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The current princess of Hyrule's monarchy was a lovely girl indeed, with walnut brown hair that shone like polished brass in the setting sun. The servants who had the honor of serving her (who all have personal lists of their favorite lords and ladies, as all servants do,) would all mutter to each other on break about how lovely had been that day. She scarcely made them run for something needlessly and treated them as highly as her own mother. Rumor had it that the princess was known to invite a servant or two to stay for tea, something no other royal would dare consider. Suffice to say, Princess Zelda of Hyrule was well beloved within the castle.
And yet, for all that she was beloved by the castle, she could never seem to find anything but passing moments of time to spend with the Queen. Well, passing moments and royal events- but those are for the kingdom, not for family.
Our story starts on one of these passing moments, you see. The lovely princess had finally, after weeks of gentle prodding, managed to scrape clear a moment of the Queen's busy schedule so she might spend time with her mother. "Mother," she asked shyly, poking her head into the Queen's study. "Could you, ah, tell me a story?"
The Queen stared at Princess Zelda blankly for a moment, and the princess could not help but worry if she hadn't thought it through. Then, as if to silence her unspoken thoughts, the Queen's face broke into a smile like the curve of the moon. "Of course, darling. It just so happens that I have quite the free afternoon, shall I send for some tea?"
Princess Zelda nodded, a smile slipping onto her face as the queen got up from her desk piled high to the celling with papers and wandered over to a grand window overlooking the gardens and, on a sprawling terrace off to the side, the training grounds of the royal guard. She sat at a small table set there for just this reason and waved her daughter over, pulling out the other (nearly unused) chair at the table for the princess. "It has been a great while since we last sat together, sunspot. Were you hoping for a certain story?"
She tilts her head absently as she settles into the chair, just enjoying the moment. Not really, she says in response, though she speaks again after a moment to ask if her mother has a favorite story. The Queen smiles like only those with age can, brightening the room noticeably. "Well I suppose I could tell you my favorite tale, but I daresay I've told you about The Hero of Man and The Four Sword more than enough..."
She trails off for an achingly long moment and Zelda is about to speak before her mother continues her sentence. "Though I could tell you a favorite of my nanny, I doubt it has faded from my mind any more than it may have from hers."
"Oh?" voices Princess Zelda, interest palatable in her tone.
"I suppose that decides it, Sunspot... Now, how did it begin?" Queen Zelda taps her first knuckle against her chin, musing silently to herself. "Well, it starts as all tall tales do, on the edge of dawn. Fog was creeping along the ground like only the fog can, dancing around trees and playing its silent song. Drifting out of the forest, it found a lovely little cabin with a lovely little man- scarcely older than you, sunspot- slowly waking as day grew near."
This time with her mother stretches on like only time can, but does not last. As the queen takes a breath, if only for a pause to build tension, a runner and a servant burst into her study. "Your majesty," he starts, his voice overly loud in the utterly silent room. "The delegates from Labrynna have arrived and are awaiting your presence."
Queen Zelda's suddenly regal voice is hard like steel to the princess's ears. "They are three days early."
"Indeed, my queen. They come bearing important news and wish to see you as soon as possible."
She sighs but does not turn away the runner and Princess Zelda knows that her long awaited storytime has been cut short. It should not hurt her heart this much, but it does. The Queen huffs and stands, giving Zelda a promise to tell her the rest of the story later and a too-short hug. The servant stands to the side as the Queen and the runner walk down the the hall, ducking into the monarch's study to slip her hand under the princess's head just before it thuds against the wooden tabletop. She does not say anything and remains silent, though the worry for her princess is palatable.
The princess, for her part, manages not to let tears drip onto the table as she steadies herself. "m' gonna go take'a nap," she mumbles, trying valiantly to not let her voice betray her feelings. "That sounds like a lovely idea, your highness. Would you like me to send someone to help you change or would you rather be left alone?"
The princess's voice feels a little harder when she declines the offer for help, but neither says a word as the servant walks her to her room and ushers her in. "Please princess, rest well."
Princess Zelda mumbles her thanks as the door closes, kicks off her footwear, and falls asleep in her bed hugging a pillow to her chest as the sun crests the sky.
The princess is horribly groggy when she wakes, that swamping feeling of 'what-where-who' dripping from her mind like oil. The sun is no longer shining through the windows of her room and the sky shows the backside of the sunset. She rubs the crust from her eyes as she sits up, blinking blearily. There's a chuchu lantern sitting on her side table, its warm glow illuminating a loaf of bread, small pot of butter, and a plate of meats and cheeses. One of the servants must have brought them up for her, she had doubtlessly missed dinner.
