A note from the Hime no Argh herself–
Hello, readers, thanks for stopping by. ^^ I'm sorry about the wait between the last chapter and this one, I had a lot of conflicts including a college orientation that prevented me from posting sooner than I would have liked. I also want to apologize for the shortness of this chapter–the next one is longer, and I'll try not to make the wait between too long. Thanks for reading!
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Chapter 4
Bandit Attack
"Bandits?" Dagger echoed, sounding frightened.
"Why would bandits chase bandits?" Link asked, frowning.
"They're not our kind of bandits," Zelda said grimly. "They're completely lawless. Rich and poor, young and old, lawmen or thieves, they'll steal from anyone. And they don't mind shedding a little blood either." She closed the telescope with a decisive snap. "We can't outrun then. Everyone stay calm!" she ordered, raising her voice to a pitch that could be heard by all in and out of the wagon. "We've got bandits on our tail–about twenty of 'em! Marek and Parcleus, stop the oxen!" She leapt from her perch as the wagon slowed to a stop. "Lookouts off the roof, archers up! Everyone else grab a weapon and stand by!"
"You heard her, lambs!" came a roar that made Link start from inside the wagon. It was Impa. "Everyone out! Grab a weapon and get ready!"
Impa, Oberon, and Bolo spilled from the wagon carrying an assortment of weapons as the lookouts leapt down. Marek and Parcleus dashed around the sides of the wagon to take weapons and places. Link caught Zelda's arm before she could go anywhere.
"Give me my sword," he said urgently. "I'll fight with you."
"You! Boy!" It was Impa, carrying Link's sword, sheath and all, in one hand and Zelda's longbow and quiver in another. She tossed Link the sword as Zelda took her bow, slinging the quiver over her shoulder.
"Archers, with me!" Zelda ordered, scrambling up the ladder to the roof. Bolo, Marek, and Cleo followed her, armed with recurved bows. The rest of the thieves grouped themselves around the wagon with sword, axe, or glaive in hand. Link hesitated, then took his bow and quiver off his back, where they were normally hidden beneath his shield, and followed Zelda up the ladder.
He took a place at her side. The other archers crouched low on the roof, but Zelda, armed with a bow nearly as tall as she, was forced to stand.
"You any kind of shot?" Zelda demanded without questioning Link's presence at her side.
"I'm all right."
"Good enough." The bandits were now a few hundred yards away, galloping full-out on the path, men mounted on nimble ponies. All were armed with an axe or short sword, and some carried bows. "Pick your shots," Zelda ordered. "If you can't hit the man, hit the mount–they'll bring the rider down with 'em."
The bandits were in firing range at last. Arrows were nocked and bowstrings drawn left and right. Zelda set an arrow to her longbow and drew the string back to her ear. She and Link chose their targets.
"Fire at will!" Zelda cried.
Bowstrings snapped and arrows streaked through the air, burying themselves into men and mounts. Link and Zelda released at the same moment–Zelda's arrow struck her man in the shoulder, Link's in the throat.
"Nice shooting!" Zelda said in amazement. "You're really something!"
"I'm all right," Link corrected as he set another arrow and fired, hitting another man in the chest.
Zelda made a noise of disbelief and turned her attention back to their targets, firing five arrows in rapid succession, taking down three men and two horses. Link had to admire her skill, watching her out of the corner of her eye even as he fired shot after shot. This is the woman I'm supposed to protect? he wondered as Zelda calmly shot a bandit through his eye.
Four horses were down, seven men dead, and thirteen still headed their way. Two of the men put arrows to their own small bows as they rode and took aim at the archers. Zelda shot one enemy archer through the chest, but the other's arrow was already streaking toward her.
Link threw himself at Zelda, knocking her away as the arrow streaked past. He felt a line of white-hot pain across his shoulder and knew the arrowhead had grazed him–he was just lucky it hadn't gone in.
