In Nayru's Palm

"Zelda...Zelda, wake up."
I groaned, my body stiff from lying on the ground. Callused hands shook at my shoulders, which were still covered by the gown I had worn the day before. When the hand didn't stop shaking me, I sat up, rubbing my eyes and immediately wishing I hadn't. My hands were covered in dust, and my eyes instantly began to itch.
"Highness, here," whispered Impa gently, and I felt something press against my right hand. When I groped at it, I felt a bowl just as it tilted from impact and poured most of its contents on my lap. My caretaker sighed, then took my hands in one of hers and led them to the bowl she had set down with her other hand. Deftly she rubbed the grit off my hands with her thumbs, then wiped at my face. Hesitantly I cracked open one of my eyelids to look at her. Her silver eyelashes were close together, as were her eyebrows, as she searched for any more traces of grime in my face. When she noticed I had opened my eyes, she gave me a strained smile.
“There you go, Zelda,” she said softly, getting to her feet in one fluid motion. I watched her move to a puddle further into the cave we had dropped into the night before, when we had been chased out of my home—our home—by the Gerudo king. When the memory imposed itself on the forefront of my mind, I shuddered, remembering the fear, the faces…I had seen too many people killed yesterday. Soldiers, civilians…My people. So many dead now.
Impa’s return to her feet brought me out of those memories, though I was still seeing crimson flashes every time I blinked. She walked across the cave and knelt in front of a stone that reminded me uncomfortably of a grave marker, but the design was familiar. Whenever I tried to look at it, I got a strange feeling in my head, and I felt like I was being watched, like my soul was under scrutiny.
“Come here, Zelda.”
I got up and walked over to her. I knelt next to her, trying my hardest not to step on my skirt, but feeling like it was wasted effort. At this proximity, the stone was in clear view, and when I met the eyelike design on its surface, it seemed like a needle was prodding me between the eyes, all the way back to the other side of my skull. When I crushed my eyelids closed, a finger pressed itself to my forehead.
“I apologize, Zelda,” said Impa, her voice guilty. The pain in my head disappeared. “Now it should recognize you.”
When I brought my eyes back to the stone, it was still disconcerting, but this time I got the feeling that it was pulling me in, rather than trying to repel me. It still gave me a headache.
“I don’t like this stone, Impa.”
She ignored me. “I need you to look into the eye, Zelda.”
“I am—”
“I mean really look into it, Highness.”
I glanced at her, unsure of what she was asking, but Impa had never wished me harm before. Steeling myself, I looked into the eye.
Images flashed before my eyes like flickers of color, but when I began to try to sort it all out, some of them stood out.
…soldiers limped up a hill, some of them battered beyond recognition, some eyes rolling…
…horses stood at varying intervals in a pasture, every head up with ears up, each looking frazzled and startled, sweat coating their flanks and shoulders and chests…
…strange, one-eyed monsters with heads that rotated on their shoulders stood beneath what seemed to be a giant skull…
…a Gerudo woman and a cow stood at a distance, between a canyon wall and a large river…
…a young boy in green ran up a set of stairs onto a small lawn…
…he stood and stared up at something out of the sight of the viewer…
…hesitating, he walked to the right—his left—and…
…slowly disappeared from view…
No, I thought desperately, wishing that he would come back within my eyesight as I watched red tektites jump each other, fighting furiously with serrated legs on a rocky mountain trail. The boy in green, Link, was integral. He may only be about my age—about ten, but he may have been younger—but he had been prophesied to be the one to save Hyrule. I should know. I made the prophecy.
I had had a dream where dark, malevolent clouds had billowed over the land, but a ray of light from the forest had parted the clouds and lit everything up, including a boy in green followed by a fairy and holding the Spiritual Stone of the Forest. Very few days had gone by before the boy himself had shown up in my courtyard, fairy flitting behind him and the stone in his pocket. Not to mention the sword and shield strapped to his back. That meeting, I had told him all of what was going on in my castle. I told him of the legend of the three goddesses, Din, Farore, and Nayru, and how the triangle would react to different people. If a good person touched it, found the Sacred Realm, Hyrule would be a paradise. If someone evil got ahold of the relic, Hyrule would be a place of evil. I also told him about how to get to the triangle with the three spiritual stones and the Ocarina of Time, through the Temple of Time.
I then showed him, through our window, the Gerudo prince Ganondorf coming into our audience chamber swearing allegiance to my father. An allegiance that he had proved insincere last night, I thought bitterly. He truly was the dark clouds embodied. Ganondorf had killed my father, the king, and tried to get me, and get the Ocarina of Time. He killed the Sheikah that had been reporting to Impa with Link’s whereabouts and his progress. If it had not been for Impa, he would probably have killed me and gotten the Ocarina.
And he still thought I had it, but I had thrown it to Link as we had gone past, just out of the castle walls. I was glad that I had seen him safe since then, for I had no idea what Ganondorf had done to him; all I had known that night was that Ganondorf had suddenly stopped chasing us for a brief span of Time right after we had seen Link.
I was just glad he was okay.