He slept or he didn't, in the endless dark of his cell who could know such things? Time passed, he knew that much from the soreness of his bondage, and at some point the door of his cage opened and Ganondorf sat staring into the harsh blinding light of the desert sky sweeping down to him from the tunnel beyond. He groaned and shifted on the stone floor and narrowed his eyes upon the vague figure cloaked within that white sheath of sunlight. It was the form of a person towering over him and standing perhaps in judgement of every horrible thing he had ever done and might yet do. Then his eyes adjusted to the light and he saw her for what she truly was.

Princess Zelda watched him in all her royal beauty. She stood erect in a flowing gown of light silk with a crown of flowers encircling her pale brow and silver sandals laced around her pale feet. Her pointed ears broke through the cascade of hair tumbling to her shoulders and between them her eye regarded him with compassion.

Ganondorf thrashed in his restraints. Some ancient part of him deep within, the embers of the calamitous being he'd been before, stirred wildly and set him into a frenzy. He saw in those pretty royal eyes the battle he'd waged for a hundred years against the princess and ultimately had lost. Every part of him alive wanted to fight again and continue where he'd left off and throw the princess down and vanquish her beneath his shadowed might. His bondage stilled him and muffled his roaring warcries.

"He's been lashed." Her voice was soft and sweet as fresh nectar. He despised the sound of it. "You cannot whip an innocent man in this new world we're rebuilding."

A Gerudo revealed herself from behind the princess's silhouette and stood towering over her, her swarthy skin stark beside Zelda's pale figure. "He must be punished."

"Not like this. The evil may be within him, but until he acts upon it he remains innocent."

"He is a beast. He plots to enslave my people and wield us against Hyrule as an army. My girls have heard his wicked mouth in the wind saying as much."

"That may be true." The princess lifted her chin haughtily. "But words are not crimes. And despite it all… I still find pity towards him."

The Gerudo woman made an agitated noise and shifted about uncomfortably. "…this is a mistake."

"Release him from his bondage and we will see."

The dungeon filled with a half dozen armed Gerudo who filed in and stood flanking Ganondorf and keeping close eye on him with their long pointed spears held at the ready. His red eyes swept their numbers without fear. Two more funneled in from the doorway and knelt beside him. Their hands went to work on his chains and ropes, unknotting here and unlocking there, and slowly he shed himself of his restraints and only the muzzle upon his mouth remained. He sat naked rubbing his wrists and eyeing the women carefully. He could pounce upon one, disarm her, launch an attack upon the others with her spear. Could they stop him in time before he fought his way to the princess? Had he regained enough of his power to fill this room with death?

"Look at his wicked eyes," the woman in charge said. "Even now fresh out of his restraints he plots and schemes. This is a mistake, Princess Zelda. Surely you can see that?"

"There must be justice in this new world of ours," Zelda answered and her eyes fell to her delicate hands clutching dearly at the hem of her gown. "Even if justice is… difficult."

Ganondorf watched her breathing heavily and using every bit of restraint he had to keep himself from pouncing at the woman who'd bested him in a hundred year war in what felt like another life.

"Remove his gag. Let's see what he has to say for himself."

Two women knelt and tried ungagging him but Ganondorf shrugged them aside and did the task himself. He unlaced the straps at the back of his head and tore the muzzle from his mouth, tossing it at the feet of the princess. He licked his lips and allowed cool air to touch them for the first time in many moons. He felt the room hold its collected breath in anticipation of what he might say and relished in the moment. He deserved their attention, and one day soon they'd all be waiting on his every word for a different reason and it would be them who wore the chains and they would call him King. He stared up at the princess and could think of nothing her pathetic pointed ears were worthy of hearing and so he remained silent.

"You see," Zelda began with a pompous smile, "Even free of his bondage, my victory over him has changed the man. He is obedient now. Like a dog."

Raw unbridled anger coursed through every inch of his being. Ganondorf ground his teeth against one another and fumed but refused further action. It was bait. Zelda smiled down upon him, the pretty curve of her pink lips infuriating him further. He saw his conquering then housed in that smile. It taunted him. Mocked him. Made an absolute fool of him. All at once a hundred years of pent up fury untangled itself within him and made him leap like a raving madman at the princess, arms outstretched and hands twisted into two instruments made only for choking.

He was nearly upon her when the guards fell upon him instead. The Gerudo tackled him to the ground and their many hands held him in place and acted as cuffs to restrain him. He thrashed on the floor like a fish out of water but there were too many restrainers upon him. One put their foot on the back of his head and pushed his face down against the stone until he settled himself.

"You see, Princess," the captain was saying from somewhere in the frant din of the room around him. "He is a beast as I said. And he just made an attempt on your life. Is that crime enough for your 'new Hyrue'?"

Ganondorf writhed in the women's hands to no avail. Looking wildly upwards he could only see Zelda's sandaled feet mocking him just beside his nose. He roared and craned his neck and would have bit her royal toes off had she not stepped back and kicked some sand in his eyes blinding him.

