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"Here, grandpa, why don't you sit down, don't worry about-"
The ancient Hylian cut her off with a hhrrmph! and straightened up as far as he could, every vertebrae popping loud enough to make her wince.
"Now listen here, young thing, I may be old but there's a lynel on Mt. Ploymus to kill, so thats exactly what I'm fixing to do!"
The old man waved his cane menacingly at his flustered granddaughter, zonai arm flashing green. Mineru pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Grandpa, you don't have to, we have plenty of- ow!"
The old metal cane bounced off her head. She was pretty sure it used to be a zonai spear, so luckily it wasn't very heavy, but it still hurt!
"And let you whippersnappers steal all the fun? Hah! I'll show you how to fight a lynel, just you watch, oh yes!"
Mineru took the opportunity to sneak out the doorway while her grandfather was rambling about the difference in lynel colors and whatnot, and waved down another nurse. She whispered for them to go find king Sidon (though the whispering was probably unnecessary, grandpa Link was practically deaf at his age). She nodded her thanks as the Zora zipped off, then slid back into her grandfather's room, just in time.
"-and the lynel horns are somethin', I'll tell you what. Tougher than a Tabantha mule, they are!"
"Thats great, grandpa, but you really should-"
Bonk! Oh, Mineru was gonna have to do something about that cane or she'd end up with a concussion.
"Why, you ought 'ta learn yourself how to properly take on a lynel yourself, you know, young missy. I won't always be here to get rid of them for you, now will I? Hah!"
Mineru bit her tongue. Thankfully, it wasn't long until the giant form of the Zora king ducked his way into the room with an equally giant smile on his face.
"Liiink! How are you doing today, my friend?"
Link squinted up at king Sidon and wagged his cane toward Mineru.
"This here granddaughter of mine doesn't want me going lynel hunting! Can you believe it? Oh yes, tells me I'm too old."
Sidon smile flickered, and he pat (extremely gently) his old friend on the back.
"Well, I don't know..."
"Hah!"
"... surely we could leave the lynel to the children! It will be a good learning experience for them, fighting lynels just like we used to, old friend!"
Sidon was too large for Link to whack him on the head, so he went for the ankles instead.
"Ow- now Link! You are getting ...rather up there in age, don't you think it might be time to let someone else take care of it? We can go sit in the heated pool instead, It's good for your arthritis... maybe play that board game you like?"
Mineru shuddered. You had to be desperate to offer to play monopoly with grandpa Link. The old man hummed, tapping his cane on the floor thoughtfully, weighing his options... then with a wicked cackle, pulled out the Purah Pad and teleported away.
"No WAIT- ohh, that old..."
Sidon pat Mineru's head sympathetically. Link had always been like this, after all.
"It'll be alright. I am pretty sure your cousins are up there, anyways!"
Mineru groaned.
"Thats even worse!"
Rauru cackled, ducking behind the fountain. Romani sprinted over from her hiding spot under the stairs. The lynel roared, frustrated by its targets' constant evasion.
"Should we try the slingshot? That one's my favorite. We gotta-"
The lynel swung it's enormous sword down with a deafening smash, nearly clipping the ends of Rauru's long hair as the twins ducked and bolted around the other side of the fountain.
"-see if it'll work with a lynel!"
Romani snickered and pulled out a rope, eyeing the steep cliff. She handed one end to her brother, and counted down slowly,
Three...
Two...
One-
Just before they could start their run, a bright smattering of blue lines materialized ahead of them. Their smiles grew as their grandfather appraised the scene.
"Ah, now there's a couple o' rascals if I've ever seen 'em!" He waved his cane teasingly at the twins, and they laughed brightly.
"Don't worry, gramps, we haven't finished it off yet!"
"Yeah, show us that sick backflip move you do!"
The old man chuckled and swung his cane around his wrist, then planted it firmly in the dirt. The lynel stopped and stood, confused, watching the geriatric warrior hobble slowly toward it. After a minute or two, it visibly decided that dinner was dinner and reared up to charge... and suddenly old man Link was on its back. The lynel bucked, taken off guard, and the old man responded by hacking at it with a frankly ridiculous sword with a second sword fused to the end of it. Finally, it managed to dislodge him, only whip its head around in frustration when instead of a grandpa pancake on the ground there was nothing but a faint shadow. It squinted, watching the shadow grow larger and larger until suddenly the weight of ninety-four (or one-hundred and ninety-four, depending on who you asked) years of solid muscle slammed into its neck. The twins hooted and hollered as they watched their grandfather hang off the monster by his legs to stab it through the jaw, then backflip away as it writhed with pain and rage. It thrashed its head around recklessly, deadly sharp mace and horn whirling faster than the eye could see. Old man Link grinned, wrinkles so deep they hid his eyes, and waited until the mace was just about to slice and then he
Flipped
Back
Impossibly fast
As if time itself had turned to jelly around him
And in the blink of an eye he rushed forwards and slashed his blade through over and over so quickly neither of the twins could keep count. Finally, the lynel fell, and old man Link stepped back triumphantly, whiping the sweat from his brow. Rauru grabbed the cane and handed it to him reverently as Romani crouched down gather the bones and organs left behind.
"That was AWESOME grandpa! Can you teach us how to do it now?!"
"Yeah, I wanna learn how to do it!"
Link laughed and ruffled his grandchildren's hair.
"Alright, alright you two! I did promise I'd show you, didn't I?"
The twins cheered.
"Now what do you two have to say for yourselves?!"
Mineru glared at her younger cousins.
"He is ninety-four! Years! Old! Ninety four!"
Rauru leaned close to his sister and whispered,
"actually hes one-hundred and ninety-four"
Romani giggled.
Mineru swatted at him with a dish rag the way her mother always had when she was young and misbehaving, only, the moment the rag got close to him time suddenly seemed to blur around him. He backflipped away at astonishing speed, cackling, Romani hot on his heels. Mineru sighed. From the other side of the pool, she could hear grandma Zelda laughing her ass off at her expense. Why had she wanted to be a nurse again? Maybe she should've looked into joining the traveling band, like her brother Kass... She glanced over at her grandparents, in their matching rocking chairs, laughing as they told eachother about what they'd done for the day. At least they were both happy, she supposed. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to allow grandpa Link to let loose every once in a while. Even if her hair was grayer than Rito feathers at the ripe old age of 29.