"Please, don't follow me. I know the cellar well enough to navigate now."
The same plea repeated as the previous days and the same result followed. No reply from her silent knight, only footsteps echoing behind hers. And no suspicious looking columns were found, no matter how carefully the Princess surveyed every damp wall and every millimeter of the ground. She cared not if the hem of her beautiful dress became dirty from the soil, there were more important things to worry about than that.
"You don't have to accompany me to the lab, nothing harmful will happen and we'll probably just bore you."
She tried with begging eyes, tried her very best to make him give in and finally leave her alone. But she found out that his patience was perhaps as strong as hers. Why did she have to be joined with the most loyal guard in the whole castle?
"I order you to take a long break. I will dedicate my time for prayers in the afternoon and you won't be needed."
She almost began to hope that it worked when she saw a hint of hesitation in his blue eyes but that tiny spark of hope soon faded away when he made no signs of leaving her side. Even when using her right to order people around, which she rarely did, it didn't seem to work. Her frustration only became larger when she realized that her words to Link most likely wouldn't change his mind since her father's, the Kings', order probably meant more.
And she felt like she needed to talk with him about this.
Hyrule Castle was large and she wasn't sure where her father was, but she tried with his chamber first. The huge double doors parted when she entered her father's room (Link stayed outside), looked to both left and right but couldn't find him. She left the ornamented room with large windows, went through the hallway which was as equally red as the King's chamber, and continued to his study before she stopped herself when she remembered that he was having some important meetings earlier this day and might not have reached his study yet. She turned around abruptly, her dress twirling as she did so, and ignored her knight and his sword. Meetings were always held nearby the throne room and she slowly approached it with every step she took.
She took a shortcut through the gallery but didn't stop to admire the paintings on the walls. Usually there were always one or two nobles in there but she was in luck this time since it was empty, apart from a few royal guards. The large windows let the sunshine through and hanging mirrors reflected the sunrays, making the whole gallery lit up so the paintings could be seen well in the daylight.
She blinked when she went around the corner. She didn't expect to find her father here… and not to see him looking at a painting of her mother and herself either. She couldn't remember when it was made, she was too young when the first brushstrokes touched the canvas, but that was the only painting of her mother they owned. It was fortunately made by a skilled artist. Her mother's skin was as smooth as her own, her eyes looked lovingly down at the tiny Princess in her arms, the golden locks held up in an elegant updo and she was wearing the finest fabric and jewelry to symbolize her royal status as Queen. Zelda herself was merely wrapped in a cloth, seemingly simple in comparison to her mother's dress if you didn't pay attention to the fine lace painted with most care. The picture was almost so realistic that she could hear her mother's voice.
If only she could remember it.
"Father." She walked up to him with a few last steps, and she caught his attention. He looked as surprised as she had when she saw him standing in the gallery merely a moment ago. "Father, if you're not too busy, may I have a word with you?"
"Of course, Zelda." The King's voice was deep and echoed through the gallery.
"In private."
The King's eyes glanced at the few guards in the gallery, at his two advisors who were walking towards them with papers they had just gathered from the latest meeting and then at Link who was kneeling behind his daughter. He understood. She needed her father and not the King.
He spoke to one of the guards.
"Is the smaller meeting room free?"
"Yes, your Majesty, I do believe it is." the royal guard replied.
Without another word, the King made his way to the meeting room and his daughter and her knight followed him closely. It didn't take more than a few minutes until they reached the door, which was carved in a more simplistic fashion than others in the castle but with much more detail than any door which could be seen in the rest of Hyrule, and the two members of the royal family entered the room. The door closed and Link was left outside together with a royal guard who stood across the hallway. Their eyes met but Link couldn't remember seeing the guard's face before. The eye contact broke when Link glanced down at the floor and positioned himself to guard the door. There wasn't much else he could do while he waited for the Princess to step out again.
