Legends of the Hero of Time

by Ryan-Sinclair

Following the events of Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask, Link struggles to adapt to a civilian lifestyle. His obsession with his mission leads to him needing to be rescued by Malon. The bond the two develop after helps him accept his new fate. However, his destiny is still uncertain as he must deal with a conniving Ganondorf, an army of Gerudo & the consequences of Zelda's spell.

29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

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[Time: 6:55 P.M. (Evening)]

[Date: Month 8 'Autumn', Day 12, 8th Era]

(Location: Hyrule, Central Hyrule Field, Lon Lon Ranch)

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Link, Talon and Ingo indignitaly approached the wheezing bandit who lay dying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood from the knife in his chest. The three were still seething with anger, their hearts rapidly pounding with understandable madness over having their sweet Malon kidnapped right in front of their very eyes. All of them tried their absolute best to defend her by any means necessary; the several bodies of dead marauders served as reminders of how hard they fought. Even though they were unsuccessful in the endeavor, they had high hopes and were determined to recover her. So long as the guy didn't choke to death on his own vital fluids, they would attempt to extract information from him. If he refused, there was nothing stopping them from making his final minutes alive far more painful than they already were.

"How are you feeling?" The Hero of Time sarcastically asked the kidnapper.

"Fuck you." He chuckled, coughed and then spit a bloody loogie in the boy's face.

Talon bent down and screamed at the man. "WHERE'S MY FUCKIN' DAUGHTER!?"

"G-Go to hell." The man gurgled with a bloodstained smile.

Link wiped the glob of blood off of his cheek, slinging it to the ground thereafter. His upper-lip twitched with sheer disgust for the repugnant man. Although torture wasn't a characteristic his kindhearted soul was usually capable of, he was willing to do anything to get Malon back. Considering that, going out of his comfort zone, he grabbed the handle of the kitchen knife that was sticking out of the mercenary's chest. "Let me make something clear for you-..." He said as he gave the blade a nudge, making the man cry out from intense pain. "You're going to die because of your crimes and I don't feel the least bit sorry for you. You might look like a person, but you're a monster."

"FUCK Y-YOU!" The bandit hollered as blood dripped from the side of his mouth.

Again, Link gave encouragement; this time by giving the handle a small twist. He rolled his eyes at the man's inability to say anything other than temper-fueled profanities.

The marauder screamed louder, unable to hide the agony of having the blade tearing at his insides as it rotated. "S-STOP!" He pleaded; a major difference from his previous attitude. "BY DIN, I CAN'T TAKE IT!" More blood dripped from the sides of his mouth as he raspily gasped for a breath. What he felt was a mere fraction of what the hero planned to inflict on him, but that in addition to the massive blood loss was already enough to cause him to begin fading out of consciousness. His head started drooping as he began to faint.

Link let go of the knife and opted to give the kidnapper a few wake-up slaps to the face. "HEY!" He yelled at the man before speaking sternly through grit teeth. "If you don't cut the shit and tell us where your friends took Malon, I'm going to make sure you die slowly."

"We got horses, buddy-..." Talon butted in. His entire body trembled in anxiety. "I ain't got no problem drawin' and quarterin' yer' ass."

Ingo grabbed Talon's shoulder for both moral support as well as physical support. He was having trouble standing.

The bandit coughed again, moaning "I-… I can't." He shook his head. "I can't tell you even if I wanted to. She'll kill my whole family if do."

"Who?" Link interrogated.

"The gerudo woman who hired me." The guy replied.

Talon's eyes widened in horror upon hearing mention of gerudo. "Great Goddesses, not again." Although he was furious, he grabbed at his chest as it began to hurt. He wasn't sure if it was stress or a heart attack. Everything he'd been through was so anxiety-inducing that he felt as if his lungs were on fire and his brain was about to explode. "I cain't take this."

"Go sit down, Mr. Talon." Link ordered. "I got this. He's not going anywhere."

"No…" Talon shook with outrage even as he clutched his chest. "I'll nevah abandon 'er."

The third of a year he'd lived at Lon Lon Ranch, Link had come to see everyone there as a family member. He deeply respected both Talon and Ingo, but had no choice other than to take charge during emergency situations such as these. "I didn't ask you, Mr. Talon." Although he spoke through gritted teeth, he made sure Malon's father knew he was speaking out of love. "Go sit down. Malon needs you and if you die from a heart attack, you won't be able to help."

"Come on." Ingo managed to tug the overweight farmer toward the front step of the farmhouse. "I gotta sit down too or I'm gonna throw up."

Once Talon and Ingo had a seat, Link resumed his interrogation of the dying bandit. "What's the name of the gerudo who sent you here?"

"Eraka." The guy coughed up more blood.

"Where did they take Malon?" The Hero got right to the point.

Shaking his head, the bandit refused to answer. "I c-can't. I can't tell you."

Taking hold of the knife handle, Link gradually pushed it deeper into the wound. "Tell me where."

Crying out from the searing agony of the blade going further inside him, the bandit grit his teeth and then spat another bloody loogie at the boy. "F-Fuck you!"

The bloody loogie landed on Link's tunic, but he didn't even pay it any attention. He focused on making the kidnapper's final moments as horrible as possible. Like he'd done previously, instead of driving the knife deeper, he twisted it so it tore the man's insides. "TELL… ME… WHERE!"

"N-NO!" He cried, tears pouring from his eyes. "SHE'LL KILL MY FAMILY!"

Link stared at the dying kidnapper. His eyes bulged from his skull, with one eyelid twitching from him barely restraining the immense vexation brewing deep inside him. He was so mad that he wanted to rip the man's head off and kick it to the sun. Yet, he held back from releasing the murderous rage. With a genius flickering thought, he used the anger to strike fear into the heart of his enemy. "When I find Eraka, I'm going to kill her no matter what. But, if you don't tell me where my girlfriend is, I'm going to find your family and personally kill them myself! Do you understand me!? I've slayed monsters! I've slayed demons! A couple of defenseless hylians won't be a challenge, I promise you!"

"NO! PLEASE, NO!" The bandit feebly held up his hands as a sign of submission. "PLEASE!" Gasping for a breath, he coughed and choked before weakly saying. "I'll tell you… I'll tell you."

"WHERE!?" Link screamed, his teeth bearing like a wild animal.

"GELDO GORGE!" The man yelled back with a wheeze. "West from here, there's an encampment a mile (1.6km) from the bridge leading into-..." He stopped to choke on his own blood, gagging as it poured down his throat. "...leading into Gerudo Valley. They… T-They took her there upon request from Eraka. She was s-supposed to pay us all a h-hundred rupees each." As his internal bleeding worsened, he struggled to breathe. His chest heaved while his lips quivered. "P-Please… Please… Don't hurt m-my family."

Link slowly shook his head as he snarled. "You did this for a mere hundred rupees? You're pathetic."

"P-Please…" The marauder's words became garbled as the blood filled his throat and lungs. "Please d-don't... P-Please… please… please… p… plea-..."

Watching as the kidnapper's life-force slowly faded from existence, Link felt absolutely no remorse for him. He just grabbed the handle of the knife and yanked it out of the dead man's chest. Still shaking his head, he scoffed at the audacity of the guy's final worries. After wiping the blood from the blade onto his tunic, he holstered the knife in his empty sheathe. Despite the man being a corpse, the boy spoke at it so its spirit could hear. "You hurt my family and then plead for me to not hurt yours? You're lucky I am who I am… Unlike you, I don't harm innocent people."

Making his way over to Talon and Ingo, he tried hard to not look concerned. He didn't want to freak either of them out, not after everything they'd been through that evening. With a stoic face, he kept his concentration on the determination he held for rescuing Malon as that was the only thing that truly mattered.

Talon had tears rolling down his cheeks, soaking his mustache. Right when he spotted the boy approaching him, he stood up from the front step of the farmhouse to ask "Where is she?"

"Geldo Gorge-..." Link replied. "They were paid a hundred rupees apiece to bring her to their campsite."

"Let's get goin' then." The hefty farmer started walking towards the barn.

Link grabbed his hand to stop him. "No, Mr. Talon. You need to stay here."

"No way in hell I'm stayin' 'ere while my daughter is bein' held captive!" Talon grumbled as he forcibly swatted away the boy's hand. His emotions were so high that all he could think about was seeking revenge on those who did this to his only child. "I'm goin' and I'm gonna kill every last one of the bastards!"

Once again, Link grabbed the man's arm. It was aggravating him that Talon wouldn't listen, but he understood why. He knew the farmer's paternal instincts were driving him to protect his kin. Nonetheless, there were other things that needed to be done and the hero wanted to make sure everyone comprehended their next course of action. "No you're not. What you're going to do is travel to Caste Town to alert the authorities. You're an adult they know and trust; they're more likely to believe you than they would if it was coming from me."

"I can do that." Ingo stepped up to the task. "That way you two can go find Malon together."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Link sighed. He didn't want to be assertive, but had no choice. "Mr. Talon… I'm just going to say this bluntly."

"What?" Talon narrowed his eyes.

"You'll just slow me down-..." Link stated before turning around to head inside the barn. "I'm going to take Epona and go looking for any signs of this encampment that stupid idiot was talking about."

Talon scoffed as he walked alongside Link. "I don't care what ya say, I'm goin'! I can't sit 'round doin' nothin'!"

"You won't be doing nothing-..." The Hero did his best to convince the big boned farmer. "You'll be alerting the guards. Think about it, dammit! What if you and I get killed? We need others trying to rescue her or this will all be for nothing!"

Squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his fists, Talon shook with anger. Needing to let it out the rage lest it drive him mad, he roared prior to throwing a punch at the side of the barn, hitting it so hard that he knocked a hole straight through the wood paneling. "FUCK!" It took a couple of seconds for him to get his breathing under control. Naturally, he wanted to hyperventilate. The only thing that stopped him from going on a rampage was knowing that Link was correct. He and Link were a force to be reckoned with, but not so mighty they could take on a small army headfirst; especially without not risking Malon's death. Having the strength of the Hyrulean Army to back them up would certainly dissuade hostage killing. "Yer' right. Yer' right."

Link walked up to the door of the barn and opened it before stopping. Turning around, he went over to Talon and quickly gave the man a hug. He was emotional too, except he decided to rely upon his adoptive family and help them during this turbulent time. "I love you, Mr. Talon. I promise that I'll get her back safe and sound."

Talon wrapped an arm around the boy, pulling his fist from the barn as his lip trembled. "I love ya too, son."

After letting go of the farmer, Link hurried. Walking into the barn, he immediately made his way to the ladder leading up to the loft, needing to retrieve his supplies before heading out. Climbing up, he skipped several rungs to ascend as fast as possible. Inside the area he had called his room for the last third of a year, he skipped over his well-used bear pelt bed to go straight for the cedar chest on the right side of the room. Opening the container, he promptly retrieved his bow and quiver in addition to the twenty fresh arrows he'd recently bought. After slinging them around his shoulder, he grabbed his boomerang and then slammed the chest shut. His final item, his Hylian Shield, quickly got snatched up from the corner of the room.

It was unfortunate that he had lost his Kokiri Sword, but he'd make up for it by being well equipped. Things had happened so fast whenever the kidnappers took Malon that he was unable to properly utilize all his arsenal. Plus, this time around the secret gemstone in his pocket would definitely be used; he wanted to ensure the people responsible for the abduction were burnt alive for their unforgivable crimes.

"I'm coming for you, Malon." He said while exiting his room.

While descending the ladder to return to the barn, he noticed that Talon had gotten Epona ready for him. He'd also gotten Ida ready for himself. Both horses were saddled and ready to go. "It's gettin' late." The farmer stated. "It's almost seven-thirty. The sun'll be goin' down soon."

"I'll find her before then." Link responded. "She'll be back here before nightfall."

Walking up to Epona, the boy stowed his bow and quiver on her saddle. The filly was understandably nervous, picking up on the tension in the air. She was also on high alert, her ears perked ever since she heard Malon's screams and saw a scary stranger run through the barn. Link kissed the side of her head and caressed her cheek to calm her down. "It's okay, girl. We're going to go rescue Malon."

Epona whined, snorted and shook her head.

"Link…" Ingo called out from behind them as the ranch hand shuffled inside.

The Hero turned around to see the injured man holding a steel sword. "Ingo?"

Ingo coughed in advance of presenting the weapon to the boy. "Take this. It's my old arming sword. My uncle gave it to me and I used to pick fights with it back when I ran with a gang of goons. For the last twenty years it's been in my room doing nothing but collecting dust." Flipping the sword over so the handle was extended outward, he said "Do something with it, will you?"

Link took the sword prior to swiftly examining it. The weapon was definitely old, with dents, scratches and rust, but it would serve the hero much better than a simple chef knife. Removing the kitchen utensil from his sheathe, he replaced it with the ranch hand's heirloom. Upon walking up to him with arm extended for a handshake, he was surprised to find himself being pulled into a hug by the usually grumpy man.

Ingo squeezed the boy with what little strength remained within him. Even while suffering from his rather serious injuries, all that was on his mind was the safety of Malon. He didn't have to be blood related to want to see her well-being. "You have to get her back."

The Hero nodded as he returned the hug. "I will."

"Now go." Ingo pushed the boy away. "Don't come back without her."

Link wasted no more time in mounting Epona. "I won't."

Grabbing the reins, he lightly whipped them while clicking his heels against the horse's side to get her moving. Right away, she started trotting toward the open double-doors to the barn. They passed Talon, but Link didn't even look at him; not wanting to see the man's face again until he could return his daughter to him. Once out of the barn, he directed Epona to the left, then got them moving a bit faster. He stared at the dead bodies of the bandits as they went by the farmhouse toward the entry of the ranch.

Traveling down the passageway, he looked up into the sky, seeing how close the sun was to the horizon. It made him fret as the last thing he wanted was to be searching for the farmgirl in the darkness. Chewing on his bottom lip, he whipped at the reins to get Epona moving quicker.

Coming to the gate, he noticed it had been breached. It was wide open and the lock was lying busted on the ground. Seeing that made him mad as it reminded him of his failure to recognize the rotten-toothed man as the threat he really was. On the other hand, he was more irate at himself for being fooled by a polite tone. After all the boy had been through, he should've known that evil lurks in many forms. If he'd sensed the bandit's intention from the start, he could have prepared for the attack.

