Chapter 2

Zelda sat up panting in a cold sweat, her body feeling like it had truly been torn to pieces. What the hell was that? She sat up scared and shaking. That thing… it was unlike anything she had seen before. It was so dark and malicious. She'd never in her life felt something like that, not even against the shadow beasts. She wanted to believe that it was just her irrational fear of the dark and stress that caused a nightmare like that, but something about it just didn't at all feel like a dream. It felt real, very real, and to the point that her execution didn't seem that bad anymore.

She sat up slowly, trying to control her shaking. It was rather cold in the cell, so clutching at the end of her night gown she pulled her feet up closer to her and tucked them under the light fabric. If she had to guess she only slept maybe an hour at the most, but despite that little time of sleep, she was fully awake. However, she jumped at the sound of someone's footsteps approaching her cell door, surprised that she didn't even hear the heavy dungeon door creak open. They shoved a light blanket through the bars and yet she refused to lift her head to look at them full on. After a moment of silence and the presence of that person still over her, she snuck a peek finding him still extending his arm through the bar with the blanket.

"I don't want it," she announced after a minute, hiding her face back in her knees.

The man huffed loudly and stretched his arm out a little farther.

"Princess please," he began in a low voice, "just take it and hold out a little longer."

Zelda raised her head to look at him suspiciously, "what..?"

He motioned for her to come closer. She stood and walked over to him taking the blanket as he motioned that he would not talk until she did. With a huff she took it, wrapping it around her body as he looked to the door briefly.

"We're going to get you out of here," he started, "some of the men are still with you. I don't know what's been going on lately, but everyone is acting strange, and hearing that from the council, some of us couldn't believe it."

Zelda listened to what the man was saying, a small fire of hope burning in her gut, "you mean you believe that I'm innocent?"

He nodded slowly, "there are only a few of us left that do, and our loyalty will always be with you princess." He smiled kindly at her and she knew it was a sincere smile.

"Thank you so much," she almost cried tears of joy, "but I do have a question. How are we going to get out of here?"

"In a little while one of the men is going to come by here and give me the key to your shackles. The other is just waiting until it's all clear and the best time for avoiding the other guards."

"And where is Link? Have you heard anything about him?" She asked quickly, only she was met with somber eyes.

"We can't find him anywhere, your highness, he's missing."

Her heart sank at his words. For link to go missing? Something was most definitely wrong. She felt a wave of depression trying take over her, but she brushed it off. She needed to get out of here alive if she was to find Link. With that she relaxed herself pulling the blanket slightly tighter around her shivering form. She didn't know if she was shaking from fear or if she was truly cold. Not a moment later she heard the jingling of keys as another of her soldiers hurried to her cell. He hastily fumbled with the keys to unlock her cell and when it was open he bent down to her ankles unlocking the cuffs. She kicked the horrible things to the side as the soldier stood and began unlocking the cuffs around her wrist. Almost instantly as the metal disconnected with her skin she felt a surge of power. Whatever the enchantment on those cuffs must've been to block her magic and drain her strength was not an ordinary enchantment. It felt so dark, just like the creature from her dream. Whatever the cause she knew she had to relax herself. Getting worked up was not something she needed at that moment. She needed to see what her soldiers had planned. Was it a trick? It couldn't be. It just didn't feel like it.

Silently both of the men wave their hands in the motion for her to follow. She did so very quietly as they made their way down the dark halls of her castle. She was surprised at how quiet it was despite how many people were actually in her castle on a daily basis. There were many guards and servants. She figured surely that since she had just been charged with treason that they would up the patrols to make sure that she had no way to escape, but it wasn't too much of a surprise. After all, unless it was during wartimes, her soldiers were quite lazy. They must have assumed that she had no way of escape. She really believed them to be quite dim sometimes.

She pushed the thoughts aside is they made their way to the library. She was slightly confused at first but remembered behind one of the bookshelves was a secret passage if she ever needed to escape the castle but was unable to any other way. She had never been down the passageway but she was prepared for anything if it meant she could survive. She stood by quietly as the men pulled a bookshelf in the corner away from the wall. A cold, dank breeze came from the dark passageway. She swallowed hard remembering her irrational fear of the dark. Mainly it was what was in the dark. She had come face-to-face with Zant's shadow beasts, but still she was afraid. It would seem foolish to anyone else but yet she had faced things that many others could only dream of. Only, the thing she dreamed of was worse than anything she could imagine.

