Chapter Eleven
Kakariko Rescue

After Link had gotten over his rage he looked behind his shoulder and nearly had a heart attack seeing Saria standing behind him perfectly healthy. Zelda was propping herself against a rock and putting away an empty bottle. After helping Zelda up, he looked over at Kakariko in time to see the dragon taking off toward what looked like a tall black needle in the distance. Hmm…

When the trio arrived at Kakariko, they found the village in ruins.

"Wait here, I'll be back." Link said to the girls and sprinted off into the destroyed town. Buildings were flaming infernos, too hot to get even near them. The potion shop was the only building that wasn't on fire. Coincidence? Link didn't ponder about it. He kicked open the door and found the place abandoned. Several bottles were lying around and Link found one filled with a blue liquid. Perfect! He went out the door with the bottle in hand. With a quick spell, he teleported the potion to Zelda so she could heal herself.

The Spider House had crumbled to rubble. Impa's house was badly burned, but was still standing. As he ran toward it, he noticed something that made his stomach lurch. Several burned skeletons littered the ground, and they weren't dead stalfos. Link looked up at the windmill and watched as its burning arms slowly spun around, creating a swirling smoke pall.

"Link!" The hero spun around at the familiar voice.

"Impa? Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"The same."

"Where is everyone?" Impa shook her head sadly.

"I don't know. That army killed everyone who got in their way. Then just fifteen minutes ago they suddenly retreated."

"Aah!" Link jerked toward the scream. It sounded like it had come from the graveyard! At a run, Link and Impa jumped over the scorched skeletons and found that about half the town had taken refuge in the graveyard. Guarding the crowd were four Stalfos. One had just killed one of the villagers. Apparently the man tried to put up a fight with his fists.

"Yona sal krosak!" The stalfos yelled before he charged. Link blocked the blow and delivered a slash to the creature's bony skull. As the beast howled in pain, the other three attacked.

"Aah!" Link barely managed to block all three blows. Impa drew two long daggers and attacked the stalfos closest to her. Link finished off one of the skeletons but another delivered a hard blow to his shield, stunning him. "Whoa!" Link managed get out of his daze seconds before his head was impaled.

"Nosa! Krelgrak!" Link's heart fell as he saw the dead stalfos suddenly come back to life. As its bones came back together, the regenerated stalfos took a look at the battle and decided to attack Impa.

"Look out!" Link cried out in warning. The shiekah warrior managed to turn in time to block the incoming blow. The two stalfos attacking Link took advantage of the distraction and slashed their crooked swords at Link's exposed head. The Hero of Time ducked and rolled out of the way.

Clang!

The force of their swords hitting each other stunned the stalfos long enough for Link to get behind one of them. With a vertical slash to its backbone, he obliterated it. A second later, Impa destroyed its regeneration partner and both stalfos were incinerated. The remaining stalfos realized they were alone and went on the defensive. Each of them grabbed a villager hostage and held their swords at the hostages' necks.

"Raksgar aslak negkrag! Leshslak!"

"Uh… What did they say?" Link asked Impa.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I thought you were the Sage of the Dead!"

"Sage of Shadow. There's a difference."

"Sounds the same to me…"

"Nakgreshlak! Halkag noka sleshug!"

"Man, they have an ugly language…" Link muttered, as he watched the stalfos closely.

"Hey! We finally found you!" Saria said running up behind them with Zelda. "Uh-oh…" The kokiri finished with a glance at the hostage-armed stalfos.

"Got any spells up your sleeve, sweetheart?" Link said to Zelda, not taking his eyes off the stalfos.

"Uh…" Zelda thought for a second and finally made a waving motion. "Welese Narendil!" A flash blinded everyone including the stalfos.

"Thanks, you could have warned me!" Link complained as he desperately tried to see past the blur now covering his eyes.

"Oops…"

The stalfos recovered from the flash much sooner than Link, who was still staggering around.

"Hyagash snakglag!"

"Whoa!" The blind Link managed to move his shield toward the sound and the skeleton's sword clanged harmlessly on his shield. He was now able to discern a fuzzy image of the skeleton and he kept the creature in front of him. "Hyah!" He thrust forward but the Stalfos dodged out of the way, leaving Link's field of vision. "Uh…" The stalfos took advantage of Link's position and delivered a blow to his back.

"Aaahh!" Zelda, who was shooting arrows at the stalfos turned white as a sheet as she saw the blow. Not noticing that Impa managed to kill her foe, she only saw Link fall to his knees with a nasty gash in his back.

"Nooo!" She dropped her bow and ran to her fiancé's side.

"Klrelgrageth!" Zelda looked up with a gasp. She had forgotten about the stalfos! The jagged red sword came down at Zelda's exposed head and was blocked by two daggers.

"Princess! Get out of here!" Impa yelled at Zelda as the stalfos analyzed its new foe. As the Shadow sage locked in combat with the skeleton, Zelda dragged Link to safety. Saria had taken up Zelda's bow, which was about the size of a longbow to her, and was shooting at the remaining stalfos, being careful not to hit Impa. Her aim was remarkable. Arrow after arrow hit the creature in the head. With a roar of pain the stalfos leaped away from Impa and landed next the Saria.

Oh great, I'm going to die again! Saria thought fearfully as the blood red sword came down.

Clang!

The sword hit two daggers once again. Frustrated out of its skull, the stalfos decided to finish off the shiekah first. After delivering a vicious kick to Saria's face, he began fighting Impa. The sound of the stalfos's regeneration partner starting to come to life made the Shiekah warrior attack faster, managing to behead the skeleton and obliterate both the stalfos.

The battle over, Impa helped a half-conscious Saria to her feet. The surviving villiagers cheered as they crept out from their hiding places behind the numerous tombstones.