The Princess Bride, but it's Tears of The Kingdom

Bonds of Love

Ganondorf, as he often was, sat pensively at his desk, sharpening a small dagger on a piece of rock and awaiting the arrival of Sooga.

Sure enough, the burly Yiga returned, quickly kneeling before the prince preceding his report.

"Your majesty," he addressed him, "the Thieves' Forest has been completely cleared and I've ordered thirty men to stand guard at the portcullis."

A sly, wide smile made its way across Ganondorf's face, and he nodded his head in approval.

"Excellent work, my fair captain. Make sure nothing goes awry now," he said, earning a small chuckle from Sooga.

"Of course, my lord. The gate has but one key, which I possess and will keep safe and sound," the captain answered, withdrawing a little brass key from his pocket.

Ganondorf was elated. After many months of scheming, his master plan would at long last be fulfilled and there was absolutely nothing that could stop him.

In the corner of his eye, Zelda's beautifully dressed figure stood in the doorway.

Today's dress was another blue satin piece, with long billowy sleeves that almost appeared like fabric wings.

"Ah! My love!" Ganondorf exclaimed when he spotted her, rushing up to her and taking her hands in his, which appeared almost comically tiny in his massive ones.

"Tonight, we marry. Sooga, please tell my armada of ships to take ready position at dawn tomorrow morning so that they may escort us on our honeymoon," he spoke joyously.

Zelda was, of course, less than pleased, watching intently as Sooga left the room and shut the door behind him.

She looked her fiancé in the eye.

"All but your four fastest, you mean," she said, watching as Ganondorf's duplicitous smile lightly flickered.

The prince's gaze drifted away slightly, but not for long.

"Well- yes, naturally not those four," he chuckled, as if Zelda had told some kind of joke.

The princess was still staring him down, unafraid.

"You never sent them, did you..." she replied, not once avoiding eye contact.

This, of course, caused Ganondorf's beaming expression to finally dissipate. The look he gave her was cold.

"You don't understand, do you," she spat.

"Link and I are bound by the bonds of love. A love that has persisted, whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped within the glowing embers of twilight," Zelda kept going, as Ganondorf dropped her hands and pulled away from her.

He meandered over to his desk again, his eyes naturally drifting to the shiny dagger that still lay idle beside its sharpening stone.

"I'd be very careful with my words if I were you..." the prince said, an underlying venom in his tone.

This did not deter Zelda of course, who pushed through her fear of him and kept going.

"I hope you know that no matter how hard you try, you cannot destroy what we have, not with an entire armada of ships, magical powers or a thousand swords."

Ganondorf remained silent, trying his best to suppress his boiling fury.

"I hope you're aware that you are the most vile, despicable and slimiest being ever to crawl the earth!" Zelda snapped at him.

She watched as his brow furrowed and his eyes grew dark, as if some sort of malevolent shadow became cast over him.

He grabbed hold of her arm, sharply yanking her as he began marching angrily towards the door.

"I would not say such things if I were you!" he shouted, dragging her down the hallways until they had arrived at her room.

As expected, with one forceful swing, the prince shoved her into the bedroom, extracting a key from his pocket before slamming the door shut and locking it.

In an angry storm of rage, the prince made his way down the multiple sets of castle stairs, walked into the royal stables, and mounted his horse, immediately departing for the nearby Thieves Forest.

He'd been there multiple times with Count Rugen before, so he knew which of the trees to look for.

Leaping off his horse with seething hurry, Ganondorf found the notch in the tree, forced it to reveal the secret passageway, and began a mad dash down the dungeon stairs.

Sure enough, Rugen and Koltin were still hard at word sucking Link's life away, and they were utterly shocked when the prince furiously barged into the room.

He made his way over to the table, where Link was vulnerably sprawled out on the board.

"You..." he grumbled, grabbing hold of the board's edge and gripping it tightly.

"You may think you and your little princess have outsmarted me, but the supposed 'true love' you have is no match against me, no matter what those silly storybooks say..." Ganondorf spoke through gritted teeth.

"Trust me when I say... no one in Hyrule will suffer as greatly today as you..." he threatened, proceeding to make his way over to Count Rugen's machine.

Grabbing hold of the lever, which was set to a mere five, Ganondorf thrusted the switch all the way up to level one hundred.

"No! Not the highest setting!" Rugen exclaimed, shooting up from his chair.

Water burst from the machine's shaft at lightning speed, gushing out like a waterfall.

Immediately, it was as if lightning had begun exploding through Link's body. Fire filled his veins and boiled his blood.

To no one's surprise he instantly began to shriek at the top of his lungs, to the shock and horror of poor Koltin, but to the amusement of Rugen and Ganondorf.

His shrieking was so ear-piercingly loud that it sounded far beyond the dungeon. In fact, it was so loud that the townspeople in a nearby village could hear him.

Everyone in the market square paused, looking off into the distance trying to deduce what all the racket was about.

Including Yunobo, Sidon, and Riju, who all froze in their tracks.

"Wait a second... I know that sound," Riju muttered, pausing to listen more intently.

"What do you mean?" Yunobo asked worriedly, looking around confused.

Riju's heart pounded, and her head reeled, recalling the awful memories of years prior.

"My heart made that sound when Count Rugen murdered my mother... and the man in black makes it now," she said, her voice heavy.

Sidon shuddered for a moment.

"And why ever would that be the case?" He asked, scratching his head.

"His princess. She weds Prince Ganondorf tonight, doesn't she?" Riju answered. "Come, we ought to get going."

Hurriedly, Riju began trying to worm her way through the immense crowd of people.

After watching her struggle and say "excuse me" at least a dozen times, Yunobo eventually shouted to all of them.

"Everybody, move!" He hollered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Slowly, but surely, the crowd began to part as if it were the Red Sea, while Riju, Sidon and Yunobo, (somewhat awkwardly) scurried through them.