You know what this contains by now. That said, this is one of the tamer chapters, only one swear and no violence or major sexual references.
The Legend of Link:
The Bastard Prince
5. Princess Zelda
After a few seconds of standing in stunned silence, the Princess finally shook her head, closed her mouth and turned to Link who was stood just behind her, his hand protectively on his weapon. She whispered something to him and he nodded, walking quickly from the room and down the stairs.
"Getting rid of the non-Triforce wielder at last, Zeldy?" Alarink said, his hands crossed over his chest as he watched Link go with a grin.
"Shut up, Link, I'm trying to think." She half-snapped, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"What did you just call me?" Asked he with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't get used to it."
Before he could say anything else, Link came back in with the two guards who had stood at the entrance of the throne room behind him. All three bowed to the Princess.
"Alright, that's enough of that," she muttered under breath, not quite quietly enough, before raising her voice once again. "All rise, I need your assistance."
"Would you like us to remove the Bastard, your Highness?" One guard asked as he rose to his feet.
"No, Alarink has provided us with important information, he's welcome in the Castle at this time." The guards exchanged a shocked look, as Alarink continued to stand with a grin and raised eyebrow. "However, the four of us will be leaving tomorrow morning to gain the blessings of the Zoras, Gorons and Sheikah regarding raising Ganondorf once again."
"Wait, what?" Zoelda asked, a mess of confusion and discomfort.
"We will be in need of weapons and armour, please provide them for us before the morning." The Princess completely ignored Zoelda and continued. "We will also be in need of a larger supper tonight, provide two more settings and a map on the dining table. And the two will be staying the night as well, make up two guest rooms and put suitable weapons and armour in there for them."
"No need for me, gentlemen," Alarink butted in. "I don't particularly like the idea of sleeping here, nothing against you, Princess, I just imagine the beds will be a little too cold for my liking."
The Princess made a noise of disgust. "Fine. Please prepare one guest room for Zoelda. Dismissed." The guards bowed, stealing glances over at Alarink as they did, and left the room to fulfil the Princess' demands.
"We will discuss the strategy from here over dinner tonight." Said she, walking over to the desk by her throne, Link following closely behind - he seemed almost incapable of doing anything without her permission.
"If you don't mind me asking now," Zoelda started, following Alarink as he gestured for her to join him on a bench at the window. "What is going on? What is my part in this and when will I be able to go home?"
"It is impossible for us to know what to tell you, right now, Zelda," The Princess answered, not even looking in her direction but speaking a little more pleasantly. "When we meet with the Sheikah in the hidden village tomorrow, she will tell you all you need to know now."
Well that was unhelpful, Zoelda thought, "Is there only one member of the Sheikah tribe left?"
"Yes, she's a wise woman who carries the weight of her tribe on her shoulders," Alarink answered before the Princess could, so quickly that Zoelda suspected he might have been trying to stop the Princess saying something. He turned to face her, his chin in his hand as he reclined on the windowsill bench with her perched awkwardly on the end. "I suspect you'll like her."
"Well, that's good to know, I suppose…" Zoelda muttered, turning to look out at Hyrule Town.
With a limited grasp on the geography of this Hyrule, Zoelda noticed the sun setting and suspected she was looking out at Lake Hylia and Gerudo desert, perhaps even the snow peaks in the far distance. The light of the sun seemed to catch on something, causing a small sparkle to grab her attention deep in the heart of the desert. There was no hope of her seeing what it was from this distance, so she turned her attention back to staring out at Lake Hylia and the reflections on the rolling water.
"Zelda," Alarink said her name softly, trying not to catch the Princess' attention. Slowly, she turned her attention from the window onto him and saw him smiling sadly once again. If she knew him better, she would have sworn he only smiled like that with her. "While we can't explain why you are so important right now, please trust us… or just me if you prefer. If we gave you all the information right now, it could cloud your later judgement."
"So, what can you tell me? I'll take anything by this point, because not knowing is turning me insane."
"... You are instrumental to taking down Ganondorf for good. No one is ever going to be able to beat Demise's curse, unfortunately, but we can beat Ganondorf, his physical form, with your assistance."
"And if I refuse?" Zoelda asked quieter, conscious that the Princess was coming over to them.
"Then we'll have to wait for the perfect set of circumstances to arise again." Answered Alarink, turning slightly as Princess Zelda approached.
