Seven Years, the epilouge
Here is the end of over a year's worth of writing... gosh, what to do next? Do you guys want the story right after this one, or the one right before?
Zelda stared glumly down at the small green book in her lap. It was a beautiful crisp fall day in Hyrule, but the young princess failed to notice the beauty of the gardens that surrounded her stone bench. The last three years had been hard for her. First there was the palace. If Impa had thought that living on the run for seven years, much of which was spent in a cave, would break the princess of her longing to be free of the restriction of official palace life, she had been dead wrong. Now every rule, curfew, restriction and order chaffed at the tomboyish fifteen-year-old worse then ever.
Not that Link helped. In fact, he was probably number two on the list. He had stopped by the palace the day after they had defeated Gannondorf, but it had only been a short visit. Zelda had gathered from several not-so-subtle hints that Link was really only there to check in, and would much rather have been at Lon Lon ranch. Link had only actually remained in Hyrule for about a fortnight. After that, he had road off on Epiona, saved the Hylian province of Turmina from some evil force she hadn’t understood, rescued the outer island colonies from a vicious pirate king named Og, or Oggy or something to that effect, returned to save Hyrule again, earning the title “Wind Walker,” single-handedly thwarted a Greudo rebellion in the Turmina sector, saved her father from drowning in Lake Hylia, and even succeeded in killing Pagogze, the spawn of the Shadow Phantom that was threatening to destroy all Hylian life. The fact that had been allowed to accomplish so much in three short years made her near confinement to the palace even more maddening.
Third was the constant aggravation of being the only one who remembered anything. She had searched for the members of her old team, most of which she easily located. She had found Draq easily enough, though he was still as standoffish and distant as ever. She figured Draq was someone who need a close comradeship with people before opening up to them, and while she might remember having one with him, the dark soldier had no such memories. His brother Scela was out studying medicine with the lake scientist, and was quite friendly with Zelda, despite his complete lack of memory. She enjoyed chatting with him on Royal trips to Lake Hylia, and had even succeeded in getting him past the point of only seeing her as “Princess Zelda.” Fiona was doing quite well for herself, but also suffered from a loss of any memory pertaining to Zelda, or ‘Shiek’ as the case was. Not having the ones who had been her closest fried even remember her name had been quite a knock.
Number four had nearly induced vomiting on occasions. Keef had apparently always been a palace dwelling Shiekah whom she had merely never paid attention to. However, now that her figure was beginning to reach its fuller potential he was beginning to pay a lot more attention to her. Though not a servant of Gannondorf, Keef was still every bit as arrogant as she remembered. Zelda had actually found it within her to wish her father would hurry and pick a suitor for her so the sickening Shiekah would leave off his endless quest to lure her to his bedroom. She had complained about the irritating Shiekah to Impa once, but Impa had merely smiled and replied that she was sure Zelda could hold her own against Keef. Zelda personally thought this joke lacked in taste.
Of course not everything was dark. Link and Malon were still great friends, despite Link’s annoying propensity to flirt with the increasingly beautiful ranch girl and Malon’s complete lack of remembrance of the alternant future she had first met Zelda in. She and Link had related the whole story to Malon (Zelda decided it would be best to leave out the Draq part, seeing as how she had Link now, and Draq was working as a Hylian Guard in the village and courting Fiona quite seriously), and the ranch girl had believed the whole thing. In addition to her friends, Shiek had been enjoying quality time with Impa, who seemed to finally be relaxing and opening up to the world around her. It seemed as though the dark Shiekah elder had spent her entire life training for a battle, and now that the battle was over she felt as though she could finally participate in the joys that harsh martial life had denied her.
This was connected to another reason Zelda should have been happy. Over the past year, she had noticed the way Impa and her father had been looking at each other, the way they seemed to brighten when the other was near, so it came as no surprise when her father took her aside on day to ask how she would like to have her former guardian for a mother. Fiate and Impa where to be married within the fortnight, and she was going to be Impa personal attendant, the highest honor the bride could bestow.
Sighing, Zelda looked back down at her journal. In all honesty she knew the real reason she was depressed. She could have handled the palace life, Link’s sometimes annoying personality, Malon’s occasional airhead-ness, the way everyone had forgotten her, and even Keef revolting pickup lines, if Toran were there with her.
