SO. This chapter when through I don't even know HOW MANY revisions. Because outlines apparently don't mean a thing to this story! Whatever the case, this chapter has A LOT. So much, I have to speak about it down below!
There was a haze in the Four Sword Shrine that morning, making the place seem more welcoming than usual. The fuzziness the haze added to everyone's vision as well the soft morning light made the place so nonthreatening. For once, the princess found herself calm and almost at peace in this place. The quiet no longer seemed unnatural, but sleepy. She wondered if the reason for this tranquility was because of the time of day or the fact that she was not alone. By Zelda's side was her father, and hanging back were four guardsmen, two of them were Poe and Gibdo.
"How does it look?" Her father had asked her.
And that when her peaceful mindset suddenly became stoic. The same as it has the last two times. She thought. She did not bother to probe the blade for any signs of magical breakage. The princess knew that there would be no change. But externally, there was a change from the last time she had visited. The blade was as clean as she could ever remember it, the white metal almost glowing ethereally in the hazy morning light. Yet was there really any blood there, she wondered. She had felt it on her fingers, she was so sure. But the evidence was all gone. Perhaps this just meant whoever's idea of a horrible joke that was had returned and regretted their actions.
"There's nothing wrong with the seal." She finally said.
"You're sure?" Her father asked. She nodded.
Link nodded, telling the soldiers they were to return to the castle. Zelda followed along in silence. As the Prince-Regent and his daughter rode ahead in silence, Gibdo said to Poe, "The Princess seems to be acting rather strange ever since she fainted the other night."
Poe simply replied, "She's stressed. She told me she wanted to start taking her duties as princess seriously. She complained about Shiro bothering her too, but in general, I think a lot of would-be suitors are bothering her. She's not used to the attention." But Poe was quick to add, "Well, not used to male attentions anyways."
"I see… Poor girl; so much responsibility upon her." The elder brother said sadly. The younger had nothing to say in response.
As they rode back to the stables, it seemed the day would be uneventful. But as soon as they had dismounted, Captain Viscen had entered the stables in a rush and headed straight for Link. Zelda forked an eyebrow as she saw Viscen whispering something to him; something that made her father seem to get so much older within those few seconds. "I see," Link had said. "I'll meet you there, then." As the Captain nodded and exited the stables, the Prince-Regent turned to his daughter, "Ione, I have to leave to visit the base of Mt. Crenel with the soldiers. I don't know when I'll be back but try not to cause too much mischief."
The girl frowned in concern. Her father had gone so serious when Viscen spoke to him but now he was acting as if nothing was the matter. But she nodded anyways, saying she'd try and behave herself before her father went off.
"Poe," she called out to the guard before he left with his brother and the others. The guardsman looked to his superior to receive the nod to attend to the princess and then neared the girl.
"Yes, Princess?"
Zelda remained silent. "I'd like for you to come to Hyrule Town with me. Please tell your superior it's a direct order from me." She said it stoically and matter-of-factly, enough so that Poe was rather thrown off by the serious tone with which she had spoken to him.
In a quiet whisper he asked, "Are you all right?"
She peered up at him, and while her face remained expressionless, her eyes answered, "No, I'm not. Please. I need to speak with you."
Nodding, he went to his superior, got his permission, and the guard and his ward began the trek to Hyrule Town. They walked, taking the longer, but quieter and less traveled road to the town. Zelda wanted to keep her conversation with Poe as quiet as possible.
"Every time I feel that… that presence in my head," she had begun when she was sure no one else was around on the road, "I know that something is wrong with the Seal. But every time I check, it's fine. Going today... it made me feel as if I'm going crazy. Am I going crazy, Poe?"
The guardsman regarded the young girl he'd befriended quietly, deciding what would be the best answer for her. "I don't think you are."
She furrowed her brow and frowned. The princess stopped in her tracks and looked up at her friend almost angrily. "How can you? How can you be so clam about hearing this?"
