Link knew that he didn't have much time to save his new friend from impending doom, so he acted quickly. He had planned on escaping anyway, but now he didn't have time to come up with a good strategy, so he improvised. He was lucky enough to find a large bone of some kind, and with a couple cracks against the stone wall, he had a good enough edge to try to pry away the lock. Link wedged the edge of the broken bone against the lock and the door's base, and pushed as hard as he could, hoping that the force would warp the door enough for him to be able to force it open.

"Come on," Link said as he applied the rest of his weight against the lock, and sure enough, the lock broke and the door opened. Link quickly ran over to the main door and looked through the key hole to see if there were any guards outside, but it looked like they were either switching guard, or just not guarding at all because they were taking Phane to be executed. Regardless, it didn't seem like anyone was at all afraid he was about to leave. Link took a few seconds to try to catch his breath, whatever Justiciar Essen injected into him was still affecting him, but nausea was the least of his worries.

He made his way to the end of the hall where there was a door. Quietly, Link creaked open the door and found a guard asleep at the desk, and a small chest in the corner, where Link assumed his belongings were. He got behind the guard and found a dagger on the table behind the guard. Not wanting the guard to wake up at a bad time, Link took the dagger and smacked the guard over the head with the hilt, ensuring Link that the guard wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Link strapped the dagger to his belt, and then removed the keyring from the guard, and then unlocked the chest.

Link retrieved his ocarina and jacket from the chest, and then set his attention to everything else in the room. Link checked another smaller case and found a bombchu inside. After stocking up, Link opened the other door inside the room and found a smaller hallway, which surely was the way out. He opened the door at the end of the hallway and was immediately hit by the cool winter air. After looking to his left and finding the plaza where Phane was about to be executed, Link ran to a better vantage point. There was now a good-sized crowd forming, and Link spotted Phane being led to the headsman's block. He was running out of time, and he needed to create a distraction so he could go and save his new friend.

The exit he had taken was to the exterior wall of the city, so he was able to move around a lot faster without being spotted as being suspicious. He got to a good spot behind the platform, and got his bombchu out, hoping to scatter the crowd that had formed. Link heard voices in the distance, and it sounded like they were giving Phane his last rites, which meant that it was a good time to activate his bombchu while people were slightly off guard. He put it on the ground and saw it travel along the wall, down to the outside of the crowd, like he wanted, so no one would get hurt. He drew his dagger and got ready to jump down to the platform. The bombchu made its way down to a small warehouse that was housing a few powder kegs. The gigantic explosion that ensued scattered the crowd, and left a hole in the wall, which ended up being a good place to exit from. While the guards were still stunned because of the explosion, Link jumped down and landed on the headsman, taking him to the ground. Link recovered fast and kicked the headsman in the face, and cut the ropes from Phane's hands.

"We're getting out of here, Phane! Let's go!" Link said as he fought off another guard. Phane, realizing that Link was there to free him, took on a guard that tried to stab him. After punching the guard in the face, he flipped him over his shoulder, and delivered a knock out punch to the guard's face. "Come on!" Link said, as he grabbed Phane and started running towards the new hole in the wall.

"Right," Phane replied as he broke Link's grip and ran with him, through the hole, and out into the snow-covered field.

"After them!" A guard yelled from back inside the city, and a few guards starting running towards the hole in the wall too. However, the last of the powder kegs exploded, and sent the guards back, and collapsing the wall.

"Whoa!" Link said as he saw what happened behind them.

"That should slow them down, the woods aren't that..." Phane said, but then cried out in agony when arrows hit him in his back and in his lower leg. Phane hit the ground hard, and Link had to slow down and help Phane up.

"Damn," Link said as he supported Phane on one of his shoulders. It wasn't easy to move him, but Link persevered, and they made it to the cover of the woods. Link knew that he had to lose the guards who were pursuing them quickly, so he changed his route to go more towards his west, staying around the more shallow parts of the forest. Everything seemed to quiet down, and Link could no longer hear guards yelling, which meant that he had lost them, at least temporarily. After a little while, Link knew he had to treat Phane's wounds quickly, or risk him dying from his arrow wounds. After finding a small cave, Link set Phane down on his side, gently, and gathered what little bit of dry kindling he could find. Using his dagger and a rock, he started a small fire and added a few sticks to let it last. He walked over to Phane, who was definitely bleeding heavily. He was still conscious, but the arrows definitely crippled him.

"I've got to remove those arrows from your body, it won't be exactly... pleasant," Link said. "Just... leave me," Phane replied, obviously in pain, "Save yourself... don't... drag me around..."

"Can't do that, I'm not leaving you behind," Link replied as he knelt at Phane's side, examining his wounds. "The arrows didn't go in deep, once I can stop the bleeding and bandage them up, you should be fine," Link said, and then ripped a little bit of the cloth away on Phane's shoulder, exposing the wound.

"It looks like they were bobkins, so they won't be hard to remove. You ready?" Link asked, getting in a good position to remove the arrow. Phane nodded, and Link jerked hard, removing the arrow with little resistance.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, really," Link said, "But this one in your leg is going to really hurt, try not to make too much noise." With that, Link pulled the second arrow, to Phane's angered moaning. Link placed the two arrows in front of Phane, and then went over to the fire. "Give me a second and I'll make you some bandages," Link said as he removed his jacket and folded it. Link shivered a bit, thanks to his newfound exposure to the elements. He looked back at Phane and realized that he was at least fortunate to be wearing fairly heavy clothes, so he would remain warm.