"Are you okay?" Zelda demanded, noticing the tear in his tunic and the line of blood immediately. "Never mind–" She shoved in front of him and shot three more arrows into three more targets. "They're almost on us" she snapped. "Off the roof! Everyone, get ready for ground battle!"
The archers stayed to the sides of the wagon to slow the enemy while Zelda briefly examined Link's wound behind it. "Can you still fight?" she demanded tersely.
The arrow had grazed his left shoulder, but that was no problem. Link grinned, drawing his sword with his right hand. "Like a little scratch could stop me."
"Zelda!" Impa snapped. "They're on us!"
Zelda darted out in front of the wagon, followed by Link, as the enemy bore down on them, weapons at the ready. Drawing her dagger from its sheath at her waist, she let out a bloodcurdling war cry and threw herself at a bandit, dragging him off his horse and plunging her dagger into his chest.
Link crossed swords with another mounted bandit as the rest of the thieves entered the fray, the screech of metal on metal echoing around him. His bandit, an ugly, grinning bastard, drove him back with a forceful thrust and brought his sword up and down toward Link's head. He barely managed to block the attack. The bandit pressed down with his weight, but Link grabbed a small knife from his belt with his left hand, ignoring the pain in his injured shoulder, and stabbed it into flank of his bandit's mount. The horse wheeled, screaming, and Link cut swiftly across the bandit's back.
He didn't notice the man sneaking behind him until a pair of horse's hooves shot out of nowhere, kicking the bandit to the ground and stomping on his spine. Demon had broken loose of his tether. "Thanks, boy," Link said as he ran another bandit through.
The thieves made short work of the few bandits left. Finally the two surviving men broke and ran unmounted. Zelda snatched up her longbow and arrows where she had discarded them on the ground and coolly shot each man in the back, one after the other.
"Everyone okay?" she called, surveying the damage. It wasn't bad–Dagger sported a number of shallow scratches on her face and shoulders, and Oberon pressed a piece of cloth to a long gash on his thigh. "If you're wounded, Cleo will see to you in the wagon. Rune, I want you back on lookout duty. Watch out for anything–we never know if more might come after us. Parcleus, get the bandit's uninjured horses, we can sell 'em in town. Impa and Marek, build a pyre for the dead, and be quick about it. I want to get over this mountain before nightfall.
"You," she said abruptly, turning to Link. She looked at him for a moment, then smiled wryly and crooked a finger. "You come with me. We've got to get that scratch of yours treated."
She ordered him to sit on a crate outside the wagon while she fetched a vial of healing liquid and a roll of linen. "Shouldn't I see Cleo?" Link asked, sure that Zelda could be doing better things with her time.
"Cleo has patients to see already, and you did take that wound for me." Zelda glared at him. "Are you going to get that tunic off or shall I do it for you?"
Link sighed and removed his tunic as Zelda soaked a piece of linen in healing liquid. He winced as she applied the disinfecting medicine to the long, but shallow, gash on his shoulder. "Did you really have to shoot the escaping bandits?" he asked her quietly.
"Yes, I did," she replied just as quietly. "One time in the desert we were attacked by a band like this one. We killed ten and let five escape–we thought we were safe. Later that night they returned with a company of fifty. We lost nearly all our cargo, five of our thieves were killed, and the rest of us barely escaped with our lives. I do what I have to do to ensure our survival."
"I'm sorry," Link said uncertainly.
Zelda only shrugged. "That's life." She started suddenly as Demon pushed his head against her back, but laughed when she saw the horse. "Sneaky little thing, aren't you? Don't worry, your master will be just fine." She finished bandaging Link's shoulder and clapped him on the back with a friendly grin. "Rides a horse, shoots a bow, uses a sword–and he's ambidextrous! That Link, he's a useful one, all right!"
"Does that mean I'm officially inaugurated?" Link asked with a wry smile.
"You sure are!" Zelda exclaimed brightly. "Welcome to the Best Damn Thieves Around!"
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To be continued.