Chapter 2. This Looks Like a Job For...
Link rode across the drawbridge and into Hyrule Castle Town, nodding at the guard as she did. She'd been here before, but never without her family, and never wearing pants.
This was going to be interesting.
zzz
The preparations for the ball were well underway. There were people running around with trays of food or swatches of fabric to show the prince or his mother, there were other people discussing decorations or the guest list, and there were still others just standing around doing nothing in particular, which was pretty much what Zeld was doing, except seated on his throne.
He was beyond bored, just like every day of his life, but at least that cute Gerudo was still there. There were quite a few Gerudos actually. Where had they all come from?
As Zeld tried to puzzle that out, he noticed one of the throne room doors open. He wouldn't have paid attention to this, normally, except that the person who slipped through it was neither a servant, nor one of the courtiers that just hung around the palace all the time. It was a girl, extremely pretty and about his own age, but wearing men's clothing. She had the bearing and grace of a noble lady, and she slipped in among the others with ease, despite her clothes, but Zeld couldn't help wondering just what she thought she was up to…
zzz
Link hung about the throne room, smiling politely and acting like she belonged. It was the easiest thing in the world to go unnoticed; you simply had to act like you were supposed to be doing exactly what you were doing.
She wasn't supposed to be doing it though, she didn't even know why she was doing it. She had run away from home, and now she was hanging out in the castle throne room for no good reason. It was a rush.
It was also a rush when she noticed the prince looking at her, but a different kind. She had two thoughts at once: He knows I shouldn't be here! He's going to kick me out! and Woah, he's cute…
But the first thought won out, and Link began casually walking towards the doors.
zzz
The girl in the green tunic was heading for the exit. If she got away he would probably never know why she was there at all. Zeld hated not knowing things.
He stood up, with every intention of running the girl down and asking her what she was doing there and where she was staying, but before he could even leave the dais where his throne was he felt a strong arm around his neck and a strong hand clamped over his mouth. Then there was a sharp pain and the world turned black.
zzz
Almost halfway out the door Link stopped at the sound of a commotion behind her. She turned, but before she could sort out what had happened she was bowled over by a group of Gerudos who charged out the door at top speed carrying the prince.
Carrying the prince?
"They're getting away!" Link shouted. She drew her sword and made chase. No one would get away with kidnapping while Link the Hero was on the job!
The Gerudos led Link, and at least a dozen heavily armed guards, out of the castle and through the streets of the town. There were about half a dozen of them, all just as heavily armed as the guards, two of them carrying the prince over their shoulders. His head was lolled back and bobbing in time with the steps of his captors, obviously knocked out.
As the kidnappers reached the exit out of town, Link shouted to the guard to raise the drawbridge. Quickly the man rushed back inside the guard house to oblige, but the Gerudos beat him to it and ran up the raising bridge, leaping off the edge and hitting the ground running.
"Lower it!" Link shouted, but the guard either didn't hear or was confused and kept on bringing it up.
"Tell him to get it down as fast as he can," Link ordered one of the guards who'd been making chase with her. "Some of you stay here and keep up the chase on foot, the rest of you get horses and get back here as fast as you can."
The guards nodded and scattered, none of them noticing that they were taking orders from a teenage girl. Link herself ran to the post where she'd tied 17th, jumped on, and galloped all the way back to the bridge. It was only just over halfway down, but Link and 17th didn't slow their pace, using the bridge like a ramp and leaping down to earth from it, hitting the ground running even faster than the kidnappers.
Link steered 17th towards Gerudo Valley, figuring the kidnappers would hole up in the fortress and make their demands from there. But if Link could catch them before they got there she was sure she could at least hold them off until the guards came.
But as she got closer and closer to the Valley without seeing them, she began to worry. Could it really have taken her that long to get 17th? Could the Gerudos really run that fast? It didn't make sense.
When she reached the entrance to Gerudo Valley, she just stopped. If they were already inside the fortress she needed to stop and come up with a plan. She was sure she could get in there and save him, but she had to think things through first.
Unfortunately, before she could come up with a workable plan the guards arrived, with plenty of reinforcements.
"What are you doing here?" the captain demanded.
"What?" Link straightened up. "I was leading the chase when the prince was kidnapped!"
"You are a civilian," the captain corrected. "A commoner and a woman no less."
"So?"
"So get out of our way." The guards carefully steered their horses around her and 17th, several of them sneering as they did. Link noticed that most of the ones who sneered had also been the ones who had so blithely followed her orders before.
Grumbling to herself, Link turned and rode back out into the field. Those snooty guards, jerks though they were, had a point. Much as she wanted to be a hero, Link didn't have the training to work in a group. She was a lone wolf, a solitary hero. Yeah, that was it.
But one thing still didn't make sense. How had the Gerudos gotten away?
zzz
"…Zel……Zel……Zeld…"
His hero was calling to him, but he was so far away he couldn't hear him clearly. Zeld called out the hero's name, but he could not hear his own voice and didn't know what name he called.
"…Zeld…"
He could see the hero now, running through the darkness. He was blond, wearing a green tunic and hat, and armed with a shining blade.
