Author's Notes:

Sorry. This took a bit to encode, and I got side-tracked by something else. Anyway enjoy.

Despite being surrounded by a dozen men each in full armor holding a shield and spear pointed at him, Link showed no fear. He made no motion to resist, but he did step in front of the girl, putting himself in between her and as many of the armed men as he could.

"Wait sir!" the innkeeper called out, "It's not these two I called you for!" The innkeeper quickly explained to the captain what had happened; how the two ruffians had tried to take liberties on the girl, how the other two had come over, weapon in hand and blood on their mind, and how Link and the girl had subdued the rogues.

"Good work you two; we will take care of these louts to the town's prison." The captain said while his men took care of the thugs. Link and his new friend breathed out in relief; for one moment they thought that they would be thrown behind bars as well!

When the townguards had left, the two sat down again at the bar to continue their drinking.

"Um..."

Link turned to her silently asking her what was wrong.

...wait. Why were they sitting next to each other now?

"Sorry that you got pulled into this... and thanks for your help."

Link smiled and assured her that he had wanted to help and that he was glad that he did.

"Thanks again for standing up for me like that..." her voice was soft and sounded touched.

Link waved it off, saying it was no big deal.

"You were really good back there."

Link laughed and said that she was one heck of a fighter herself!

The girl blushed, "Oh no! I'm not good at all!" Then she seemed rather down, "...I actually don't know how to fight properly at all..."

Link had noticed that her way of fighting seemed improvised and self-taught... as though she had never been properly taught.

"...you're right..." the girl drank sadly from her tankard, "...no one wanted to train me. They all think that a girl like me wouldn't make a good fighter..."

Link chuckled and shook his head. He wondered what they would think if they met the Gerudos.

"The Gerudos? Why, who are they?"

Smiling, Link told her about the warrior women of the desert.

The girl looked at him with wide eyes, "A warrior tribe composed only of women?! Is there really something like that?!"

Link nodded.

"Say, how do I get to them?!" She asked excitedly.

Link raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Well... since they are warrior women maybe they will train me!"

Link contemplatively drank from his tankard. Why did she want to learn to fight so badly?

"I want to prove myself!" She said firmly, "Back home no one takes me seriously. Father doesn't believe that I could become an adventurer like him, mother wants me to become a normal housewife and my fellow knights won't accept me just because I'm a girl!"

Link straightened up; she was a knight?

"Ah! ... ...yes..." the girl said without any pride, and gloomily drank from her tankard, "I did my prince a great service and he had me knighted... I am the first lady knight in the history of my country... but nobody believes my story when I tell them, and they don't believe I'm a knight either..."

Surprised and curious, Link asked her about it.

"Oh... well..." the girl took a swig, "the prince I mentioned is the crown prince of my country, he's the only son of our queen, and his father died years ago. Our prince is kind and gentle and compassionate, but many think that we need someone made of sterner, stronger stuff..." she took another swig before continuing, "One day one of his royal advisers plotted to take over our kingdom and tricked our prince to go on a hunting trip to prove his bravery by killing a boar, or something like that... that's how he came to my village..."

Her eyes clouded longingly as she lost herself in a fond memory, and her lips broke into a smile. She took another moment to laugh.

"When I first met I had just beaten up one of our local bullies, a large boy with a loud voice but who was pretty much all talk... I was bruised and dirty and my clothes were a mess just like my hair... But the worst thing was that I didn't recognize that the rider before me was the prince of my country until one of his knights berated me... "

Link couldn't help smirking; he too has had a embarrassing moment or two where he had failed to recognize a noble.

"The prince though wasn't offended. He was very kind to me... and he called me 'young lady'..." the girl signed lovingly.

Link looked at her wonderingly, and quietly drank from his tankard.

"It was the first time that someone and sincerely called me that..."

Link asked what she meant.

"Urgh..."

Maybe he better hadn't!

"...my father used to be an adventurer and when I was little he would always tell me about his travels and the places he had visited..." she raised her tankard but found it empty, "Barkeep!"

The man came over, took her tankard and got to refill it.

