Chapter 11

"Link? Hera? Please, somebody answer me."

"Zelda?" Link asked only to regret any movement. Pain flared up all over his body, feeling like he had been tossed to where he laid now. As the memories of the battle on Death Mountain came back, he realized he might be right.

"Link? Was that you?"

A moan escaped Link's mouth, the best answer he could give her.

The sound of metal moving, accompanying by the scraping of metal against metal, pierced the air. Link flinched at the sound, only now daring to open his eyes. A stone ceiling looked down at him, a cobweb in the corner signifying at least a sider shared the room with him. Orange light seeped in from a small window just passed his nose, giving him enough light to determine where he was. "In jail again," Link mumbled.

"Link?"

An uncharacteristic fear shook the female voice he heard. Link rolled over to his side to start and rise to his feet only to let out a cry of pain.

"Link!"

Link held his breath as he tried to hold back the flame of pain in his chest and side. He slowly lowered himself back onto his back and carefully took in a breath. Once able to breathe again he said, "Give me a moment." He carefully laid his hands on his chest, about to feel for what broken ribs he had this time only for his hands to touch the surcoat on his armor. Quickly he found a couple of dents and even one place where the metal was torn. He wasn't sure he wanted to see how bad off he was. He felt like he had truly lost a battle. Why didn't the monsters go ahead and finished them off on that mountain side? Remembering the words he had woken up to he asked, "How do you know Hera's here too?"

"I can see his side from my cell," Zelda offered. "How bad are you?"

Link let out a snort, the closest he dared to a laugh, and said, "At least you didn't ask me how I was feeling."

"Your scream kinda answered that one," Zelda retorted, her voice closer to sounding like her normal self.

"Ribs on fire, back on fire, any movement hurts," Link listed off. "You?"

"When you're bleeding, you're supposed to hold the bleeding part above your heart, right?" Zelda asked.

"Yeah. And put pressure on the cut," Link said, worried for the girl that sounded to be in the next cell.

"What if the cut's already above the heart?"

"Did you get cut in the head?" Link asked. He let out a grunt as he forced himself through the pain and relied on his abs to sit up. A cry of pain ran free of his mouth as all his insides screamed at him. He looked behind him to his right and saw the wall with some red colored hay and struggled over to the wall so he could lean against it.

"What'd you say?" Zelda asked, no reaction from his outburst evident.

He relied on his arms to lower himself more comfortably on the stone floor as, through gritted teeth, he asked, "You got cut in the head, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Remembering battlefield first aid, Link asked, "Are you dizzy, nauseous?"

"Dizzy, nauseous, fighting to stay awake," Zelda said, going through the same list Link had been. "I'm supposed to remove myself from battle. How do I do?"

"Stay with me, Zelda," Link tried, wishing he could see her. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"Shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes."

"Zelda?" Link asked, worried for the girl.

"Sorry, childhood song," Zelda offered. She took an auditable gulp before saying, "My pauldrons are punched into my shoulders, I've got some sort of leg problem, all I know is my left leg is on fire." She paused a moment before adding, "Oh, and let's not forget my brain slooshing around and wanting my hair to be red now."

Link looked down at the red straw below him only to notice his blue and white surcoat with the crest of Hyrule embroidered at his chest covered in blood. Trying to figure out where the blood was coming from he said, "Zelda, I need you to keep talking."

"About what?"

"What's the first thing that comes to mind?" Link asked, running a hand along his jaw and neck. He looked at his hand only to see no fresh blood, just the orange dried blood from wherever he had touched the fresh crimson first.

"You."

Heat flushed Link's face as he continued to check himself over to try and find out where the blood was coming from. "Okay, what about me?" Link asked, letting her take him as a subject.

"What would've happened to us if Hylia had never picked me?"

Link looked up at the wall across from him in a moment of silence as his mind forced him a life on the ranch marring some red head he had only seen once before. "I'm glad she did. I don't like the idea of a life having never met you."

"I'm glad too," Zelda offered.

Link put his hand against the tear in his armor and pulled it away wet and sticky. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with me using my surcoat to press against blood, is there?" Link asked, it being the only cloth he had available to him.

"That's what I'm using."

Link carefully untied the strings at his side and did his best to work it off himself as he asked, "What else about me?"

"Hum?"

"You're the one who wanted to use me as your subject," Link pointed out. He let out a hiss of pain as he pulled the surcoat over his head, pulling against the part between his back and the wall.

