...

PROLOGUE

~The Guard~

A wanderer isn't always lost.

The winds blew from the North, gathering dust and spraying it across the alleyway. Ashei instinctively shielded her eyes with one hand, and brought the hood of her cloak up with the other.

If Ashei could wear her own uniform in the hot Gerudo deserts in the East, she would. However, many people foreign to these lands have died of heatstroke within a few hours of traveling the desert. The Gerudo garb she wore instead was comfortable, but she still felt righteous wearing armor across her body, with a longsword sashed across her left waist. Ashei was of the Shoregale Tribe, a clan in the North who spent their lives protecting the royal family at all costs. To leave the Capital and Princess Zelda without her royal guard felt like treason, even though it was the princess herself who gave her leave to go.

Gerudo settlements were stretched far and thin, and not every town she passed offered her a place to stay, even after she told them that she had sufficient rupee to pay for it. Nabooru had warned her that they were a hostile people; quick to anger, and slow to forget. They still had not forgotten the Great War twelve years ago, where the Crown cowed their leaders into submission. The Gerudo were the ones forced to pay the war reparations and their beloved leader, Prince Ganondorf, escaped in exile before he could be executed for his treason.

Her target was the sixth settlement she would find along Nabooru's outlined path: Cordoba, the city where the Gerudo prince rules from. As Ashei approached the gates to the city, she examined Nabooru's letter once more: Find me by Prince Desmendo's side. He is often too weak to leave his room.

Ashei approached the iron gates of Cordoba. Most of the buildings inside hardly cleared the height of the rust-coloured stone wall that several Gerudo soldiers were pacing across, but they were so far away that they looked like shadows. A few more were at the gates. As she came closer, she pulled her hood down and held the torch to her face. The flames were bright in the darkness, and it felt eerie for Ashei to know that they could all see her, but she could not see them.

When you cross into Gerudo territory at night, always approach cities holding a torch up to your face and pull your hood down. If the guards can't see your face properly, they'll assume that you have no business in the area, and they'll kill you on sight. Oh, and when you leave a city, make sure to extinguish the torch. Bandits often raid along the roads connecting Gerudo cities, and holding a torch makes you easier to find. Nabooru had a fair amount precautionary measures for Ashei to take. She was quite the character, Ashei thought when she read through the letter's contents.

"Halt!" one of the soldiers called out as she approached the gate. "In the name of Prince Desmendo Nalar, the rightful ruler of the East, as appointed by King Nohansen the Second, you shall not enter this city without the Crown's discretion. Please state your name and business."

"Tell Nabooru that I am here—"

"Your name and business, if you will."

A young lady in bright red Gerudo clothes approached the gate. Her hair was a brighter shade of red than most of the other Gerudo women that she found on her trip, and she seemed rather innocent. "This is Ashei. She brings tidings from the Capital."

The guards looked somewhat apprehensive, but gave the signal to open the gate. The young lady clasped her hands by her stomach, and bowed. "Thank you for coming. I am going to have to ask you to relinquish any weapons you carry."

"I am Princess Zelda's royal guardian. I carry my sword with me at all times."

"Ah, you have never been to Cordoba before, yes? Cordoba has a great deal of religious sentiment to our people. This is said to be the place where Din was born, and where she lost her mortality. She preached against violence when mortals ascended to challenge the goddesses themselves. And despite her efforts to keep the peace, war erupted, and Din lost her mortal body before the savage nature of man could be quelled. No man or woman may carry weapons into this city, lest we forget our history," the young girl said.

"Why are the guards armed, then?" Let your guard down, and you let the enemy in. If I am weaponless in an alien city...

"They are not." Ashei eyed the nearby guards, and she reddened. They were evidently not carrying any sort of weaponry on them. She also expected the figures atop the wall to be carrying crossbows, but upon closer inspection, they too were unarmed. She left her own sword by the front of the city where every weapon was kept.

"Nabooru, based off of the contents of your letter to me, I would never have assumed you were particular pious..."

The girl blinked, before she realized what was happening. "Oh! I'm sorry, my lady, but Nabooru has not left Prince Desmendo's side since he grew ill, and he has not appeared outside since then. Nabooru simply requested for me to see that you arrived here in a timely fashion."

"And if I am not too forward, who are you?"

"I serve as an assistant to one of the priestesses in the Dinkahl. These robes I wear—in traditional colours—are all religious clothing."

