Sahjeko

by Goddess of the Sand

10-17-02

Hi there ^.^ Thanks for giving this fanfic your attention, be it undivided or even partial. I hope you aren't disappointed. Ganondorf, Koume, Kotake, and the rest of the Nintendo bunch are not mine. Sahjeko is. :P

Please read and review.

Prologue.......

"Eh!?" Koume and Kotake asked of each other as the assistant Gerudo offered them their...grandchild.

"She has blue hair!" squawked Koume.

"Look at that nose!" her icy sister exclaimed. "It's so small!" Indeed the babe's nose did not resemble the prominent honkers of the average Gerudo... "The woman was a liar. This is not a Geru....do..." Kotake trailed off as Koume moved closer to the bundled child.

Koume shook her head, and ran her bony claw of a finger over the soft lobe of the baby's left ear. It was round, like theirs. "Then explain this, Ms. Gerudo-Expert!" she snapped.

Kotake blinked at her contrasting twin then peered at the foreign-looking babe. Gerudo, no doubt about it; Sheikah and Hylians had tapered elflike ears. They were rumored to be able to hear the gods with such equipment. The logic of the three hundred -and-eighty-two-year-old said that if the mother was Hylian, then the father had to be Gerudo... but to her sibling she shook her bony fist, the whole issue forgotten at the verbal challenge from Koume. "It means, you stupid old hag, that she is a Gerudo. Like I said!"

"We're the same age, idiot, and you said she WAS NOT a Gerudo!"

"Don't tell me what I said!" Kotake pushed back the sleeves of her robe, the runic designs done in blue now bunched against each other with the ruffles of the cloth. Gnarled hands called upon the frigid winds of the north and soon the Gerudo witch had a sphere of glittering ice energy to hurl at Koume. With a shriek she threw it point blank at the fire witch, who screamed with pain and rage, then prepared her own ball of energy.

The assistant wordlessly left the two to quarrel and took the child into the deep levels of the Gerudo Fortress, where children were cared for by ample torchlight, protected by miles of rose-colored granite.

Bolts of energy shot out the open windows of a certain aboveground room in the fortress, lighting the sky with streaks of flame and ice. Screams of pain, triumphant cackles, and the old, world-weary 'Heh heh's' could be heard by the guards who roamed the perimeter below. Those two were at it again...

*********

Ganondorf had not been back to the fortress for several weeks. Though he had been informed of his 'daughter', nobody had the courage to tell him of her appearance. The desert women looked upon the child as a little blue rat in their midst, though treating her as such outright was to defy their King. Koume and Kotake gave the infant potions to drink, in hopes of altering her coloration. Aside from giving her colic, nothing worked. So, after the King of Thieves returned to his own fortress from signing peace treaties with the other, weaker races, he was offered a parade, food, wine, loyalty.... But he had to ask for his daughter.

The tall ogre of a man dismounted from his obsidian war stallion, letting two Gerudo take the massive equine up the slope to its stable for pilfered hay and water. His height threatened seven feet, with brawny arms and legs, all sinew and corded muscle honed from fierce battles with the enemies of his people. Leather riding boots were molded to his legs, along with the rest of his armor-like garments. Spikes and Gerudo runes adorned the leather and metal layers glinting in the fierce sun. His skin was the color of bitter olive. His hair was spiked and matched the color of true flames. Being in his mid twenties, age and the desert had not started to carve lines on his face. Ganondorf stood amongst his people like a god, and as he looked down at all they had prepared for his return, something was missing. "Where is she?"

The Gerudo stood still. They tensed as one, waiting for some slap to the face they feared might come. When the eyes of their king fell to the nearest Gerudo, she had no choice but to swallow her fear and answer him, "She's with the other infants, Exalted Ganondorf."

He arched a brow at her before crossing his arms. "Bring her to me." He nodded at the Gerudo girl's dismissal to fetch the child, and turned his gaze to the rest of them. Amber-hued eyes found them all silent. No sound came from his people. Something was amiss, for a crowd of women to be silent. Before he could speculate on specifics, the girl had returned.

Her bronze arms were full of white linen, offering it up to him while keeping as far away from him as possible. The girl's body awaited harsh treatment for bringing him such displeasing news in the form of a scrawny, azure-tressed child.

Ganondorf took the bundle easily in his massive hands and moved some of the folds to look at her. "What in the name of Din...." he murmured, moving the folds back further. A pale little face squinted up at him, with a small nose yet it also sported rounded ears. Wisps of sky blue hair were visible on the crown of her head. Words of rejection rested in wait on his tongue. One word and this wretch would be gone. This was not his child, though all knew she was.

The child began to cry. Loud wails escaped her with each gulp of air.

"Get this out of my sight!" He thundered, before his heavy boots stormed off in the direction of the fortress' mead hall.

Koume and Kotake looked at each other. Their beady little eyes gave nothing away of their thoughts. He hadn't ordered her dead. It was time to have a talk with their son.

***********

"What transpired?" The two witches asked of him at once. They each hovered comfortably on ensorcelled broomsticks, one with bristles of fire and the other of ice.

"There was a battle near one of Harkinian's villages. I found a bitch spying on our camp, so I took her and made an example of her. "

"You raped her," Kotake clarified, with no disapproving scorn.

He nodded. "She had dark blue hair. It was almost black."

"You didn't kill her," Koume pointed out.

"She haunted more of her people alive than dead," he said. "Now, what happened four days ago?"

"A woman with dark hair was throwing herself against our gate. She was heavy with child and she kept claiming it to be yours. We felt sorry for her and let her in, doing our best to help her. However, it was our curiosity as to what she said that made the real decision," Kotake explained.

Ganondorf took a long drought of wine, which had been raided from some village untold years ago. "Why did she come here to have the brat?"

"We don't know," Koume admitted, "she died having the child, so we never will."

He shrugged and took another satisfying gulp. "I know she's mine, just like the rest of my people know it. Why didn't you kill it? I'd have never known, and even if I had, I wouldn't have held it against you."

"Ganondorf, as your surrogate mothers, we did what we thought at the time was the best course of action. Yes, she is ugly beyond belief, and weak. Yet, inside her flows the blood of a Gerudo king. She should have hair the color of blood and skin as dark as the sand, but for mysterious reasons she is the opposite of what she should be," Koume said.

"Doesn't she have a name?" Ganondorf asked.

"Giving her a name means you accept her," Kotake reminded him.

"I know," he mumbled, tired of this. "What star was overhead four days ago?"

"Sahjeko, the star of destruction," the ice witch said.

That actually brought a smile to the King of Thieves. "Excellent. Sahjeko she shall be."

r/r please