35. Lost Woods

The sun was rising over the horizon, everything around the castle seemed to be at peace, the only sound that could be heard was the birds chirping, and Zelda's heavy panting as she is jogging around the castle. She looks behind herself in panic as soon as the birds stopped chirping, realizing there is nothing she can do to change the immediate outcome, she decides to push herself and run as fast as she can… but it was not fast enough. Link comes running behind her and rams her to the ground, he laughs before picking himself up and reassuming his run. Zelda assumes a fetal position and begins to cry frustrated.

ZELDA POV

I KNEW he was going to make it hard for me, but THIS is completely unfair.

["Well…" Link looks at Zelda up and down "it appears you were mindful choosing the attire, or got properly oriented, but overall, it seems functional" Link says nodding

"Thank you?" Zelda answers unsure if that was a compliment

"Oh, don't thank me" Link says showing a malevolent smile "Let me set the rules: you run one lap around the castle as fast as you can"

"That is, it?" Zelda asks

"No, I am running too, every time I pass you during my run and you are still not done, I get to tackle you"

"Well… ok I guess, it's not going to happen more than once, maybe twice, so it's all right, I can take it" she asks grinning, Link just looks at her and slowly smiles]

HE IS A FUCKING RACE HORSE, how many times have I been thrown so far, 4 or was it 5? IT HURTS LIKE HELL, I can already feel the bruises forming. This HAS to be part of a plan to shorten the shopping time, He wants to make me tired and sore, to ensure I will not want to spend a lot of time shopping. I MUST PREVAIL. Besides, I have learned something… the birds fear him.

Zelda picks herself up and wipes her tears with her hands. She begins to run again. On the good side, she was very close to finishing her lap, on the bad side… the birds on the proximity were not chirping anymore, she could NOT hear him, but the bird's silence meant he was very close. She enters a panic mode, pushing through the pain caused by her sore body and ran the fastest she had ever done. Suddenly she sees Link pass her by her right side, once he put enough distance between them, he stops and turned to look at her. Zelda finishes her jog finally; she drops to the floor to catch her breath and looks at Link.

"Why didn't you tackle me?" Zelda asks breathing heavily

Link raises his shoulders briefly "It wouldn't had been fair, you had practically finished your lap" He states

"WOW, so you CAN be a gentleman, I am so lucky" Zelda states rolling her eyes

"Don't push it girl, I consider myself to be FAIR, but don't mistake that with chivalry, I am NOT a gentleman, and if provoked, I can be vindictive" Link says pointing at a bruise that was already showing in her exposed shoulder. She adjusts her tunic back in place hiding it from sight.

"Go eat something and take a shower, I will catch up with you when I am done here" Link says, Zelda nods at him, she then stands up and runs inside.

He was damaging me on purpose? Why would he? I have been nothing more than respectful to him

As the princess climbs the stairs to her room, she hears a familiar humming and a door closing, Chacha must be inside her room cleaning it.

Oh… yeah, he does have a reason I guess, is she starting with my room and not his?

Zelda enters her room to find Chacha looking a little distressed

"Hello, I am glad you are here, I would like to ask you to bring something... but first, why are you starting here and not in hell? and DO SPEAK NORMALY PLEASE, as if I was Link, just prettier" Zelda says winking

Chacha looks at the Princess with uncertainty, but chooses to do as she was told "the devil happens to be very disciplined, not much to clean most days, but your room is unexplored territory, I rather start here in case I need extra cleaning supplies" Chacha says briefly raising her shoulders

Zelda is looking at the maid in disbelief, her eyes glistening with tears of happiness, Chacha got confused noticing that and started to apologize but Zelda raised her hand to stop her.

"I thought it was going to take you some time to start speaking like that to me, but you jumped right on it, and I am so FUCKING glad" Zelda said gleaming and hugging her.

DIN, NAYRU an FARORE finally answered, I think I have a friend now, and she is AMAZING.

Chacha was stunned, the princess also jumped right on the confidence train with her, she used a common curse word and hugged her not really minding the status difference. She always thought Zelda was a demure and snobbish girl. seeing this side of her Princess was a pleasant surprise. But then she remembered Zelda calling Link a fag once. The relation between them was chaotic at first, but now felt different… what changed? Can she trust this is the REAL princess?

