Hello, all! Welcome to the second chapter! Thanks to my reviewers-Nonnahs; trevor19; pinguinolatino; Spiritual Stone; The Mad Joker; Hououza; and Loli.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda. I also do not own Sleeping Beauty.
The Sun arose over Hyrule Field, beginning another beautiful Spring day. Alanna awoke and stretched, yawning loudly. She happily got out of bed, for her sixteenth birthday had arrived at last.
Alanna smiled as she went to the wardrobe in her small bedroom, removing a brown skirt, a white apron, and a white blouse. Although it was her birthday, she knew she still had chores to do. She would have to go pick berries, and get several buckets of water from the well.
Alanna dressed quickly and brushed her long, blonde locks, braiding them back from her face. Her eyes, now a blue-green like her mother's, glittered in the morning sun. She admired herself for a moment, making sure every last hair was in place, before stepping away from the mirror and leaving her bedroom.
Her aunts, Din, Farore, and Nayru greeted her warmly and wished her a happy birthday. The young woman ate a couple slices of bread before getting to work.
"Alanna, honey, we need some wild strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries for supper this afternoon," Din told her. "I know that they are hard to find, but they are so delicious at this time of year, and I think they would really make the meal more special," she added.
"Yes, Aunt Din," Alanna said obediently. She dare not question her aunts, as they had been so kind and loving to her and had made many sacrifices for her. Besides, what they didn't know was that she loved being out in the meadow, dancing and playing music.
A little while later, Alanna was cheerily skipping through the fields, her baskets bouncing up-and-down with her movement. She closely examined the bushes, looking for the berries she needed to collect.
Alanna spent the next hour gathering plenty of berries to last a few days. The blueberries were hardest to find, as many of them had already been eaten by the animals, or picked by Alanna on other occasions. After her baskets were filled to the brim, she sat down on a fallen log, placing the baskets on the ground near her. She dug into the pocket of her apron and removed her lyre, plucking it and humming along with the tune.
The instrument had been a gift for her thirteenth birthday. Her aunts had taught her many songs, including the one she was playing right now, her favorite one. It was called the "Minuet of the Forest," and was meant to be accompanied by an ocarina. However, she knew that would never happen, as her aunts had told her that all the ocarinas in the kingdom had been burned long ago. Although they never did explain why.
As she continued to play, she heard the sound of another instrument mixing with that of the lyre. It was an instrument she didn't recognize, yet it made the song sound even more beautiful, as if it was meant to be played that way from the very beginning.
The song carried through the forest, and birds began to chirp along with it. Alanna could tell that whoever was playing the other instrument was getting closer. But the melody was almost bewitching; she was so taken by it that even when the person appeared, she was too entranced to do anything but continue playing the lyre.
The player of the other instrument was a man, one of very few Alanna had ever seen in person. The only males she'd seen before then were from illustrations in books, or the occasional person, usually a hunter, that had been wandering through the forest and would happen upon the cottage, and go to ask for food or other supplies.
But those men were usually much older than her, and very plain-looking. This man was gorgeous. He had shoulder-length, golden hair, almost the same shade as her. It was thick and tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He also had huge, sparkling blue eyes. His body was tall and slender, but he had broad, strong shoulders, and Alanna could tell that he was very muscular. He had on a green tunic with intricate embroidery, a white shirt underneath with a lace collar and cuffs, and brown breeches tucked into his tall, black leather boots. He also wore a cap that matched his tunic.
He approached Alanna, still accompanying her with his instrument. Her eyes widened as she continued to admire him, and she had yet to notice that she had finally stopped playing her lyre, causing him to stop playing as well. The hypnosis induced by the tune was now perpetuated by his appearance.
The stranger sat next to Alanna on the log, taking care not to knock over the baskets full of berries. "Hello," he smiled, flashing brilliant, straight white teeth.
"Hello," Alanna murmured dreamily, staring into his eyes.
He, too, found her breathtaking. Dressed simply as she was, she was still stunning. She had blonde hair like spun gold, pulled back into a waist-length braid. Her flushed cheeks and ruby lips contrasted perfectly with her alabaster skin. But what caught his attention most were her amazing blue-green eyes.
Their gazes remained locked for several seconds, as they inched closer to each other. In love at first sight, they were just about to kiss when Alanna suddenly recoiled, blinking several times. The trance had been broken.
"Who...who are you?" she stuttered. "And what are you doing here? Wait, what am I doing here. Oh, I must hurry back home!"
Before the young man could react, Alanna stood up, grabbing the berries and hurrying off into the forest.
"Wait, please don't go! I don't even know your name!"
"I can't remain! I am not permitted to talk to strangers!" Alanna called.
"Please, just tell me your name!"
"Oh, my aunts will be so upset with me if they find out. I'm late as it is," Alanna fretted, ignoring the stranger's pleas to tell him her name.
While Alanna was out picking berries, Din, Farore, and Nayru worked quickly to clean up the quaint little cottage, in preparation for a little surprise birthday party for Alanna. Nayru cleaned, while Din baked a cake, and Farore worked on a special gift-a dress for Alanna to wear when they escorted her back to the castle that very evening.
Farore finished the dress and proudly admired her work. The other two gasped when they saw it. Its sleeves were long and off the shoulder, and it had a v-neck. The bodice laced in the back, and the front of it had an empire waistline. The dress skirt was full and ankle-length, and the whole dress was made of satin. Although all three agreed on the style of the dress, they spent several minutes arguing over the color of it.
Din wanted the dress to be red, while Farore insisted on leaving it the color it was already, green. As the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru was the peacekeeper of the group and attempted to mediate the situation. But the other two continued to argue back-and-forth, until Nayru finally came up with a solution-make it blue, the color symbolizing the royal family. She proceeded to use her powers to color the dress sapphire blue, but it didn't quite work.
"Oh, now look what you've done!" Farore proclaimed.
"Oh, don't make such a fuss," Din said. "The dress actually looks better, because that blue-green matches Princess Zelda's eyes perfectly. I think we should-"
Din interrupted herself when she smelled smoke in the room, which the other two noticed nearly simultaneously. "The cake!" they squealed, hurrying to the oven. They removed it and were disappointed to note that the top was burnt slightly.
"Well, there's only one thing to do," Din observed. She waved her hand, and the burnt cake was replaced by a new one, baked just right.
"I thought we agreed not to use magic," Farore protested.
"Yes, but I already used it to fix the dress," Nayru pointed out. "Besides, the princess didn't see what happened. And we want to give her a nice cake, don't we?"
Farore was about to say something, but Nayru quickly shushed her. "I think she's back," she whispered, having heard the knob of the front door turn.
Alanna breezed into the kitchen, twirling about and humming cheerfully.
"Surprise!" the goddesses shouted.
Alanna didn't even seem to notice. She set the baskets of berries on the floor. "Here are the berries, Aunt Din," she said dreamily, before leaving the kitchen and going up to her room.
"What got into her?" Farore muttered.
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