Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, any of the characters in the Zelda series or the "original characters" that I created based on them, except their name (if I did, I wouldn't waste my time here). I'm not making any money of this and if I forgot anything else in this disclaimer I did or didn't do that as well.
Chapter 4 – Bad preparations
"We should have gotten some guards with us," Rowin said as they rode away.
"Yeah," Franklin agreed, "but we couldn't do that."
"What for?" Rowin frowned.
"First of all," Franklin said, "they're needed to protect the sanctuary, and second of all, did you see how those nurses reacted to me? I bet the guards will even be worse, thinking it's more important to "show me my place" than to defeat whatever evil is lurking here."
"But you can show them…" Rowin started, but Franklin cut him off.
"No time," he said, "besides, I only want to know what that guy knows. I'm not going to fight this evil all alone."
"Oh," Rowin replied.
"Disappointed?" Franklin grinned, "thought you were riding with the sort of hero William wasn't? Let me tell you something. I am a more than able swordsman. But I don't have a death wish. I have taken on whole war bands of Moblins single handed, but only because I knew I could handle them. If there were too many for me, I'd leave them and return with some able men from Pollykin village. And that's the same I'll do here."
"I see," Rowin nodded, but didn't really sounded convinced, "uhm, it's this way."
Rowin and Franklin turned south at the river and crossed a large wooden bridge.
As they rode up a large stone field, Franklin suddenly motioned Rowin to stop.
"Wha…" Rowin started to ask, but a gesture of Franklin made him stop.
Franklin quietly drew his sword and readied his shield, and rode slowly forward. From his left, a large Moblin jumped up from behind a rock, his warcry stopping as Franklin's sword hit him. From behind nearly every rock, a Moblin jumped up, waving their swords in the air. Franklin swung his sword around and struck a Moblin with every blow.
"Ride on!" he yelled at Rowin, "and don't stop!"
Rowin nodded and urged his horse onward, trampling a Moblin who jumped in front of him in an attempt to stop him. He didn't look where he was going, only that he wanted to get away from the Moblins. When he saw another one coming up from the left, he suddenly realised that he should have turned back to the safety of the sanctuary. He tried to draw his sword, but the Moblin had already grabbed the halter on the head of the horse and dragged it down to the ground. Rowin was lucky enough to be thrown out of the saddle because of the shock, or he would have been stuck under it. The Moblin let go of the horse and turned to Rowin, raising his sword and sported a wicked grin. Rowin glanced towards his horse that quickly got up, seeing if he could jump on and get away before the sword came down, when the horse seemed to explode in a fountain of red. Rowin flinched as he felt the blood splatter on his face and when he looked again, he saw another Moblin that just cleaved his horse in two with a huge axe. He didn't even notice the first Moblin anymore, until a large knife passed him and buried itself in the Moblin. The Moblin with the axe turned his attention from Rowin to where the knife came from, and Rowin simply followed his gaze.
There he saw Franklin killing one of the last Moblins with his sword, as he used one of the swords of the Moblins as a crude shield. His own wooden shield already lay shattered at his feet, the metal frame lodged in the skull of a Moblin. Suddenly Franklin saw an opening and threw the Moblin sword towards the axe-wielding Moblin. As he parried the throw, Franklin dodged the blow of the last Moblin, picking up another stray knife in the process and planted it deep in the sides of his attacker. He simply grunted and swung one last time before his brain registered he was dead. The Moblin with the axe bellowed loudly and stomped the ground, indicating he was ready to charge. Franklin simply made a step back, readying his sword behind him, the tip facing the Moblin, as if he wanted to make a giant thrust. Rowin saw nothing of panic on his face, even though there was no way Franklin could survive that!
Rowin blinked. He was there too! He was at the battlefield and when that Moblin killed Franklin, he would come to kill him! Rowin looked back at the Moblin, who was still focussed on Franklin, and saw him slowly come in motion. Rowin drew his sword and, be it luck or plan, the tip cut the leg of the Moblin. Not deep, but deep enough to distract the Moblin, causing him to look back. At that point, Franklin dashed forward, driving his sword forward, entering the throat of the Moblin, piercing his heart. Franklin stepped to the side as the thundering Moblin passed a few more steps before falling to the ground.
"That was the last one," Franklin said as he calmly walked up to the Moblin, "which is good, because I ran out of weapons."
Rowin blinked and looked around. Franklin's horse lay dead on the ground, surrounded by the corpses of several Moblins. Rowin made a quick count.
