How is it that, even during winter, Hyrule can seem gloomy? I don't understand. I know it's not always, but these days…Hyrule seems more gloomy and dark. I'm not sure why…
These were the thoughts that were running through Ganondorf's mind. The King of Gerudo himself, was wandering the lands of Hyrule. It was in the middle of winter, and the Gerudo people are not too fond of winter. They are use to warm, hot air. And while they did get cold the nighttime temperatures. This was winter weather, where it was always cold. So they wouldn't be use to it. Luckily for Ganondorf, he knew that it was winter time and prepared for his journey to Hyrule. Clad in warm fur clothing under his royal armor. He also clad his horse with warm armor to keep him warm. Ganondorf also pack the essentials he needed for this trip. Food, water, medical kit, extra cloths, rupees and his weapons. All of which he needed for his trip.
He was currently in Hyrule to search for a group of men. Who have been kidnapping a few nomadic Gerudo, and a few days later they would find them dead. Ganondorf had a feeling it was an underground slave trade, which wasn't uncommon among Hyruleans. But it was rare, because it was something were disgusted by and it was illegal. However recently, there were a lot of kidnappings. And royal family wasn't doing anything to stop it, which confused people. Even Ganondorf, because in the past they solve these happens immediately and thoroughly. Why they weren't going anything now, was mystery. Ganondorf had suspicion that something wasn't right. And he intended to find out, what was going on in the castle, but for now he was focused on find the men who kidnapping some of his sisters.
Soon Ganondorf was heading towards a town, from a distance he could tell it wasn't as big as Castle Town. As he headed towards the town, the winds started to pick up. Blowing snow everywhere and temperature started to drop a bit.
"Looks like a storm is heading this way," Ganondorf said to himself. "What do you think, Storm? Shall take shelter for tonight?"
His black stallion snorted in response to his question. Ganondorf gave a quick pat on the neck before ushering him to move. Ganondorf had been traveling for hours since he last rested. And it was about time he gave horse a rest. When he entered the town, he spotted a three stories tall inn with a stable; big enough to hold a few horses. He headed towards it, seeing as it was good place to stay. He reached the inn, sitting outside was a young man, possibly the stable boy. Ganondorf cleared his throat to get his attention. And once the boy noticed him, he walked up to him.
"Are the stable boy?" Ganondorf asked.
"Yes, are you staying for the night?" The boy asked.
"I am, take my horse for me," said Ganondorf. He climbed off of his horse and handed over lead. The stable boy led his horse to the stables. While Ganondorf headed inside to get a room. Luckily for him, the doorway was tall enough to walk in. Being six foot seven, it was hard to walk through normal Hyrulean doorways. But some of them were big enough for him, such as this doorway.
He entered the inn, and scanned the room. On the left side was the desk to sign in for a room. A young woman who looked to be about twenty with shoulder length brown hair was working; she wore a dark green dress and a red shawl. Behind her hanged a picture on the wall of what looked to be the owner or the founder of the inn. Across the room was the stairs to the rooms, nothing special, just some simple brown stairs. And the left side was an open wall, leading to a dinning room and bar.
The young woman looked up from her work, finally noticing that she had a costumer. Ganondorf took of the hood of his winter cape, before walking over to the desk. He noticed that the woman was surprised to see him. Either because of that she knew who he was or because of how tall he was. Either way, it didn't matter to him. He was used to people being surprised to see him.
"Can I help you?" The woman asked.
"Yes, I would like to rent a room. Just for tonight until something comes up," he told her.
"Alright then, that will be twenty rupees," she said. He handed over a red rupee, which was worth 20 normal rupees. The woman took the rupee and handed him the key to his room. "Here's the key, you in room fifteen on the second floor."
"Thank you," he said as he took the key. "Miss, has anything strange been happening around here?"
"What do you mean by the strange…?" She asked, finding it odd that a stranger would ask a random question.
"Has anything out of the norm been happening lately, have you see any strange people?" He then asked.
The women thought about his question for a moment. "Well…there have been a few kidnappings of young women. Most of them around my age, but it's mostly poor women that get kidnapped. Which has been happening for the past few years. However, they are becoming a lot more frequent to where middle class and upper class women are getting kidnapped. It really scares, because nobody is doing anything about it."
"Why hasn't the king done anything about it?" He asked.
"I really don't know," she said truthfully. "They have been silent about this for the past five years, ever since the king died and was replaced by a new one. And no one knows where Princess Zelda is. Some people think she is missing, others think she's dead as well."
Ganondorf thought it was interesting that the woman mentioned Zelda. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard about her either. And he knew that she would have done something about all this. Something was indeed wrong with all of this.
"Thank for telling me all of this, I'm going to town," he told her, "to see if I can find anything."
"Okay, um…are you here to stop all of the kidnappings?" The woman asked curiously.
"Yes, because some of my people have been kidnapped as well," he answered. "And when I find these monsters, I will make sure that they never see the light of day…ever again."
"I'm glad…" she said with relief, "finally, I can be at ease knowing that someone wants to help us."
"Don't let your guard down just yet," he said in a serious tone. "I still have to find these men who are responsible. Be on your guard and keep your eyes open for anyone acting strange."