"Yes. He has proven himself as wicked and beast-like as you've said. Sadly, perhaps nothing has changed in him. Still, he must not be whipped. That is a particularly cruel punishment. There are other ways to punish a man. Bring him outside and we'll make an example of him yet."

They wrestled him to his feet and clung dearly to every inch of him to still his writhing. The Gerudo forced him out of the room in their tight grip, one having leashed his collar with a length of chain and dragging him forth like a common dog. He shouted at them with every profane word he knew but it didn't slow the girls in the slightest. Twice a hand came over his mouth to try and quiet him but he shook his head free and went on cursing them all in an unbroken string of hatred.

They forced him out of the tunnel and into the town square where a gathering of Gerudo had already formed up and was only swelling more fully by the moment. It was nearly dusk and the cool desert winds were sweeping upon him as he was made to walk barefoot upon the hot stone of the square and then up onto a wooden dais where instruments of restraint made him realize in a fury that they'd planned it all out for him since the beginning to be lured into disobedience and require punishment.

A pillory awaited him. The guards unlocked its bindings and opened it to reveal a trio of holes each trimmed in leather to better cushion and restrain its prisoner. His head was forced down against the center hole, so low to the ground he was forced to drop to his knees, and when his hands were fixed in the holes adjacent, the top board was brought back down and locked in place, sandwiching him inside and keeping him immobile. Below the dais, the Gerudo woman watched curiously.

Zelda appeared before him, and knelt down as he was they were nearly on eye level. He opened his mouth to curse her and she filled it instead with a bundle of cloth, gagging him. His attempt to spit it out was ended when she used a second cloth to tie tightly around his lower face.

"Quiet," the princess demanded as she tightened the gag on his mouth further reducing his muffled protests. "You've spoken enough wickedness for one lifetime."

He roared at her from beneath the cloth but that only put a smile on her comely face that he wished nothing more than to see destroyed.

When he was locked down in place, the princess turned to the watchful crowd and addressed them. "Girls, I come to you today from Hyrule Castle with good news. Our rebuilding efforts go well, and in time I'm sure the lands of Hryrule will be restored and as beautiful as they ever were. But on this day I come seeking your aid. There lie all manner of dark creatures that would see our efforts gone to waste. Before you here today kneels one of them. The beast, Ganondorf. You guards and I just bore witness firsthand of the cruel manner of his nature, fore he made an attempt on my life in the dungeons below. I ask you all, as new citizens of this new world we look to build, that you help rid away the darkness.

"It's come to my attention some of you have been empathizing with the man. Even that some have been spotted going to his dungeons at night and… caring for him. Today I must beg you to offer no such further sympathies. He is a serpent, and like a serpent he will deceive you and when he's used you up for his own purposes he will discard you. He is not a King. He shall never be one. He is a simple creature and, though devious and wicked as he might be, he holds no true powers. Look upon him now. What power do you see?"

Ganondorf growled at her through his gag and clenched his fists, but was forced to remain kneeling upon the dais with his head and hands locked up tight. He squirmed but made no further struggles. He knew doing so would only serve the princess's mission in degrading him. Zelda picked up his leash, pooled in a cluster of chain below his head, and tugged at it, forcing him to look up at her.

"He is not to be harmed, lest we all fall as lowly and cruel as him. Yet still, he must be punished. Girls, if you would be so kind as to tie him in place now."

And at her command the Gerudo sprung to action. They removed him from the pillory and wrestled him across to the other end of the dais where a long wooden plank lay in wait. He was forced to sit upon it, then a flurry of hands made him lay flat and got him twisted around and stretched out till he was all spread apart in a large 'X' shape. His hands and feet were fastened at each end of that 'X' with ropes and then his collar was bolted down to the wood as a last measure of restraining him. When they'd finished, he was stretched wide beneath the day's last light, staring into the sky and helpless but to squirm in his new bondage. When he made noises of protest, his gag was tightened in attempt to shut him up.

Zelda appeared above him, backdropped by that pink dome of twilight sky. He muttered curse at her and writhed about but she only stood staring, that infuriating little hint of a smile curling at the end of her royal lips. From her the bosom of her dress she produced a long slender feather. It twisted menacingly clutched between her thumb and forefinger. She lowered it, slowly, and made it come to rest just upon the crown of Ganondorf's chin. He narrowed his eyes upon the thing hatefully and she twirled it about, tickling at his neck. He shook his head and tried escaping its fine tip but his ropes held him in place and refused him the freedom to avoid its ticklish torture. Zelda dragged the feather down his neck and split the large plates of pectoral muscles before sliding it aside and letting it play over his ribs. Ganondorf bucked uncontrollably atop the planks he was bound to, shouting muffled protest and shaking his head as the princess tickled him. She twirled the feather between his ribs, letting the tip torture at the sensitive skin housed within and Ganondorf was helpless but to howl into his gag and wiggle about every which way.

