The Legend of Zelda: The Dual Swords

Ryaur mumbled under his breath, this definitely wasn’t why he had joined the army. The recruitment officer had promised him a life of glory and riches. He would fight in a few battles against this or that, then he would be promoted to the Royal Guard in which he would win the heart of Queen Zelda and they would marry and he would become KING RYAUR. Then he would go back to his old neighbourhood and make Jen, the girl who turned him down eleven times for the Spring Festival, lick his boots…naked… on a stage…while he was wearing a clown suit.

So he had joined up only to discover that their were no wars, the Royal Guard was a separate branch of the military, Queen Zelda had been hiding in her private chambers for over a year, and Jen had gone and married Peech. Oh how Ryaur hated Peech, with his smug ‘Hello’ and ‘Thank you very much’ and his cocky ‘Good-bye dear friend’.

Ryaur smacked a branch out of his way as he stomped of towards camp. He needed to calm down and take a break, but he knew if he stopped and anyone say him, they would say he was about to have his way with the Kokiri. If word of that got back to the commander, he would be hung from the highest tree. A real threat when one was surrounded by so many trees.

Picking up his pace, Ryaur began to break into a mad dash the moment he broke the tree line and was within sight of the campsite. He squealed and began to jump up and down excitedly for he had done it, he was already on his way to the top of the hill and soon redemption would be at hand.

Few men shared his enthusiasm when entered the camp. All they could do was shake their heads as they took the lifeless Kokiri and lay her down on the grass.
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Ryaur growled as he knocked over a barrel, already the rumours that he had killed another prisoner were spreading. This time though, the bruises all over his face and around her neck was leading people to talk about the possibility that the girl had been kicking his ass up and down Kokiri Forest and how in the end he had chocked the life out of her with his bare hands.

Why anytime he had a prisoner did things go wrong? Ryaur entered the tent he and his squad shared, empty as they had yet to return. Crawling into his sleeping bag, he hoped that this all was just a bad dream and he would be back at Lake Hyrule with his uncle, fishing and such.

Ryaur wasn’t a smart man, but he knew when a shadow moved. He wasn’t by any means a genius, but he knew when a shadow sprouted legs and arms and seemed very mad at him. He wasn’t a brave man either.

“Help, help me!”

“No”, came a voice from the tent right next to his.

The shadow’s shape grew more defined as Ryaur’s eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom, “It’s the murderer, the murderer is in the camp now.”

“Ya, we heard you made it back to camp. By the way, good job with the Kokiri girl. Why did you kill her, did she outsmart or was it just because she kicked your ass?”

“Both ”, chimed in another voice, “knowing Ryaur I’d say both.”

Knowing he wasn’t going to get any help Ryaur ran out of his tent towards the edge of the forest. There he drew his sword and shield and waited for his foe, they wouldn’t pick on him if he brought down the murderer single-handedly.

The fight began with Ryaur waiting with his shield covering his body. Whenever Link got too close, he would strike a single blow with his sword and then mount an immediate retreat, all the while his shield protecting his body from attack. Taking a few hits, Link lingered back and waited for any weaknesses. Confidant that his opponent was too far back to mount an attack, Ryaur paused to taunt his opponent. During this time his shield was down and Link had all the time he needed. A solid instrument bashed Ryaur’s exposed head, a Deku nut harvested from the forest. Link was thankful that he had taken the time to scavenge up extra supplies before Saria had been kidnapped. Quickly lifting his shield to cover his head, Ryaur waited a while before pausing to continue his taunt, only to get whacked a second time. This continued a few more times before Ryaur grew frustrated.

Next, Ryaur planned to run the guy over with his shield. He would charge and attempt to push Link into the ground with his shield, it worked once or twice, but his foe was quick and able to dodge. Worst of all was the fact that he was usually stunned after missing with his shield and open to attack from one of the Deku sticks Link wielded.

Finally Ryaur realized it would take a special effort to beat his opponent. The best move in his arsenal involved charging up to the opponent with shield raised, then leaping into the air and delivering a savage blow with his own sword. The diagonal swing of the sword made dodging difficult as his foe soon found out. The power behind the blade soon made short work of the enemy, or so Ryaur thought.

Navi buzzed along, Link had left her behind in his rush to locate Saria. The sight of Link fallen before an opponent wasn’t new to Navi. The role of a fairy was simple, revive or release one who will revive the master. So Navi fluttered down and released one of Link’s bottle’s latch. The fairy inside bowed low to Navi and then went to work on the corpse of Link.

Ryaur’s back was turned and didn’t see the young man rise back to his feet, the long gashes in his chest gone. Ryaur did hear the heavy breathing though, at which point he turned around. Ryaur’s face was plastered with a look of utter disbelief; he had just killed this guy.

The fight continued much as it had before. Stage one was the taunting, stage two was the shield charge, and stage three was the leaping attack. What was different was Link, instead of dodging to the left or right during the leaping attack, he leaped straight back. Ryaur crashed into the ground, open to a leap attack of Link’s own. Link wasted no time and as Ryaur fell to the ground defeated, Link couldn’t help but flourish his broken stick in triumph.

Link snapped back to reality as he saw that he was outside Kokiri Forest. Falling to the ground, Link knew he had been too slow in his pursuit of Saria. Navi fluttered up and down before the dejected Link. A puzzled expression crossed his face as he saw Navi race towards the Hylian encampment.

Dying men’s screams tore through the night as Link and Navi approached the blaze that had engulfed the entire countryside. Absorbed by the fight with Ryaur, Link hadn’t even noticed to battle up on the hill. Now standing in the ruins of the camp a figure began to emerge from the fires. He was covered in what appeared to be a roughly knitted burlap robe, the cowl hang low covering his face. As the figure approached Link, two items he was carrying became clear. In one arm was the limp body of Saria and in the other hand sword.

Link was paralysed by what he saw. The sword looked exactly like the Master Sword, except the blade was a deep black. Link charged, hoping to either reclaim the body of Saria or get a closer look at the impostor sword. The Deku stick was cleaved in half with ease and the burlap robe absorbed any damage the thrown Deku nuts could possibly do.

Figure didn‘t seem to even care that Link was attacking him and then in a flash, the figure was gone. All that remained was Link alone with the knowledge that it really was the Master Sword, or at least a very good copy. Grabbing a Hylian sword and shield from a nearby treasure chest, Link left the ruined camp. Had to make it the Temple of Time, he had to make sure that the real Master Sword was still intact, and he would hack his way through the entire Hylian army if need be.