"How long could that take?"
"Millennia." He suddenly grinned, turning fully away from Zoelda and speaking loudly to the Princess. "Whatcha got there, Zeldy?"
"An address to the people of Hyrule Town telling them that I will be gone for a while and to stay inside until I return," she answered somewhat coldly, looking down at the folded paper in her hands. "Could the two of you please head to the dining hall and wait for us there?"
"Sure," Alarink said, getting up and stretching. "Come on, Zo."
With a slightly worried glance at the speech in Princess Zelda's hand, the brunette rose too and the group made their way out of the Throne room together. At the bottom of the stairs, they split directions and Alarink lead the way to the royal dining hall.
Uncomfortable with the silence, Zoelda started on a topic she prayed Alarink would respond to. "The Princess seems a bit cold to me, not the approachable royalty I had expected."
"Yeah, I've been told she used to be lovely before her father died, though I've never seen that side of her." There was a note of hate in his voice at the end of his statement, likely only noticeable due to his odd accent that the Princess and others didn't seem to have. "I suppose she wasn't prepared to have all of the royal duties dropped on her lap a few months before she's even 18."
"So, she'll turn 18 later this year and, what, she'll be crowned Queen and everything the light touches will be hers?"
"That's not the way I would have said it, but its far more accurate. The shadows belong to the Twili after all." Said he as he pushed the doors to the dining hall open.
It was a large rectangular room a little smaller than the Throne room with a long table set up in the centre, which was already heaped with assorted foods. The perimeter of the room was draped in royal banners and curtains, candelabras set at even points to make up for the lack of windows and natural light. Easily, Alarink lead Zoleda to the back of the room where a smaller square table had been set up with a map of Hyrule in its centre. Slightly uncomfortably, she took a seat on the east side of the map and Alarink to one to the north.
"I hadn't realised that the Twili still had a right to rule in this Kingdom." Zoelda said quietly as palace staff wondered in and out of the room, setting the main table with even more food.
"Hm," Alarink grunted as he looked at the map of Hyrule. "They didn't before the events of the Twilight era. The old Queen made it a law after the Mirror shattered to honour Princess Midna and her contributions in putting Ganondorf to rest again. It's an honorary law, one I doubt anyone really cares about since no one's seen the Twilight Princess for over two decades."
"Is it possible that she died with the Pestilence?"
"No." Alarink said flatly. "The Pestilence only affected Hyrule, as far as we know."
"But you can't get into the Twilight realm with the Mirror shattered, so is it truly possible to know that with certainty?"
"... There are work arounds to any situation, Zoleda. But, no, I suppose you're right that no one in Hyrule knows for sure or not that Princess Midna is alive."
His guarded manner of speaking was making Zoelda suspected that she was getting to a topic he didn't want to talk about, nevertheless, she decided to press on with her questions. "You know a lot about the laws of the Kingdom. How come?"
Alarink made no response, continuing to stare at the map.
"... Link, I heard what they were calling you in town: 'Bastard Prince'." Zoelda noticed an angry twitch in his cheek, but still carried on. "I already suspected that your father was unfaithful to Ilia, but did he sleep with the Queen? Are you royalty? If you had been born in wedlock, could you have been ruler of this land?"
There was a tense silence, one that made Zoelda wonder if she had pushed too far. Then Alarink started laughing. It echoed all around the hall, making royal staff stop and stare as they passed by. It almost made her feel more uncomfortable than the silence had.
"Ha! Sweetheart, with my status among the civilians, I'm not even fit to rule the unattended shadows anymore." He grinned manically at her, though his words held a sad undertone.
Just as she was going to respond, the Princess and Link walked in to the room. Alarink was smiling normally again by the time the two joined them, the Princess moving to sit opposite Alarink with Link taking a seat between him and the Princess. "Did you scare the civilians shitless, your Highness?" He asked as a pair of butlers brought them all glasses water.
"I hope not," the Princess responded, looking at the map. "I just told them that the final confrontation with Ganondorf is close at hand and they will need to be prepared for anything." A group of royal staff started to bring the food from the large table over to them to choose from. It made Zoelda's head hurt when she looked at it all, not remembering a time when she had last seen so much food for four people, though she supposed that the royal family had enough money to be able to afford to eat so luxuriously. She took the opportunity to eat well, suspecting that it might be a while before she ate so well again.
