The next morning, I walked over to the headquarters to meet with the rest of high command (which now consisted of myself, Zelda, Link, Rauru, Darunia, Impa, Nabooru, and Azeru). Now that Ganon had launched a respectable offensive against us, it was time to formulate a battle plan against the event of a full-scale attack.

I was the latest of the high command to arrive, and when I walked through the door, they were already engaged in discussion. Rauru was, at that moment, telling Zelda, "I've been alive for a long time. Our people were still adapting to life on the surface of Hyrule when I was born. I've lived through three scourges of evil and two wars in our land. I know how powerful the forces of darkness can become. If Ganon has even two thirds of the troops that the old wind mage Vaati let loose in his two scourges before the Civil War, than he will have more than enough to overwhelm our forces, tactics or not. Even considering the losses we could inflict, Ganon will still have enough monsters to ravage most of Hyrule."

"Than what's the point of resisting?" asked Link, with an uncharacteristic amount of heat. "If the forces of darkness are really that strong, then why don't we just let Ganon walk in? Why don't we just hand him the Triforce?"

All of us fell silent at that. Link had, of course, been sarcastic in his suggestion. But I'm sure we all wondered at that moment why we were still fighting, if the outcome was as certain as Rauru feared it might be.

It was Azeru who broke the silence at last. "Because we have something worth fighting for. Think about it. What is Ganon fighting for? Power? Doesn't sound like all that much, if you ask me. We're all fighting for something more powerful. I'm fighting for my people, as I'm sure the rest of you are doing for yours. We're fighting for this land. But we're also fighting for an idea, for whatever this nation stands for. Peace, I guess? Freedom? Justice? That's got to count for something."

Though I had never, until coming to Hyrule, been an avid student of combat, I had studied warfare throughout the ages, and Azeru's comment had called to my mind some millennia-old words out of China, which I repeated aloud as soon as she'd finished: "The Moral Law causes people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger." When everyone looked at me, I explained hastily, "I read that in a book about warfare once. I never understood it. But I think Azeru explained it perfectly."

Impa picked up on Azeru and my line of thought quickly. "You two are saying, then," she asked for confirmation, "that because we have something worth fighting for, our people will be more willing to face Ganon's hordes, and we'll have a better chance of winning?"

Azeru nodded, as did I. Then Nabooru spoke up. "So how are we going to win this, especially if Ganon turns out to have as large a force as Rauru says he might?"

In my head, a plan formed, calling upon all the research I'd done on the internet, all the books I'd read and documentaries I'd watched. I explained it on the fly, even while I was still thinking about it. "We need to evacuate the whole civilian population. Get them to places where it will be hard for Ganon's forces to reach. And we have to send a few soldiers with them, to teach them how to fight in case we don't win. Once they reach a safe place, weapons have to be mass-produced for them and they will have to be taught how to use them. Maybe we can't win here, but the rest of our people can fight a war of attrition and, maybe after a few years, maybe after a few generations, they will be able to destroy the last of Ganon's forces."

"What about Ganon himself?" Zelda asked. "If we lose, he acquires the Triforce. That means he'll be far harder to deal with than his monsters."

"Then one of us," I replied, indicating her and myself, "will have to go with the rest of the people to ensure he doesn't get the whole thing. The people will need a leader, on top of that."

Zelda immediately picked up on my suggestion, but shook her head. "Unless you're willing to be the one that leaves, that won't happen," she stated. "Rauru can lead the people. We'll need the bearers of both the Triforce of Wisdom and the Triforce of Courage if we are to have a prayer of beating Ganon himself. His armies aren't our main threat, especially not if we play our cards right. We may be able to effectively cripple those armies of monsters, despite any worst-case scenario we can come up with. But then we'll have to fight our way to Ganon, and then fight him. That's where we have to come in."

Hands raised in surrender, I conceded to Zelda's logic. With that settled, though, I went asked, "So where can the civilians take refuge?"

It was Impa who answered me: "Anywhere south of the great Lake Hylia should be safe. Ganon's forces won't be able to go there without stretching themselves thin. The Kingdom of Labrynna should receive our people temporarily. They have been friends to our nation in the past, so they will likely help us. Additionally, no one knows what lies on the eastern side of the Lost Woods. Our knowledge only goes as far east as the land of the Kokiri. There may be safe places beyond that."

"Then we must evacuate the civilians to those places," I concluded. "As for actually defeating Ganon's troops, we'll need a place where they'll be bottlenecked, preferably where they'll have to fight uphill, a place we won't need as many troops to hold, but where we can counterattack from easily. Is there anywhere around here that could fit that bill?"

Darunia and Impa both nodded. "Kakariko," Impa replied. "The approach to the village is a narrow valley that goes uphill into the plateau. Death Mountain and the Gorons are within easy reach of the place. We might be able to hold it for a long time, maybe even longer than we can hold this ranch. There is also a long, narrow trail up Death Mountain that leads to the Gorons' great city there that could be held for a long time."

"Also," Darunia added, "my people will be committed to defending the mountain. That'll give us even more troops."

There wasn't a single one of us in that room who didn't show some sign of gladness at the thought of being able to hold the path to Kakariko and Death Mountain. "Let it be done, then," Zelda said at length. "We must evacuate our people and pull our forces to Kakariko. Then we must wait for Ganon to send his forces to us."

I nodded my assent, as did Link and Nabooru. As we left the headquarters building, I found myself hoping that Kakariko was as defensible a position as Impa said it was.

...

Just a quick author's note here: the quote Brian makes in paragraph 6 comes from Chapter 1, stanzas 5 and 6 of the 1910 Lionel Giles translation of The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. I believe that covers all the quotes for this chapter. Once again, many thanks to all of you who read this story!