Ashei nodded. The young girl led her through these streets of the Gerudo capital, and this area had a distinctly different feel to it than any other part of the desert. The roads were paved in stone and levelled off quite nicely, and people generally seemed to be at peace here. The population of the five other Gerudo cities between the Capital and Cordoba were always armed with something, and religion did not seem to be a particularly big part of their culture outside of this city.

"Prince Desmendo's home is straight ahead, by the end of the city." The girl left hurriedly before Ashei could thank her for her time.

The prince's manse was distinguishable from the other buildings, to be sure. It sported white cobble walls from the outside, in stark contrast to the brown sandstone that the rest of the village was made out of. In the Capital, there were gates to go from Hyrule Castle to the town. Here, the mayor's home was undefended, and aside from its design, did not stand out.

Ashei knocked on the door once. A woman with copper-coloured skin and fiery red hair answered the door and smiled. "Ashei? Please, come on in. We have much to discuss. A pity that Princess Zelda is not able to come herself, but I suppose that it cannot be helped."

Nabooru led her through the quaint home, and its heart, where Prince Desmendo relaxed by a fire with a blanket in his lap. He did not open his eyes when Ashei and Nabooru approached him. His hair must have been the typical red that every Gerudo sported, but years and years must have removed any sort of colour from either his face or his hair. He seemed rather short and feeble, with wrinkles across his face.

"Welcome... is the East to your liking?" the prince slowly asked, slurring a few of his words as well.

"What I find strange is that people in this city tend to act quite piously, but outside of these walls..." Beggars and solicitors were present in ample numbers in all the previous cities Ashei had visited in the East.

Prince Desmendo smiled. "I wanted people to feel closer to Din. That's why I came to this city, and made this the East's new capital after the Great War. I outlawed any sort of weapon in this area. The Dinkahl is the largest temple dedicated to holy worship in all of Hyrule, and perhaps beyond. Although I can do much to make religion more important to the lives of every citizen within these walls, there is little I can do regarding the strength of their faith outside of here." He sighed, and tried to stretch his neck to look at her. "But that is not why you have travelled so far. The Librarians are the ones who manage the delivery of all mail in Hyrule, and if they happen to probe random letters and discover what I have to say... That is why I need for one of the Crown's most loyal servants to see this message delivered in confidentiality."

Nabooru walked to the door. For a moment, Ashei was relieved that the Gerudo woman would excuse herself so that no prying ears would hear the prince's message. Instead, she simply checked the hallway outside for any servants and proceeded to shut the door closed.

"Can she be trusted?" Ashei asked out loud. Nabooru scowled, but knew better than to speak up.

"She is my most loyal servant," Prince Desmendo said quickly. He shivered from the cold winds that blew into his room, and gripped his blanket. "If you have anything to say, you can say it to her and expect her silence."

Ashei remained unfazed. As a member of the royal guard, she had certain protocols she needed to follow. "I would feel more comfortable if she were to wait outside."

Before Nabooru could object (and by her facial expression, she certainly wanted to), Prince Desmendo waved his hand and glared at her. She complied silently, and closed the door behind her.

"Ah, where to begin? I've seen people come and go, rise to grace, and fall from power. Were you fighting in the Great War?" Prince Desmondo turned to face her. She slowly nodded. "The aftermath of it was disastrous for our people. Ganondorf was sentenced to death as justice by the Crown. But he fled before that could happen, and never appeared again in Hyrule."

"You found him?"

"We did not and I hope he does not surface again," the prince sighed. "Beyond these lands, in the Najhin Republic, one of Ganondorf's capital ships has reappeared. Every crew member seems to have committed suicide before the ship drifted ashore."

Ashei had heard of this a few days earlier, in a Gerudo tavern just outside of the city of Arkhan. A few people were proclaiming it to be a sign that Ganondorf will come again, some had claimed that it meant that their previous prince has given up on them, and others simply remained fixated on their drinks. It was somewhat frightening of a realization to Ashei that so many remain loyal to Ganondorf, even after all of these years.

"So I had heard," Ashei said. Prince Desmendo motioned to her to place more wood in the firepit. She did so without hesitation, and took a seat promptly after, facing towards the prince.

