It was another fifteen minutes before the first of the civilian evacuees reappeared in Castle Town. These were led by Zelda and the Sages, who had been the last to enter the narrow evacuation tunnel in the courtyard of the castle, and so were fated to be the first back out. Zelda and Impa looked over the carnage that had been wrought in the city. Impa distastefully nudged a fallen enemy with her toe. "Bulblins," she said to herself. "It doesn't look like they were a match for us."
"Not much of one," I replied. "Though they gave us a run for our money once their king charged in. But luckily, we had Link and Darunia in reserve with the knights. They changed it for us, at least here. I don't think they had any chance of breaking through anywhere else."
Impa nodded her approval. "Now that the Master Sword has been removed from its place in the Temple of Time, there will certainly be more of these foul creatures about. Them, and creatures far worse. We've been lucky, from what it seems."
Link walked over to where we stood talking. "Do you think there have been attacks anywhere else?" he asked.
"Possibly," Impa replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if a force of Ganon's monsters hasn't appeared near Lon-Lon Ranch and laid siege to it."
"In that case," said Link, "we'd better set out for the ranch with what knights we have here. Just in case."
"I would agree with Link's idea," I said. "A heavy cavalry force would be more effective on the open plains outside the ranch than it would in these streets. A force of horse archers would be even better."
"Horse archers?" Impa asked curiously. "We do not train our knights to fire bows, nor do we train our archers to ride. Link is the only Hylian to have ever fired a bow from horseback. Horse archery is a way of warfare practiced only by the Gerudo. And they were defeated in our civil war."
"Did you catch them in a narrow place?" I asked, to which Impa nodded. "Horse archers are only really effective on open ground. If we had some of them on the plains, we could be unstoppable."
Both Link and Impa let their eyes go wide. The idea had never occurred to either of them, it seemed. But Impa countered, "We have no trained horse archers here."
"Then we'd better start training people. Best to call for volunteers among the populace. There are ownerless horses at the ranch, are there not?"
"Malon owns them all," Link replied. "But I'm sure she'll be able to lend them to help us. There are horses here in Castle Town, and in Kakariko whose owners may be willing to part with them for the duration of this war."
"What's Kakariko?" I asked.
"It's a village just east of here," Impa responded. "It is reached by a narrow valley like the one that leads to the Gerudo territory." That, then, explained the valley I had first seen east of the castle when we'd first marched to the ranch.
I pondered these things for a moment, before saying, "We'd better tell the queen what I have in mind."
"Tell me what?" came a voice behind me. I spun around to see Zelda standing there, hands on her hips, with a wry, playful grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"I'm thinking of forming a company of horse archers to help combat the enemy on the plains. With your permission, I would like to issue a call for volunteers, as well as a call for horses here and in the village east of here."
Zelda nodded thoughtfully. "Nothing you've planned has gone wrong yet," she replied. "We may as well try it and see if it will work."
I smiled and bowed at the hips. "Thank you, Your Highness," I said, which elicited a giggle from Zelda, a chuckle from Link, and an amused grin from Impa.
At length, Link spoke up. "In the meantime, we should take the knights we have here and hurry to Lon-Lon ranch in case they're being attacked like we were."
"That seems smart," Zelda replied. "I will have one of the soldiers here issue the call, and another will ride to Kakariko to issue it there."
"Excellent," I said. "We'd best not waste any time then. Our time of arrival at the ranch could mean the difference between life and death for the people there."
The three standing near me nodded. Link whistled for Epona, who trotted up to him. I whistled the call for Dagda, and, from somewhere in the city, he galloped into the street, stopping abruptly when he came to me. I left him there for a moment while I ran to the battlement of the walls and grabbed my backpack. Then I went and mounted Dagda.
It took another five minutes for the knights to gather around me, Zelda, Link, and the Sages. Then, after Zelda had given instructions to a pair of men-at-arms, we rode out of the broken gate and onto the plain.
With fifty knights behind us, we galloped across the soft, springy grass of the plain. Zelda was in the very front, with Link and I riding on either side of her. Once again, Link and Ruto shared Epona, while Saria managed to hold on to the pommel of Dagda's saddle as I held his reins.
Even at a great distance, we could all tell that the ranch was not under attack, as Castle Town had been. But we came upon a far stranger sight about halfway between the ranch and the castle. Galloping across the plain were a company of mounted Gerudo. A couple hundred more ran behind on foot. I was about to suggest a counter-attack against them when I noticed the horde of monsters, even larger, stranger, and more terrifying than the Bulblins, rushing after them. A pair of Gerudo at the back of the running line stopped and faced these nightmares, swords and glaives in hand. They took care of a few of the onrushing creatures before they were overwhelmed. One young mounted Gerudo seemed to take notice; she stood in her saddle, drew her bow, and fired it backwards. Her arrow actually managed to bring down one of the monsters in the front.
I realized then that these terrors were not in league with Ganon's people. They were hunting them. I turned to Link and said, "Something's wrong. We need to attack those monsters."
Zelda looked at me, as did Link. "And what of the Gerudo?" she asked.
"If they attack us, we'll fight them. But it looks like we may be able to secure ourselves another ally."
Link and Zelda both nodded at this. Finally, Link said, "Let's go."
I smiled, and shouted to the knights behind us, "Our targets are the fell creatures in the back! Let's go!"
And with that, I, Link, Nabooru, and all fifty of the knights broke into a full charge towards the left flank of the attacking monsters. About halfway there, I realized Saria was still in the saddle with me, hanging on for dear life and looking quite nervous. "Don't worry," I whispered to her as I drew my sword. "You're safer on this horse than you are on the ground."
I could feel her nod; her head bumped into my chest a few times. Bracing myself for the sudden impact we'd have, I narrowed my eyes as we drew closer, ever closer to our frightening quarry.
With a great, ringing crash, we made contact. The enemy were taken off guard, and didn't react for the first few seconds as we swept their first several ranks away. Then, as we wheeled to attack their rear files, they turned to face the new threat we posed. But we came on them too fast for them to prepare much of a defensive formation. In no time, what few survivors there were fled towards the western valley in sheer terror of our horses. Deciding not to give chase, we wheeled around.
Zelda and those Sages who hadn't participated in the battle had already rode to meet the large Gerudo force, and Zelda seemed to be in conference with one of their number. Link, the knights, and I rode up to join their conversation.
Just as Link and I got there, Zelda was asking the Gerudo leader, "What exactly happened for Ganon's fell creatures to be pursuing you?"
The Gerudo, who looked to be as old as Nabooru, shook her head sadly and answered, "When you managed to rescue the Hero of Time from bondage, Lord Ganondorf saw it as our failure. When hordes of those fell beasts appeared, he set them on us as punishment. He told us we were no longer worthy to be called his people." A tear fell from her eye as she continued, "He had always strived to give us a better life in your country. He even managed to convince us that trying to take the Triforce would work to this end. But he was only interested in his own goals."
This was a bit of a revelation for me. Ganon, it seemed, was originally a freedom fighter, trying to improve the lot of what now seemed his long-oppressed people, only to turn on them as a rogue sorcerer.
Immediately I said to Zelda, "We need their help, which they can give. They need freedom from oppression, which we can give. I'd suggest we ally with them."
Zelda didn't seem as enthusiastic about this idea as she had about my previous ideas. But presently she relented. "I guess we can arrange a deal," she told the head of the Gerudo.
The scarlet-haired leader smiled. "Then we are at your service," she replied.
