When I was younger in Primary school my class started to form weird gangs which got quickly banned after we had a pretty violent pitch battle on the field. I decided to try to take down a guy about twice my size, who later went onto do professional rugby. Needless to say I ended up with a few bad bruises and a bloody nose. It's a bit strange that I remember the memory pretty fondly.
Anyway I just couldn't help but shoehorn in a personal reference to one of the rival gangs even if it's a pretty lame name but hey, you do have to remember these are kids.
I still find it weird how in the game Link is said to beat adults in sword fighting at four whereas I could still hardly walk properly at that point.
Sorry ramble over :)
Chapter 6- Secret Friends
"We've located the blade sire,"
"Very good have we managed to extract it from the forest?"
The Knights shuffled uncomfortably, "No it killed two of our best, the thing sucked the life out of them,"
The King let out an audible hefty sigh. "Get out…"
They rushed out the room.
"You know it is only the chosen one who can wield it," Alfonzo spoke up
Bryne rolled his eyes. "You and I both know it's none of this damned spiritual garbage, you just need to have the strength that's all."
The King's hair was now fully white and had overgrown the boundaries of his head. "This prophesy, damn it to twilight. When we find out one thing it just presents another fifty questions. If it's just by strength surely you can lift it Bryne."
Bryne looked down uncomfortably. "If it comes to that perhaps, but we all know I'm far past my prime now."
"There's the boy…" Alfonzo suggested.
Shaking his head dismissively Bryne added yet another sigh to the room. "He still has much to learn and he's beyond ready, it can't be him."
"He is the most gifted child we have in the academy he moves even better then you when you were younger…if you would allow me to-"
"No…I will not," Bryne said fiercely. "Even I did not go through the Great Trials at his age and it took me years to recover any semblance of my past self."
Alfonzo's voice raised, "While you doubt him the day of the calamity grows closer and closer, you may not believe in the chosen one at all but I believe it is Link who will take up the sword."
The King cut through their spat. "Despite what you say Bryne I am still intrigued by this boy, double your efforts with him Alfonzo, as for you Bryne I have another task."
Bryne looked down slightly removing all thoughts and feelings like he had practiced so many times before. The thought of Link, his son, remained.
"Yes Sire?"
"What do we have here Golden Boy's daydreaming again,"
Of course they were right. Link was trying meditation, like Alfonzo had suggested, but he couldn't keep out the thoughts and images that clouded his mind, his mother had gotten worse. She was almost too quiet now and Link had to do almost all the talking, the cooking, everything. It was a lot of work but he'd do anything to see that appreciative loving smile. Link also found new images popping into his mind, the image of the calamity from his dreams, the binding golden light that captured it, Zelda…
He opened his eyes to look at the approaching gang of boys.
"I think we should help clear his mind, give him something to really think about," one of the taller squires as he cracked his knuckles.
Sure Link had some friends in the academy most were his age but, the boys who were older than him despised the fact he had joined earlier and that he was often the focus of the higher ups. To be fair Link knew little of why he had been chosen himself. Most just talked behind his back "Golden Boy," but this group had elected themselves to make sure Link was always taken down a peg. They believed themselves to be worthy of regulating his ego.
There were only five of them. Link only really knew the name of the leader Hauke, who was the son of the chancellor and was really the one who needed ego regulation. He was far bigger then Link and wore a strange bright red headband. They had chosen to call themselves the Red Rupees, it was better to not antagonise them about it though, they each wore a ring encrusted with the red jewel and it hurt like hell when it slammed into you.
"Run out of little girls to scare?" Link asked.
Hauke came forwards in an instant filled with rage and hit Link had making him sprawl across the ground to a quick succession of snickering from the other boys.
"You'll learn to fear me too you little prick."
Link looked up at him determined not to waver and let out his own chuckle. "I'm sorry I just can't make myself do that it's too difficult with that headband on you."
The boy snarled as two of his friends giggled quietly at Links rebuttal. He started to wail on Link who immediately covered up his head in response. He wasn't going to fight them again that only seemed to make it worse and he hardly wanted to go into isolation again. The others joined in though their kicks were pulled slightly as though they didn't quite agree with their master.
