Zelink BotW Sequel/ Legend of Zelda and the Last Knight

Chapter 44 The Gift

Chapter 44

The Gift

Zelda staggered up the hill, eager to return to her pavilion. A mixture of fuming, distress, and tears in her eyes. Curse that silly Jester who promised me peace this evening. She leaned against her tent, far away from the party, and was alone in the darkness, save for a few surrounding campfires that pulsed like fireflies in the distance. Alone with her thoughts with nothing but the fluttering of tent flaps in the midnight breeze to keep her company.

She shooed the two sentries who kept post at her quarters, assuring them that she will be fine without their ever-present watch. That if it made them feel at ease, they could stand post a stone's throw away. Far enough away unable to hear her embarrassing whimpers yet close enough to have a glimpse of her silhouette if anything were to go awry. They obeyed without protest, quickly disappearing into the shadows.

Zelda sniffed and tugged at the drapes of her tent with one hand while wiping the tears as they fell from her wind kissed cheeks with the other. What am I doing? Why am I blaming a dancing fool for my woes? Of course, he didn't know my circumstance. It's not his fault that the man I fell in love with could be as thick as a plank sometimes. How could he have known anything? He was just trying to cheer me up is all. His song meant nothing.

Suddenly, she whirled to the startling sound of footfalls coming toward her from behind. It caught her off guard but was still a way off and she had just stepped foot into her tent. She quickly composed herself by splashing her face from a nearby wash basin and turned to the oncoming figure in the night as he marched closer and closer. The figure carried a lantern, so she quickly recognized him when the dim orange glow revealed his face to be Lord Simon of Illiastar. Go away, I'm in no mood! Why now!? Why me?

But instead of waltzing under her flaps to air some minuscule grievance or silly matter that he had made into a fiasco, he just marched on by. Shocked, the princess was confused and relieved at the same time. Surely, he must have seen me when I saw him? She thought it was strange, to say the least. Where was he sneaking off to?

Not so much a 'goodnight', or a 'where were you this past hour', 'are you okay', nothing. Zelda was flabbergasted that he just trudged by without a worry or care in the world. He didn't even have any guards with him. Surely, he wasn't going to retire. There's no way the party had concluded yet. It had yet to show any signs of simmering down when she left hardly an hour ago.

If these lords were anything like her father's court from a century past, they easily would be able to drone on and on into the wee hours of the morning. Those men would puff away their plots and schemes and toast to each other all night in a circle of congratulations for being masters of the universe. Why, it was only the first hour into the darkened dawn and when she was there the party looked like it would never end. I wonder why he left so soon? Clearly, it wasn't to wander off and find me. How peculiar? What is he up to at this hour and all alone in the dark?

The princess cupped her chin and thoughtfully peeked around the corner of her tent. But, he was gone. Slipped away as if he was never there at all. Just as she spun around to head back inside to nestle to the warmth of the hearth, she nearly came face to face and smacked right into another. The princess shrieked but no sound escaped her lips. Robbed of breath, only a silent empty exasperation left her as she plopped to her bottom on the patchy grass, narrowly missing the velvet entrance rug to her private pavilion. The guards far off were none the wiser to what was occurring, that or they had drunk too much to care.

Zelda's eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock as she looked to the foot of the person before nodding back, slowly meeting his eyes on her. "Why-It, it's you!"