Chapter 7: General
Disclaimer: Is this really necessary?
Link's horse snorted indignantly beneath him as he rode it along the line of soldiers he was to lead today. He had considered riding Epona today, in battle for the first time, but had decided against it, leaving the mare behind in case Malon missed her.
As he walked the line, his troops hurried to look busy. The dinalfos sharpened and polished their swords, the poes prepared their lanterns, and the wolfos stretched out. Link eyed the latter coldly. He had never quite gotten over his hatred of wolfos since Saria's death, but his father had convinced him to give up his desire to eradicate every wolfos in existence. Even now, years later, he could hardly stand to have the wolfos in his command, and he routinely sent them into the most dangerous areas of combat, not caring whether or not they came back alive. Unfortunately, as far as he was concerned anyway, the wolfos were exceptionally ferocious in battle and usually did survive.
Today would be something of a return to normalcy for Link. He had been growing restless without battle since the Goron stronghold deep within the Fire Temple had fallen to him. The expression on Darunia's face when they confronted one another had been so deliciously hurt.
The enemy was a small expeditionary force from the neighboring kingdom of Lokkamaand, the kingdom in which it was rumored that Princess Zelda had taken refuge when she fled Hyrule. Link's scouts had informed him of the enemy's numbers: pitifully low. Maybe a couple dozen men at most. Yet, for some reason Link did not fully comprehend, Ganondorf wanted him to tae a full compliment of Hyrule's troops with him to quash the excursion. I suppose that's just one more thing I must learn before I become the king, he thought.
He reached the end of the battle line and turned to pace back to the other end when the call came. The enemy was within sight. Link turned his horse and spurred it back to the center of the line where he brought it to a halt and twisting in the saddle, he began to scan the horizon. It was only a moment before he saw them.
As the scouts had said, they were few in number: half-a-dozen horsemen, and eighteen, maybe twenty footmen. Link's force was positioned just behind the ridge of a hill, so none of them should be visible to the enemy yet.
"Everyone down," he said in a near whisper. A nearby dinalfos saluted smartly and hissed the order to the creatures on either side of him, each of which passed it to the next until the entire line was concealed behind the crest of the hill. Link looked back one last time to check that everyone was indeed down, then trotted his mount up to the apex of the hill, where he drew his bow and knocked an arrow. He didn't draw it back though, and waited, watching silently and motionlessly as the small column of Lokkamaand soldiers advanced slowly. The horseman at the head of the column raised his hand cautiously in greeting. In response, Link put an arrow through his chest, and a second one before he or any of his companions could react. Even before he hit the ground, a selection of Link's army chosen long before crested the hill and rushed toward the small column, screaming warcries and moving to encircle the enemy. The majority of the army remained hidden. The trapped soldiers panicked. Several of the footmen surged forward and were quickly slain by the creatures under Link's command.
The remaining soldiers within the ring of monsters seemed hesitant, their brains rushing to choose a course of action, as Link advanced slowly down the hill. When he reached the ring of monsters they parted, allowing him to move to the center, then silently moving back into their former positions. Two of the surviving horsemen quickly moved to meet him as he entered the center of the ring. One, the larger, sterner looking of the two stared at him with angry, burning eyes through the raised visor of his helm. The other's face was not visible, though Link was sure he bore an expression of terror, as his body trembled slightly, but noticeably.
"Who are you, who commands loyalty from such monstrosities, to slay our comrade?" demanded the stern knight.
"I am Link, Prince of Hyrule," he replied, dispassionately. "And it is upon my father, King Ganondorf's orders, that I have slain your ally, and that I will slay you all. If any among you wish to be sparred, speak now and surrender."
None of the soldiers moved or spoke, though clearly several wanted to, prevented by their fear. Whether that fear was of the monsters before them, or that their own companions would slay them if they did, Link could not be certain.
"There are none among us who would be the captives of Ganondorf before they were dead," retorted the knight. "So save your false grace and die!" Even as he spoke the last sentence he drew his blade, and swung at Link. Leaning back in the saddle just enough to avoid the knight's attack, Link drew his own sword. It was not the same blade he had carried years before when he had slain the scythe-wielding man in Kakariko. That weapon had been lost long ago in the depths of the Fire Temple. This blade had been a gift in celebration of the vanquishing of the Gerudo King's last opposition within the borders of Hyrule, the fall of the Gorons. If anything, it was even more exquisite than the sword he had lost. This would be the first time he had used it in a true battle, and the knight would be it's first taste of blood.
