Link tossed and turned as the nightmare raged in his head. The powerful golden sun hit the ground squarely, heating the stone floor and producing a comforting warmth that finally allowed the bounty hunter to close his eyes and rest.

Squeaky, high pitched voices from the past inserted itself into Link's dreams, "Four hundred! Three hundred! Four Fifty!" Each time the phrase was repeated, a different number was used. A phrase that meant nothing to him when he first heard the words. Now, things were different, and his life depended entirely on those numbers. Though Link had long forgotten the number placed over his head long ago, his unconscious mind recklessly dug through his troubled past just to find out. Just like the annoying fairy did.

Her voice jolted the boy awake, "Link, someone's coming!" He sat up, and listened through the sound of quiet winds. There was no bell ring. She could have been alerted to a smelly gas that happened to waft through, but Link felt the hairs on his skin erect; something was off. Fight or flight instincts were triggered, and he wasted no time in readying himself for the incoming threat.

A high pitched whir followed by a loud clinking sound of metallic impact immediately preceded the Gerudo who launched past the entrance and then landed gracefully on the hanging, wooden beam. Then a second Gerudo landed right behind. Her sister. They had shot their ropeshots at the landing beam to bypass the rope and the bell. They were armed, and they meant business.

As soon as the second sister landed on the beam, the Ganondorf twins promptly entered the circular room and quickly flanked the boy. Swiveling his head back and forth was going to inevitably get him killed, so he backstepped to minimize his disadvantaged angle. Getting cornered was going to have to be his only option.

The twins both wore the same armor and were nearly identical. Both wore steel-enforced vambraces, fitted leather pauldrons, and just enough fabric to proudly display their identical tattoos yet look barely modest. The one and only anatomical difference between them were their eyes. Kinja had a bright blue, left eye, and her right had pupils as red as blood. Minja had the left red and the right blue. Or was it the other way around?

More important than the sisters' eye colors was their weapon choice. Minja had her trademark scimitar-ropeshot hybrid in her dominant left hand and a sleek, curved dagger in her right. Kinja wielded her scimitar in her right, her dominant hand, and aimed the conventional, handheld ropeshot with her left at Link's head. Everything about the Gerudo's fighting style and weapon choice was made for taking out individual targets because desert warfare was not kind to those who traveled in large, organized groups.

He brushed his fingers against the handles of the various kitchen knives tucked away in his belt. Five. But they were no use here. He needed to get close enough to close enough before they would be useful. The waiting game forced extra blood through his veins.

Minja began the mocking, "Little Cica, I'm sorry it has to end like this."

Link shrugged calmly against the anxiety of his blood rush.

The other twin found his gesture unamusing and laughed. "This one is worth forty five hundred?" said Kinja in her native Gerudo tongue. When he heard the bounty over his head, he felt a booming memory resonate inside him. "Easiest money I'll ever make."

"Don't underestimate him," Minja cautioned, "He took down Hroth the Fat by himself." That was a name Link still heard on the lips of the pub patrons to this day, even though the man had been dead for five years. Most people thought it was an inside job. Minja knew better.

Link's eyes were transfixed on Minja, who looked ready to pounce like a lioness, but his eyes had to focus on Kinja's ropeshot being aimed at his head at the same time. Staying calm was the last thing the body wanted to do. Link breathed in and out through his nose as slowly as he could in defiance of his racing heart. There was nothing to analyze about these Gerudo warriors. Any assumptions made about their capabilities was going to get him killed. That did not mean he did not have a plan.

Kinja then asked, "Does he deserve Aracksheyn?" It was a difficult word to translate into Hylian, but it was a phrase that meant a challenge to a duel to the death. The Gerudo may have been thieves, bandits, and brigands historically, but they at least had culture attached to their way of life.

Minja looked at Link dead in the eye as her lips creeped into a smile and spoke as if speaking to him, "Snar ust rillio." Not this time, she said. Insulting. But these words came from an honorless host who broke her own house rule to claim a bounty.

Clink!

Before anyone could ask Link how he could understand Gerudo, the ropeshot's arrow-like head fired straight towards him. As soon as Link heard the clink, he ducked under the incoming missile, but its speed was slightly quicker than his reaction time, and he felt a sharp but weak pain in his cheek as the metal projectile grazed by his face and seared his skin. Now was his opportunity to close the distance and engage the one who fired the ropeshot.

