Shortly after Link's death
"So...what now sir?"
"Now once we prepare his body for burial and the wait that we might have on us we start choosing the honor guard that's to go with us when we surrender and return him to his people"
"What about those that were part of the initial capture?"
"We're going to pick one of them from that group first, but start figuring out a way of passing on the message about the honor guard to the rest of the soldiers"
"Will do"
And so everyone involved in the capture of Link fought for the honor of being the first chosen of his honor guard knowing that not all of them could go, both because of the fact that they knew other soldiers would want to be part of the honor guard due to them spreading stories and the fact that quite frankly they were just too big of a group to be able to all go as part of the honor guard
"So, how are we going to do this?"
"Basically two of you start sparring and then it's round robin where if one person gets knocked out than another person goes for it until there's only one person left standing"
"Makes sense, wooden weapons?"
"Yes"
Ultimately the round robin ended in a tie seeing as how the last two people standing knocked each other out at the same time and a private vote equaled a second tie
"So...what now?"
"Now we have to do everything again"
"Great, round two after they recover, they're not going to like this"
"I know"
As expected they weren't happy about having to spar for another round but once they recovered they did it and the second time around there was a clear winner. Once that was done there was sparring for the rest of the honor guard which went smoother in that there was always a definitive winner each round though there were clearly disappointed soldiers everyone agreed that the way things had been decided had been a fair way
Present
"Ultimately that only took about a month and so all we had to wait for was your request for a surrender to be able to return the soldier home"
"I see, what about when we told you guys about the fact that you weren't allowed to bring an honor guard?"
"Oh, that little issue, you see, what we did was..."
The day the demands were made
Everyone looked at the demands and when they noted that they weren't allowed to have an honor guard they all came together to discuss what was happening
"So...what do we do about their demands regarding an honor guard?"
"That's what we're going to have to decide, because we're not sending him back without an honor guard and yet..."
"Yeah, if we do go with an honor guard they might attack first and ask questions later, but what we vowed..."
"Exactly, we vowed to truly honor him for his return home and that means having an honor guard and it's escort"
They think on it and then one of the soldiers remembers the internationally recognized symbol regarding a special honor guard and their escort
"That's basically what we're doing in a way right?"
"You're right it is, you know the symbol well enough to put it on some of the flags?"
"Yes"
"Then do it, and once preparations are done we're taking this soldier home"
And so the preparations are made and the journey to Hyrule was begun
Present
"And that's what happened, we had a feeling that your father Princess Zelda would recognize the symbol on the flags"
"He did, but if it had been a trick..."
"We knew full well what the consequences would be if it had indeed been a trick, but it wasn't, at least not in our way of thinking"
"Dad agrees with you about it too, now that everything is done you'll be going soon"
"Yes, but we wanted to say goodbye to him first, to truly know that we've completed our mission and brought him home"
"And you have, you brought Link home and allowed us the chance to bury him"
"Yes, we've completed our mission and brought him home to be buried"
And with that the group leaves for four years not returning to Hyrule until they were in trouble due to a new enemy, and when they met Ravio they instantly noticed how much he looked like the buried Link but since no one knew the truth with his memories gone they thought it a coincidence, only later would the full truth about Ravio be discovered