Well, she thinks to herself, it's not like eating could make her feel any worse. Evidently her stomach agrees, given the loud growl that makes her start. Forgoing all manners that may have been drilled into her at one point or another, Princess Zelda scoots over to the edge of her bed and begins tearing into the loaf of fresh bread like a rabid wolfos. Crust and crumb are ripped apart, butter is spread, sliced meat and cheese are sandwiched, and the plate is systematically obliterated. She shares, of course, and the chucu lantern burbles happily at her when she feeds it scraps. It seems particularly takes with the rind of one of the cheeses on her plate and Zelda finds herself growing fond of the little fire slime.
She sits there at the edge of her bed, kicking her legs aimlessly as shadows creep across the gardens, the shadow of the castle the largest of them all. "Mm, would you like to go on a walk, little one?" mumbles Princess Zelda, lifting the chuchu lantern up to her head. The chuchu blurbles like the lava of death mountain and she smiles, then hops off her bed and slips her shoes back on. "Just a short walk, I need to get out of the castle."
Her murmured reassurance steadies her resolve and the princess begins her journey out of the castle. Avoiding the sounds of music and constant chatter, the princess wishes things could hurt her heart less. Lost in thought, the heir to the throne of Hyrule stumbles over her own two feet and nearly trips into a pillar, instead desperately trying to steady herself.
Once her balance is under control again, Zelda resolves to focus on her walk and not deal with her thoughts while sneaking through a dimly lit castle.
After she gets out from within the smothering stone of the castle the princess finally manages to let out a breath, settling against the stone-hewn steps. She sits there for a while, watching the sun's final encore of the the day drip off the clouds. The warmth of her chuchu lantern drives the chill of the dark away as she sits there for a while longer. "Well," she mumbles to herself. "Time for that walk."
Princess Zelda's path is aimless and wandering and, as she walks through patches of grass and ducks her head to avoid a low branch, disregarding of some common sense. She wanders wherever her mind calls her, stepping over bushy flowers and between hedges to get to the places only the gardeners go. As she wanders, the fog creeps in. It swirls around her feet like a ballgown, and the takes pleasure in dancing with it. One-two-three twirl, one-two-three curtsy, spin away to another ethereal partner...
She looses herself in the dark, only a lantern and the twilight to keep her company. She feels a pull in her gut and, between one moment and the next, Princess Zelda twirls into another world. She doesn't notice at first, of course. The twilight settles around one's shoulder's like a great blanket, a cool breeze on a hot day. Zelda eventually opens her eyes, when had she closed them, and can't help but have her breath taken away. It's brighter here, somehow. There's no direct light, no sun, no moon, yet, as she turns, the entire horizon is lit with the dregs of a sunset. The clearing she stands in is lined with looming, gnarled, trees and bluish green grass comes up to her waist.
The fog is still there, of course. It dances with the breeze and the grasses, twisting and bouncing in the twilight. "I wanted to get away, I suppose..." murmurs the princess, letting the bristling tufts of grass going to seed part around her hand. The chuchu in her lantern burbles and she burbles back, then giggles. "Where do you think we are, little one?"
It pops and sizzles excitedly and the princess grins. She plucks the top off a stem of grass and feeds it to the chuchu, startling and then spurring her into more laughter the first time one of the seeds pops.
Starting tonight, the princess of Hyrule would wander the wilderness of another world. Starting tonight, she would barely eat, subsisting off the silver-blue berries that she would occasionally find. Starting tonight, her mother would mourn the loss of her only daughter.
Zelda had been wandering for days. Her hair was a mess of twigs and leaves and dirt, her feet were sore. She had broken the heels off her shoes with a rock on the second day, after having slipped for the seventh time. Those silver-blue berries were nice and all, but she could hardly think of stomaching a single one more. She was dirty, frazzled, and generally looked a mess.
The garden she had stumbled upon (and climbed the walls to get into,) was none of those things. Neither was the great castle hewn of dark stone, standing solidly at the other side of the garden. Her stomach growled. It is a castle and castles have people and people have food, she thinks, and began to walk towards the castle. The princess slips around a hedge twice as tall as her, heart pounding in her chest like royal drums. She is stopped dead when she collides with something that makes an inarticulate sound of pain and falls to the ground just like her.
"Ow!" gripes the thing and Zelda manages to open her eyes, curiosity dulling her pain a little.
"My heaaaad!" moans the person, massaging their face. Their furred face.
Zelda's head is throbbing and she makes a pitiful groan, slowly rolling over onto her side. "Ohh, that huuuurt..."
Her partner in headache looks up from the ground as Zelda slides her palms from her eyes and the two of them freeze. Deep green eyes meet wide glowing red ones. One heartbeat, two heartbeats, three. They shake off their surprise first, scrambling to get their feet under them and exclaiming "you're not Twili!"
Zelda squeaks like a startled mouse and scrabbles at the ground under her, starting to run. They slip behind her in their frantic scramble, and it gives Zelda just enough time to run- and run she does. Her strides are longer than her pursuer's and Hylians are built for running, the gap between them widens. The chuchu lantern bounces haphazardly on her hip as she sprints. "Wait!"
She doesn't, the prestresses always warned against trusting things with red eyes. "Please!"
A flare of sooty magic and the Twili is in front of her, then pouncing. The two tumble roughly through the grass and, eventually, come to a stop. The Twili has Zelda pinned, soft clawed hands wrapped around the princess's wrists. Red stares down at green, both breathless. "I just want to talk?" mumbles the Twili, their long ears flicking back, embarrassed. Zelda can't help but think of the Sheikah clan as she stares up at the Twili, for they also have red eyes. Red eyes, but are sworn to the crown.
"You're, uh, Hylian, right?" they ask, tail fluttering behind them nervously. "How long have you been here?"
Before Zelda can properly answer, they correct themselves. "In the Twilight Realm, I mean-"
"Uh, uhm," murmurs the princess, trying to ignore her heart fluttering like a trapped bird in her chest. "Awhile."
"A while?! Then- then how are you even alive, can't you feel the darkness of this realm eating away at you?"
Zelda had not felt any such thing- in fact, the little golden star that sat in her gut had been feeling brighter and warmer every day she spent in the Twilight Realm. At her confused stare the Twili pauses and thinks. Wait, they say, leaning down closer. "mm?" hums Zelda, her thoughts focused on the stripe of black fur that runs down to the tip of the Twili's cute button nose. "You have light magic. You aren't any regular Hylian, are you."
Her heart beats strong and fast in her chest and Zelda nods her head.
"Your name is Zelda, isn't it," they murmur, smiling toothily at the shock that blooms in the princess's eyes. "It's nice to meet you, fellow princess. My name is Sefa."
The conversation gets better from there, the pair of princesses talking aimlessly. Eventually, Zelda's stomach growls loudly and she admits, with a blush on her cheeks, that she hasn't had a proper meal in days. She gets pulled to her feet by a furry, clawed hand and neither let go until both are nestled in a corner, a tray of foods that Zelda has never seen before balanced on their knees.
Later, once the two are fed and watered, (and the hylian princess has had most of the twigs picked from her hair,) Sefa brings Zelda to meet the Twili Queen who gracefully welcomes Zelda to the realm and the castle. She gets her own room just across the hall from Sefa, and finds the quiet castle in this new realm surprisingly cozy. It's no substitute for the bustling halls of Hyrule Castle and Zelda certainly misses the molten gold and cherry red sunsets of Hyrule, but she makes a home in the dark castle. She mourns the fate of the clothes he came here wearing and talks with Twili seamstresses for whom it seems all too easy to forget that Zelda does not, in fact, have thick fur covering every inch of her skin. They help her put together simple dresses of dull-colored fabrics and she, in turn, sparks their interests in imbuing their fabrics with intense colors. Zelda misses her mother still.
Making friends with all the Twili who staff the castle takes time, if only because she's, quite literally, like nothing they have ever seen before (though there are scarcely as many as they are servants in Hyrule Castle.) Zelda finds a sort of surrogate mother in the Twili Queen, and her friendship with Sefa only grows. Her fire chuchu lantern turned pet grows and grows, and eventually splits- soon enough, there are molten oozes helping heat bathwater and ovens alike. Zelda and Sefa practice their magic together, strengthening natural Twili magic and Goddess Blood gifted Light alike. Eventually, they fall in love. The Queen laughs and hugs them both close when they tell her. Zelda misses her mother still.