No, it's not going to be that easy, he thought as he stopped his forward charge abruptly and turned to see what the twin was about to do. Sure enough, she too had her ropeshot on her sword aimed and ready to fire.

Clink!

The ropeshot's head darted straight for Link's mid belly, but he jumped backwards in time. But before he had any time to reposition himself, Minja launched herself forward to catch the boy off guard. He jumped back to avoid the first, downward slash, and then prepared to slip past her next slash, which never came. Instead, he felt Minja's leg drive into his exposed chest, which felt like a seasoned knight swinging a metal mace to his side. The power in her very muscular thighs and hips sent the boy flying like a ragdoll into the wall.

The impact upon hitting the stone bench further aggravated what Link was sure was a broken rib. The surge of pain through his chest heavily restricted his ability to breathe. It felt like an imaginary sword had permanently lodged itself into the right side of his chest, and every time he inhaled, Link could feel its sharp, pointed edge plunge into his betrayed lungs. Worst of all, he had no time to recuperate.

He quickly rolled off the bench and scrambled to his feet. He was expecting to hear the ropeshot fire again, but in the heartbeat it took to get to his feet, there was nothing. They had not advanced on him at all.

Standing to his left, Minja was aiming her ropeshot with her crystal blue eye at his legs. Link had time to consider the oddity that she was opting to cripple him. But the focus of his mind was on the sharp pain coming from each breath. Each breath had to be shallow. Link withdrew two knives from his belt: a meat cleaver in his left and a bread cutter in his right, neither blade ideal for defending against a Gerudo sword. His only hope was to get close enough where the blades and ropeshots couldn't reach.

Kinja raised her ropeshot and fired.

Clink!

Link already dove forward as soon as she raised her arm. The shot missed, allowing him to safely roll to an advantageous position. From here, all he had to do was turn and tackle her legs to the ground. But all that came to pass as soon as he heard the second rope shot fire. His survival instincts guided his second roll around Kinja's backside.

The Gerudo in proximity swiveled around and gracefully followed the turn with her blade fully extended. The unbelievable skill and speed allowed Link less than heartbeat to move out of the way. Blocking or parrying a Gerudo-forged scimitar with a meat cleaver and a bread cutter was suicide.

He sidestepped the slash, fighting his urge to cede any of his hard fought distance. But Kinja pivoted backwards, creating the space necessary for her next attack, and unleashed another slash. Link had no choice but to backstep. After regaining his composure, he turned to check on Minja.

Clink!

The ropeshot fired its head right at his feet, so he jumped backwards. She intentionally missed, which meant that was the decoy shot to set up Kinja's turn with the ropeshot. But Kinja opted not to use her distance weapon, and again decided to use her sword. Something is off, he thought as he jumped backwards to avoid the swing.

Two more swings followed after that attack. He jumped out of the way, but after the first jump, the boy could begin to feel his body straining to keep up and his lungs fighting through pain to draw precious air. Time was not on his side. And drawing a tactical plan in the midst of a battle was not easy to do while ducking underneath a backhand swing.

Kinja followed through her sword swing with a roundhouse kick. Her warrior leg swung through the air horizontally, and Link was not prepared. He tucked in his elbow to protect his already broken chest and planted his two feet, absorbing all of the leg's impact into his shoulder. How the kick did not tear his arm off he would never know, for the Gerudo's shin bone must have been made of Goron steel.

The force of the kick was too much for Link feet to maintain balance. His wounded rib screamed in pain as he fell over onto his knee. It's over, he thought in his head. In his vulnerable state, escape was impossible from the swift, fatal strike of death's sister. In one clean technique, Kinja twisted, spun around, and fired her heel into Link's stomach, knocking his body onto the hard, unyielding ground.

"LINK!" the fairy cried.

