Link's Awakening

Chapter Twenty Five: An Unlikely Savior

If I were telling this story to my little niece, Lina, I would say that I faced this situation just as bravely as the others, and never lost hope, but that would also be a lie. Master Stalfos beat me, and I was stuck, with my only hope of rescue being the slim chance that someone passing by the graveyard would hear my cries for help. But as I looked around at all of the others who had attempted to recover the marimba, all of whom had probably spent days screaming their heads off for help… I found myself wondering if this was really the end for me.

One of the worst things about being underground for a significant length of time was that it was pretty damn hard to keep track of time, with Link quickly starting to feel like he had been down in that chamber forever. There was no lock on the door at the surface, he kept telling himself, eventually someone had to pass by and hear him, but eventually the young man's throat became so sore from calling for help, that he was no longer able too. His attempts to reach the latch on the restraints with his hands or feet failed as well, and eventually Link became so tired that he had to close his eyes.

At least when the need for sleep overcame him, the young man's thoughts drifted to more pleasant things like his home and family back in Hyrule, and his date with Marin at Animal Village's honey festival, which had probably been the best day of his life. He wanted to see the young woman again, and take her to meet his family once the Wind Fish broke the curse or whatever it was that kept everyone on Koholint Island. When the dream ended, Link was still a prisoner underneath the graveyard, and now he was getting hungry during the latest attempts to call for help.

"All right, Stalfos, I've learned my lesson, all right?" He asked, ready to give just about anything for a drink of water. "I'll put the marimba back where I found it, I promise, just let me go… Stalfos? Stalfos?!"

There was no answer from the pile of bones at the center of the room, where the shimmering marimba was just sitting there like crown jewel of a treasure room, so out of desperation the young man started screaming while pulling at the restraints frantically. He even considered biting off his hands in order to free himself, but couldn't reach, so Link just sat there and… he didn't want to end up like the five corpses in this place, but what was he going to do? Pretty soon the need for sleep overcame him again, but this time he was woken up by a new sound reaching his ears.

Footsteps? Wait a second, was this real, or was he still dreaming? The young man could hear the echoes of someone approaching from down the corridor, but he was feeling so weakened from hunger and thirst that he could barely lift his head to see who it was. Stalfos was still collapsed in the center of the room, so it couldn't be the skeleton making that noise, and then the chamber door started to open. Of course, Link started by thanking every deity that he ever heard of for sending help, and then he asked his new companion to release him from the restraints… only to be met with laughter.

"Well, don't you look just… pathetic." A familiar voice said. "If I'd known that you were ignorant enough to get yourself locked up like the common criminal you are, I wouldn't have bothered tracking you down. Although I suppose it's still worth it in order to punish you for what happened in Kanalet Castle."

Struggling to lift his head up enough to see who this person was, the young man had to blink several times in order to focus his eyes enough to see that it was Prince Richard who was standing over him… and Link had just realized this, when the Prince suddenly kicked him in the mouth. Yelling about how much Link had humiliated him in front of his servants, Richard stomped and kicked him several times, calling the young man a thief, a coward, a criminal, and a few things that Link wasn't even sure what they meant.

"Why a great hero like Agahnim is so concerned with you, I'll never understand." The Prince continued, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Do you know that actually warned me about challenging you? He said that you were more than what you seemed, and that I should just leave you alone… and I will leave you alone… here… after I teach you a lesson."

"Richard, wasn't I locked in a cage last time?" The young man asked weakly, spitting out some blood. "Do you want me to steal your clothes again?"

There was literally no way for Link to accomplish this threat, but it still managed to enrage the Prince to the point where he punched the support beam, screaming about how it was a cheap shot, and that the young man and all his family and friends were going to pay for that insult. Ranting like a lunatic as he swore that Mabe Village would be burned to the ground, Richard constantly got his face closer to Link's, and was just starting to say something about Marin, when the young man made a desperate move.

Waiting until the Prince was very close, he brought up a leg in an attempt to kick him in the face, but because of the fatigue, his foot only got as high as Richard's groin. The hit was still effective, and threw the Prince off balance so that he stumbled backwards and fell down onto the scattered bones of Stalfos, but then Richard stopped moving when he noticed the shimmering marimba. Declaring that he now understood the reason for Link being down in this place, the Prince picked up the instrument after getting to his feet, swearing that he was going to hide it where no one would ever find it… but the young man was no longer paying attention to him.

