Free to Love - A Zelda x Link Fanfiction

I: Nostalgia

Zelda's Perspective:

I never really appreciated being a princess. Sure, I had servants pampering me perpetually and everything my young heart could ever desire, but there were negatives to a life like that. Being a princess meant living a sheltered, shackled life.

I couldn't do the things that I wanted because it would reflect negatively on, not just me and my father, but our whole kingdom. I was always adventurous. I always wanted to ride horses while standing in the stirrups, learn to sword fight and how to shoot a bow, wear pants instead of those stuffy dresses that I swore made me look like a cupcake.

I had known Link ever since I was a young girl. Link was the son of a guard and a simple woman in one of the local villages of Hyrule. His father was one of the best guards that was known in the entire castle. He wasn't the captain of the royal army, but he wasn't far off. His son was just as well-trained, if not better. Link was destined to fulfill a prophecy. He was told that ever since he was young. He was the one destined to hold the sword that seals the darkness, the one that risks his life to save all of Hyrule from the monstrous power known as Calamity Ganon. And so he trained for it. I remember watching him from my castle tower.

He used to train all day, with all sorts of equipment. He sparred with a wooden practice sword until he had been knocked down so many times that he couldn't lie on his back. He shot arrows until he broke the string on his bow. He practiced his hand-to-hand until his knuckles bled. He fought until he could barely breathe.

I had seen Link in the halls of the castle. There weren't many children in the castle and when I saw him, I made it my personal mission to talk to him. I noticed that he was in the castle when he was walking to the stables. I always envied that he could ride the horses while I had to go to school. I had to learn how to sit like a lady, how to eat like a lady, how to talk like a lady. I used to look out the window and see him ride his horse, standing and whooping.

When I was ten, I managed to escape my guards for the first time. I was still wearing my fancy dress and bodice, but it didn't deter me from ducking out of the gaze of my guards and racing to the training center. A few guards were outside, practicing shooting. I could hear Link grunting as flesh made impact with burlap. I pulled myself through a window.

Link had been punching a bag of grain that was hung from the ceiling. His knuckles were wrapped with bandages. I landed on the ground, the edge of my dress tearing noisily. He glanced up, stopping the swinging sack.

"Hi," I grinned. He had hesitated before answering.

"Hey," he responded, eyeing my attire. "Aren't you the princess?" I remember that I glanced down at my dress and being mortified at the tear in the delicate fabric of my skirt.

"Maybe," I had answered. He smiled a little. I figured I owed him an explanation, but the truth wouldn't do anything but result in me being caught earlier.

"What's it to you? I want to learn how to fight." He had waved me over to a corner of the room and handed be a wooden sword. I remember that he didn't say anything, just the slightest smile on his lips as he handed it to me handle first.

"Link!" somebody called outside. I had frozen in fear. Needless to say, the other guards personally escorted me back to the class I was supposed to be in. I had been yelled at a bit, but nothing too harsh. That visit was just the beginning.

The next time I escaped my personal brand of hell was two weeks after the first. I was in my room and I packed a purse with some cotton pants. I had been escorted to the ground level bathroom ("I like the pretty flowers in that bathroom!" I had exclaimed to the guards. "Please, can we go to that one?"), changed into my pants and jumped out the window.

He hadn't seemed that surprised to see me. He taught me how to hold a sword until I got caught twenty minutes later.

As I grew older, my escapes became more daring. I once climbed from my third story window. My personal favorite was when I rushed to the roof at the age of sixteen and leaped off, diving into the river five stories below. Link would teach me to fight whenever I encountered him. He taught me to shoot, to punch, to swipe and parry with a sword. He taught me to ride the fun way, not the ladylike way. We became close friends.

It didn't take long for him to rise through the ranks. When he was sixteen (I was seventeen), he was promoted to my personal guard. The ceremony was public. The four champions of the Divine Beasts stood by as witnesses. The best guards and their families came to watch. I had never seen his father or mother as proud as they were on that day.

And that was when it all began.