The overwhelming pain made his limbs feel useless. He had to fight his own body weight to make it up to his knee. The air had been kicked out of Link's already broken ribs, and the internal stab wound inside his lungs suffocated him harshly. If the ropeshot in Minja's hand fired, Link was ready to face death finally. No stupid promise or stupid amount of willpower could dig Link out of this conundrum. Like countless times before in the ten years that he had lived in Hyrule Castle Dump, Link knelt at the mercy of his opponent, with no way out. At least he could say this time that the end of his story was written by two, beautiful Gerudo warriors.

Clink!

The ropeshot's head caught Link on the outside of his raised thigh, and he collapsed upon the floor once the ropeshot pulled the head out of his leg. He laid there, feeling like the butt end of a joke told between predators playing with their food. The pain spread throughout his body and felt paralyzing. He was unsure of the depth of the wound, but getting up at this point seemed pointless.

"I told you it was easy money," said Kinja as she walked up to a downed Link, who was focusing on breathing slowly and painlessly.

"Snar ust rillio." Kinja's voice echoed in his head. Not this time, she said. All of a sudden, the twins' strange tactics made sense. There was a reason why he was never given the proper dueling rites.

Armed with the new revelation, Link had one last gamble to make. He continued to grunt as he did before, but since the blood rush had helped hide the pain, the grunts were just sounds made to convince the Ganondorf twins they had won.

When Kinja stopped in front of him, she was close enough for Link could smell her feet, which was exactly where he wanted them to be. He took a deep breath and lunged forth with his unwounded leg. His hands wrapped around Kinja's heels, and when his shoulder found the bottom of her shin, he used the power in his good leg to drive the Gerudo down into the ground.

As her body toppled like a tall tree being cut down, the spry boy scrambled on top of her. Once her body made impact with the ground, the Gerudo sat up, trying to get away. And then she raised her ropeshot and quickly pulled the trigger.

Clink!

Had Link not moved his head immediately before the ropeshot fired, there would have been a sharpened piece of metal buried in his face. A surge of blood flooded through his body as it realized how close he had just come to death. His eyes then transfixed upon Kinja's extended left arm, Link's next target.

"Sister!" cried Minja, who knew her sister was in trouble. Link had less than two heartbeats of total control before this rare window of opportunity closed.

First, Link's hands had to control her wrist while the ropeshot was reeling back the head. Second, he had to be conscious of the deadly scimitar, so he rose to his knee and moved just out of reach. The ropeshot head reattached itself to the body and loudly announced its availability for use. Third, once Link had total control of her arm, his hand let go of her wrist and reached for one of his three remaining knives. His fingers found the one with the small handle, the utility knife, perfect for what he was about to do.

Finally, he raised the knife and plunged it into Kinja's arm repeatedly. Blood splattered everywhere as he crippled Kinja's arm. She screamed and writhed until she found strength to twist over and attempt a slash from an awkward position. Having delivered crippling wounds, Link relinquished her arm in favor of avoiding the blade's path.

Thus far, his proximity to Kinja had successfully withheld the other sister from firing her long ranged weapon from the pommel of her sword, but as soon as he lost contact with her...

Clink!

Link anticipated the arrival of the ropeshot head and dropped prone onto the ground to snatch the ropeshot from the ground. As soon as he heard the metal head collide with the stone ground, he knew he was safe to roll over and prepare to counter with his own ropeshot. The mechanism itself needed less than a heartbeat for the head to travel back to the body; it was all the time given to Link to figure out how the tool worked and then aim the damn thing. First, it was a matter of finding the trigger, then once he found it…

Clink!

The force of the kickback of the ropeshot was more than he anticipated, and nearly took off his arm. His aim was not true, but it was close enough to convince Minja to move out of the way, towards her sister to regroup. Now that their opponent had the advantage of distance, and of the sisters had just lost hers, they needed a different strategy now. This would buy precious heartbeats of rest.

His wounded leg felt useless, but the blood rush and renewed sense of hope could siphon the pain of his injuries enough to at least escape from this fight. The pain in his lungs still felt aggravating, but he was still breathing at least, maybe even a little easier than before. Each harsh pump of the heart reminded Link that he had a fight ahead of him. Even if he wanted to quit, his body would not let him. And the Protector would not, either.

Kinja scrambled back up to her feet and looked at Link with wrathful eyes of a hungry animal. Her bloodied arm fueled the rage that was seeping through her eyes. Minja, aware of her sister's heightened aggression, stepped in between her sister and their target, "I shall finish this!"