She had been sending people to look for Toran since the day she had returned, and she had even asked Link to keep an eye out for the young swordsman on his travels abroad, but it was all to no avail. The real problem was how little Zelda actually knew about Toran’s past. He had been an orphaned, abandoned, and living on the streets by age six, and had never remembered his life before that. She had sent people to scour the village where she had first met Toran, but they had never found anything. On one level this didn’t surprise Zelda. Toran was a sharp guy, and he wouldn’t be wrong in his opinion that any soldiers or royals looking for a scruffy thief probably meant to throw him in prison in the best of cases, and were after his hand in the worst.
It wouldn’t matter anyway, she thought glumly, leafing through the pages of her journal, he wouldn’t remember anything more then the rest of them, and honestly I don’t know if I could take that…
Sighing again, she brushed a fallen leaf off of the page she was looking at, closed the book and rose. She was to eat dinner with Impa that night, which meant pretending to be happy and smiling a good deal so Impa wouldn’t suspect anything with wedding so close. It wasn’t easy, as even a madly in love Impa was still overly observant. Zelda sighed for seemingly hundredth time since sitting.
It was going to be a long evening.
If the dinner with Impa was long, the wedding ceremony had taken an eternity. Zelda had stood at the front of the Temple of Time, next to the alter in her long red dress trimmed with black. They were the colors of Impa’s Shiekah Clan, so Zelda had decided to forgo reminding Impa that blue, white, and purple were the traditional Hylian colors for the personal attendant. She had thought about changing her eyes to Shiek’s normal red to match the dress better, but in the end had decided against it. She still used her Shiek disguise to sneak out of the palace from time to time, and she didn’t wish to blow her cover.
At the ball immediately following the ceremony, Zelda was standing near the long table of snack foods wondering how much chocolate she could devour before breaking out with more spots then one of Scela’s three-eyed toads, when someone tapped her shoulder.
“Hello Zel, it’s been forever! How are you?”
Zelda turned to see her second-cousin Jistine, and smiled warmly. She and Jistine had always been close, ever since the two girls had been crawling babies. Jistine was loosely related to her through her mother’s side of the family, but girl barely qualified as even a second-cousin. She was from the Akinda family, which had always been Zelda’s favorite Royal House. They lived out by the lost wood, and the family was full of people like Jistine who thought anything indoors that didn’t involve cards or dice to be “boring,” the Akinda family was know to produce some of the most famous Hylian warrior/explores/adventures to have ever lived. Zelda had even thought Link, who couldn’t remember his mother or life before his adoption by the Kohria might be descended from the Akinda line.
“I’m fine Jistine… and you?”
“Oh, you know me and balls,” the pretty brunette laughed. Despite her professed dislike of fancy events and official gatherings, Jistine was generally one of the better dressed Hylians at dances. She loved to be whirled across the floor by any man who would oblige, and generally dressed to ensue there would be many takers.
“I do hope your father and Impa will be happy together, Zel… they seem to love each other so…” Jistine lowered her voice and leaned closer, “it was a positively boring ceremony though. Please don’t tell Impa that though, she was so nice when I last spent the night over here with you. That seems ever so long ago…”
“Just over two years… it was my birthday remember?”
“Has it been so long? Well, then you haven’t ever seen my new brother!” Jistine cried, grabbing the princess’ hand, “come on hurry!”
Zelda allowed herself to be pulled along, slightly curious. She hadn’t heard that Jistine’s mother was expecting.
A group of girls around her and Jistine’s age had gathered in a corner, giggling wildly.
“What is it about girls and babies,” Zelda asked, chuckling.
“Baby? Why, you do know the story don’t you?” Jistine asked as they approached the group of girls who seemed to be listening to someone talking, “he’s my new brother, but he’s not a baby… Remember when I was about, um, six I guess, my twin brother was kidnapped? Everyone in Hyrule was ever so upset and all, but we never found him. Later we caught the kidnappers, but they said brother had escaped the very day they caught him… well, we’d eventually given up hope of finding him, but early last year, Deka the forest Shiekah who lives near us found him!”
By now they reached the throng of girls, who burst out laughing as though the speaker they had been listening to had just finished a joke.
“Oh please, tell us another one!” one girl nearly purred.
“Well, I promised Jistine I’d do the next dance with her,” answered a voice that literally caused Zelda’s heart to stop beating.
“Oh brother,” Jistine cried, pulling Zelda through the last circle of girls, “I have a good friend I want you to meet: Princess Zelda.”