The older man shrugged carelessly, "You're the Princess. You have such gifts, it's in your blood. I have no reason to think you'd be going crazy unless you claimed you started hearing voices or seeing bright pink frogs floating around the sky."
"But there's nothing wrong!" She cried out, making the both of them come to a complete stop on the road. "Every time I check, there's nothing wrong! A-and… the other night when we were at the Shrine… I'm not even sure if that was real! It felt real and fresh but there wasn't a trace of it-" She caught herself, realizing that her friend was staring at her blankly. No doubt she looked like a wild woman waving her arms and stomping about. I never told him about the blood. She calmed herself and said quietly, "I found blood on the Four Sword the other night…"
Poe's expression darkened. "On the Four Sword?"
The strawberry blond nodded, "Yes… I think… I think he might be trying to… to establish communication with me… And when I think about that, I can't help but think I'm going crazy." There was a humorless smile on her face as she spoke. Her friend said nothing in response, and after that long moment of grave quiet, she finally said, "I think I should tell my father."
"No." Poe responded quickly.
The immediacy of his answer puzzled her. "Why ever not?"
"Ah, um, well, he won't understand, Princess," the guardsman responded anxiously.
She gave him a puzzled look. He wasn't acting like his normal self. "How would you figure that?"
He seemed to be struggling with himself if his expression was anything to go by. Eventually, he let out a frustrated sigh and said, "I didn't want to say, Princess… but, you say such things make you sound crazy, right?" She frowned, already not liking the direction he had taken. He continued, "Well, it is a bit outlandish to hear. You don't have any proof aside from your own experiences. And you also want to prove yourself to the Prince-Regent, to able to handle this on your own. Honestly, I think if you tell him, you may actually be doing the opposite of proving yourself a capable leader."
The girl's frown was larger. "But my father always says that asking for help is the mark of a good leader."
"That may be so, but Princess, you're his only child, and a daughter to boot." Poe pointed out.
Zelda's brows twisted unsurely. She crossed her arms, trying to remain stand-offish to her friend's words. "What does that have to do with anything?"
The soldier sighed pityingly, no longer as skittish as he had been a few moments ago. "Princess, do you really think he wants to put the burden of responsibility on you? If anything he considered threatening even inched itself within thirty feet of you, he'd have a conniption. He's so very protective of you – I mean, why do you think that Kasuto kid and his dad were shipped off to the mountains?"
"But that doesn't have anything to do with now." She pointed put stubbornly.
Poe was unfazed. "And you really think he isn't keeping anything from you now?"
"Of course he isn't." She said matter-of-factly. "He said himself I needed to learn to take responsibility."
"So he told you about the serial murderer that's been plaguing the town for the past three years?"
It took a minute for the words to sink into Zelda's mind. "What?" She asked in a barely audible squeak.
And then Poe grimaced, looking like a dog that had just done something wrong. "I shouldn't have said that."
The scouting party was waiting for the Prince-Regent and the Captain by Mt. Crenel's base. When Link had arrived, none of the members of the part looked very enthusiastic. They had taken their horses aside, while the Lieutenant took Link and Viscen aside.
"Since we've been here, the encampment has only grown. Little by little, but even one more is an issue." The Lieutenant said grimly. He had led his two superiors to a large dried out thicket. Holes had carefully been carved out through the branches. Another soldier was waiting there, looking through one of these holes with a spyglass. Hearing the footfalls of others, the soldier saw his superiors and saluted.
"Hand me the glass," Link whispered. The soldier nodded and handed over the telescope.
Link peered through, taking in the view that he had hoped was in reality a terrible joke. But it wasn't. Moblins. Four tents, decorated roc feathers and strings of skulls. Some of the piggish tenants were patrolling the encampment, their spears glimmering in the sunlight menacingly.