"You're pathetic, you're a peasant boy who is only here because his Daddy said he could come," Hauke continued to kick each opening Link showed despite the fact his cronies had backed away gingerly.
"I could say the same to you," Link jeered back muffled by the protection of his arms.
"That's it you're really going to get it now, I'll make sure your weak mother complains yet again when you go crying to her," Hauke's jab had gotten to him finally.
As the boy leaped onto Link he felt the rage rise through him, burning into his ears fiercely. And his mind snapped in anger. The boy was a lot heavier than him but it was also his biggest weakness, he relied on it too much. Link grappled with him hand grasping his back and twisting round fell with him, slamming Hauke into the floor so hard he let out a quick gasp only to be cut off by a quick jab to the gut.
He didn't see the Rupees stare at him in amazement, unable to move, he was possessed by rage and the boy curled up beneath him was going to feel it.
"Get away from him now!" Orca shrieked out rushing over, Alfonzo was with him and they struggled to get Link's enraged form off the boy, who was now lying on the ground bloody.
"He just leaped on me like some wild animal," Hauke claimed his voice much higher than it had been earlier. His friends said nothing, either too shocked or even scared to speak.
"I'll get Link you just… Clean him up, the Chancellor is already up my arse as it is," Alfonzo called out to his colleague who nodded and rushed off to get the medical supplies.
"In Din's name Link not again," he muttered. As he pulled him out of the courtyard and into the city streets.
The Knight washed Link's hands in the bucket the red seeping into the pure water.
"Link what you did there…" Alfonzo began. Link braced himself for the inevitable slating he was going to get, he would be in isolation for several days now. The thought unnerved him to end isolation was torture, no outside and complete darkness and worst of all only a little food.
"It was brave, you are at your best when angry."
Link looked at him shocked. Sure the Knight treated him with only kindness, something he had rarely gotten from his father but, even for him it was a stretch to congratulate him for pummelling a child. "Wha?" he murmured.
"I know what those kids do to you and some of the others, it is unpreventable in the academy but to stand up to them with no complaint is a virtue in itself." He was rather eloquent for a knight and unlike Bryne boasted a more noble upbringing. He was far larger than his father and on his broad back laid a claymore that most Hylians would be incapable of lifting, let alone wielding with such skill.
"I almost sent him to the physician," Link said. "How is that brave? Ma would not be proud of me." It was true his mother always taught him to avoid violence at all costs, giving into that urge only made the world uglier than it was.
"Hey look at me…" Link looked up. "It's okay to be scared of that side of yourself but, Knights can't hesitate, we cannot allow ourselves to understand or empathise with the enemy. We cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by sadness or thoughts of the ones we care about. We must channel it into anger and only then can we truly focus and become what we train to be, a weapon."
Link felt himself nod in agreement. Whenever he obliged to the Senior Knight's advice he felt himself become stronger, he felt the noise in his head go away. He would do anything to silence those emotions.
"Now run along I'm sure you have more interesting things to do then talk to me," he smiled at Link as the previous words washed over him.
He whispered a quick "thank you," and then ran off towards the spires of Hyrule Castle. He was late.
Zelda sat on the bridge leading to her castle looking out over the bustling Castletown. The sun was high in the sky and the city was lit up brightly at her. In many ways it was a perfect day. So why was he late?
Sure their arrangement wasn't every day. Some days she would be too busy with praying or was able to research with Purah and Robbie, on others Link would just not turn up, after most of the absences he would return from isolation with another black eye and red knuckles. But every day at around this time they would try to meet here on the bridge to her study. Secret Friends
Of course if anyone found out Link would surely be punished severely perhaps even removed from the academy but the boy was a natural at breaking into the Castle. So much so the Yiga would probably look to him for advice if they could. So far she was enjoying it, there was much to learn from Link he was fascinating.
So many things just came so naturally to him, he could cook well (eat better), he could climb better than anyone she had ever seen, he had a way with the wild horses in Hyrule field and could even tame them and of course, if he was being modest like Zelda thought he was, he was fierce with a sword.
A noise made her turn to the door in her room.
Is that shouting?
Screaming would be more precise. Soon after the doors burst open and a flock of very annoyed Cuccos flew out of the room and down into the courtyard bellow. The audible noise of guards running away in the distance was clear.