"I want to ask you something my Princess, what kind of relationship do you and my Prince have?" Chacha dares to ask, thinking the answer will help answering if this Zelda is here to stay of if she is posing.

Zelda looks to the ceiling pondering "Not sure, it's not a healthy one I must say" Zelda looks at the maid and rolls her eyes deciding it's safe to show her, she turns and lower her tunic to shoulder level, displaying some of the bruises.

"HE DIDNT" Chacha says in disbelief [Look sweetheart, open your ears and pay attention, it's not a complicated question, what is your name?] "He DID this to you didn't he? I will kill him"

"NO, YOU WONT… it was a challenge I agreed to, he DID used more force than necessary though. In his mind he was punishing me for trying to take you away from him I think" Zelda says smiling shyly

Chacha breaths out loudly in exasperation and also a LOT of relief "Oh goddesses, why are men so childish?" The maid asks Zelda, who just burst out laughing. Chacha decides her Princess is not faking.

"By the way… you needed me to bring something for you, what do you need?" Chacha asks the Princess

"Please go to your mom's kitchen and bring me some of her food, I don't care what it is… if you haven't eaten bring some for you too, so we can eat together. In the meantime, I will take a quick bath. Just enter and set the food on my desk, you can start eating if I am not out by then"

LINK POV

Link sends a text notifying that he is on his way, and that he should be expected there in half an hour. He stores the cellphone in the back pocket of his jeans and puts on a blue t-shirt, he then tosses a black medium size t-shirt and a boxer over his shoulder. His hair was still wet from the bath he took, but he could care less about that, he still never really did anything to style it anyway. He headed out of his room and towards Zelda's premises. He knocked on her door and Chacha opened it for him, Link looked at her squinting his eyes.

"Why are you… Is that food I smell?" Link asks with curiosity

"Nana's special cuisine actually, I would offer you some but" Zelda says quickly munching on what was left of her gizzard's taco "there is no food left, you should have gotten here earlier" she smiles innocently at him

Link turns to Chacha when he notices her trying to cover her laugh

My maid is having fun with this, she is lucky I can't get angry at her for enjoying bashing me, this whole situation is actually kind of cute… DAMN. I knew there was a reason why I was against pairing these two. Well, I am feeling vindictive so here it goes.

He sights, and walks inside of the room, he closes his eyes and proceeds to shake his head ferociously, Chacha uses her hands to protect herself from the water droplets and starts laughing frantically. Zelda stood and wiped her face and arms in anger.

"HEY! We are eating, now EVERYTHING is wet and contaminated with your germs, thank you very much" Zelda scolds him

"YOU said there was no food left, and I am sorry to tell you that you are about to get even more contaminated" Link hands her the t-shirt and boxers "put this on, don't worry about the King and Queen, they have been informed… we need to leave now, I will wait in the carriage"

Zelda opens her eyes wide and nods, she starts to undress right there in front of Link, Chacha hurries to get in front of her effectively blocking Link from watching anything, but he was not interested to begin with, he exited the room closing the door behind him.

*This is going to get interesting; she is going to have questions… how are you going to avoid answering them?
I am not going to avoid anything; I will expose her to a truth nobody wants to talk about. Rewriting the event to camouflage what happened is a mistake, the nobles choose to do it like this to protect their people's mental stability, but it makes them weak if you ask me. I won't lie to her; it will be up to her if she wants to believes me or not.

Link thought as he watched the Princess run towards the carriage yelling, she had no shoes on and it was noon already, the floor was hot. Link chuckled a little at that realization. Once she boards the carriage, they start heading towards Kokiri Forest. All the ride both of them kept to themselves, both of them trapped in their own rail of thoughts, the silence was almost disturbing in itself. Once they arrived Link got down and signals Zelda to climb on his back.

"I can walk thank you" Zelda says with dignity

"No, you can't, it won't be hot like in the castle, but the ground is full of stones and twigs that can damage your feet and make it painful to walk"

Upon hearing that, and fearing to submit her feet to more damage, Zelda climbs on Link's back and they cross the bridge to enter the Kokiri Forest. Zelda closed her eyes and pressed against Link's back trying to avoid feeling dizzy, she HATED heights. As they finished crossing the bridge, she mustered the courage to ask him what was on her mind.