They moved as quietly as possible into the dark tunnel only one soldier carrying a lantern. She stayed closely to the one soldier that had given her the blanket ashamed that she didn't know their names. Even though she never had any prior interest in the names of her lower ranking soldiers, she was incredibly grateful that they would still put their loyalty in her like they were. She was beginning to see things in a completely different way and very much appreciative of everything they were doing for her. She hoped that after everything was through she would be able take the time to appreciate her soldiers way more than she had in the past.

They continued walking and she felt as if they had already walked miles. Yet from her memory she recalled her father explaining to her that the tunnel only spans from the castle to the southern field. From there they would have to make their way across the southern field and into the Faron woods. The woods were not the safest place for her she needed away from here. She felt the air getting cooler and the breeze growing slightly stronger. She knew that they were almost completely away from the castle and her stomach twisted in knots. Her mind got the better of her and she felt as if it was too easy for her to escape. Her mind told her all of the negative possibilities that could be waiting for her at the end of the tunnel. Could the council be aware that she had escaped? Would they be waiting for her ready to take her back to her cell or possibly execute her where she stood? And also, what if her dream was something real?

They emerged from the tunnel and she watched as the two men with her hurried to the stables and led two horses over to where the princess was standing. Her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "Only two horses?" She asked as she was helped onto one, by the soldier that gave her the blanket.

"Yes," the other solider spoke up, "I'm staying here. My position would arouse suspicion if I were to simply disappear." She grimaced as he explained.

"Is something the matter your majesty?" The one currently helping her asked. His voice was low and concerned.

"Well," she started her cheeks flushed from embarrassment, "I still do not know your names."

He nodded in understanding, "Cole, your majesty." He gave her a little grin as she looked up to him.

"Cole?" She smiled, "I will always remember that. Thank you so much for what you've done."

"Well," he began with a shrug, "I didn't do it alone." He motioned to the other guard next to him, "Randal snuck the keys to those shackles."

"Yeah," the other guy laughed, "I actually had to sneak into Aldrich's study to get those. I waited till he left and grabbed them as quickly as I could."

"Thank you both," she smiled, "I owe you tremendously."

"It's no problem at all." Cole moved to his horse, but just before he was able to get on, a giant dark hand slapped him away.

Zelda gasped as fear began to take over her. There it was. A smaller version of the creature from her dreams stood before them, towering over Randal as he drew his sword. Cole as quickly as he could, jumped to his feet and drew his sword as well, but the both of them seemed frozen where they stood for a brief moment. Before she could move or say a word, Cole slapped the horse on the butt and it took off in the direction of the woods. Horrified, Zelda looked behind her, voice gone as she tried to scream back at her soldiers. Yet all she received was a small smile from Cole before she witnessed the creature grab the both of them their swords doing absolutely nothing to the monstrous thing. She only saw what happened briefly and she whipped her head around to stare wide-eyed at the back of the horse's head. She was sick to her stomach. Never had she seen a person squished like that before, and she felt faint as a vivid memory of the blood spewing from their bodies was burned into her brain. They were her saviors and for a moment she was filled with hope and joy thinking she would be free and safe for the time being, but now she was so alone. She dared not look back at the thing fearing that it was still right behind her ready to grab her at any moment. The wind whipped through her hair as she pushed the horse to run faster to the woods and lowered her head. Tears poured from her eyes like two waterfalls with an endless source of water. She'd never cried so hard or so much in her life, not even when Ganondorf destroyed her home.

She looked up after a moment and looked behind her, unable to see the field by how deep she had already made it into the woods. She slowed the horse to a trot, all the negative energy gone. She knew by the feeling that for the time being she was safe, but it still didn't help the fact that she was shaking even worse than in the cell. The dream was absolutely horrifying, but to see her dream realized was sickening. She couldn't help the tears that still flowed and she thought she was for sure going to die, but she tried to calm herself the best she could. Zelda looked around trying to distract herself and noticed a small ruined cabin. As she moved closer she noticed a tree had fallen on the little shack, but it hadn't collapsed completely. She dismounted the horse and looked around nervously, picking up some of the fallen limbs. Using her magic she made a small fire in the little fireplace of the shack, hating how cold it really was. Luckily she still had that blanket given to her and buddle up next to the fire. She was so worked up about everything going on she didn't realize just how exhausted she was. So much had happened and she wondered if maybe she was just having another bad dream. At least she hoped it was only a bad dream.

Well here's chapter two. I decided to post it anyway so i hope y'all enjoyed and there's definitely more to come! Leave me a review and tell me what you think!