Epona thundered out of the ranch, making Link cling onto Shade so that his wolf would not fall. Link urged Epona into a quicker gallop with a small motion of his heels, which Epona responded to rapidly. Link moved Epona around the walls of the ranch, trying to spot where the royal family could be, and hoping that moblins had not found them.

The smell of smoke reached his nose, and he looked up to see the smoky beacon from the ranch, signalling to Castletown that there was an emergency. Glad that Talon had managed to do it so quickly, Link kept following the walls, all the while, Shade kept alert ,his ears pointed and listening, as well as his sensing any trace of Moblins.

All of a sudden, Shade barked loudly, making Link bring to an abrupt stop, which she reared briefly at. Link turned to Shade, who had his head pointing perpendicular to where they were traveling, his large amber eyes conveying the scene which he had spotted. Link too craned his neck, and his stomach lurched as he saw a small army of moblins, all attacking a small group of soldiers, defending the carriage. Link was sure he could hear panicked shouting coming from the carriage itself, but this was soon drowned out, as Shade started snarling ferociously, but didn't give their position away.

Deciding that action had to be taken immediately, Link motioned to Shade, who leapt off Epona's back, adopting a low slung stalking position, the snarl never leaving his face. Link withdrew his bow and an arrow, and spurred Epona forwards, slowly.

As Link and his animal allies approached slowly, they observed as the last brave soldier was knocked to the ground unconscious by a heavy club blow to the head. He joined all the other soldiers on the ground, some writhing in pain on the floor, others straight up killed. Noticing that the carriage had doors on both sides, the armoured moblin grunted, sending moblins to surround the carriage on both sides, preventing any escape attempts. It was obvious that the Princess and King had been planning on escaping, as the sound of a slamming door was clearly visible over chortling grunts of the moblins.

To the surprise of Link, the armoured moblin then started to speak, addressing the royals in language he could understand. "Now… your highnesses. Now that we have time to talk…"

There was an angry retort from the carriage, which sounded like the king. "King Moblin! What is the meaning of this outrage?" Link brought Epona to a silent stop, thinking to Shade, "Wait. If they attempt to get them out of the carriage, I'll fire an arrow. I'll then whistle if I am in trouble. You know what to do then, friend." Shade got the message, and nodded his black head slowly, not revealing that they were not that far from the closest moblin. They all had their backs turned to him, so they had managed to get very close to them.

King Moblin laughed, prompting the other moblins to join in with him. "Why, I'm not after much. Just your daughter, Princess Zelda!"

Link had the same reaction as he heard from the carriage. "So, kidnap?" he thought angrily, slotting an arrow onto his bow string, but kept the bow low.

"What makes you think I would hand over my only daughter, and heir to Hyrule to you?" the king roared. Link heard quiet panicked sobs coming from the carriage, evidence of Zelda's distress.

King Moblin smiled. "This!" He grunted loudly, and a moblin moved forwards, and reached for the carriage door. That was all the Link needed to take action. "Stay hidden!" he thought to Shade, as he raised his bow to his eye, and shouted in defiance. All of the moblins snapped their heads around at the sound, including the moblin who now had his scaled hand on the handle of the carriage. Link released the arrow as Epona reared fully backwards, a truly terrifying sight to see. The arrow shot through the air, impaling itself into the exposed moblin's chest, instantly killing it.

King Moblin roared in anger, and ordered his moblins to surge towards Link. The moblins charged at Link, who realised that alone, he stood no chance against the 50 odd moblins. He drew his sword and shield, and urged Epona forwards, into the oncoming flood of moblins. The moblins were confused, not used to their targets charging headfirst into them. They all split as Link and Epona galloped forwards. Link wanted to draw the moblins away from the carriage and into the awaiting jaws of Shade, who was waiting patiently, ready to pounce. He veered Epona hard to the right, and succeeded in getting the moblins to follow him.

It was then that Link whistled loudly, halting Epona by the awaiting Shade. The moblins were not expecting the true terror of the onslaught that now presented itself to them. Shade leapt at the nearest moblins, his amber eyes unusually red, his razor sharp claws fully extended, and jaws open, a deafening roar being emitted from his throat. Three moblins were blown fully over as Shade slammed into them, raking at their chests, and one was unfortunate to have Shade's jaws close around its throat.