"Hey" the guard shouted to Link in a whisper, "what's the Princess like? Is she sweet or mean and selfish?"
Link's eyes met the guard's, this time with a slightly threatening glare to remind him that it was not in their interest to ask such things, and the cunning smile on the guard's face soon became a straight line. No more words were uttered and the space between them went quiet again as the minutes passed. Nothing could be heard except for footsteps from passing nobles who entered the gallery and the breathing from Link and the guard across the hallway. Link thought he heard the King's voice rise once behind the door but he might have imagined it. He returned to focus on everything and nothing in particular at the same time, seeing people pass by but not looking, something he was so used to do after being a royal guard for more than a year.
The door opened next to him and the Princess was the first to exit. She didn't look for her knight, she didn't wait for him to start following her, and Link took a step forward before he stopped when he remembered that the King was still beside him, closing the door. Link kept his head down and would have bowed if he didn't have to hurry after the Princess, but the King spoke to him and Link immediately kneeled down on one leg. His heartbeat quickened slightly, for the King had never spoken to him before, but his bent head still kept the calm expression as usual on his face.
"The Princess asked for less protection while she's here in the castle, and I couldn't deny her wish when we have so many guards within these walls to keep us away from any harm. So while she's here, you do not have to follow and guard her. She will let you know when she needs you to accompany her on any travels." He had followed his daughter with his eyes until she could no longer be seen and now looked down at Link instead. "So you're free to spend your time however you'd like when you're both in the castle." He saw the young knight slightly nod and the King left Link and the royal guard across the hallway with a quiet sigh. Link didn't stand up until the King had left.
The royal guard and the knight exchanged a quick look before Link left and slowly wandered as his mind decided what to do next. He made his way to the kitchen, kindly asked a kitchen maid if they had any bread left from the morning and received a slice of a drying end part of a loaf. Then he sat down on the grass in the guard's yard with the bread in his hand and began chew on small pieces he ripped away and thought.
What was the Princess like? He had followed her for weeks and had got to know her much better than perhaps anyone else within the castle, with the exception from the King and her lady's maid. Yet, he couldn't deny that there seemed to be something about her she wouldn't show him. She could talk to him about anything, endless words passing her lips, revealing her intelligence and knowledge of subjects like flora and fauna and complicated Sheikah technology, subjects he was never taught in his life. He could listen to her explanations and descriptions all day long and still wish that she told him more as he realized how little he knew about the world. The Princess was as clever as she was beautiful but there were still moments when he caught her glancing his way with an anxious expression and going silent. He could not seem to understand why she had a reason to look so sad. She was smart. She was strong and determined, just what Daruk had told him before the eruption at Death Mountain. She had allies who would help her defeat the Calamity. And she had a father alive, something that Link no longer had.
With the piece of bread finished some time ago, he stood up and brushed off any dust from his pants. The warrior part in him told him not to waste any time to rest unless it was necessary, so he picked up his sword in the blue scabbard and began to approach the practice room for the royal guards. He no longer had a commander telling him what to do, but he figured that he could spend his time practicing with his sword, hoping that the sensation he had once felt and Princess Zelda had asked him about would come back. Perhaps, if he spent more time wielding it, he would feel it again.
Unfortunately were all the sparring wooden dummies occupied by other royal guards and Link didn't want to wield the sword in the air and undoubtedly get any unwanted attention, so he left the large room, ignored the eyes on him as he passed through the guards' hallways and decided to go to the stables instead. He knew that he didn't have to take care of his ash brown mare as there were stable boys who could do the job for him, but at least he could be alone with his thoughts without eyes piercing through him like arrows until the practice room got an empty spot for him. Besides, he hadn't seen his horse for a while and he missed her.
