“How long has it been, sire?”
“Twelve weeks, Travins. Why must you keep reminding me?” the king had awakened in a bad mood and his adviser’s constant recap of his daughter’s disappearance wasn’t improving it any. Three months ago, his daughter had left for a short vacation with some boy. She said they’d be going to the sea, and would be back in a week, at the most two. Well, ten weeks later and there was still no sign of Zelda anywhere. He had his guards go to Great Bay and ask around. A man in charge of boat rentals remembered the princess and escort who never came back. The Zoras revealed that they had gone on a centennial migration to see a bright meteor shower, and add to their collection a stone from the sky. They also told how in years before that, they promised to meet the same boy on the island. But he never came. On their way back, however, they found a badly smashed boat in a reef. Upon closer inspection, it had all of the possessions of Link and Zelda still onboard, but no sign of the pair. Six weeks passed, and all of them were spent sailing back and forth around the island of Zoras, looking for another island they could have been stranded on. But not one yielded a single clue. It was as though the sea swallowed them whole.
Perhaps it had, thought the king. Zelda never liked water that much, so it is not improbable that she… But he could not bear to even think that his precious blossom was lying at the bottom of the ocean. No, she was a strong girl. She would survive if there were any hope at all. “Oh my dear, sweet Zelda, please, come back to me…” the king lay his head down on the table in front of him and wept for the millionth time that week.