"Right, 'cause you're on my mind," Zelda said, her words starting to slur.

"Zelda, stay with me," Link said, worried what he could hear was her drifting off to sleep. He pressed the surcoat into the tear, cringing as a new wave of pain made itself apparent.

"I wanna build a blanket fort."

"A what?"

"A blanket fort. You never made one as a kid?"

"I had a hay fort," Link said, remembering the climbs to the top of the hay pile and pretended it was his castle to defend from imaginary villains.

"Aw, little Link on his hay fort sounds cute," Zelda said.

Link smiled at her thinking his childhood self as cute.

"A blanket fort is where you take chairs or poles and make a tent out of a blanket inside," Zelda explained. "I used to make one in my room at the academy and make it a soft and squishy haven. I wanna make one again so I can bring you inside and snuggle."

"When we get back home we'll make a blanket fort," Link promised. The sound of a large door opening got Link's attention, turning towards his cell gate to see the curved walls of the barred cell only showed him Hera's motionless body across the hall from himself.

"Hey! Do you want us dead or not?" Zelda called out.

"Shut up. Yavin may have sent me down here to heal you, but I know how far the human body can go before death strikes," a gravelly voice ordered.

Link leaned towards the gate, trying to catch sight of the voice's owner. He saw the edge of a red robe as the male pulled out a set of keys. A click sounded before the sound of Zelda's gate opening rang out loud in the dungeon. The red robe disappeared into the next room and shut the gate, locking the stranger into Zelda's cell. He wished he could at least see what was happening on the other side of the wall he faced as the sound of a heavy bag falling onto the ground came to his ears.

"Remove you hand," the voice ordered.

"What if I don't trust you?" Zelda asked.

"Then I'll break both your arms and work on your head anyway," the voice threatened. "I don't care if you trust me or wish me dead. I'm just doing what I was ordered to."

Link strained to push himself closer to the iron bars of his jail cell, each time lifting himself up by his hands and going a hand's distance causing a new flame of pain to erupt in his chest. He made it beside the bars and leaned his head against them, panting through the pain. He closed his eyes, the metal cold against his ear, as he tried to slow his breathing. Opening his eyes, he tried to look to the next cell, hoping the strange curve of the hall might give him a glimpse only to just make out the far bars of her cell.

"Who's Yavin?" Zelda asked.

"I told you to shut up," the stranger retorted. "If I wasn't working on healing your head I'd slap you for insubordination."

"You don't have much of a bed side manner, do you?" Link said, checking the surcoat pressing against the wound at his side.

"That order to shut up includes you, Pretty Boy," the voice called out through the wall.

Pretty Boy, Link wanted to echo, unsure of the term, but kept his mouth shut as he kept his ears open for what might be happening in the next room.

"Keep your head still while that works," the stranger said. "Straighten out your leg so I can fix that."

A cry of pain got Link to flinch. "Hey!" he called out, unsure what the stranger was doing to her.

"It's okay," Zelda said with a hiss.

Link placed his hands on the hard stone beneath him, trying to come up with a way he could make it into the next cell over. His eyes fell on the bars, knowing with the state he was in they weren't even needed. He rested himself back on his butt, placing his hand back on the soiled surcoat as he did the only thing he could do; wait. Every movement, every sound of a grunt or hiss from Zelda, every noise kept him on edge.

"That's all I can do for now," the stranger said as he let out a grunt. "Don't move unless you want permanent damage to that leg. It'll be back to working order in a little while."

"Thank you," Zelda offered.

The sound of her cell door opening got Link to press his head closer to his bars. Looking as far over as he could he caught sight of the red robe worn by a man with a bulldog shaped head with Hylian ears poking through graying red hair. He held tight to a large bag with wooden handles as he slid her door closed. A set of keys were produced out of the folds of his robe before he checked the lock by giving the bars a tug.

The stranger turned to Link's cell, the keys still in his hand, as a strange smile pulled on his cheeks and distorted his face. He stepped over to the cell and looked down at Link as he said, "You're turn, Pretty Boy."

Link closed his eyes as he heard the stranger unlock his cell door. Freedom was right there and he couldn't even stand, much less stand to see it. The stranger let out a laugh as he dropped his bag to the floor, getting Link to open his eyes.