Clink! The head of the ropeshot announced that it was ready to use as loudly as it fired. Kinja snarled back at her sister, "No, he is mine!"

Link's new opponent stood proud and stepped forth as she punctuated her ultimatum in Hylian, "I. Will. Finish. Him!" Minja's sister had no response to her confidence. She readied herself into her fight stance: sword arm raised above the head and blade pointing downwards, knife hand extended forward with a reverse grip on her curved, Gerudo dagger. She bounced lightly on the toes of her feet. Unharmed up to this point, her body danced around the limping boy, armed with nothing more than a utility knife in his right hand and the ropeshot in his left. His new toy was going to be the thing that would save him. Though his arms felt like they were going to fall off of his shoulders at any given heartbeat, he dared not train his ropeshot on anything other than Minja's head.

Between her lightning like acceleration and cat like agility, aiming at a moving target was damn near impossible. Combined with the long reach of her scimitar, Minja's first slash was so fast the blade barely nicked Topah's stomach as he pivoted back on his injured leg without care. And just as quickly as she struck, she pulled back gracefully. The bounty hunter was going to wear out her prey before delivering the incapacitating strike.

When she lunged forth again, her swift, brown hand guided her sword through a two strike combination. Link reacted by barely slipping past the vertical swing and retreating from the horizontal one. Having successfully (and luckily) dodged the combo, he was ready for a third strike to follow, but she pulled back instead, preferring to extend the conflict for as long as possible. Even though it would take too long for Link to recompose himself and fire the ropeshot before Minja would attack again, she still bounced from side to side in between retreats, ever cautious of Link's deadly weapon.

Each time she dove in for an attack, Link would take one painful gasp of air in panic, land on his hurt leg, and scream in agony. With Minja's deadly speed and acceleration, timing her attacks was impossible. That was beauty of her hit and run tactic. She chose whenever she wanted to attack, she chose the distance of the engagement, and she never had to worry about her opponent landing an attack.

Blocking or parrying the swings was out of the question, and there was no backing away either. Not only did he had to worry about the swings of her blade and her devastating kicks, but he was all too conscious of the ropeshot at the bottom of Minja's long blade. Attack, attack, retreat. Attack, attack, retreat. This pattern never seemed to break, and Link quickly formed a tactic in his head.

It was imperative for her to continue her pattern, but avoiding her movements without risking decapitation was all but impossible. Link waited for the first strike and jumped back once she swung her sword. Once she brought her sword up for a downward attack, he saw his sliver of opportunity to slip the attack and catch her leg as she retreated, but he did not see the leg kick that followed the sword swing.

Shin bone landed squarely on his open wound in his thigh, delivering a crippling wave of pain. His defunct leg collapsed under force of the leg kick, and Link fell into a kneel. Minja readied herself for the finishing blow. She took a step forward and twisted her body. Her thick legs carried her into the air, where she unwound her hips and let loose a finishing kick.

The moment her foot left the ground was the point of no return. But when faced against a powerful attack, even a little boy could anticipate and time the impending landing of an attack that required precious heartbeats to set up. It was this moment that Link, taking advantage of her arrogance, ducked into a forward roll.

Once his legs make contact with Minja's back leg, he wrapped his ankles around her thigh like a python snaring its prey. Using the weight of her planted feet, now trapped with Link's weight added on, he bent and twisted his torso off the ground to get close enough to place the sharp edge of his utility knife firmly against her tendon connecting the two parts of her leg.

No thoughts were needed to be made as Link pulled the dull, rusty metal blade across flesh. The bounty huntress cried out like a wounded cat as she fell forward onto her knees. Even though Link impressed himself for being able to even land a devastating strike on a Gerudo warrior, he knew it was not the time to celebrate.

The other twin cringed from the pain, "Sister!"

Thank the Goddesses he still had a functional leg! He used it to crawl forth and reach his arm around Minja, who was too distracted by the pain in her lower leg. By the time his arm wielding the knife reached around her collar and locked in place, any attempts by Minja to pry off his limbs were futile.

