It is a picture.

It was taken two months ago...

In it were four people. The husband, his wife, brother-in-law, and their new born child. The husband was Hyrulian with dirty blonde hair, dirt and blood covered his face. The man's wife was Gerudo, beautiful, youthful, and tall. She's dressed in an auburn wedding dress with hair decorated in ordainments of gold and ruby gems. Blood red hair cascading down her back as half was braided into a bun. The bride was carrying their newborn, who too looked much like her mother; red hair, dark skin, and facial features except her eyes. The child had blue eyes...

And the brother-in-law that stood next to his sister. He was young and small, a Gerudo teenager, as well as the crowned prince.

"Ganondorf...my king..."

Ganondorf turns around, young for his age to be a king, for the child was only fourteen. His golden eyes were rimmed with tears, threatening to spill. His face sad and empty. His lips pressed in a thin line.

"Cousin..?"

The young king looks throughout Hyrule fields, the wind wiping up his short spiky hair and cape. There was a dark silence, an empty silence as the teen didn't answer.

"Cousin...Ganon..?"

"I can't..." his back remains facing to the female Gerudo. Though the wind was loud and forceful, the shaking of his shoulders indicating his inner turmoil. "I can't find him." The female looks down to see the small picture in the young king's hand. She sucked in and held her breath as she understood what teen had meant. "All this...meaningless...and I can't..." He drags his free hand over his face. "Did you see him?"

The female opens her mouth, only to close it once more. Both stood in silence as the wind continued its howling, crying for the lives lost this day. "The royal guard had taken his body...and uncle's."

Ganondorf takes a deep breathe and clinches his free hand, the other careful enough not to ruin the picture. "So...both are dead."

"We should head back." The female Gerudo walks up to the teen and freezes as she saw his face.

The young king was smiling.

Confused and baffled, the female looks over toward where the king overlooks Hyrule fields. All she saw were bodies whether bloodied, bruised, broken, or superficial. Things that were green and beautiful were now glistening in red.

Human...

Hylian...

Goron...

Zora...

Moblin..

Gerudo...

Those that were friends, enemies, family, rivals, colleagues, and old acquaintances are now here sharing the same grave.

"Funny, isn't it?" The female looks back at Ganondorf. "Father had always said war was a beautiful dance that's forever remembered, but what makes it ugly in the aftermath. After first I didn't understand, but now...but now I know." The young king releases a long breathe and closes his eyes. He was numb, cold, empty. A feeling of lost and wonder, to know that something was missing only for it to never return again. "If this...If this is the cost for freedom? Then why?"

"Ganon-

"Why does it hurt so MUCH!?" The king grips his shoulders, a powerful sensation he hadn't known to exist made him shiver in place. "I didn't want this! Sister didn't want this! He...brother didn't want this..." He voice dies down to whisper as he felt all fight leave his body. "We just want peace, safety, comfort..."

"Ganondorf, you know as well as I do that this was the only way to stop uncle from destroying everything. You saw the path he was taking!" The female Gerudo grips the teen's face, forcing him to look into her eyes. "You did what you had to do. You saved what's left of us!" She wipes the teen's tears off his face. "It's not your fault for what he did, and nor was it our people." She hugs him, the biting wind starting to calm down. "Remember you still have one person, and she's depending on you now. Not just for her, but the future. We need our king to lead us, to support us for the many trials to come." She brushes the teen's hair back a little. "Don't forget who you are..."

The young king shakes and shivers, breathing long breaths. "I won't...I won't forget." He hugs his cousin back. "Thank you Aratii."

"Of course, my king." The winds finally dies away and there was left is the silence of the afternoon air. "Lets go home."

The teen nods and fixes himself, wiping away tears and stealing his posture. "Okay...right..." Ganondorf looks down at the picture in his hand and tucks it away in his satchel. "Lets go before we're seen." With a swirl of his cape both Gerudo, warrior and king, vanishes over the hills.

~(^)~

Once for every one hundred years (a generation) a single male Gerudo is born in a clan and is raised by his people to become their ideal king. He (the male) will be tested in his boyhood through a series of trials, then will become a man and take the throne to lead his people into prosperity and peace, a future where their legacy will last forever. For the Dragmire clan, Arawnoghma was that one male.

At the age of twelve, Arawnoghma had taken the throne as king. During his rule, the first thing he did was made trade with all neighboring villages and nations, bring both wealth and prosperity to his people. He kept traditions and revived the near dying the language of their ancestors.

