The Legend of Zelda: Zelda's Honor

Chapter 25 - The Message

All crossbows were aimed at his heart. The man looked on indifferently at the commotion he had caused. Slumped over the pommel of his horse of darkness was a nude form unrecognizable under its tangled mess of hair. He had made no move to retreat or proceed further into their deadly range. Instead he was waiting on someone who could actually make a decision. He skimmed the ramparts as he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The young boy, Link, had surged to the edge and was looking down upon him.

Link's rage bubbled to the surface as he saw Thanan sitting arrogantly on his horse, completely at ease with the stares of a hundred killers ready to fill him with arrows. He noticed a small body drooping in front of the man, one of his hands was casually placed on her back to keep her steady in the saddle. Link wanted so badly to slice that hand off and prevent him from touching another Kokiri again.

Nabooru managed to catch up with him at the top and gazed over to see the object of everyone's interest. The man smiled back at her revealing the ghastly scars at the corners of his mouth, realizing she was one with enough authority to speak for the others. Urging his horse forward several paces, several of the women shifted uneasily as they awaited direction from Nabooru. The tension in the air was thick as the sun beat mercilessly on their heads.

"Finally, here is someone who can make a damn decision." Thanan mocked.

Nabooru stepped in front of Link, brushing him to the side as she confronted the man from on high. Link sidled over down a few guards to get a better view. "What do you want with the Gerudo? Speak fast or your life is forfeit." Nabooru commanded.

Thanan let out a laugh, "How I love threats, they sound so very hollow when spoken by someone who can't deliver."

Nabooru bristled; she was not used to being ridiculed so insouciantly like this. She raised one hand as several archers aimed down their sights in preparation for the shot.

Thanan rolled his eyes, "Oh please, spare me the bravado. Shall I show you just how useless this all is?"

He swept his hand through the air at them. With one swift movement, he summoned a rapier into his opposing hand and sliced off his arm at the elbow. Some Gerudo gasped in shock as his forearm fell onto the sand, blood spilling from the open wound over the unfortunate body in front of him. Nabooru narrowed her eyes as he casually stabbed the arm from the ground with his rapier and roughly placed it back onto his stump. Within minutes it had fully healed without so much as a mark outside of the dried blood around the initial cut.

The rapier vanished into a black mist as he spread his arms out wide with a flourish, "You see? It is useless to kill me; for I cannot die. So shall we get to business?" Thanan leered at Nabooru.

At a signal from Nabooru, all sentries lowered their crossbows. "What is it you want with us?" She demanded; her voice laced with venom.

"I've come to offer a truce between our peoples. I see that you are well supplied, armed and defended. We do not wish to fight you if we do not have to." Nabooru scoffed, but Thanan pressed on, "If we can come to an agreement, we can live side by side in prosperity. As a good will token, we are returning one of the few Kokiri left alive. We do not wish to see any one race wiped from this good, green earth." His voice was like silky poison.

Nabooru took one look at the tattered corpse he called a Kokiri and vilely laughed, "That's rich! How can we expect you will treat us any different than that pitiful thing you have there? How do we know we can trust you?"

Thanan leaned over, resting his arms across the poor Kokiri's head before remarking, "You don't. But I assure you that if you do not agree to the truce, you will end up like this pathetic piece of flesh."