"I don't have a sword," he whispered back.
"You've got a bow."
"Yeah, and like, ten arrows. I'm not wasting them."
Did she just hear that right?
"What, my assured safety doesn't warrant the expenditure of your arrows?" she whispered angrily. "Yet you insist on playing escort in what I can now only assume is just some altruistic guise? How does that make sense to you?"
"Uh, it doesn't," he said, side-eyeing her, "because you definitely made up at least half of those words."
The bokoblins were fixated on the boar, but as they leapt from behind the bush with angry, gurgling screeches, Zelda reflexively screamed. She immediately clasped her hands over her mouth, but the damage was already done. The boar turned tail, and the bokoblins perked at the unexpected interruption.
Link cursed as beady eyes fixed on them. He stood and nocked an arrow in one fluid movement, hissing in pain, and in the next, the bokoblin was sailing backwards with an arrow in its head.
Spinning on a heel, Zelda did the only thing she knew how—she ran, ignoring the pangs of hunger that tried to slow her down. While running, she looked back to see Link release another arrow. Unfortunately, when she looked forward again, it took too long to register the campfire ahead of her, supervised by two more bokoblins roasting fish. One bokoblin was red, the other was blue.
Alerted, they snatched their weapons and turned on the princess.
"Princess Zelda!" she could hear Link calling, but her own voice was stuck in her throat.
One slow step back at a time, she raised her hands—a feeble shield, a feeble attempt to summon her power, feeble anything—she didn't know. Anything to stop the images of death cycling behind her eyes.
The blue one was nearly on her when an arrow whizzed past her ear. Zelda cowered as the creature fell back, but the red one continued to advance.
Pa-shing!
The red one took a direct hit, and fell over lifeless. Zelda had never seen one defeated. She watched with petrified interest as its flesh became black and magenta before vanishing in a smokey burst of malice, taking the arrow with it into oblivion.
"Princess!"
The blue one was back on its feet. It required more than a single arrow to take it down; it was stronger than the red bokoblins. Before she could act, its hands were on her. Beady eyes were red as the Blood Moon, a claw broke skin—
Pa-shingPa-shing!
With two more hits, the monster released her, tumbling backwards as it burst into black and magenta smoke.
Another pair of hands grabbed her, and Zelda shrieked.
"Gods, Princess, why did you run from me?" panted Link as he shook her vigorously. "What were you thinking?" His hands searched up and down for injury.
Her lungs fought for oxygen. "Y-you refused to use your arrows!"
"Except I did use them, and now there's only four left. And look at this, they cut you! This is why I didn't wanna fight, if we had just—"
The grabbing, the scolding—it was too much. "Get your hands off me!"
His palm returned to his own shoulder, though his eyes remained affixed on her. Emerald eyes challenged his serene cerulean. For too long, they glared. Behind them, the crackling campfire opposed the oncoming twilight.
"It's getting dark," Link finally said.
She turned away from him. "Fortunately we already have a fire."
YOU ARE READING
Fortune Favors the Courageous
Fanfiction"Princess!" he yelled after her. "Where are you going?" "Back to the castle," she replied without stopping. "Not by yourself you're not!" "I'm sorry,"-she whipped around-"I didn't realize you were my father?" "Your father, the king, would execute me...
Chapter 7: Incongruous
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