As they ate, the Princess started to list the strategy for the next day, getting Alarink's input more than anyone else's. It wasn't like Link would answer her and Zoelda had no idea what she was doing anyway, so she ate in silence half listening to the strategy planning as she thought about what her part in this could be.
She hated not knowing why she was so important, what she was meant to be doing here.
In the end, the Princess agreed that it was best for Alarink to get the Zora's blessing to revive Ganondorf while the rest of them headed to Kakariko, where the girls would split from Link as he headed to the Goron elder and they to the Hidden Village. It worried Zoelda to be splitting from Alarink - hell, they'd barely been apart since she turned up so she'd come to rely on him - but she knew it was probably strategically sound and would give her some time to get to know the Princess on a more personal level and perhaps get a better read on her.
"Are you sure you don't want to spend the night and head out with us in the morning, Alarink?" The Princess asked as their plates were removed. "It would be easier that way."
"Thanks, Zeldy, but no," Alarink said, beginning to rise from his seat. "As much as I would appreciate the buffer from the name calling, I can't stand sleeping alone. … Perhaps that Zora from earlier is still in town…"
Zelda made a noise of disgust again. "Ugh, please, do whatever you want but don't tell me about it."
"I can't promise I won't tell everyone about my encounters," he winked at Zoelda who was sat uncomfortably in her seat, wondering how she was going to manage without the flirt the next day, how she had come to rely on him so much. "I'll see you tomorrow, Zo. Don't let the Princess get to you too much."
"You are dismissed, Alarink." The Princess glared at him. With an extravagant bow and a second wink at Link, Alarink left the hall. With a long sigh, the Princess said, to no one in particular, "By the Goddesses, that man gets on my nerves."
The Princess turned to whisper to Link as she had in her Throne room, the blonde man nodded and left as he had before, leaving Zoelda alone with the Princess.
Squirming slightly in her seat, Zoelda kept her face neutral as the Princess regarded her. "My apologises for how I've acted today, I can understand how odd this must be for you. And I should say that Alarink truly brings out the worst in me, so I'm sorry I've not acted regally or perhaps as you thought I would."
Zoelda blinked, surprised by the Princess' sudden change in tone. The blonde smiled as she saw the blink, obviously expecting the surprised response. With that smile, she looked a lot like all the Zeldas from legend, far more approachable. "We can start again in the morning, I think. Allow me to show you to your room for the night. I hope you find it to your liking."
The Princess rose from her seat and Zoelda followed hastily. They made their way through the Castle much like Zoelda and Alarink had, with the Princess perhaps stopping a little more frequently than he had as they meandered their way around in silence. Eventually, they made their way to the sleeping quarters, and Princess Zelda opened a door on their left, letting her partner in to a small, squareish room dressed up gaudily in royal pinks, purples and reds. A four-poster bed stood in the centre of the room, with a wardrobe, set of draws and desk against the walls. On the wall opposite the bed rested a large window that opened out to a view of the Castle courtyard and Castle Town just beyond.
"I hope this will suffice," the Princess said from her place at the door. "There is a nightgown in the wardrobe for tonight and a set of armour and weapons for tomorrow. Link will come and get you for breakfast tomorrow morning. Sleep well."
As Zoelda turned to the doorway again, the Princess was already gone, her heels clicking on the floor as she went. With a sigh, she closed the door and went over to the wardrobe and pulled out the nightgown. She glanced over at the armour for tomorrow and shuddered, she would worry about that in the morning. With somewhat clinical detachment, she drew the curtains on the Town and changed into a pale purple nightgown that reached the middle of her shins, clearly made to be floor-length on the shorter Hylians, and climbed under the silk covers.
Everything about the room screamed riches and grandeur, a step away from the natural room in Alarink's tree-house and her own cluttered and simple Uni room back home. With a shudder, she decided to stop comparing the room to others, fearing homesickness would strike at her again.
Regardless, after a long day and the exhaustion that came with having ridden a horse for the first prolonged period of time, sleep came easy in the cold and slippery silk sheets. Once again, Zoelda didn't dream, but that lingering and uncomfortable presence that she consciously associated with Demise was there, resting in the back of her mind, waiting for the perfect time to strike…
It was a knock at the door that woke her the next morning. Half asleep, she attempted to gracefully make her way out of the bed, before realising that silk sheets cannot be exited gracefully and falling half out, dragging herself the rest of the way on her hands and knees. Smoothing her nightgown down, she wondered over to the door, opening it in such a way to protect her modesty.