"Tantalizing, isn't it?" the stranger asked as he knelt down beside Link's bleeding side.

Link took notice of his cell door left open, as if it was obvious to the man there was no way Link could escape.

"I need you to remove your chest armor so I can stop the bleeding," the stranger said, reaching into his bag to pull out what looked like long tweezers.

Link gave the strange face still pulled into a toothy smile a look before slowly removing his surcoat from the wound. He held in a moan as he let the soiled cloth fall to the ground beside him. With great difficulty, Link managed to pull off the pauldrons and let them fall with a crash against the bars of his cell.

"You sure are in bad shape, aren't you, Pretty Boy?" the stranger asked as he studied the tweezers in his hand. The tool began to glow with purple light, catching Link's eyes.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Link asked as he untied the chest plate. He felt the stranger's eyes on him as he struggled against the armor before he managed to pull it over his head and to the floor in front of the stranger. Sitting there in this undershirt, red still adding to the white long sleeve shirt, he looked up at the bulldog face, wanting for an answer.

"Compared to your friends, you're the only one whose face wasn't damaged," the stranger said as he leaned over to take a look at the wound. "Move your arm."

Link pulled his right arm over his stomach, gripping hold of his left side, as he kept as much of an eye on what the man was doing. "How bad was she?" Link asked, referring to Zelda.

"Now why would I tell you something like that?" the stranger asked, looking closely at the wound. He torn at the cloth, ripping it open farther, and poked the glowing tool into the wound. "Don't move so I can work," the man ordered.

Link held his breath, expecting a great flash of pain. Instead almost a numbing cold covered the wound. He tried to look over his right arm only for his bicep to block any view of what the stranger was doing. He straightened his neck slowly, careful of the man's words, and dared to breathe again.

The stranger let out a snort as he leaned back and put the tool away in his bag. He rose to his feet and picked up the bag only to set it farther away in the cell. Picking up the pieces of Link's armor already removed, he tossed them beside his bag and said, "You're one wrong move from permanently paralyzing yourself. Yavin better be happy that army of his didn't do more damage than they did." He knelt down at his bag and removed a pair of scissors. He turned back to Link, the teen eyeing the implements. He slid the scissors into the belt holding his robe together and stepped forward to stand before Link. "Give me your hands," he ordered as he held down his hands palm up. "If you don't do as I say, you very well will be lame."

Link gave him a look before carefully raising his arms up. He took hold of the man's hands only for the man to give him a sharp tug, taking the wind out of Link's lungs. His eyes went wide as pain filled his ribs and back, biting his tongue to prevent a scream to be released.

The stranger stepped closer, releasing the pull on Link's arms as he let go. He leaned down and grabbed Link around his biceps and gracefully lifted Link off his butt.

Link was surprised the robe hid the man's muscles as he was lifted up and carefully pulled over to the center of the room. The man straddled over Link's legs and slowly lowered Link down on his back. Pain laced his back as his face pulled into a grimace.

The stranger lowered Link's arms down so they rested at his side. He stood up and removed the scissors from his belt before stooping down to cut away at the undershirt only to make a sound at seeing an undertunic as well. He worked at cutting away at the clothes up to the collar of the two as he complained, "Why do you have so many layers on?"

"It is winter," Link retorted in a gasp as the pain threatened to cut off his breathing.

"Link?" Zelda's voice called out.

"It's okay," Link tried to call back.

"You better not be moving over there," the stranger said without averting his eyes from his work.

"I'm not."

The stranger pulled aside the cut clothes only to realize the undertunic went farther down. He leaned down and cut through the undertunic and tossed it to hang over Link's left arm. He took a look at Link's chest, making the teen self-conscious of his exposed skin. "And I've got to fix your back, too?" the man mumbled more to himself. The stranger put the scissors back in his belt as he stepped away from Link, back to his bag. He pulled out what looked to Link just like normal gauze and stepped over to stand beside Link. He knelt down and placed the gauze onto Link's ribs. He held his hands over the gauze and started to mutter unknown words under his breath.

A strange tingling spread from the gauze into Link's ribs, first numbing the pain before disappearing entirely. Link carefully took in a deep breath, surprised when it didn't hurt.

The stranger ended his chanting and studied the gauze over Link's ribs, taking his hands to rest on his knees under his robe. Link tried to pull his head up to look at what the man was watching only to quickly receive a palm to the forehead holding his head to the floor.