Shaking his head to bring himself back to the currently dreadful reality, he contemplated his next move. Clearly he was going to head to Geldo Gorge, he just needed to figure out exactly where the encampment was as the dying bandit's directions weren't by any means precise. Either way, he had to find it and he had to find it quickly as the sunlight was quickly waning. Considering the time limit, he got Epona to turn to the left and then whipped the reins, getting her running as fast as her legs could go. They both traveled along the cliffside of the plateau the ranch was built on. The best way he figured to start his search was by beginning where he last saw the marauders at.

Following a minute of riding, he arrived at the exact spot he last saw his beloved. He knew it was the correct place too as there were numerous signs proving such. Right away, he noticed the deep ruts in the ground from where the bandit's horses trudged to hoist the rope over the cliffside. The marks were aimed toward the west, another indication Malon had truly been taken toward Gerudo Valley. However, he tugged on the reins whenever he spotted a splatter of blood amongst the grass. Dismounting, he quickly discovered his Kokiri Sword laying in the soiled red fluid. There was a bit of flesh stuck on the end from where it had been yanked out of the person it was embedded in.

"So, I did hit one of them." Reclaiming his blade, he quickly swapped it out with Ingo's heirloom. However, he sheathed the old arming sword on Epona's saddle, next to where he stowed his bow.

Looking at the splash of blood, after he glanced toward the direction of Geldo Gorge, he saw another splotch. While getting on top of Epona, he could see a third and fourth puddle. Be it luck or fate, it seemed there was a trail that most likely led to the very campsite he was looking for. Witnessing the virtual juices dotting the landscape made a smirk come to the boy's lips. Suddenly things got a lot easier, boosting his confidence. "Unbelievable." He spoke to himself while his horse listened. "These idiots left a line of blood. Did they really think I wasn't going to follow it?"

For a moment, the hero worried it was a trap or some form of diversion to throw him off where they really went. Yet, he didn't have the luxury to sit around thinking about it. With time ticking away the evening's last rays of sunshine, he had no choice other than to accept the clue as genuine and follow where it led.

"Let's go, girl." He said while whipping the rein and clicking his heels.

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[Time: 8:10 P.M. (Dusk)]

[Thirty Minutes Later]

(Location: Hyrule, Western Hyrule Field, Geldo Gorge)

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"Get him in the tent!" Zodd hollered at his companions as their horses raced against the light-brown clay soil found where Hyrule's temperate biome met the Geldo Region's arid environment.

He was the leader of his mercenary group, he had been ever since he came all the way from Xarcis for a better life. Except, things hadn't gone at all as planned. In fact, he'd lost six of his men to a prepubescent boy, a fat farmer and a guy who just about had his skull caved-in with a shovel. Now he was about to lose a seventh as the guy who'd been struck by Link's sword was fading in and out of consciousness. The entire ordeal was humiliating to Zodd. Sure, he'd done as tasked and abducted the farmgirl, but now he was reeling from the loss of over half his battle hardened team. Knowing he'd have to go back to recruiting pirates wasn't an ideal reward for the job.

The other four members of his squad helped to direct the fifth's horse. "He's not going to make it." One of them said in regards to the man's poor condition.

As they rode their horses up to a canvased yurt, Zodd firmly repeated himself. "Just get him inside the tent! All we can do is force a Health Potion down his throat and then pray that he hasn't lost too much blood."

"And, the girl?" Another bandit asked.

"Don't worry about her." Zodd pulled the reins to get his horse to stop. "I'll get her inside and keep her there until Eraka gets here."

Everybody proceeded to dismount before hitching their horses to a nearby wooden post. The marauder who had been stabbed in the lower back was hunched over on his saddle, remaining motionless until his teammates huddled around to remove him. Meanwhile, Zodd grabbed Malon. She had returned to consciousness halfway to their camp, so he had to stuff an old rag in her mouth to gag her as the first thing she did was start screaming her way across Hyrule Field. He also had to bind her arms and legs as she was the feistiest hylian girl he'd ever dealt with; the scratches on his neck being proof of that. Due to all that, it didn't surprise him that as soon as he lifted her, she flailed like a toona caught on a fishing line.

"GrnNrnGhhn!" Malon screamed in a muffled manner with fury burning in her eyes. She was still scared, but had come to be more enraged the longer she was kept kidnapped.

"Fuck…" One of the bandits lamented as he and the others carried their fallen comrade inside of the tent. "He's bleeding like a stuck pig."

"Hrnnnk!" Malon screamed through her nostrils.

Zodd reached up and popped the girl on her noggin. "Would you shut the fuck up and quit squirming!? You're starting to piss me off!"

The farmgirl shrieked from getting hit and then went silent. She wanted to retaliate, but knew she couldn't. For the time being, all she would do was get herself into more trouble. It was difficult to think clearly since her emotions were out-of-control and she was terrified of being raped and killed by the maniacs. Nonetheless, she knew her only hope for survival was to keep calm and do what they said until she either found a way to escape or was rescued by her precious Link. There was no doubt he was coming for her; She just needed to stay alive long enough for him to get there.

"S-So…" The gravely wounded bandit muttered. "S...So cold."

Zodd, even with the farmgirl slung over his shoulder, held the flap of canvas up so the others could carry the injured man to its safety. On the inside of the yurt, there were a series of cots set up around the perimeter. Pelts from animals of all sorts hung from the walls and ceiling, even laying amongst the ground like makeshift carpeting. Numerous objects ranging from jewelry, rupees and gilded candlesticks to weapons and iron ingots littered the tent. A firepit in the center wasn't lit, yet the heat it still radiated indicated it had been not long ago.

"Someone get the fire going." Zodd demanded as he took Malon to the corner of the room and simply dropped her on the ground as if she was an unwieldy burlap bag of flour. "The sun's going down. Eraka won't show up if it's dark and deserted looking."

"Hrg!" Malon groaned as she hit the floor. She immediately leaned up, but didn't try to leave; not that she could anyway since her legs were tied with rope too. Heaving a few times, the rag in her mouth made her gag, but she held back from puking lest she choke herself to death.

Pointing at the girl with his blackened fingernails, Zodd told her. "Don't you move a muscle or I'll slap you so hard your mama won't recognize you."

Malon narrowed her eyes as she stared at the guy, disgusted with his behaviour as well as his existence. But, also amazed at his lack of knowledge. He clearly knew nothing about her if he thought she had a mother.

"GOT IT!?" He repeated himself as he reeled back his hand, preparing for another slap.

"Nhgh!" Malon flinched and then nodded in confirmation.

One of the bandits hurried to get the firepit lit while his companions got the wounded man onto a nearby cot. They used a dagger to cut his blood soaked shirt from his chest. His friend retrieved a Health Potion while the others turned him onto his stomach to examine his injury. Link's Kokiri Sword, despite having been slung without proper aim, managed to penetrate all the way to the guy's alcohol swollen liver. Aside from groaning in pain, there was no doubt he was in the process of bleeding internally.

"Shit…" Another marauder said "It's bad."

"What did I say?!" Zodd snapped at them. "Use the damn Health Potion!"

"Yes sir." The second guy acknowledged as he popped the cork out of the Health Potion.

It wasn't an easy thing to do since their partner was nearly unconscious. They struggled with his dead weight to prop him up, then forced his mouth open. With a tip of the bottle, they poured almost the entire container's contents into throat until he began to cough.

"Take it easy, you morons." Zodd reprimanded the dim-witted pirates. He walked over to them, snatched the bottle out of their hands and then made sure the man didn't choke by turning his head to the side so the excess could drip out. "What, are you trying to drown him? Do I have to do everything for you?" As soon as the injured guy took another breath, showing he was still alive, the leader gradually gave him what remained, making sure he swallowed as much of it as possible. "Give him a sip at a time."

Malon closed her eyes for a moment as she pretended as if she was still at home to calm down as much as she could. Clearly, she knew she wasn't safe with them; she knew she had been kidnapped. She merely wanted to reduce her anxiety so she could focus on finding a way to escape captivity. Taking slow deep breaths out her nose, she eventually gathered enough courage to make an attempt. Opening her eyes, she looked around without making it obvious, not wanting to attract their attention. With her brain on overdrive, she quickly formulated things she could do while gagged and bound.

A sword leaning up against a structural support beam gave her an idea. If she could scoot over to it with her back turned, she might be able to cut through the rope binding her hands. On the other hand, she worried that getting caught would result in more bruises. The last thing she wanted to do was set off their anger.

"Is it working?" A marauder enquired, referring to the medicine his partner took.

Zodd scoffed. "Are you serious? It's a Health Potion, not Farore's Touch. It's not going to automatically heal the hole in his liver."

"There must be something else we can do." Another bandit asked.

Zodd pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He regretted picking people so stupid. Either way, he was occupied "Duh! We have to pack it with gauze to stop him from bleeding out. If we have another Health Potion, that would be ideal, but we can make due with Courser Bee Honey or Spiced Red Wine for disinfectant."

"I have a Health Potion." One of them stated in advance of going to look amongst their supplies.

Malon saw how focused they were on their wounded comrade and decided to use the distraction as an opportunity to wiggle toward the nearby sword. She did it very slowly, trying to make it resemble nothing more than an adjustment of her position. Before long, she had succeeded in scooting over a meager two feet (0.6m). After getting that far, she took a break, directing her gaze back to the menacing pirates to make sure they hadn't noticed what it was that she was trying to do.

"Here's some gauze." A bandit said prior to tossing the medical linen toward his boss.

The guy who had been searching his belongings finally found what he was looking for. Holding it up as he walked back to them, he said "Here's the Health Potion! Great Goddesses, I hope it works."

Zodd grabbed both items from the men and then instantly got to work. He popped the cork out of the bottle, used his other hand to delicately pry open the wound and then poured about half of the red liquid inside as well as over it in order to flush out any debris that had gotten lodged inside. Thankfully the man had fainted or else he would've been in agony.

Malon patiently waited until they seemed occupied enough prior to resuming her plan. She scooched over another two feet (0.6m), closing the gap between her and the sword. Now the farmgirl simply had to figure out how to prop herself up while not drawing attention from the mercenaries. It wasn't easy, yet she managed to lean against the wooden structural support beam in advance of squirming, wiggling her way to a sitting up position. After that, she very slowly brought her wrists to the blade, making sure not to cut herself as she rubbed the scratchy braided rope against it.

From off in the distance, a horn echoed throughout Geldo Gorge. Everybody, including Malon, stopped what they were doing for a moment.

Zodd shook his head and said "That's her and that's our five minute warning." He unraveled the roll of gauze, shaping it to the size of the wound before cramming it as deep inside the injured man's puncture hole as his finger could go. "We need to get ready."

"Fire's lit." One of the bandits said as he finished using flint to get the logs aflame.

"Good." Zodd sighed.

"How is he?" Another asked, referring to the injured man.

Zodd shrugged as he stood up, grabbed a cloth from the table and then wiped the blood off of his hands. Obviously he didn't want another of his crew to die on him, but he wasn't a doctor. He had done the best he could with the supplies he had and the state of the damage. Still, he decided to be honest with the others so they trusted his judgment. "He's lost a lot of blood. I don't even know if the Health Potions will help him clot before he bleeds out. Only time will tell."

"Fuck, man." One of the bandit's smacked his hand to his forehead. "How did a ragamuffin kid manage to utterly decimate us like that?"

"We were warned." Zodd shed light on the situation as the wood in the firepit began to crackle. "Eraka told us that he's practically an honourary Knight of Hyrule and has been to every corner of Hyrule. Anyone with that much skill, much less a child, is a hell of a force to be reckoned with." His hands balled into fists, knuckles popping as he blamed himself for giving the go ahead to invade the ranch even after his scout had been caught trying to break into the gate. The consequences he suffered made it crystal clear that he'd made a dire mistake in accepting the job in the first place. While it seemed like a good deal, nothing was worth losing so many people, especially not for such a pitiful payment. "I don't know who he is or how he got so powerful. I just hope the gerudo do whatever they're planning now that we got the girl."

"Yeah-..." The injured man's friend replied. "Speaking of which, she doesn't look like a full-blooded hylian, does she?"

Malon immediately stopped what she was doing upon hearing her being mentioned, just in time too as they all turned to look at her. She was horrified they were about to catch on to what she was doing. Nonetheless, she pretended as if she was so despondent that she didn't have it in her to try anything else. Making her eyes look sad and wiggling her lips as much as she could with a dirty rag in her mouth, she genuinely resembled a kid who had given up hope. The best she could do now was pray it fooled them.

"With that red hair, she's gotta be half gerudo." The guy continued speaking, seemingly unaware of what she was doing behind his back.

"It's rare you see a half-breed take the traits of the father over the mother." Another bandit responded. "Gerudo genes are usually dominant."

Zodd hawked up a loogie, spitting it off to the side prior to sneering. "I swear, if this is all to get a brat back to her 'real mom' or some crazy shit, I'm going to stay as far away from gerudo jobs as I can for the rest of my life. None of this has been worth it."

Malon rolled her eyes at their prattling, but thanked her luck that they didn't notice what she was doing. Given the opportunity, she continued to rub her bound wrists against the leaning sword. The weapon wasn't serrated, which would've greatly helped, yet she made due. Rubbing back-and-forth, she could eventually feel the rope begin to fray. As soon as she got past the surface, the blade cut deeper and faster. Within two minutes she had gotten through it. Unfortunately, the final slice slid against her skin after the rope gave away, but she was so glad to be free of the bondage that she held back from making a single peep in response to the pain.

"Is anybody else wounded?" Zodd asked as he hung his head.

"No." The hurt man's friend replied.

"Nope." Another bandit said as he patted himself down to make absolutely certain.

Shaking his head, the third stated "Just my pride."

"I'm good-..." The fourth added. "I'm good."

Now that the scratchy rope had been removed from her wrists, the farmgirl wanted to whip her hands around and begin frantically working on freeing her legs from the bondage. However, she had a feeling they would notice if she fiddled around too much. Keeping that in mind, she moved deliberately in addition to very slowly. Without needing to cut anymore since her hands were free, all she had to do was untie the knot in the rope. Once that was done, she still kept calm. Taking a deep breath, she decided what to do next. It wasn't going to be easy to get up, even with loose rope wrapped around her legs, so she needed to figure out how to do that, get out of the yurt and escape without being caught.

"That's great-..." Zodd plainly stated with a tone of relief in his voice. "Let's just sit here and unwind for a few minutes until the gerudo woman arrives."

"Sounds good to me." The injured bandit's friend said.