Link looked at her with a raised eyebrow, clearly expecting her to already be up and ready.
"Oh, crap!" Zoelda exclaimed to herself, turning away from the door and telling him she wouldn't be a moment. As she went into the wardrobe and pulled out the armour prepared for her, she cringed and regretted not bringing her bag of Ilia's clothes up with her.
It was a battle dress somewhat similar in style to the one the Princess had worn in Hyrule Warriors, as far as Zoelda could tell, though this one was a deep purple and slightly shorter, only reaching her knee, leaving her lower legs exposed. Wildly uncomfortable at wearing such a skimpy piece of armour, she left Ilia's leggings on under the open front skirt, guessing it was meant to be worn with shorts on anyway. She pulled on the pair of armoured long boots provided and grimaced as she noticed they were slightly heeled, though at least they were the right size.
This was easily the most impractically armour she had ever seen as she looked at herself in the mirror of the wardrobe door. Her arms were protected by flouncy sleeves that reached her elbows and gauntlets below there. Most of her neck and upper chest was exposed, but her torso was protected by tough, fabric corset. At her waist was a thick metal belt that 'stylishly' held a pair of rapier sheaths and a strap crossed her chest to secure a bow and quiver to her back and waist.
Ever since she had arrived in Hyrule, Zoelda had had to do everything with her long hair down, so she gratefully used the metal bands provided to put it half up in a style that mirrored most of the Princess' of legend's, making her realise how much more pointed her ears were now than back home. It wasn't overly practical as she shook her head and the tendrils framing her face slapped her cheeks and neck, but it was better than leaving it down again and the bands were too narrow to do much else with.
Satisfied, as much as she thought she could be, Zoelda bundled Ilia's clothes up under her arm and went back to the door, closing it behind her as Link regarded her from where he lent against the opposite wall. He nodded his approval and started off down the hall, leaving her to follow behind him, walking slightly shakily in her heels.
Eventually, they arrived at the dining hall, where a small breakfast was set up on the table they'd eaten at the night before. The Princess was stood just behind it in a paler pink version of the dress-armour that Zoelda wore, though it fit her far better and she could wear the breastplate with it without suffocating herself. She looked over at Zoelda as she made her way to the breakfast table and nodded in approval before turning back to her conversation with the royal staff about the final things they would need for their journey.
With only a glance over at Link to make sure she could, Zoelda sat down at the table and ate some of the food spread, half listening to the Princess request food provisions and the fastest royal horses for her and Link, telling them that Zoelda would take the horse that she had rode up on. Momentarily, Zoelda worried that Rogue might have been hurt or hungry over night before remembering that he was picketed in a safe spot with plenty of food and water and Malanya to keep him company.
The Princess came to join Link and Zoelda at the breakfast table as the staff left, she helped herself to the arranged food as she spoke to the brunette, "I trust you slept well last night, Zoelda?"
"Oh, yes, thank you. And thank you for the armour."
"Not at all, I'm glad it fits well enough. I was a little worried it might be too short, being that you are much taller than most Hylians." The Princess stood and indicated that her own dress reached mid shin, where Zoelda imagined that her own was meant to rest. "Well, we must be off as soon as possible if we want to make it to the Hidden Village before sunset. Please finish up here and use the facilities if needs be, I will meet you both in the courtyard."
With clicking heels, she left the room quicker than Zoelda could finish her bite and stand up, Link looked after his Princess a little angrily as he too stood. He turned with a small smile to Zoelda and gestured for her to follow him as they left the room as well. With considerable speed, he lead the way to the bathrooms and then the foyer which was filled with more royal staff than Zoelda had seen there yesterday. Seeming to pay no heed to the way they looked judgementally at him, Link opened the foyer doors for her as they entered the courtyard.
Zoelda still found being in the company of so much grandeur and royalty unnerving, perhaps even more so without Alarink to talk to and guide her with a sly smile. As they made their way to the Princess, who was stood washing her hand in the fountain, she wondered where Alarink was and how he had spent the night, trying not to think too much about who he could have spent the night with.
