Part one in a planned trilogy of a certain someone's life. A rather sad story, I warn you, with no happy ending (which I don't like to do very often, but that's just the way it is here). I hope you enjoy it none the less. It was heartbreaking to write!

Disclaimer: I doth dis/the claiming of this

"Hey, hot stuff. Enjoying another boring night?"

A Hylian soldier, clad in full armor and standing ramrod strait, let his eyes turn to the voice that had called him. Nothing unusual for this guard, who stood on the Hyrule side of the Gerudo Valley bridge, making sure none of those thieving women decided to go on a raid in his homeland. And the usual greeting from the Gerudo night guard, a woman robed in white with short red hair.

Having both just come on their shifts, they were really the only company each other had, and had thus become well aquainted over the long nights in the valley. So much so that the woman had recently taken to teasing him – something he knew the other Gerudo women frowned upon.

"Good evening, Nabanyu." He gave his head a tilt of acknowldgement – the only time he really ever budged all through the night.

"And a good evening to you, too, Hilder." She gave a smile and a wave, seemingly all in good nature. Hilder remembered the days when he had first gotten his job as the Gerudo Valley guard, and when he'd first laid eyes on Nabanyu in the fiery evening light. She stood tall and proud – much like he did – with a stern face and a serious attitude.

It had taken a long time for him to get her to open up, and he couldn't even recall why he'd tried. Taking his job overly seriously himself, he would never have engaged in idle talk so casually before – or even now. But when Nabanyu had spoke up to challenge and mock him, he'd always ended up bickering back at her. Eventually, the banter had turned into an easy comradory.

Every since Hilder had conceded his admiration for her and her skills, and that she was such a strong and independent women, she had taken to relaxing around him. When she'd realized she had nothing to prove to him, and realized that she also respected him and didn't think him scum, like most all other men, she had begun to smile.

She had a beautiful smile. Eyes even more so. A sparkling green against her tan skin, framed by blazing hair and made to look deep and penetrating by the length of her nose. To Hilder, there was no women in all of Hyrule more radiant.

But she's a thief and a warrior, having sworn off men and country. She will never be mine. He couldn't help but let his eyes slide shut at this thought – one he'd had many times before. To a Gerudo, having a husband was equal to being 'owned' or being 'property,' and there was nothing Hilder could do to convince her otherwise. Besides, she was well aware that, while men and women held equal statues in Hyrule, it was still the men who took the most power in the end.

But was that not also true for her own people? Hilder was rather annoyed at the contradiction. While Gerudo women only took 'mates' and never husbands, their features were dominant traits when paired with Hylian men, and almost always a daughter was born with perfect Gerudo looks. But if a man was born to the women, he was immediately exalted. Raised up to be their leader, they would all obey him. Isn't that the definition of hypocrisy? To demean my culture for the exalted status of men, and yet they practically worship any man born to their dominantly female population?

It was when Hilder opened his eyes that he realized Nabanyu was knelt down in front of the gate, in prayer. His eyes widened in momentary shock, for it wasn't often that Nabanyu would pray in front of him to her Goddess of the Sand. Prayer was a private, personal thing to the Gerudo. What ever she was praying about, it must have been extremely important for her to beseech the Goddess in his presence.

He waited in silence until Nabanyu opened her eyes. She sighed – something very uncharacteristic of her – and then stood, face set. Her eyes were on him. And she stepped forward – leaving her post.

Without thinking about it, Hilder turned to her and relaxed his guard in worry. "Nabanyu? Is everything alright?"

She smiled to him, but it wasn't a full smile, and she continued until she stood beside him. Then she gazed to the stars, wrapping her arms behind her back. "The sky is clear tonight. And beautiful, as always. The darkness against the red of the stone is truly spectacular, don't you think?"

Hilder nodded, still rather confused.

"The season for my people to choose a mate is approaching."

Hilder heard more than felt his hand tighten around his spear. Nabanyu seemed to hear it, too, because she glanced to his weapon and then to his face. Then she smiled. "Why so alarmed, Mr. Soldier?"

Hilder scowled. "I mean no disrespect, but I believe your people take this topic too lightly."

"On the contrary," Nabanyu shook her head. "We pray for guidance from the Goddess very hard, for many weeks before we make a selection. Taking a mate and bringing forth another generation into the Gerudo Tribe is a very serious event."

"That's not what I meant. In my country, selecting a mate isn't just for a season – it's for life."

Nabanyu looked startled at this. "Life? You go to the same mate every child-baring season?"

Hilder shook his head. "No. We keep the same mate at all times – take them into our households, live together every day, and pledge our love to last to death and beyond."

Now Nabanyu was really shocked. "That seems so drastic!"

"Not if you love that person." Hilder locked eyes with Nabanyu, letting his dead serious tone flow into her. "Then forever doesn't seem long enough. No, especially not just speaking together at night alone."