A short, athletic-looking young man about Zelda’s age turned. His dirty-blond hair looked as though a royal hair-dresser had tried to train its lank mop, but given up in frustration. He was wearing very sharp-looking red, green and yellow clothes, with a red katana over his shoulder and traditional green cloth tied around his head. He looked a little better fed, but the boyish smile and hazel eyes beamed out a familiar message of content and friendship. Zelda heard Jistine talking, but it sounded as though she was at the end of long tunnel.
“This is my brother-”
“Toran…” Zelda cut in, using the name the young many had given her at their first meeting so many years ago, “Toran of the village well…”
Jistine’s mouth pulled into a mock pout, and she crossed her arms defiantly.
“I thought you said you hadn’t met…”
“We haven’t,” said Toran, nodding respectfully to Zelda, “but I see you’ve been telling stories about me. Forgive Jisty, highness; she has a rather exaggerated view of what life on one’s own is actually like…”
He didn’t remember her. She knew it wasn’t his fault, but for some reason it still made her mad. He should remember, the little snot; just because he was a royal now was no reason to forget about her. The cute Hylian girls surrounding him didn’t help his situation in her mind.
“Toran,” she nearly growled, grabbing his wrist, “you’ve got some explaining to do…”
Yanking his arm, she nearly drug the young noble away from the group of girls who were squealing their protest. Jistine had a similarly befuddled look on her face, but Zelda didn’t feel the need to explain just now. She continued to stalk towards the door to a balcony, dragging a confused Toran in tow.
“Ok buddy,” she said, whirling on him once they reached the seclusion of the balcony, “what? You think just because you’re a big-shot duke’s son now that you can forget all about your little friends?”
“Um,” Toran was obviously confused, “aren’t you the princess?”
“Don’t change the subject, Toran… you never did like admitting you had hurt someone,” Zelda growled, placing her clinched fists on her hips and aggressively leaning forward.
“Who’d I hurt?” Toran asked, still befuddled.
“What about ME?” Zelda asked, stamping in frustration.
“Are you sure you know me?” Toran asked, cocking an eyebrow and taking a cautious step back.
Zelda couldn’t take it any longer. Darting forward, she wrapped her arms around Toran’s neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Toran’s eyes widened in sock at first, but after a second, he seemed to meld into the kiss. The hazel eyes closed, and his strong arms slipped around her, squeezing her tighter. Suddenly, Zelda felt the back of her hand begin to burn slightly. It seemed as though something was flowing out of her and into Toran. A slight breeze played with her long yellow hair, and Zelda felt complete for the first time since returning to her childhood.
After moments that seemed to last forever, Zelda pulled her head back slightly, finally breaking the kiss.
“Goddess Shiek…” Toran whispered, “that was even better then I had dreamed it would be…”
“Toran?” Zelda looked back up to him, eyes brimming with tears, “you remember?”
“Yeah, I do…” he said, a slightly confused look on his face again, “I remember us as a team, I remember everything we did, I remember getting caught and having to fight you, and after that I remember being kind of warm and cold at the same time… then I remember being eleven again, back in the village. It’s like it was all a dream…”
“Yeah, I know… she whispered.
“I take it we won?”
Laughing, Zelda burrowed back into Toran’s chest. Everything was going to be fine.
Dingat 2nd
Best birthday of my life! Link, Malon, Jistine and, of course, Toran all came over to daddy’s hunting lodge near the woods and we’ve spent most the night playing all sorts of games, telling stories, and stuff. It’s probably almost dawn now. Daddy was wanting to throw a ball for my birthday, but Impa said that since it was my 16th birthday I could spend it as I pleased. Then daddy wanted to invite Ruto, but Impa said that wasn’t a great idea either. He was concerned she might feel slighted; Impa assured him that wasn’t the case. Impa is such a wonderful mother. Speaking of Impa, I have wonderful news! Yesterday she whispered to me that she believes she might be expecting a child. Wouldn’t that be glorious! I am hopeful for a little sister, but a baby brother to torment would be fun as well…
I need to go. All of us want to sneak out and look for fairies at dawn when they are most plentiful. I will write soon!