Once again, the Princess looked the two of them up and down, as though she was making sure they were presentable enough to be seen with her, before leading the way out of the courtyard and into Castle Town.
It was a very different experience to walk through the Town behind the Princess and next to her own personal knight than it had been with Alarink. Obviously, there was no name calling, pushing or shoving - there were a lot less people altogether seeing as it was still rather early in the morning - but people still did come respectfully close to ask the Princess for advice on their day to day matters. She answered them all sweetly with a lovely smile, something that Zoelda would expect of royalty, yet did not really expect of the Princess given how she had acted the day before.
Regardless, as they quickly made their way through town, many people tried to get the wisdom of the "Goddess' daughter" as she was often called. Zoelda was beginning to suspect that everyone in Hyrule had a nickname, whether they liked it or not. Briefly, she wondered what hers could end up being, before she heard whispers of Alarink's names and wondered if he was gossiped about even when he wasn't present.
She shook her head. Really, she shouldn't be surprised to hear the way that he is talked about behind his back, he seemed to be the whole Kingdom's scapegoat after all.
Finally, they reached the drawbridge that Zoelda had crossed with him the day before. On the other side of it stood two huge horses - one white, one grey - both outfitted in royal saddles and bridles, a Triforce branded into the white one's flank. The Princess went over to the white horse and stroked him gently, letting him know it was her. Zoelda thought that that was perhaps the first time she had seen the Princess' true smile.
In contrast to the loving way that the Princess approached her mount, Link approached the grey horse more practically, stroking her gently as he tightened her straps and perused her saddle bags. He was also smiling, a small and gentle smile that looked somehow both real and forced.
Zoelda walked around the bridge to where her and Alarink had picketed Malanya and Rogue the day before. To her surprise, Malanya was already gone, leaving Rogue alone at the fence with a refilled trough of food and water. He snickered at her as she walked up to him, stroking him as she moved to check his straps were secure before going through her bag of clothes and weapons, stuffing Ilia's clothes from the day before inside.
Just as she was about to close the bag, she noticed a small piece of folded parchment inside. Frowning slightly, she opened it and smiled as she realised that Alarink had left her a message, wishing her luck and letting her know he would be at the Hidden Village for her later that evening. It was an odd and sweet thing for him to do, one that made her wonder what had possessed him to leave her a good luck note, but she didn't linger as she finished her adjustments to Rogue's packs.
With as much grace as she could manage - which wasn't much normally, and even less in her armour dress - she mounted Rogue and walked him over to the Princess and Link, who were both mounted on their own horses. The Princess gave her a look over as she seemed to do every time someone entered her field of vision. With a nod, she said, "Well then, shall we leave now? It is likely to take us most of the day to get to the Hidden Village, we shouldn't wait too much longer to start."
With that, Link set out first, the Princess behind him and Zoelda behind her, a standard protective formation, she suspected as they made their way onto the monster infested Hyrule Field.
With few monstrous encounters as they made their way across southern Hyrule Field and then Kakariko Gorge to the village of Kakariko itself, the journey was reasonably quick, though it could have perhaps been quicker had they only crossed eastern Hyrule Field. Zoelda felt no desire to point that out as the three of them made their way into Kakariko, since the Princess was bragging about how quickly they'd managed to get there ("I'm shocked that we made it here before noon!").
Moving their horses into a gentle walk rather than the all-out run they had travelled at all day, they dismounted in Eldin Spring at Princess Zelda's instruction, allowing the horses to recuperate in the water that allegedly had healing properties. Zoelda wasn't really paying attention to the Princess as she dismounted from Rogue, giving him a few pats and a carrot from one of his bags, she was tired and saddle-worn again, though less than she had been yesterday.
She was also lightly bleeding from a cut on her left arm where a Bulblin archer had caught her off guard, thankfully the arrow had been somewhat stopped by her flouncy sleeve, but it had done enough damage to bleed and create a dull ache for the rest of the ride. Trying to be discreet about it, she washed her cut with the apparently healing water before rushing after the Princess and Link who seemed to be in whispered discussion once more.