When was the last time he had seen these creatures? Vaati. He thought. And that had been so long ago… And they had taken such measures to ensure Moblins wouldn't trespass onto Hylian territory. The Great Fairies had offered their protection to each of the realms. He handed the spyglass back the soldier, holdig up his hand to the Captain and Lieutenant, telling them he needed a moment in his thoughts.
Had the Great Mayfly Fairy been attacked or had she betrayed them? He simply couldn't imagine the latter. The Great Fairies were benevolent creatures, servants of the Goddesses. And surely if they had done something to displease one of them, they would have been told, right? In the end, he just had no idea what was going on, only that it was bad whatever it was. There was no avoiding what had been to be done.
He faced Viscen, "Captain, I'm going up the mountain." A flurry of whispered objections came from the captain and the nearby soldier. "I have an idea of why these monsters are arriving, but I have to go alone. The more people that come with me, the more noticeable we are to these creatures. Aside from that, only I know where the Great Mayfly Fairy resides."
Captain Viscen straightened up at the name drop. "You think the Great Fairy may have something to do with this."
"I'm very certain," Link affirmed.
The officer remained silent for a moment, before nodding, "Will you be needing anything, sir?"
"A better harness for my sword. A waist harness isn't ideal for scaling walls." The Prince-Regent said. A nod from Viscen sent the other soldier running to fetch it. When it was brought, Link took the sword at his waist and switched out the harnesses, strapping the blade to his back. He grimaced as he felt the familiar weight on his back, the memories flooding back to him of his younger days, trying to save his best friend from her stone prison with the advice of the hat on his head… Ezlo… He thought with an inward sigh, You'd know what was going on.
But there was no time to dwell upon the past. He looked to the soldiers and nodded, carefully and quietly escaping the scouting area and heading to the mountain proper. The structure of the mountain had changed in past decades with rock slides and seasonal storms; many of the caves through the mountains had to be re-excavated or completely new ones had to be made. They had the bright side of less helmasaurs and chus wandering about, but unfortunately not any less keese. What worried Link most, however, was scaling the mountain without any scouts from the Moblin encampment noticing. He was lucky that in the 30 years since he last climbed up the mountain that it was much easier to traverse it thanks to the Gorons building stairs for the Hylians. Carefully and quietly, making sure his shadow did not fall into the view of any of the scouting moblins, he managed to make it up the stairs without causing suspicion to the monsters below.
The Great Fairy, however, still proved difficult to get to. While he was now out of sight of the moblins, not many people knew where the Fairy was exactly. The only reason the Prince-regent was aware was because of his adventure so long ago. There weren't places to hide on a rock wall, and he couldn't honestly remember the last time he'd needed to climb the old fashioned way. At least he was wearing gloves, which he was incredibly grateful for. As he climbed, he remembered doing this when he was a young boy, and quickly feeling out of breath, he wondered how on earth he managed to climb feet upon feet of this mountain so easily. When he had reached the walkable strip of land on which the Fairy was located, he couldn't have been happier. At least it'll be easier getting down, he thought to himself. Provided the moblins didn't notice him on the way back.
He walked over to the cave, entering the Fairy's Fountain… but there was nothing there. At least, he could see nothing. With a grimace, he felt along the walls with his hands to make his way through. This boded ill already. Normally, the Fairy's pool would be emitting an ethereal light. But there was no light. He kept following the wall with his hands until his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and when they did, his worst fears had been realized. He walked to the silhouette of the pool and dipped his hand in the water. He waved the water around, but nothing happened. Link stood, cried out for the Fairy, but there was no response. There was only a dank, dark cave. The Great Fairy was no longer there.
He left the cave, quickly making his way down the mountain and avoiding the sight of the moblins. The Prince-regent wasn't sure how to relay this dread news, that the beasts were encroaching because the Fairy was no longer protecting them. But why? Had she left? Why? Did the other Fairies know? Were they leaving as well? Had Ione's trauma been a foreshadowing to this moment? The last thought alarmed him most of all. Would Ione suffer more then, if this truly was unnatural phenomena? And if the other two Fairies were to disappear, who knew what danger would fall upon Hyrule… He needed to send scouts to their location immediately (written directions of course, since only Link really knew where they were).