Malon waited until the majority of the kidnappers either closed their eyes or sat down before she enacted her impromptu scheme. Pushing the rope wrapped around her legs down beyond her feet, she quickly hopped up and then took off running with adrenaline pumping faster than a maddened Lynel. She didn't even bother to push aside the door flap to the yurt, simply rushing past it with as much speed as possible.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Zodd cursed whenever he heard as well as saw the farmgirl making a break for it. He jumped up from his seat on the cot and began pursuit. After all he'd been through, all the crew members that had been taken from him, there was no way he was about to let the child get away. "COME HERE!" Stopping right at the threshold of the yurt, he turned to the others and commanded them to stay. "Wait right here! I'll get this little cunt!" Following the command, he darted out of the tent.

The farmgirl ripped the dirty rag from her mouth and immediately screamed to the top of her lungs. "HELP! SOMEBODY, HELP! HELP ME!"

"I'M GOING TO KNOCK YOUR TEETH DOWN YOU THROAT FOR MAKING ME CHASE YOU!" Zodd hollered as he pursued after the frantic child.

Using her intellect, Malon ran out of the tent and made a beeline straight towards one of their horses. She knew that she wouldn't be able to outrun the kidnappers, especially if they had steeds to transport them. But, if she could acquire one for herself, she might have a higher chance of being able to get away. All she'd have to do was ensure that she didn't get caught while unhitching the reins from the wooden post.

"COME HERE!" Zodd tried to grab the girl, but wound up tripping on a rock. He tumbled to the dirt and ate a mouthful of clay. As he got back to his feet, he spat out the gritty soil stuck to his tongue and teeth, resumed the chase and hollered "DON'T MAKE ME BREAK YOUR LEGS!"

"HEEEELLLLPPP!" Malon let out an exacerbated call for assistance, praying that a nearby traveler would happen to hear.

Nonetheless, she knew she couldn't rely upon such an unlikely scenario. Since she had a head start and her pursuer had taken a tumble, she continued with her plan by unhitching one of the horse's reins from the wooden post. Unfortunately, due to being chased, her nerves weren't as stable as they were when she was untying herself. Her fingers trembled with anxiety, fumbling with the reins longer than expected. Because of the delay, when she finally did get it undone, she could already feel the rapid footsteps vibrating through the ground as the bandit leader came after her.

She screamed and ran, knowing she needed to put some distance between him. "HELP ME! DIN, HELP ME!"

"COME… HERE!" Zodd snarled as he tried grabbing her, his hand swiping at the air.

"NO!" Malon cried as she raced around the horse to avoid the guy. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Running around the horse, the farmgirl tried to make some distance by darting underneath the frightened animal. After doing so, she immediately grabbed the reins, using the stirrups to launch herself up onto the saddle. Her heart was beating out of her chest from the terror, but she couldn't waste anymore time fretting. She wrapped the reins around her wrists prior to tugging on them with all her might.

The equine started turning away from the post. Although it neighed from the stress of having people shouting near it, the fact that it was moving at all was an encouraging sign.

Zodd managed to grab onto the girl's leg. "Gotcha!" He growled as he yanked as hard as he could.

"OWWW!" Malon sobbed while whipping the reins. "LET ME GO!"

The horse was confused as well as scared. On one hand, it was being told to go, on the other it was being stopped by its master. When the uncertainty got the better of it, the creature reared up onto its hind legs and whinnied loudly.

Malon kicked at the marauder, trying her best to push him away so she could escape. To her dismay, the guy had too good of a grasp on her leg. Doubling his grip, he even grabbed her leg with his other hand. She would've been yanked off the horse if it wasn't for the reins being wrapped around her wrists. However, that actually made things worse instead of better; as once the horse started moving away, her upper-body stayed on the saddle while her lower-body was pulled off by the kidnapper.

"LET GO OF THE HORSE, YOU FEISTY LITTLE FIRE-CROTCH!" Zodd snarled through his grit teeth.

"NO!" Malon screamed "I HATE YOU!"

"LET… GO!" Zodd kept at it, yanking on her legs in-between words. "YOU'RE... NOT... GOING ANYWHERE! GIVE... UP!"

"NOOOOOO!" Malon's throat bled as she yelled as loud as her vocal cords could amplify her voice. Her hands burned as the reins that were wrapped around them cut into her skin from the force. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Unfortunately for her, no matter how good of a grip she thought she had on the reins, before long Zodd was able to rip her off his horse's saddle. Her hands were forcibly pulled through the straps and she fell to the ground. The bandit kept a firm grip on both of her legs as he drug her away from the horse so she wouldn't be able to easily repeat her actions. As soon as they were both far enough away, he tossed her legs to the ground and then proceeded to give her a swift kick to the stomach while screaming at her. "YOU COST ME MY WHOLE TEAM! YOU HATE ME?! I HATE YOU TOO!"

Malon retched from the blow to her abdomen pushing air out her throat. The pain was so much that she instinctively wrapped her hands around her belly and sobbed. Bile ridden drool dripped from both corners of her mouth.

"What in the name of the Sand Goddess do you think you're doing?" A woman's voice said from behind them.

Zodd turned around to see none other than Eraka, the emira to the Gerudo Tribe. He was surprised to see her as, due to the frantic commotion, he'd forgotten she was already so close-by. As soon as he saw the incredibly displeased look on her face, he knew he was in trouble. Still, he tried to explain himself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She just pissed me off trying to get away."

Eraka was a bit taller than the average Gerudo female. She had lanky arms and legs, plus she wasn't as muscular. Her frame was athletic, far more toned than most of her kind. Regardless of her different appearance, she was a high-ranking military official. The clothing she donned indicated her status as an emira, consisting of a red backless halter crop top, red sirwal, red pointed-toe slippers, golden gauntlets, golden greaves and a topaz embedded in her forehead. Her long fiery hair was neatly tied into a bun. She also had plump red lips, but they were curled in disgust at the hylian's actions.

"P-Please…" Malon wheezed and coughed as he reached out toward the Gerudo woman. "S...Save me… P-Please."

Walking over to the pleading farmgirl, Eraka bent down onto her knee to examine her. She gently brushed a strand of hair out of Malon's tear soaked face while gazing into her bright blue eyes. Noticing the red handprint left behind from the marauder slapping her, the gerudo woman turned to the man and asked "Sa'oten! Did you slap her?"

"I had to." Zodd shrugged. "She was definitely a fighter; didn't make it easy on any of us."

Shaking her head, Eraka scoffed. "I hope you know that'll result in a reduction of your pay."

"What?" Zodd's mouth hung open in shock. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're kidding me? What the hell for?!"

"Don't take that tone with me, voe." The gerudo emira snapped at the kidnapper. "I specifically ordered you to bring her to me unharmed. You failed to do that." Softly yet firmly taking hold of Malon's shoulder, she helped the innocent farmgirl get up off of the ground. However, she continued to chastise Zodd for his inability to do as he was told. "This vai is the vehvir of the Great Nabooru, Sultana to the mighty Ganondorf Dragmire, Lord of the Gerudo."

The man shook his head with a huff. "Speak hylian. I don't know what that means."

Eraka narrowed her eyes at the man's rudeness. Nonetheless, she translated her gerudo terminology so the repugnant hylian's dimwitted brain could comprehend it. "She's kin to our leader's second-in-command; her niece to be specific." Getting onto her feet, she began escorting the redheaded farmgirl back to the yurt. "I wanted her unharmed for a reason and since you failed to deliver her as promised, you're going to get half the pay. You should be lucky to get any rupees since you've made my job harder. How am I going to explain this?"

"Bullshit!" Zodd hollered. "I don't care what you have to explain to your superiors! I did my job and lost half of my squad doin' it! We deserve fair pay!"

The gerudo grew tired of the disrespect. Brandishing a small golden looper used to maintain her armour, she used them like a pair of pliers, slipping the jaws of the tongs into his nostrils prior to grabbing the column of his nose. Pulling upwards, her height made his nose stretch so far that it threatened to rip off. With a calm voice, she sternly asked "Do we have a problem?"

"N-NO!" Tear's poured from Zodd's eyes as he held back from yelling out in pain. "GOOD GODDESS, NO! E-EVERYTHING'S FINE! JUST LET GO!"

Eraka let go of the man's nose, pulling the tip of the looper out in advance of wiping the snot on his shirt. After putting away the tool, she resumed escorting the scared farmgirl inside of the yurt. Zodd held his nose, sniffled and then dabbed at the salty tears that had been forced from his ducts.

Malon stayed completely quiet. Her stomach hurt from being kicked and she felt hopelessness enveloping her thoughts. With her will nearly broken, she relented, no longer trying to fight back. She voluntarily went with the gerudo. In fact, with wide disassociated eyes, she went as far as to shakily latch onto the woman's side as she subconsciously chose to stay with the only kidnapper who had shown her an ounce of kindness since being abducted. The kid didn't know who the lady was, but she was better than the marauders.

Even though it was very difficult to think, the redheaded hylian girl contemplated a few matters while willingly going back inside the bad guy's tent. Hearing her aunt's name being brought up made her go wild speculating whether or not there was involvement. Of course, she didn't want to put any creedence into such a thing as she loved Nabooru and Nabooru deeply loved her in return. There were never any signs that the woman was plotting to sell her to slavers or steal her to go live in Gerudo City. With that in mind, if she were truly innocent of the affair, then it might be possible to seek her assistance. The only problem with that was trying to find her aunt. Malon had never been to the Geldo Region before and had no clue how many gerudo there would be. Then again, that hope would depend on if she was genuinely taken there or not.

"Hello." One of the bandits greeted the gerudo woman.

"Sav'saaba." Eraka responded as she escorted Malon over to the closest cot. "Please allow me to assess the vai."

The bandit lifted an eyebrow, looking skeptically at the gerudo. He was unaware of her customs since he'd never been around her kind before. Regardless, he acknowledged "Alright then."

"Son-of-a…" Zodd came back inside of the yurt holding his sore nose.

"Boss!" Another marauder exclaimed "What happened?! Are you okay?!"

The lead kidnapper immediately confirmed that he was okay. However, not only was he too embarrassed to admit that Eraka nearly yanked his nose off, he didn't want them to become hostile toward her either. "Yeah. I'm fine… That little bitch packs a punch."

Eraka sat Malon down on the cot in advance of cupping the girl's cheek. "Are you okay?"

Malon stared at her with pupils fully dilated in fear. She couldn't stay a word now as she was absolutely terrified she was about to be sold to the gerudo for nefarious reasons.

Cocking her head in response to the lack of reaction, Eraka used the kid's name. "Malon?"

This time, upon hearing her name, Malon's lips trembled along with her quivering eyelids. Several gasps of hyperventilation escaped her mouth. Burning tears rolled down her cheeks, dripping to the old animal pelt beneath her. "P-Please-... Save me."

Removing her personal handkerchief, Eraka gently dabbed the kid's sweaty forehead prior to wiping the tears. "It's going to be alright." She told her. "I'm here now. How are you? Did they hurt you?"

"Y-Yes." Malon shed more tears, instantly replacing what had been wiped away.

"We're going to get out of here in just a few minutes." Eraka told the farmgirl. "You won't have to see these disgusting voe ever again."

Malon sniffled as a string of snot fell out of her nostril. Her chest heaved from hyperventilating while her lips were barely able to form coherent sentences. "P-Please… I… I don't understand… What's happening? W-Where are you taking me?"

"You're going to come with me to Gerudo City so that you can meet Ganondorf Dragmire." The woman answered with a happier tune. She was thoroughly indoctrinated, so she believed she was doing the right thing. In her opinion, the child would advance her leader's noble cause and help him learn how to defeat his arch-enemy. Afterward, the gerudo male would uplift their kind in status, bringing forth a new golden age. "I know that it was difficult to get you here, but it's a great honour to be brought before the Lord of the Gerudo, especially for a half-breed like you."

The farmgirl's entire body trembled upon hearing Ganondorf's name. From the very first time she met Link, he had told her about his mission to stop the Dark Lord from usurping the throne and conquering all of Hyrule. She'd heard non-stop horror stories about how evil he was, the things he planned to do and the things he actually did in the future. Not only that, she was positive everything her boyfriend told her was the truth because there were too many signs pointing to him being right. The fact that Ganondorf had sent bandits after her family twice now proved that the man wasn't a nice person. Nobody kindhearted and with a clear state of mind would reduce themselves to kidnapping or terrorizing a child.

"N-No… No!" Malon tugged on the woman's arm. "Please, no! I don't want to go!"

"Shh…" Eraka pulled the girl into a hug. "Everything is going to be fine."

Off in the distance, a horse could be heard neighing loudly. It was further away than any of the bandit's steeds hitched right next to the yurt, so they all took immediate notice of it. The mercenaries chose that spot for their encampment due to it being secluded; they couldn't imagine a random civilian encountering them at that time in the evening, but knew they needed to investigate. They had to be sure it wasn't a patrol of soldiers coincidentally stumbling upon them, or worse, the Hero of Time coming for his girlfriend.

"What was that?" A bandit stood up from his comfy cot.

"Sounded like a horse not far away." Another replied.

Zodd finished rubbing his sore nose and chose to order one of the men outside. "Joenah. Go stand guard. Let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary."

Joenah saluted his boss before responding "Aye' Aye'." Following the confirmation, he brandished his sword and sauntered outside.

Afterward, Zodd went up to Eraka and promptly held out his hand. Despite being hesitant to press his luck again with the strong woman, he was ready to move on and felt that what remained of his crew would back him up this time. He didn't think she'd dare be rude to him in front of the others. "How about we get this transaction over with so everybody can go on their merry way?"

"Fine." Eraka surprisingly agreed to complete their job. She pulled out her crystal bedazzled coin purse, popping it open prior to removing half the rupees contained within. The gerudo woman didn't feel the least bit sorry for the dirty voe and really did refuse to pay them the full reward because of their breach of contract, seriously cleaving the payment in half due to the red handprint on the farmgirl's face. "I'll give you the same amount you would've gotten if everyone in your crew was still alive, just reduced by half as we agreed."

"What!?" One of the remaining bandits argued. "That's not fair! What did you agree to, boss?!"

"Just shut the hell up." Zodd sternly told his henchman. The mere thought of picking another fight with Eraka made his nose hurt as he recalled the sensation of the pliers crushing the column between his nostrils. "You'll get what you get and you'll like it."

From out of the blue, Joenah hollered at an unknown individual "HEY, DON'T YOU D-..." Yet, before he could finish saying his sentence, his body came flying through the fabric door flap. He landed on his back, revealing an arrow in his forehead. The blood dripping into his motionless open eyes proved he was dead.

