A Shed of Hope

Chapter Eleven: Zelda

I stand with Impa in my room, looking at a pile of dresses that sit on my bed. The two weeks since my day at Castle Town have passed by quickly, leaving me little room to have fun, with preparations for the ball going on and all. But since that day, Link and I have been meeting in his room, in the stables, or any other place we can get to be together. But I have gotten Link to open up to Malon like he has with me, and all three of us are becoming great friends, spending time together as well.

            “Zelda,” Impa says from beside me. “Do you want my help?”

            I look at the enormous pile of dresses again, wondering how I'm ever going to get through them all in the two days I have before my ball, let alone try them on. “Yes,” I say, picking up the first dress in the pile. The dress is black with white lining on it. “Not this one!”

            “Obviously,” Impa agrees with a smile, putting the dress on the bed opposite the pile already there. “Let’s just go through the dresses until you find one you like.”

            “What's going through Mom’s mind when she gives me a pile of dresses to try on,” I ask, annoyed with dresses, every last one.

            “I don’t know, and I'd rather not find out,” Impa says as she sets another rejected dress on the new pile.

            “This one’s pretty,” I say, looking at a lime green dress with gold lined along the sleeves and collar.

            “Here,” Impa says, setting the dress on the back of the chair she so often sits in. “We’ll pick out several dresses for you to try on and you can see which one you like best.”

            “That’s a great idea,” I reply, putting another dress in the rejection pile.

            It takes a couple hours, a couple hours of torcher, but we eventually narrow it down to three dresses: the lime green dress, a white dress, and a red dress. I try each on and see how they look and feel on me. The lime green dress has gold lining on the hem and the collar. It reaches my ankles, though has spaghetti straps, something I don’t really like. The red dress is simple, but drags on the floor, leaving me to hold it up the whole time I walk. The last dress is the white dress. Well, really, the top half of it is white with lace sleeves reaching my wrists while the skirt half is a hard blue and reaches just below my knees. The two colors look really great together and, seeing how they will match my winter themed ball, I choose the dress, matching it with silver flats.

            “Beautiful,” Impa says, looking over my shoulder into the mirror. “It fits perfectly as well; we won't have to do last minute fitting changes.”

            “You think so,” I ask, admiring myself. “I can't wait to see what Link will look like.”

            “Well,” Impa says, her eyes looking thoughtful as she adjusts one of my sleeves. “Now that we have the colors to your dress, we were thinking we’d give Link’s suit the same colors. That way, when you two go to the dance together, you’ll match.”
            “Really, Impa,” I ask, excided in a girly kind of way. “I know I’ll have to dance the first dance with the jerk, Ganondorf, but I can spend the rest of the time with Link and not have to look at Ganondorf’s ugly face the rest of the night!”