-Fina-
Zelda stared glumly down at the small green book in her lap. It was a beautiful crisp fall day in Hyrule, but the young princess failed to notice the beauty of the gardens that surrounded her stone bench. The last three years had been hard for her. First there was the palace. If Impa had thought that living on the run for seven years, much of which was spent in a cave, would break the princess of her longing to be free of the restriction of official palace life, she had been dead wrong. Now every rule, curfew, restriction and order chaffed at the tomboyish fifteen-year-old worse then ever.
Not that Link helped. In fact, he was probably number two on the list. He had stopped by the palace the day after they had defeated Gannondorf, but it had only been a short visit. Zelda had gathered from several not-so-subtle hints that Link was really only there to check in, and would much rather have been at Lon Lon ranch. Link had only actually remained in Hyrule for about a fortnight. After that, he had road off on Epiona, saved the Hylian province of Turmina from some evil force she hadn’t understood, rescued the outer island colonies from a vicious pirate king named Og, or Oggy or something to that effect, returned to save Hyrule again, earning the title “Wind Walker,” single-handedly thwarted a Greudo rebellion in the Turmina sector, saved her father from drowning in Lake Hylia, and even succeeded in killing Pagogze, the spawn of the Shadow Phantom that was threatening to destroy all Hylian life. The fact that had been allowed to accomplish so much in three short years made her near confinement to the palace even more maddening.
Third was the constant aggravation of being the only one who remembered anything. She had searched for the members of her old team, most of which she easily located. She had found Draq easily enough, though he was still as standoffish and distant as ever. She figured Draq was someone who need a close comradeship with people before opening up to them, and while she might remember having one with him, the dark soldier had no such memories. His brother Scela was out studying medicine with the lake scientist, and was quite friendly with Zelda, despite his complete lack of memory. She enjoyed chatting with him on Royal trips to Lake Hylia, and had even succeeded in getting him past the point of only seeing her as “Princess Zelda.” Fiona was doing quite well for herself, but also suffered from a loss of any memory pertaining to Zelda, or ‘Shiek’ as the case was. Not having the ones who had been her closest fried even remember her name had been quite a knock.
Number four had nearly induced vomiting on occasions. Keef had apparently always been a palace dwelling Shiekah whom she had merely never paid attention to. However, now that her figure was beginning to reach its fuller potential he was beginning to pay a lot more attention to her. Though not a servant of Gannondorf, Keef was still every bit as arrogant as she remembered. Zelda had actually found it within her to wish her father would hurry and pick a suitor for her so the sickening Shiekah would leave off his endless quest to lure her to his bedroom. She had complained about the irritating Shiekah to Impa once, but Impa had merely smiled and replied that she was sure Zelda could hold her own against Keef. Zelda personally thought this joke lacked in taste.
Of course not everything was dark. Link and Malon were still great friends, despite Link’s annoying propensity to flirt with the increasingly beautiful ranch girl and Malon’s complete lack of remembrance of the alternant future she had first met Zelda in. She and Link had related the whole story to Malon (Zelda decided it would be best to leave out the Draq part, seeing as how she had Link now, and Draq was working as a Hylian Guard in the village and courting Fiona quite seriously), and the ranch girl had believed the whole thing. In addition to her friends, Shiek had been enjoying quality time with Impa, who seemed to finally be relaxing and opening up to the world around her. It seemed as though the dark Shiekah elder had spent her entire life training for a battle, and now that the battle was over she felt as though she could finally participate in the joys that harsh martial life had denied her.
This was connected to another reason Zelda should have been happy. Over the past year, she had noticed the way Impa and her father had been looking at each other, the way they seemed to brighten when the other was near, so it came as no surprise when her father took her aside on day to ask how she would like to have her former guardian for a mother. Fiate and Impa where to be married within the fortnight, and she was going to be Impa personal attendant, the highest honor the bride could bestow.
Sighing, Zelda looked back down at her journal. In all honesty she knew the real reason she was depressed. She could have handled the palace life, Link’s sometimes annoying personality, Malon’s occasional airhead-ness, the way everyone had forgotten her, and even Keef revolting pickup lines, if Toran were there with her.
She had been sending people to look for Toran since the day she had returned, and she had even asked Link to keep an eye out for the young swordsman on his travels abroad, but it was all to no avail. The real problem was how little Zelda actually knew about Toran’s past. He had been an orphaned, abandoned, and living on the streets by age six, and had never remembered his life before that. She had sent people to scour the village where she had first met Toran, but they had never found anything. On one level this didn’t surprise Zelda. Toran was a sharp guy, and he wouldn’t be wrong in his opinion that any soldiers or royals looking for a scruffy thief probably meant to throw him in prison in the best of cases, and were after his hand in the worst.