The woman nodded in respond, Ganondorf bid her farewell until he came back for dinner and headed outside. He wanted to check out the town, to see if he could find any clues to the group of men he was searching for. The men that were kidnapping women sold them as slaves to brothels. That was one theory, since it was common for groups of men to sell women to brothels. The other theory and one that was more likely. Was that the same group of men, were working for a brothel. Ganondorf believed this for two reasons; one because they had the same pattern of capturing women. Two, because some of his sisters that were captured, managed to escape. And told him of being taken to the same place. They don't remember where it was, just what it looked like. But now that he knew that kidnappings were happening in this town, it was a good place to start looking.
Ganondorf walked around the town, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. The storm hadn't picked up yet, but it was still windy. There weren't that many people on street, which wasn't a surprise. People would stare for a moment at him, but Ganondorf ignored them. He had more important things to worry about than people staring at him.
After a couple of hours of searching the main roads of the town, Ganondorf found nothing strange. No suspicious looking people. He decided to check a few alleys, before heading back to the inn. It was getting late and the show storm was getting closer. The first alleys he checked had nothing but trash and rodents running around. However this one, had some poor people, who didn't have a home. Some were sitting on the ground, huddled up together, a few people made a fire and sat around them. Ganondorf walked along, looking at the people. He didn't usually feel bad for Hyruleans, but this time he did. They reminded of his people, during harsh times.
Ganondorf continued walking, until he saw something at the end of the alley. At the corner of the end of the alleyway; there looked to be a bundle of blankets, with a pair of dirty feet dangling out of the blanket. Ganondorf walked over to check on the person. He knelt down on one knee, to get a better view. And saw underneath the blankets, was a woman. Who to be over twenty; had beautiful features on her face and beautiful golden hair. She was so beautiful and yet, she looked very ill. Her face was very pale, her lips were cracking from cold air and her face was dirty. And just from looking at her feet, he bet her whole body was dirty. Her face wasn't the only thing that was pale, her hands and feet were also pale.
Poor woman…she is so sick. Ganondorf thought. She looks worse than my sisters when they get sick. Or from escaping their kidnappers. A beautiful woman like you, deserves better than this…
Taking pity on the woman, Ganondorf gently pick her up in his arms. Holding her bridal style, and started to head back to the inn. He made sure to cover her feet with the blanket she had wrapped around body. And held her as close to his chest as possible to keep her body warm. He walked out of the alleyway and started heading for the inn. He needed to hurry if he was going to avoid the storm and save the woman's life. From the color of her skin, she looked like she was on the verge of death or close to dying. He couldn't tell by looking at het whole body because she was covered up. But he will once he gets back to the inn.
Ganondorf finally arrived at the inn, just as the storm was starting. It only took him a few minutes to get there, walking swiftly. When he walked in, the young woman at the desk and a grey haired woman gasped, when they saw him walk in with the woman in his arms.
"Oh my goodness, what happened?!" the young woman asked worried.
"I found this woman on the street, she's very sick and needs immediate help," he told them. "I'm taking her with me to get her cleaned up."
"Are you sure you don't want us to help you with that?" asked the grey haired woman.
"Yes, I have a great deal of experience taking care of sick women," he said. "but you can help, I will a fresh set of clothes, potions, food and water."
"Hanna, go find the some clothes and potions," said the grey haired woman, "I will prepare some food."
"Yes, Nanny," said Hanna, she rushed out of the room to gather everything. The elder woman who was called Nanny, went to the kitchen. Leaving Ganondorf, he then headed up to his room to give the woman a bath. He had to keep her in the same room as him, to keep a close eye on her.
He made it to his room, it was located a few feet away from the stairs. When he entered, he gave it a quick scan. It was a simple room with two beds, a fireplace, dresser, bathroom, window and a small desk. He went inside and placed the woman on one of the beds, the beds were side by side on the right side of the room. And they only a feet apart from each other.
He placed on the bed to the right gently, making sure not to be rough. He then felt her forehead, she didn't feel too hot, he could feel the heat. Her skin still felt cold as ice, and was shivering a bit. Ganondorf took of his fur cape and wrapped it around her, to keep her warm. She stopped shivering then, which was good. Ganondorf went to the bathroom and prepared a tub of hot water.
Once the tub was ready, he carried her into the bathroom. He sat in a chair with her in his lap, so that he could take her clothes off and get a better look at her physical condition. He took of the thin, flimsy blanket she had wrapped around her, after removing his fur cape. Now he could have a better look at her. Her golden hair was down to her waist, she wore a simple brown dress that was also flimsy. And she was completely filthy, but there was one thing that really bugged him. He now noticed that her legs were really thin, almost to the bone. This made worried, and he swiftly took of her dress. Only to come to face to face with a horrible sigh. She was terribly skinny to where you could see her rib cage. She had some small scars on her body, in a few places. And was just in such a horrible condition.
What happened to you…?! He thought to himself. I need to clean and feed her as soon as possible.
He lifted her and gently placed in the tub of warm water. Then started washing her; starting with her hair. Because it was a mess, there was tangles and huge balls of matted hair. As soon as he was done washing, he cut some of her hair off. Her hair now came down an inch below her shoulders blades. He then moved on to her body, she scrubbed every inch. And did not focus too much on her private areas. But as he washed, noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something on her left hand. He lifted up and noticed it was symbol, a very familiar symbol. His eyes widened in shocked, he now knew who this woman was.
Zelda?!
Authors Note: And...it ends on a cliffhanger. This a story I thought of recently, and I wanted to write the first chapter. And for those reading Redeemed by Love, don't you worry. I haven't given up on it, I am actually finishing the next two chapters right now. And they will be out soon. So stayed tuned and let know what do you think of this chapter. Thanks and I'll see you soon.