"…Zeld……Zeld……Zelda!"
zzz
Zeld awoke to mottled light and muttering voices. He started to sit up and look around, but was stopped by the sharp pain in the back of his skull and the tight ropestied around him. "Hey, what's going-"
"Shut your mouth," a woman's voice snapped.
Obediently Zeld lay on the ground and looked around, quietly. There were trees all around, letting the sunlight down in shafts. He was tied underneath a tall stump, surrounded by Gerudo girls, including the cute one and her captain, all of whom were discussing frantically in low voices. Zeld stayed still and listened.
"How are we supposed to negotiate with the royals if we don't even know where we are?" one hissed.
"We know where we are," the captain hissed back. "We're in the Lost Woods."
Aha! Zeld thought. I'm in the Lost Woods! Then: Oh no! I'm in the Lost Woods!
"Yes, but where in the Lost Woods?" The Gerudo looked around at her comrades. "Did anyone ever stop to think that they're called the Lost Woods for a reason?"
"We can find our way out when we're done," the captain told the others.
"Done with what?"
"With him." The Gerudos all turned and looked at Zeld.
He blinked. "Umm…"
zzz
Link had run out of ideas. She'd been riding aimlessly in Hyrule Field for hours, and she was out of ideas. She didn't want to go back to Hyrule Castle Town after her spectacular failure, she couldn't go back home, and far too many of her former suitors lived in Kakariko City for her to go there. Perhaps the Gorons? She could say she was there to study sword-smithy. But no, a young Hylian girl living among the Gorons would be far too conspicuous. The Zoras? No, same problem.
Since Link was lost in thought as she rode along, she almost rode right over the footprints without seeing them. There had been rain the night before and the ground was muddy, so six sets of small footprints stood out clearly among the mud and in the clean grass beyond it.
Link reined in 17th and dropped down to the ground. Yep, they were definitely women's footprints, and definitely running; it had to be the Gerudos. But they weren't headed for Gerudo Valley. These prints were leading towards…the Kokiri Forest?
Link followed the direction the prints had been heading and found more, here and there, going in the same direction. Definitely the Kokiri Forest.
zzz
"What, exactly, do you plan on doing with me?" Zeld asked apprehensively.
"Nothing damaging," the Gerudo captain explained. "Just keeping you."
"Keeping me?" Zeld was confused. What good could come of keeping him?
"Just for a while. We want to show our king what good can come of doing bad."
"You have a king? I thought you were all-"
"Women? We are. Only one male is born to the Gerudo Tribe every hundred years, and that male is automatically made king. Our king at the moment has been raised by weak-minded fool, so he has no idea how much can be accomplished by less-than-legal means."
"You're crazy," Zeld stared at her. "I know obeying the letter of the law makes things like trade negotiations go a lot slower, but not obeying the law just gets you a bad rep, so no one will want to trade with you."
"This isn't about trade!" The Gerudo captain grabbed one of the ropes wrapped around Zeld's chest and hauled him up. "This is about showing our idiot king how powerful the Gerudos can really be!"
"Hey!" the cute Gerudo frowned. "I am not an idiot!"
The Gerudo captain dropped Zeld, knocking the wind out of him. This was a good thing, since Zeld was about to say something he would probably regret later.
"You little fool!" The Gerudo captain rounded on the cute Gerudo and grabbed her, or rather him, by the shoulders. "You've given yourself away!"
"He would have figured it out by himself eventually," the cross-dressing king replied. "I'm the only 'girl' here without the traditional Gerudo enormous rack."
The Gerudo captain drew back her hand to hit her king…
zzz
It was a lot easier to track the Gerudos in the forest. There were broken twigs and crushed plants and dislodged leaves that all told the story of the hurried passage of six pairs of feet.
Following the trail, Link eventually came to what looked like a tree-tunnel. 17th wouldn't go near it, but Link was determined to follow the trail and rescue the prince, so she left the mare outside and went into the tunnel.
It wasn't really a tunnel, as it turned out, but an entrance. Link crossed a bridge and went through another entrance, and found herself in a small village.
"Hey lady."
Link jumped with surprise and looked down. A little blond boy, dressed in green and carrying a violin, looked up at her. "Um, hey. Listen, did a bunch of women come in here?"
"Ugly women carrying a guy dressed in funny clothes?"
"Yes! Where'd they go?"
"Lost Woods." The little boy pointed to the top of a cliff nearby. "One of those mean ladies came by the other day and asked where a good place to hide would be, and Tido told them to go in there." The little boy looked around, then leaned towards Link and whispered conspiratorially. "Tido's a little bit crazy."
"Umm, okay… So they went in there?"
"Yeah, but it's dangerous. Especially for adults."
"I've heard the stories." Link looked up at the cliff. "But I have to go."
Once on top of the cliff it was easy to find the entrance to the Woods. It was a portal, just like the other two, but this one led through the trees and into a clearing, where the path branched right and left. Carefully, Link searched the ground for tracks and followed the trail left by the Gerudos.
zzz
The young Gerudo king narrowed his eyes at the captain. "If you strike me, your life is forfeit. You know that."