As she had suspected, the Princess and Link had not tried to engage in any sort of conversation with her the whole time they had galloped and fought their way across the fields. The Princess had occasionally spoken to Link but Zoelda was beginning to suspect that the two would forget she was there if she didn't constantly try and force her way closer to them to hear what they were discussing. Unfortunately, she was yet to catch anything that had been whispered between them, but she was determined to get to know their characters one way or another.
As they made their way fully into the Village, Zoelda noticed that it was beginning to become more vegetated than it had been in the Twilight era: there were a few blossoming trees and patches of grassy flowers growing up through the cracks in the dirt. The Village itself seemed to have a smaller population than before, there were no more houses than there had been twenty years ago and there were very few people - or rather Gorons - walking the streets. Zoelda suspected the Pestilence to be responsible for this as she noted many of the Gorons seemed to be younger, as far as her estimation of Goron age could tell. It brought to mind one of those questions that plagued her every now and again, usually whenever she saw a child Goron:
How, in the name of Hylia, do these rocks reproduce? And how can they be affected by a Pestilence?
She tried to push those questions from her mind as they arrived at the Elde Inn a little after noon, the Princess leading the way in. She spoke to the Goron behind the desk briefly and requested four rooms for the night and three meals for now. He did what anyone would do when requested something by royalty: began sorting things immediately as the trio were guided to a table by the window, which was coated in dirt and dust. The Princess was furiously writing a letter as they waited for lunch to be served, Link watching her intently as Zoelda watched more on the sly, half looking out the dirty window, half looking at the two of them.
Lunch was served almost immediately after the Princess had finished writing her letter. A large Goron lay three plates of salad and meat on the table for them to eat, as well as a glass of water each, and left them to eat after Princess Zelda charged it all to the royal treasury. Silently as she ate, Zoelda thought about how the Hyrulian economy might work - considering she had little idea how the economy worked back home, it was a silly thing to think about.
As they were finishing their meals, the Princess went over the plan for the afternoon and evening again. "Link will head to Goron City and request permission from them to revive Ganondorf once again. Zoelda, you and I will head straight to the Hidden Village. By my estimation, we should arrive by early evening, giving us time to talk to Lady Sheikah before the sun sets."
The Goron who served them came over and cleared their plates away, thanking them for taking the time to eat here. The whole while he and the Princess exchanged compliments and pleasantries, Zoelda was thinking about how much more information she could get out of the Princess with the one on one time provided as they travelled to the Village. At least, that's what she hoped from their journey together.
Quite suddenly, Link stood up, took the letter that Princess Zelda had written for him and left with a swift nod. Zoelda watched with a raised eyebrow, surprised that the Princess would allow it and by how quickly he had walked. Glancing over at her, she saw the small smile on her features as she watched Link leave, an unguarded and secret smile that one only has when they think no one is watching them. It seemed to explain so much to Zoelda about the relationship between the Princess and her knight, how long they had known one another and helped each other through hardships.
"I suppose we should be off too," Princess Zelda said, rising gracefully from the table.
"I guess so… Lead the way." Zoelda responded as she got up much less gracefully, almost knocking the chair over behind her as she rose. The Princess watched interestedly before starting towards the door.
"Considering who I suspect you to be, Zoelda, you are certainly not living up to my expectations," said she as they walked side by side.
"Thanks, your Highness," Zoelda half-snapped before she could catch herself. "That's just the vote of confidence I needed."
Princess Zelda stared at her for a moment, her face a mask of shock and surprise as they mounted their horses. Suddenly, she started laughing, cheerful and cute laughter one would expect from a girl her age and not from the royal Princess Zoelda had come to know. "I appreciate your honesty, Zoelda. Oh, and please call me Zelda, no need for the formality."
"Okay…" Zoelda muttered to herself as they walked on their horses out of town into eastern Hyrule Field. The Princess was still chuckling as they left civilisation, so Zoelda decided to push her boundaries a little, test the blonde's true character. "If you don't mind me saying, Zelda, you seem to have a lot of different, how shall I put this, personas? Characters? Regardless of the right term, you seem to have several different styles of speaking depending on the person you are talking to."
"Doesn't everyone?" She responded with, glancing over at the brunette who fingered the string her drawn bow, having it ready if needs be. "I've seen you act very differently in my company to how you acted with Alarink, though perhaps that is true of everyone… But, I suppose you're right, I do have several very different manners of speaking, depending on the person."
