Fortune Favors the Courageous

Chapter 3: Competition Part 1

Zelda's jaw dropped. Recognition hit like the arrow he had just let loose. It was that boy—the nearsighted oaf from the training yard—who hit the experts' bullseye.

Link Aleron.

Zelda leered with as much venom as she could muster, hoping he could feel it across the distance between them. Unbeknownst to her, Mido's eyes mirrored her outrage as they locked onto blue. Eye contact held while Link slowly lowered his bow, unaffected by Mido's lethal glare. One would think the amphitheater itself had tilted with the way the crowd leaned forward.

The tension, taut as Mido's bowstring, was palpable to everyone.

At last, Mido cast a glance towards the expert dummy. Then, as brown eyes again pinned down blue, Mido released his arrow.

Shhhfwump!

Holy—!

Somehow, the crowd exploded with even more enthusiasm.

Mido's arrow had split Link's in two. Another bullseye.

Amidst the boisterous roar of the onlookers, Mido's gaze sought hers. When it landed, she leapt from her chair and cheered for him. Behind her, the king chuckled. Zelda spun, embarrassed that her excitement elicited his attention, but it was immediately eclipsed by the fact that father—her Papa—was smiling.

"Did you see that!?" she cried, tucking away the shame that always came with being too vivacious. Or rather, the inevitable scolding that tended to follow. "It was so... so— impressive! A split arrow, Papa! Have you ever seen such a feat?"

"Impressive indeed, that hero of ours," he agreed. "Hyrule's in good hands."

For a moment he eyed her. And in that moment, the rekindling warmth between Papa and daughter began to spit black smoke. A damning question lingered on the tip of his tongue.

Her stomach dropped. Please don't. Please, let's just be.

"Refreshments, Your Majesties?" A servant—probably sent by Hylia Herself, Zelda figured—appeared with water and fruit for the king and princess.

"Yes, thank you!" Zelda replied, scrambling away from the impending disappointment in her father's features should another word pass between them.

As she occupied herself with deliberately slow sips of water and mouthfuls of hydromelon, the knights prepared for the second major event of the day. The free-for-all. In which each knight was given special overwear made from a fabric soaked in Brightbloom Seed extract. A firm strike activated the Brightblooms' innate bioluminescence, and when they glowed enough, as the judges determined, the knight was eliminated from the competition. It was an impressive display of biological engineering, really. Even in the daylight, the demarcations were observable. Zelda could ruminate on it all afternoon if she weren't so engrossed in the spectacle before her.

As the fighting began, there were three things she noticed almost immediately.

One, that Link and Mido's assigned starting positions were on opposite sides of the dirt field.

Two, their dispositions were incredibly different. Anyone who had witnessed the archery drama—which, honestly, was everyone—could tell that vengeance propelled Mido's body forward. Link, for his part, was coolly absorbed in only his sparring, ignorant to the fact Mido had him targeted at all.

Three, try as he might, Mido was swarmed by so many knights eager to prove themselves that he couldn't work his way any closer to Link.

The boy who had sent her tumbling reached to haul her back on her feet as if she were a sparring partner. "Are you alright, Princess?"