The second that Impa touched the ground, she was issuing orders – getting more guards to douse the flaming building, sending other guards out to give an evacuation order, ushering the disheveled king and queen into a carriage bound for Kakariko, where there was a summer house often used in the royal family's vacations and, most important of all, putting together a search party for the missing princess. Among the flurry of activity, she managed to find a second to grab hold of Link's arm and spin him around to face her.
"Evacuation order applies to you, too. I'm letting you off with a warning this time." she continued. "Simple forgery-men such as yourself have no business setting foot in the castle, much less without an invitation." Then she turned back to the raging fire, picking up a bucket to throw at an idle guard.
"But-" Link tried to protest.
"Hylia above, no buts about it!" Impa yelled, watching the guard jump as the bucket hit his helmet, knocking it askew. "Get your arse to Kakariko, now, before I kick it there!"
Link, subdued, turned and ran in the general direction of his house, the earlier events of the day running through his head. How could the princess have gotten out of a tower that high? Apart from drifting down on a curtain, there was no way out of such a tall building. She evidently hadn't done that, as she wasn't with the king and queen as they got into the royal carriage, and they looked rather distraught about it. Of course, that could also be caused by the fact that the entire city of Hyrule was most likely going to be burnt to ashes – the royal guardsmen were trained to fight, not douse fires, and there were very little firefighters in the city at the moment: they were out at war, putting out catapults set alight by fire arrows.
What even started the fire?
Link reached his house and burst inside, Navi flitting in just behind him and flying into the next room. Link grabbed a small shoulder sack and haphazardly stuffed some clothes and provisions in – Kakariko was several miles away, and without a horse, it would take a couple days journey to get there. To add to the difficulty of the journey, it was getting into winter, and while the sun was shining now, there was much less daylight hours that they could use to travel.
Navi slowly hovered back into the room, carrying a small traveling sword with the help of some magic. Link nodded to the fairy, taking the sword and quickly strapping it to his back. He had made it just in case he decided to do some exploring around Hyrule Field – Bokoblins and (rarely) Moblins wandered the field year-round, posing a threat to any unprepared traveler. He never thought he'd actually use it though, as he didn't get much time for vacation, and whenever he did, he tended to spend it either asleep, or just lounging around against a tree with Navi napping on his shoulder.
Grabbing a couple bottles, Link rushed outside and around the back of the house, where there was a good size stream of water, clean enough to drink. He filled the bottles with the water; it took longer than usual as the stream was lower than normal, presumably because of the guards filling buckets from the well that connected to the stream farther up it. Once the bottles were filled, Link jammed a cork into both of them and ran back inside, where Navi was adding a couple extra food items to the sack. Tossing the bottles in the sack, he closed it up and threw it over his shoulder, ready to go. After checking over the house, knowing it would probably be the last time he saw it for a while, if it even survived the fire, he stepped outside and closed the door, giving it a small pat. He then made sure Navi was with him and set out towards Kakariko.
After the first hour, Navi stopped flying and settled down on Link's shoulder, quietly humming a little tinkling song to herself. Link paid no attention to this fact; Navi weighed only a few grams, so he hardly even felt her land. Besides, the combined weight of the sword on his back on the sack hanging on his other shoulder was consuming more of his attention, as the sack seemed to somehow be getting heavier. But that was probably just him.
Link enjoyed walks like this. Generally the walks he would take – accompanied by Navi of course – weren't several days long or caused by an entire city burning down, but that was besides the point. He enjoyed how beautifully empty Hyrule Field could be, and yet still be full to the brim with life. It calmed him, especially after particularly frustrating days in the forge. He especially liked to walk by the river, which was about a half mile east from his current position. The sound of the flowing water was soothing and invigorating to him at the same time.
The two were watching a particularly small squirrel skitter up the side of tree and turn around to chitter madly at them when Navi suddenly flew up from her resting place on Link's shoulder and yanked back on his hair sharply, channeling as much magic as she could into the pull while still maintaining flight, trying to make herself even in the least bit influential. She only managed to make Link stumble a little bit and yelp at the sudden yank.
"Ow, Nav-" he called out before seeing the reason she had stopped him and immediately listened to Navi's silent plea for him to shut up, for which she thanked Nayru. At the bottom of the hill that they had just gotten to the crest of, was a camp of Bokoblins. Right now, they were all facing away from Link, watching a campfire that was lit and cooking a large steak, still dripping with the blood of the animal it belonged to. There was also another Bokoblin atop a small tower, presumably a lookout.
Alone, a Bokoblin was hardly a problem to get rid of. They weren't known for their speed, so if you could run fast enough, they would eventually give up chasing you and carry on to easier prey. If they somehow caught up with you, a couple well-placed sword swipes would send them running away. Because of this downfall – as well as others, not being very good fighters being one of the foremost of these – Bokoblins had recently stopped travelling or even living alone. They began travelling or setting up camps in packs that could range from two or three to twenty, sometimes even getting closer to the thirties on rare occasions. And one man versus thirty is not a winning match for the one man. Even if the thirty are bad at fighting.