"Link… yesterday you told me something I find disturbing. I must ask, where you involved in ANYWAY with the end of the Kokiri race?"

"No, but I happened to live with them most of my childhood, what happened was a punishment from the goddesses, and I am glad" Link answers bluntly.

"But… you knew them, didn't you? You grew up with them, how can you be glad they got killed off" Zelda asks refusing to believe he was a heartless monster.

"I grew up DESPITE of them, they were… a barbaric bunch at best, with a tint of sadism if or when bored. I would have died had I not been found by the ONLY decent Kokiri in the whole forest" Link says with nostalgia

Zelda finds herself petrified in shock at Link's description of the Kokiri, she always believed the forest dwellers to be an innocent and pure race, they were children, how could they be anything but innocent?

"Well, we can visit the grave if you want, I don't mind" Zelda offers sincerely

"She is not dead, none of them are, they just transformed painfully into tiny wood people, they hide their face behind leaves in shame, if you pay attention, maybe you will catch a glimpse of them" he said, secretly hoping she does so she will believe him and know the truth.

"How do you know that?" Zelda asks still doubting

[Kokiri running around and screaming in pain, Link was smirking at the whole situation, once he noticed Mido in tears reaching up to him for help, he started scoffing at him like a maniac]

Sight "I was there when it happened" Link says with finality

"Wow… the experience must have been traumatic, I am sorry. And I am sad for the Kokiri girl that helped you. She deserved better" Zelda says with sadness

"Don't be, she is all right, I convinced her to leave the forest with me" Link chuckles "In that way I may have been responsible for what happened, I extracted the only righteous Kokiri out of the forest, allowing the goddesses to exert their punishment without concern of damning the virtuous in the process. She lives in Kakariko Village now and pretty much owns me. Most of my earnings are destined to sustain her."

"YOU DO WHAT? I had no idea you… she got to keep her human shape?" Zelda asked, she had to admit that this turn of events made her admire Link even more.

"Yes, and YOU need more friends, I will take you to meet her one day, Saria does ask about you a lot, you will get along fine"

"WHAT? She knows about me? How often do you visit her, and when?"

"Often, and what do you think I do all day? Stay in my room?" Link asks lifting an eyebrow

They reached the tunnel entrance to Lost Woods, Link stops in front of it and allows Zelda to climb down to stretch her legs, she notices a Korok looking at her before running off to hide. She giggles about it and turns to Link, but then she notices him looking at the tunnel with doubt, she begins to wonder if she did something wrong, then he speaks.

"We need to enter Lost Woods, it's a maze in there, I bet you have heard stories of what happen to people who get lost in there. The most responsible thing to do would be to blindfold you, to ensure you will never risk entering here without me, but I am not going to do that" Link says shaking his head

*Nice move
Did not found another way of telling her I trust her without saying it
*But, do you trust her?
Of course not, well… its complicated, I trust that making her believe I do, she will NOT disappoint me or betray me.

Zelda stands rooted to the ground, opening her mouth and closing it back fast, she does that a few more times, like a fish out of the water. Then she finally spoke with a solemn air.

"I want you to blindfold me, I mean… I believe I would never do something so stupid but, I KNOW that if I was given a knife, I will surely use it. And recently I acted like a spoiled child when I thought you had betrayed me, I consider myself unstable… unreliable in other words, and I don't want to risk betraying your trust, so please blindfold me"

HOW THE FUCK DOES SHE KEEP DISARMING ME SO DAMN EASY?
*But you were right, she did not disappoint.

Link approaches her and starts ripping the lower edge of the T-shirt, and uses it to blindfold the Princess

"There are Skull Kids in there and they shoot pellets at strangers, I can easily avoid them but you stand no chance, if you climb on my back, I can keep us both safe. I am not tired; you won't hinder my movement" Link assures her before she even asks him.

Zelda immediately jumps on his back almost throwing him, he recovers and runs inside the tunnel leading to Lost Woods.