But as he made his way back to where his scouts were, Viscen quickly came to him and handed him a letter. He opened it up, his eyes struggling to read the flowery writing of Chancellor Cole. When he read it, he had to keep himself from cursing the lousy timing of it all. The ambassador from Holodrum was expected to arrive that day to the put finalities on their trade renewal. Leave it to Holodrum to just come out of the blue like this…
He gave the orders to Viscen to find volunteers to search for the other Fairy Fountains, as well as to not engage the moblins unless they were spotted. And as he rode back to Hyrule Town, he hoped that perhaps Ione was aware of the Holodrum ambassador and was making a good impression.
"You mean you didn't know?" Mina asked incredulously.
"I'm surprised you didn't hear about it earlier," Agatha added, "It's been news for the past three years… Your father must have gone through great lengths to make sure this news never reached your ears."
Zelda couldn't believe what she was hearing. After Poe had told her, she pressured the guard for answers, but he kept his mouth shut. She had gotten so fed up with his sudden silence, she sent him back to the castle and headed to Hyrule Town herself to meet up with her other friends and speak with them about this. They were sitting together at one tables at by Mama's Café; she began with small talk, of course, of boys and the latest trends in town, but she had been itching to get to the conversation she really wanted. When the conversation was open to it, the princess brought up the subject immediately. Their words made her feel sick; disgusted with herself. How many people had suffered at the hands of this killer and she'd never once offered a condolence?
"Zelda, really, it's not such a terrible thing not to know about it. I certainly wish I didn't know of such ugliness." Mina said.
"But what kind of princes am I if I don't even know what's going on within the kingdom? I mean, my father says he wants to me to learn how to be a good leader, but how can I if he goes and hides things from me!" She replied, exasperated.
Agatha nodded, "Not to mention he kept your debut from you for two years. He seems very protective of you."
"I'm beginning to think too protective." She mumbled. Both the other girls had remained quiet, not really sure what to say to their friend. But Zelda would go on, "If he's hidden something like this from me, how am I to know he hasn't hidden anything else?"
"Come to think of it…" Agatha began, "I remember last year there was some thievery going on, rumors of a possible gang starting up… Then that Ka-"
"SHHHHHH!" Mina quickly interrupted.
"Thievery? Gangs?" Zelda asked, not even registering the sentence that Mina had cut off. "I never once heard of any of it! I don't get it! I come to town nearly every day, how was the information hidden?!"
"I suppose everyone just thought you already knew, that you were putting on this brave, cheery face to ease the worries of the townsfolk. I mean, that's rather what I always thought you were doing." Mina explained with a sheepish smile.
"I can't believe this!" The princess cried out. "I feel like… like such an idiot!"
"Oh, but you're not-" Agatha began, but Zelda cut her off, "I know I'm not, it's my father who's the idiot here!" The princess stood, irritated and unhappy. This felt like some sort of betrayal of trust to her. How could she be expected to run the country if she knew nothing of its problems beyond schmoozing with diplomats over trade! With an upset huff, she left her friends, who did not try to stop her seeing the mood their princess was in.
She was marching her way back to the castle, wanting to throw a tantrum. How could her father do this to her? And Poe was no better either, keeping it secret as well! She was even angry at her other friends and the residents of Hyrule Town, just assuming she knew things. Maybe even some of the adults close to her father were in on not letting her know too. Just how much did she not know about what was going on in her own kingdom!?
The girl took no notice of the of the guards that greeted her, or how serving girls were rushing back and forth in a panic. She took no notice of the man right in front of her until she bumped right into his back. And with a frustrated snarl, she snapped at the unfamiliar man she'd run into, "Oh, do watch where you're going!"
