28 years earlier…
I
Ezerella Loradime stood atop the sentry tower, gazing out over the immense valley with no more excitement than a skippyjack returning to freshwater. It was just the natural way of things for a lower-class Gerudo peasant like her to take up such a dull job. She hadn't really had a say in the matter. She simply woke up one day and made her way across the extensive desert—a two-hour trip on horseback—to where the sand met the eastern mountains and assumed her position as a sentry.
The view was nice though. She stood alone at the top of a shaded tower, gazing at the barely visible yet soaring turrets of the Hylian castle. She imagined the city beneath it, Castle Town, bustling with handsome men, slender women, playful children with their toys and games of side-and-seek. There was certainly nothing wrong with her Gerudo heritage; she had a mother and sister whom she loved dearly and would not leave for the world. But her heart ached for something beyond the sentry tower, something beyond the sedentary lifestyle that was assigned to her.
She often dreamed that she would be swept away by a Hylian prince straight from the courts of the Hylian Royal Family. It was rumored that the king had had a son, and Ezerella's heart had leapt at the news. But years went by and no such handsome knight appeared in the midst of the Gerudo Desert.
The young woman had shockingly red hair with deep brown skin and amber-colored eyes—not unusual traits for the desert warrior women. Her looks were not above par, but not below it either, and she didn't have the fighting spirit of the warriors. Rumalia, the military chief, had been the one to assign her as a sentry, giving her the duties of warning anyone above her in status of intruders into the desert territory. For a young girl with a heightened imagination and a tendency toward romanticism, Ezerella found the task incredibly boring.
Although she had no idea what caused her inattentive stupor, aside from her imaginations usual wanderings, it was clear that her daydreaming caught her up in some sort of fantastical reverie just as a lone traveler made his way across Hyrule Field, a steed of deep ebony bringing him closer and closer to the mountains bordering the desert. Ezerella couldn't see his features well enough from that distance, but she did catch sight of his most striking accessory, bringing her straight out of her reverie: a white feather tucked into a band around his head, so large and wispy that Ezerella was sure it had to have belonged to one of the ancient birds given as gifts from the false goddess to her precious Hylians. A pathetic assumption, she thought, given that those particular birds had gone extinct nearly five hundred years ago.
"Aleira," Ezerella said, catching the attention of a Gerudo sentry who had just walked by on her rounds. She looked up, red hair burning orange in the glaring sunlight. "Someone rides toward the desert."
Aleira climbed the ladder that led to Ezerella's perch and peered out over the ridge. Her eyes squinted against the sun and she shielded them with a thin hand.
"I don't see anything," she said.
Ezerella looked back to the rider. "He's right there." She pointed. He was advancing swiftly, and Ezerella was certain he was headed for the sentry tower.
"There's no one there," Aleira said, turning to leave the outpost. "You should be drinking more water. The heat is getting to you."
Ezerella watched incredulously as the other sentry descended and continued her rounds. She turned to watch the rider once more, mouth slightly open as he approached. He was upon the ridge now, skillfully guiding his horse up the twisted mountain pathway toward the tower. Somewhat panicked, Ezerella climbed down the ladder and rushed along the length of the tower, pulling at another sentry's face sash.
"A rider is coming up the ridge," she said desperately. But everyone she interrupted claimed to see nothing.
Something buoyed her steps as she made her way down the immense staircase along the perimeter of the tower. She might very well have been hallucinating, but perhaps the other sentries simply weren't paying attention. This strange rider was her discovery, and she was going to be the one to stop his advance into their territory.
Finally on ground level, Ezerella rushed around the tower's base and up to the arch that identified the start of Gerudo territory. The rider was upon it now, and his horse was slowing its gait. Ezerella tied the sheer sash around her nose and mouth and picked up a pike that was resting against the wooden wall.
When the rider dismounted and walked his horse through the gateway, Ezerella got a good look at him. His handsome features suggested he was in his twenties at least, although his hair, long enough to cover one side of his face, was of a shimmering silver that flashed white in the glare of the sun. The traveler's cloak around his shoulders was a deep crimson red, covering a tunic of white and gold. His boots were made of dodongo leather, bleached a pale brown from years of exposure to sunlight. Ezerella had to steel herself. This was no time for her imagination to get the better of her.
"Hello," he said, voice deep and yet soft. He spoke the Gerudo tongue fairly well, and Ezerella narrowed her eyes skeptically. "Are you a member of the Gerudo people?"
"Our leader is very strict on visitors," she said simply. "You must follow me." She turned curtly, hoping he would follow her.
The stranger grabbed his horse's reins and coaxed it through the sand as he followed Ezerella down a side path through the sandy ridge. "What is your name?" he asked.
Everything in Ezerella's common sense told her to keep silent until they reached the inner city. But her heart seemed to stop for this mysterious man and she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "Ezerella Loradime," she answered quietly. "I am a sentry of the Gerudo."
The man nodded. "I am Link of the West," he said in response.
Although Ezerella's expression remained stoic, she smiled inwardly. The name was so common among the Hylians that it had even bled into the Gerudo; some women had named their children Linka after the legendary Hero of Time.
But that wasn't the part of his name that made her speak. "The West?" she said, tone turning inquisitive as she glanced at him over her shoulder. "What do you mean 'the West'?"
"I mean," said Link, "west of this place."
"You came from the east," Ezerella said.