Zelda smiled to herself, "You're late you know…"
Link scrambled up from the side of the bridge. "Sorry, it's getting more difficult you know, they've stopped getting distracted by the floating meat and mushroom skewers."
"Cuccos? That's a little harsh don't you think, they'll be pulling feathers out of their clothes for days," she giggled.
He scratched the back of his head the way he did when he felt embarrassed. "Hey, it's not easy getting past fifty guards you know," he mumbled. "So…where are we off to today? The ranch again?"
The Princess clasped her hands together and smiled tilting her head slightly to the side. "I was thinking I'd like to see the walls of the Great Plateau, I heard it was where the Kingdom first began. But first I have something to show you…"
Link shrugged. "Sure, what is it?"
Zelda pulled out the strange slate of stone, "Your father found it a few days ago."
"I didn't even know he was back."
The princess ignored him and continued already too absorbed in excitement, she loved explaining their findings to him, regardless of whether he was there or daydreaming. It felt good to finally be able to share things with a friend. "It's called a Shieka Slate, designed for the one chosen by the sword but even without him around we're on track to restore some of the slate's functionality. I wonder what exactly it'll be able to do but I'm sure it'll be of great use in the fight against Ganon."
He was smiling at her and she felt her cheeks grow hot suddenly. "What?" she said growing rather uncomfortable from the sensation in her ears and cheeks.
Link chuckled, "nothing please carry on."
"Well as I was saying…" Her head was racing and for once words refused to come to her head. Zelda glanced up at him. "Erm, shall we just go?"
The two walked across Hyrule field, which almost felt like habit now. Ducking behind trees or rocks whenever a group of soldiers passed. Zelda would talk excitedly about the research her and the Shieka were doing on the guardians. Link would occasionally talk about training, his senseless friends at the academy and the actions of the Red Rupees.
"That's a terrible name you know…" she had practically been skipping across the field everything felt right for once all the terrible guilt and pressure seemed to drown out. Link had warmed to her too, he was shy but deep down he was actually capable of holding her interest, something that was pretty rare.
"Well I did try to tell them but don't think they want to listen to me, they just use me as a training dummy really," Link stated.
"Why don't you just stand up to them or tell one of the instructors?" she asked.
Link studied his reddened knuckles. "I do stand-up sometimes, when they get to me but, I don't like myself when I do, I feel…disappointment." She continued to look at him ushering him on. "As for the instructors most of them don't like me and the ones who do don't care, that's the way they make the best Knights."
"What by letting them beat each other half to death?" Zelda asked hotly.
"No, by making us compete to be the best, Knights are warriors not soldiers the need to work together is less important to them. We are just…weapons," he shifted uncomfortably at the last word.
"Who do you think is the one chosen by the sword? I heard my father say they were investigating a child in the academy," they kept walking towards the towering walls of the great plateau.
Link scratched his head, "that's the first time I've heard about it. I have no idea, they just told us the sword would choose someone at some point and that we didn't have to worry about it, as we're just "weaklings"."
Zelda rolled her eyes. "They're not the most encouraging are they?"
"I could say the same about your mentors," Link grinned back at her.
She giggled, "Hey! They're not all that bad it's not like they beat me and send me into a cell every few days to force some sort of masculinity."
"Well you're really missing out, that's the best bit. The harsh insults and verbal abuse are just the icing on the cake," Link said in that serious tone that you just couldn't take seriously.
"Your enthusiasm is so honourable," her lips continued to curl upwards endearingly. "Please never change Link…"
"What do you mean?" he asked, flashing a curious look her way.
"It feels like everyone is so sombre these days and yet you always seem to find the hilarity in things and just how obscene it is that we're being thrown into all this," she replied.
"Oh I was being serious…" he said.
"Oh shut up,"
"Princess?"
"Shut up," she could control her laughter no more, perhaps a patrol nearby would hear it and find out where and who she had been with when she went missing, but she didn't care. Not one bit.
