If I were to sum up this epilogue, I would do so with these words here:
I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end…
Not much is left to tell of this tale.
The fair Zelda led her dearest, beloved king out of the small chamber to the burly landlord Talon and the fastest horse that could carry them both…
…which was the great red mare Epona!
The red Epona had long since come to accept the fair Zelda, and with her help but still to everyone's surprise the red Epona soon allowed the young king of Hyrule to mount her and ride her back to the castle.
Throughout whole way the fair Zelda had her arms firmly wound around her dearest, beloved king, as though to make sure that she would not lose him…
And she still held onto him when they stepped into the castle…
…which of course confused each and every one who saw them, including, in part, the stern, fair-haired Lady Impa who had trouble believing that the sly, fair Zelda's mad scheme had actually worked and not sent her into the dungeons!
And worked it had indeed for the young king of Hyrule loudly declared right then and there that he had decided to wed the wise, fair Zelda and that his decision was final!
Of course, this set off a huge uproar! A good number of nobles and the young king's advisors who were present immediately protested but the young king of Hyrule held firm. But just the same, the nobles and his advisors too refused to be ignored and no end to the argument was in sight!
It was then that the wicked, fair Zelda slyly pointed out that neither the young king of Hyrule nor his council ever set a fixed period of time for her trial; no fixed period of time within which the fair Zelda had to prove herself worthy… as such, said the sly, fair Zelda impishly, the young king of Hyrule was free to keep her for as long as he pleased and have the trial period last for as long as he desired it to!
The nobles and the young king's advisors were aghast and dumbstruck, both by the wicked, fair Zelda's words and the truth there was in them.
Then they angrily declared that she had no right to stay any longer in the castle seeing that she had spent already so much time being the young king's fiancée and the wise, old Rauru's student, for so many days and weeks, and yet had shown nothing for it!
Which, the wicked, fair Zelda impishly pointed out was quite false!
For, as she explained, she had succeeded in doing what no other maiden in the land had been able to do:
Capture the heart of the young king of Hyrule!
The wicked, fair Zelda then went on to say how in doing so, she had succeeded in the second part of her trial, for, as she explained, her trial was essentially consisted of two:
The first was to prove herself worthy to be the next queen of Hyrule.
The second was to build a bond of true love with the young king of Hyrule!
And there, the wicked, fair Zelda repeated, she had succeeded!
And since, said the sly, fair Zelda, much to the shock and horror of the nobles and advisors but much to the merriment of the young king of Hyrule, she had already successfully fulfilled the second half of her trial, it would be quite foolish to dismiss her now, seeing that all she had to do now was to successfully complete the first half of her trial… which was to prove herself worthy to lead the land as her queen!
Again the nobles and the young king's advisors were shocked and dumbstruck by the sly, fair Zelda's words, but soon they angrily declared that the fair Zelda had already failed at proving herself worthy to be queen as, so they said, was proven by how she had struggled with her studies under the wise, old Lord Rauru!
To which the sly, fair Zelda responded that whether she had struggled in her studies or not mattered very little, for it only proved whether or not she found her lessons to be challenging. But unless and until the fair Zelda was allowed to participate in court, so she said, and act as a queen or the young king's advisor, no one would ever know whether or not she would make a fine queen.
And then she just happened to remember that she had yet to finish her studies under the wise, old Lord Rauru.
Again, the nobles and king's advisors were dumbfounded by the sly, fair Zelda's words, but again, they refused to simply, silently accept their young king's decision!
In the end, after much haggling and arguing it was finally decided that the fair Zelda would be give none halfmoon to finish her studies under the wise, old Lord Rauru and one fullmoon to prove herself in court!
To this the wise, fair Zelda graciously agreed…
And this time she threw herself into her studies with all her heart and mind!
Again, she came to struggle with her studies… but not in the same way nor for the same reasons as she had struggled before!
Before, she had struggled simply because she had not truly wanted to study! She had not been able to commit herself to her studies!
Before, what she had truly desired was to go home… home to her dear, old father, the good, old Daphnes… home to her dear, good friends, such as the good Malon and the slim Anju… home to the great farm of the burly landlord Talon. And wise as she was, she had known, both in mind and in heart, that the more she committed herself to her studies, the less likely the young king of Hyrule would have allowed her to go back home.
But that was then and now was now!
And now was different! She was, no, felt different!
Now she wanted to stay! Not stay in the castle… but stay with her dearly beloved king!