"DAMMIT!" Zodd spun around without bothering to grab the rupees from the gerudo woman's possession. "GO, GO, GO! DEFENSIVE POSITIONS! ATTACK PATTERN FIVE!"

The remaining three men made haste, running outside while taking out their weapons. Unlike before, at the ranch when they were easily overcome, they were better prepared for combat as they no longer worried about accidentally killing their abductee. One had a steel-tipped spear as well as a dagger, the other had a mace and the last had a battle-ax. Zodd was right behind them, stepping over Joenah's corpse as he brandished his trusty longsword. Each of them were fatigued and morally drained, but they were furious they lost yet another member of their gang. If it was to be their final stand, they planned to make it a doozy by giving it their all.

"MALON!" Link was heard screaming as he searched for his love.

The farmgirl's body trembled as she automatically shouted back. "LINK!"

.

Link had followed the line of blood all the way from Lon Lon Ranch to the bandit encampment by Geldo Gorge. Although the dotted red trail had begun to run out as the injured man's vital fluids did the same, there happened to be just enough to give away their location. Since he didn't want to risk Epona's safety, he'd dismounted and left her behind a massive boulder near the edge of the canyon. That's whenever he brought out his bow and nocked an arrow. Seeing a mercenary standing in front of the yurt confirmed he was in the correct place, but he couldn't waste any time scouting out how many enemies there were because he was running desperately low on daylight.

As if his body were acting on its own, he instinctively pulled back on the bowstring, took aim at the ne'er-do-well and then released it. The guy had a mere second to react to the attack, but couldn't do anything other than yell half a sentence. Link complacently watched as the arrow flew through the air in advance of impacting the man dead center in the forehead.

It was unfortunate that the fresh corpse of the bandit fell backward into the yurt, immediately alerting the others. On the other hand, he didn't care. While watching the rest of the kidnappers filing out of the tent one at a time, he hollered out for his beloved girlfriend. "MALON!"

Right afterward, in response, the farmgirl screamed his name. "LINK!"

Upon hearing her incredibly distressed voice, the hero was now absolutely positive he was in the correct place. He removed another arrow from his quiver, nocked it and then took aim at the nearest kidnapper. To his dismay, after releasing the arrow, the bandit jumped aside, making the deadly ammunition embed itself into a structural support beam of the yurt. Not knowing exactly where Malon was within the tent, he decided to not risk accidently harming her in case his arrow happened to rip through the weathered fabric.

"IT'S THE KID!" A kidnapper shouted.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" The second guy exclaimed in utter shock. "NO WAY! HOW DID HE FIND WHERE WE ARE!?"

"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" Zodd reminded his remaining men. "ATTACK PATTERN FIVE!"

After stowing his bow, Link brandished his Kokiri Sword, pulling it from its sheath. To add to his capabilities, he reached behind his back and whipped out Ingo's heirloom; the old arming sword that once belonged to the farmhand's uncle. Now he was dual-wielding. Hopefully that would improve his chances of success since he was outnumbered. Of course, he also had his secret weapon in his trouser pocket; he just needed to find the right time to use it.

The bandit's stayed at a distance, not courageous enough to get within the boy's striking distance.

"I told you that I was going to find and kill all of you!" Link snarled as he twirled the arming sword.

The marauder with the spear tried stabbing the hero, thrusting the weapon in the hero's direction. However, the scumbag then immediately retreated, strafing backward before he was retaliated against. Next, the bandit with the mace tried smashing the kid in the head with his spiked ball. Finally, the guy with the battle-ax came in and made an attempt at cleaving the boy in twain. The last two did the same as the first by hopping back so they wouldn't be struck.

Link dodged the spear and tried slicing its wooden shaft, only to miss. He then had to parry the mace as well as the battle-ax, one right after the other. Even though he kicked, he didn't hit either of them. The rage burning within him made the champion force out a warcry. "FACE ME, YOU COWARDS!"

Zodd came sprinting forward, colliding sword-to-sword with the boy. "YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP, DO YOU!?"

Link's upper lip lifted, showing his teeth as he struggled to keep his footing against the adult. "I WARNED YOU!" He screamed out as his weapon started sliding amongst the enemy's. To counteract the waning grip between blades, he quickly utilized Ingo's arming sword to smack Zodd's sword upward. Taking the opportunity, he then headbutted the man directly in the stomach.

Zodd fell backward, but rolled to get out of the way. "BASTARD!"

"MALON!" The Hero called out to his girlfriend. "I'M COMING TO RESCUE YOU!"

The bandit with the spiked mace came at the boy again, taking a sideways swing at him. At the exact same time, the guy who had the battle-ax swiped at the kid's ankles. Compounding their potential damage, the man with the spear then gave a downward thrust, hoping to skew the dangerous child to the ground.

Link's pulse increased as a full dosage of epinephrine coursed through his bulging veins. His anger, his dedication, his memories of the redheaded girl's face whenever she was abducted right in front of him; all of them provided the motivation to fight as hard as he could until everyone was eliminated. That was going to be the only way he could rescue his significant other from their nasty clutches. Understanding that, he held his Kokiri Sword diagonally to block the mace, then jumped to avoid having his feet cut off. Whenever the third guy tried skewering him, he slashed the arming sword upward to bust the spear's shaft.

"UNBELIEVABLE!" The third guy lamented in awe prior to tossing the broken spear to the side, opting to instead use his back-up dagger.

Zodd confronted the hero again, trying the same move as he had last time. Once again, their swords clattered against one another's. However, before he could throw another swing, the extremely skilled boy quickly countered with the arming sword, slicing a gash across Zodd's chest. As the man stumbled back while holding onto his fresh injury, his eyes widened whenever he saw the kid making a jump at him. Were it not for the bandit wielding the battle-axe defending him, he likely would've been killed by the Link's superpowered vengeance.

"GET HIS ASS!" One of them shouted. "HE'S ALREADY OVERPOWERING US!"

When the marauder using his dagger leapt forward, trying to stab the boy, Link kicked up some loose sand, punting it into the guy's face. Seeing an opening since the guy was now busy wincing, the champion then chopped with the arming sword, cutting into the top of the bandit's hand. The blade was so dull that it got stuck, but he swiftly proceeded to make repetitive cleaving motions with his Kokiri Sword until the man's hand was cut off.

"DIN HAVE MERCY!" The bad guy let out a spine-chilling wail when his hand as well as his weapon were sliced off his body. He grabbed his belt from his waist and made a tourniquet to stop the blood spurting from his stump. "WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO!?"

"ACE!" Zodd called out to the man who just had his hand chopped off. Except, instead of expressing concern, he merely shouted a change in tactics. "ATTACK PATTERN ONE! WE NEED TO END THIS NOW!"

The bandit who had the battle-axe took a deadly swing at Link's torso while the guy with the mace tried hitting the boy in the face with it. This gave their wounded comrade time to recover his dagger and then get out of the way. No matter the fact that the so-called 'Ace' had lost a hand, the man knew that he still had to keep fighting or else he'd be killed. Keeping that in mind, he obeyed his boss's orders by getting into a defensive position with his teammates as they surrounded their target.

Link ducked to avoid their vicious attacks. His teeth were grit so tightly they felt as if they were going to snap off in his gums. With a vicious roar, he made a diagonal slide with his Kokiri Sword, but missed hitting the man with the battle-axe. On the other hand, his forward thrust with the arming sword did succeed in stabbing the guy with the mace in his left shoulder.

"DAMN!" The kidnapper jumped back prior to holding onto his bleeding shoulder.

"GO! GO! GO!" Zodd shouted as he ran in a circle around his men in addition to the surrounded hero. "LET'S SHOW THIS LITTLE BASTARD WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCK WITH THE LIKES OF US!"

Since Zodd was sprinting in a circle, Link naturally tried keeping his eyes on the lead marauder. However, there were also three other kidnappers he had to stay aware of, all of which had him totally surrounded. To make matters worse, instead of coming at him one at a time like they had done previously, their change of tactics made them hold their line. Each time the hero came at one of them, they would block his attack and let a teammate retaliate as they kept him occupied. Before long, it chiseled away at both his patience as well as his stamina. After the tenth failure on his behalf, he took immediate notice of their return to offense.

"DO IT NOW!' Zodd hollered. "NOW OR NEVER!"

Link was a champion trained by not only the Knight's of Hyrule, but the Golden Goddesses too. Unfortunately, that didn't mean he was invulnerable. His skills in swordsmanship could only do so much whenever the enemy had superior numbers, which is why he often tried taking out as many opponents as possible using ranged strategies. Yet, when encircled in situations such as these, he knew his limit. He knew that it wasn't easy to fight more than two people at a time and almost impossible to fight more than three; this being because enemies working in tandem were capable of overwhelming the speed needed to combat them all.

Anticipating their moves ahead of time, he realized they were going to try and come at him all at once. While ferociously snarling at them, he narrowed his eyes. Seeing their intent made him lower both his swords. In fact, he went as far as to sheathe his Kokiri Sword and then stab Ingo's Arming Sword tip first into the dirt. With a new plan in mind, he decided to not even make an attempt at attacking or defending, knowing that it likely wouldn't end well for him if he did.

The bandit's didn't understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. From their point of view, he had just given up; choosing to relinquish his weapons and opting to stare them down with a stoic look of acceptance plastered on his face. Believing they didn't have time to ponder the boy's strange decisions, they made their own choice by performing their so-called 'Attack Pattern One.'

All at the exact same time as each other, the four bandit's attacked in unison. The man with the battle-axe ran forward intending to chop into the hero's stomach, the guy with the mace ran forth with a fierce downward blow and the one with the dagger made a move to stab the boy in the back with a forward thrust. Zodd was the cherry on top as, whenever his remaining crew performed their respective maneuvers, he ceased his encircling momentum with a crazed leap, launching himself over his comrades to give an overhead slash. In theory, they had thoroughly covered every possible angle the kid could escape from. They were confident in their cooperative deathblow. They just didn't estimate precisely how dedicated he was to rescuing his girlfriend nor could they have expected the raw power he held.

Link waited until the men all got close enough. He continued to look complacent before jumping into action. Now that they were equal distance to him, he reached into his pocket, grabbed onto Din's Fire, whipped it out of his trousers and then quickly held it as high up above his head as he could in advance of slamming it into the clay with all his might. The performative action activated the magic gemstone's primary function. While the red orb within the crystal spun, it brightened prior to getting so hot it was difficult to hold onto.

Suddenly, an orange coloured forcefield covered his entire form, protecting him from the spell's own effect before rapidly radiating outward in an intense fiery blast that swallowed everything in a ten foot radius. All four of the remaining kidnappers, including their proud leader, found themselves utterly enveloped in the magic's searing hellfire. Even though the men had acted so fearlessly vicious mere moments ago and even fought tooth and nail to finish their horrible abduction despite losing three-quarters of their crew, from the absolute pain of the divine flame they instantaneously erupted into blood-curdling screams that echoed across Geldo Gorge .

One of them panicked and ran straight toward the edge of the canyon prior to jumping off in hopes the river running below would extinguish his misery in time. However, he was already lit ablaze and his skin had been badly burned. Even if he made it to the water, it was unlikely he'd survive having his epidermis crisped.

The man who had the mace collided with the one handed man who had the dagger. Both of them collapsed to the ground shrieking in terror.

"NOOOO!" Zodd was stronger as well as more experienced than his henchmen, actually sticking a solid landing in spite of being on fire. "NOT ME!" He even managed to take a few swings with his sword as he wailed in agony. "I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE!" Nonetheless, he too soon collapsed. "I'LL KILL YOU!" He yelled until his vocal cords melted. "I'LL KI-... LL… YUGHCHh!" His voice gurgled into unintelligible nonsense.

Link stood back, avoiding them while watching them experiencing their fate. They burned alive as retribution for their wretched sins against the innocent. With a wrinkled nose and a curled upper-lip, he stared at the mortal monsters as the fire fully consumed them; a special fire that was all encompassing to the point that it invaded every orifice of their bodies. He was a hero, a person with a good soul, but he couldn't restrain himself from feeling satisfaction seeing the flames get sucked into their mouths as they screamed. After what they did to Malon as well as their previous victims, the boy was glad to watch them burn from the inside-out until they finally stopped flailing and crying.

At this point, he felt they got what they deserved. Their clothing turned to ash as their skin incinerated, exposing muscles that contracted from the sheer heat until their barbequed bodies curled.

"I told you-..." Link spoke to their corpses while pocketing Din's Fire. "I told you that I'd kill every last one of you."

Looking down at the blistered hand which had held the gemstone, he sighed before ignoring the sensation, choosing to quickly grab Ingo's Arming Sword as well as unsheathing his Kokiri Sword. Focusing on reality instead of thoughts or emotions, a tidal wave of anxiety came crashing against his mood again. Now that he had killed those who took her, he was incredibly uneasy at the fact that he hadn't heard Malon's voice in the last five minutes. Realizing that made him call out to her. "MALON!? MALON, CAN YOU HEAR ME!?"

'Din, give me strength-...' The boy mentally prayed within his head as he began to fear the worse about the situation. Regardless, he faced those unprecedented fears for the sake of the hylian he dearly loved. He steadily made his way toward the yurt while still pleading to the goddesses for their much needed support. 'Naryu, give me wisdom. Farore, give me courage.' Quickly approaching the fabric door flap to the dead bandit's makeshift building, before pushing it aside, he finished his divine petition by thinking 'May your golden lights shine upon Malon. May your love protect her from evil.'

Barging his way into the yurt, he hollered out for his beloved again. "MALON!" He would've done anything to see her beautiful smiling face or hear her cute voice. To his dismay, that wasn't the case as the structure appeared to be deserted. A simple fire continued to burn in the firepit at the center and there was a deceased marauder lying on a nearby cot. It was obvious that the others had tried to save the guy, no matter the fact that he'd already lost too much blood. Other than that, nothing was out of the ordinary or provided a clue as to where the farmgirl could've gone.

Quickly walking around, he saw the broken ropes in the corner that had been cut through with the nearby propped up sword, but didn't comprehend what it was. Coming up to the dead guy on the cot, a quick examination revealed to the hero that it was the person he'd hit whenever he flung his Kokiri Sword over the cliffside of Lon Lon Ranch's plateau.

"Alright!" A woman's voice called to the boy from outside the yurt. "Come on out, Mr. Hero! Don't do anything stupid either or you'll regret it!"