Oh how the tables had turned. His left hand, which was holding the ropeshot, threaded underneath Minja's armpit and the over around the back of her neck, while his right hand, which was holding his knife, reached underneath his trained ropeshot, around the fleshy part of her throat, and pressed the blade of his knife firmly against the skin.

She tried to struggle out of this position, but to no avail. Rotating her counterclockwise, Link turned his left arm around to aim the ropeshot at Kinja. By the time the other twin raised her Scimitar in alarm, Link was ready at instinct's notice to end both their lives.

"Release her!" yelled Kinja in her thick accent, heavier than her sister's. Her trembling hands were filled with uncertainty. It was difficult to bargain with no bargaining leverage.

"I may be worth 4,500 rupees, but am I worth anything to you dead?" He felt the skin on Minja's neck push against the blade as she swallowed. "Would you value your sister's life at 4,500 rupees?" As he spoke, he walked and dragged the struggling Gerudo towards the exit of Sanctuary.

Minja whispered into his ear, "You knew?"

"No," spoke Link in perfect Gerudo, "You told your sister I was worth that much." Sadly, neither would ever learn how Link learned to speak the Gerudo language fluently, for he had no intention of leaving either one alive. Simultaneously, he pulled the blade across Minja's flesh and squeezed the trigger of the ropeshot.

Clink!

Red sprayed everywhere as Minja went limp. Seeing her twin flesh and blood lay dying in Link's arms, Kinja unleashed a roar as she parried the ropeshot head away with her sword. It took less than two long strides for her to close the distance, and on the third, she unleashed a wild swing that nearly sliced Link in two had he not jumped back as well.

Then he remembered that he was outside, and the wooden beam was the only thing suspending Link from a six story fall. A sudden bloodrush shocked him awake, and he quickly fought to regain his balance, catching his breath once his legs and feet were firmly planted. Before the sisters showed up, he had assumed he had all night to look around and plot his next move. Surveying the vast sea of of stone and wooden buildings was pointless now, the only plan was to survive.

Looking back into Sanctuary one last time, he saw Kinja crying and caressing an unresponsive body with a very bloody head. Hopefully, this would buy him enough time to get a head start on escaping. Once his hand grabbed a hold of the rope, a gripping terrorization ran through his mind: Kinja was going to be out for vengeance. It would only be a matter of any given heartbeat before he and she would cross blades again. With a ring of the bell, he dropped all of his weight down and held on for dear life.

Slowly releasing the grip, he managed to reach the bottom of the rope without burning his hand. But then he had to somehow swing over to the wall and climb back down. Killing a Gerudo bounty hunter, still impressed by his feat, had drained him of any exertable energy. Link simply had no heart to continue back the way he came.

"Link!" that stupid fairy always had to make herself known at the worst times. "Oh Goddess, what are you doing?"

"Sleeping in a Queen sized bed, what's it look like I'm doing?" he fired back at her before returning his attention back to his environment.

If I were the sisters, I would use the ropeshot… But how? he asked himself. He looked around directly beneath him and, perfect, found long clotheslines connected between the circular spire and the rectangular neighbor. It was probably not the sisters' solution, and it was a risky move, but it was worth a shot. His decision to take the risk was further encouraged the as he felt the rope slip from his hands. He aimed slightly above one of the cords and held his breath.

Clink!

The ropeshot head fired and dropped, and once it began to reel the head back, it suddenly yanked Link off the rope. "LIIIiiink!"

Combined with the reeling force of the mechanism, Link was falling faster than free fall, straight for the line. Instant regret flooded his mind as he reached top speed. As soon as the head attached itself to the body, Link's momentum began to pull on the Link, against the clothesline which was what he intentionally wanted. The resistance against his arm was so great that he had to use two hands just to hang on. Then, expectedly, the line snapped. This was not the first time Link used clotheslines to safely land, only the first time with a ropeshot.

Quickly, he snapped his torso around to find another clothesline and fired again just as he was passing the roof of the hostel next door.

Clink!

This time, the ropeshot began to yank him to the side, so he began to swing forward, shifting his momentum horizontally. After another great tug against the ropeshot, that line had snapped as well.

Though his speed had been severely decreased, it did not prevent the impact against the ground from hurting.