And to that end she studied… studied well and hard! So well that she thoroughly shocked the poor, old, wise Lord Rauru, for when he had been twice her age he had not been half as wise and intelligent as she was right now!
The wise, fair Zelda now struggled not with learning… struggled not to understand… that, as the poor, old Lord Rauru found out came shockingly easy for the wise, fair Zelda.
No, what caused her struggle was how to best put her newly learned skills and knowledge to use!
How to best use her newly learned skills and knowledge for the benefit and welfare of her fellowmen!
How to best use her newly learned skills and knowledge to force those unwilling among the nobles and the young king's advisors to accept her into submission!
And lastly, but most certainly not in the least, how to best use her newly learned skills and knowledge to make her soon-to-be-husband (for she would not permit him anything less or other) proud of her…
…and to make him love and desire her as much as she possibly could make him!
…or at the very least make him love and desire her as much as she had come to love and desire him!
Soon the fair Zelda's studies under the wise, old Rauru came to an end… and she ended them with excellent marks! And it was time for her to enter and prove herself in court.
And she wasted very little time, for the very first thing she did was go to her dearly beloved king and ask him to name her his scribe.
…which of course the young king of Hyrule agreed to.
And so the wise, fair Zelda, who by now was known as the Scholar, became one of the personal scribes of the young king of Hyrule…
Wherever the young king of Hyrule went, the wise, fair Zelda came along. Whenever the young king of Hyrule would make a decision, she would dutifully record it…
But of course, she did much, much more than just that!
By now, the wise, fair Zelda and the young king of Hyrule had grown quite close to one another… quite close indeed! Much to the annoyance and the frustration of the nobles and their daughters! The wise, far Zelda and the young king of Hyrule now so familiar with each other, that they very much knew what every single, little gesture of the other meant; what was on the other's thoughts.
And this the wise, fair Zelda used to her advantage!
Whenever the young king of Hyrule held one of his audiences to entertain and resolve the issues of the people, the wise, fair Zelda was of course always present and right beside him as his scribe. But she soon became the young king's most frequent and reliable advisor!
The wise, fair Zelda was now so familiar with her dearly beloved king that just by a glance at his face she could tell when her dearly beloved struggled to make a decision… be it because he knew not enough from what was presented to him or because he found it difficult to figure out who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
The young king of Hyrule too now knew his sly, fair Zelda well enough to know when she had something she wanted to say.
As such, among all the young king's advisors it was almost always the wise, fair Zelda who was the first to give him aid.
At first, these interactions between the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda were most subtle… the young king of Hyrule would briefly shift his blue eyes to glance over to the wise, fair Zelda and the wise, fair Zelda would whisper a few words into the young king's sharp ears.
The wise, fair Zelda would quietly tap with her finger just within the edge of the sight of her dearly beloved king, and her dearly beloved king would answer with the slightest shift of his eyes or the slightest nod of his head.
Soon, little by little, bit by bit, there was less and less need of the young king's advisors to be present and before long, his sly, fair Zelda was all the advisor he needed.
Soon, little by little, bit by bit, the young king if Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda dropped their subtilities.
Soon, little by little, bit by bit, the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda became more and more open in their joint discussions.
Soon, little by little, bit by bit, everyone saw the wise, fair Zelda grow into the wise, fair queen of Hyrule.
Of course, things did not always go the way the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda wanted them to.
One such thing that refused to do so was, of course, that some of the young king's advisors and some of the nobles of Hyrule still refused to acknowledge the wise, fair Zelda as the future wife of the young king of Hyrule and the future queen of Hyrule… despite her frightingly impressive performance…
…or rather because of it!
For the nobles of Hyrule knew that as a capable ruling queen, their daughters could never hope to compete with the wise, fair Zelda, while the young king's advisors doubted the heart and intentions of the cunning, fair Zelda!
The young king of Hyrule though, simply dismissed their concerns, for he knew well enough that the hearts and intentions of his advisors and the nobles were impossibly any truer than those of his wise, fair Zelda…
…besides… he had inadvertently ended up promising himself to her, but of course he did not tell them this…
…or rather the young king of Hyrule decided himself that there was also no need for them to know of it.
Of course their young king's dismissive attitude did little to dissuade the quarrelsome nobles and advisors… quite the contrary! It was very much like pouring oil into a blazing fire while fanning the flames!