Link spun around on his feet while clenching his teeth together. He wasted no time in doing as he was told, however he also readied his weapons in expectation of another battle. What he didn't expect to see after exiting was Malon, with a dirty rag stuffed in her mouth, being held hostage by a gerudo he'd never seen before. The woman stood at the edge of Geldo Gorge with a scimitar pressed to the farmgirl's throat.

His heart felt like it detached and plummeted, splitting into two prior to settling at his feet. For a split second, memories flashed before his wide, twitching and bulging eyes. He vividly remembered a couple of months ago whenever a bandit from the previous attack was doing the exact same thing. Seeing it happening again caused bile to bubble up his throat, threatening to make him vomit due to the almost unbearable stress. It was incredibly difficult to do, but he knew that he had to swallow his anxiety to keep a calm head. No matter what, it was most important for him to figure out a way to free Malon without bringing any harm to her. Witnessing the look of sheer terror on her hand-stricken face further motivated him to find a solution.

As soon as Link took a step forward, the woman increased the pressure on Malon's throat with her scimitar, causing a line of blood to drip down the farmgirl's neck. "Ah-Ah-Ah…" The gerudo scolded him. "Stop right there. Drop your weapons."

Link kept hold of his swords, refusing to do anything. He didn't want the scenario to play out like it previously had.

"Do you think I'm joking!?" The woman screamed at him. "I'll kill her! I was hired to complete this job and I'm going to make sure that happens! Just drop your weapons and answer some questions or else we're going to be talking about her in a past tense!"

"Okay!" Link relented as he saw no alternative. He opened his hands, letting his Kokiri Sword and Arming Sword fall to the ground with a clank. "Okay. They're dropped."

"Bow too." She told him, ensuring she covered everything.

Pushing the leather strap to the bow sling off his shoulder, it too fell to the ground.

The gerudo scoffed. "Kick them off to the side."

"Oh, come on." Link argued. "What do you think I'm going to do? Teleport?"

"Do it!" The woman repeated.

Using his boot, the hero kicked both of his weapons off to the side of him, thus making it much more difficult to retrieve them. "There. Done."

Even though Link relinquished his weapons and kicked them out of his range of retrieval, the gerudo didn't ease up the scimitar from Malon's throat. On the other hand, she didn't push it any further either, which was the best that could be hoped for at the moment. For the time being, he as well as the farmgirl were at the woman's complete mercy.

"What now?" He asked.

Staring him down, the woman first introduced herself. "My name is Eraka. I'm an Emira to the Gerudo Tribe."

"My-..." The hero struggled to find a reason to exchange names at this point, but complied nonetheless. "My name is Link."

"Do you know why you're here, Link?" Eraka interrogated.

Link's pupils moved side-to-side as he tried to decide what she wanted to hear. Obviously, he had several clues seeing how this had happened before and he knew the gerudo were behind it, which could only mean one thing. "Ganondorf?"

"That's right." Eraka confirmed. "The Dark Lord of the Gerudo, Ganondorf Dragmire."

With the question having been answered, he decided to play dumb in an attempt to lessen the tension. "Okay. What does that have to do with us? We're just kids." Shaking his head, he continued to try appealing to what little sense of honour the woman had. "All of this isn't right. The gerudo don't kidnap children." Pointing at his dazed girlfriend, he said "Look at what you've done to her."

"Shut up!" Eraka took a small step back, intimidating the boy by leading him to believe she would toss the farmgirl over the edge. "You're not fooling me. I might not know precisely who you are, but I've been informed of what you've done." Filling him in, she explained what Ganondorf knew so far. "My Dark Lord knows you're no mere child. You've somehow tampered with time and stopped everything he's been diligently trying to accomplish. Your meddling caused him to change his ultimate plans, plans that would elevate our race to superiority!"

"You're-..." Link was about to refute her accusations, but realized most of them were correct. The only thing he could argue about was Ganondorf's ulterior motives. "You're wrong. He's not trying to bring your race or any others to prosperity, he's trying to seize everything for himself because he's a selfish evil bastard."

Eraka scoffed, rolling her eyes at the degradation of her lord. "What makes you think that? He's never even met you before, but you're the one who keeps interfering with his plans."

"Is that what he told you? That I'm the bad guy?" The boy decided to get into her head to see precisely how indoctrinated she really was. He didn't lie, he didn't need to; he simply told the truth. "I bet he didn't tell you that I used to live with the Kokiri and we had a perfect life until he came into our village and killed the Great Deku Tree. Now, why, why would he do that if he's such a great guy trying to rescue his people from strife? How could murdering a peaceful demi-god possibly be beneficial to anyone?" Shaking his head, he shed light on another subject, one that should hit closer to home for the gerudo woman. "I can also tell you that he's not at the Sand Temple praying to the Sand Goddess; that's just his cover story."

Blinking in confusion with furrowed brows, although she processed what he said, the high-ranking gerudo woman refused to believe him. "What? That-… That doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't do those things."

"He's lying to you as well as everyone else-..." Link continued to reveal what he knew about the traitorous fiend. "Everything he's doing isn't because he's trying to uplift your race, he's doing it because he's trying to find a way to steal the Triforce. You think he's at the Sand Temple praying to the Goddess of Sand, but he's actually there hoping to summon an army of demons so he can take over the world. It's one of the reasons why he killed the Great Deku Tree! He's not good, he's bad! He's a selfish monster driven by hatred!"

"SHUT UP!" Eraka snarled at the kid. "That's enough! Do you understand!?"

Link innocently held up his hands to show that he relented. "Okay. Okay."

"I'm not stupid." She told him. "I know what you're trying to do. But, I'm not a traitor. You're never going to convince me that my lord is evil." Doubling down on her beliefs, instead of taking the hero's words into consideration, she went as far as to laugh at them. "Nice try. I know you're the interloper, that you're the antagonist preventing us from ascending to our rightful place in this kingdom. Anybody who's gone as far as to manipulate time to prevent us from reclamation is the real villain, not the great voe trying to give his vai food, water and wealth."

"You're deranged." Link balled his hands into fists. "If he wanted your people to have better lives, he would've worked with the Hyrulean Royal Family to become a whole nation. Instead, he plotted to betray King Harkinian."

"And you're a dirty liar!" The gerudo responded, bearing her teeth as her eyes lightly quivered. "Lord Ganondorf isn't evil. He's going to summon the Goddess of Sand and usher in a new age. Our curse will be removed, the curse you vile hylians put on us over a millennia ago. We'll all be redeemed." Smirking, she huffed. "All I have to do is get rid of you!" Looking off in the distance, she proceeded to shout "NOW!"

Before the boy had enough time to realize what was happening, four more daunting gerudo women appeared from nearby, each hopping out from behind boulders and the dry brush they'd been hiding behind the whole encounter. He barely had a chance to see what they looked like since they moved so quickly. They wore green silk attire instead of Eraka's red in order to indicate their lower status as mere jundiin and yet wielded unique golden handled trishulas.

All of them rushed at him as fast as they could while unleashing ululating battlecries. They swiftly surrounded him and then leapt in unison in an attempt to skewer the kid to the ground like a trident to an unsuspecting fish.

Without his swords and being unable to get them back in his possession before they struck, Link was almost completely defenseless. He had his shield on his back, but that wouldn't help him avoid all four of their attacks. Thankfully, he still had his precious secret weapon. So long as it had fully recharged, he definitely intended to use it again .

Taking Din's Fire out of his pocket, he felt that it was cool enough to use again. Without any further delay, he did the same thing as he had to incinerate the bandits. Dramatically holding the gemstone high up above his head, he swung it downward prior to slamming it onto the ground with every ounce of strength within him. This caused a blazing forcefield to surround his form in advance of radiating outward in a spherical burning shockwave.

Surprisingly, the four gerudo jundiin crouched and then grabbed specialized equipment from off their backs; upside-down teardrop-shaped shields gilded with gold and coated with royal purple gloss. They all had what were known as Radiant Shields, which allowed them to temporarily protect themselves against the inferno. When the fire blasted against the metal, the rubies embedded in the centers of their shields absorbed enough heat for them to survive. The rest of the flame rolled off, creating a cone of safety for the women to hide behind on the other side.

Link was amazed they had successfully defended themselves from such intense magic, but took no time to acknowledge or ponder how they did such a thing. He used the opportunity to sprint toward his weapons. There was so much adrenaline flooding him that once he got close enough, he dove forward, rolled on the ground and then snatched up his Kokiri Sword in addition to the antique Arming Sword.

"KILL HIM!" Eraka ordered with a hint of desperation in her voice, clearly not expecting him to have used a spell before her soldiers could eliminate him. She thought for sure that she had the upper hand. "KILL HIM FOR LORD GANONDORF!"

With his weapons back in his possession, Link returned to the battle. He knew it was going to be exceedingly difficult to deal with the women due to their numbers, their combat experience, their indoctrination as well as their unique equipment. If he couldn't defeat them with the mighty magic of Din's Fire, then he clearly had no choice other than to do it using his expert swordsmanship. After all, the four jundiin were going to be his last obstacle prior to recovering his beloved as he planned on a surprise for Eraka in the form of an arrow to the brain.

Keeping his thoughts on the fight, he unleashed his rage as he ran toward the nearest gerudo. "TRY ME!"

The athletic jundiin thrust her deadly trishula in his direction, but had to instantly jump back to dodge whenever he parried with the arming sword and tried attacking with his Kokiri Sword. She could even feel the whoosh of air cross her face as his blade came within inches (7cm) of slicing her tanned flesh.

Before he could try the maneuver again, he had to spin around a hundred and eighty degrees to defend himself from another who came up behind him, ready to stab him in the back. Using his Kokiri Sword, he easily deflected the trishula. But, instead of trying to close the gap like he'd done last time, he made another spin to increase his velocity prior to throwing the Arming Sword at the gerudo warrior.

The antique blade soared through the air like an enlarged arrow before puncturing the jundiin's neck, sliding all the way down to the crossguard. Her amber coloured eyes nearly popped out of her head from the massive traumatic shock. Blood poured from her throat, spilling from her mouth onto her silk halter top as well as the ground. No matter her advanced training, there was nothing she could do to prevent her imminent death. She just held her weapon and gurgled on her own vital fluids before her legs finally gave out.

"FIIZA!" One of the female soldiers shouted in response to their fallen teammate.

With such a heightened sense of his surroundings, Link heard two more gerudo swiftly honing in on his position, both flanking him from opposite sides. Knowing that he needed to act in a way that he could dodge both of them at the same time, he opted to quickly bend over backward so their weapons would miss.

The tips of the two jundiin's trishulas impacted each other, causing a reverberation that made the shaft throb painfully against their hands. Both of the Gerudo women grunted from the intensity of their collision.

As the two women slowly backed away from one another, Link propelled himself upward from his bent over position. Taking the opportunity to do so, now that he no longer had the arming sword in his possession, he swung his Hylian Shield around from off of his back. It was going to be easier to defend himself against their spear-like weapons with a twenty-six by twenty inch (66x51cm) titanium plate roughly half an inch (12mm) thick, much easier than trying to constantly parry with a thin sword.

"GIVE UP!" He yelled at them as he got into a position to fight the three of them.

Eraka laughed at the boy's recommendation from over by the ledge to Geldo Gorge. "We'll fight you to our dying breath."

Malon stared at Link with tears rolling down her despondent face. She had numerous emotions swirling around in her head at the same time. Although she truly had faith that her hero would come through and eliminate the maniacal gerudo warriors, she was utterly beyond crestfallen that Eraka turned out to be a total monster initially hiding her repugnant nature. Minutes ago, the girl was pleading for rescue and the woman was wiping her tears and telling her that she was going to be okay. Fast forward to now and instead of being rescued, she was being held hostage with a blade pressed to her throat.

"I'M COMING, MALON!" Link hollered out to the farmgirl to encourage her not to give up.

"We'll see about that." Eraka smirked as her jundiins continued their mad attack.

The gerudo in front of him ran forward and feigned a thrust, getting him to raise his shield in advance of swinging the butt of her trishula around to smack the champion in his ankle.

Link seethed from the stinging sensation of having his ankle smacked. His body reflexively dropped to one knee. However, he was quick to make a defensive diagonal spin with his Kokiri Sword as he got up, ensuring that the woman couldn't strike him when she returned with a real attack. Sure enough, whenever she did as predicted by coming at him with a series of rapid thrusts, he utilized his shield to block the moves. Each one pushed him back until he was several feet (1m) out of her reach.

Standing up and ignoring the pain, the hero turned to the left in order to deflect another blow by one of the women who flanked him. On the other hand, instead of trying to attack the spear-holder, he made the tactical decision to attack the spear. Within the millisecond, he countered by slashing right beneath the head of the trishula. Under normal circumstances, it was a fairly difficult task to accomplish, but with the power given to him by his Gordon Bracelet, he was able to hit with enough force that he effortlessly cut through the gilded shaft and successfully removed its bladed tip.

The jundiin was surprised, yet immediately dropped the broken trishula to brandish her jambiya; a curved dagger with a fat blade. "INFIDEL!" She screamed insultingly at him. "ALL HYLIAN VOE ARE INFIDELS!"

Just as he started turning toward the two gerudo remaining who still had trishulas, he felt a speartip rip across his shoulder blade. It was superficial and he was lucky for that.

"NNGggh!" Malon choked as she tried to cry out with a rag stuffed in her mouth.

With a twitching eye, he got mad; not so much at being stuck, rather, that he now had a gnarly tear on the sleeve of his tunic. "I PAID A LOT OF RUPEES FOR THIS SHIRT, YOU JERK!" He yelled in return for the assault prior to using his shield to bash the shaft of the spear down to the ground. Before his opponent had a chance to lift it back up, he quickly proceeded to step on it to prevent her from doing so. The rage causing the veins on his forehead to swell gave him the speed needed to close the gap between him and the hypnotized gerudo.

The surprised jundiin couldn't even reach for her jambiya before the boy slashed her across the chest and then chopped at the side of her knee. Even though it didn't sever or reach to the bone, the woman shrieked regardless as blood spurted from her nicked popliteal artery, gradually soaking her silk sirwal. She hurt badly and struggled to stand. The sustained injuries would cause her to ultimately bleed out if she didn't stop it from gushing soon, but her training and misplaced dedication persuaded her to keep fighting in order to complete the assigned mission.

