Chapter 10: The Escape
Impa, Link and Zelda had finally reached the top of the spiraling library tower when the entire castle shook and the Princess, quite suddenly, fell to the floor. Impa, with blurring speed, caught her before her head hit the hard stone ground. “Zelda,” she whispered as she shook the unconscious girl.
Zelda woke slowly and looked upward at her two companions. They stared back at her, concern in their eyes. She wondered if this was how people would look upon her from this day forward, with sadness and pity.
“Did you feel nothing just now?” she asked as she got to her feet. “It was as if my whole mind, for a moment, was undone and then put back together.”
Impa looked to Link then back to the Princess. “You have always had a intimate connection to the world that normal Hylians lack, fair Princess,” she said softly, “it would appear that you have sensed something Link and I cannot.”
“My father,” she said sadly, “something has happened.”
“The King stays behind to protect you Princess,” Impa said as she rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We do him justice by escaping while he remains.”
“It will be alright,” Link added, offering a somber smile.
Zelda turned back, half in a daze, and her eyes fell upon the peasant boy who had come to rescue her. He looked at her with curiosity, and without any hesitancy or reverence.
She had met Feltus on several occasions, but Link’s very existence was unknown to her. She had never once asked Feltus anything about his personal life, or questioned for a moment if he had a family or children.
The boy matched her in years, yet appeared a year older. He was taller than she, with strong arms and legs and tanned features. He was attractive, but common, as were all peasants to her eyes. Yet there was something striking about him she could not quite ascertain, a quality or look in his eye that seemed mysteriously impressive. Inexplicably she trusted him, despite the fact that she had sworn never to easily give her trust to another man as long as she lived. Link fell outside of any category she had ever known before, yet she failed to reason why. Because of these emotions, she realized it was only right that she do everything she could to resist any attachment.
“Don’t speak to me like that boy,” she said sternly, as she looked away embarrassed.
“Excuse me Princess,” Link said as he shrunk a little, turning his gaze to the floor.
Zelda did not need to look into the scolding eyes of her nursemaid to realize what she said was wrong. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for,” she added quickly, ashamed at her reaction.
Link looked back up and smiled again. It wasn’t a normal thing for a lowly Hylian to receive an apology from the Princess Zelda.
“The interior of the castle is compromised, and there is no secret passage within that Ganon is not aware of,” Impa said as she got to her feet. “The only option we have is to scale the walls and roofing of the castle, and hope no Gerudo eyes spy our movements.”
“The roof??” Zelda exclaimed, “I will not be the first Hylian Princess to meet her doom by being flattened after a fall from the castle tower,” she said defiantly.
“You forget the threat upon us Princess,” Impa said as she turned sharply toward the girl, “Ganon will do worse to you than throw you from this tower, and it is my duty to ensure his work goes unfinished. Now follow Link and I out this window, and try your best to observe some code of silence as you do.”