They came to a wall and both plopped down on it, their legs dangled a little above the ground and the huge walls of the great plateau moved high above them. The trees were alive around them buzzing with insects and other creatures. Two wood pigeons perched happily in the branches above them gently cooing to one and other. Zelda like many other children often wondered what they said to one another, did they have thoughts and emotions just like everyone else or were they just clueless birds? If it was the later she could certainly relate sometimes.
She looked to Link who like the birds above was perched happily on the stones, like usual content with not a worry in the world. It'd be normal to be jealous of him, racked in some form of deep envy, after all he had been born free of all the pressures and difficulties of her own damned fate. So why couldn't she help but smile when she saw him and feel herself fill with joy and apprehension whenever he opened his mouth to speak or looked at her with those deep understanding eyes whenever she was explaining something?
"Link?" the name escaped her lips involuntarily, most words were thought out in her life, they had to be. Link always seemed to go above all known boundaries.
"Hmm?" he hummed, lost deep into the depths of the wild.
"When my mother died I first knew what it was like to truly be alone," she said, not knowing why the words were coming forwards especially now in this moment. It just felt right.
"My father changed and I was moved to another area of the castle. There were servants to tend my every needs and I could have almost anything I wanted. But there was like this noise in my head that I just couldn't stop. It was like a flood of thoughts and emotions just crammed in there trying to push their way free."
Link was looking at her now, Zelda wasn't sure if she loved or hated the way it felt. "My father would scream at me to do what I needed to do and the other nobles, the guards everyone seemed to whisper behind my back. Each time that noise would grow until it was almost deafening. When I met Purah and Robbie I felt like I could hide away from it in my work, in my study, it helped me manage the praying."
Now she allowed her eyes to meet his as difficult as it was. "It was still there though just in the background. But then you come along."
He smiled sheepishly at her but it was clear he had zero intention of speaking, not that she needed or even wanted him to.
"You made the noise go away how did you do that?"
He wasn't going to answer she knew that as strange as it was she was okay with that. Their hands brushed gently and small fingers gently enclosed around each other with neither acknowledging that it had even happened at all. They just sat there for a while watching the world around them.
"Same time tomorrow?"
"Sure, I'd like that"
Zelda walked up to the guard positively beaming. Every time he would shoot her that perplexed shocked look at the fact she had seemingly teleported outside the Castle walls. He obviously didn't tell anyone about each occurrence due to the fact he would be the one who would be disciplined not her.
"Princess," he coughed.
She walked past him and up towards her room. In a few days she would be leaving for the spring with Urbosa. Her heart pulled at the thought of seeing her again, in many ways the Gerudo reminded the Princess of her mother. That fateful day in the Zora domain when the news had arrived had been one of the worst in her life. She felt ashamed to say it, but she could hardly picture the Queen in her mind anymore, all she could remember was that warm feeling of being around her.
There was going to be a long day of prayer tomorrow so she needed her strength if work was to continue on the Slate, and if she was going to see Link again.
The guards by her room door looked at her with the same shock as the doormen. In fact when they looked at her they looked almost…terrified. It didn't really matter though all she wanted was to collapse back into her bed and dream of faraway places and travelling with friends. The guards allowed her past wordlessly and she entered the room. Looking through the last few changes to her new diary entry she moved into her room to get ready for bed.
"Zelda…"
She let out a shriek and turned to see her father sat in a chair in the darkest corner of the room. His voice was quieter than normal but beyond solemn.
"Father don't scare me like that," the Princess moved over to the candle to the side of the bed and prepared to light it. The darkness was making her uncomfortable.
"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
She froze. "What?"
"All this time I thought you were in your study praying," Rhoam practically spat the words out. "I'd even be okay if you were in there doing some scholarly work as much as I despise it."
Her heart began to seize up. "Father I-"
"But no almost every day you've been going outside the safety of the Castle walls to gallivant with this peasant boy doing goddess knows what. Is this whole thing just some damned joke to you?"
The looked at each other fiercely, "He's not some peasant boy he's-"
"I don't give a damn who he is you are never to see him again do I make myself clear?" It was not a question, the King had stood up straight towering over her. He could really be terrifying sometimes and could easily dominate any room he walked into.
Zelda looked down at the carpet beneath her feet, the patterns that once calmed her seemingly useless in the moment she needed them the most. "I have put all my strength, everything into praying ask anyone. For years I have prayed day and day again but the goddess doesn't answer my pleas."
