He had been sent out as soon as Impa had received Zelda’s distress signal, the sage alerting several of her personal soldiers and sending them out into the direction the Princess’ call had come from. As one of the guards that had been serving under the young Princess the longest, Alistair had rushed for his horse as soon as the General’s orders reached him.
Just barely after leaving the ruined Castle Town, he had seen the sky in the distance change, soft blue giving way to stormy greys as a storm formed within mere seconds. And a massive one at that, spreading out rapidly, before it just... stopped. As if within boundaries, just staying there, quickly obscuring the view towards that particular piece of land.
The sight filled the soldier with dread and reminded him far too much of the perpetual storm that had raged above the castle and capital for seven years. Reminded him of the monster that his Princess and the hero had fought so hard to defeat. If Ganondorf had returned, then... Alistair swallowed hard, spurring his horse even further on. He had no time to waste.
However, the storm did not last long; mere minutes after it has brewed up, it vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared. And, even at his current pace, it would still take him at least another one and a half hours until he would arrive there. Had Zelda been victorious yet again? Or - he dreaded the thought - had she been hurt?
The mere idea distressed him more than he showed, knuckles turning white as he gripped the reigns tighter. Feeling anxious to the point of nausea as he forced both himself and his horse to their limits.
When he finally reached the location of what he assumed to have been the eye of the sturm, the sight left him speechless; the entire area had been essentially leveled, trees torn up, roots and all, and just tossed about. Boulders torn to pieces and scattered across the ruined field, which was missing several large spots of grass.
And there, in the middle of it all, laid his Princess. Alistair’s heart almost stopped, ice filling his veins as he leapt of his horse, rushing towards her side. Her clothes were torn, her hair a mess and her body littered with scratches and bruises. Yet, upon reaching her, he quickly was able to tell that she was still alive.
In his relief over that discovery, the soldier almost missed the other person laying among the rubble. Picking up the Princess, ensuring she was in no mortal danger, he moved her gently to a softer spot by his horse, before carefully approaching the other individual. Despite the long hair, Alistair quickly recognized them to be a man. However, seeing the state that he was in, the soldier sharpy sucked in a breath through his teeth, quickly approaching. There was blood, a lot of it, soaked into the man’s clothes and into the dirt around him. His face looked as though it had been brutally smashed, yet the source of the blood seemed to be a large stab wound on his abdomen.
He couldn’t explain how, but this man, too, was still alive - although, considering the wounds, only barely so. This setting... this layout, the two wounded people... had Zelda possibly been...
... protecting this man? He looked as though he had been brutalized severely. Surely she had come to his aid... and by the looks of it scared the assailants off, but at a high cost. What a kind, noble fool his Princess was... The least he could do, was to ensure that this man would survive. He would take both of them back to the castle and have them treated.
Determinedly, Alistair carefully picked up the injured man, gentler than one might have expected, carrying him in his arms towards the Princess and his horse. Focused on reaching Zelda’s side as fast as possible, the soldier hadn’t packed anything to treat the man, so instead he removed his own cape, tearing off several strips and wrapping them around the purple haired’s midsection in a makeshift bandage. Once he was sure that he stopped the loss of blood as good as possible, Alistair then heaved him up onto the horse’s back, followed by the Princess and lastly himself - praying to the gods that the poor animal would manage with the uncommonly large encumbrance.
And with that, he turned his horse and hurriedly made his way back to the castle.
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