A Soldier's Love: Tale of a Hylian Guard

2

                                                    Some time later...

Zelda sprinted across the Hall of Rooms, furiously giggling as her guardsman chased after her.

"You know, for someone who can rule Hyrule just as well as her father can, you do have some capacity to cause trouble!"

"I'm only testing your endurance, guardsman!", shouted Zelda. "If you cannot catch me, how shall you fight enemies of the kingdom?"

The guardsman grunted in reply, which only increased the princesses' giggles.

"I shall get you, Your Highness!" shouted the guardsman, shaking his fist at her. "If it's the last thing I do, I will get you!!"

At that moment, the guardsman charged at full speed towards her, swooping her up in his arms and spinning her around, both of them laughing furiously all the while.

Abruptly, Zelda was silent, and the guardsman slowly coasted to a stop. 

"Is something wrong, Your Highness?"

She responded by retching her breakfast all over his chest.

"How long have ya been here, guardsman? Most of us would only dream of having the honor of being hurled upon by Her Royal Highness, hahaha!!"

"Three weeks."

The guardsman was polishing his armor, speaking to a fellow soldier in the barracks. He didn't seem to pay attention the derisive tone in his voice.

"That's how long I've been serving the Princess, yet I feel she could be my own daughter."

The soldier belched. "Yeah, right. I'm just glad I wasn't the one covered in sick."

"There are worse things to deal with than a tainted breastplate!" The guardsman put down his armor and began polishing his helmet. "Believe me, much worse."

"Oh, yeah?" the soldier asked scornfully. "Like what?"

"Almost being hanged for touching a member of the Royal Family, that's what," the guardsman flatly stated.

The soldier chuckled. "Yeah. Good thing that kid was there, huh? Din only knows what the king would have chosen for your execution."

The guardsman, finished with polishing his helmet, sat down. "And yet there she was, striding into the court as if she were the Queen of Hyrule herself, saving my worthless hide for only Din knows what."

The soldier huffed. Then, more seriously, added, "Who was the queen?"

"No one knows for sure except the king; not even his most trusted advisors know, from what I heard."

The guardsman gestured for the soldier to come close, to which the soldier reluctantly complied.

"I say," the guardsman continued in a low voice, "that Nayru herself helped with conceiving Zelda, and the godlike appearance and struggle of birth was so great, the queen could not manage it and she passed on."

The soldier had doubt written across his face, but whether he believed him or not was hard to discern.

The guardsman went on. "Wouldn't you agree that for a girl of about eleven years of age, she would show such wisdom? To show compassion and mercy greater than the king's? To be able to place herself at risk for a lowly servant of the peace such as myself?"

The soldier's eyes narrowed, but again, the guardsman couldn't tell whether he believed him or not. 

"Doubt me, then." The guardsman sat back. "There can be no question that Nayru's power exists in Zelda in some form or another."