Reincarnated

Chapter 4: Excerpt from Zelda's Diary

The exhausting excitement from the walk to the castle and Father's speech felt like quite enough, so much so that I would have been perfectly content to bring the night to a close then and there.

"I made a commitment," I told myself, defiant of my basic desires. "A commitment to myself and the Old Lady that I'd be here." And so, not being one to disappoint that sweet old woman, I filed through the gates along with everyone else.

For much of the night, I chose to stay in the Second Gatehouse which had been converted into a dance hall for the occasion. The floors were refinished and the room was redecorated to hide its overly utilitarian, bland masonry with bright curtains lining the walls and framing the few windows. A chandelier had even been fixed to the ceiling, bathing the room in an abundant, warm light. 

The room was delightful, nothing like how I remembered. To finalize the transformation was a stage where a group of musicians played an endless string of songs, and as hours passed, so to did the attendees dance and endless string of dance. They twirled and ducked around each other, often with grace, but just as often in a delirious, limp spiral, culminating in a swift departure from the festivities over to the outskirts of the hall. Some rested, some conversated, while I stood, feet frozen in the sea of motion, practicing the dances in my head.

A few times, I attempted to step out onto the floor before someone would zip by so confidently to remind me of my unrefined steps, shakily rehearsed in the mirror the nights before. The most ever managed was a light tap to the upbeat music. It was enough though. It was the most I could manage, and the distance kept between the dancers and me was a comfortable barrier, that was until it was shattered.

In an aforementioned delirious and limp spiral, a tall, dark woman dressed in Gerudo garbs stumbled away from her current dance partner, another statuesque Gerudo with nearly orange hair tightly tied back. I watched as the first woman's movements became further removed from her partner's until, when it came time to switch, she tripped over a misplaced foot. Her hair, a deep red, fanned out into a luxurious curtain and fell over her face as she careened her head in the direction that her unbalanced weight was now taking her. Coincidentally, it would seem fate had unbalanced her in my direction. Unable to see in front of her, she was powerless to stop the collision.

By the time I recognized an awful tumble was imminent, it was too late to unfreeze my feet. I instinctively attempted to duck away, but being she was nearly twice my height, this only served to bring her knee closer to my chest. The impact was so sudden and forceful, feeling in an instant as if the entirety of my torso had been crushed. My back was pushed into the wall, and my head followed suit. 

For a moment as she recovered from her own tumble, I felt crushed between her knee and the wall, but once she registered what had happened and kindly removed her leg from my chest, the air still wouldn't return to my lungs. I looked up in a panic and attempted to choke out a plea for help, but the vacuum in my lungs wouldn't allow any sound to leave my lips. Fear altogether consumed me when, against all my needs, I still could not breathe.

Tears filled my eyes owing to the shock and terror of the current state. The woman bent down with a worried expression on her face. "Of my child, I'm so sorry." Her voice calmed the welling panic. "I didn't even notice you standing there, are you okay?" Her eyes were so sympathetic, and despite her careless fall, she seemed so kind as she waited for my response with genuine concern.

Despite still not quite being able to hold air, I nodded in response. "Can you breathe?" Again a nodded, so clear a lie this time. "Oh, child." She reached her hand out and rested it on my shoulder as she stared with the same, unconvinced concern. 

"Sit up, you'll breathe better." Her hand moved from my shoulder to my back, and she pulled me from being slumped down on the wall. As promised, with my back aligned, the air stolen had returned to me, first in rapid pants, then in deep, desperate breaths. "That's it, breathe." She rubbed her hand across my back, the comfort of another's concern, not felt in so long.

Once I regained what little composure was left to me sitting on the floor of a dance hall, I looked up at her and, in a weak attempt to comfort her sympathy, said "I'm okay. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" She exclaimed. "I'm the one who crashed into you. Here, stand up. I'd hate to ruin your dress as well."

As I stood, her dance partner came to stand beside her, along with 3 other Gerudo who came to stand across from her. They were adorned in armor instead of the dress fitting a ball. "Is everything all right, chief?" the first among them asked, speaking right over my head.

"Yes, I just lost a bet with Usila, and in my weak dancing stumbled into my friend here." She looked back to me. "What's your name, child?"

"Oh, I'm Zelda." I stuttered through my sentence, straining my neck to look up at the 5 of them. They had to have been the tallest people in the room, and I felt so small surrounded by them.

"Yes, I stumbled into Zelda here. It's quite all right." The three armored women nodded and stayed where they stood.

As she spoke, I realized I recognized her face from many years past. "You're the Chief of the Gerudo." The words sounded so sudden and stupid the moment after they had come out. 

"Yes, as I suppose my guards here have made so obvious. My name is Urbosa, and my partner here is Usila." She held he hand out towards me. I raised mine to meet hers and realized how extreme the difference in size was. 

Upon knowing she was Cheif of the Gerudo, my mind became affixed to one thing. "You decide who's allowed into Gerudo Town."

"I suppose that's part of the responsibility."

"That's interesting." I thought of the Sheikah who had been allowed in, and if she'd let me come to her town, but I felt ashamed to ask any further.

"I'm so deeply sorry, please, come dance with me so I can make it up to you."

"Oh, I couldn't. I can't dance really well. It'd just be embarrassing."

"Please, you must. Look, the King is here." She turned her head to one of the entrances, and my heart dropped away just as my lungs had done seconds before. "He must have seen the whole awful affair. Come dance, recover me from this embarrassment." Her kindly ignorant smile couldn't break my frozen stare as I caught glimpses of him through the frantic crowd. A mass of people would part and for half a moment, I could make out the gaudy, white beard and a furrowed brow as he glared in our direction.

"I can't really," I said, now unconcerned for any manners. Through the mass of people I now hid behind, I could still feel those eyes. Only for a moment, they saw me, but the total and absolute power wouldn't care if it was a moment or a century.

"What's wrong." Another brief gap formed, and before I could see the man standing at the end of it, I tried to step aside, only to clumsily fall into the firmly set figure of one of Urbosa's guards. The gap opened and I saw, not his eyes, but another's, a woman in a beige robe and intricately arranged, silver hair. Father leaned over, saying something in her ear, and she turned, eyes meeting mine with a seemingly set and permanent intensity, before again the gap closed.