Before he got the chance to reach the stables, he saw the Princess' white horse being led out in the distance. Curiously, he followed it with his eyes as he slowly approached the stables, thinking that it might not be hers and he might have mistaken it for someone else's before remembering that the only white horse that the stables kept was hers, a gift she had gotten for her birthday the previous year. He turned around a corner and got a better view and his suspicions were confirmed to be true when the Princess, dressed in the same tight, light blue outfit she wore when they traveled through the kingdom, took the bridle and got up on the horse's back. She managed to steer it around in a circle, urged it to take a few steps forward and then looked up. The Princess' and her knight's eyes locked for a few seconds before she pressed her lips together to a frown and made her way out of the stable and the castle.
Quickly realizing what the Princess was doing, Link hurriedly ran the remaining distance to the stables, ignored a stable boy's inquiries if he needed any help and grabbed a saddle cloth. He couldn't act stressed or else his mare would notice and pick it up, but his hands worked quickly after greeting her. It only took a few minutes before she was ready to leave and Link got up on her, searching for the Princess with his eyes. It didn't take long before he saw her outside the castle's gates, too far away for him to catch up but not enough to lose her from his vision. He gently made his mare slowly walk up to the gates to avoid any attention and then began to speed up.
He followed her as she went west, trying his best to make the distance between them become shorter without tiring out his horse. Luckily, she passed by a few towns and smaller villages and he knew that as long she stayed close to them and the main roads, the Princess would stay safe. Monsters rarely attacked the towns and villages and if, goddesses forbid, anything would happen to her, there would always be soldiers in the towns who would protect her before he could get to her. He had no bow and arrows on him and could only rely on his sword if she would need protection.
Link could only wonder where the Princess was heading to, because the way she steered her horse spoke of anything else than a simple stroll with a horse for amusement. No, she seemed determined to reach something. But hadn't the King told him that she would let him know if she would go somewhere outside the castle? Then, why hadn't she told him? He could only be in a very limited area of the large castle so it couldn't be that she wouldn't know where to find him.
She didn't stop and neither did Link but as she got farther away from her home and the green open fields, the more attention did Link keep on their surroundings. With fewer villages now, the risk of approaching monsters got bigger and he didn't want any of them to get close to her. Lynels would be a nightmare as he knew that she wouldn't stand a chance against them, but he hoped that not even bokoblins or keese's would get her. He knew how important the Princess was for the future of Hyrule and he could only imagine the punishment he'd get if she even got a single scratch.
Her horse was faster than his and she had already passed Tabantha Great Bridge and when Link was still at the foot of Mount Rhoam. She must have noticed him following her as she suddenly sped up even more and Link could only faintly see her make a turn to the left instead of following the road. His adrenaline rose as he lost her vision when she had made a turn behind the cliffs and he urged his horse to speed up even more, feeling that it was more important than ever to get closer to the Princess' white horse. It pained him to force his mare to climb the cliffs of Rayne Highlands as fast as she could but he knew that it was necessary.
Finally, he saw the Princess again, standing in front of a strange looking building with the Sheikah slate in her hands and her horse not being far away. They were surrounded by damaged columns, their purpose long forgotten, and Link swiftly got off his mare that neighed in exhaustion and jogged up to the Princess. She didn't look pleased with seeing him there. In fact, Link had never seen the Princess so angry before. She began to scold him for following her before he got a chance to reach the odd building she stood at and then ordered him to return to the castle.
Link stood still, confused over her reactions. Wasn't she aware of the dangers she had put herself in? What if a lynel had seen her? Or a member of the Yiga clan? He was only following his orders, which were to protect the Princess whenever she was outside the castle and making sure she made it back safely. She knew that he had to follow them. He couldn't leave her even though she wanted him to. Why she suddenly wished for him to stay away, he didn't know. He thought she liked telling him of all the things she knew of? Perhaps he had been wrong.
He jogged behind het to catch up again, but this time she didn't ignore him as she usually did when they were traveling. She sighed audibly, clearly annoyed, stopped her quick steps and spun around.
"And, please, stop following me!"
