They left the small town after refilling their empty stomachs (Princess Zelda had observed with fascination how her knight managed to empty not one, but two bowls of meat and rice and an apple on top of that) and continued back to Hyrule Castle. They took a break and let their horses rest for a while in a grove where they could be fairly unseen from passing travellers. The sky was still cloudy but the birds in the trees sang happily as if the sun was shining.
The Princess sat down in the grass and watched her knight give a friendly pat to his brown mare and then another one for her own white horse. She caught his attention when she commented how good he was with horses.
"Not every soldier is so good with horses like you are. It's almost as if you can read what they are thinking." Her knight didn't comment back but she was prepared for that. She got lost in her thoughts as she lazily kept her eyes on him while he returned his attention back to the horses. Funnily, she didn't envy him this time. Maybe she had gotten used to the thought that he would always be better than her in everything and come to accept that.
She gathered a bit of courage to ask him a question.
"Where did you learn how to handle them so well?"
Link looked back and their eyes met briefly before he adverted his gaze down to the ground. Link walked over to the Princess to sit down next to her. He was glad that she had begun to talk a little bit like she used to do before and he hoped that it meant that she was becoming herself again. After the Yiga had attacked her in Gerudo Desert, he thought that she would become more closed from the trauma but, to his surprise, she seemed to be fine. She really was a strong person.
He had never talked much about himself to anyone, not for a very long time at least, because most people were more interested in him being a "hero" than learning who he really was. But, perhaps, if he chose to tell her, if the Princess's image of him wouldn't change if he told her about himself, then maybe he would get to know her better as well. Which was something he had wished for a few days ago.
He had stayed silent for so long that the Princess had lost hope in getting a reply and began to mindlessly pluck on strands of grass instead.
"… I used to work on a ranch."
Princess Zelda turned her head slightly to look at him. His voice was as calm as his facial expression, not deep as her father's but not as light as a child's either. She couldn't help but think that if she had ever imagined what his voice sounded like, it would be just like this – it suited him perfectly. Not too serious, not too raspy but not too soft either.
"Really?" was all she managed to say. She really hadn't expected him to answer. He nodded but she didn't want the conversation to end yet, not now when he finally spoke to her. "I thought you had always been a soldier?"
Link didn't answer immediately. "My father was kind enough to take care of me after mother passed away, and he taught me a lot of things so… I guess I always have been, in a sense."
"… I'm sorry to hear that." Hearing that made Zelda remember her own mother. She hadn't cried when the Queen passed away until she was alone and out of sight in her own room that day. Same with the funeral. Those were days she would never forget and sometimes even haunt her even in her dreams for many years to come. "My mother is gone too so I know what it feels like."
He stared out into nothingness. He wasn't sure how to respond. "I'm sorry, too." he replied politely. They sat there in the grass and none of them said another word for a few minutes while Link wondered for himself if he could be honest. Maybe he should try, hopefully would the Princess' response not be that bad. "I remember the day of the late Queen's funeral better than my own mother's." he added with a voice which didn't hint the emotions he was feeling at all.
The Princess blinked. That could mean that he lost his own earlier than she lost hers. "What do you remember of it?" she asked curiously but with caution. No one ever spoke of the late Queen. She wasn't used to talk about her. But she had always wished she knew more and genuinely wondered what he could remember of such a sad day.
Link picked his words before he spoke. "… It was a bit… odd, in a way. All the adults were naturally mourning but I couldn't understand why." He turned his head a little bit too to look at the Princess and felt like he should elaborate what he meant when he saw her sad frown. "I mean, I understood that we had lost someone important but… I was too young to fully understand." he ended nervously.
"No, I understand." She wrapped her arms around her legs. "It was odd, wasn't it?" She recalled the days after the funeral. She had felt like spending hours and hours on crying but her mother and father had always told her to be a good girl and to not cry, so she hadn't. What would her mother think of her if she had? And she thought that it wasn't ok to cry – not even the adults cried from what she could remember, they all smiled at her and cheered her up as much as they could when they saw her in the castle. And, she had thought, if they weren't crying, she wouldn't either. She wanted to be a big, strong girl who her father could be proud of.
She guessed he still wasn't proud of her.
Link sensed that the Princess' mood had changed for the worse and he regretted for a moment what he had told her. Maybe it would've been better if he had never spoken at all. Maybe it had been a mistake to be honest. He was nervous enough from speaking with a member of the Royal family of Hyrule and fearing that he had said anything wrong didn't make him feel better. They had spent months together but they had never actually talked like they were – or rather had – been doing now and yet he was nervous. Maybe it was the combination of not speaking for a really long time with trying to speak with the Princess that made it so hard for him to go on. But, he thought, there was no one else around who could cheer up the Princess and if he had unintentionally made her worse, he should at least try and make her better again.
He swallowed a nervous lump and made sure his voice wouldn't reveal his nervousness before he spoke.
"So, your Highness was asking about horses?"
She blinked a few times and came back from her memories to reality. "Oh. Yes. Yes, I'm sorry, I forgot that I asked you." She shook her head and gave him an apologetic smile. "So you said that you worked on a ranch? With the horses there?" He nodded. "It's no surprise that you're so good with them then." They went silent again until it became too uncomfortable for the Princess. "If you don't mind me asking…" She peeked at her knight but he didn't seem to object. "Why did you work there? Did your father take you with him or…?"