In the meantime, Link knew he couldn't concentrate on that particular warrior any longer as he had to protect himself from the other two gerudo; particularly the one coming at him with her jambiya. He strafed to the side to avoid her repetitive stabs, then ducked to dodge the last woman's trishula.

"STAND STILL!" The gerudo with the jambiya hollered.

Not only did he do the exact opposite, he hopped backward, rolled to the side and then grabbed his bow from off the ground. Acting with haste, he sheathed his sword and performed an action that took a master archer, something he'd only pulled off in training with Captain Orsen.

Wedging his arm between the backside of the Hylian Shield and its handle allowed him to let go of it. Now that he had two free hands, he could operate the bow while defending himself from the enemy's weapons. As fast as he could, he switched the bow over to the hand with the shield. Reaching behind himself, he got an arrow out of his quiver and then nocked it. Except, he didn't use his fingers, he drew the bowstring using his thumb. Doing so made it to where he could release the arrow without hitting the side of his shield.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON!?" Eraka yelled as she stomped her foot. "KILL HIM!"

The two gerudo holding spears started after him, running zig-zagged while holding up their Radiant Shields in preparation of his arrow.

Once again, he did something they hadn't anticipated. Instead of focusing on those coming at him, he took aim at the wounded jundiin limping, releasing the arrow thereafter. Despite the frustration and overwhelming stress, his precision was still impeccable. The ammunition shot forward in advance of nailing the woman in her chest, between her breasts. She grunted as the force slammed her back against the ground. Following a single groan, she stopped moving altogether.

"NO!" Eraka screamed. "NO! NO! NO!" She had no sympathy for her decimated teammates. On the contrary, she lobbed insults at them like they were nothing more than slaves. "YOU ABSOLUTE PATHETIC WEAKLINGS! YOU'RE FAILING ME AND YOU'RE FAILING LORD GANONDORF!"

Now that the injured gerudo had been taken care of, there were only two jundiin left before he could eliminate the deeply unhinged emira; before he could finally rescue his dearly beloved. Taking that into account, he didn't slow his onslaught in the least.

After stowing his bow in favour of his blade, he revved up his attacks by performing a devastating move known as a Helm Splitter. Sprinting at the woman with the jambiya, he raised his Hylian Shield right as she struck. Her blade smacked against the metal and he quickly retaliated by bashing her with it, hitting her in the face. While her guard was momentarily dropped as she stumbled backward, he ran up to and backflipped over her using her broad shoulders as a liftoff point. As he was spinning in mid-air, he held the sword vertically to slice her face.

Landing on the other side of the freshly cut gerudo warrior, he didn't stop. Spinning around, while she still had her back turned to him, he plunged the tip of the upgraded Kokiri Sword into her spine, immediately debilitating her. Her body went limp even though she screamed. Not finished yet, he summoned the extra strength needed to twist the sword and then brutally tear upward, ripping through a bunch of her vertebrae as if he was a superpowered hylian.

Yanking his sword out of the dying jundiin's back, he was able to once again sense the incoming vibrations in the ground as the last gerudo soldier ran at him with a battlecry. She was absolutely homicidal due to her entire squad having been killed. But, Link was in a trance, an enhanced state of concentration that almost felt as if his body was moving on its own. Not bothering to turn around, he waited until he felt she was right behind him. Only when she got close enough for him to feel the rush of air from her running did he spin around, giving a fierce upward slice while holding out his Kokiri Sword horizontally. Just as he planned, his blade hit her neck with so much force harnessed from adrenaline as well as the Goron Bracelet that he decapitated her, cutting her head off like a knife through hot butter.

"NO!" Eraka screamed at the sight of her last soldier being effortlessly killed. "What a joke."

Link slowly, almost dramatically, turned to the gerudo emira with flames ten-times brighter than Din's Fire metaphorically burning in his eyes. His hatred for the woman was evident and he intended to remove her from existence as soon as he figured out a way to either persuade her to let go of Malon or forced her to do so.

"Well…" He stared her down venomously. "They're dead. All of them." He said in reference to her mighty jundiins, otherwise innocent people who were hypnotized into believing their cause was righteous. "Their blood is on your hands because you think your so-called 'Lord' is going to bring you to salvation by conquering everything and everyone else." Taking several more steps forward, he told her. "It's over now. I won. You can either release Malon, or I can do to you what I did to them."

Eraka's gaze was glued to him. Her lips frowned as she sneered. However, it soon turned into despicable chuckling. "Is that what you think?"

"Yes-..." Link confirmed as he tightened his grip on his Kokiri Sword and readied himself to dash forward to save his girlfriend from the evil woman's grasp. "Yes, it is what I think."

"Is it?" She asked again with a wicked smirk on her face.

"YES!" Link grit his teeth. "DO IT NOW! RELEASE HER!"

Rolling her eyes with a nasty grin, the gerudo woman laughed. "As you wish."

Before the Hero of Time's vastly astonished pinpoint eyes, he hopelessly bore witness as the vile gerudo woman spun around and then proceeded to menacingly push the gagged farmgirl off the edge of the cliffside, forcing her to fall into Geldo Gorge where she plummeted to the bottom. Everything seemed to slow down as Link felt himself automatically moving without any thought being put into it. The soles of his leather kokiri boots tore at the clay soil as he sprinted after the redheaded hylian girl.

"MMAALLOONN!" He screamed so loud his vocal cords began to swell and experience microtrauma.

Breezing past Eraka, he was so focused on the well-being of his falling girlfriend that he no longer cared about what happened to the gerudo woman. Of course, she immediately used that frame of mind to her advantage by fleeing, running off to her horse and swiftly mounting it in order to get away as fast as possible. In the meantime, posthaste he tossed his Hylian Shield, bow, quiver in addition to his Kokiri Sword off to the side of him so they wouldn't be lost in the river flowing below. After that, he raised his arms above his head, tucked his biceps against his ears and pressed his left palm atop the back of his right hand. Vaulting forward, he then dove off the cliffside as if he were a professional; his time spent with the zora in their domain helping him know precisely how to do it.

"MALON!" He yelled to her with a raspy voice as he stared down at the rapidly approaching bottom of the gorge.

While making his descent, he saw the top of Malon's head as she plunged into the water with a big splash. He watched as her red hair sank into the depths of the Zora River.

Falling as fast as he was due to his aerodynamically superior posture, the whipping wind made his eyes water. Nonetheless, he kept what little vision he had aimed in-between where he was plummeting to as well as where the farmgirl had sunk; an attempt to ensure his own survival while also keeping track of her location. Nonetheless, as soon as he hit the water below, he dipped several feet (1m) beneath the surface. Using that momentum, he pulled his arms back and arched his back so he'd be immediately propelled upward.

Whenever he popped up from beneath the surface of the water, he took a breath. The current went to work pushing him down the river, but he kept afloat. Looking at the last known spot his girlfriend was, he saw her just ahead of there, flailing in the water.

Although she had managed to remove the gag from her mouth, she had trouble keeping the water out of it as she screamed the worst thing he could possibly hear at that moment. "HELP! I CAN'T SWIM!"

Link cried out to her as he swam with the current, giving himself a boost. "I'M COMING!"

Precisely as she had previously said, the farmgirl truly did not know how to swim. Instead of trying to keep herself afloat, she freaked out because of the situation she found herself in. Unlike her boyfriend, she didn't know the proper techniques of how to tread water; her fear of it only exacerbated the panic. Because of the lack of experience, she tried kicking her feet and paddling with her arms in a completely arrhythmic manner. "HELP!"

"KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!" The boy tried giving her tips on how to swim as he breast stroked toward her. However, in-between breaths, he comprehended that he wasn't going to be able to teach her under distress. Knowing this, he shouted "LAY ON YOUR BACK! FLOAT! FLOAT, MALON!"

Frantically kicking and grabbing at the rushing water with her shaking hands, she was too frightened to heed what she was being told. All she could do was thrash around until she dipped beneath the water. She held her breath and struggled to stay upright until she finally resurfaced with a loud gasp. Her hair flowed behind her as the current kept her from regaining any kind of control over her movement.

"MALON!" Link continued to yell at her as he quickly closed the distance between the two.

Once again, the farmgirl sank into the water no matter how hard she floundered. She held her breath, but her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it throbbing in her ear as blood flowed turbulently through the vessels on her temples. The fact that she was crying made it all the more difficult to keep her lungs from quivering as she tumbled head-over-heels beneath the water. When she finally surfaced, she took another deep breath and spat out the water that had seeped into her mouth. "LINK!"

"I GOT YOU!" Link swam close enough to her that he was able to grab onto the girl. "I GOT YOU!"

"Link!" She wasted no time in latching onto the boy with vise-grip strength. "Help me!"

Dipping beneath the water, he kicked his feet to get back up. As soon as they surfaced, he told her. "Get on your back!"

"What!?" The farmgirl stared at him with dazed eyes.

It was frustrating, but he repeated himself and would do so as many times as it took for her to comprehend. Otherwise, it was going to be next to impossible to drag her out of the water. "Lay on your back! I'll pull you to the shore!" To assure her, he said "I promise, you'll float! I won't let you drown!"

"I… I don't understand!" Malon cried as her brain was too traumatized to figure out how turning onto her back would make her float.

Since having her hold on to him stopped him from swimming to the shore and made them too heavy to float, Link decided to take action by physically assisting her. He pried her away enough that she wasn't latched onto his chest, then used his might to persuade her. "Just do it!"

With her boyfriend's help, she managed to flip over so that her back was pressed to his chest instead.

Link wrapped his left arm around the scared girl and essentially began trying to haul her out of the water by kicking his legs and using his right arm to swim. The extra-buoyancy from her being on her back helped them stay afloat too. He even managed to get the both of them three-quarters of the way to the edge of the river bank. However, the current soon picked up, going faster and getting rougher. Rocks near the shore scraped their legs in advance of getting big enough to impede further movement. They hit several, unfortunately causing them to spin in the water until they had returned to the center of the river.

"Dammit!" The boy cursed his luck. "Hold on!"

Malon's broken fingernails dug into Link's forearm as they were forced to travel further downstream. The current was so strong and the shoreline was so rough, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to swim out. Nonetheless, he kept kicking his legs and making strokes with his right arm. He was sure if he floated all the way down, they would eventually end up at Lake Hylia, which would definitely be easier to escape from. However, that was over two miles (3.2km) away and would take a while to reach.

Meanwhile, looking ahead, he could see that they were headed into the river's rapids. "No…"

"What is it?!" Malon struggled to keep from hyperventilating. "By the goddess! Link, what is it!?"

"Rapids!" He told her as the roar of the current increased to the point they could barely hear one another in spite of being so close. "Hang on to me and flutter your legs!"

Within a split second, the speed of the water picked up exponentially as the river slowly went downhill. They had been lucky that the depth had been deep enough to avoid the riverbed, but now that they had entered whitewater, it got so shallow that a multitude of rocks were jutting up above the surface. As quick as they were now beginning to go, slamming against the stones was more painful than the previous ones by the banks. Most crashed against Link's shoulder while a few collided with Malon's back.

"I'm scared!" Malon wept as she kicked her feet to help propel them even quicker.

"We're going to make it!" Link reassured her as he could feel them both being sucked further down the stream by the rapids. "Just hold onto me!"

Both of them floated back-and-forth as the current violently whipped them around. To make matters worse, the gorge narrowed, bringing the walls of the cliffside so close that the shoreline was virtually non-existent. Now they were unable to escape the river even if they made it to the edge. The best they could do was float until the passage widened or they eventually made it to Lake Hylia, hoping they didn't become utterly exhausted by then.

"I love you, Link!" Malon's tears added an insignificant amount to the water surrounding them.

Link grit his teeth as he tried his best to avoid a few rocks. He didn't like her desolate tone because he didn't plan to let either of them drown, however, he had to vocally encourage her with acknowledgement. "I love you too! We're going to make it!"

Swimming forward, after dodging several rocks, one struck him in the face. It hit him right in the left eye. Despite nearly seeing stars from the pain, he shook his head and carried onward until the whitewater got so bad they started to sink from the lack of buoyancy. Suddenly he was working three times as hard to keep them afloat. Regardless, the stream became so frothy that they sank into the current.

"Hold on!" Link yelled right as they dipped beneath the surface.

Malon whimpered, then held her breath as they were thrashed around by the intense current in addition to all the obstructions anchored within it. She felt her leg get severely scraped by a rock, yet had no choice other than to keep holding her breath instead of shouting out in response to the pain it caused. Her faith in her courageous knight in shining armour was incredibly high. Naturally, she wanted to start flailing again, but continued to do as she was told by her boyfriend, kicking her legs as hard as she could to help him get the both of them back up to the surface of the river.

After another second, she felt them both collide into more rocks. It was so jostling that, had she not held onto him with a vice-grip, she would've been ripped away from him. On the other hand, since the stones made it shallow enough, as they went over them, they were able to resurface. Right away, they gasped for air.

Malon coughed while Link spat out some water. But, the relief was short-lived as they proceeded to go back under. They spun in a circle, skimmed the riverbed, hit a rock and started being pushed in a serpentine path, agonizingly bouncing off boulders by the shoreline as they uncontrollably traveled side-to-side. Water was rushing so fast, it even went into their nostrils, testing their ability to hold their breath as it stung their sinuses for a solid fifteen seconds until they popped back up.

"I CAN'T BREATH!" Malon screamed out with rapid gasps before they were yet again pulled under the rapids.

Although Link's head went under the water, he used all his strength in his left arm and knee to prop the cherished farmgirl up, keeping her on the surface a few seconds longer than she would've been had he not done so. This gave her just enough opportunity to take a deep breath. He definitely wasn't so lucky though since he suffered from her added weight extending his underwater stay.

"LINK!" She cried before joining him beneath the water.

The Hero's heart pumped as fast as it could to sustain his drastically enhanced stamina, but eventually he was underwater for so long that his blood began to lose oxygenation. His face started getting red as he struggled to not instinctively gasp, knowing to do so would result in a quick death by drowning. Part of him wanted to flip over, to get on the top so that he could push his face up and get air. However, he couldn't do that to Malon. If he was on top, that would mean she was beneath and he absolutely refused to treat her like that, no matter how desperately he wanted to suck in a life saving breath.

Had he stayed under for much longer, he would've begun to lose consciousness. Fortunately, they reached a spot where both of them resurfaced. Once again, they inhaled as deeply as they could.