Shade did not this slow him down in his attacks. With one moblin most definitely dead, and another two moaning in agony, he snapped his head up, and snarled ferociously at the moblins in front of him, his upper lip moving with the aggression. The moblins backed up, only to meet with another attack.

Whilst Shade had busied himself with the moblins, Link had dismounted Epona, and charged back into the battle, fully mobile on foot. He winced as Shade had torn at the moblin's throat, imagining the pain that the moblin must have experienced, however short it was. The other moblins were backing up quickly, and Link snuck behind them quickly. With their backs open to him, he slashed with his sword aggressively, creating neat but deep wounds along the backs of several moblins. These moblins met their allies on the ground, as Link and Shade reunited, standing together.

They both looked towards the remaining moblins angrily, who just glanced at each other, and gulped. Fortunately for them, King Moblin now moved forwards in front of them, facing Shade and Link. Link almost had to move in front of Shade, who started snarling and roaring violently at the sight of King Moblin. Link was trying to think why, until he noticed the armour the King Moblin wore.

His memory flashed back to that night 10 years ago, when he first met Shade, and his parents were killed. His memory focused, and he remembered the moment his parents had been killed, and the huge armoured moblin that had ordered the whole attack in the first place, killing his friends and family, and the mother of Shade. King Moblin.

Link looked defiantly at King Moblin, as Shade continually growled at the murderer. Eventually, King Moblin spoke up, "Who are you, who so bravely defend this carriage, and slaughters my minions without a thought?"

"You are one to talk, 'King'" Link shouted, raising his shield. "You talk about slaughter, yet that is all you do. You burn entire villages to the ground, including mine, 10 years ago."

King Moblin was taken aback by this realisation. "Impossible. Everyone in that village was murdered, and anyone who could have escaped would have gotten lost or killed by the creatures in the woods."

"Well, I seem to be the impossible, as does my friend here…" Link spat, gesturing towards Shade, who barked angrily. "We both survived, as you killed his mother only when he was a young pup."

King Moblin laughed at this. "So, you want revenge? That won't bring back your families…"

King Moblin stopped mid-sentence, as he noticed a golden light spilling out of Link's left hand. He did not notice the similar light coming from Shade's paw, obscured by his thick dense fur. Link unwittingly lifted his hand up, showing the symbol of Farore on the back of it. He then spoke, in a wild voice, one that was not his. "Leave this place, now. Never return to pillage, or suffer the consequences. Take this as a warning!"

Simultaneously, Link and Shade surged forwards, Link heading straight at King Moblin whilst Shade kept to his side. Shade leapt high, and ripped the moblin's helmet off of his head. This distracted King Moblin, whilst Link raised his sword, and sliced at the moblin's right arm.

King Moblin roared in pain as the sword sliced cleanly through the bone in his shoulder, severing the limb from his body. As the limb crashed to the ground, King Moblin staggered, and several moblins rushed to support him. Shade landed, and thrust the helmet out of his jaws, landing next to the severed arm.

With this, King Moblin got the message, and ordered his soldiers to retreat. Running as quickly as possible without an arm, King Moblin scarpered, vanishing into the forest en route to their base. This left Link and Shade standing alone, the golden light dimming from their appendages.

As Link regained complete control, he heard the sound of thundering hooves in front and behind him. Epona was trotting calmly up to him, and he stroked her muzzle as she reached him. Link turned his head towards the louder sound of hooves, and was relieved to see a large portion of the Hylian Knights arriving, in full armour. He recognized Captain Flank at the head of them all, who wasted no time in going up to the Royal carriage.

"Your majesties!" he announced loudly, once his steed had halted. "Are you alright?" He glanced with an awed expression at Link and Shade, who stood calmly in the midst of the unconscious guards and dead moblins. "We'll talk later!" he mouthed to both of them, before turning his attention to the slowly opening doors of the carriage.

Slowly but surely, both the King and Princess made their way out of their carriage, clearly traumatised. "Wh... what happened to the Moblins?" the King stammered, looking at Captain Flank confusedly, as Zelda glanced over to Link and Shade with a curious look. Link's expression did not change as she looked at him, but rather smiled briefly as Shade started to Link his hand gently, a true change from what he had been not a few minutes ago.

"With all respect your majesty, I was going to ask you the same question, as we just arrived!" the captain replied. The two paused, before everyone's gaze turned towards Link, Shade and Epona.

