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Link closed his eyes and knitted his brow in frustration, his boots meeting the wooden floor of the Dueling Peaks Stable.
“So what was up there, partner?” Penn, the Rito, asked him enthusiastically.
But the Hylian ignored him as he made his way to one of the beds in the back of the room. Link clenched his hands in a single fist as he rested his arms on his knees. He heard the loud footfalls of Penn approach him.
“Link? What happened? Did you find Princess Zelda?”
Link and Penn had been investigating sighting after sighting of the princess for the last week or so. Many people had reported to the newest investigators of the Lucky Clover Gazette about their own sightings, and so far none had revealed any truth of them actually being Zelda. But this last one…
This last one had some kernels of truth to it.
One hour ago…
This latest tip from a source scared Link. He knew that the Yiga clan had been increasingly more hostile toward Link and Zelda, even since their last clash during the Calamity. His worry only grew more as he climbed hand over hand, step over step to the top of the cliff.
To his knowledge, a group of Yoga foot soldiers had kidnapped Zelda and taken her to this cliff face on Dueling Peaks. Link knew precisely why she was their target, other than her being the princess: she was bait for him. He was who they really wanted for killing their leader Master Kohga.
In the back of Link’s mind, he knew this could be more than just a trap. As with all the other rumors of Zelda sightings, this could be a fruitless endeavor.
But no; this one had to be different. This was a tangible, logical thing that could have happened to her since she fell into that… chasm. During the time he was unconscious on the Great Sky Island, she very easily could have climbed out of the chasm on her own. She would have been tired and possibly injured so getting caught by the Yiga was completely in the realm of possibility.
All of these thoughts kept Link occupied during his climb. Even with the assistance of his climbing boots and carabiners, the trek took far too long in Link’s opinion. He wanted to save her now.
Finally Link’s fingers felt the smooth, flat surface of the top of the cliff and he hoisted his weight up. There in front of him was Zelda, trapped in a steel cage, sitting on the ground and seemingly unhurt.
Instantly his heart was in his throat. Here she was, and he was here to rescue her. After finding that rotting corpse in the bowels of Hyrule Castle he truly thought he would never see her again.
Link made quick, deft use of his Ultrahand ability, his precision with it growing exponentially by the day. He lifted the bars over Zelda’s head and tossed them aside.
Wasting no more time, he sprinted to meet her. “Zelda, thank Hylia you’re safe. Are you hurt?”
She smiled sweetly at him. “Link, thank goodness you came for me. Those awful Yiga kidnapped me. I’m so glad you’re my knight in shining armor. Allow me to repay you for your bravery…”
Link blinked and his mind raced. She spoke so… out of turn.
He was surprised as she leaned up close to the side of his face, as if preparing to kiss him.
Then Link heard her whisper in his ear, “…with a slow, painful death! Glory to Master Kohga!”
The figure of Zelda vanished in a puff of red smoke and magic to reveal a Yiga foot soldier, with more appearing and surrounding Link. The one who had assumed the princess’s form quickly drew a small dagger and her other arm snaked around Link’s neck. The tip of the blade grazed Link’s abdomen as he only barely managed to shake free of her hold.
His blood boiling, Link prepared for a scuffle. They had toyed with his emotions and used his devotion to the princess against him. They would pay the price for their folly. His eyes flashed in deadly fury, ready to dispatch these Yiga who dared to mess with Princess Zelda’s appointed knight.
Back at Dueling Peaks Stable, an hour later.
“Ahh, I, uh… I understand now, Link,” Penn replied once Link had finished recounting his experience.
“I had no idea what I was gonna do once I saw her again, and then to learn that she was actually reachable… And that I could actually save her from something so simple…”
The stable hand, Rensa, had also made his way over to the bed where Link sat. The fact that this boy— man , considered the threat of the Yiga simple put everything into perspective. “Wow, Link. You really—you really care about the princess, don’t you?”
Link held his head in his hands and let his eyes close. He had thought he was so close, so close , to reuniting with her.
“I should have known that it was too easy to be true,” Link thought bitterly. “The Yiga know me too well…”
He wanted nothing more than to simply be with her again. And not just for himself, either. They had been making such good, real progress with Hyrule’s restoration. He thought back to their life in Hateno Village, of the school she had founded there. She simply did good things wherever she went. That’s what she was, pure goodness, and he relished that about her.
Link spared a glance at Rensa as he said quietly, “I have to guard my feelings far more closely now.”
Link stood from the mattress, but let out a sharp cry of pain and clutched his side, near his left pectoral. He returned to his sitting position and held out his hand for all to see. It was stained with blood.
Rensa and Penn gasped.
“Darton! Get the medical supplies. Link is wounded.”
“I’m fine, just a small cut,” Link insisted as Rensa’s son appeared with a small box in hand. He made to move past the group but was quickly halted again by the pain.
As Rensa gently assisted Link in laying back on the bed, Link recalled how he suffered the wound, small as it was: the Yiga who had disguised herself as the princess had done this to him. Had he moved any slower, she most likely would have sliced her intended target: his heart.
Unbeknownst to the Yiga, they had indeed dealt a dire wound to the hero’s heart.