Good thing I found my jacket, Link thought as he set his jacket down on a rock, making sure his Ocarina was tucked in safe, I've got to find Epona too, but I need to do that after I lose these guys for good. I hope she's okay. Link looked back at Phane, who was still recovering from the removal of the arrows.

"Why'd you save me?" Phane asked, seemingly calming down from what happened. The cool weather was starting to help his blood clot, but Link still needed to seal it or else he would bleed out.

"Because I'm a Hylian too," Link said, "I wouldn't ever leave a friend behind either." Link grinned a bit, and then said "I'm going to have to seal your wounds. Normally, I'd stitch them up, but since I don't have proper material for that, we're going to have to fix that problem the other way."

"Yeah, I can take it," Phane said, as he nodded his approval, "it's been a while since I've seen someone from my homeland..."

His accent's different than mine though, Phane thought after hearing enough of Link's voice. He couldn't quite place it.

"Same here, now relax, it won't take me long to make you some proper bandages so I can finish mending you." Link shivered a little bit more, and then took his shirt off, and ripped it in several places to make some large sized bandages and some thin strips of cloth. He put the dagger close to the fire, and started to heat it up. "We're not going to be able to stay here for long with this fire, we're going to have to go deeper soon," Link said to Phane as he took some of the cloth bandages outside as rubbed them in the snow to crust them in ice.

"This should help with the burn to seal it better," Link said as he brought the bandages back inside the small cave. Using another piece of cloth, Link retrieved the dagger and went over to Phane again.

"Ready or not, I guess," Link mumbled. He had always hated the smell of burning, and especially burning flesh. Phane nodded, and Link pressed the hot dagger against Phane's wound, creating a small sizzling sound. Phane took one of the arrows and bit onto it, so he wouldn't make a sound and handle the pain batter.

"All done with that one," Link said as he put one of the iced bandages onto Phane's back, starting to help relieve him of some of the pain from the burn. "And now... the leg," Link muttered as he repeated the process on Phane's leg, and pressed a bandage to that one as well. After using the long sloth straps to hold the bandages in place, Link threw the dagger into the snow to cool it down.

Link rubbed his arms a bit and then walked over and put his jacket on, feeling the warmth returning to him as well. Making sure his ocarina was safe, Link put his hands to the fire to at least warm them up. Unfortunately, the fatigue from the incident was starting to be multiplied by the comfort of the fire. Although he was exhausted, Link knew it was just a matter of time before the guards would find him at the cave, so he retrieved the cooled dagger and sheathed it, and put the fire out by dropping gobs of snow onto it.

"Okay, time to get you up," Link said as he grabbed Phane's left arm and put it around his shoulders, and Link lifted Phane up to where he could support him. "We've got a bit to go, I think" Link said as he started to drag himself and Phane out of the cave and through the forest.

"You... you're remarkably strong for your size." Phane said as he tried to at least support a little bit of his weight, but he didn't have the strength since he had lost quite a bit of blood.

"I try, this isn't as easy as it looks," Link said while gritting his teeth. Phane's weight was definitely taking its toll on Link's strength, but he knew he had to persevere to a better place to at least get some rest. They walked on for about an hour, not knowing where or how far they had gotten, but the forest just stayed the same.

"I guess it's not a bad time to say thanks for saving me," Phane said, "I don't really know what to do now that I'm free."

"We'll... concentrate... on that part... when we're actually... out of their reach... shall we?" Link said, now really straining to keep Phane up. Link was sweating heavily, which made him shiver because of the cold weather, and lose even more strength.

"Kid, you need to rest, I won't be strong enough to pick you up if you end up passing out," Phane warned, "Keeping this up will kill both of us."

"No... we must... keep going... we're... still... being... tracked...," Link said as his walking coordination was starting to go. They had arrived at a small clearing, and snow had piled up on the interior, creating a thick blanket. Link looked up at the clearing, and then decided to take a step through the clearing. Suddenly, they heard a crack, and then Link slipped, sending Phane landing on his side, smacking his head against a rotting log, dazing him. The clearing they had stepped onto was actually a frozen pond, and they had stepped onto thin ice.

Even though Phane landed on solid earth, Link fell through the thin ice, and into the frigid water. Link was totally submerged, and Phane, knowing that he didn't have much time to save his young friend's life, mustered the little strength he had to stumble over there, and grab Link's hand which was sinking into the water.

"RAAAAH!" Phane screamed as he pulled Link out of the water. Apparently, the impact against the ice and the water had knocked Link out, and Phane dragged Link's limp body to the shore of the pond.

"He's probably got water in his lungs," Phane said to himself as he unbuttoned Link's jacket and started pushing on Link's chest.

"Come on, kid, breathe," Phane said as he used what little strength he could to push the water out of Link's lungs. Link coughed and hacked water up, and then started to shiver. Phane rolled off of Link and then pulled Link closer to him in a futile effort to warm him up. Phane was now panting heavily, having used all his strength, and the whole world was starting to go dim... The last thing Phane saw before blacking out was a red human-lizard creature running towards them.

Heh... I could think of worse ways to go...