Prince Desmendo seemed tired and ready to fall asleep. "The problem is that a foreigner came to Corboda two weeks ago, and talked to me about this incident before it happened. He told me where and when the ship would reappear, and true to his word, it did. Most of the city knows him to be rather strange, but none of them know that he has a connection to Ganondorf. That is why I would have travelled to the Capital myself to tell the king if I were in a condition to do so."

"Where is this foreigner now?"

"He's remained in Cordoba since he approached me. Perhaps you should simply leave the city and relay my words to the king in person."

"If he is still in Cordoba, then I wish to speak to him."

Prince Desmendo slowly nodded. "He stays in the Dinkahl, spending the last few nights praying—but for what, I cannot say. We have simply locked him in one of the rooms and kept him fed and clean. Nabooru can show you the way there."

The Dinkahl was just as large as the prince described it to be. The books that Zelda often read made it seem like the Dinkahl was a towering structure that was so large that it pierced the clouds and the upper floors had their own weather system. The truth: the entire underground of Cordoba was a single complex of hallways and rooms that joined to make possibly the largest place of worship in the world, in terms of overall area. There were multiple entrances from the surface of the city, and each entrance seemed to be incredibly congested, even into the night. The entire area was underground save for the entrances.

Nabooru did not seem to be particularly happy after being waved off by her leader. The Gerudo woman had initially asked for Ashei's conversation with the prince in a subtle manner, and when Ashei refused to say anything, Nabooru pressed harder for the contents of their talk. Silence remained, however.

Nabooru led Ashei only up to the entrance before the Gerudo woman left. "Just inside of the Dinkahl are a box of headbands that are red in colour. Use it to cover your hair. You should have left any weapons at the front gates, but if you haven't, then leave them outside of this place."

"Where will I find this foreigner?"

"Ask anybody about the white-haired man that resides in the Dinkahl. They've all met him by this point."

Ashei took her first steps into the complex, and tied one of the headbands to herself. Even by midnight, the complex was full of people hurrying about, going to different rooms for different reasons, and praying. There were only a few men among the much larger crowd of women, and most of them were priests otherwise.

Ashei could not help but feel uncomfortable to be in such a constrictive hallway with so many people, the majority of who wore traditional Gerudo clothing, which in itself was rather revealing. The young Gerudo woman who attended to Ashei at the gates was inside, holding a vase of water for the older priestess beside her.

The priestess was tall, and sported the same complexion that Nabooru had. What little of her hair that was not concealed by her headband was a dark orange; although certainly a fierce colour by the standards set by the rest of Hyrule, her hair was rather tame in comparison to the others in the crowd.

The swordswoman approached the two. The assistant smiled when she saw Ashei. "Greetings, my lady. Did you come to pray?"

"Is there a white-haired man that resides here?"

The priestess frowned. "Are you Ashei?"

Ashei slowly nodded, unsure of how the priestess knew her name. Turn back, her conscious told her. But she felt oddly... compelled to find this foreigner. "How do you you know my name?"

"He speaks of you often. He remains in this city for the sole purpose of seeing you. I can lead you to him, if you would. He is in the southern branch of the Dinkahl," the priestess said. "But he is certainly an odd character, I should warn you." Ashei nodded once again, unsure of what to say.

Ashei passed by several rooms with what seemed to be hundreds of people praying in each of them. She was not sure whether they were all humming holy words in unison or not; their native language sounded far too alien for her to understand them.

The last room in the hallway was guarded by two few guards who were visibly quite strong and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Upon seeing the trio, the guards moved to the side.

The priestess motioned to the door at the end of the hallway. "The door should be unlocked."

When Ashei realized that the priestess and her assistant had already left her alone, she proceeded forward with a fleeting sense of regret for not giving her gratitude sooner. She opened the door, and the foreigner was there.

His hair was the shade of white the Gerudo described it to be (he did not seem to care for wearing a headband). His skin was ghostly pale, and she could not think of any part of Hyrule that he could have come from. Even seated on the ground, he was tall, with long legs and broad shoulders and a flat stomach. The robe he wore was white with a red gem attached at his hip.

He grinned when he saw her. "Welcome, Ashei. You're rather early."

"Who are you?" Ashie asked.

"I find it rather insulting that I know who you are, but you do not know who I am," he said. "Yet my name is of no importance as of now. I am from a faraway land and I've come here as a wanderer. You see, I am looking for my pet."

"Your pet?"

