The Legend of Zelda: Prince of the Sea

Chapter Six: Council

She couldn't do anything, not to escape her oldest knight or to help her youngest. All she could do was watch the scene before her through her desperate struggles as Faris carried her towards the door. Jerret had raised Link's legs as instructed, the captain's expression full of disbelief as Renado continued to perform chest compressions on an unresponsive, cold and pale Link. The knight's body only jerked limply with each push of the shaman's hands over his heart. The Master Sword slightly jumped with each compression and slowly slid off from the hero's chest, the legendary blade rendered useless. Zelda's eyes widened and she paled, unaware of the other two guards in the room stumbling to open the door, and her gaze was drawn to Link's pallid face.

"Please, open your eyes! come on Link...! Faris, please, stop! No..."

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

"Queen Zelda?"

"Hm?"

Zelda looked up from the paper she'd been staring for the past couple of minutes without being able to make it through the first paragraph. Blinking away the grim memory from her mind, forcing it back into the chest of other such dark scenes, the Hyrulean Queen looked up to meet the questioning and curious stares of twelve pairs of eyes all upon her. The queen blinked and took a breath as she straightened her posture.

"Your Majesty, did you hear what was said?" asked one of the men once again while he slightly fidgeted once his queen's sharp eyes fell upon him.

"No, I mean yes, Lord Ully, my apologies." Zelda glanced back down at the papers after meeting the Patriarch of the Arker Family's concerned look. Unseen to any of her advisers, she nervously tapped her desk. "Please, repeat what was said."

"Your Majesty, if you are feeling unwell the Council would completely understand if you wish to..."

"No, no, Councillor Sivl. I assure all of you that I am well and this Council meeting will take place as planned and I promise that no other mishaps will occur." Clearing her throat, Zelda interlocked her fingers and slightly raised her chin. "Now if you would please repeat what was last said. Thank you."

A couple of the Council members looked aside at each other, revealing that they weren't all that assured that their queen was as all right as she let on. However, the large council chamber filled with the shuffling of papers and the clearing of throats before Oris, Patriarch of the Arianwen Family, faced his queen and spoke.

"As I was saying, Your Majesty. As the before everyone documents show, Lonna Ranch is now under full operation. We ought to be expecting at least a dozen new foals come the next couple of months, which is double the amount that we saw this time last year. That being said, the ranch will be needing more resources and more bodies to ensure that the foals are trained. I propose the incorporation of at least twenty new recruits to join our equestrian ranks to aid in the training of the mounts and to improve operations overall."

"Twenty men? Don't you think that such an action would be a waste of our valued manpower to deal with a few horses, Lord Oris?"

Lord Oris looked over across from him at the woman who had spoke, the Matriarch of the Triveni Family, before he replied, "I do recognize that what I am purposing is a hefty amount considering our limited numbers at this time but I believe that by investing in our mounted forces, we strengthen our entire defence, Lady Teria."

"And where from do you propose that we spare twenty men to play with horses?" Patriarch Hompson, of the Amberl Family, arched a brow over at Lord Oris, who was not showing any sign of being discouraged.

Instead, Lord Oris stood and looked around at his fellow council members before looking up to Zelda to say, "Well I have given a fair amount of thought of what you had suggested a couple of months ago, Your Majesty, that we are in a time of change and old traditions must be improved upon. It will take up to two decades for our numbers to be replenished to reflect their former glory or surpass it. If we are to make it through this difficult time where we find our numbers limited, I suggest that we ought to give a more thorough consideration to the idea of girls and women joining our military ranks and... Now, now, hold on! Let me, ah, finish!"