Chapter Twenty Four
Retribution

The giants brought their axes down on the couple with a crash. For a moment, there was silence as the dumb brutes tried to figure out why there wasn't mangled bodies before them when Link attacked. With a hard kick at the giant's knees, Link finished off with a roundhouse at the stunned brute's middle, doubling it over. With a golden gauntlet enforced punch, he knocked the giant out cold.

"Anybody else?" Link taunted at them as Zelda took a fighting stance beside him. The tattered remains of her sheikah outfit were perhaps a little less than modest though with the present company, she didn't care. Two stalfos warriors leapt at the Hylians, swords drawn. With an aimed punch at the solar plexus, one of the warriors went down, gasping. "Not used to injuries are you?"

"Link! Watch out!" The Hylian ducked in time for the other stalfos's sword to slash through the air formerly occupied by his head. Link slammed his fist into the warrior's face, breaking the nose.

"Aagghhh!" The stalfos staggered back, blue blood pouring down his face. Zelda stopped another stalfos's advance with a Sheikah Judo Chop to his midriff. Unused to the incapacitating pain, the stalfos warriors dropped like flies against the fighting duo.

"Solnakag!" The King's unfamiliar voice yelled over the din of battle, blasting the couple with a torrent of lightning far greater than the bolts he had used before. Screaming from the pain, the two Hylians barely felt a pair of hands grab each of their backs, pulling them out of the torrent into a long sloped tunnel. Soon the tunnel sloped straight down and deposited them into a storeroom.

"What the…" Link mumbled, confused over the sudden situation change. Quin and Impa sat up as well as Zelda. "Impa! Uh, where are we?"

"The stalfos'storeroom. We must hurry. The Stal-King will know where we have gone." Impa picked up the weakened hero as Quin picked up Zelda. Silently, the two Sheikah crept back out into the dungeons, avoiding the guards with invisibilis. Most of the guards were too busy marveling at their new flesh that they probably wouldn't have noticed them anyway. Prisoners were either sulking in their cells or staring wide-eyed at the guards, waiting to see if anything else happened to them, hopefully death.

Stalakor slowly got up from the ground, the back of his head throbbing in pain. Chuckling softly in disbelief, he tried to remember what happened as he looked around at the now-empty cells. Evidentially, the sheikah boy had snuck out of his cell while the general was distracted by the return of his flesh. Stalakor touched the bruised scalp gingerly; aftermath of a well placed Sheikah Judo Punch.
One of the prisoners stared out of the cell. He looked like he had been in there a year, though who knows the time when stuck in a rotten cell for who knows how long. The old man reached for the bars, curious. He thought he had seen…no, must have been his imagination. I'm finally going senile… The old man thought, pulling at his long dirty beard. He nearly yelped out loud when four figures suddenly appeared out of thin air behind some crates from the guards.

"Okay, give me a few minutes to rest." A woman in armor said in an exhausted voice. The old man stared at them. He recognized three of them instantly; the sheikah boy came up blank in his mind but the other three…

"Zelda?" The old man croaked. Immediately, the four figures spun to face him. Link didn't recognize the man at all, and from the looks of their faces, neither did Impa or the shiekah boy. Zelda on the other hand…

"Daddy?" The princess edged forward toward the wiry old man with wide eyes. The prisoner nodded silently, tears coming to his familiar blue eyes, eyes that matched Zelda's. As Impa and the shiekah boy bowed in salute, Link stared at the man with a small gape. This wiry old man was unrecognizable compared to the jolly king that had joked with them on the day he had proposed to Zelda. Of course, anyone would have passed him over without his elegant robes and trimmed beard that usually adorned him. Quin stepped to the gate and with swift deftness, whipped out a pick and unlocked the gate, opening it noiselessly.

"SCREE!" Everyone jumped as the Lizalfos that had happened to be looking at the king's cell cried in alarm. "Essscaping Prisssonersss!" The lizard jumped over the crate, nearly landing on the frail king. "Thheiffing traitorssss! Milasssorka!" It cursed at them, drawing a long sword. Link instinctively reached for his own sword, quickly being reminded by the empty sheath that he didn't have any weapons on him. Having nothing else, he raised his fist, glaring at the creature's scaly neck. It had a jagged scar running along its throat.

Sslivik thrust his sword forward at the defenseless Link, confident of victory. When the hero dodged to the right and grabbed his wrist, the Lizalfos hissed in anger, shaking the weakened Link off with ease. The lizard tried a horizontal swipe that ended up crashing into some cell bars. Link sprung from his duck at the creature's chest, managing to knock him off his balance. With a crash, Sslivik fell to the ground, and was immediately pounced onto by the two sheikah.

"Ssssliii! Getssss Offffff!" Sslivik desperately tried to ward off the three hylians that were punching the daylights out of him. With a swish of his tail, he leapt to his feet with a snarl, throwing off the sheikah. Link lunged at the big lizard again, attacking his sword. Sslivik easily threw him off. Sharp… I need something sharp… Link looked around frantically as the Lizalfos attacked the dodging Zelda. Aha! The hylian hero leapt forward, grabbing a flaming torch off the wall. With a back flip, Link jumped off the wall and landed in front of the Lizalfos, taking it by surprise.

"Hyah!" Link cried, thrusting the torch at Sslivik who instinctively backed off. The lizard thrust his sword forward with another snarl. Link swung the torch wildly, forcing the Lizalfos back some more steps. Tired of the game, Sslivik rushed forward, tackling Link with his powerful feet. The torch went flying…into the hands of Zelda's father.

"Sælëą Aërændiil!" The king spoke in a commanding voice, the torch's flames turning white hot. "Söælnæsë!" The flames curled into a fireball and launched at the surprised Lizalfos. Sslivik watched the fireball, coming too fast to dodge and yet too slow to keep his life from flashing in front of his glassy eyes.

FWOOSH!

The fireball slammed into the Lizalfos's chest, enveloping him into white-blue flames. With a screeching death cry, the creature dropped its sword from its burning hand and it clattered on the floor with a surprisingly loud noise. A few seconds later, all that remained of the Stalfos's informant was a pile of black ashes. As Link picked up the dead Lizalfos's sword, he stared at the Hylian monarch in wonder.

"Zelda's not the only one who can use magic Link." The king said with a twinkle in his eye. "In fact, all of the Royal family can use magic. At least the ones of direct ancestry."

"Oh…" Link managed to say, still staring at the king in disbelief. Shaking his head in amazement, he took another torch from the wall and handed it to Impa, who in turn began walking down a darkened corridor…