The man nodded. "A few years ago, my pet became somewhat disobedient. He seems to have left from my side and has not reappeared. It's been a few years... I am confident that he is still here, lost, trying to escape my grasp. I mean to take him home."

Something about this man did not seem right. He seemed too sure of everything. In all but name, he was truly a prisoner inside the Dinkahl, and Ashei felt compelled to take him back to the Capital for the king's judgment. But first...

"What is your relation to Ganondorf?"

He smiled innocently. "Who?"

"Perhaps I can help prompt you to remember that name," Ashei said. She cracked her knuckles and kicked him once in the chest. He did not flinch, did not react, and did not show any sort of pain. She kicked him again, this time against his head. He did not react, although he began to bleed from the nose.

"Tsk, tsk. I am disappointed that you would give up on our conversation in favour of barbaric violence. But who am I to refuse a lady, especially one of such a marvelous complexion? Among the krakens and the sharks that topple ships, Ganondorf is but a red herring. I have no relation to him; I merely own his ship."

"But how did you come by his ship then? Surely you must have seen him at least once?"

"Ah, so many questions! But before I give any more answers, I would like to know a few things about yourself. Where are you from?"

Ashei sighed. "Do you promise to answer my question if I answer yours?" she asked, and the man nodded eagerly. "I am from the North. I was recently drafted to serve the Crown—I am to trade my life for the royal family's if the need arises—"

"Have you ever loved another person enough to die for them?" The king, Prince Landon, Princess Zelda, Prince Victon: Ashei could probably name a few more members of the royal family that she had pledged to protect. "Discounting your own family and anybody of royal blood, of course," the man immediately added.

The room fell silent. "No..." Ashei slowly said, unsure of what he was attempting to do. She suddenly felt weaker when she tried to reach for her sword, only to realize that it wasn't attached at her hip. She still had knives attached to her calves, safely hidden from view, however...

"Then decide soon enough: what is worth dying for?"

Ashei's brow furrowed. "I answered your question, now answer mine: how did you acquire Ganondorf's ship?"

The foreign man laughed. "In truth, I see no reason to answer that. I got what I wanted out of our conversation, and with that, I bid you adieu," he said, standing up.

The words of prayer from outside the room suddenly became inaudible to Ashei. Instead, parasitic sounds starting to creep their way into her mind. Her eyes closed involuntarily and she saw visions of death all around her.

Murder...

Her heart trembled, and she could no longer stand from the pain. "Farewell, my Northern rose," she heard him say and the door opened and closed.

Two knives...

She opened her eyes one last time to see the white-haired man pull out two small knives and thrust them into the guards, who did not fight back, as he left.

Get up, Ashei. He's getting away.

Pain...

Who is he?

Die...

What is his name?

Mercy...

The world collapsed around her, and Ashei thought for a moment that she would die.

The Goddesses had other plans, however. When she woke once more, she saw the faces of Nabooru and the priestess looking down at her. She was chained to the bed and a dozen other guards walked in when she started to groan. She was obviously in some military fortress located underground.

Nabooru's face was a shade redder than it normally was. "I told you not to carry weapons into the Dinkahl," she said.

"It is a sacred place," the priestess agreed. "And to stab two defenseless guards and help the foreigner escape?"

Ashei stared at them, perplexed. "W—what?"

"I have seen all of it," one of the guards proclaimed. "She opened the door, took out two knives from under her robe, and killed the two guards protecting the room. Then she watched as the foreigner left. I had everybody evacuate the scene before she could attack anybody else. When I returned to see the damage, I found her, unconscious and next to the two guards she killed."

"I did no such thing!" Ashei yelled. "He told him—oh, what did he say to me? "

Nabooru shook her head in disappointment. "Something is amiss. Whether you are lying or not, I cannot say, but under Prince Desmendo's orders, we cannot allow you to simply leave as it is. The news that a Hylian has killed two Gerudo guards inside of the holiest place known to our people has the entire East howling for blood. Just yesterday, a merchant from the Capital was beheaded. His only crime was being from another part of Hyrule, just like you. We must have you on trial for the murder of those two guards and the crime of bringing weapons into the Dinkahl."

"That man used some sort of spell on me! I could only think and hear the sounds of death... I collapsed from the pain."

The priestess said, "Princess Zelda and Prince Landon are coming to the East with the intent of bringing you back to the Capital safely. They are bringing a Surveyor that is versed in the art of hypnosis as proof that you were indeed under some sort of trance. But in the meanwhile, do you have any type of reason to bring knives into the Dinkahl?"