It wouldn’t matter anyway, she thought glumly, leafing through the pages of her journal, he wouldn’t remember anything more then the rest of them, and honestly I don’t know if I could take that…
Sighing again, she brushed a fallen leaf off of the page she was looking at, closed the book and rose. She was to eat dinner with Impa that night, which meant pretending to be happy and smiling a good deal so Impa wouldn’t suspect anything with wedding so close. It wasn’t easy, as even a madly in love Impa was still overly observant. Zelda sighed for seemingly hundredth time since sitting.
It was going to be a long evening.
If the dinner with Impa was long, the wedding ceremony had taken an eternity. Zelda had stood at the front of the Temple of Time, next to the alter in her long red dress trimmed with black. They were the colors of Impa’s Shiekah Clan, so Zelda had decided to forgo reminding Impa that blue, white, and purple were the traditional Hylian colors for the personal attendant. She had thought about changing her eyes to Shiek’s normal red to match the dress better, but in the end had decided against it. She still used her Shiek disguise to sneak out of the palace from time to time, and she didn’t wish to blow her cover.
At the ball immediately following the ceremony, Zelda was standing near the long table of snack foods wondering how much chocolate she could devour before breaking out with more spots then one of Scela’s three-eyed toads, when someone tapped her shoulder.
“Hello Zel, it’s been forever! How are you?”
Zelda turned to see her second-cousin Jistine, and smiled warmly. She and Jistine had always been close, ever since the two girls had been crawling babies. Jistine was loosely related to her through her mother’s side of the family, but girl barely qualified as even a second-cousin. She was from the Akinda family, which had always been Zelda’s favorite Royal House. They lived out by the lost wood, and the family was full of people like Jistine who thought anything indoors that didn’t involve cards or dice to be “boring,” the Akinda family was know to produce some of the most famous Hylian warrior/explores/adventures to have ever lived. Zelda had even thought Link, who couldn’t remember his mother or life before his adoption by the Kohria might be descended from the Akinda line.
“I’m fine Jistine… and you?”
“Oh, you know me and balls,” the pretty brunette laughed. Despite her professed dislike of fancy events and official gatherings, Jistine was generally one of the better dressed Hylians at dances. She loved to be whirled across the floor by any man who would oblige, and generally dressed to ensue there would be many takers.
“I do hope your father and Impa will be happy together, Zel… they seem to love each other so…” Jistine lowered her voice and leaned closer, “it was a positively boring ceremony though. Please don’t tell Impa that though, she was so nice when I last spent the night over here with you. That seems ever so long ago…”
“Just over two years… it was my birthday remember?”
“Has it been so long? Well, then you haven’t ever seen my new brother!” Jistine cried, grabbing the princess’ hand, “come on hurry!”
Zelda allowed herself to be pulled along, slightly curious. She hadn’t heard that Jistine’s mother was expecting.
A group of girls around her and Jistine’s age had gathered in a corner, giggling wildly.
“What is it about girls and babies,” Zelda asked, chuckling.
“Baby? Why, you do know the story don’t you?” Jistine asked as they approached the group of girls who seemed to be listening to someone talking, “he’s my new brother, but he’s not a baby… Remember when I was about, um, six I guess, my twin brother was kidnapped? Everyone in Hyrule was ever so upset and all, but we never found him. Later we caught the kidnappers, but they said brother had escaped the very day they caught him… well, we’d eventually given up hope of finding him, but early last year, Deka the forest Shiekah who lives near us found him!”
By now they reached the throng of girls, who burst out laughing as though the speaker they had been listening to had just finished a joke.
“Oh please, tell us another one!” one girl nearly purred.
“Well, I promised Jistine I’d do the next dance with her,” answered a voice that literally caused Zelda’s heart to stop beating.
“Oh brother,” Jistine cried, pulling Zelda through the last circle of girls, “I have a good friend I want you to meet: Princess Zelda.”
A short, athletic-looking young man about Zelda’s age turned. His dirty-blond hair looked as though a royal hair-dresser had tried to train its lank mop, but given up in frustration. He was wearing very sharp-looking red, green and yellow clothes, with a red katana over his shoulder and traditional green cloth tied around his head. He looked a little better fed, but the boyish smile and hazel eyes beamed out a familiar message of content and friendship. Zelda heard Jistine talking, but it sounded as though she was at the end of long tunnel.