Further ahead, Link saw an enormous boulder in the center of the stream then grunted as his right arm hit a rock. Since the whitewater was reduced there, he tried hard to swim off to the side so they wouldn't collide with the giant obstacle. They were moving fast enough that he wouldn't have been able to do it were it not for Malon's assistance in kicking her legs. Just in time, they pushed over to the left side of the river, barely missing being smashed against the big stone jutting out of the water.

"HOW MUCH LONGER!?" Malon frantically inquired as every second felt like a minute to her.

Link wished he could answer that question, but he was far more focused on keeping them alive than tracking how long they had been in the water. "I DON'T KNOW!" He yelled over the roar of the river's rapids. "NOT MUCH LONGER! KEEP HOLDING ON AND KEEP FLUTTERING YOUR LEGS!"

"I'M SO TIRED!" She yelled back.

"ME TOO!" He could relate to her exhaustion, but knew they had to persevere no matter how strenuous. "WE JUST HAVE TO TOUGH IT OUT!"

Whenever they got past the massive boulder, the current increased speed again, whipping them around like ragdolls. This continued for several minutes until the gorge began to widen. As the cliffside gradually receded, a shoreline formed on both sides of the river. They merely needed to regain control and swim to safety, which was certainly much easier said than actually done because the flow was too intense to resist.

Yet again, the hero spotted an object in the water. This time, it didn't appear to be a boulder since it was too straight. Getting closer and closer, he eventually realized that it happened to be a log from a tree that had fallen in the water. Initially, he planned on evading it. Except, whenever they were only a few feet (1.5m) away, he decided that it might be better to try and grab onto the waterlogged flora, to rest for a while, contemplate their next move and regain their endurance at the same time.

"HOLD ON!" He shouted to her. "WE'RE GOING TO TRY AND GRAB THIS TREE!"

Although he wanted to reach out and grab onto the trunk, they were going so quickly with the deadly current that he would risk breaking his hand if he did so. Considering that, all he could do was let himself collide before immediately wrapping his right arm around the body of the tree. The moment he hit, he did precisely that, grunting all the while.

Malon felt their rapid deceleration and would've jumped for joy had she been standing on solid ground. Since the moment she had fallen into the gorge, she finally felt herself not moving. To her, it had to be a good thing. She just didn't understand how temporary it was. "YOU DID IT!"

"HANG ON!" He repeated himself as he pulled her up. "GRAB THE TREE!"

Doing as she was told, the farmgirl used one arm to grab the tree trunk. Not wasting any time, she then let go of her boyfriend, letting him focus on getting a good grip for himself.

"I'M GOING TO CLIMB ATOP, THEN I'LL PULL YOU UP!" He shouted to her as she kept a hold of the tree. "STAY RIGHT HERE! DON'T LET GO!"

Malon nodded as she started to shiver from the cold water. "OKAY!"

The Hero wasn't immune to the cold water either. He got goosebumps as his core dropped in temperature. Regardless, he ignored the signs of distress in favour of concentrating on their escape. "HERE I GO!"

Climbing up out of the water was hard to do, but accomplishing it by using a waterlogged tree was significantly harder. The bark was soft and swollen with liquid, making it difficult for someone to ascend without it breaking off into chunks. He had to try three times before he succeeded in digging his fingers far enough inside to hold his weight. Following that, he reached around to find another spot suitable for climbing. It took longer than he anticipated. Nonetheless, it was better that he take his time and get it done than fail altogether.

"BE CAREFUL!" Malon hollered up to him as she continued to hold on with all her might.

Link made it to the top and swung his feet up prior to getting onto his stomach. He then proceeded to hold his arm down for the farmgirl to grab onto, which she swiftly did. Summoning strength from the Goron's Bracelet, he slowly pulled the shivering redhead up out of the water. The adrenaline he still had going also helped too, but not as much as her feet pushing as she ascended. "I GOT YOU!"

As soon as she was on top of the log with Link, Malon grabbed onto him and pulled him into a tight embrace. Not only was she shivering so badly now from being soaking wet that she needed his warmth to bring her core body temperature up, she was also so elated to have been rescued that she had to hold her saviour. "Oh, Link! Oh Goddess!" They were close enough to each other that they didn't have to shout. "I… I thought I was g-going to die!"

"I know-..." He deeply regretted that she had to go through such an endeavor. For the time being, all he could do was comfort her by holding her close and rubbing her back. "I'm so sorry."

"Y-You saved me." She said as she gazed at him with consternation in her weary eyes. "You really saved m-me."

Link cupped her cheek in his hand, delicately caressing it with his thumb. "I'll always save you." He brushed several strands of her wet hair out of her face before the two closed the gap between their trembling lips.

No matter the highly dangerous situation they were still trapped in, they were able to find a bit of solace in the love they had for each other. The kiss wasn't even based on romance as their emotions were too overwhelmed to be in any kind of mood for such a thing. It was all about the comfort from skin-to-skin contact in addition to the warmth it produced. For thirty seconds, they smooched until they were forced to break away whenever they felt the tree trunk they were sitting on shift in the river below.

"W-What do we do n-now?" Malon asked through chattering teeth as she looked around at their immediate surroundings.

Link stared ahead, paying close attention to where they would be going next. He saw the riverbanks on each side, but also saw the rocks lined against them, making it difficult for anyone to come ashore. Then again, being difficult wasn't the same thing as being impossible. Considering that, it was likely going to be their best option since there was no way of knowing if further down the stream got any better or far worse. In fact, it appeared that the river narrowed several hundred feet (90m) up.

"We're going to swim to shore as soon as we regain some strength." The Hero informed her.

Malon temporarily closed her eyes, rapidly huffing while shivering from the cold. "I… I t-trust you."

"I know you do-..." Link vigorously rubbed her back in an attempt to warm her up. "But, it's going to be hard."

The quivering farmgirl opened her eyes, proceeding to stare into her saviour's. "I just w-want to go h-home."

Before he could respond to her, they both felt the fallen log shift more significantly than previously. Although they could not hear the cracking overtop the roar of the river, they looked at each other in total surprise when they began to feel the waterlogged wood splitting from the inside-out. It happened so fast that they couldn't react. The old sodden tree swiftly started disintegrating, coming apart in the flow of water. Within the next second, enough of the rotted interior had been removed that the entire log split apart in the middle, separating the two kids from their recent reconnection.

Malon screamed as she tumbled back into the water.

Link hollered out for the farmgirl, worried more about her than himself. "MALON!"

Once again, they found themselves plunging into the Zora River. They had intended to wait a little while longer atop the log, to recover much needed stamina before making the treacherous swim, but now they were forced to fight for their lives. The current sucked them right in, carrying them both downstream faster than expected, quickly eating away the chance they had to reach the shoreline while it was still there.

Malon surfaced screaming and flailing, just as helpless as she was beforehand since she still did not know how to swim. "LINK! HELP!"

"DAMN!" Link was knocked underwater by the log flowing away in the turbulent current, causing him to tumble around it before popping back up. "I'M COMING!" He shouted in response while performing a front crawl to propel himself toward her as fast as possible. With his face down in the water, he alternated reaching his arms in front of his head in advance of pulling them underneath. "HANG ON!"

Hearing her harrowing cries only motivated him to push his muscles to their absolute limit. However, it was a challenge to get to her regardless of how much he tried. The distance put between them from the log rolling over him was rather unfortunate and definitely a test of his endurance.

"H-HELP!" Malon instinctively repeated her call for assistance as she sank beneath the water. She held her breath and made the impromptu decision to try swimming by kicking her legs like she'd done when her boyfriend was holding onto her. But, for some reason, it didn't seem to do nearly as much. Even desperately clawing toward the surface didn't bring her back to it; just making it worse due to her unrhythmic spasming. She could feel herself being pulled by the wicked current as if someone was keeping her beneath.

A painful stitch formed in Link's abdomen that was caused by all the constant frantic movements he'd made that evening. It hurt to the point that it felt as if his intestines had herniated, but he refused to quit putting in one-hundred and one percent of the effort it was taking to finally reach his drowning girlfriend. The overexertion paid off too as he soon succeeded in reaching where she sank. Without delay, he dove underneath the water, dipping far enough to find as well as grab onto the sinking redhead. Wrapping his right arm around her torso, he kicked his feet and stroked with his left arm to swim back up to the surface.

Reemerging with the farmgirl in his gasp, they both gasped for air. "Are you okay!?"

"I'm s-so tired of t-this!" She cried as she spat out water. "I… I just w-want to go h-home!"

"I'm sorry!" He sympathized with her desires of comfort. "I'm so sorry!"

Snot dripped from her nose as she cried ugly. "P-Please, don't l-let me g-go!"

"I'll never let go!" He told her, making sure she knew. "We're going to get out of this! Don't give up!"

Desperately kicking his legs and making strokes with his arm, the hero tried his best to haul her to what little shoreline remained before the gorge narrowed again. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, he was unable to do so. Even with Malon's assistance in fluttering her feet, they couldn't get out of the current in time due to it being so powerful. No matter how hard they tried, they remained at its mercy until the riverbanks diminished to nothing more than cliffside.

"W-What are we g-gonna do n-now?!" Malon was more aware of their predicament than her strong-willed boyfriend anticipated. She knew their chance to escape their impending watery grave had just closed and it was all because the tree they were atop couldn't handle their weight. "We're s-screwed!"

"No, we're not!" Link replied as he held back from letting his teeth chatter. "We just have to hold tight until we either reach an area we can get out at or Lake Hylia!"

"W-We'll freeze before t-then!" Malon bemoaned the situation as they floated uncontrollably down the river.

Link's body temperature was dropping too. Although she was technically correct about potentially dying from hyperthermia, it would take longer than the twenty minutes they'd been in the cold water. Since he didn't plan to let them stay in for the hour it would take to freeze to death, he encouraged her to not think that way. "Just hang on to me! We'll get there, I promise you!"

"S-So cold." Malon trembled against him as she struggled to breathe with her violently quivering muscles.

Before long, they could hear the roar of water coming from around a bend up ahead. As they went around the curve, they both saw it was another section of rapids that stretched to the next turn. Following a mere minute of peaceful floating, they braced themselves as they entered the tumultuous current.

"I… I c-cant!" Malon wept in response to more foaming whitewater. "I can't d-do it!"

"YES YOU CAN! Link yelled back as the water grew so loud that he had to raise his voice for her to hear. "WE CAN DO THIS!"

Same as before, they sank as the bubbles in the water drastically reduced their buoyancy. Except, instead of staying underneath the surface, they repeatedly bobbed up and down as if they were humanoid fishing lures. This was actually more challenging to deal with than totally going under as it didn't give them any chances to catch their breaths before they were sucked back under. But, other than braving it since their lives depended on it, there was nothing either of them could do to stop themselves from uncontrollably swirling around the deadly current.

They struggled the entire way, from one bend of the river to the next. Malon stubbed a stone so badly that her toes throbbed against her submerged leather boots. Link slammed against the cliffside of the gorge, severely scraping his back in order to protect the girl from experiencing the same. Nonetheless, both of them hurt their tailbone as their rears repeatedly impacted the riverbed. Each successive hit reminded the hero of getting punched by a Goron.

As bad as their injuries became, they still stayed latched to one another. Link tried hard to steer them away from obstacles in the water. However, whenever they finally got to the next bend of the stream, their worries immediately shifted from their immensely sore bodies and potentially drowning, to the fear of what was around the upcoming sharp corner. It wasn't easy to tell their speed, especially while tumbling around like ragdolls, but the hero noticed the water was beginning to go even faster; not only that, the deafening roar of rapids was growing louder and louder by the second.

Thanks to the years of adventuring, the boy was soon able to identify the likely cause of the worsening change to the river. Unfortunately, it did nothing to comfort him. On the contrary, he had to bite down on his lower lip to prevent it from quivering in dread. His palpating eyeballs stared ahead, glued to the upcoming river curve with anxiety overloading his freezing mind.

Roughly bouncing off the cliffside while coming around the bend of the stream, he gasped at the ghastly sight which immediately confirmed his horrible suspicions. While they had made it to their destination, the last hundred feet (30m) ahead of them was a large waterfall that spilled directly into Lake Hylia; specifically, a series of cascades that ended with a steep plunge.

"OH GODDESS!" Link lamented.

"N-NO!" Malon cried out upon seeing the impending waterfall. "WE'RE G-GONNA DIE!"

Seeing how swimming was futile since there wasn't a way to escape the hazardous river, the hero opted to simply wrap both his arms around the farmgirl so he could hold on to her as much as possible. The freezing redhead proceeded to do the same, compounding her trembling grip by even wrapping her legs around the boy's waist. She sobbed in his ear as she held her head on his drenched shoulder. He gulped and then closed his eyes as he concentrated on keeping his grip, but he knew this was the last obstacle blocking their escape; it just happened to be incredibly deadly.

"I love you." He said to her in a normal voice as he felt them approaching the mouth of the waterfall. It didn't matter if she heard, because he knew that she was already aware of his feelings. He was prepared to die with her.

Malon, on the other hand, screamed out in prayer "FARORE, COMMEND OUR SPIRITS!" She left their fate in the hands of the Goddess of Life, yet hoped the divine entity would do something to rescue them before it was too late. "DON'T LET US GO OUT LIKE THIS!"

Approaching the mouth of the waterfall, their hearts pounded so hard the burst of adrenaline allowed them to go numb. For a split second, they didn't feel cold anymore. Instead, they were taken over by a time-altering apprehension that lasted up until they were just about to go over the edge. The moment they went over the first dip of the cascading section, their senses returned, amplified tenfold by the stress.

Both of them felt the fall in the pit of their stomach. Thankfully, it didn't last long before they splashed down onto the next step-like slab of rock, one of many in a series of increasing slopes that they had to go over before making it to the last big plunge. Since this first was a bit shallow comparatively, their lower bodies sank far enough to ram into the pebbled riverbed before popping back up. They barely managed to suck in a deep breath before being sucked toward the mouth of the following cascade. Nonetheless, they were still together, which was all that mattered in the long run.

Going over the next waterfall, they held onto each other and prayed they wouldn't hit anything that would smoosh them. It took them a quarter of a second longer than previously to plummet into the succeeding step and the depth of the water was deeper too. Their last gasp had come in handy as they stayed beneath the surface, being forced along with the intense current. Whenever they came back up, they exhaled, inhaled and then struggled to not choke on the misty spray being pushed upward. Malon coughed. Link made a scrunched face.

The following cascade was even rougher than the other two. As they fell, they went through a thin cloud that had formed from the heavy increase in mist. Splashing into the treacherous pool below, they sank into yet another quick paced current that proceeded to force them to stay underneath for almost fifteen seconds. By the time they resurfaced, they were already at the next fall, which meant they had no time to catch their breaths.

