Disclaimer: Bon Anné! Happy New Year and all that other nonsense! Oh yep, still not owning Zelda.
A.N: This chapter is dedicated to Liz, who knows what Aidyn looks like better than I do.
Chapter 4:Twin Antics
"Link! Hey Link!"
Zelda ran up to her victorious friend, breathing heavily.
"Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier."
"Hrn."
Link pretended not to notice that she was there and went back to inspecting his sword.
"You're going to leave everyone standing and everyone will eat their words."
"Hrn."
Zelda sighed in exasperation and then grinned. She walked up behind him and kissed him on the cheek. He jumped a mile and spun around, his cheeks bright red.
"Wh..what was that for?!" He spluttered.
Zelda giggled.
"You won, silly. That deserved another kiss."
Link pouted and folded his arms.
"I was supposed to kiss you that time." He muttered.
"No you weren't. You don't get to kiss me until you win outright."
"But I don't like you anymore." Link said stubbornly.
"Oh shut up." Zelda laughed. "I'm sorry I said those things and you're not immature in any shape or form of the word. And if anything was anyone's fault it was Ganondorf's."
"I suppose so."
"Friends?" Zelda asked, offering Link her hand.
"Friends." Link replied, taking it.
Now that everything was settled, the pair made their way to their tree to watch Aidyn's fight against Voren, the winning twin. Perched up in the branches, they got the best view of the whole tournament and nobody bothered to scramble up into the branches with them so they could talk as freely as they wanted.
"Aidyn will win this one." Link said, swinging his feet.
"I'm not going to disagree with you." Zelda agreed, offering him a bagful of candied orange peel which he eagerly accepted and started to nibble on.
"Voren looks quite a good opponent." Link said thoughtfully, licking sugar from his lips.
"I wonder where the other brother is?" Zelda pondered.
"Hunh?"
Zelda put her sweets back into her pocket and chewed her lip thoughtfully.
"Well, his family's over there, you can see the resemblance, but Forn isn't there."
Link squinted over her shoulder and spied the group of five people, a man, woman and three little girls.
"I see what you mean..."
******
Aidyn stretched out his fingers before grabbing his wooden sword and heading out to the arena. He took a deep breath and watched his breath freeze as he walked through the snow. The applause he was greeted with was as rapturous as it had always been for his father all those years before. Voren followed him out, grinning broadly and waving at his family. As a dignified and experienced competitor, Aidyn offered his opponent his hand, which Voren shook, still grinning.
"Good luck." Aidyn said.
"You too." Voren said, trying to keep his face straight.
"Fight!"
Voren was first off the mark, making to lunge at Aidyn towards the left and then changing his mind at the last minute to lunging to the right. Aidyn smiled to himself and leapt out of the way.
Cunning. No wonder Dad warned me about him, Aidyn thought to himself. Well, I'll have to show him that I'm not my father's son for nothing.
Aidyn sidestepped to the left, chanelling Voren with him. He feined ducking to the right, succeeded in drawing Voren the way he wanted him to go and then attacked, aiming a powerful blow straight at the wooden blade of his opponent's sword. He felt the boy's grip falter momentarily before he sturdied himself. They moved around the arena, their swords clacking rhythmically and being accompanied by cheers and applause. Voren began to falter and then paused.
"Hey Aidyn." He asked, breathing heavily. "Do you mind if I go get a drink? Only I have a bit of a breathing problem you see, allergic to dust."
"Sure, go ahead." Aidyn said, calling for a time out.
Voren walked off, much to the confusion of the crowd, in particular the two little spies in the tree.
"Now where is he going?" Link asked, leaning out of the tree to follow him and nearly toppling headfirst out of the branches.
Zelda leaned out too, slightly more discreetly.
"It seems he's gone inside for something, though Nayru only knows what. He seemed out of breath though, maybe he's gone to get a drink."
Link chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully.
"If it were me, I wouldn't have let him go. Aidyn had a good rhythm going there, breaking it may cost him the match."
"Oh come on, Aidyn could beat him standing on his head." Zelda laughed. "He'll get the rhythm back."
Link looked at her curiously.
"What?"
"You like him don't you?"
"What are you talking about?" Zelda asked.
Link grinned.
"You like Aidyn."
"Of course I like him, he's like a brother to me and... oh grow up!" Zelda snapped, understanding Link's hint after previously missing it.
"Zelda and Aidyn, sitting in a tree..." Link chorused, forgetting the fact that he was the one in that situation and not the boy in the ring.
"I wonder where Ruto is." Zelda interrupted.
Link's face paled.
"You wouldn't."
"I would."
"You... Voren's back." Link said, eager to get Zelda's mind back on the match and off a certain amphibian princess.
Aidyn had taken up his fighter's stance again and waited for Voren to do the same.
"Feeling better?" He inquired.
"Hunh? Oh yeah, thanks mate." Voren replied.
Aidyn noticed that he didn't look at all out of breath now, but didn't have time to reflect as Voren began his assault again and took the reigning champion by surprise. He began with a strong lunge to the left, as Aidyn had expected he didn't change direction or anything. As the fight wore on, Aidyn was becoming increasingly more confused as Voren seemed to be completely full of energy.
Where's he getting all this energy from? I'm still recovering from the first round and it's as though he's changed his complete attack style, like he's using brawn instead of brains...He thought. Well, if that's his game then two can play.
Aidyn attacked with brute force, using his greater altitude to accumulate speed with fierce downward swipes. Just as he was beginning to get the upper hand however, Voren began to breathe heavily again and called for a time out.
"Sorry Aids, but I gotta go get another drink." He panted. Do you mind?"
"If you must." Aidyn replied, wiping his hands on his pants. "But make it quick OK?"
