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“And there I was,” Grandpoppy said, leaning forward and hushing his voice. “Water lapping at my feet, my arm feeling like it’d been torn off, Ganondorf laughing, my sword gone—and then I heard her voice.”
Zelda sucked in a breath, her legs doing a happy squiggle beneath the quilts. This was her favourite part.
Grandpoppy’s smile was nostalgic, staring back into the distant past. “The first thing she did was yell an insult at Ganondorf, but then she turned to me and winked and said, ‘I’m sorry! I over slept!’”
Zelda’s entire body squiggled this time, little fists pulling at the blanket, eyes wide.
“And that,” Grandpoppy said with a twinkle in his eye and a wide smile, “was when I first thought ‘holy crap, I want to marry her’.”
Zelda let out a little squeal, muffled into the quilts she had clutched to her face. Grandpoppy watched her and chuckled softly as she flopped back, an excited grin over her face. After a moment of happy thrashing, Zelda suddenly departed from routine by popping back up, a curious expression on her face. “So is that when you fell in love with Grandmama?”
Grandpoppy raised his eyebrows and let out a big, booming laugh, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Hmm, well, I dunno about that. I was only twelve back then, and that’s a bit young to be really falling in love. But I’d been noticing your Grandmama for a while, and that moment was all that ‘noticing’ really coming together so I could properly realize it.”
Zelda frowned, trying to figure this out. These were deep waters for a six-year-old. “So when did you fall I love with Grandmama?”
“Slowly.” Grandpoppy said with a nostalgic smile. “In little pieces and little choices over the years. I never really stopped thinking ‘I want to marry her’, but when I was older I realized what that really meant… and I realized I wanted it all the more.” His thumb stroked the old, scratched gleam of gold around his third finger. “Because there’s no one like your Grandmama in all the Great Sea and beyond, and I wanted to be by her side forever.”
Zelda snatched up Mr. Makar (one of her favorite stuffies) and squeezed him, resting her chin on his head, and sighed, her expression faintly starry-eyed. “I wanna meet a hero some day.”
“Oh?” Grandpoppy raised a bushy eyebrow. “Am I not good enough for you, seagull?”
“But I can’t marry you Grandpoppy!” Zelda protested. “So I need to find my own, so I can marry him!”
Grandpoppy burst into laughter again, reaching out and ruffling Zelda’s hair. “Ah, that makes sense.” His laughter died off for a moment, a faint frown furrowing his brow. When he spoke his voice was quiet.
“I should hope you never meet a proper hero, seagull.”
Zelda was only six, and didn’t understand the meaning behind that.
A hero only arises if there is danger to face, and I would rather you never face such danger.
“Still,” Grandpoppy said, banishing his frown and stroking his beard with a smile. “When you do get old enough to have your eyes on a fella,” he lowered his bushy eyebrows, shooting her a mock stern look that he ruined a moment later with a not-too-subtle wink, “Which ain’t gonna be for a long time, missy—not until you’re thirty—or sixty!”
Zelda let out a giggle. “I don’t wanna wait till I’m sixty, Grandpoppy!”
“We-ell,” Grandpoppy drew the word out, “Maybe not that long, but it better not be anytime soon. You’re still half-pint size, and that’s too small to be making googly eyes at boys.” He ruffled her hair again, and she giggled even harder.
“Still,” the King said, after a moment, “Looking for traits a hero would have ain’t a half bad idea.”
The princess blinked, eyes wide. “Really?”
“Really,” Grandpoppy said with a solemn nod.
“What sort of traits?”
Grandpoppy stroked his beard again. “Well, at the risk o’ sounding conceited, someone who’s kind, loyal and brave, who’ll treat you like a princess,” He winked at his granddaughter as giggled, “help you look after the kingdom, and who’ll stand by your side no matter what.”
Zelda considered this carefully, then nodded in approval. “That sounds nice.”
“I’m glad,” Grandpoppy chuckled, and patted her head. “So shall I continue with the story, now?”
“Yes, please!”
A little later, when the story was finished, and Zelda was being carefully tucked back beneath her quilts (having been greatly disturbed by her excited bouncing and waving about of Mr. Makar and Mr. Red Lion), she asked, “How did Grandmama fall in love with you, Grandpoppy?”
Grandpoppy raised a bushy eyebrow. “I think that’s a story you’ll have to ask your Grandmama—” and when Zelda looked as if she were about to bounce out of bed—“In the morning. As for now, go to bed, seagull.”
Zelda pouted, but obediently snuggled beneath her quilt, squeezing Mr. Makar and Mr. Red Lion tightly and closing her eyes as Grandpoppy blew out the lamp.
“Goodnight, seagull, and see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Grandpoppy, and see you in the morning!”
And Zelda went off to sleep, and dreamed of old oceans and older forest and even older skies, and of a hero of her own who would love her the way Grandpoppy loved Grandmama.
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That was a long time ago, though. Grandpoppy and Grandmama were gone, and so were Papa and Mama, and it was just Zelda now.
Well, Zelda and Link.
She eyed him shyly from where she floated above the train. He was hard at work, grinning in delight as the wind flapped at his long green cap, whistling cheerfully as they chugged along the tracks.
She understood now why her Grandpoppy never wanted her to meet a hero. After all, here she was now, without a body and her kingdom in deadly peril. Still… if there was a bright side to all of this, it allowed her to get to know Link.
He was a hero, just like the one from Grandpoppy’s or Teacher’s stories, courageous and clad in green; what’s more (the most important part) he was everything Grandpoppy had told her about all those years ago.
Kind. Loyal. Brave. Who treated her like a princess (and not just because she was one), who helped her look after the kingdom.
Who, even now, was standing by her side, despite the looming shadow of a Demon King.
It certainly made her heart race (or whatever passed for one, now she was a spirit and all), and the more she spent time with him, the more she felt that way.
How had Grandpoppy put it? Slowly, in little pieces and little choices, she was realizing how much she wanted to grow close to and spend time with, with… well, with her hero.
Not that she had much hope of him thinking the same way about her. She wasn’t silly, she knew she was nowhere near half as amazing as her Grandmama. She couldn’t even manage to keep ahold of her own body!
Yet… She was pretty sure they were friends, now, and that was wonderful beyond words.
“Are you all right?”
The voice shocked her out of her musings, and she spun in mid-air to face Link. He was looking at her carefully, his brows drawn together in concern that made her feel even more light and floaty than normal.
“What?”
Excellent job, Zelda, the princess thought despairingly. That’s an intelligent response.
“I mean—well—” Link swallowed hard. “It looked like you were upset about something, and I wondered if—if there was anything I could do to help?”
Zelda blinked at him, and all of a sudden felt like crying—but a good sort of crying. Because this was proof he cared, even if only as a friend. That she wasn’t alone, not with such a hero to stand by her side.
Still, she couldn’t exactly tell him what she was thinking about.
So she smiled instead. “I was just thinking about what we’re going to do when we face down Malladus!” She clenched her fists and punched the air, just like Alfonzo had taught her. “I’m going to give that nasty demon a piece of my mind!”
Link blinked at her, then laughed, a wide grin stretching across his face. “That sounds great, but be sure to save some for me!”
“Don’t worry!” Zelda chirped. “There’s plenty of Demon King to go around, I’m sure.” And with that, she swirled off to dance on the winds sweeping along the train, her heart soaring along with her spirit.
What she didn’t know was that Link’s gaze followed her, and there was only one coherent thought in mind.
“Holy crap, I want to marry her someday.”
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