Around the age of thirty, Arawnoghma started a family of his own. His first wife, being a descendant of the Dagda clan, gave birth to two daughters. Soon after his second daughter was born the king had married his second wife, a descendant of the Ternada clan. Through this bond of marriage, marrying two different women from two sister clans, helped Arawnoghma unite the three most powerful clans as one. Trade came through faster, giving the young king influence over many (if not all) clans, in which; helped him earn the title of High King.

With his new title, Arawnoghma was placed before and above everything the Gerudo stood for, whether it be tradition or blood. Because of this he changed laws and placed them into action, he married many times over, had two other male (leaders of Dagda and Ternada clans) executed for dishonoring tradition, and had a army trained to serve only him. Doing this had given him complete power over the Gerudo people.

But of course such power came with a price...

A curse most Gerudo had rumored...

Though Arawnoghma had obtained absolute power within a span of fifty years, he had only six children. His first born daughter was the leading general of his army, at the age of eighteen, died in battle against raiding Moblins with an arrow throw the heart. His second born daughter went wondering off into the Lost Woods (now known as the Forbidden Forest), at the age of three, never to be seen or heard again. The third born child was banished and disowned after marrying a Hylian behind his father's back; said to be a traitor to her own kin for going against their culture. The fourth and fifth children -twins, had died in a fire with their mother during a battle between the south and eastern borders.

Leaving the youngest, his son, the only child he had.

But that was only the start...

High King Arawnoghma had traveled with his youngest wife to negotiate with the King of the Northern country. Back home, things were not looking good for his people and trade was placed on immediate halt. However they were ambushed and taken hostage by a group of Hylian spies. They tortured him, broken almost every part of his body to get whatever information they wanted out of him. When it wasn't enough, they turned to his wife and forced him to witnessed the torture. It was a horrid experience to see such flesh sacred meant only for his eyes desecrated and disfigured, to only be dismembered in the end.

Days turned to weeks...

He was saved by the least likely people he thought could be possible.

His daughter Adjet and her husband...

The Hero of Hyrule.

After the rescue, Arawnoghma was never the same. His power crumbled dramatically, tossing aside his crown as High King and assigned himself as Warlord. With his new title he wanted to raise a powerful army, trade only for military power and advancement, and disbanded the untied clans into the groups they were before his rule. It was quite clear what Arawnoghma wanted and his people wanted none of it.

So instead he summoned an army of undead and Poes.

He went to war against Hyrule...

At the age of fourteen, Ganondorf Dragmire III son of Arawnoghma Dragmire, claim the throne to the Dragmire clan and left the crown of High King to the other sister clans.

After warlord Arawnoghma's demise, Ganondorf had taken the throne as king and focused on restoring peace and tranquility as they were once before. But that was a long time to come, for after the war his people suffered from famine, disease, and were driven out from the other neighboring countries. He wanted to keep his people alive, so he lead his people far-far into the desert where no other would dare visit. He found a mountainous range, where fresh water flow free like air, greenery shined like emeralds, and soil richer in nutrients than Hyrule's fields.

He had found a new home for his people.

Only to find out it was infested with dragons.

Ganondorf had spoken to the great beasts, sharing his story of events which lead his people to where they were now. Their leader, a dragon named Volvagia, agreed to let the Gerudo live in their lands but in return they were to speak the tongue of dragons when addressing them and to help protect the lit-lings (baby dragons; "lit" being the past participle for light) until they're able to hunt on their own. Ganondorf had agreed to the dragon's terms and traded secrets with the dragons; magic for magic, medicine for medicine, food for favors and favors for food, but most of all culture and knowledge.

As seventeen years passed and both dragons and Gerudo had prospered here in peace; away from danger, away from harm, and away from death. It had became a secret haven for all Gerudo and dragons, and only them. They kept to their old traditions, passed on their culture to the next generation, and shared tales with passing tribes. All were happy.

Well, that was until Anala became an adult.

Anala was a mystery to all Gerudo, for she is the only -and first- female born with blue eyes. All other Gerudo both male and female had different variations of brown, but none even came close to blue. Some Gerudo say it is because of her mother being a powerful water mage, some say it was because she was born outside of the desert, some say it was because of her duo nature, others...

Just saw her as the King's daughter.

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