Now that they tumbled to the next to last of the cascades, the fall gave them enough time to take several gasps. Their luck got slightly better as hitting the bottom wasn't nearly as bad as the last three. The depth was much shallower there, which meant they didn't get sucked underneath; instead they smashed into the stoney riverbed. Unfortunately, their brief luck didn't stay for long as they soon found themselves on a steeper incline, which swept them downstream even faster, so fast that the weight of the water began to exert significant pull against the two terrified kids. The pressure of the roaring current in addition to the intense drag threatened to rip Malon and Link away from each other.

The Hero tried holding on more, but was already digging his fingernails into her and she was to him. Malon even made an attempt to increase her leg grip on his waist. Nonetheless, they could feel the torrent of water jetting in-between them as they were violently barrelling toward the final cascade before the big plunge into the peaceful Lake Hylia.

Falling into the last pool, they weren't as lucky as beforehand. This one was twice as deep as the previous and the undercurrent sucked them right into it. Water burbled all around them and they could feel their grasp slipping from each other. All the pressure and drag was too much to resist. Having such a staggering force tugging on them, there was nothing they could do to stop from being yanked away from one another. In spite of how tightly they had held, the river overwhelmed them. Link could feel Malon being ripped away from him, completely swallowed by the current.

Regardless of the amount of times he was tumbling head over heels in the water, he reached out in a sweeping motion in an attempt to try and find his swept away girlfriend. Although it was a mistake to do so, he automatically screamed out for her, losing a decent amount of his precious air in the process. The foamy water was so tumultuous that even with his eyes open he was unable to see anything other than millions upon millions of thick sudsy bubbles. Swallowing a gulp due to his spontaneous exclamation, he started choking on it. Running out of oxygen, he eventually couldn't stop himself from reacting; kicking his legs and quickly making strokes with his arms to assist in his ascension to the surface.

As soon as he emerged, he let out a harsh cough before hollering for his beloved. "MALON!?"

While floating down the final stream toward the big plunge, the hero looked everywhere in hopes of finding the girl. To his dismay, he never saw any signs of her. He feared that she was kept in the undertow longer than he was. If that was the case, she might still be there, hurling toward the last waterfall while pressed to the riverbed.

"MALON!?" He cried out while turning in a three-sixty to try and find the farmgirl. "MALON, WHERE ARE YOU!?" With teeth beginning to chatter, he prayed to the divines. "GODDESSES, PLEASE! WHERE IS SHE!?"

For the next ten unbearably lengthy seconds, he struggled to swim in a highly erratic path while being sucked toward the mouth of the plunge. No matter where he looked, he couldn't see her. His heart was beating out of his chest as he frantically splashed around in search of her. "MALON!" The boy yelled one more time as he neared the final fall, moving faster and faster downstream. "MALON! COME ON! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"

"SHIT!" He hollered as he went over the edge of the plunge.

Unlike the previous cascades he'd just gone through, this waterfall had a much steeper drop, easily dwarfing the others as its stream completely lost contact with the bedrock above. Link found himself helplessly flung off the side, left at the mercy of gravity as he then plummeted to the water below; feeling the queasy feeling in his stomach as he fell. Keeping his vision obscured, the misty cloud at the base was wider and denser than the one before, making it difficult to breathe as he fell through it. Holding his breath couldn't stop the droplets from going up his nose either. They squeezed their way into his sinus cavity.

After the rough splash down, he knew right away that he was in Lake Hylia. However, the enormous height he fell from caused the impact to be so forceful that he unwillingly dove underwater again. It wasn't painless either, as the sudden deceleration was like smacking into a brick wall. But, the current produced from the waterfall sucked him up and then quickly swept him halfway across the sacred body of water before getting weak enough that he was able to escape.

Without delay, he immediately swam upward, breaking the surface prior to giving a giant gasp for air. Before he bothered to analyze his surroundings, he coughed, spat out water and screamed as loud as he could "MALON!?"

He could barely see as the sun had gone beneath the horizon, leaving only dim twilight. Nonetheless, taking the time to look around now that he was floating mostly still, he realized that he was in the middle of Lake Hylia. On the left was the small archipelago made up of a series of small recursive islands, straight ahead was the waterfall that brought him there and behind him was a vast stretch of water leading to the other side of the lake. Finally, to the right of him was the shoreline and a big building known as the Lakeside Laboratory, where the renowned Dr. Mizuumi resides diligently doing his research.

"MALON!?" He vehemently cried out with a crackling voice, having desperately hoped that he'd find her around where he was. "MALON, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The longer he went without finding her, the greater his fears increased that something horrible had happened to her. His imagination flashed terrifying images in his mind of her trapped underwater, drowning in the depths of the lake. Everything that had occurred, compounded with the thought of the farmgirl pleading for him as she died, all of it was so stressful that his mouth watered as acidic bile bubbled into the back of his throat, burning his tongue and threatening to make him puke. He had to blink several times to regain focus, to keep his eyes from going blurry. Each heartbeat felt like a sledgehammer to his chest as his core temperature dropped to a critical low.

Splashing around in a circle, he continued to scream with a hoarse voice even as his teeth chattered. "MALON!?"

Before long, now that he was out of imminent harm's way, his adrenaline began to run dry. With his extra-strength all but depleted, he was absolutely drained of energy. Every muscle in his body was beginning to cramp from the poisonous levels of excess lactic acid buildup within them. Knowing that he had to get out of the water unless he wanted to freeze to death, he was forced to swim toward the shore.

"W-WHERE ARE Y-YOU!?" He started getting weaker, having trouble talking too. "M-MALON!"

Three-quarters of the way to the shore, shortly after entering the shallow end where water reeds and cattails congregated, while freezing and in very low lighting, he happened to spot something that made him cease all movement; a tinge of red and white that had no business being around the crystal blue lake or amongst the lush greenery growing amongst the bank. If it were possible, his heart would've stopped as well.

"No-…" He slowly shook his head as everything slowed down around him. The boy refused to believe what he thought he saw.

Frantically resuming his swim to shore, after pushing aside the tangled plant-life floating around, he came to the spot he saw the familiar colours. Time seemed to stop altogether whenever he confirmed the worst thing imaginable. "MALON!" He screamed so loud, it echoed all the way across Lake Hylia, scaring off a flock of birds taking shelter in a nearby tree. "DEAR GODDESSES, NO! NO! NOOOOOO!"

There by the shoreline was his beloved farmgirl, floating facedown in the water. She displayed no movement, no signs of life. Her body merely lightly bobbed up and down from the wake generated by the hero's enormous panic.

"DIN!" Link pleaded with a breaking voice as he managed to get his footing on the shoreline. "NAYRU!" As soon as his feet were touching the bottom, he was so disturbed that he tried running. Unfortunately, the resistance from the water in addition to the tangle of plants made him fall to his knees. "FARORE!" Hectically crawling on his hands and knees with water splashing everywhere from his rapid pace, he drug himself up to the girl's pale body. "HELP ME!" Yelling to anyone who could hear, he called for them. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Immediately grabbing onto her, he flipped her over before lifting her up into his arms. Tears welled up in his eyes as he saw her emotionless face. Her eyes were glossy and unfocused, her lips were turning blue and her head was tilted back with her mouth hanging wide-open; all signs of having drowned.

"MALON!" He screamed at her, freaking out from the situation. "WAKE UP! PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS TO ME! NOT AFTER THIS! NOT AFTER ALL THIS!"

Rushing out of Lake Hylia, he hauled her up onto the shore while sobbing uncontrollably. He went as far as he could before his legs gave out from exhaustion. Falling back to his knees, he kept her in his arms, pressed her head against his shoulder and rocked her back-and-forth. The entire situation was too much for him to bear. He felt his mind breaking as he cried loudly with reflexive snorts and harsh coughs. But, no matter what, he was in denial about it happening in the first place. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I CAN'T LOSE YOU! MALON! DON'T YOU DIE! DON'T YOU FUCKING DIE!" Throwing his head back, he wept to the dimly lit orange coloured sky and then called out for assistance to anyone nearby. "HELP ME! FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODDESSES, SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Although he didn't know precisely how to reverse the horrible situation, he comprehended that she had water in her lungs; that was the definition of drowning. He also used deduction to come to the sensible conclusion that he just needed to get the fluid out of her. That was easier said than done for someone with no real experience in the field of medicine. But, he put forth the effort to concentrate on finding a way to save the girl.

"N-Nayru, tell me what to do!" He demanded answers from the Goddess of Knowledge.

Laying the cold, blue-faced farmgirl onto the sandy shore, he stared into her soulless eyes while thinking of what to do. With nothing at his disposal other than the drenched clothing he was wearing, he could only devise a single way to create a suction capable of siphoning the water from her flooded lungs. Climbing up on top of her, he straddled her chest and then turned her head to the side. After pressing his lips to hers, he gave a mighty inhale in an attempt to suck the water out of her.

It wasn't nearly as easy to do as he anticipated. At the same time, he didn't want to do it too hard either as he was afraid he'd wind up hurting her. "Come on!" He expressed a lack of patience. "GET OUT OF HER!" The boy screamed at the invasive liquid in advance of returning to his attempt at sucking the water from her lungs. Once he used the entire capacity of his own lungs, his face started turning red and it felt like his chest cavity was about to cave in on itself. Yet, he kept going until his self-preservation made him stop to gasp for air.

Seeing no results, he felt like it was all for nothing, that he wasn't going to be able to bring her back to life, that he was going to lose her forever. The thought made him seeth in anger. "FUCK!" He cried up at the darkening sky as, without thinking, he sat back against her chest.

All of a sudden, water came pouring out of the farmgirl's mouth. Link saw it happen and frantically tried to figure out what that meant as well as what to do next. Leaning up from the seat he'd taken on her torso, he pressed his lips to hers and proceeded to suck what liquid he could into his mouth. After spitting the mouthful off to the side, he went back to doing what he had been. However, it still didn't seem to be doing much of anything other than draining him of his oxygen. Nonetheless, he kept going for thirty seconds until he couldn't suck anymore.

Breaking away, with pinpoint pupils bouncing side-to-side, he racked his brain as he tried to find out what he did the first time to make the water come out. Once again sitting back onto her stomach for a momentary rest prior to thinking of something else to try, he bore witness as more fluid was abruptly forced from her lungs. Putting two and two together, he finally managed to register the correlation between the pressure he was exerting on her abdomen and the expulsion of water from her mouth.

Not dallying in the least, he immediately got off of her stomach and then knelt down beside her. Since he now had a vague idea of what worked, to the best of his ability, he proceeded to replicate the motion he made as well as the weight needed to push the liquids out. Crossing his hands, he placed both palms atop her chest before pressing down as hard as he could, sinking down a third the depth of her body; definitely more force than sitting on her could produce. This caused a bit more water to drip from her mouth, but since he didn't know how long to keep compressing, he released his hold and checked on her.

"MALON!?" Cupping a hand to her ice-cold cheek, he yelled to her while gently using his other hand to wiggle her shoulder. "MALON!? CAN YOU HEAR ME!?"

When she didn't move, he then went back to pressing on her abdomen. Trying everything possible, he also pressed his lips to hers and inhaled. However, due to all the stress and shivering, he accidentally coughed, exhaling air into her. This caused a pressure build-up that, upon breaking the lip contact to clear his throat, caused most of the water to be expelled from her lungs. Seeing this, he decided to change strategies. Instead of trying to suck the fluids from her, he blew his oxygen into her mouth while repeatedly pressing down on her chest.

To his surprise, a gush of water soon rushed from the farmgirl's mouth and into his. Under normal circumstances, he would've been revolted. Since this wasn't normal by any means, he merely turned his head and spat it out. But, before he could go back to the attempt at rescue, he felt her moving beneath him. Right away, he leaned up and away to examine her.

Malon coughed and wheezed with weak gasps for air.

Seeing life returning to her, the boy grabbed onto her, pulled her into an embrace and then held her as close to him as he could. "Malon!? Oh my Goddess, you're alive!"

The discombobulated girl continued to hack up water and an abundance of phlegm. Her eyes fluttered as they honed in on reality. Nonetheless, she felt so drained of energy that she couldn't move. "L-Link-..." She softly called out his name as she kept coughing.

"I'm here!" He acknowledged her. "I'm here, Malon!"

Colour gradually returned to her face as her breath oxygenated her blood. She didn't look as pale as a corpse anymore. Nevertheless, every muscle in her body was shivering. "I-... I'm s-so cold."

"WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!?" A voice abruptly enquired from the promontory up to the left of them.

Link glanced up to see the old Dr. Mizuumi hovering over them with an inquisitive look plastered on his face. The boy quickly responded by requesting assistance. "Help me! She almost drowned!"

The doctor held his hand to his mouth in shock before exclaiming "I'M COMING DOWN!"

Knowing he had help coming, Link bursted into tears from the overwhelming emotions. "Thank you!" Sniffling up the snot dripping from his nose, he returned his attention to his loved one. He lifted her up prior to beginning to make his way toward the Lakeside Laboratory. With one arm under her neck and the other wrapped under her knees, being as exhausted as he was he struggled to walk. "I'm going to get you help, Malon. Just hang in there."

"L-Link…" She coughed as he gradually lifted her arm to grasp onto his chest. "D-Did I d-die?"

"Shh…" Link shushed her as he saw Dr. Mizuumi coming down from the slope that led up to the Lakeside Laboratory. "Save your strength."

The doctor met the two sopping wet children halfway. He already had his sleeveless blue overcoat removed, walking towards them in only his long white cotton gown. As soon as they met, he wrapped the pre-warmed garment around the freezing redhead in advance of taking her from the boy since his height allowed him to be better capable of carrying her. "What in the world were you two doing?" He questioned them.

Link took the liberty of informing the older man the short-version of the truth. "We were attacked by bandits and both of us had to jump into the river. She can't swim, so I was trying to save her. But, when we were going down the waterfall, the current was so strong it ripped her away from me." His heart beat against his chest as he recalled the horror of witnessing his beloved having drowned. "I found her floating face down by the shoreline."

"S-So cold." Malon repeated her concern.

Once they made it to the doctor's building, Link opened the door for the old man to carry Malon inside. "It's okay, Malon. We're going to warm you up and you'll feel much better."

"It sounds like you're lucky to be alive, young one." Dr. Mizuumi told the girl as he carried her inside.