"Princess!" She heard the scolding tone of Chancellor Cole from the side. "Have some manners!"
"No, no, it's quite all right," said the man in a weasely sort of voice. Honestly, Zelda really didn't like him. She'd never seen this strangely dressed fellow before with his weird sticky-uppy hair. "It sounds like she's in a bit of a mood."
"Oh, I'm in a mood?" Zelda retorted. "You seem to think you know me well enough, yet I can't seem to recall ever meeting such a peacock!"
Both the strange man and Cole looked flabbergasted as the princess continued on her way in an angry, better-than-thou saunter. As had been her habit in the past few days when she was riled up, she went to the archery range. Poe was there, but she was still upset at him and ignored him. Shiro was also there, and in his shy fashion attempted to talk to her. She'd nearly bit his head off and then promptly focused and loosing arrow after arrow after arro. The message, by then, was clearly sent to those around her. The princess was not to be trifled with.
That was until about an hour later, when she was giving the back the training bow that she saw her father. Still upset, she ignored him until he was standing right by her, waiting to be acknowledged as she hung the quiver up. When no acknowledgement came, he simply called her name, "Ione."
"Father." If he didn't get the idea she was mad, he certainly did now.
"Chancellor Cole tells me you had an altercation with Ambassador Plen from Holodrum today."
Zelda held in a wince. She hadn't known that. But she was still angry, and resolved not to relent. "That peacock? I wouldn't have known."
"Ione! You gave an insult to our primary trading partner!" Link barked.
She faced her father and retorted, "So I was just supposed to be nice and polite and tell him he looked fabulous?"
"Yes!" Her father was raising his voice. "The trade renewal hasn't been finalized! His pride was attacked, he threatened to suspend the renewal!"
"Because he can't take the truth? I certainly think I could have handled the truth better!" The girl shouted, her eyes watering with the threat of tears. Her father's expression went blank. Before he could think of a response, she said, "You want me to become a good leader, but how can I become one if I don't even know the state of my own kingdom? Three years and I'd never once heard a single thing of it."
The Prince-regent's face softened as he reached out to his daughter, "I just wanted to protect you."
She stepped back, "No, you're coddling me! Holding off my debut for two years, sending Kasuto away, hiding news of a serial murderer-"
"Kasuto was a gang lord in the making." Link pointed out defensively.
"Stop lying!" Zelda cried out loud enough for all attention to be put on the royal pair. Her father was taken aback. "Yesterday you said I could trust you with anything… but how can I when you don't trust me?" She didn't even want to hear a response. She ran off, holding back angry tears. Her legs kept moving, the princess honestly having little idea of where she was actually heading. But anywhere would be better than back there where only lies seemed to surround her.
Yet when her fog of anger cleared, she didn't understand why her legs had taken her to the one place she now claimed to loathe: the Four Sword Shrine. She ignored her tattered skirts being pulled by snaggy weeds as she approached the steps, just feeling some sort of numbness inside. For all her dislike of this place, she actually began to feel more honesty could be found in the Shrine than the castle or Hyrule Town. Vaati, after all, made no secrets in his mental attacks on her that he was trying to get her attention. Her heels clicked against the stone floor as she approached the Four Sword in its pedestal, completely ignoring the mural on the back wall. The beast was in the sword, not in the mural. She sat down, pulling her knees before her and hugging them.
She had no idea why she was sitting before this sword, about to do what she was going to do. Was it to get her mind off of… everything else? She didn't know. "You have my attention now. What do you want?"
"Some might claim that speaking to a sword is cause for worry."
Zelda froze. The voice she heard was familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time… but she hadn't seen another person in the Shrine. She slowly looked over her shoulder, making out from her peripheral vision the figure of a man in a deep purple cloak a few feet back. The princess scrambled up immediately, glaring at this stranger. She'd never seen anyone like him. Pale, red eyes, black marks under the eyes, purple hair… She might have called him peculiarly handsome but something about him just set off a red flag she couldn't place. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Those without permission of the Royal Family aren't allowed in here."
