I couldn't tell you what it was that compelled me to show up. It wasn't something I had planned on. I hated crowds, I hated all the noise they brought. The way they squabbled and paraded in line like a bunch of sheep being led by their shepherd into a slaughter house. It stunk outside the castle gates. The air was thick with body odor and the smell of rotting soil. The winter snows had nearly all but disappeared and it left the cobblestone pavements slick with mud and a slow steady trickle of black water. The people didn't seem to care, they came huddling out of their houses in groups of all sizes, all anxious and desperate to catch even the slightest glimpse of the noble house Dranavir. I was all but a ghost in the crowd. I had dressed plainly in a rough spun tunic and left my damp hair out to air dry. I hadn't slept at all the previous night but I was glad to have a soak in the spring before showing up here. It was a small effort, but it was all I was willng to give. I looked nothing like the glamoured hero these people had once loved so dear. In fact, no one seemed to recognize me, and if they did they only cast me disdainful looks and pushed their children away and scurried closer to the castle gates. I hated them for that. The commoners will jump on to one glittery hero to the next without so much as a second thought. I won't deny that I was a more than bitter that day.
You tell the people what they want to hear and they flock like flies on shit. It's true I didn't want to be a hero anymore but it was just salt to the wound when I saw all the peasants screaming and crying tears of joy for someone that had never lifted so much as a finger for them. Ther had been rumours floating about of the riches and golds the Dranavirs were going to be carrying in with their fleet. I heard the townsfolk gushing about their new saviour and telling tales of the great deeds their family had done throughout the years. They held poorly sown dark crimson and black banners up in the air, and waved for the noble house in the streets like loyal mangy dogs awaiting their master. When the large black horses and knights rolled through, the annointed knights and freeriders that followed the Dranavirs' party didn't even give a second glance to the poor and starving peasants in the streets. They instead kept their heads high with shit eating grins and all but ignored the cheers and shouts that were calling their names nearly trampling those who were unfortunate enough to stand in there way.
When I first caught sight of Zelda I didn't even recognize her at first. She was standing up on the top of the stairs perched besides her father's great bulging shoulders like a little bird. She wasn't wearing her usual lilacs and soft pastels but instead looked harsher with the jutting black shape of her dress and the blood colored trimming along her bodice. She was nervous. I watched her twitter about like a bird that had just flown into a glass window. Her wings were still there somewhere, but it was apparant that she had forgotten how to fly and was to stunned or scared to move. As I pushed myself through the crowd without caring to apologize to those I knocked shoulders with and elbowed past I finally got a glimpse of her famous suitor.
He was everything she was not. Where she was a pretty little song bird he was a vicious black raven. He nearly towered a foot and a half taller than her. He wore a full armored suit as black as ink, embroidered in fine jewels and an ornate design that had been slammed and shaped with an anvil probably near half a thousand time to make the shape of a dragonhead breathing fire. Made made by some rich lord's blacksmith probably. His father's most like. Adrian Dranavir jumped off his horse in an overexaggerated fashion as he sneered and flashed his pearly white fangs. His long wavy dark black hair fell a little short of his shoulders without a string out of place. His cloack as black as night waved gallantly in the wind as he went to shake the king's hand. His boots were gilded with gold and silver and looked as if they had never touched the soil as they seemed to shine and glimmer just like the rest of his costume. I couldn't help but notice that there was neither a dent or a scratch on it in the pretty polished armor. I doubt he had ever gotten into a fight with that breastplate on. I couldn't help but smile as I watched the rest of his party descend from there horses.
Somewhere from afar I saw the rustle of crowd movement from the corner of my eye as people scampered and shoved at one another. A girl was wailing loudly and I heard men and small boys bellowing at each other to get out of the way. I heard them shouting for jewels and victory and a new beginning. I sneered at their stupidty and took the opportunity to wedge myself closer to the castle gates. The Dranavirs bannermen and freeriders were blocking my view from the royal family. Zelda had disappeared within the split second I had looked away.