"I was not born in the east," said Link. Something shimmered in his eyes, and Ezerella found herself unable to look away. She wanted to point out that there was nothing west of the desert but endless ocean, that unless he was born within the waves he couldn't possibly be from "the west." But she said nothing as they continued along the path.
"If it would take less time," Link said after a moment, "we could ride Wrana here to our destination." He patted his horse's flank with a charming tenderness.
"We will ride, but not on your horse," Ezerella said, glancing sideways at the mare's beautiful black pelt and ochre eyes. In the sunlight, the horse's irises almost glimmered a ruby red.
As if on cue, they rounded a craggy corner were a small stable shielded several horses from the sunlight. Ezerella guided a spotted gray thoroughbred into the open air and mounted with ease.
"We'll stick to the mountain path," she said as Link climbed atop his own horse. "Wrana is probably not used to travelling swiftly across sand."
While Ezerella was correct in her assumption, as Link suggested, the horse faired rather well across the path. The Gerudo found herself trying to test the Hylian—if he even was Hylian—in his equestrian abilities, having her mount gallop at full speed during difficult sections of the path. Wrana was always able to keep up, however, and the two riders made it across the desert in short time.
As they slowed, Link pulled up beside his guide. "Is that your city?" He nodded toward the immense site before them, a tall fortress constructed of adobe bricks and wooden posts. Thin red flags fluttered in the sandy wind atop every possible point. Gerudo guards and warriors brimmed the walls like Lanayru ants skittering atop an abandoned pastry.
"No," Ezerella said beneath a veiled grin. "That is Gerudo Fortress. We will go around it."
As they directed their horses around the perimeter of the fortress, a sentry watched Ezerella closely. She wondered why no one questioned her about the mysterious stranger following her, but they only seemed to notice her existence. For a fearful moment Ezerella wondered if this Link were only a figment of her imagination, and she cast an anxious glance at him. But he returned her look with a polite smile, and she felt her apprehension dissipate into the sandy breeze.
The city was not too far beyond the fortress, visible even through the billowing sands. The walls stood tall and proud, and the palace spires poked up from within. Ezerella hadn't seen other cities, not really, but she knew that even if she had, she'd still think that of the Gerudo was the most beautiful one in existence.
They walked their horses up to the main gate of the city and were stopped by a guard. When Ezerella saw that once again the visitor had gone unnoticed, she played along. She said she was returning from her shift at the sentry tower. The guard let them through.
"So it's true," Link breathed from behind her. She pulled her sash down to rest on her shoulders and grinned at him. His eyes were on the scene before them, the Gerudo bazaar. The center was buzzing with activity: women washing their clothes in the collective basins; women selling all kinds of produce and delicacies at their respective market stalls; women strolling the stone pathways wearing the most colorful garments, golden jewelry tying back their fire-colored hair. There were even a few guards patrolling the area, narrow eyes scanning for anything out of the ordinary—all of them women.
"What's true?" Ezerella said teasingly, watching as Link's eyes trailed the movement of a belly dancer's body while another woman played a pair of bongos beside her.
"The Gerudo," said Link. "You're all female."
It was the truth. Although no one could explicitly state how it had come to be, the Gerudo people were all women. Their elders and soothsayers claimed that an ancient evil cursed their race to die out gradually and miserably, providing them with one male descendent every hundred years. But as time passed the Gerudo took interracial breeding over going entirely extinct. The people of eastern Hyrule often clung to the stereotype that the Gerudo women captured their male counterparts, did their business, and then exiled the men into the hot, dry desert with no food or water for them to wander helplessly to their deaths. But the validity of these stereotypes was questionable, since not many people dared venture anywhere near the Gerudo Desert who hoped to live to tell the tale. The phenomenon remained however, and every single time a Gerudo women became pregnant from an outside lover, the child was a girl.
"Hey!" Ezerella looked up to see a guard approaching them. For the first time she saw another person's eyes land on the stranger beside her. "What's going on here?"
"A visitor from the east," Ezerella said, staring as confidently as possible at the guard.
"Did the chief approve his entry?" said the guard, eyeing Link suspiciously.
"Yes," said Ezerella. "I'm taking him to the queen."
The guard looked between them for another moment before stepping aside. But as soon as they passed the threshold into the city, Link went back to being marginally unnoticed by everyone.
"Taking me to the queen?" Link said as they guided their horses across the cobbled street toward a wide, wooden stable. "Should I feel honored?"
Ezerella let the woman in charge of the stable take her horse's reins. "All visitors—especially men—are to be taken directly to Queen Koume," she said. "You should feel honored that I'm not."
"You're not?" Link said as he led Wrana into an unoccupied stall and pulled a carrot from a saddlebag. "Why?"
"Because you're different, Link of the West," Ezerella said. She watched the stranger's expression turn from one of puzzlement to one of mischief.
"You could get in trouble," he said.
"I have a feeling I won't." Ezerella watched as the stable woman walked right past them, completely unaware of Link's presence.
"I chose my companion well, I see," said the Hylian, grinning down at Ezerella. She wanted to ask him what he meant, but she remained silent, smiling up at him through pale amber eyes. She finally got a good look at his and saw that they were such a dark gray they appeared black. But what stood out in the shade of the stable were his pupils. They reflected the light around them like a cat's eyes, hints of red and orange coating the metallic-looking surface. Ezerella could have sworn that they held fire within them.
A/N: I was told I needed to develop Link and Ezerella's character a bit more. Hopefully I'll achieve that in the following chapters. (: