Uhh... chapter one's kinda long... and shitty... it's pretty shitty until there's some humor... like... the middle of chapter three. It will get better! Please bear with me. T.T First fic... be lenient on me... Oh yeh, and I rated it PG-13 because I wasn't sure if it would be bad enough later to rate it R. It may change depending on the violence and language... that's about it XD alrighty! Thanks for reading... if anyone does T.T
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“I do not understand, Impa...” Zelda murmured under her breath. “Why did she seem so... distant?”
“She was a good woman, your mother...” Impa replied somberly, leaning against the doorway- arms crossed and oculars shut.
“Did she... leave anything?”
“...I am not certain... your father, may have some old pictograph’s... shall I look for you, your highness?”
“I would like that... thank you, Impa.” Zelda nodded giving her nanny a weak smile. Impa returned it with one of her own, bowed, and stepped out of the room.
Zelda sighed, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes. It had been a long while since she was given the gift of silence, which she was thankful for every second she got of.
Dealing with issues the sages had, the potential Gerudo treaty (now led by Nabooru), she was swamped... and procrastinating.
The only time she could ponder thoroughly was when she was alone, no noise to distract her- this only time being when she was going to bed. That was nearly enough time to deal with anything, let alone thoughts of sages and thief treaties.
No meetings today, no potential threats, and the sages had no problems. Zelda was free. Hence why she had the liberty to freely think about her mother.
An hour or so passed before Impa returned, seeming empty handed.
She approached Zelda, bowed, and handed her a small sheet. Upon inspection it was indeed an old pictograph, so old in fact, her mother looked like an entirely different person.
“That ...woman does not look at all like-” Impa cut Zelda off, bowing apologetically afterwards. Zelda waved it off.
“She is, indeed, your mother...”
She looked up from it at Impa, her eyes returning to the small bit of ink covered parchment. Her eyes slowly widened, pupils shrinking with each second she stared.
“...Two... children?” Zelda mouthed. Impa responded.
“Yes, your highness, ...two children...”
“Who- ...The second one?- I...”
“...It will make sense in time, your highness. I trust you will realize all that you need.” Impa bowed again, turning on her heel to leave. She stopped at the door frame, resting her hand on it. “And though I am not qualified, nor the right person to remedy your inquiries... There are a few people who know the answers to the questions you have yet to form...”
A few days and unanswered questions passed, and Zelda’s curiosity perked with every moment. She asked Impa, on several occasions, where she had retrieved the pictograph from, She replied “I am not the one who answered that.” Or some odd cryptic comment. “Who am I to dwell in the affairs of the princess?”
Impa’s secrecy was becoming a nuisance. Zelda wanted her questions answered, and couldn’t understand why Impa wouldn’t divulge information she so dreadfully desired.
“Impa, this is such a bother! I must know! Why can you not tell me?”
Impa gazed at her for a while before responding.
“Have you not realized who holds the answers to your questions yet?” Eyes closed, standing akimbo.
“...You are the only one that can answer my questions, Impa... No one else knows what I must find out...” Zelda’s gaze fell to the floor, her eyes beginning to flood.
“While this is the truth, your highness... You are perfectly capable of figuring it out on your own.” She looked back up at Zelda. “So no need for tears.”
Zelda looked away, wiping away her tears gingerly. “Yes... but... If I cannot-“
“I will only give hints, though it is truly simple. That pictograph has all the information you need. Surely the heir of to the throne of Hyrule’s royal family can figure out her own past?” The right corner of her mouth upturned into a light grin before she bowed, completing her smile. “I shall take my leave now, highness.” Impa turned and left, closing the door behind her.
“Blast!” Zelda shouted into her pillow as she flopped onto her four-poster bed. She sat up, looking at her hands that were loosely clasped together. “How am I to go about this when all I have is an old picto-... graph.” She quickly reached for the small, single drawer in the night stand just next to her bed, taking out another pictograph. Her eyes scanned it thoroughly, catching every detail. That woman was most definitely not her mother. And the children, twins, both with the same eye and hair tone in the dark inking.
Her father, also, seemed much happier in the pictograph with the twins, one being her but she didn’t not recollect that woman at all. She shuffled in the drawer again, taking out another pictograph (this one in much better condition).She examined them both. The fresh one she just pulled out, her father had a much weaker smile standing next to her mother, whom was holding the young Zelda.
“Father... please help me understand...” She whispered. Did I have siblings? Was one my aunt? Had my father re-married?
But when could that have happened? She shook her head to clear out all thoughts, keeping the ones that made absolute sense. Only two seemed fathomable: Having a potential sibling, and her father possibly remarrying.
Zelda was becoming frantic, she had to speak with Impa immediately. After a few moments of not moving entirely, sleep over took her, both pictographs in hand.
The sudden amount of thought fluctuation, as well as the actualization that her past had been all a lie exhausted her.
The clatter of a plate woke her the next morning. Impa had set her breakfast on the night stand, bowing her good morning.
“I’ve brought you your breakfast. You’ve overslept, your highness. Are you well? I do not recall you over sleeping previously.”
Zelda sat up, fixing her hair into a manageable state, before she looked at the plate of food, and then Impa. “My father remarried, had he not?”
Impa’s eyes widened for a second, but returned to normal when she smiled.
“And a sibling. I have a sibling. That must be the other baby in the pictograph.”
Impa nodded slowly, smile intact. “I did not think that in one night’s time, you would figure out so much, your highness. Commendable. I am truly impressed.” Impa bowed once more. “Both of your accusations are... correct.”
Zelda’s eyes widened. “...Why... Why have I not known?! Why did father keep it from me... Why did you keep it from me?!” Zelda shouted, jumping to her feet, eyes watering again. “If I could not trust my father, then I at least thought I could trust you, Impa.”
“Your highness, please, calm yourself... It is not as though we have not wanted to tell you, but your father, long before his own passing made me promise not to speak a word of it to you... He did not want to hurt you with knowing you had ... lost your mother and brother...” Impa’s gaze fell.
“...How were they lost...? I know everything else now, Impa, and I’ve figured it out all on my own. So how did this all come to be?” Zelda was the one to cross her arms now, a grim look in her tear filled eyes.
Impa sighed, nodding before she looked back up at Zelda with tense features.
“You recall why your father wanted to make a pact with Ganondorf, the self proclaimed King of Thieves?” She began.
Zelda nodded.
“Also what you are trying to get from the Gerudo’s at this moment, a peace treaty. When you and... your brother... were very, very young, there was an attack on this castle by Gerudo’s. Ganondorf denied himself being at the front of the fray.
“I fled with you, your father fought, and your mother left with your brother. We were going to stay at Lake Hylia, and your mother and brother on the bridge just outside of Kokiri Forest. She had been... gravely injured on the way by a stray arrow... both were lost.”
“What was his name...? ...My brother, I mean...” Zelda kept her eyes on the window, trying to take it all in.
Impa shook her head. “It would not be prudent.”
Zelda’s eyes watered more, but she nodded all the same. Impa bowed and took her leave.