“This is my brother-”
“Toran…” Zelda cut in, using the name the young many had given her at their first meeting so many years ago, “Toran of the village well…”
Jistine’s mouth pulled into a mock pout, and she crossed her arms defiantly.
“I thought you said you hadn’t met…”
“We haven’t,” said Toran, nodding respectfully to Zelda, “but I see you’ve been telling stories about me. Forgive Jisty, highness; she has a rather exaggerated view of what life on one’s own is actually like…”
He didn’t remember her. She knew it wasn’t his fault, but for some reason it still made her mad. He should remember, the little snot; just because he was a royal now was no reason to forget about her. The cute Hylian girls surrounding him didn’t help his situation in her mind.
“Toran,” she nearly growled, grabbing his wrist, “you’ve got some explaining to do…”
Yanking his arm, she nearly drug the young noble away from the group of girls who were squealing their protest. Jistine had a similarly befuddled look on her face, but Zelda didn’t feel the need to explain just now. She continued to stalk towards the door to a balcony, dragging a confused Toran in tow.
“Ok buddy,” she said, whirling on him once they reached the seclusion of the balcony, “what? You think just because you’re a big-shot duke’s son now that you can forget all about your little friends?”
“Um,” Toran was obviously confused, “aren’t you the princess?”
“Don’t change the subject, Toran… you never did like admitting you had hurt someone,” Zelda growled, placing her clinched fists on her hips and aggressively leaning forward.
“Who’d I hurt?” Toran asked, still befuddled.
“What about ME?” Zelda asked, stamping in frustration.
“Are you sure you know me?” Toran asked, cocking an eyebrow and taking a cautious step back.
Zelda couldn’t take it any longer. Darting forward, she wrapped her arms around Toran’s neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Toran’s eyes widened in sock at first, but after a second, he seemed to meld into the kiss. The hazel eyes closed, and his strong arms slipped around her, squeezing her tighter. Suddenly, Zelda felt the back of her hand begin to burn slightly. It seemed as though something was flowing out of her and into Toran. A slight breeze played with her long yellow hair, and Zelda felt complete for the first time since returning to her childhood.
After moments that seemed to last forever, Zelda pulled her head back slightly, finally breaking the kiss.
“Goddess Shiek…” Toran whispered, “that was even better then I had dreamed it would be…”
“Toran?” Zelda looked back up to him, eyes brimming with tears, “you remember?”
“Yeah, I do…” he said, a slightly confused look on his face again, “I remember us as a team, I remember everything we did, I remember getting caught and having to fight you, and after that I remember being kind of warm and cold at the same time… then I remember being eleven again, back in the village. It’s like it was all a dream…”
“Yeah, I know… she whispered.
“I take it we won?”
Laughing, Zelda burrowed back into Toran’s chest. Everything was going to be fine.
Dingat 2nd
Best birthday of my life! Link, Malon, Jistine and, of course, Toran all came over to daddy’s hunting lodge near the woods and we’ve spent most the night playing all sorts of games, telling stories, and stuff. It’s probably almost dawn now. Daddy was wanting to throw a ball for my birthday, but Impa said that since it was my 16th birthday I could spend it as I pleased. Then daddy wanted to invite Ruto, but Impa said that wasn’t a great idea either. He was concerned she might feel slighted; Impa assured him that wasn’t the case. Impa is such a wonderful mother. Speaking of Impa, I have wonderful news! Yesterday she whispered to me that she believes she might be expecting a child. Wouldn’t that be glorious! I am hopeful for a little sister, but a baby brother to torment would be fun as well…
I need to go. All of us want to sneak out and look for fairies at dawn when they are most plentiful. I will write soon!
-Fina-
posted by Czar at 12:15 AM
4 Comments:
Okay, so this is going to be long, but since we got a delightful one-two-three punch in installments, I am combining all of my comments into one easy-to-read volume. Isn’t it grand.
Part 25:
The post-death scene was very touching… I could very clearly see the picture in my head, colors going to black and white, the almost painfully slow movements in the deafening silence of the palace, perhaps with a distant water drip. I LOVED this passage: “Link was so smooth, so lethal, so good, but for some reason is moves seemed systematic and formulaic to her now. She realized now that every time Toran had drawn his sword, it had been out of love for her; Link fought because it was something he was good at, just eliminating one threat so he could move to the next. After having witness Toran’s sacrifice for her, Shiek found it hard to believe Link actually fought for anything or anyone other then himself.” That was a perfect crystallization of what the entire story has been saying, methinks.
