Promises : A Zelink Story

Chapter 1

Zelda got out of bed, no point trying to sleep now, it wasn't going to happen.
Especially not as Hyrule was in the middle of a war with the Gerudo, led by their King Ganondorf.
Far from the safe and comfortable Castle Town, Zelda was in Gerudo Fort, a short while away from Gerudo Town, home of the Gerudo.

"Your Majesty, are you awake?" a familiar voice asked from outside the door.
"Yes, please come in Impa." replied Zelda.

The door opened, and the Shiekah warrior Impa entered.
Ever since the King passed away from his illness 5 years ago, Impa was the closest thing Zelda had to a parent. They had developed a close relationship, and Impa was responsible for Zelda's personal safety.

"Your Majesty, I have news." Said Impa.
"Come on Impa, you of all people don't have to be so formal with me." replied Zelda
"You've been queen for 5 years Zelda, are you telling me you're still not used to formality?."
Zelda sighed in defeat, "What's the news?"
"The rulers of Termina and Learia finally wrote back."

"Took them long enough." The stress of managing a nation during a war was getting to Zelda, it was bad enough that the Sheikah weren't around to help as they had been destroyed by Ganondorf years ago with a few survivors scattered around like Impa, but their long standing international allies were scared to lend support, fearing the wrath of Ganondorf. Termina and Learia were their final hope.
"Have they agreed to lend us their support?"

"Learia has not."
Zelda sighed audibly, "Well I can't say I'm surprised, they wouldn't want to lose their trade agreement with the Gerudo."

"However, it's not all bad." continued Impa, "Termina is sympathetic to our situation, and do not have a good relationship with the Gerudo. As such, they have agreed to give us financial support, and lend us 20,000 troops who are already on their way. They're led by the Prince-General of Termina, Prince Li--"

"Your Majesty!" exclaimed Jorulph, as he entered the room panting.
"What is it?"

"It's Ganondorf Your Majesty, he has ambushed Gerudo Fort!"
"What?! How is that even possible, why didn't the lookouts warn us they were coming?"
"That is precisely what I was wondering as well, but the lookouts say they appeared out of nowhere, the landscape was empty one second and they were there the next."

"UGH! He must've been using some sort of cloaking magic, damn him!"
"Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry are all ready Your Majesty, awaiting your command."
"Impa set out my battle gear, Jorulph I'll be right out".

Impa nodded and went to fetch her gear. A few years ago, she would have protested against letting her fight, but by now she knew it was futile. She wasn't worried about her fighting ability, Zelda outshone most of her students, but if anything were to happen to her, Hyrule would fall into chaos as their was no apparent heir. Hyrule couldn't lose another leader, especially not now.

Impa returned with Zelda's royal armor, her sheathed sword, a belt and twin daggers, and left the room.

She put on her armor, a intricate blend of purple, gold, blue and white. She attached her twin daggers to her belt. As she picked up her sword, her mind as if trying to hurt her, went back to the memory of when she briefly held the Master Sword.
The memory of Link and the day she...

No. She couldn't let herself think about that, not right now. Her people were counting on her.

She exited her tent and the hot desert air, full of grains of sand hit her, she was never gonna get used to that. 
She climbed the stairs to one of the walls of the fort, there waiting was Jorulph along with the other military leaders of her army. She looked over the wall and there he was, the bane of her existence, Ganondorf. How she wished to be the one to drive a sword through his chest. 

"Your Majesty." Jorulph and the other military leaders stood at attention when she arrived. "Awaiting your orders."

She nodded and looked back towards her own army in the middle of the fort, who were waiting for their leader to address them.

"Soldiers!" she addressed them, "The enemy waits right outside the door. Fight with all your heart, fight for Hyrule." 
She took a deep breath, and shouted "ATTACK!"

The gates opened, and the army raged out towards the Gerudo with a war cry. Ganondorf surprisingly, was nowhere to be seen now. Probably hiding behind his soldiers. Coward, thought Zelda as she motioned a servant to bring her horse.

She took the reins of her Albino horse, Storm, and nuzzled him as she got on him.
She unsheathed her sword, and followed her army out into the battlefield, where all hell had broken loose. She fought like a lioness. No Gerudo was safe as she cut down anyone who dared get in her path. Storm was taking some hits so she dismounted him and he galloped back to safety inside the fort.

She cut down a few more Gerudo's, until she was cornered by two of them.

"Look what we have here. The queen herself." said one of them, "King Ganondorf will reward us heavily for your head."

"I don't think we should kill her just yet." said the other. "Let's capture her and maybe the King will let her have our way with her first." he said as he checked her out with a smirk. "Then we can give her to the King and he can decide what to do with her."

"Yeah... I like this plan better." said the first soldier with a sick smile. Both of them laughed.
"I'd watch my tongue if I were you." said Zelda in a dangerous voice. She didn't usually enjoy killing but these two were going to be an exception.

"Oh and what are you gonna do if we don't?" said one soldier moving towards her.
He puckered up his lips and said "Now give me a kiss, 'Your Majesty'."

Zelda snickered, "I'll do you one better."
She took out her daggers and before the soldier could react she cut his lips clean off, he screamed, bleeding profusely from his face, and Zelda jammed her daggers in his chest, and then pulled them out kicking him. He died before he hit the ground.

She looked over to the other soldier, "Do you want a kiss too?"
He screamed in rage and swung his sword at her, which she parried with one of her daggers as she used the other one to slash his throat.

"Who's next?" she said as she looked to the crowd of Gerudo soldiers.

The battle raged on, neither side willing to back down. The sand was stained with blood, Gerudo and Hylian alike.

"Your Majesty. The soldiers are tired. I don't know how much longer we can keep this up for." said Jorulph, "What should we do?"

Zelda didn't have an answer for him but before she could think of one, the lookouts blew their horns. She looked at one who was pointing towards the horizon, and she couldn't believe her eyes.

The Terminian Army had arrived! They were saved!

The Gerudo saw this as well. Their general Ghirahim gave the order to retreat. Their forces fell back and some Hyruleans pursued to make sure they were gone. Cheers erupted throughout the soldiers.

Zelda breathed a sigh of relief as Impa came over, "Your Majesty, I estimate they'll be here within the next 10 minutes, you better get ready to greet and thank them."

"Of course, I'll just get cleaned up." said Zelda as she retreated to her tent to get cleaned up. She owed this Prince-General of Termina, who she hadn't met yet. She had heard the King of Termina had adopted a son, as he only had a daughter and Terminian Law didn't allow a woman to inherit the crown. It was a backward law, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

***

Zelda exited her tent after taking a quick shower to clean her of the blood and stains of war, and got into her royal garb. She saw Jorulph and Impa talking with a man, who she assumed to be the Prince-General of Termina. He had his back turned to her, so all she could see was his blonde hair. Long blonde hair. Messy too. Suddenly she noticed all sorts of familiarities.
Come on Zelda, stop overthinking this, she scolded herself, as she walked up to them.

"Your Majesty." Jorulph stood at attention as he saw Zelda approaching them.
"At ease Captain." she told Jorulph, then addressed the mystery man, "Prince-General, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of making your acqu-" she abruptly stopped mid-sentence, her throat jammed up and she felt as if words would never leave her mouth again. Why? Because the man had turned around and those bright blue eyes had pierced her again.

Oh boy.