Chapter Text
“Your Highness, duck!”
Link hardly thought as he obeyed, flinging himself to the floor at the cry from one of the guards. To his left, he saw Zelda do the same with a mild gasp of pain when she failed to catch herself before smacking her face on the stones.
A second later, a Guardian laser cut through the air between them, above their current place on the cobbled ground of the Castle courtyard.
Neither of them wasted any time, clambering swiftly to their feet and continuing their mad dash toward the doors. If they could break the Guardian’s line of sight they may very well survive long enough to regroup. He shoved Zelda further left as they reached some fallen rubble, and she didn’t hesitate to fling herself behind it. For his part, he pushed himself to run faster and headed directly for the doors.
“Link!” She yelled.
“When I get one open, run!” He shouted back, unsure if she’d hear him as the wind snatched the words out of his mouth.
He threw himself sideways, avoiding being struck by a laser only by a hair.
He rolled back to his feet and kept moving.
He grabbed the handle of the door, heaved it open, and foolishly turned to see where Zelda was.
She was on her feet, already running toward the doors as he stalled outside them.
The Guardian had its eye trained on him and him alone, even as a group of guards tried in vain to capture its attention to ensure their escape. He swallowed, then quickly snapped his shield into place on his arm, digging his heels in and gritting his teeth. A concentrated red light hit his chest, then the shield when he raised it.
Okay.
Deep breath.
The beam fired.
He batted it back at the Guardian with his shield ― timing was off, dammit. The beam crashed into a wall.
But Zelda had made it through the door, and Link regretfully pulled his eyes away from the guards as he followed and pulled the door closed behind him.
They pressed themselves to the walls on either side of the door to catch their breath.
They shared a look.
How in the hell had they gotten into this situation? What went wrong?