He smiled lazily at her. "I assure you, my presence here is quite permissible."
She forked an eyebrow at him. "Did my father send you here? I've never seen you before."
"I'd say your father sent you here."
Zelda stepped back, feeling very uncomfortable in the presence of this man. "How do you know that?"
"An educated guess. You asked if your father sent me after you, implying you ran away from him." He said simply.
With an exhale of relief, she relaxed. "I guess it is that simple to figure out…" She sighed, and turned back to face the sword.
"Trouble at home?" The stranger asked.
With a humorless chuckle, she replied, "I only found out that everyone I know has been lying to me about things I should know. Murders? Thieving? Does the princess need to know? No, she's such a fragile thing, fainting because some mage from thirty years ago won't leave her alone."
"I think he just wants to better know the girl who released him."
She laughed, "What a strange thing to say. How would you know…" She paused then, the red flags in her head waving around faster than ever. She began to connect the dots; why she'd never seen him before but still seemed to think she should know him, why his voice was both familiar and unfamiliar to her.
Zelda was afraid to turn around and look at this man now, but she had to. And doing so felt like time was going in slow motion, but she looked back, and saw that the man wasn't looking at her but instead looking at a bat perched on his shoulder, scratching its little head affectionately. And then she realized it wasn't a bat. Bat's had heads and two eyes and one pair of wings. That thing on the man's shoulder had two sets of wings, horns, and an eye making up nearly the entirety of its body. A Beholding Eye.
The stranger's crimson glance came her way, a devilish grin on his pale face. "You asked if your father had sent me here. In a manner of speaking, yes, he did."
Fear. Pure, abject fear. It was the monster from her nightmares in human form, mere feet away from her.
The girl picked up her skirts and ran; she ran as fast as she could, right past him and out of the Shrine. She didn't know if she screamed, she didn't know if he followed, and she didn't dare look behind her. All she knew was that she had to get out of there as quickly as possible – she had to go to the Castle and find her father. No more secrets; forget their earlier fight. She would tell him everything, of the pains she had been feeling, of the suspicions she'd had. They were all correct! Oh why hadn't she told him earlier?!
As the twilight began to make itself known in the sky, she could only feel more dread at the thought of the oncoming darkness of night. When she had run into the Castle, she ignored all the looks of worry and confusion around her, simply demanding to know where her father was. "Your father's speaking with the ambassador in the conference room, but – Wait, Princess!"
But she did not listen to the servant who had given her the information. She had burst into the conference room, probably looking hysterical and out of sorts with her dirtied dress and torn hem. The argument from earlier was completely forgotten, her father coming to her side immediately and begging her to calm down so she could speak clearly. She had just barely managed to say, "The Shrine… I was at the Shrine, and Vaati… It's Vaati, he's out, and that's why I've been having the nightmares and the fainting spells. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I never mean to keep it secret!"
"The girl's obviously stressed and mentally exhausted," Cole began dismissively, but Link would hear none of it.
"Get my horse ready."
"What? But, sir-"
"Get my horse ready."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Her father took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him, "Ione, please, please calm down." But the girl only coughed through her sobbing. "Please, Ione, you must calm yourself. It's very important that you calm yourself. We need to go back-"
"No!" She wailed, "No, he'll throttle me like he did in the nightmares!" The girl could see it so clearly in her head, except instead of the great Beholding Eye it was that handsome fellow with his hands round her neck, smiling that malicious smile as he watched her eyes roll back into her skull as the life left her.
"Ione!" Her father's words snapped her out of her waking terror. The princess looked into her father's eyes; strong, determined, filled with so much courage. "I can't do this alone, Ione. I need you to make sure the seal remains strong after we defeat him. You need to be there – you must face your fears." Link said it slowly, calmly, confidently. That is what would happen. It was fact. Her father would let no harm come to her. She had to be strong, so they could do this together…
"I'm scared." She squeaked shakily.