There were four Bokoblins in the camp at the base of the hill. Three were sitting around the campfire, cheerfully telling each other stories in some primitive language that Link didn't understand in the least. He ducked down quickly as one of the Bokoblins jumped up and became very animated in his story, obviously acting out the part of someone quite angry, as he was stomping his foot on the ground and mock gesturing angrily at his two companions. At least, Link thought it was all an act.
The final Bokoblin was up on top the lookout tower, and was currently looking in the opposite direction of Link. Link made of a mental note of all the weapons in the camp. The was a crudely carved club leaning against a fallen log, right beside a shield that looked like it was made of bark. It wouldn't hold up long to his sword, if it came to fighting. Beside the shield was a spear made of a tree branch. It was stuck point end down into the ground. There was another spear, but it appeared to be being used as the spit that the steak was on. The Bokoblin on top the tower appeared to have a bow in it's hand as well.
Any thought of going around the camp had been cut off. A couple miles earlier, the land to his right had risen up into a large cliff, and the river that had been half a mile to the east was now a few meters to the east; the winding of the river had brought it much closer to Link, which he suddenly was not nearly as happy about anymore.
He was very much stumped as to how to proceed when Navi floated closer to Link's ear and spoke in a low whisper. "I don't know if this is the best idea, but the cliff looks quite climbable here. If we're quiet enough, we could climb right over them and keep going like nothing happened." Looking over to his right, he saw that the cliff was indeed climbable. Towards the middle it got a little steeper, but that was the only problem with it. After all, it was that or take a swim partway down the river. And the river looked exceptionally cold today. Tightening his satchel a little, Link walked over to the cliff and began climbing.
Hyrule is not well known for its predictable weather. In fact, other than in the middle of summer, there could be sudden weather changes that could spoil an entire family picnic in the span of thirty seconds. A beautiful sunny day could suddenly turn into a torrential downpour, soaking even the most well prepared traveler. And during the end of autumn and through winter, the weather, while being more cold and rain oriented, was even more sporadic. So it was that Link winced when the first couple of droplets hit his head. They were large and cold, and the sudden grey sky promised much more rain to come.
Link made a valiant attempt to stay on the cliff. The rain started to come down harder, soaking the rock wall and running down it, making it slick and difficult to hold on. He was reaching farther down the wall when he heard a tink of metal hitting rock and spun his head around to see what had happened. All he saw was the shaft of an arrow that was sticking out of a crack in the cliff. Startled, Link craned his head around to look behind him. The Bokoblin on top the tower had his bow raised and an arrow pulled back to shoot again. Shutting one eye to aim, the Bokoblin let the arrow fly, straight towards Link's head.
It was also at this moment that the rain caused Link to slip off the side of the cliff.
He landed sharply on his back, knocking the wind out of him. He was dimly aware of Navi using magic to stop the arrow from falling tip down on him. Then he heard a very loud horn give out some sort of battle cry, bringing him back to the present. Taking a deep breath, Link shoved himself back up to his feet. Reaching back, he clumsily jerked his sword out of it's sheath and held it in front of him, searching for the Bokoblins that should be all over him by now. Noting that Navi was successfully distracting the archer, he trotted towards the main camp.
Having heard the battle horn, the Bokoblins were gathering up their weapons; one Bokoblin being strangely absent. One of the Bokoblins grabbed the spear and ran up to stab Link with it, but he jumped out of the way quickly so that the spear only gave him a scratch and brought his sword down on the Bokoblin's hand, causing him to drop the spear and hold his hand in pain. Link went to stab the Bokoblin, but the other one had finished grabbing the club and the shield and smacked him on the leg, messing his footing up and saving his companion's life for the moment.
Link had fallen down; the blow from the club had knocked his feet out from out of under him. As he fell, he heard something fly through the air directly behind his head, and the Bokoblin with the club fell to the ground with a cry. He didn't get back up. Looking over at the fallen foe, Link saw that there was an arrow embedded into his chest, which was evidently meant for him. Navi suddenly popped up in front of him, apologizing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't distract him anymore, he figured out that I was a distrac- WATCH OUT!"
Link rolled to his left, just as the remaining Bokoblin jammed his spear into the ground where he had just been. Frustrated, it tugged at the spear, only succeeding in breaking the spear in half. Stomping in anger, it grabbed the club of it's dead comrade as Link jumped to his feet. Turning towards Link, the Bokoblin was almost steaming in anger. It charged towards him, screaming and holding the club in the air above it's head. Link took this opportunity to stab at the Bokoblin's unguarded torso, impaling it on his sword as the absent Bokoblin walked back into the camp, back from whatever he had gone to do. Seeing the situation, both the new Bokoblin and the archer Bokoblin abandoned hope and fled, almost tripping over themselves.
Seeing no immediate threat, Link pulled his sword of the dead Bokoblin and sat down to be sick.
Hey guys! I did not mean for this chapter to take this long, but here it is finally! Sorry. Now I need to go work on One Hundred Times Determination.
See y'all next chapter!