"Don't move," the stranger ordered, his eyes never leaving the gauze.

Only once Link relax the muscles in his neck did the man remove his hand from Link's head.

The man let out a sound as he watched for something Link couldn't see before rising to his feet. He looked Link in the eye and said, "Hold your arms like this," putting up his fists so they were about eye level with himself.

Link copied the position, unsure what the man had in plan. Looking around his fists, he watched as the man leaned over and carefully grabbed hold of Link's shoulder with one hand and the cuisses covering his upper thigh with the other. With a grunt the man rolled Link over so he now laid on his front, his arms propping his shoulders up.

"Lower a bit, your back needs to be straight for this to work right," the man ordered, removing his hands.

Link did as ordered, a cry of pain leaving him as something in his lower back shifted in the move.

"Hold that!" the stranger warned as his sandaled footsteps shuffled on the hay covered stone floor.

Link put his forehead to the floor as he closed his eyes and strained his jaw. Anything to stop the pain threatening to overtake him as the stranger cut away at the remaining threads holding his undershirt and undertunic on. He never felt the clothes removed until the same numbing came over his back and traveled down to his legs. Carefully he lifted his head from the floor as the pain disappeared, the stranger changing under his breath again. Wishing he could see what the man was doing to give him so much relief, Link stared at the ground below him.

The man ended his chanting, leaving Link in silence as he guessed the man was looking his back over as he had done to his ribs. After a moment, the man let out a grunt as he rose to his feet and moved about the cell. "Don't move. You'll be back to working order by the time Yavin sends for you."

"Thanks," Link offered, keeping his eyes to the ground in front of him.

Link could hear the stranger pick up his bag and leave the cell, closing the cell door behind himself. The sound of keys clanging against one another before the stranger gave a sharp tug on the iron alerted Link he was once again locked in the small room. He began to wish the man had laid him in any other direction as he tried to look around his shoulder to see what he was doing.

Just barely he could make out the stranger opening Hera's cell, the man only a crumpled heap on the floor. The stranger walked in, shutting the iron bars closed behind himself.

"How bad is he?" Link dared to ask.

"You sure don't understand 'shut up', do you, Pretty Boy?" the stranger said as he dropped the bag to the ground. Link could see him reaching into the bag and pulled out something small and metallic.

"I figured since you were sent here to fix us, you didn't seem like the kind of person who'd make more work for yourself by hurting us even more," Link said, seeing how much information he could get out of the man.

"And if you figure wrong and I break all of this man's limbs?" the stranger asked, kneeling down at Hera's head to work on healing him there.

"He's knocked out, so he most likely wouldn't even know you did so before you healed him back up," Link pestered on.

"You are persistent, aren't you?" the stranger commented.

Link could see the man's shoulders visibly drop as he let out a sigh before recomposing himself.

The stranger turned back to his bag and dug through his wares before saying, "He's got a laceration across the top of his skull and a bump forming on the other side. It seems like his left femur has been shattered as well, probably happened after he was knocked unconscious by the vermin."

"Femur?"

"A bone in the leg."

From what Link could see, the man placed something on Hera's forehead and held his hands over. Link's ears couldn't make out the muttering chanting but he guessed that's what was happening as sparkles of magic fell from his hands. He waited for the man to lean back in his crouched position, resting his arms on his knees under his robe, before asking, "So what was wrong with us?"

The man kept his eyes to Hera as he said, "You had damaged your spinal cord, punctured your liver, broken seven ribs, and cracked your sternum. Little Miss has given herself a concussion, broken her right radius and tibia, and also got a bad laceration through her scalp." He looked across the hall, finding Link's eyes, and added, "That's a lot of words you don't know, isn't it?"

"I think I can figure it out," Link said.

"Little Miss, you still over there?" the stranger asked, turning to look at Link's neighboring cell.

"I'm awake," Zelda called out. "Whatever you gave me is helping."

The stranger nodded his head before rising to his feet, turning to his bag once more to pull out more gauze.

Link lowered his forehead back to rest on the ground as holding that position was getting tiring. As he laid in silence, his mind tried to understand this Yavin that was holding them captive. The person sent their minions to attack and capture them but now wanted them fully healed? Link couldn't figure it out. If Yavin wanted the pieces of the Tri-force he and Zelda possessed, killing them would be the quickest way. Why did Yavin want them alive?