Nabanyu's eyes darted from one of Hilder's to the other, questioning. Then it dawned on her. "You are attracted to me."

"To put it lightly." Hilder replied, raising his free hand to stroke her cheek. She seemed surprised at the gesture. "The feelings I have for you are much stronger than that."

"So much so...that you would chose me as your mate? For 'forever,' as your people do?"

Hilder spread his fingers out and took her chin in his hands, pulling her face up so that she was forced to meet his eyes. "Yes."

"I have been praying to the Goddess about this very thing!" She exclaimed. "I had chosen you for my mate, and was going to ask you tonight!"

"I'm afraid that is not enough for me, Nabanyu. I would have you for my wife, or not at all."

As the finality of his harsh words sunk in, Nabanyu felt the chill of the night air, which she had grown up in and had never felt cold in before.

"I am rejecting your offer to have me as your mate." Hilder pronounced, still holding Nabanyu in front of himself. "But I'm offering you much more. I'm offering you everything. I'm asking you to marry me, Nabanyu. Not to be owned by me, not to be my property – but to be my spouse. My equal, my life, my everything. Always."

"That...That's too extreme!" Nabanyu cried, shaking her head and braking free from Hilder's grasp. She backed up, looking angry and afraid at the same time. And in her eyes, Hilder only looked sad. "How can you expect me to answer that? To throw away my life – my people – for you! And don't say I wouldn't be, because the Gerudo Tribe wouldn't have me if I pledge myself to you!"

"Then I am not worth it to you." It wasn't a question, and Hilder's eyes hardened. "You do not feel as I do. It's that simple. Tomorrow I will request a new post."

"What?!" Nabanyu immediately began to protest. "A new post? Why? If you care so strongly for me, as you say you do, then shouldn't it be enough to be my mate for only a season and to see me just like this each night? I think you are the one who is a liar – you don't feel as strongly as I do! I'm content to have you like this. You – you're just being selfish, trying to own me!"

The more Nabanyu yelled, the more she saw the anger in Hilder's eyes grow, until, finally, it spilled over. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to him, pressing their lips together with a power that hurt Nabanyu. And when he released her lips, he held her body so close she couldn't budge. And she heard the fire in his voice when he spoke again.

"I'm the one who's selfish? Fine then, we'll have it your way. I will be your mate, Nabanyu. Just once and only once. And then, just as the Gerudo always do, you will never see me again. Will you be happy with that?"

Nabanyu struggled against Hilder's chest, trying to break free. And it was only when he released her that she flew back, far from him. "M-maybe I don't want you for a mate anymore!"

But just looking across the hard red earth at him, she knew that wasn't true. As angry and upset as she was, she also felt the overwhelming urge to do something – anything – to make the pain in Hilder's eyes disappear. He knew it, too.

And when the time came, Nabanyu chose Hilder for her mate. He accepted. And when the deed was done, Hilder looked strait into Nabanyu's eyes and said three powerful words to her that broke her heart: "I love you."

He was restationed, just as he said he would be. And Nabanyu was pregnant.

To her credit, she regretted it all. She even ran away once, deciding that it would be better to be his mate forever – his wife – and raise the child in Hyrule than in the Gerudo Valley. She realized she loved him, too, and was willing to give up everything for him.

But it was too late by then. Civil war had broken out in Hyrule. And Hilder was dead – a body broken on the fields of battle.

As Nabanyu delivered her baby on the night of the harvest moon at the hands of the Gerudo maids, she stared up at the sky and cried out to the Goddess of the sand. And with her dying breath, she cursed the world: "ON ALL OF HYRULE, THE BITTER PEOPLE WHO FOUGHT AMONGST THEMSELVES AND KILLED MY LOVE! ON ALL OF MY OWN PEOPLE, WHO FOSTERED WITHIN ME A HATRED OF WHAT IT WAS MY HEART TRULY DESIRED! ON THE VERY CHILD IN MY WOMB, AS IT ENTERS THIS WORLD, FOR BEING CONCEIVED UNDER SUCH VILE CIRCUMSTANCES! MAY THE GODDESS OF THE SAND RUIN ALL YOUR LIVES, AND DESTROY YOUR DREAMS AS MINE WERE SLAIN! MAY MY SPIRIT NOT HAVE REST NOR SEE THE SIGHT OF MY LOVER'S WELCOME UNTIL ALL OF YOU FACE MY WRATH AND FEEL MY SORROW AND RAGE! ALL OF YOU, SUFFER! SUFFER!"

That night, to a dying and bitter women, a boy was born within the Gerudo Tribe with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, as if to kill him as his mother had desired. With his mother silent in death, the twins Twinrova gazed at the boy as the air flowed into his lungs for the first time, his skin an ugly shade of green from the lack of air, and with vicious smiles pronounced his name Ganondorf.