A large bull of a man rushed past me with a small dirk in his hand towards the largest part of his crown. He looked flushed and angry as beads of sweat trickled down his forehad. Something about his expression was off. The crowd was acting differently, more restless. Only then did I happen to look over. Seeping through the cracks in the pavement was a slow moving pool of dark red liquid. Blood? Had someone been trampeled. The shouts grew louder and more incomprehensible as the chaos insued. I preened my ears and tried to listen for a hint of what was happening. A strange dark pit was beginning to fill deep within my bowels. Zelda was completely encrowded behind all the black cloaks. The crowd felt different, panicked, in a frenzy. I grabbed for the hilt of my sword and kept my fingers firmly grasped on the handle as I whirled about looking for the cause of the blood.
"I saw it first!" An older man, nearly forty years older than I, was clutching a fistful of green sparkling rupees. He probably had no more than enough to buy one loaf of bread and a wheel of old cheese, yet two younger boys prowled after him like abused hungry lions. I tried to rush towards them but the crowd was thick and unwilling to move. It seemed as if all the attention had been turned off the Dranavirs and into the town square where money was scattered throughout the street.
"Move!" I growled as my voice went on deaf ears. One of the boys chasing the old man had jumped onto his hunched back and was strangling him back into the crowd. The younger of the two boys, a small little thing whose skin stuck tightly to his ribs, pulled out a small rusted dirk and stuck the old man flat in the belly with no hesitation. Dark blood seeped through the plain brown rags the old man was wearing. The two boys had fled before the old man had even dropped to the ground.
If the knife wound hadn't killed him, the stampede of the crowd surely did after they had trampled him to death as they shoved and cursed at one another like savage beasts. Women were pulling each others hair, shrieking, and even the men were throwing young girls and children away like rag dolls as they went after their treasures. A small child was crying out for her mother, her face damp with tears and dirt. A boy of ten was sitting next to the corpse of what I could only assume to be his father. The body was twisted and the face stomped in until it didn't even look human. I was feeling sick.
I turned around so quickly that I fell to the ground. My knee scrapped against pavement and I could feel the dirt and pebbles irritating my skin. A man ran past and crushed three of my fingers. I cried out in pain as my fingers throbbed and turned a deep maroon color. I sprang to my feet before another someone came along and finished my other hand.
The gates to the castle was now almost fully empty now that the princess had gone inside and the promise of money had ceased. I ran and pushed past the stragglers and nearly threw myself into one of the royal guards.
"Let me in." Link said, trying to catch his breath. The guard eyed him suspiciously as he glanced at Link's tattered clothing. He was now covered in mud, a slick sheen of sweat, and had a blood stain directly over his knee, a slow trickle of blood oozing out. He blended in with the crowd perfectly.
"This is a private event. No civilians." The guard said sternly as his partner came creeping over to shoo Link away, a large pike in his hand.
"I'm with the guard." Link inisted as he dusted some mud and dirt off of his tattered tunic and disheveled hair. He pulled the Hyrulian sword from her scabbard and showed the two suspicious guards the mystical forged steel that was the Master Sword.
"Looks fake" the fatter guard said dully as he eyed the steel and I with suspicious beady eyes. His grip was still firm on the pointed pike he held in his hand. The steel glinted in the afternoon sun. Such sharp steel wasted on such a dull man. Any fool could see that this was not fake. Link's only answer was a blank stare full of contempt.
The thinner guard flipped his sword over and seemed to weigh the blades thickness and he turned it with his fingers. "Looks like fine steel." he said slowly as he took notice of Link's tunic. It was a dirty thing, all soiled and tattered, it didn't seem to fit the sword. "Zelda was expecting you earlier." he stated cautiously, as if he was still pondering if this Link was just an intruder or not.