Link realised they were waiting for him to speak. "Well, with due respect, I am glad that your majesties are in good health." He bowed politely, Shade dipping his head quickly. "I was sent by Captain Flank to check the moblin situation in Hyrule field with Talon of LonLon ranch, when I found that a single moblin was attacking the ranch from within, which I dealt with. Together, we came to the conclusion that there would be other Moblins where there was one, and so I set off to find the other moblins, who had ambushed the carriage here."

"They were threatening to take me, for goodness knows what…" Zelda spoke up, looking at Shade.

"My goodness, the monsters!" some knights piped up. Their attention was drawn to the bodies of the royal guards, who had now started to become conscious again, and started tending to the injuries, carefully avoiding the dead moblins.

"Well, what happened after they threatened you?" Captain Flank asked, knowing full well what had happened.

"Well, I guess this young man and… wolf dealt with them!" The king replied, looking back to Link and Shade as Zelda moved down from the carriage. "I must admit, as soon as we heard attempts to open the carriage doors, we both panicked, not looking out of the windows. But, I did hear angry shouting, obviously from our young hero and the vicious roaring from the wolf, so I presume that they dealt with the moblins on his own…"

Zelda meanwhile was walking slowly up to Link and Shade, who had his eyes transfixed on Zelda. Link noticed that Shade's jaws were red from the blood, so quickly withdrew a small white cloth from his tunic, and wiped Shade's mouth clean. Shade tried squirming out of it, but ended up with a significantly cleaner face. Zelda giggled as she watched this going on. "I presume that you two work together, as nobody has a pet wolf…"

Link replied respectfully. "Y-yes your majesty. We have been together for a long while now, ever since I was four years old and he was a wolf pup."

Zelda smiled. "And judging by your uniform, you must be with the Hyrule Knights, although not a proper one yet?"

"Again, you are correct." Link replied. "Ever since our families were killed by King Moblin and his minions ten years ago, we have been living with the Hyrule Knights…"

Zelda wasn't listening, instead she was looking carefully at Shade, who stared calmly back at her. "I've heard stories of a young person in Castletown with a large wolf as a companion. You wouldn't be Link, would you?" she asked.

"Yes, your majesty." Link replied, amazed that he was being recognised. "This is Shade, my long-time companion." He gestured to Shade, who watched Zelda's hand as it slowly descended towards his furry head.

"Zelda!" came a shout from the King. Zelda, Shade and Link all moved to where the voice came from, and saw that the king had started moving back into the carriage."

"I suppose I had better go." Zelda said, whilst starting to move back to the carriage. She stopped, before looking back at Link. "Thank you for what you two did. I won't forget this, nor will you." With that, she hurried back up into the carriage compartment, now heavily guarded by some Hyrule Knights, whilst the others tended to the injured soldiers.

Link felt a two noses pressing into him. One was from Shade, who was rubbing his face affectionately against his legs, whilst Epona was nosing his shoulder gently. Sighing, Link mounted Epona, and caught Shade as he leapt up. Urging them forwards, Link followed suit of the Hyrulian Knights, leaving the bloodbath far behind him, along with King Moblin's severed arm and helmet.

Many hours later, King Moblin and his soldiers reached the safety of their base. He had bled profusely, but was still conscious, although pitifully weak. He was taken straight to the Moblin doctors, who clumsily sewed up the wound.

Now, King Moblin was standing in a cold harsh room, in front of the one who had sent him on the mission in the first place. "Now…" came the cruel voice. "Tell me why you have failed in your task."

King Moblin recounted everything that had taken place, but was stopped by his dark lord when he mentioned the light shining from Link's hand.

"Are you positive?" the voice asked, to which King Moblin nodded anxiously. The voice was silent for a few minutes, contemplating. Eventually, a response came. "Excellent. Please, accept this as my reward…"

A pulse of dark energy was sent spiralling into King Moblin, instantly killing him. The figure which had sent the energy stood up, thinking hard.

"So, the third holder reveals himself. Interesting."


A/N: Well, that was a lot of action in that chapter! Shade is becoming a real beast (pun intended) and has shown the first true signs of the Triforce. How will this develop? Who is this mysterious dark lord? (Go on, have a guess).

Anways, the next chapter will skip forward another four years, so Link will now be 18, and this is where the meat of the story will begin. This story has only just begun, so buckle up, and don't lose an arm along the way! Reviews appreciated, and see you next time!