Ashei reddened. "I do not."

"I hope you understand your actions, Ashei," Nabooru said. "You have truly brought hell upon us."

~END CHAPTER~

Excerpt from The Political History of Hyrule, by Marchus Werkollan:
"Before 301 A.W., the continent of Hyrule was split into four independent kingdoms. To the west of these kingdoms was Koholint, who alone bolstered a military force larger than all four of the Hylean kingdoms, and cited the large population of ethnic Koholintians who live in Kakariko as justification for often going to war for the area of Hyrule. The Empire of Najhin (as of 608 A.W., known as the Najhin Republic) lied to the east of the Hylean kingdoms, and posed a threat to the stability of the House of Dragmire's rule over the Gerudo people. Due to these foreign threats, 301 A.W. marked a time where all four kingdoms agreed to merge together to form the Royal Union, later becoming known as the Hylean Union of the Four Kingdoms (now colloquially known as Hyrule). Although the Union was governed by a council made of people from all four kingdoms, 392 A.W. marked the coup d'etat of House Nohansen, who captured the Capital city and proclaimed themselves the ruling family.

Excerpt from The Political History of Hyrule, by Marchus Werkollan:
The Hylean Union of the Four Kingdoms is divided into the West, the North, the East, the South, and the Capital; the latter lies in the center of the Union, along the Greystone River. The West hosts the city of Kakariko, which connects Koholint to the rest of Hyrule. In times of peace, Koholint's trade and newest inventions pass through Kakariko, making the city the Hylean forefront of progress and the richest and most educated city in the Union (per capita; data collected by Surveyors Adam Mardina and Sallae Werkollan). In addition, the West also hosts the Library—a society that collects and records all data since 48 A.W..

Excerpt from The Traditions of the Gerudo, by Jalkeryn Nalar:
Due to the exceptionally low birthrate of Gerudo males (approximately twenty-five per cent of the overall population), males are traditionally believed to be gifted rulers and are typically the group who lead the Gerudo people. Unlike other kingdoms, the Gerudo refer to their leader by the title "prince" as opposed to "king".

Author's Notes,

If you've gotten this far, I applaud you; this is certainly a lot of world-building in a single chapter. Too much, I would imagine, but better that than a blank canvas that never gets painted over.

I've decided to take the fundamental parts of Legend of Zelda and expand on them in a realistic fashion. Zelda isn't the ruler of Hyrule, and much more like an actual monarchy, she has a family in this story, which comprises of herself, her two brothers, and her father. I've also decided to make this story not stringently follow any particular Zelda timeline, but I would wager that this story is most similar to Twilight Princess in terms of characters (although many characters from different titles appear in this game). The concept of the Golden Goddesses is also apparent in this game, as you might have guessed, but there are variations on religion based off of what region the story is told from.

In addition, the world has been altered slightly. Hyrule, based off of the games, is a largely desolate place with few people in it, but that doesn't really fit into the flow of a story too well. Instead, Hyrule has enough people so that there are multiple major cities in each of the four kingdoms. However, as a whole, Hyrule's population and total land area is nowhere close to that of the other kingdoms in this story, and thus there is a large amount of vulnerability in an international scale. The land itself has been split into four different regions (each based off the cardinal directions), and each has a different ethos associated with it, and to some extent, even people's names are restrictive to each region. I think that adds a fair amount of scale to this story. In addition, each region is based loosely off of real world places. The East, for example, is a mix of Arabian and Spanish culture.

The story itself is rather dark at times. This is a mystery overarching the adventure/suspense/romance that will develop each chapter. This story does contain death fairly often, so if that is something that makes you uncomfortable, then perhaps this story is not suitable for you. This isn't the generic hero-saves-the-world story that it initially appears to be.

Speaking of the hero, Link is a much darker character in this than he is in the game. He has a past that he refuses to talk about, and he often has nightmares regarding his youth. The majority of the story will be spent exploring his character.

This story will be fairly heavy on original characters. Most of these characters will not have a particularly large impact to the story. This is about as much writing as I'm planning on doing for Prince Desmendo, but in contrast, Nabooru will see plenty of more chapters ahead.

Please review, telling me all of your thoughts on this, good or bad. I certainly don't mind criticism when it's founded on legitimate complaints.