Noble by Nature

Chapter 23

Zelda woke with a start and was immediately overcome by a wave of grief, without even fully realizing what caused it. But as her memories returned to her the grief settled like a heavy rock on her chest, and she forced herself to sit up.
Her room felt strangely emtpy without Link in it, which only increased the feeling of loss, but she couldn't linger on it. There was work to do.
She threw aside the covers and got dressed, before glancing out the window and realizing it was still dark out. But she was awake now, so she might as well get to it.
First she headed down to the kitchens, where plenty of personnel was already busy preparing meals for the day. She snatched a small pastry from the counter and ate it on the go, heading to the back.
There was an assortment of storage rooms there, as well as some rooms for cooks and servants to sleep. She knocked on the door of one of those rooms, hoping he would be there.
Luckily, after a few seconds, a young Hylian opened the door, looking rather annoyed. That was until he saw who was standing there.
'Princess Zelda!' he called out in shock, trying to flatten his short green hair. 'Wh- what are you doing here?' He dropped his hand, staring at her in confusion. 'I didn't know you were back yet.'
Zelda shrugged and smiled apologetically. 'I'm sorry for waking you up, Stamm. I was hoping you could help me with some things.'
He nodded meekly, still looking rather confused. But he stepped aside and invited her in.
The princess pushed away an uncomfortable feeling at entering his room, and instead kept her back straight as she walked past him. It was rather small, with a bed against one wall and a desk against the other. A dresser stood at the foot of the bed, and that was pretty much it.
'I know it's not much,' Stamm apologized with a shrug. 'I'm not here all that often.'
'I understand,' Zelda said with a kind smile. 'As long as it suits your needs. As our head chef we want you to be happy.'
He grinned, making him look a lot younger. 'I have all I need, Princess.'
'Good.' She said, looking around and sitting down on the chair at the desk. 'I want to make sure everyone else does too.'
He once again looked at her in confusion, cocking his head.
'I'm sure you'll have noticed the monsters gathering out on the fields,' she explained. 'They're all over the kingdom, and I believe they will try to cut us off from the other Races.'
Stamm raised his eyebrows, a flicker of panick in his eyes. 'What for?'
'I don't know.' Zelda shrugged. 'But something is happening.' She didn't dare tell him that Ganondorf had risen again, that this was most likely all his doing. It still felt too surreal. And she definitely couldn't tell him it was her fault. That news would spread and no one would want her as their princess anymore. She sighed. 'I want you to prepare for a siege.'
The cook actually took a step back at that, his eyes wide in shock. 'You're kidding!' He let out an awkward chuckle. 'Surely that won't happen.'
Zelda shook her head. 'Have you actually seen them out there?' She gestured towards the door, as if telling him to go take a look. 'They're everywhere. It won't be long or no one is able to step outside our walls. Where would you expect our food to come from then?' She looked at him intently. 'We need to make sure we have enough stored to feed our people for as long as possible.'
'But we'll have to fight them!' Stamm called out, looking as if he was on the verge of panicking. 'I mean surely you and Link will find a way to stop them, right? You'll defeat them, as you did before.'
She dropped her head, unable to look him in the eye. 'Link is not here yet. It's just me for now.'
To her surprise the young cook didn't seem taken aback by that, instead looking much calmer now. 'I believe in you,' he simply said, spreading a warmth through her. An unvoluntary smile appeared on her lips as she looked up at him.
He smiled back and shrugged. 'You'll keep us safe. And Link will surely be here before you know it, with some grand plan to save us all.'
Zelda nodded, trying to feel the same certainty he was radiating. But she did feel better by his optimism.
'Well then,' she said decidedly, 'let's get to work on stocking up.'

By the time she emerged from the kitchens the sun was high up in the sky, and the castle had come alive.
     Stamm had been very helpful, and she felt like at least this part of their preparations would be taken care of. She could mentally check it off her list, and although it was still long, it made her feel the least bit more hopeful.
     She figured that by now Sidon would be somewhere out and about, so she headed to the courtyard.
     It was another hot day, and she did not envy the Hylians in their thick armour at practice there. Each and every one of them was sweating and panting under the burning sun, while Nell kept shouting commands at them.
     Zelda chuckled softly, knowing full well that the captain was really enjoying this.
     She walked up and waited for him to finish his shouting, before smiling at him. 'Good morning, Nell.'
     He grinned back at her, still keeping half an eye on his recruits. 'Morning, Princess. Here to see the progress we're making?'
     She shrugged. 'I was actually looking for Prince Sidon, but how are they doing?' She looked out over the young men and women battering at wooden poles to perfect their techniques, but couldn't really tell if they were any good. Link was the one who had a real eye for that kind of thing.
     'As good as you might expect,' Nell answered. 'These are our newest recruits, most of them from Hateno, so they hardly held a weapon in all of their lives.'
     Zelda couldn't hold back a smile at that. She had already forgotten all about their little trip to Hateno Village with everything that was happening, but she was relieved to see Symin actually managed to do what he'd promised, and so soon too.
     'They're doing alright,' Nell continued. 'But I hope we'll get to train them a few more weeks before we'd have to put them out there.' He frowned up at the walls around them, as if he could see straight through and onto Hyrule Field.
     'Me too,' Zelda sighed.
     'But...' Nell said, sounding a lot more cheerful, 'the rest of our men have improved really fast. They should be able to hold their ground against some monsters.'
     The princess smiled at his obvious pride. He deserved it, after all the work he put into this. She still remembered the scrawny, shivering boy he had been, with such big dreams of becoming a knight. He had certainly come a long way.
     'Keep up the good work,' she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
     He nodded. Then he turned back to the recruits and shouted a few more commands.
     Zelda already turned and started to make her way back inside, when he called out to her.
     'I believe Sidon said something about checking out the defences along the water. Might be you'll find him down there.'
     'Thank you,' she said with a smile.
     He just nodded and returned to his business, leaving the princess to figure out the best way to find the Zora.