Not prepared for such a reaction from the Princess, who was usually so calm and collected, Link's eyebrows rose in surprise. And they just stared at each other in silence. The Princess' face red and showing emotions like anger and annoyance, the knight's first surprise, then confusion and finally the same expressionless face he always kept. He got it. He understood her now.
The Princess mounted her horse first and Link followed but kept a larger distance between them than what he would usually allow. Petting his mare to thank her for her hard work, his mind began to wander.
He realized that she was perhaps not so different from himself. The eyes on himself in the castle was something new to him, something he was still not used to, since he had made the Master Sword his. And being the Princess, he figured, must mean having eyes on her all the time. It wasn't so hard to understand that she wished for some time to be alone. And perhaps she wasn't angry at him for following her, perhaps she was angry at her father for controlling her life, appointing her a knight to follow her around and always reminding her of her duty as a Princess and urging her to keep praying to awaken her powers. She didn't seem to have much to say about how she wanted her life to be, being the Princess of Hyrule and the responsibility that followed with having such a title was top priority.
Link had almost forgotten that part about her powers. There was so much else about her that made her just radiate in comparison to anyone else he had met.
Perhaps she was keeping her walls up so she wouldn't disappoint anyone either, just like what Link was doing. And he began to pity her. Here she was, Princess to the most beautiful land created by the goddesses, holding more knowledge than anyone else in her age and was still not free to do whatever she wished to. Her obligations as Princess weighed heavy on her shoulders, just like how his obligation to slay the Calamity with his new sword weighed him down.
The sun was setting. The sky slowly took a shade of darker blue and the clouds turned bright pink. They stopped at a stable to let their horses drink water before they continued. Link went to the counter to pay a small sum as thanks and bought an endura carrot each for their horses. He gave one to Princess Zelda and fed the other to his mare, stroking her fur lovingly as he did so. The Princess stood still, holding the carrot in her hand and just looked at him.
Fearing that she was still angry at him, he only dared to nervously glance up to look at her. He immediately softened when he saw her not looking angry but rather gloomy. She blinked, looked down to the carrot in her hand and her cheeks became pink and her eyebrows furrowed as if she was feeling guilty for something she had done. She hesitantly reached the carrot to her horse who gratefully took it from her palm and the Princess looked back at Link with eyes begging him to not tell her father of her running away without an escort. But Link couldn't read what she tried to tell him without speaking, she was too ashamed to speak, and after a moment of silence, he nodded with his head to tell her that they better get back to the castle before it got too dark.
Her lady's maid had finished brushing through her long, blonde hair and helping her getting into her nightgown and she was finally alone in her bedroom. She sat with her diary in her lap, a pen between her fingers, ready to write down her thoughts. She sat still while formulating her thoughts in her mind.
The rest of the evening had gone by peacefully although her mind wouldn't let her stop worrying about the risk of her father scolding her until she made it to her chamber. It seemed that Link hadn't told her father of her running away after all. She had only done it because she felt that she needed to actually look at a Sheikah shrine to understand them better and try to use the functions of the Sheikah slate in a way she hadn't before. To her dismay, nothing had happened and when she heard her knight getting closer to only see one more of her failures... it hadn't exactly made her feel any better.
She had scolded him, yelled at him, in a way she had rarely, if ever, done before. His surprised expression when she had done that was something she couldn't get out of her mind. Not the feeling she had felt when he had turned into that stare either. That look always made her anxious. He was only doing his job, she knew that. She had treated him unfairly, she had acted like a child, and she felt immensely guilty. He didn't deserve that.
She wrote down a small note in her diary with her elegant handwriting, closed it and blew out the candle next to her bed. She was sure that Link hadn't told her father because he would otherwise not let another minute go without scolding her.
Perhaps her knight was a better person that she had thought.
Or perhaps he was just staying silent, as usual.
She brought the cover over herself and rested her head against the soft pillows and kept her eyes on the bright moon outside her window until her eyelids became heavy and her breathing deep and even.