Oh my goodness! This chapter took FOREVER to get finished! I was suffering from writer's block and guilt about what happens. In the meantime, I went through and revised all of my previous chapters, adding detail and fixing those surprisingly abundant simple sentences. I added a few extra events to chapters 2 and 7 I believe, so if you want to go back and re-read them, go ahead, if not, fine by me.

Anyway, I hope that it was worth the short wait, even if it is a bit shorter than I would like...

Chapter 8: The Loss of One

The soldiers lay waiting in the darkness, their hands eagerly twitching on the cold steel of their weapons. The bandits continued their mindless consuming of their poisonous beverage that seemed to give them such satisfaction. Their loud laughter blocked out any sounds their attackers made as they hid in the shadowed forest. They had long ago forgotten the foreboding sounds echoing in the dangerous wood surrounding them, and instead plundered about aimlessly as cattle headed to the slaughterhouse.

A loud howl broke the silence, and before the drunken cutthroats could even gaze stupidly to the shadows surrounding them, the rescue party was on top of them. Two dark blurs rushed from the forest and nearly a dozen of the inebriated larcenists had their necks ripped open before any of their friends could lift a finger to help.

Now recovered from the initial shock of the attack, the remaining criminals were seizing their weapons and rushing forward to defend their small settlement. They surrounded the two growling wolves, confident that they would be able to rid themselves of the feral dogs with little trouble. As they slowly closed the circle around the pair of canines, the rest of the company came into view, scattering the ring in chaos. In one fluid motion, Link slipped into his Beorc form and lashed his sword from the scabbard behind his back, knocking back the wave of bandits charging at him.

The camp was relatively cramped, with the flimsy buildings lying and a sloppy, cramped grid-style pattern. In the center of the camp was a great bonfire near the tall pole holding Rolf far above the surface of the earth. Each small structure had a brightly lit torch in front of them, providing the dim light that illuminated the dirty spread of wooden stores.

All of the rescuers had been instructed to work their way in towards the center of the camp where Rolf was being held and converge there. If the leader of the bandits was killed, Ike would issue an order of retreat to the remaining criminals and give them one chance to get away with their lives. The goal was to reach Rolf as soon as possible to avoid any injury coming to the small boy. Out of the corner of his eye, Link saw Oscar race past on his brown horse with Boyd riding behind him. They disappeared quickly behind a row of houses with Oscar taking down as many bandits as he could on the way.

Link carefully sheathed his sword and turned his attention back to the group running towards him, watching their distance carefully. They ran closer and closer, eager to dig the cold iron of their blades into warm flesh. When the larcenists were within striking range, Link suddenly drew his blade and brought it crashing down on his helpless enemy. As the front line of rushing bandits fell lifelessly to the ground, the others paused for a moment, only to be cut down by a violet blur.

Link looked up to see who had finished the job for him and saw a thin man covered in thick purple leather armor turning to him. His green eyes were watching the battlefield carefully through his long, silver hair. Before Link could say anything to the strange man, he slipped silently away through a small gap between two buildings. Link shrugged lightly as he carefully stepped over the bodies of the bandits. By now, most of the tyrants had ran or been killed and Link was relatively free to make his way through the camp unhindered.

As he rounded the next row of houses, Link saw Boyd struggling with a lone bandit in the distance. Both of the men's axes were locked together in a deadly game of endurance. Even as far as he was, Link could see Boyd was tired, and had little chance of outlasting the alcohol-boosted strength of the criminal. Link ran to assist the failing axe man before he faltered. Then, when Link had only covered half the distance to Boyd, the fighter's axe spiraled behind him and his opponent weapons crashed downwards with deadly speed. Boyd attempted to dodge, but the blade was too fast for his tired body.

The axe sliced from Boyd's right shoulder to his left hip, nearly cleaving him in half. The fighter froze as blood worked its way out of his mouth, spilling onto his chin as he slowly fell first to his knees, then the cold ground. With the full momentum of his charge, Link brought his blade down with amazing force, cleanly decapitating Boyd's attacker before he could do any more damage. After making sure that the bandit no longer posed a threat, Link knelt by the motionless warrior laying face down in the earth, his axe lying by his side.

Link gently turned Boyd over, revealing the full extent of his wound. Blood was gushing freely from Boyd's split-open chest, dying his normally green leather armor a deep red and still dripping from his open mouth. Boyd's white and green eyes—the only color other than red visible his body—stared wildly at Link. Each time the poor man tried to breathe, he would only gurgle and spit out another mouthful of blood, adding to the great pool surrounding him. Link carefully reached to one of his many bags and pulled out a glowing bottle. He was not going to let the fighter die, Link refused to watch as another life slipped away. The fairy floated a pale yellow in the dim light—a sign of its fear of the battlefield that surrounded it.