"Ten?" he shouted out, "you killed ten? By yourself?"
Franklin frowned and looked around. He suddenly pointed to one, not far from his horse.
"You can't count that one," he said, "that's half of the one near that stone over there. So that's only nineteen… Right, but I forgot the one that was about to attack you, so that is ten…"
"No one can kill ten Moblins by himself!"
"Doesn't matter really," Franklin said to Rowin as he kneeled by his horse, "we have things to do. In case you didn't notice, we don't have any horses anymore, which means we'll move slower and we'll have to carry more. Now, I don't know anything about these lands, so I don't know if or when more Moblins will show up. We still need to find that guy Sahasrahla, remember?"
"You killed ten Moblins…" Rowin repeated.
"Yeah," Franklin nodded, "and I lost my shield in the process, broke one of my back up knifes, sprung my bowstring as my horse went down, and I'm bleeding pretty fucking bad here. So will you stop freaking out and fucking move so we can get to safety?"
Rowin blinked and now saw Franklin was indeed bleeding. A piece of metal was sticking out of his leg, and a metal spike was stuck in his shield-arm. Blood ran over his sword-arm, starting somewhere just under his shoulder.
"Does… does it…" Rowin started but Franklin cut him short.
"Safety first, remember? Now let's get the fuck out of here!"
Rowin nodded and turned to his horse. When he saw his saddlebag had landed in the intestines of the horse, he turned and threw up.
Some time later, they arrived at a large stone bridge.
"It's this way," Rowin said, pointing to a small path to the left.
"Good," Franklin nodded and put his saddlebag down, "we stop here for a while, so I can tend my wounds. We should be safe enough," he said as he looked around.
Rowin nodded and scanned the area.
"Better grab your sword, just in case," Franklin looked up to him from his saddlebag.
Rowin nodded again and drew his sword, as Franklin took out some bottles. He pulled out the spike out of his arm and the piece of metal out of his leg, and blood gushed out of the wound. Franklin didn't even blink, but did stop for a moment to look up to Rowin, who watched looking a bit faint.
"You're not gonna throw up again, are you?" he raised an eyebrow.
Rowin turned slightly red and looked away.
"Relax," Franklin grinned as he released a fairy from the bottle, "I'm just teasing you. It's completely understandable you threw up when you saw what was left of your horse. I would be surprised if you didn't."
"Well, you didn't," Rowin replied, glancing at Franklin.
"I've seen a lot in the past year," Franklin said, "stuff that still haunt me in my dreams. Anyway… time to go again. I hope we won't have any trouble now that we don't have our horses."
"We would have been forced to leave the horses behind anyway," Rowin said, "we have to climb a bit."
"Fuck," Franklin hissed as he stretched his back, placing his hands on his lower back, "if I had known that, I would have looked for a backpack or something."
"I'm sorry…" Rowin shook his head, "it slipped my mind. This whole thing…" he motioned around him as if to show what he meant, "it was a complete impulse."
"Thought so," Franklin grinned, "have you ever been in a fight?"
"I know how to use my sword," Rowin answered, narrowing his eyes a bit.
"That's not what I meant," Franklin shook his head, "I knew how to use a sword, and so did William, but until last year, when we went out to fight Vaati, none of us had been in a real fight. And it's totally different than knowing how to use a sword."
"Oh…" Rowin looked away a bit, "then no… today was my first real fight."
"Fuck," Franklin kicked a small rock away and looked back at Rowin, shaking his head, "no, it's not you I'm mad at, it's me. I should have thought about bringing some sticks with me. That way, I could have taught you some moves traditional sword instructors don't teach. Then again," he sighed, "I didn't really expect to spend a lot of time with you."
"Guess this trip isn't what you expected to be," Rowin tried to smile.
"Heh," Franklin grinned without humour, "you can say that again. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it. Well, time to go."
Rowin nodded and wanted to put his sword away, but then decided against it. He was going to be in a fight, whatever happened, so he better be prepared. He picked up his saddlebag and put in on his shoulder.
AN: This chapter was supposed to be longer and include Sahasrahla, but then I noticed how long the chapter actually was and decided to cut it in two parts. And more bad news, the next update will be a few days late, since I'll be away on a small vacation, but it should be up on Saturday or Sunday.
Then again, it's not like anyone will be complaining, since this story doesn't get any reviews at all…