Could he answer her question? If he didn't, would that be considered rude of him? He hadn't really told anyone of his past but his old commander of the royal guards. But he wanted to get the Princess in a better mood so he decided to tell her. If Nayru would grant him some of her wisdom for a moment, he wouldn't say anything wrong this time.
"I sold the house after my father passed away from a bad injury he couldn't recover from. Then I managed to find a horse ranch in Hyrule Field and the family who owned it was kind enough to let me help. … I didn't earn much but I learned a lot about horses instead." He felt the Princess' stare but didn't dare to look back. He had told her the short story, with as few words as possible he admitted, but it wasn't easy when he was so used to stay silent and keep his thoughts to himself. He had chosen to stop there – he didn't have to tell her more since he had answered her question about the ranch now. He wanted the Princess to still see him as the "legendary hero" to keep her hopes up that they would go through this and be victorious in the end. He might doubt himself but if the Princess believed in him, then maybe Goddess Hylia would awaken her sealing powers.
But his way of telling her his story came off almost as arrogance to the Princess who wondered if she had overstepped a line with that question. It had been short and he hadn't faced her and she feared that she had annoyed him. "That's… I'm sorry I asked, I thought he was still alive. I shouldn't have asked, it was none of my business. I'm sorry."
Link shook his head. He didn't mind because he knew that she had only been curious, and he chose to answer her question after all. He could've refused but he hadn't. An awkward silence grew between them. "Don't feel sorry, your Highness." he added after a while in an attempt to comfort her. He wasn't sure if it worked, maybe he should have said that immediately after he had shaken his head. They were sitting next to each other but they felt as distant from the other as before. Link kept his eyes on the horses while his head was filled with regret for ever have spoken and didn't try to start a new conversation (he was still her servant after all and servants shouldn't speak to the royals or nobles first, he knew that). The Princess kept picking on the grass and had intended to ask her knight if he was interested to teach her how to be a better equestrian but that was not an option anymore since he seemed to be annoyed at her.
Minutes passed. Horses whinnied once or twice, the birds seemed as happy and carefree as ever and the wind made the trees' leaves rustle. She really wasn't good at handling silence, her negative thoughts only came rushing into her mind when she wasn't occupied with something. She had told him that she wished for a new start for them but it wasn't going well so far. Or, well, she got to know things about him she hadn't known of before and that was always good, but it seemed that they were still going on with this silent thing.
The Princess studied her knight a little bit. He didn't look annoyed but she could never tell with that clean slate expression he almost always had. Suddenly she realized that she had never really taken a proper look at him. Before, when he was in the royal guards, she had barely paid him any attention, and now, as her knight, he was always following behind her, making it impossible to look at him unless she turned around. She took this opportunity to take a better look at him. Link was staring at their horses and wouldn't notice anyway.
Her knight's ears were pointy like any Hylian's but he was wearing blue earrings in a most modest design, simply a pair of small creoles with no pattern or anything. His hair was blonde but darker than her own. Messier too. And still a bit too long in her opinion. His nose was sharp and-
The Princess pretended to look at something behind him instead when she noticed that Link saw her looking at him. Her cheeks became rosy of embarrassment. This day was certainly not going well, first she had asked him too personal questions and made him annoyed at her and now she got caught looking. She wanted to sink into a hole in the ground. "There was something behind you" she mumbled as a poor excuse and began to play with the grass again.
Link had no idea why the Princess was blushing. He thought he had made her sad but a blush doesn't belong to the usual signs of sadness. He didn't ask her and looked over his shoulder. He couldn't find anything strange behind him either. He felt slightly confused but wouldn't take any risks in case there truly was something behind him which could harm the Princess, so he stood up and offered her his hand to help her stand, a sign that it might be better to start moving again. She hesitated to take his hand and his heart dropped for a moment as he thought that he must have made her feel really bad if she wouldn't accept it, but then she placed hers in his and he helped her up. He didn't notice the small smile his lips made, glad that she hadn't refused his offer after all, but he did see the smile on his Princess' face. And it made Link relieved to see her smile. Perhaps he hadn't screwed up after all.
Seeing her knight smile for the first time was so unexpected that it made her grin back. It was small, but she had seen it and she wasn't sure why, but it felt like it had been so important. Her worries were gone in an instant and she thought that maybe she hadn't made him annoyed at all and he had really meant it when he told her not to worry. She struggled a little to get into the saddle and then tried to make her beautiful white horse go after Link's mare. Would she dare to ask him that question now? Maybe he'd say no and tell her to ask one of the castle's stable boys instead. But what if he agreed, would it only lead to more awkward silences between them? Or would it lead to better conversations? It was a risk she was prepared to take.
"Would you consider teaching me to be as good with horses as you are?" She waited for his answer with a mixed feeling of anticipation and nervousness.
Her knight steered his horse slightly around so he could see her when he would give her his answer.
"It would be an honor, your Majesty."
This chapter is a bit shorter, I hope that's alright. I wasn't sure if I was fully content with this one but after 12 chapters with none of them having a conversation... it just really made me want them to finally exchange a few words! I thought that their first "real" conversation must have been a bit awkward (Link not speaking for a long time, Zelda being uncomfortable in his presence) and I tried my best to give an (well, my) idea of what it might have been like. I wanted to slowly start the romance of this story. Let me know what you think!
Also, to the latest guest review: I don't mind long reviews at all! I'm glad to hear that you think my interpretations of Princess Zelda and Link are accurate. I saw a lot of myself in Princess Zelda and felt her pain when I played the game, so I'm using a bit of that to tell her point of view, it makes it a bit easier for me to understand her.