"Is there any particular reason that everyone acts so differently with Alarink?" Zoelda had to ask in follow up, suspecting she might get a more sincere answer from the Princess than she would from him.
"Yes, there are several, none of which are nice and most are a result of me," answered she, looking out ahead of her as they galloped across the field, Zoelda shooting down potential danger whenever she could. "You see, Alarink first appeared before me eight years ago. He asked for things I could not in my right mind give him, but I sympathised with him, he had recently lost his father as I had recently lost my mother. The Kingdom was a little in turmoil at the time, you see, it had had no right leader for two years by that point, I was far too young to ascend - I still am - yet my father had no right to the throne either. Alarink arrived at the right time - or perhaps wrong for him - for me and Father to prove to the Kingdom that I could be a good leader."
"So you caused him to be cast out of the royal family?"
"What, no! Wherever did you get the idea that he was a member of the royal family?"
"I, um, I had heard him called 'Bastard Prince', I presumed he was your older, illegitimate brother. Have I got that wrong?"
"Yes, I'm afraid you have," the Princess looked off into the distance as they started up the narrow path to the village. "Alarink is only eight months older than me at best, so he could hardly be my brother. I simply cast him out of the city when he arrived before me claiming to be the Hero's son. I didn't want to believe him, my best friend was the next iteration of the Hero to me, so I ordered they exchange names, thus Link became Alarink and vise versa."
"And you sent him from the city to live a rural life in the country?" Zoelda asked, still trying to get her head around the fact that he was about the same age as her - he had seemed so much older in both his world view and features.
"No. Actually, I told him he could live a run of the mill life here in Hyrule as Alarink, or he could return to his mother as Link and not bother the Kingdom again. I still don't know why he stayed, it seemed like such an easy way to be rid of all the haters calling my Link a fraud." The Princess was glaring into space as they approached the step to the Village.
"I'd imagine he stayed especially so that Link would always be called a fraud," Zoelda responded as they dismounted, picketing their horses close by so they would be safe. "It seems like such a harsh sentence for a young girl to carry out… Do you regret it?"
"No." Her features were set harshly as she thought about it. "Alarink has given me only one thing to regret these past eight years: that I gave him an option to stay in Hyrule and haunt me, like the ghost of my mother telling me I made the wrong choice."
With that, she turned on her heel and stormed into the Hidden Village.
AN:
The fact that barely anyone is reading this isn't going to stop me from publishing and loving it.
After the last chapter, I seem to remember taking a week or so off from writing before starting this one, so I'm going to put this firmly in August. I'm fairly certain this was early Augustish, I know it took me several sittings to complete and I was much happier with the end of it than the start. Actually, now that I think about it, this was written in the second week of August because in the first half I had social obligations and the second I didn't.
Fun fact for you, whenever you notice my writing being slightly better, or more metaphorical for real life, or just generally easier to read - chances are that was written in a time when I wasn't having to go out and see people or when I wasn't having prolonged text conversations that continuously broke my train of thought. This is only true until chapter 12 again, after then things change and we'll discuss that later, but these next few chapters are the beginning of that change.
So, anyway, this is about Princess Zelda. And every time I read it to edit it, I hate the middle third of it and can't see a way to fix it. However, I like the final third of it a lot and know that it's all keyish information.
Pretty much all we get from it is a little more character, I don't know whether you'd call it development or insight, but it's more character. And this is probably one of the first times that people can start to educatedly guess who Alarink's mother is. And, more importantly for right now, who Lady Sheikah is.
Other than that, it's the last chapter I wrote that I genuinely had problems with and somewhat dislike, the rest are all a lot better and/or I genuinely like them.
On that note, the next chapter is from Alarink's POV and I had a great deal of fun stepping inside his mind for the first time.
So, as we start to get into the chapters I enjoy and have a clearer idea of when I wrote them and what was going on at the time, I hope you stick with me and that you notice the quality pick up. Perhaps you'll comment on it in that little review box?
But lets face it, there are less than 5 people reading this, chances of anyone caring are slim to none at best.
Anyway, have a nice week. Happy Holidays, too, since I'm imagining a lot of you are now breaking up for whatever religious festivals you believe in, I hope you have a lovely one and that you go back to work in the New Year refreshed! There's two chapters of this left before the New Year, so let's hope we can pick up more fans in that time...
~WWQ