And so… many a quarrel broke out between the young king of Hyrule and his wise, fair Zelda and the young king's advisors and the quarrelsome nobles of Hyrule!
… the young king's advisors and the quarrelsome nobles of Hyrule soon learned that in a battle with wits and words the wise, fair Zelda was deadlier than her dearly beloved, the young heroking of Hyrule was with blade and bow… and he was said to be the best in the whole land!
And of course, things did not always go smoothly between the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda themselves! Quite the contrary! There were quite a few times when the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda made quite the scene inside the throneroom!
Most of the time, when the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda worked together to resolve a dispute presented before them they worked together admirably… each one giving valuable, supportive advice and suggestions one after the other, kindly and politely pointing out if there was a flaw and at the same time suggesting how to mend it, until before long they had come to a fair, sensible solution to whatever issue or dispute had been brought before them…
But there were also times when the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda clashed in their views and opinions like two young stags during rutting(?) season!
The wise, fair Zelda, being born a poor, old farmer's daughter, most often than not would put the welfare of the commonfolk before the whole of the country.
The young king of Hyrule, most of the time, was of the same mind as was his dearly beloved…
But being born a noble and having been raised as a knight, he knew that there were times when he had to put the good of the country before the good of the people.
Often enough, this the wise, fair Zelda understood as well… but not always did she agree, for in her mind what was good for the people ought to be good for the country as well!
Another thing that caused the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda to clash every now and then was in how they differed in their senses of justice.
Both the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda were unquestionably fair and just.
However, the wise, fair Zelda, again, being born a poor, old farmer's daughter, just and fair though she was in judgment, could not help but feel more compassionate and merciful towards the poor and the commonfolk. This meanes not that the wise, fair Zelda had her heart hamper her judgment, far from it! Still… while it was not enough to be deemed unjust, it was still rather clear to everyone that the wise, fair Zelda tended to be more kind and forgiving towards the poor and the commonfolk.
The young king of Hyrule was, most of the time, of the same mind as was his dearly beloved…
However, what made the young king of Hyrule and his sense of justice different was, of course, that he had been born a noble but more importantly, that he had been a young knight who had lived through betrayal and fought through bloody warfare! It is thanks to this, one could say, that between the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda, it was the young king of Hyrule who was the truly just one, for he was the one who was more impartial.
There were times when the young king of Hyrule was rather kind, kinder even than his dearly beloved, the wise, fair Zelda…
…but for every time that the young king of Hyrule was kind and forgiving there was a time when he was harsh and without mercy!
One could say that the young king of Hyrule embodied the kind ness of Farore, the justness of Nayru and the wrath of Din!
And it was this difference in their senses of justice that caused the golden lynx and the auburn vixen to bare fang and claw at one another every now and then.
At such times… the young king of Hyrule… and the wise, fair Zelda… within the throneroom of grand Hyrule Castle… in front of the whole court and all the people gathered… could be witnessed loudly and uninhibitedly bickering and arguing, snarling and shouting at each other, back and forth fighting over which decision, which decree would be the right!
…all the while completely forgetting all about all the people present, including whoever had brought the case before them to begin with!
In due time though, things settled down, and amongst them, the wise, fair Zelda settled beautifully into her new role and station as Hyrule's soon-to-be queen and the young king's soon-to-be wedded… which were pretty much set in stone.
Of course not everyone in the land was happy about this… namely, the proud nobles who had sought to have their daughters wedded to the young king of Hyrule…
Alas… for them… there was very little what they could do now that the wise, fair Zelda had proved herself most worthy. And with the wise, fair Zelda being dearly loved by the commonfolk and peasantry and the young king of Hyrule having the undying loyalty of every knight and soldier in Hyrule… there was even littler they could do…
And so, at last, the young king of Hyrule and the wise, fair Zelda were wedded in a most grand celebration, and all the wise, fair Zelda's friends and her dear old father were present, with the good, red-haired Malon and the red-haired, slim Anju being her bridesmaids, and the whole land celebrated the happy occasion for at least three days!
And now that she bore a crown, the wise, fair Zelda was forth on known as the wise, fair queen of Hyrule… and as the queen of Hyrule, she dedicated herself to making the whole of Hyrule a better land to live in…
Many were the ideas she had… some of which were rather quite unusual and never heard of before!
One such an idea now allowed the people of Hyrule to choose where their taxes would go, or rather a significant part of them!