"...I admired my father and wanted to become like him and go on adventures" she drank a big draught as soon as her tankard returned; Link didn't notice himself mimicking her.

Her tankard wet down with a slam!

"But whenever I asked him to teach how to become an adventurer he just laughed! Or told me that adventuring wasn't for girls!" she angrily drank another gulp, "So I tried to prove myself to him! I did hard work, like chopping wood and carrying buckets full of water, to make myself strong! I learned everything I could about our country, its provinces and its neighbors. And I stood up to the village bullies and fought them! But-!"

Link drank from his tankard, while she took a moment to calm.

"But no matter what I did or how hard I tried he just didn't acknowledge me!"

Link gave her a smile of sympathy...

"And to top if off, everybody started calling me the she-man!"

Link blinked; she-man?!

"Yeah!" the girl confirmed with scorn, "They called me that because they thought I was more of a boy than a girl! Some even said I was a boy in a dress!"

Link's mouth fell open; she-man?! Boy-in-a-dress?! A pretty girl like her?!

"Ah!" Link was just as shocked at his words as she was. Probably just as red as well!

"...thank you..."

Link blinked at her, surprised.

After a while Link asked her to continue her story.

"Um..." She took a moment to remember where she left off, "Ah yes, the prince... Well, he asked me of I could direct him and his retinue to the mansion of our local governor. I did and then the prince and men were on their way..." She drank once again from her tankard "The next day I went into the forest. I was upset again about my father and everyone. After walking a bit, I suddenly heard someone calling out to me. To my shock it was the prince; all alone and injured. I rushed over to him and went straight to binding his wounds. While I did he told that he and his knights had been ambushed by a group of rogues. And two of his knights had turned against him as well! The knights still loyal to him had sacrificed themselves so that he could escape. Then I lifted him to carry him to my village but he stopped me."

Link raised an eyebrow and looked at her expectantly.

After wetting her throat the girl explained "You see, the prince thought that his ambushers were too battle-experienced for brigands, so he guessed that they were mercenaries hired to kill him, and that they would search my village for him."

Link nodded; it made sense.

"Huh?"

Link emptied his tankard before handing it over for a refill. Then he explained. Mercenaries didn't get paid unless they got the job done, meaning they'd have to find the prince, dead or alive. They would have searched the nearest settlement since the prince had escaped but was wounded, alone and in need of help. Had she brought him to her village, she might have delivered him straight into their arms.

"You're smart. Yes, that's what the prince told me."

Not to mention that by housing the prince could have got her and her family killed. Link got his tankard back and took a swig.

"Wait! What?!"

After Link put down his tankard, he explained that mercenaries were not cheap to hire; more so a large group of ones tough enough to kill trained knights. So however hired them must have been rich, like a noble, and only a high-ranking noble could have slipped assassins into the prince's personal guard.

"You're right...It was that royal adviser I mentioned... " The girl confirmed impressed, "But what does that have to do with my family?"

Link simply replied that that adviser would have arranged to have her family killed just so that they couldn't say anything that might have given away the adviser's involvement in the prince's assassination.

"But we didn't know anything!" The girl was both shocked and upset.

Link brought down his tankard, having just taken a sip, and smiled grimly; that adviser wouldn't have cared either way.

The girl was shocked into silence. But only a moment later she scowled.

"...that bastard is SO lucky that he got beheaded..." she muttered before she took another drink.

Link blinked and wondered what she meant by that. After a while, he asked her to continue her story.

"Um... well... I brought the prince to a small cave not that far away from my village; and every night and whenever I could I snuck out to bring him food, clothes, medicine, whatever he needed, and to nurse him as best I could.

Then one day I heard that our queen was going to marry again, and the prince promptly decided to return to the castle. Since he was still weak and hurt, I went with him. The prince feared that there might be another attack on him, so he dressed up as a commoner and pretended to be lame. And I became his sister who accompanied him to see a healer in the capital. When we reached the capital we made it just in time for the wedding. In fact, the queen was just about to exchange vows with her soon-to-be-husband, but we stopped the wedding and the prince was reunited with his mother... And then-"

Link cut in at that point; how did they manage to stop the wedding?