"I'm sorry you feel that way," Link said, sarcastically, running the knight through before his opponent could swing again. As he withdrew his blade, the knight's face twisted into a sneer of defiance, as he struggled to remain upright. "Not quite dead yet, are you?" said Link, vilely. "Well then, lets have some fun!" As their blades clashed, the monsters fell upon the soldiers, ripping the men apart, their dying screams flying to the heavens. Such was the symphony that Link and the wounded knight dueled.
The knight was ferocious, like the cornered rodent he was. His attacks were powerful and Link soon was having difficulty warding them off. He wasn't worried though, and simply reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled a small nut with a cracked shell, which he threw in the knight's face. The furious knight's expression quickly turned to one of panic when the nut hit his armor, creating a flash of light and leaving him paralyzed. Link smiled cruelly, and ran the knight through once more, then simply pushed the man off his horse before the Deku nut's effects wore off. As the knight's horse reeled back and ran, another knight quickly took his companion's place, and Link was soon engaged in a second duel to the death.
Back in the Great Hall of Hyrule Castle, the royal family watched the battle with varying degrees of interest. The large golden circle on the floor before the thrones had taken on a glassy sheen, as if it had been replaced by a window, on the other side of which was Link. The window followed him wherever he moved. Ganondorf, seated on his great throne, watched with a mix of amusement and indifference. Link would be victorious, there was no doubt about that. His forces greatly outnumbered his opponents. He had laughed out loud when Link had shot the first horseman in greeting, and again when he had slain his second opponent by decapitating him then skewering his head and using it as a club to beat at his third opponent before Link's blade had cut through the severed head.
The Queen's amusement was obvious as well, though she did not laugh. Instead, she simply smiled and narrowed her eyes ever more.
Ketume, seated upon the steps of the throne platform, watched in disgust that not one of her despised brother's opponents had managed to so much as scratch him yet. Every time a Lokkamaand soldier took a swing at him she muttered Gerudo curses under her breath, praying that the weapon would hit its mark, always fruitlessly.
Malon, standing just behind the Queen's throne, watched with increasing horror. In every instance that Ganondorf laughed, she strangled another sob in her throat. Ever since Link had brought her here, her childhood memories of him had been fading, giving way to the cold reality of who he now was. Until now though, she had managed to keep her belief in his goodness alive, certain that it was only being suppressed by the Gerudo King. But witnessing this battle, she doubted even that now. In her mind every semblance of Fairy Boy was falling away, being steadily replaced by the image of Prince Link, the cold, uncaring man who expected her to marry him. Until now she had been uncertain that she could be happy with him, but after what she had just seen, she knew she could not.
Returning from her thoughts to the realm of reality, she looked back to the window in the floor.
Link sat upon his mount, his sword still drawn, dripping blood onto the ground as he scanned the area for signs of living foes, and seeing none. Raising his sword, he issued the command for the forces of Ganondorf to gather up the bodies and return to the castle, where the heads of the Lokkamaand soldiers would be mounted upon the spikes that ran along the top of the outer walls. As he turned to go, however, he heard something groaning in pain behind him. Dismounting, he walked several paces back towards the center of the battlefield. Again he heard the noise, and looking at his feet he saw the body of the stern knight, still clinging to life.
How can he still be alive? I stabbed him in the chest twice, and even if that didn't kill him, he should have been trampled to death during the fighting.
Shrugging it off as unimportant, Link crouched down by the knight's head. The knight, a grimace of great pain and defiance on his face, looked at him.
"You have your wish. Every one of your men are dead, and in a moment you will join them," Link said, his voice barely audible, though the knight seemed to hear him. "Any last requests?"
"Burn in hell you bastard."
"I'm sorry you feel that way." Link stood, walking slowly back to his horse. Behind him, he heard the snarls of a pack of wolfos as they moved in on the dying man. For a moment, as he remounted his horse, he considered ordering the beasts to leave the man to die slowly by himself, but already he could hear the wolfos beginning to devour him, the knight too weak even to cry out in pain as the teeth of the creatures tore into him. All the knight could do as Link slowly rode away was whimper and sob silently to himself as he gradually fell into the nothingness of the eternal sleep.
