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Chapter 1 - The Meeting

She knew the hero would come. She had seen him in her premonitions. You see, the princess Zelda was gifted—or perhaps cursed—with the ability to see visions regarding the destiny of her kingdom, Hyrule. The visions themselves were vague but she had an uncanny ability to interpret them accurately every time. She had this ability for as long as she could remember but stopped speaking about it after discovering that no one believed her other than Impa, Zelda's personal caretaker, a no-nonsense woman who probably knew Zelda better than she knew herself. Not even Zelda's own father believed her, who insisted that she simply had an overactive imagination. Her friends had simply laughed at her. However, when the events she interpreted from her visions actually came true time and time again, she knew this was not simply the result of her imagination. Rather, she knew that she was able to foretell the future through these visions. Even at ten years old, she had enough wisdom to realize that this ability was a powerful one.

For that reason, she was not at all surprised or alarmed when a boy nonchalantly entered her courtyard garden despite the surrounding area being full of patrolling guards. Zelda was excited to finally see him in person. He looked to be about her age and was wearing exactly what she had expected to see: a green tunic, brown boots, an odd green hat partially covering his blond hair as well as a sheathed sword and shield on his back.

Zelda was a sight herself among the flowers of the courtyard, wearing a lovely pink dress and a headdress covering her own blond hair. She wasted no time in introducing herself to the boy and explaining that she already knew he would come based on what she had seen in her prophecies, which she then described to him. She intuited that she could trust him with her secret and that he would not laugh at her or disbelieve her. After all, he obviously trusted that she would not scream for help at seeing an intruder in her private garden which would be an expected reaction in this situation.

Zelda told him about Ganondorf, the king of the Gerudo, who was presently trying to gain the trust of the king of Hyrule, Zelda's father. She pointed to a window behind her where Ganondorf could be seen at a distance kneeling before the king. She continued by telling Link that she was certain Ganondorf was only doing this so he could later overthrow the king and take over the kingdom. She also told him that she had tried to convince her father not to trust Ganondorf nor let him get close to the throne, but he stubbornly wouldn't listen, insisting that she needed to let the grown-ups handle grown-up issues. Zelda even gave Link a history lesson, teaching him about the royal family's legend of how Hyrule had been formed by the three goddesses, as well as about the Triforce and its significance. She finished by giving him the task of finding all three of the spiritual stones, the keys to opening up access to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce resides. She made it clear that it was imperative that they find the Triforce before Ganondorf did.

"I know you'll do a great job and save this kingdom from a terrible fate," Zelda assured him. "If you need any assistance, you can return here and I'll do anything I can to help you."

Even though Zelda had spoken with such eagerness and excitement that he couldn't get a word in edgewise during her monologue, at this point she was expecting him to give a nod of acknowledgment or grunt or whatever it is that mute protagonists do to communicate. Instead, she noticed a puzzled expression on his face as he said something that was completely unintelligible to her. He scratched the back of his neck in frustration.

She sweatdropped.

Oh, goddesses. The prophesies didn't mention this little detail, she thought frantically. It seemed that her kingdom's savior couldn't even speak the king's language. How was she going to communicate his destiny to him if he couldn't even understand her?

She spent some time going over the possibilities in her mind. Could she use some kind of signs or pictures to communicate with him? ...But then the reality hit her—she couldn't draw worth a damn, nor could she ask one of the castle's workers to do it without getting some very strange stares directed at her or, worse yet, Ganondorf being alerted. Furthermore, she doubted that a game of charades would enable her to communicate the importance of his destiny to him or imbue him with the will to risk life and limb for Hyrule anyway.

Although Zelda was already fluent in several languages because of her upbringing and was at least familiar with many more, she couldn't recognize the language he spoke at all. She tried out the other languages she knew but he didn't understand any of them either.

There was apparently only one option left—she would need to teach him her kingdom's dominant tongue, Hylian. Yet she knew this would take much time and could sense there was hardly any of that to spare. Her vague visions didn't give her much of an idea of how long it would be before Ganondorf assumed control of Hyrule, but she knew it would be quite soon. Another problem was figuring out where to lodge the boy and how he would stay undetected from the castle's workers and guards. She would have to work out those details later.

In her haste to lay out everything for him, she realized she had forgotten to ask his name, something the prophesies hadn't conveyed to her.

"My name...Zelda." She pointed to herself as she said it. "Your name?" She pointed at him. "What is your name?" She spoke slowly in the hope that this would help him understand better. She had to repeat what she said a few times before he comprehended her and replied.

"Link."

"Ah, Link! It's so nice to meet you!" She didn't know why, but the name sounded somewhat familiar to her. She stretched out a hand to him, expecting a handshake. However, he simply stared at her, then her hand, then back at her. Zelda decided to reach for his hand in order to shake it but noticed Link immediately tense up and back away a bit in response, preventing her from completing the gesture.

"Umm..." she pondered aloud, quite frustrated by the situation she was in. Where to begin? she wondered.

Well, she figured she should start with the most basic element of learning a new language—building vocabulary. She pointed at the grass and said "grass", then at some flowers which she also named out loud. She looked at Link anxiously, hoping he would understand that she was giving the names of these objects. She repeated their names a few times. Eventually, Link responded by saying the names as she pointed to them, albeit with some difficulty and a noticeable accent.

"Yes! That's right, Link! Very good!" She nodded her head in encouragement and started naming others things as well. Sky...wall...window...and so on and so forth.

He was learning fast, although Zelda was disheartened by his clear confusion after she pointed to herself and said "girl."

Link paused a moment before saying, "[…unintelligible...] Zelda?"

Zelda couldn't be sure, but it seemed like he must have thought she had just given him a different name for herself and was asking her to confirm if her name really was Zelda.

"My name is Zelda, yes. But I am a girl also," she said slowly, pointing at herself. "You are a boy." She then simultaneously pointed at him. Yet he still didn't seem to understand, tilting his head to the side and scrunching his brows in a sign of confusion.

"This...is going to take a while," Zelda muttered to herself in frustration, sweatdropping again.