Instead, his eyes were on the pile of bones that was quietly reassembling themselves into Master Stalfos, and then it placed a bony hand on Richard's shoulder… slugging him in the mouth as soon as he turned around to see what it was. Caught completely off guard, the Prince reeled back, dropping the marimba as he fell against the pillar Link was attached to, but then drawing his sword as the skeleton approached. Richard tried to move back to put some distance between them, but his belt had gotten caught in the latch on the restraints, forcing him to pull against it until breaking free… by opening the latch.

"Another grave robber so soon?" Stalfos asked, now focused on the Prince completely. "So greedy… so devious to steal the plunder of another… you will truly be among friends here."

As soon as the restraints were unlocked, Link fell over sideways onto the floor, trying to crawl away, but having to fight his fatigue, hunger, and lingering pain from having his arms like that for so long. This made the effort of escape a difficult one; the young man needing to grab both the marimba and his sword at least before leaving the chamber, but thankfully Richard was a lot more skilled with a blade than he had been. Like Link had done a short time ago, the Prince attacked Stalfos, easily cutting down the skeleton with a few well placed strikes… and being just as easily shocked when his enemy simply rolled back together from pieces.

Managing to crawl across the floor, the young man was up to his knees by the time he got hold of the marimba, since some of the feeling was coming back to his body, but now the battle wasn't going so well for Richard. With nothing but its bony fists, the skeleton was quickly disarming the Prince, first by knocking the blade from his hand, and then pulling something from his other wrist and tossing it across the chamber… something small and metal, which made a clanging sound when it landed right in front of Link.

Having been distracted by the effort to reclaim his sword on the way toward the door, that the young man almost didn't recognize the small object as being… his shield? He had originally lost it after being captured by the guards, and now what, the Prince had been wearing it on his arm? No matter, Link scooped it up underneath his arm with the small marimba, before crawling over to the fallen sword and using the weapon like a walking stick to help him get up to his feet.

"No!" Richard screamed from behind him. "No! Let go of me!"

With pain in his legs from each step he took toward freedom, the young man was just pulling the door open, when he looked back to see the Prince being forced down into a sitting position against an unoccupied support pillar. Stalfos was repeatedly punching him in the face until he could no longer fight back, and then the skeleton put Richard's arms up into the restraints and locked them into position… before turning its dark, empty eye sockets toward Link once again.

"Grave robber." It said, the grin on its skull almost seeming to get bigger. "Come back… your friend will be lonely."

His body flooded with a sudden burst of adrenaline as the skeleton started walking toward him, the young man ran for it, or… at least stumbled through the doorway at a faster pace, and needing to lean heavily on the wall of the following passageway to keep from falling over. Moving as quickly as he could, which was not very fast at all, each step that Link took toward freedom felt like it was getting more difficult, and now the rattling bones of Master Stalfos could be heard approaching from behind.

Struggling to keep from dropping what he was carrying, as well as keeping himself from falling on his face, the young man kept going until he reached the stairs. This was it, these stairs were all that stood between himself and freedom, but the soreness in his legs was so great that Link couldn't help crying out in pain as he took the first step. Without the motivation of the approaching skeleton behind him, the young man was pretty sure that he would have never made it up the stairs, but the threat of being chained up like that again was enough to keep him going, especially when he started to hear Richard screaming for help.

No, Link was not going to end up back there again, so he pressed forward, trying to ignore the cries for help, the rattle of Stalfos' bones, and his own pain as he kept climbing… and climbing… and climbing until the young man fell right through the door at the top. It still wasn't locked, allowing him to exit the structure and fall down in the dirt, but that first breath of fresh air after being trapped underground was the sweetest thing he ever tasted… even though it was still raining, and the moon was just barely visible through the clouds in the night sky.

But there was no time to rest; he could no longer hear Richard's cries for help, but Stalfos was still calling for him. So Link scrambled to his feet, collecting all his dropped items, and using the glow of the marimba to light the way as he ran off into the storm.