How to Calm a Friend: How to Calm a Friend

How to Calm a Friend

A woman clad in a traveler's cloak, the hood raised to hide the features of her face, strolled into the nearby bookstore in Hyrule Castle Town, located about the magnificent Hyrule Castle. Long, ebony fingers roamed the spines of each of the books upon the many shelves of the shop as hidden eyes darted hungrily across each title. For a few moments the woman roamed each shelf until one book satisfied her hunger. With a quick motion, the book was removed from the shelf and purchased, carried hurryingly out of the shop securely in the woman's arms.

~*~*~

Zelda, the now Queen of Hyrule, sat silently upon one of the benches in the dining hall of Hyrule Castle, only stirring to turn a page of the newly purchased book in her grasp. Her blue eyes, the color of the sky after a spring rain, swept across its pages, soaking up everything the black pupils scanned. One by one the pages turned to reveal yet another surprising event.

`How lucky I was to find this novel!' she mused to herself.

She reached out her hand to grab hold to the teacup settled stoutly on its dish upon the table before her, raising it to her pink, full lips. The cup bowed before her, releasing its warm contents into her waiting mouth. As the warm liquid slid down her throat, it relieved every tension that procured as she read the book.

Suddenly a jostling noise echoes into her pointed ears nestled in her strawberry locks. For the first time in a few hours her eyes gazed in another direction, towards where the sound had come. She narrowed her eyes as the sound seemed to have faded away for a moment. Just as her eyes resumed their place on the open page, it sounded again.

`What in the name of the three goddesses could that be?' she asked herself, agitated at being taken from her book. With a heavy sigh, she set the book across the table and stood, exiting the hall to figure out what the noise could be about.

~*~*~

A clang erupted and then a shuffling noise. It all came from the next room, which was the kitchen. As silently as her small silhouette could offer, she made her way to the very entrance and poked her head into the room. Everything seemed to be in its place, the circular table in the middle of the room laden with circles of cheese, all sorts of silverware, breads, and other food stuffs. The fire in the stove located against the left wall twinkled and sparked, but another movement caught her eye; one that was most definitely out of place.

A woman of the same stature as herself, but with bronzer skin and hair the color of the morning sun, searched very frantically for something on the wine rack at the far wall from where Zelda stood.

“Kaetalya, what on Earth are you doing?” Zelda asked with a curious look on her face. She walked further into the room and rested beside the center table. Her eyes searched Kaetalya from head to foot to determine on her own what had got the woman so worked up.

Kaetalya, the head maid of Hyrule Castle, squealed in surprise and turned around quickly. “Oh, Zelda, you gave me a fright!” she exclaimed, a look of relief all over her features. As far as the eye could see everything of the maid seemed to be in place, except for the trails of tears lining her cheeks.

Zelda walked, almost floated, towards the maid, whom she called friend, a look of worry and sympathy upon her face. “Dear, what is wrong? Why are your cheeks so?” she asked, raising her right hand and gently stroking some of the tears from the woman's cheek with the back of her fingers.

The maid couldn't contain her strong features for much longer. As Zelda's fingers swept over her cheeks and cleared the old trail, a new path soon began to form. The tears rolled from her eyes at lightning speed. “Oh, Zelda, I can not take this much longer!” she exclaimed, draping her arms around her dearest friend. “He has come back, and I can not dare step foot into the same room as he!”

Zelda gently patted her back. The he whom Kaetalya spoke she knew all to well who it was; Kaetalya's ex-fiancé, Alex Mela. Kaetalya had poured every ounce of her body and soul into the man, only to be left alone time and time again without so much as a notice from Alex. Every time he came back, he swore he had written her a note, but she could never find any proof for his words. Therefore, she called the engagement off.

If leaving was not the worst part of it, the stress of the situation put upon the woman was so great, she lost her first, unborn child. It was many weeks till Kaetalya felt a little more like her old self. During those weeks she had felt so lost, alone, and confused. She didn't know if she would ever be able to recover. The part that helped her recover the most was the fact that Alex had once again disappeared, but now, it seemed he had returned to try to set things right.

“I can't take it much longer!” Kaetalya continued to scream into her friend's shoulder. “He keeps tearing the half of my heart that still wants to be with him away from me!”

“There, there, my dear Kaet, `tis nothing for you to fret over any longer. You are no longer bound to him by any means and are free to feel, well, free.”

“But my heart still yearns for him! I want to wrap my arms around him and be close to him once more! I still love him, Zelda! Will that ever go away?”

Zelda paused for a brief moment, thoughts of her past swimming through her mind. Kaetalya's predicament reminded Zelda all too well of the marriage between Link and herself. The marriage occurred only because of the two loses they both had suffered before. Neither one were getting what they needed, no matter how hard they tried. The loves they lost just could not be replaced as they had hoped. Finally one had to act out, sending the other one into further depression. Before they both knew it, the marriage had ended, one remaining back at the castle to live with the thoughts of the actions taken while the other had to endure the extent of those actions.

A few months after being bombarded with the many memories contained within the walls of the castle, Zelda left to clear her mind. When she returned, her heart leapt, but her conscience drowned, especially since the man she had sent away walked the halls of the castle once again with his new life, new wife, and new babies; those things she had hoped for, he found, while she remained in limbo.

Before she could stop the words from leaving her mouth, they sprang forth. “I slept with Link.”

The tears that seemed to be unconquerable stopped abruptly. Kaetalya blinked back the rest of the tears that could not fall as her knees buckled below her. Zelda quickly moved, Kaetalya still in her grasp, towards a group of chairs against the wall near the exit, depositing Kaetalya quickly before her grip slackened too much. She plopped in a chair next to the maid, her cheeks flustered like never before.

`Why did I say that?!' she scolded herself.

“You slept with your ex-husband?! Your married ex-husband?!” exclaimed Kaetalya in the hands she had placed before her mouth. She couldn't move her eyes from Zelda, astonished at the news. She always believed Zelda to be so pure and not do something that she herself had done while Zelda had been away.

“I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. You were in such a frenzy and, well, I suppose I just made it worse, didn't I?” she said, lowering her head in embarrassment.

A few moments of unnerving silence for Zelda passed between the two ladies before something was said. “Actually, I'm doing alright now.”