"OK." Voren said, grinning before running off to the tent again.
Aidyn watched as his opponent ran back to the tent, irritated at the interruption to the battle. To pass time, he looked at Voren's bootprints in the snow. It looked at though the right boot had been through the wars, as there was a large chunk of the heel missing that was easily visible by looking at the print.
"Why's he gone again?" Zelda pondered from the tree. "Do you suppose he's incontinent or something?"
Link shrugged.
"Dunno. Aidyn's gotta be pretty mad though."
Voren reappeared, looking much more healthy and then smiled.
"Sorry, I really should clean my room when I get home."
"Can we get on with it please?" Aidyn said irritatedly, "Only this stopping and starting business isn't going to do our muscles much good."
"Sure, sure." Voren said cheerfully.
This time, Aidyn made the first move, attacking with brute strength. Voren grinned, sidestepped and neatly parried the blow. Not the sort of move Aidyn had been expecting.
He's gone stategic again and is taking advantage! Aidyn thought. Man, I never thought it was going to be this tough, I'm gonna have to predict what sort of tactic he's taking before he even attacks. But why in the name of the Gods is he still so energetic?
So Aidyn chose strategy too and began to fight back. Once again, just as it seemed that Aidyn was getting the upper hand, Voren called for a time out.
"I am so sorry, this is definitely the last time." Voren began.
Aidyn was relieved for a chance to catch his breath.
"It had better be." He panted.
Voren ran off, and Aidyn watched him go. He suddenly spotted something and his eyes widened before a little smile spread across his lips.
"He knows something that we don't." Link said, spotting Aidyn's smile. "I think this fight's almost over."
"Hadn't you better get ready?" Zelda asked. "You're up next remember."
They climbed down the tree and made their way to outside the competitor's tent, arriving just as Voren appeared back in the ring.
"Better?" Aidyn asked, wearing a grin that could compete with Voren's.
"Yeah." Voren said. "Ready?"
"You bet."
Voren took first lunge, but Aidyn jumped back and tumbled into the snow. The crowd gasped, even more so when Voren made a violent vertical cut down in Aidyn's direction. Quick as a flash, Aidyn sprung up and with a flick of his wrist he knocked the opposing sword upwards and out of the weak grip being held on it. The sword flew through the air and landed in the snow next to Aidyn's feet. The fight was over and the applause was thunderous.
"Nice try Voren, or is it Forn?"
Forn gasped and looked up at him in total amazement.
"How did you..?"
Aidyn smiled and handed him back his sword.
"Little things like total change in attack styles, limitless energy and a missing chunk of boot that you appear to have and your brother doesn't."
"Rats, thwarted by a greater mind!" Forn laughed. "You don't mind do you?"
Aidyn laughed too.
"No, it was fun. I almost wish my little brother had been a twin, then I might have used the same trick."
"Oh man, you mean we'll have to contend with Aidyn Jr next year?" Forn groaned. "Me and Voren don't stand a chance!"
Aidyn sighed as they headed back to the tent.
"Hardly likely, my little brother died when he was a year old."
******
Pebo stared at his younger opponent with mixed emotions. Should he laugh at the little kid or should he feel sorry for him? He'd lost his mother after all... But look at how aggressive he looks...
"If you're feeling sorry for me then forget it. I'll know if you're not fighting to your full potential." Link said, knowing what the older boy was thinking. "And don't think that I'm gonna thank you if you deliberately let me win, there's no sense or honour in that kind of fight."
Link had a sudden flashback of him making a similar speech.
Don't think I'm gonna let you get away with this. There is no honour in what you've done to this land and its people Ganondorf, and I swear upon the graves of all those people that you've killed that I will stop you.
Somehow, Pebo hardly seemed to resemble a megalomaniac of Gerudo origin hell-bent on world domination. He didn't exactly deserve to be given a speech on honour and the slightly disbelieving look that he was giving the ten year old was perfectly understandable. Not many people expected to hear the words of a vengeful seventeen year old Hero of Time escape from the mouth of his ten year old former self.
"Um, OK." Pebo muttered.
"So let's fight then." Link said, waiting for the command.
"Fight!"
Pebo attacked first, giving it his all. Link had seen his fight with Horeb and knew his style, and it led a lot to be desired. One good, hard knock with his sword at the tip of Pebo's sword should do the trick, even when using his weaker right hand. Link could tell that very little control or stability was held on that part of the weapon by his opponent. If he could bide his time...
"Link's got this one in the bag." Aidyn told his father as they watched from the tent.
"He certainly has." Olaran said approvingly. "I hope you've studied his style from previous fight."
"To tell you the truth Dad, I hadn't. I didn't really think he'd get this far." Aidyn admitted.
"Well, what can you tell me so far?"
"He adapts to his opponent, which is tricky cause that's my tactic."
"True."
"But in saying that, he doesn't really seem to be trying, and while it's impressive, he handles his sword rather clumsily, almost like he isn't used to it. I'd put that down to his unfamiliarity with wooden swords."
"I've spoken to the other judges." Olaran said, keeping his eyes on the fight as Pebo kept attacking Link and meeting either air, snow or wood in defensive positioning. "They won't allow iron swords unless you can prove that you're both competent with them... oh, that was a good move, I haven't seen that one pulled off so efficiently for a long time."
Link had somehow managed to completely baffle Pebo and the result had been Link appearing on his left hand side when he'd been looking at his right and had batted away the wooden sword as though it had been nothing. The crowd had gone wild, and Zelda was cheering louder than the rest. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, knowing what was coming next:
Aidyn versus Link.
******
For those that are interested and know what I'm talking about, I found the floppy disk: It was taking refuge in my coat pocket along with my Gameboy which had been stolen by my brother. His punishment has yet to be decided.