Time passes and the two princesses have not managed to find a way to get Zelda back home, if only for a moment. They find themselves wandering in the woods as the fog creeps across the ground, hand in hand. Eyes closed, the two share a quiet kiss as a breeze ruffles their clothes. From one moment to the next, something changes and they open their eyes to swirling fog, vibrant greens, and dew gracing the grass under their feet. Zelda and Sefa stand there in stunned awe for a moment, for a Hyrule sunrise is something neither of them thought they would ever see- or, in Zelda's case, see again. Green eyes meet glowing red and the two are off, Sefa diving into her partner's shadow just to keep pace.
Castle doors are thrown open, bare feet slap against polished stone and royal carpet as Princess Zelda returns to Hyrule Castle. The pair of guards are the first to notice her, of course, lighting up with happy smiles and making eye contact before rushing to spread the good news. Dashing past servants (who all find joy in her presence,) Zelda makes a mad dash up and up and up, up towards her mother's rooms.
Her legs give out a floor away and Zelda lies against a carved marble pillar, heart pounding in her throat. Sefa slips from her shadow to help her up, help her move to find her mother. Their steps are wobbly at first, then Sefa uses a little magic to help lift Zelda and they're moving again. Step after step, step after step, they make their way towards the final staircase.
It should be near silent this high in the castle, let alone at such an early hour- but there's a commotion coming the other end of the hall as Zelda and Sefa step onto that final staircase. The two women turn their attention towards the oncoming commotion as, flanked by a legion of servants on either side, Queen Zelda of Hyrule turns the corner.
Mother and daughter both freeze like a Hebra frost, solid and fast.
Sefa knees the back of her partner's thigh and time unfreezes as Zelda stumbles off the first step towards the Queen. "Mom?" she asks, eyes welling with tears and throat tightening.
A maid gently shakes the Queen's shoulder and that's all that takes for her to unfreeze, tripping into a run down the hall. "Zelda!"
Princess Zelda of Hyrule, a young woman now and no longer a girl, slips out from her partner's hold and runs, wobbly and exhausted from climbing flights and flight of stairs. "Mom!"
The two royals collide with each other, faces wet with tears arms tight around the other. "Oh, sunspot," murmurs the queen, Zelda's dark clothes fisted in the queen's hands. "You're here again."
Zelda murmurs an agreement and hugs her mother tighter. "Missed you."
The queen hums back and they stay like that for a while. Sefa sidles over closer and stands in a shady nook, a sappy look on her face. "M' back, mom," mumbles the princess as her mother pulls away from the hug, just to get a better look at her daughter.
Princess Zelda of Hyrule has changed in a great many ways over the time she has been gone. Her hair is longer and a bit wild, her skin is paler. Her clothes are certainly different, Twili fashion showing so much more skin than that of Hyrule's. There's a veil of woven shadow fluttering around the princess's neck and her feet are bare. For all that her daughter has changed, Queen Zelda can see the happiness in her daughters eyes, feel the light in her daughter's heart. She will accept these changes, changes that she could not witness and could not fuss over like any parent would love to, changes that have made her daughter so much more alive. "That you are, dear," murmurs the queen, with all the warmth of a sun. "That you are."
They stand there for a moment longer before the princess's legs falter and her partner materializes in a flurry of black flecks to catch her. "Careful now," says the Twili, knocking her forehead into Zelda's. "Shut up."
The Queen takes half a step back and plants her hands on her hips smiling kindly. "Now, sunspot. Who's this lovely lady?"
The assembled crowd of servants, maids, and helping hands crow with laughter as their princess ducks her head, cheeks flushed. "Mother, this is-"
That assembled crowd of servants, maids, and helping hands whoop and holler as the strange woman dips their princess into a kiss, her fire-orange hair forming a great hand that helps hold Zelda aloft. Even the queen chuckles, smiling mischievously. "From her own mouth- when you're done, of course."
The kiss lasts a handful of moments longer than it should in polite company, and when the Twili finally breaks the kiss Princess Zelda's eyes are a little unfocused and her lips ajar. She flourishes her free hand fancifully, as she meets the queen's eyes. "My name is Sefa, your majesty. Heir to the throne of the Twili."
"Lovely, lovely."
The Queen steps forwards and crushes the two young women in a hug, relishing in the squeak of surprise Sefa makes. "I look forward to getting to know you, Sefa."
She presses motherly kisses to Zelda and Sefa's foreheads before releasing them. "Now sunspot, did you want to hear the rest of that story? I'm sure you two are hungry, we can eat in the study, if you please?"
The olive branch passes hands as Zelda responds, "Ah, mother, I think we have a story to tell you as well."
The Queen smiles like only those with age can, beckoning the two gently. "Come, come. We'll not be interrupted this time, I promise."