"U-um... I-I..." the girl blushed.

Link looked at her expectantly.

"It's not so important!" She caught Link's look at her, "Okay! I picked the nearest unruly ass in the crowd and shoved him and told him to let me through! Of course he got angry, which gave me the perfect excuse to start a fight. And since it was such a dense crowd, it didn't take long for it to spread and soon almost everybody outside the chapel was fighting each other, and the guards had their hands trying to protect everybody inside the church. I slipped away with the prince and went to the guards and begged them to take in my poor lame brother so that he wouldn't get hurt. Once he was in, he got as close to the queen as he could before calling out to her."

Link blinked. Talk about diversion!

"Well... the queen recognized him at once, and the wedding was canceled now that the crown heir was back. The prince was brought to the castle and I came along. The same evening I was invited to have dinner with the queen and the prince, and we told her everything that had happened after the prince's hunting trip. But then all of a sudden a bunch of men armed with crossbows burst in to kill us!"

Link listened with anticipation.

"They had expected to meet an old queen, her injured son and a frail village-girl. So imagine their surprise when I knocked over the heavy oak table and pulled down the queen and the prince before their bolts hit us! More so when one of them decided to stab us with his sword and got an oak chair on his head from me!" The girl proudly proclaimed.

Link however gulped.

"I tried to fight back by throwing knives and forks and whatever at them but it didn't work. So I grabbed whatever I could throw, smashed all the windows in the hall and screamed for help as loud as I could! People heard me, and the men ran to escape; I didn't let them though! I picked up the crossbow of the guy I knocked out and ran after them!"

Link looked at her with awe and respect; that girl was good!

"The next moment I was born down by a couple of guards; the idiots had thought that I was the one who had caused all the mess! Luckily, the queen and the prince were nearby. The buffoons got a boot in their groins from me! "

Link nervously took a swig; the girl was smaller and more innocent looking than Princess Zelda, but he feared that she was more dangerous when roused!

The girl also drank, to wet her throat.

"Afterwards they interrogated the two guys I caught, which led to the execution of that adviser and his henchmen and to my knighting."

Link waited her her to continue, but when she just drank from her tankard, Link decided to ask.

Immediately her mood darkened.

"I... " she started, "I decided to stay at the castle... and I tried to fit in... but the others won't let me..."

Link had the uncomfortable feeling that he knew what she meant; he asked about her fellow knights.

"They don't consider me a knight!" she answered bitterly "They say a village girl like me should never have been knighted!"

Link's expression tightened.

The girl emptied her tankard, brought it down hard, asked for a refill and downed another mouthful as soon as she got her tankard back.

"The master-at-arms refuses to teach me! 'Says it's too hard for a girl to handle! When I try to prove him wrong he just ignores me! Even though I'm ten times better than those lousy excuses for soldiers!"

Another big mouthful of strong brew went down her throat.

"And when I fight it's no different! If I win they don't acknowledge my victory because I fight 'unknightly' and 'underhanded'... Of course when those 'honorable', 'noble' men try dirty tricks against me everything is fine!"

By now the girl seemed close to tears.

"But the worst thing is-"

That the prince did nothing about it, and neither did the queen, Link finished.

The girl looked at him with big eyes; "How did you...?"

How did he know? Because he was in a similar dilemma...

He took a good drink from his tankard.

"Oh...?" Not knowing what to say she too took a swig.

After a moment Link asked her if she loved the prince.

The girl stiffed.

"...yes..." she admitted quietly, "...I think I fell in love with him when we first met... but... I didn't think much of it... after all... he's a prince... and I'm just a village girl... But after I saved him... after nursing him, befriending him and traveling with him all these days... I thought I had a chance... like in those fairy tales where the prince marries a common village girl simply because they love one another..."

But it simply wasn't that simple, Link well knew. Castlefolk and nobles were like that; Link too had learned it the hard way...

That made up Link's mind!

Author's notes:

Wow, maybe I shouldn't have watched those Terence Hill - Bud Spencer fight scenes on youtube! All this violence and fighting in my story...