Guessing Games
Epilogue - Claim Your Prize



"Are you ready?"

Once again on the training ground, Ralph leveled his sword at his sparring partner.

"Ready."

The two charged each other, blades ringing as they clashed. They backed off, circling, until Link feinted far to the right, then charged the center. Placing his blade once again at Ralph's wrist, he twisted the sword in a circle, disarming the other warrior. Within a moment his sword was at Ralph's throat.

He lowered it with a grin. "You really need to learn how to defend against that technique."

Ralph sighed. "I'm never going to get this right."

"Sure you will. You just need practice. The defense against that particular attack is really straightforward. Pretty obvious actually."

"And we all know how good I am at figuring *those* out," Ralph said, rollling his eyes. "I just can't- oh."

"Oh? Oh what?"

"I think I got it." Ralph walked over to retrieve his sword and thoughtfully returned to the opening stance.

"Ready?"

"Yes. Ready."

This time Link went straight for the disarm. He plunged forward, putting his blade to Ralph's wrist. When he began to twirl the blade however, Ralph turned his arm in the opposite direction, effectively canceling out the motion. He didn't stop there however. He kept going, throwing Link off balance a bit and causing the sword to fly from the elf's hand, landing almost two feet away.

Trying to press his advantage, Ralph moved forward to finish, but Link had already ducked to the side and picked up his weapon. Coming up behind the other fighter, Link manuevered his sword arm around Ralph's shoulder, pressing the blade length-wise up against his throat.

"Drop the sword, prettyboy," he said smugly.

Ralph did as he was told, and turned to find Link gazing at him with a triumphant expression.

"You did it Ralph! You figured out how to defend!"

Ralph sighed gloomily. "I guess. Not that it helped. I'm never going to be as good at this as you are."

"Well, I should hope you will!" Link said indignantly, causing Ralph to look up at him in surprise. Link grinned.

"You can't very well expect me to defend you all the time when we're on a quest."

Ralph's eyes grew very wide. "You... you mean that? Really? I could go on a quest with you?"

Link stepped forward, sheathing his sword. "Of course. You don't think I'd leave without you, do you?" As he was close enough, Link leaned in and kissed Ralph's lips softly.

"But..." Ralph trained his eyes on the ground. "Do you think I'll be ready?"

"Well, there's only one way to be sure!"

Ralph looked up again, startled. He gave Link a questioning look.

Link didn't answer, but raised his sword once more, assuming the fighting position.

"Ready?"

Ralph retrieved his sword and mimicked the stance.

"Ready."



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