Chapter 16

Stepping from the shadows, Link and Neji saw a couple people with really... Interesting outfits. It was bright red colored suits. To top it all off, they were wearing sombreros.

Link and Neji looked at one another, thinking this was some kind of prank instead of an enemy attack. But despite their ridiculous appearance, they had Princess Zelda.

Link turned towards the two mysterious people standing before them. "Who are you?"

The two mysterious people smirked, pressing their backs against each other while speaking in the most heaviest accent you could ever imagine.

"Prepare for trouble."

"And make it double."

Not expecting that to come out of their mouths, Link slow blinked in response. "What the f-"

"Link!" Neji exclaimed. "There's a child present!"

"What child?!"

"Me!"

Getting somewhat annoyed about everything that was happening right now, Link let out a sigh. "Just tell us who you are, and your motives for capturing the princess."

"Party pooper, aren't we?" One of then spoke up. "Let's just cut to the chase then. We're from an organization called Team Vermilion. Our lovely boss wanted us to capture Princess Zelda for a negotiation."

"Negotiation for what..?"

"To buy a huge chunk of land for our future oil factory! Think about it! This land will be rich if we produced a lot of oil! All the other lands will come crawling to us!"

Princess Zelda let out a sigh. "That's why I don't wish to go through with that."

"Why?! It will help you too, Princess!"

"No. It won't. It will only cause pollution, endanger the wildlife, and eventually overcome a huge portion of Hyrule. I don't want Hyrule to look like an oil field in five years!"

"That's why you need to come with us so our boss can persuade you." One of them forced Zelda on her feet. Her hands were still bind by dark shackles.

Feeling his blood boil, Link readied his sword. "Let her go."

One of the grunts started laughing. "What are you going to do about it?"

Link shifted his eyes towards Neji. "Hey kid. Will you back me up?"

Neji nodded. "You got it."

Link vanished from sight, earning the surprised expressions from the Vermilion grunts. Since they were distracted by Link sudden disappearance, Neji saw an opportunity to attack.

Running towards the Vermilion grunts, Neji had his sword pointing straight. He widened his eyes for effect. "Byakugan!" The grunts looked confused, standing their guard. Once Neji got close to them, he stuck his tongue out. "Just kidding! I just made that up!"

Falling for the distraction, the Vermilion grunts didn't notice Link rushing pass them, carrying Zelda in his arms.

Once they were at a distance away from the Vermilion grunts, Link gently put Zelda down. As it looked like he was about to break the shackles with his sword, Zelda stopped him. "Wait!"

Stopping his sword in the air, Link arched an eyebrow. "What is it? Don't you want those things off of you?"

"Of course I do. But these shackles are produced by dark magic. Meaning, they can't come off even if you tried to cut them off. The only way is to defeat those grunts who casted them."

"I really didn't want to get my hands dirty this time. But it looks like I have to." Turning towards Neji, Link gave him a reassuring smirk. "Can you back me up again?"

Neji gave him a salute. "Absolutely!" Turning back to the grunts, he smiled in a playful way. For some reason, his arms were stretched towards his back. "Now Gum-Gum!"

One of the grunts spoke up, sounding somewhat irritated. "Fool us once, shame on us! Fool us twice, uh..." He was having trouble coming up with the rest of the phrase.

The other grunt let out an annoyed sigh. "In conclusion, we are not going to fall for the same trick twice!"

Something small fell out of his sleeve, successfully catching it in his hand. "Smokescreen!" Throwing his arms from back to front, Neji ended up throwing the smokescreen like a professional pitcher, making the entire area covered in smoke.

Seeing an opening, Link rushed towards the grunts. They were easy to find due to their loud coughing. In a flash, Link struck their backs, making them fall to the ground.

At the same time when the smoke cleared, the dark shackles disappeared from Zelda's wrists. Seeing Link walking towards her, she lowered her head in gratitude. "Thank you."

Stopping in front of Zelda, Link placed his hands on her shoulders. He pulled her close to him, embracing her tightly.

On the other hand, Neji was blushing like crazy, witnessing such a lovely moment. He was like a child catching his parents being all lovey dovey. He was backing away slowly, giving them space.

Feeling confused yet secured, Zelda placed her hand on Link's back. "Link..?"

"For a slight moment, I felt scared that I wasn't going to be able to protect you. I'm glad that you're alright."

Hearing his warm, comforting words, Zelda returned his embrace. "I'm here unharmed because of you. You don't have to worry anymore."

Releasing the embrace, Link just stared at her at arms length. A faint blush appeared on his face, hearing his own heart beat. "Zelda..."

Getting caught in the moment, Zelda felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Link was giving her such an endearing look, making her feel warm inside. Just when they were drawing closer...

They both heard something drop on the ground, almost like metal. Breaking off from each other, they saw an entire mess on the ground. Pots and pans that were stored in luggage that was on Epona was scattered all over the dirt.

Looking guilty, Neji rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry..."

Shyly turning away from Link, Zelda cleared her throat. "We should help clean up and be on our way."

Feeling awkward around the princess, Link nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We shouldn't stall any longer." His heart wouldn't stop racing. They were almost going to kiss, feeling disappointed that the heat of the moment was interrupted. But it couldn't be helped.

~

Inside a hotel room, Link and Neji were waiting for Zelda to return to give them some updates. From this point on, Link had no idea what the future held. Was he going to serve under Zelda? That was too good to be true.

Hearing a knock on the door, Neji ended up answering it. Lingering at the doorway, Zelda and a couple of official guards were there.

Link walked up to the door, waiting for Zelda to give him some updates. "So... What happened?"

Holding out a piece of rolled up paper, Zelda gave him a smile. "It took some convincing, but I managed to have you serve under me as my new bodyguard."

This was way too easy. There was no way that whoever had signed this paper was going to accept Ganondorf's former assassin into the royal castle. "They were ok with it?"

"About that... Impa doesn't fully trust you to have you around me yet. But in time, she will realize that you're no threat."

Impa. A quick memory flashed in Link's head, remembering the Sheikah woman who was by Zelda's side when they were younger. Time has passed, surely she had aged quite a bit. That's why Zelda mentioned that she needed a new bodyguard.

Taking the paper from Zelda's hand, he opened it to see a long letter from Impa. It described not believing the boy that the princess took a liking to ended up serving under Ganondorf this entire time. Saying that she doesn't have her trust, and how she was ashamed for his actions. The last thing that was mentioned was how to earn the trust of not only her, but all of Hyrule.

Go back to Goron City and negotiate with the new Goron leader.

Knowing that wasn't going to go well, Link looked up at Zelda. "You do realize once the Gorons see me, they would want to kill me on the spot."

"I'm aware of that. That is why I will accompany you."

Neji chimed into the conversation. "If they try to attack you, I'll help protect you! I got your back!"

He had to do it sooner or later. Making his decision, Link nodded. "We'll plan to leave tomorrow morning."

Both Zelda and Neji smiled at Link's response. Knowing the Gorons were going to go on a rampage once they see him, he knew he would be safe with those two by his side. He had to say the right words without causing any more harm than he already has.

Having a 50/50 chance, Link could find a way to make peace with the Gorons or dig himself a deeper grave.