"I got caught up." Link said boredly as he glanced behind his shoulder. The crowd seemed as if they were beginning to calm down again. Alarmingly, a dead commoner was not such an uncommon thing anymore. The townsfolk were already stepping over the dead corpse as if it had been apart of the town square for years. No one even seemed to take so much as a second glance at the dead body. The blood was still pooling listlessly into the cobblestone cracks. A maze of incoherent red rivers.
"Aye..." the guard agreed as he stepped aside, still cautious as ever. "You may pass, but I'm watching you."
Link doubted he would even pose a threat as he passed between the two idiots. Both guards looked as if they had been pampered and spoiled within the confides of the castle. Link bet neither of them had even seen battle for years. They looked soft and rounded instead of the lean and lithe soliders Link had once fought with what seemed like forever ago. Hyrule was a much different place now.
Passing through the castle gates was like entering a portal to a new world. Where the outside had been dirty and chaotic, the inside was clean and organized. Party-goers were dressed in fine silks and dyed leathers. Women wore pounds of jewlery on big gaping necks and thick fingers. Men wore fine boots and expensive furs, their swords and belts inlaid with precious metals and forged intricately with different designs and patterns. The smell was even different. The smell of cloves, wine, and expensive purfumes filled the air. Link suddenly became very aware of the smell of sweat and dirt that hung off of him like a heavy cloud. It somewhat amused him to see the debutants wrinkle up their noses as he walked by.
There were very few people Link recognized. The people at this party were not the people of Ordon, Castle Town, Kakariko, or any other village Link knew of. There was a queer feeling in his stomach as he walked down the long lengthy halls of Zelda's Castle. He did not recognize the feeling but there was something almost...longing to it. He did not feel belonging in his tattered clothes. These familes were from rich houses, noble houses. The houses that were here had family that went from back to the dawn of ages. All rich and respected houses that had worth and power in the kingdom. Familes that took care of each other, that held on to each other. Link would never have that. He never knew who his parents were, probably peasants most like...he guessed, he would never know why they had abandoned him.
Link suddenly wanted to be done with this farce. He was beginning to question why he had even decided to come. "For Zelda" he thought. "For her." a voice came to him unwillingly. A part of him knew it was true but he still wanted to argue against it.
He found her in the throne room, like he always did. Zelda's father was propped up beside her, looking as dead as ever. He had to have pillows propped around him to keep him up in his throne. He looked like no true king at all. King of Corpses maybe, but not king of Hyrule. Zelda also looked half a corpse herself. Her eyes were vacant as she sat perched up against her father like the little bird she was. Link didn't want to acknowledge the black raven that was beside her. It was the prince he knew, but he thought he looked more like the prince of darkness than he did the prince of Hyrule. A stab of anger went through him that he could not explain.
It was quieter in the throne room. Less people were in here than there was in the main hall. Only a few of Zelda's close companions ahd her fathers consultants were in the room. The Dranavir family was at the foot of the throne, talking in whispers to the king who looked as if he was being coaxed into agreeing with whatever they were saying. Zelda looked expressionless and defeated. Link did not know what was going on between her and her new suitor, but all he did know was that he did not like the sight of the two of them standing together.
The new prince, directly behind the princess, as tall and as cocky as ever. The way he towered over her you would have thought that the two of them had been together for years. He wasn't touching her, but his nose was barely an inch or two away from the top of her head, Link hated the way his crotch was nearly touching the back of the princess's behind in such a ludacrious way in front of both his and Zelda's family. It was insulting and demeaning. Link had only been around the new prince for a few seconds and already the thought of him tasted like rancid bile in the back of his throat. Angrily, he stomped into the throne room.
The look Zelda gave him was a queer one. At first it had seemed as it she was happy to see him, but then she looked sad, almost embarassed. As if he had caught her in the act of something. The look a lover might have given if their spouse had caught them cheating. Link felt his throat catch in his mouth. Zelda nodded at him, as if to say hello, and then she turned her gaze back to her father and her new lord father-in-law.