"Courage is not the absence of fear," her father said, his voice strong, "But the triumph over it."
While she was far from calm, Zelda took in a breath and nodded. She would go… She had to go.
As she rode with her father on his horse, she had to keep chanting his words to herself. It was the only thing keeping her from demanding that she be left in the middle of Hyrule Field, sending her father and the rest of the soldiers ahead. She dreaded seeing the forest, of knowing that within its depths was the Shrine with the source of her greatest fears.
They entered the forest, the horses all whinnying and refusing to cross the cobblestone border that signaled the Shrine. She and her father dismounted, Link holding the hilt of his sword in preparation, ready to use it and then drop it at a moment's notice for the Four Sword. Zelda hung back, near the horses, sharing their anxiety.
But now, a new nightmare replaced the old.
Because the Four Sword Shrine was empty, and not a single thing in it looked out of the ordinary.
I'm sorry for this terrible cliffhanger. But hey, from here on out, things should be moving along quite nicely story-wise.
This chapter was so incredibly tricky. I had my outline, but the story and characters wanted nothing to do with the outline at all. So I just gave up. This story is going un-outlined because every time I write one down, it just doesn't go that way. It's driving me nuts. Whatever the case, there was a LOT in this chapter, and I am happy with the end result because this... this is just going exactly the way I'd planned despite not being outlined.
Just a few little tidbits of other stuff; in case you couldn't figure it out, one Kasuto (aka Blind) was not sent off to Labrynna because he was flirting with the princess, it was because he was in some serious need of rehabilitation as he was beginning his life of crime. Hey, Kasuto is still Blind the Thief! Though I'm sure flirting with the princess certainly didn't help his case. Also, totally unintentional tribute to the late Nelson Mandela in here! I just knew about the quote and knew it might be something Link would say, but I needed to give credit to the source and it happened to be Mr. Mandela! RIP, dude.
BY THE WAY, RESULTS OF MY POLL. Majority says that trigger warnings aren't that important. However, since this is a majority by ONE vote, I'll make a compromise. I will post trigger warnings, but not at the beginning of the chapter. I will post trigger warnings before each segment that may contain triggering content. That way you can still read the majority of the chapter while skipping specific content. This makes me happy because it's not entirely spoilery. And this is excellent timing too because I do believe next chapter will be needing some trigger warnings.
fleets, oh the teenager attitude only continued in this chapter! ... And will probably continue in future chapters. And yeah, no worries, I can't wrap my head around it either. But face it, the moment you get friendly with anyone of the opposite sex, people always make assumptions. Alas, it will happen to poor Zelda and Poe (to their mutual disgust). Thanks, I guess? XD OH after this chapter, gut wrenching shall begin. Ohohoho. Lol, no worries, I keep my internet life and my personal life incredibly separate, so I understand. granted, it'sno secret I fangirl, but my personalities irl and on the internet are WAY different. XD
Swamp Dragon Princess, I honestly have nothing against Zelink, it just kind of bores me. I mean, it's so... expected. And yeah, Malon is. She's in Minish Cap and Four Swords Adventures. Granted, I think that's just because Nintendo likes to treat fans to stuff like that and doesn't really mean anything. XD Regarding Zelda not telling Link, she's a teenager. Teenagers... teenagers are just... I don't even know how to describe them, save to say they make terrible decisions. The part of the brain that says "this is a terrible idea" actually doesn't work as well when people are teenagers. And this Zelda is still in that phase of her life. As for Poe, do remember that first and foremost, he works for someone else. As for the myth of Eros and Psyche, you really don't need to read it at all for this story. There will be some similarities in some metaphor I may use, and the mentions of trials and whatnot, but there is no way this story and Eros and Psyche could have any true parallels. The characters are too different. However, the myth does play some minor parts within this story, but none of them so important you have to go out and read it. Chances are, I'll explain it in text.