"It isn't good enough, you have to try harder," he said sternly.
Tears were forming around her eyes but she was desperate to not let them fall, she would not look so weak. "It doesn't help that you're never around, and when you are you only make things worse… Mother's death was hard on me too."
"Do you think me a fool?"
"I think of you as my father."
"I am your King!"
His voice reverberated through the chamber the very walls seemed to quake with fear from it. Most of the castle could probably hear him but it was nothing new to them.
Her father's expression softened. "I am the King of Hyrule, that is my burden. My love for you will always come second to that." He walked towards the exit and turned around just before leaving. "If I hear of you leaving these walls again I will have that boy killed, do I make myself clear Zelda?"
The Princess nodded and as the King left the chambers she collapsed into a heap on the end of the bed sobs retching through her body.
Over in Castletown Sir Bryne waited outside their townhouse. He lit his pipe and began to puff plumes of smoke into the darkness of the night. The cool night air brought an ease to him he rarely felt, it was nice to elevate the stress ,even if it may clog his lungs a little. It mattered not, he felt that ache in his bones already, that overwhelming need to rest, and he was getting old. In a few years he would be overtaken by the next generation of Knights.
He saw the boy run down the street towards the house and sighed. This is going to be difficult.
Link approached him cautiously sensing something was amiss.
"Take a seat Kid," Link obeyed and sat down on the floor beneath him.
"I was in a meeting with the King today and he was just fuming. He said that his own daughter the Princess of Hyrule was sneaking out with a hooded boy who could apparently fly out of the castle." In the corner of his eye he saw Link shrink away uncomfortably.
Bryne continued, "In fact this hooded boy has been harassing the guards for weeks. He's about your height, an ungodly gift for climbing, which is only matched by the ungodly appetite he has for stealing from the kitchens."
"Pa-"
"Quiet!" Bryne snapped. "I'm not going to tell you how stupid that was because you probably already know yourself but this along with the misbehaviours at the academy…" He looked directly at the child who refused to meet his eyes. "I'm disappointed, so you do one more thing like any of this and I'm personally dragging you out of Castletown no matter how much "promise" you show."
Link nodded quietly.
"I thought about it for a while but I've agreed, you're too undisciplined for a squire, I'm allowing Alfonzo to put you on intensive training." He removed the pipe from his mouth and banged the ash out from it against the wooden pillar. "Now get inside, say night to your mother and go to bed." Link rushed inside.
He stayed outside for a while enjoying the moment to himself as rare as they were these days. The child had spirit but that was not a good quality in a soldier. After the moon had begun to rise to the top of the sky he felt his wife move gently up next to him.
"I look at him every day and everyday it feels like I lose just a little bit of him," she whispered.
"That is the way of the order you know that, we cannot have knights fool around all the time. Besides, he is almost of age, he will need to grow up sooner rather than later if he is to survive."
"I know, I know but it doesn't make it any easier. I have to watch him hobble home with black eyes and cuts everywhere. Some nights I wonder if he will ever return." She was fumbling with her fingers, not sure quite what to do with them.
"He will always return, it is in out nature," Bryne allowed himself to take hold of her hands and Nyssa clung to them in desperation. "He will not be the same by the end no one is, the order always breaks down those who join. But he is my son and he is stronger than he lets on, I believe he will overcome it."
She smiled at him genuinely. "You know you've grown wise in your old age."
Bryne scoffed, "Hey! I'm not old yet, I could still wipe the floor with most of these pushovers."
She giggled and rested her head on his shoulder. Everything was how it should be, once again. Often Bryne would lay awake beneath the stars and wonder what he was even fighting for and why he'd agreed to take on the King's tasks. This was why, to protect this.
"You think we'll ever go back there, go home?" she asked cutting into his thoughts.
"When the sword choses the hero we'll be able to return, whoever it is will take up my mantle. Perhaps I'll have to teach them the ropes a little but the end will be in sight then," he gripped her tighter. He still hadn't spoken of Alfonzo's suspicions about Link, the Knight just had to be wrong. He had to.
"I can't wait," she breathed.