The captain slowly let her hand drop. "Forgive me…your Majesty." She spat the title.
Zeld, finally recovering his voice, managed to sit up. "Hey, listen. I know I'm just the bait here and all, but I'm sensing tension."
The captain shot a Look at her prisoner. "What?"
"Between you two," he jerked his head at the two of them. "Now, this is just a theory, but I'm guessing you were in line to be leader of the Gerudos before he came along."
"It is an honor to serve my king," the captain hissed.
"You want to make him into a criminal so that the other Gerudos will rebel against him, just like they did against your last king."
"Our last king was a madman," the captain snapped. "This one will be a glorious leader."
"Whom my father will never trust," Zeld added. "Not after this."
"Shut your mouth!" The Gerudo captain grabbed him by the ropes again, and this time drew her scimitar.
zzz
Link paused just outside the clearing she had tracked the Gerudos to. There were voices, angry voices, coming from beyond the trees.
"You want to make him into a criminal so that the other Gerudos will rebel against him, just like they did against your last king."
That was a man's voice, a very nice man's voice, the prince's voice! It had to be!
"Our last king was a madman," a female voice snapped. "This one will be a glorious leader."
"Whom my father will never trust," the prince added. "Not after this."
"Shut your mouth!" The woman sounded angry, and dangerous. Link peered around the trees and saw the Gerudo captain holding the prince up by the ropes he was tied with. She drew her scimitar and raised it up...
zzz
An arrow flew out from the trees, striking the Gerudo captain's hand and making her drop her scimitar, as well as Zeld.
"Stop right there!" a woman's voice rang out from just beyond the clearing.
"Who's there!" the captain shouted, clutching her wounded hand. "Show yourself!"
"I don't think so," the voice replied. "Leave now and I will spare your lives. Stay, and you're all going down."
"Are you threatening us?" the captain asked in mock surprise. "No one threatens us!"
"I believe I just did." There was suddenly a rain of arrows from the forest. Whoever was shooting, she was very good. The arrows seemed to come from half a dozen places at once, and none of them came close to hitting Zeld.
"Go!" the captain shouted. "Into the trees. Find her!" The Gerudos obeyed, charging into the forest with battle cries and weapons drawn. As soon as they were too deep in the trees to get out quickly, the arrows stopped coming and a girl in a green tunic slipped out and ducked behind Zeld.
"Shh," she said. "I'm here to help." She sliced the ropes that held him and helped him to his feet.
"My hero," Zeld said, staring at the girl. He recognized her from the throne room, but he also recognized her spirit from his dreams. She blinked at him. Zeld moaned. "I can't believe I just said that."
The girl smiled. "Neither can I. Let's just pretend you didn't."
"Can do," Zeld agreed gratefully.
"Can you use a bow?" the girl asked. The Gerudos had seen her and were coming out of the trees after them.
"Sure."
"Great." She passed him her bow and a half-full quiver of arrows. "Watch my back." She drew her sword and charged into battle.
Quickly, Zeld started firing arrows into the mess. The girl, his hero, fought with the same grace and ease that she had used to slip unnoticed into the throne room. She ducked and wove among the Gerudos, parrying an attack here, making one of her own there. When Zeld managed to incapacitate one of the Gerudos, his hero took the woman's spear and used it at the same time as her sword. She was poetry in motion, like a liquid flowing through the fray.
Then, suddenly, she ducked out of the battle and came back to him. "I haven't introduced myself," she said, "but I only have time for the informal version."
"Which is?"
The girl held out her hand. "Call me Link."
"I'm Zeld," he took the hand and kissed it.
The girl smiled. "I know who you are, your Highness," she said. Then she took her hand back and blocked an attack from one of the Gerudos, who had drawn much closer during the exchange.
Zeld elbowed a Gerudo in the stomach and took her scimitar. "Not 'your Highness,'" he said to Link. "Just Zeld."
"Whatever you say, your Highness." Link was smiling as she fought.
They had now managed to take down three of the six Gerudos. Only the captain, the king, and one with a spear were left.
"You're really good, you know," Zeld said to Link.
"You're not so bad yourself," Link replied. Then she clocked the Gerudo with the spear over the head with the hilt of her sword and the woman went down. Only the king and the captain were left.
"It's even now, Captain, your Royal Highness," Zeld said to them. "And we've taken out the rest of your group with ease. If you give up and let us leave, we won't have to finish this."
"You think I'm going to let you get away?" the captain hissed. "After what you said?"
"I only said what I thought was true," Zeld shrugged. "If you want to punish me for that-"
"-you're going to have to get through me first," Link finished, stepping in front of him.
"I can handle her myself," Zeld protested.
Link looked back at him over her shoulder. "It's a hero's job to save her prince," she grinned.
"I thought we were going to pretend I didn't say that."
"Sorry," she shrugged. "The teasing opportunities are just too good to pass up."
"Look, it just-"
"Will you two shut up!" the Gerudo captain roared. "I want to finish this!" She raised her scimitar in her good hand and swept it down towards the prince. Link raised her own sword to meet it, and as the two blades crashed the wind suddenly picked up.
And then the Gerudo king screamed.