Nine Stitches. That would be how many it would take to at least attempt to fix the wound in his arm, he thought as he deflected the spikes from the boko club, not that Link would ever tell anyone that. Princess Zelda would probably sneer at him, and insult him for some reason, probably something about him being the "Oh so perfect knight who can't even defend himself, not worthy of nine simple stitches." Since when did he say he was perfect? And I can defend myself fine, they were new enemies anyway. He thought he was far from perfect. He gazed at the shard still in his arm.

No, he had no plans on telling anyone, though he knew he wouldn't need to when he saw the one he was trying to protect load her bow.

Sir Link and Princess Zelda were camping out at Hickaly Woods, they had decided to stop there since it was growing dark. It was quite secluded, the only way of getting there was across the Little Twin Bridge, a bit further northwest of the woods. Link tied their horses to the tree and then began to gather firewood and flint whilst Zelda collected some water from the stream behind their camping spot. He made a small fire land began to cook them dinner. Half an hour later, the delicious smell of Link's Tough Meat-Stuffed Pumpkin filled the air. They had collected a great amount of ingredients throughout their travels, stored in the Sheikah Slate for later.

Once they had finished their meal (Zelda had taken the bowl from Link with a frown on her face, and refused to look at him whilst they ate in silence), Link wordlessly stood up and walked over to the fire and sat by it, grabbing his sword and shield, placing it beside him as he sat on the tree log. Zelda walked over to her bedroll and laid down, falling asleep almost instantly.

They stayed like this well through the night, until about 2AM. Things started to go downhill. Link heard a muffled rustle to the left of him. An animal perhaps?  he thought, but quickly dismissed the idea. I would have seen it. Link glanced at the Princess, grabbed his sword and shield, and silently stood up, to get a better look. He immediately ducked out of sight when he did though, because he had spotted three Bokoblins nearing them. Bokoblins? Here? They had no business being there, no business being anywhere really, but that was besides the point. There were two black ones and- his heart dropped slightly. A silver one stood to the left of them. He had never seen a silver one, and rarely ever saw black ones.

He knew he had to distract them before they came any closer. Looking around him, he noticed a medium sized rock and threw it far in front of him, just behind where they were standing. Their heads perked up and they slowly started to creep backwards to see what the noise had been.

Suddenly he grabbed his bow, and shot an arrow at the middle one. It knocked to the floor with a thud, startling the others, who were looking around to see where the attack had come from. The knocked down monster began to shakily stand up as purple blood oozed out of its wound, grabbing its weapon off of the floor beside it, growling.

Link's eyes widened, that had never happened before, normally they killed the beast instantly. The Injured Bokoblin grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of its abdomen, blackish blood oozing out of the wound.

This would be harder than he'd thought. He grabbed another arrow and with a thwip, it landed between the already injured pig-like beast's eyes, burying itself into its brain. This time it was really dead. He would need to go and stock up on arrows after this.

He decided to try and sneak behind them, to get them away from the sleeping Princess. Once he was in line with them from their right side, he stepped on a twig, causing it to lightly snap. (He definitely was losing his touch, being anxious about the Princess' safety. The elder guards back at the castle would have his head if they knew.) Usually, this would go unnoticed by the usual red or blue Bokoblin, but these ones must have sharper hearing, Link realised as their eyes instantly turned to him.

Eyes narrowing, he grabbed his sword from behind his back, yanking it out of its sheath and swung at the last remaining black Bokoblin, causing a great gash across its back. Whilst it was distracted, he swung his sword back at it, the sharp tip cutting perfectly through its neck. It gurgled and choked on its own blood, before collapsing in a heap of writhing limbs.

Now where had the silver one gone? He turned around, hearing a faint sound and instinctively pulled his shield in front of his face, crashing into a spiked club. The beast seemed smarter than the usual slaves of Ganon, and seemed to be tactical with its movements, not much though, just more so than the others, he knew it was just as gullible to obvious attacks as the rest were. He sidestepped, avoiding the sharp splinters and began to attack, his own weapon seemed much more sturdy than the spiked club, which seemed to be tied together with what looked like string. The sharp ends were wobbling a bit.

Whether this was on purpose or not, Link would never know, at least not today, as the monster swung the club parallel to the ground, and the force of the swing knocked off the lethal shards, causing them to fly towards him. He pulled his shield up to deflect them but just half a second too slow. One cut through his forearm, leaving a jagged slice from the middle of his forearm to his elbow, causing Link to cry out in pain. Suddenly an arrow flew past him, lodging itself in the monster's eye. He turned around and saw the Princess holding her own bow, another arrow already loaded. She took aim and it landed straight through the monster's mouth, piercing its throat and straight through the back of its neck. It fell to the floor in a pile of blood, just as Link did the same.

A/N Hickaly Woods is next to the Toto Sah Shrine, southeast of the Dueling Peaks.