Before, it was solely the young king of Hyrule, his advisors, and to some degree the lords of the provinces who decided how and for what all the taxes collected from the people was to be used. But this the wise queen of Hyrule had changed.
Firstly, every man's collected tax money was divided into four portions. The first portion of the money would be used for the good of all of Hyrule, and as such, it would be the young king and the wise queen of Hyrule who would decide for what and in what manner all this money would be used best.
The second portion would go to the lord of the provinces who would then decide how to best use all this money for the good of their provinces.
The third and fourth portions would both go to the town or village major but it he would only decide on how to use the third portion, again for the best of his or her town or village. As for the fourth and final portion, it was now up to the taxpayer himself where this portion of his money would go and for what it would be used. If, for instance, the taxpayer wished that there be better roads in the village or town he lived in, than this portion of his taxes, together with the collected taxes from all the taxpayers who wanted and wished the same, would be used to better the roads.
Likewise, if that same taxpayer thought it better to instead build a protective wall around the town and enough of the other taxpayers thought so as well, then, from the combined money from their final portions, that wall would be built, regardless of whether the town major thought this wall necessary or not.
And in the end, after polishing up all the rough parts, this idea of the wise queen of Hyrule turned out to be a very well idea indeed, for it allowed the people see where their money went, and what it was used for! And best of all it allowed them to change their village and towns in a way they truly wanted to!
It must be said once more that this was but one idea out of many, born from the wise queen of Hyrule's creative mind, and of course a few of all her ideas here and there failed or turned out to be not as helpful or useful as she had thought… but the rest, those were worthy of much praise!
Soon there were no more questions nor doubts… the wise, fair Zelda had turned out to be a most talented queen… mayhap too talented.
As the wise, fair Zelda became more and more successful as a queen, she became more and more loved by the people… people from all around Hyrule, people from all classes and races. As such, the wise queen of Hyrule soon grew to be more and more powerful… so powerful that some of the young king's advisors began to fear that as time would go on, the wise, fair queen of Hyrule would soon overshadow the young king of Hyrule… and perhaps even go so far as to take his throne and become the sole ruler of Hyrule!
And truth be told, there were times when the young king of Hyrule could not help but worry for the same!
But again and again, his loving, fair Zelda would put those foolish worries of his to rest… for no matter how much the young king of Hyrule was hers… the truth was that she was so much more his!
And as we well know, the wise, fair Zelda cared not for gold or silver or jewels or crowns or thrones… all these things were of little value to her! The only thing she desired was nothing other than her most precious treasure… her dearly beloved husband.
That soon though came to change… somewhat. For the wise, fair Zelda had grown to be much, much richer! Richer in the sense that she had obtained more "treasures…" the beautiful children she had born to the young king of Hyrule.
Those were her treasures… her dearly beloved… and their darling children… they were the most precious treasures of the wise queen of Hyrule…
…even though as her children grew up they turned out to be a most rambunctious, troublesome bunch!
For some of her children had inherited their father's unquenchable thirst for adventure whilst the others their mother's wickedly cunning mind… and Nayru have mercy upon us all! A few had inherited both!
It was a most fortunate thing indeed that the fair-haired, stern Lady Impa was still with them, and more fortunate still that she was still as stern and imposing as she had ever been! For the young mother soon had come to understand why her fox-like wits had caused so much worry and fear for her dearly beloved and his advisors… for there was not one among her clever children that had not managed in one or way or another to painfully outsmart her, their mother, the fabled mighty all-knowing wise, fair queen of Hyrule who was famous all throughout Hyrule and all the lands beyond for her wits!
But even so… she dearly loved her children… no matter how troublesome they turned out to be! Them and of course her dearly, beloved husband.
These were her treasures… not gold, not silver, not jewels… the wise, fair queen of Hyrule cared nothing for such things…
…
…
…
Halt.
Nay… t'is a lie.
There was one actual piece of treasure, an object of great, great value that was most dear to the wise queen of Hyrule! It was so dear to her, that she always carried it with her, no matter where she went! Little was this known, but she even wore it more often than she wore her crown!
What is it that she wore? This piece of treasure?
A jeweled silver dagger… that did not have a sheath to match!
While the blade had been forged out of bright silver and sparkling jewels… the sheath was but a plain, simple one made from sturdy, fine leather!
Well...?
How did you like the epilogue, the true ending?
Oh wow... I can't believe that this is the last time I'll be saying/writing this for this story...
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