Love her conversation with Impa as sage. Why hadn’t Impa (or anyone else) told her about the time warp thing? Wouldn’t that have sealed her resolve to win instead of dying with despair while trying to fight?
Once Shiek is revealed as Zelda, her conversation with the disbelieving Link is AWESOME. I love how he is absolutely clueless – I laughed. It totally fits in his surfer-dude-warrior persona.
Part 25.66:
Great line award goes to: “Rage was like a fuzzy feeling of love compared to the loathing that nearly suffocated her now.”
Great dialogue award goes to: ““How’s my fiancé?” the Zora princess asked flatly, arms crossed and hip tossed saucily to the side. “Sleeping with a ranch whore,” Zelda smirked.” Awesome.
I got so emotional at the part where Zelda is told of her second childhood. I thought you conveyed the shock and surprise very well – in fact, she might have accepted it all a little too easily, but in light of all the action she just went through, she probably can’t take much of anything in.
The scene where she sees her dad actually made me cry more than when Toran died. And that’s saying something.
The epilogue:
I can’t imagine the psychological damage of having memory of a life, but none of the other characters do. In her mind, she will always be seven years older than her age… and to be a 22 year old in a 15 year old body would be miserable! You play out that despondency well as she is thinking through her life, with the inevitable conclusion of, if only Toran were here.
I love all the illusions you use to earlier parts of the story, like Zelda being able to hold her own against Keef, talking about the Lake Scientist, etc.
I knew she’d go looking for the team. I had it in my mind that she would find each of them, but when she found Toran, she would find him happy and content, and decide that since he didn’t remember her, he would be better off without her, and she’d walk away.
I liked your ending better. I burst into tears. Zelda was much more composed than I would have been. I would probably have taken one look, started crying and retreated somewhere. Such a relief, such a rest to know that he was alive and there, and yet such pain in him not recognizing her.
Which raises a good peripheral question: I have often observed that, since circumstances are so much of what shapes a person, that many couples form as a result of the circumstances, outside of which those two people would have never even looked at each other twice. It’s made me wonder sometimes whether some people fall in love with the person or just that that person happens to be the one in the right place and the right time. Are Toran and Zelda the same people they were in the cave? How could they still “fall in love?” Apart from Toran’s seemingly miraculous remembrance, would they have?
Questions:
1. How did Toran remember?
2. Why didn’t Zelda have to end up with Link after all? Do the prophecies or whatever become void with Gannondorf’s death?
3. I’m guessing there aren’t incest laws in Hyrule??
4. If Zelda remembers Jistine as a child, previous to six, wouldn’t she have at least a vague recollection of Toran?
5. The first time I read this, I thought Toran didn’t remember till they kissed. But upon second reading, I think he knew the whole time and was just sort of playing. Which is it?
Preliminary concluding thoughts: wow. The end was definitely a surprise, and the blend of action and dialogue and romance during the last four sections is particularly good. You write adventure and suspense in a way I can only dream of. The entire story bears a duel edge of sweet tenderness and grizzly reality. This makes the product attractive not because it’s a happy ending; the ending is exhilarating because of the story, and that, in my opinion, is what makes a good tale.
Oh, yeah -- and what's the common ground? I'd dearly like to know!
1) anesered more fully in the sequal... short anwser is she sub-consiously used her powers as Sage of Wisdom and the Triforce to do it
2)That's never actually prophcied... It's just what Zelda thought was sapposed to happen. Sometimes people only see and hear what they want, no?
3)If you notice the section a little closer you will see that Zelda and Jistine (and ergo Toran) are not actually all that closely related. Zelda and Jistine call each other cousin more our of affection then actual blood lines.
4)It is possible she might have, but Zelda never left the palace much, so if she DID ever actually see Toran, it would have only been once or twice. Explained more fully in the prequial.
5)No, he really didn't remember... see anwser to question one.
Glad you liked it...
PS
If you're asking about common ground between you and Shiek, then I guess you'll have to find it yourself. If you're asking about something else, then you need to elaborate....
I am behind I know...but I have not had time to comment in quite a while, so this is just to let you know that I provide a written comment soon. *smile*
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