around to go back to the comfort of her room. She tripped over an unseen post, and fell to the ground, into the mud.
She sputtered, and yelped in surprise, as she tried to get up. She mud was slippery, and she fell again. She shouted in frustration, as the mud covered her body.
She heard a door creak open, as light shone about her. "Who's there?" called a male voice.
Zelda turned, and saw a boy- not much older than her- from one of the houses holding up a lamp, looking at her. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"I-ah--I-" stuttered Zelda.
"Link, who's there?" called a feminine voice from inside the house. A lady, who looked a lot like the boy, stepped out behind him. When she saw Zelda, she gasped. "Oh, you poor dear!" she cried. "You must be new. Did the guards throw you in the mud? They did that to me when I first came here! That was...oh, let me think...about 20 years ago. Yup, and then I met Link here's father, and then--"
"Mom!" said the boy- Link- while rolling his eyes. "I think we'd better let the lady into our house before you start telling her about your childhood."
The lady gasped and giggled. "Oh dear, I'm a total dolt!" She hurried over to Zelda, and helped her up. "Why don't you come on in?" she asked, not really giving Zelda a choice as she pulled her into the house.
The woman led Zelda over to a small furnace, and set her down. Zelda immediately relaxed as the heat embraced her. The mud that covered her body started to dry, and chip off, but most of it stayed crusted to her skin. The son she had met earlier walked up a stairway. [1]
"So..." started the woman. "Where is your house? Do you have one, yet?"
Zelda, as if by instinct, replied, "I live in the castle," with an airy voice. She shut her mouth, and stuttered. "I-I mean, I'm a servant." She mentally kicked herself for the slip.
The woman thought about that for a few minutes. "Hm...well, then why were you out here in the cold rain??"
"I...ah..." Zelda chewed her bottom lip. 'Oh great...'
The woman waited patiently, until loud whistling rose from a small room to the right. She gasped and jumped up, scurrying into the room. Zelda heard a lot of shuffling, and pots clanging.
The woman started talking to herself, and Zelda heard small snippets. "I'm...dolt......burned...hate...cooking..." Judging by that, Zelda assumed that she had ruined the dinner she was preparing for herself- and whom Zelda assumed was her son, since he called her Mother.
Zelda felt rather ashamed that it was probably her interruption that caused the food to burn, so she got up from the wooden chair she was seated in. Leaving the warmest part of the house, she padded across the living area, and into the kitchen.
Upon entering, Zelda found out that the woman wasn't talking to herself. There was a dark haired male sitting at what must be the dinner table, laughing at the woman's complaints.
"Now, Linda, you're the best cook I know!" he grinned.
The woman turned to him and smiled. "Oh, thanks," she said rolling her eyes. She suddenly noticed Zelda. "Oh, hi, sweetie!" she chirped. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" She turned back to the stove. "Or...what's left of it, at least."
Zelda shook her head, blushing. "I wouldn't want to intrude..."
"Nonsense!" bubbled the woman, crossing the room to grab a chair. She pulled it over to the table. "It'd be fun to have another girl around! I'm the only one, you know!"
Zelda still hadn't eaten her dinner, and she was rather hungry...
"Oh, alright, then," she replied.
"Wonderful! You can g'wan and sit down, I'll bring the boys down." She hustled out of the kitchen, and ran up the stairs. "Link! Lunar!"
The man sitting at the table turned to look at Zelda. "So, what's your name?"
"Er-ah..." Zelda scratched her head, and replied: "Zelda." She used the simpler version of her name, versus Princess Zelda Madeleine Harkinian IV, heir to the throne of Hyrule. [2]
"Zelda?" asked the man. "Were you named after a member of the royal family?"
"Yes," Zelda replied simply. And true, she was. After Zelda Madeleine Harkinian I, of course.
The man shrugged, "Alright, lots of people are. Anyway, my name's Linux Teller. You can call me Line, if you want. Not too many people like calling my Linux. I don't really know why."
Zelda nodded, and remained silent. Soon, the woman and the boy Zelda had met earlier came trotting down the stairs. A little boy came bouncing down behind them.
~*~
Ta-DAH!!! How is it so far?? ^-^ Thank you SO much for the reviews! Wow! 21! Thankies!! ^-^
Sorry I had to end it so abruptly, but I did that so I'd know where to start the next chapter ^_^
[1] Think...a small cottage, with two stories. A living room and a
kitchen downstairs, and bedrooms upstairs. Okay? ^^
[2] I *know* I said this was A/U, and it is! The name of the country will
stay the same ^_^
~reviews are appreciated!~
Next Chapter: Zelda has dinner with the Teller family! After she learns their names, how is she planning on keeping her royalty a secret? How, for that matter, will she keep the knowledge of her escaping from getting to her parents?? Plus, a lesson with Madame Loraine will have y'all knowing what Zelda goes through each day ;) No romance yet, but soon! ^_^