Link quickly popped the bottle open, setting the fairy free. At first, the orb of florescent light hovered near Link, but sensing the greater need of another, the fairy quickly descended to the dying fighter below it, sprinkling fairy dust on all of his bleeding wounds. The sparkling fairy disappeared as Boyd turned his head and spit out one last mouthful of blood before slipping into the forgiving realm of sleep. Once he was sure all of the man's wounds were healed, Link quickly replaced the bottle in its normal pouch and helped sit Boyd up.

Though all of his wounds were healed by the magic of the fairy, Boyd had still lost much blood, something that even the magic of the frightened orb could not help with. Link gently pulled Boyd onto his back, making sure that the man had wasn't lying on his uncomfortable shield. He carefully lifted his sword and began to make his way back to find the others before Boyd succumbed to his injuries. Before he could get very far, a shout rang out across the encampment.

"Your leader is dead!" Ike's voice echoed in the night, "We will give you one chance to flee, or your life is forfeit!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Link saw a bandit drop his weapon and run into the woods, not about to give his life for a dead man. Link shifted Boyd on his back gently and went to go back to the center of the camp where they had decided to meet. As Link ran through the bandit's camp, he listened intently to the breath of his passenger, wanting to make sure that he made it back alive. As the light resonating from the torch situated by Rolf's pole increased in intensity, Boyd's struggled breaths seemed to become less frequent.

At last, the small clearing came into view and Link could see that Rolf had been taken down from the pole and now rested safely in his older brother's arms. Mia was the first to spot Link running towards them, a dying Boyd on his back. She shouted his name and ran to him, cutting her conversation with Soren short. Oscar saw the state of his younger brother and gently released Rolf before following Mia as fast as his armor would allow, closely followed by Rolf.

"Ooh." Mia said, looking at the wounded Boyd on Link's back, "What happened? Is he hurt?"

Oscar shakily pulled his brother off Link's back and lay him down on the ground in front of Rhys. The priest carefully lifted Boyd's limp wrist and felt for his heartbeat. The color drained from Oscar's face when Rhys shook his head gently before trying once more on the fighter's neck. Rhys' shoulders dropped and he sighed deeply as he slowly pulled his hand back from Boyd's cold body.

"No..." Oscar whispered softly, taking a few shaky steps back.

"...Boyd?" Rolf whimpered, peeking from Oscar to look at his motionless brother.

"Oscar..." Link said softly, looking up from Boyd's body to the green lance man, "I—I'm so sorry..."

As Oscar came back to his brother's corpse, the few surrounding Boyd backed away to make room for the knight. He carefully lifted Boyd's limp body from the hard ground and carried him back to his waiting horse. Rolf stood staring blankly at the ground where Boyd had lain for a few moments before silently following his brother. Oscar gently hoisted Boyd onto his steed before mounting his horse and helping Rolf on behind him. The knight turned his horse silently to the trail leading to the camp before nudging its side and sending it running away from the rising sun. Everyone simply stood and watched the horse's dust disappear into the night, saying nothing.

Rhys was the first to rise, gently beginning to head back to the camp to rest. Gradually, the others followed, with Ike leading and Link and Mia trailing behind the main group.

"You did what you could." Mia said softly as she walked beside Link.

"I know. But if I had just moved a little faster..."

"Don't start beating yourself up." Mia yawned, "You can't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong in your life."

Link shrugged and yawned too. "Mmm..."

Mia looked at Link with a tired smile on her face. "Maybe you'll feel better when you get some sleep."

Link shrugged again and continued walking in silence. When they finally reached the camp, the sun was nearly up and Oscar, Rolf and Boyd were nowhere to be seen. Oscar's horse was sleeping peacefully near the entrance of the forest of tents, showing that the brothers had arrived safely to their temporary home. Link walked Mia to her tent before tracing his way carefully back to his own. The hero only took the time to remove his shield and sword before collapsing onto his bed in a heap of weariness, allowing the loving embrace of sleep to take him into the land of dreams.

I can't even say how bad I feel for killing Boyd, but it had to be done. He always dies in the early chapters of RD and PoR, so I felt the need to emulate that pattern here.

Please forgive me for the shortness of this chapter; I hope the next ones will be longer! Don't forget to review!