"This is your 'King'?" Zelda asked with a snicker. "This beast who lies squirming like a child beneath the simple touch of a feather? He is no King, girls. Look upon him. He is just a base creature."

She moved the feather to his bare belly and dragged it mercilessly back and forth, dipping into his belly button, exiting, circling down around the curves of his thighs, finding her way back. All the while a torturous maddening twisted within Ganondorf as he lay helpless but to be tickled. He thrust his hips and curled his fists and howled more beneath the cloth silencing him but it was all for nought. The princess went on exploring his bare flesh with her feather and making an example of him for the crowd. This was her real scheme: to humiliate him. What leadership could he possibly inspire with the display the princess made of him.

She tickled his belly and when she had her fill of watching him squirm she moved to his thighs and dragged the feather over the muscled knots there, allowing the tip only briefly to dance across his manhood. She tickled her way down to his knees and moved behind to his hamstrings and calves, pausing to watch him writhe helplessly in his bondage. When the feather finally found his bare feet, Ganondorf launched into a frenzy. Zelda laughed herself as she assaulted the soles of each foot in turn, watching with delight as he bucked and thrashed and howled endlessly from his gagged mouth.

She hesitated only long enough to turn and address the growing crowd. "Join me, girls. See what this potential 'King' of yours can be reduced to."

Then the sky blotted out above, for a great gathering of olive-skinned women joined the pale princess in flanking him and encircling his bound body. Ganondorf grunted and shook his head and tried issuing command with his eyes alone, but Zelda noticed those red demon eyes of his trying to work some spell and quickly fetched a new length of cloth and blindfolded him. Then he was submerged in the dark, blind and silent and immobile, and the tickling began in true. He knew where the princess was as she was the only feather-wielder, dancing her way around his helpless body. Everywhere else, though, there were fingers; long fingers, slender fingers, curious fingers. They wiggled their way into his bare flesh, testing and teasing him. His feet were assaulted most relentlessly, the girls giggling to themselves as they tortured his soles, but his neck and ribs and the sensitive skin beneath his arms was frequented in bouts of long agonizing torture as well. They tickled and tickled and when he thought that surely they must be tiring of his torture, they found a fresh surge of excitement and energy to continue punishing him with.

This went on for a great deal of time. At a point, all thought and all senses vanished in the blind emptiness Ganondorf lay in, and only the tickling was real to him. He lay in a pool of his own sweat helplessly jerking this way and that and yet still they tortured him. When the merciless assault upon his poor bare flesh finally found its end, Ganondorf lay obedient as a tamed dog, eager not to displease the women and bring upon himself another bout of punishment. The cloth was untied from around his mouth and the gag was taken out.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Ganondorf," the princess's voice questioned.

He panted and licked his lips, wary of saying the wrong words and upsetting her.

"Shall we tickle you further?"

"No!" He pleaded with a shake of his head. "Please!"

"Then you submit?"

"Yes! I submit… I submit."

"Good boy." Her soft hands stroked his hair and he calmed at her touch. "Your punishment will cease for now. Listen to me, Ganondorf: you are to remain here for the rest of your days as the Gerudo's servant. You will attend to their needs. You will do what labor they need done. You will wash and rub their feet when they are tired and you will do all this without a word of protest, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Say it then."

"I understand. I am their servant."

"Good. If I receive word you're causing trouble out here, rest assured I will return and you will be punished even more severely than you were today. Do you understand?"

"I understand. I will not disobey." His mouth made the words form but his mind was empty still. He could feel the residue of a thousand tickling fingers left all over his body. He winced when the wind blew hard and he thought he was being tortured again. The king inside himself had fallen, only this new creature desperate to avoid punishment remained. He swallowed hard and nodded his head. "I will never disobey."

"Very good, Ganondorf, very good. I will hold you to that promise. I take my leave of you now. Girls. Reward him for his obedience."

Ganondorf lay still in his blindness, squirming ever-so-slightly in his restraints and wary of some trick. No trick came, however. He heard Zelda's feet leave the dais and then many more feet enter upon it. Hands touched him and at first he jumped and writhed but then he realized the hands were not tickling at him but caressing him, smoothing their palms over him, groping him gently and calming him. He lay flat and panted and looked about uselessly in his blindfold. Someone crawled atop him and he felt the narrow waist of a Gerudo girl straddling his stomach. A warm pair of lips kissed at his feet, another at his thighs, another still at the nape of his neck. Hands moved into his hair and slid down his sweaty chest. Someone took hold of his manhood and played with it till it began to stiffen. Then he was being drowned in kisses and giggles and the firm rubbing of sensuous hands. His cock was stroked to ejaculation before a mouth closed around it and began sucking at him. He moaned and filled the night with sounds of his pleasure until a woman's hand clamped his mouth and refused him any further noise. He purred into her palm and she kissed the bridge of his nose as another woman began massage his feet and another rubbed his shoulders. When the mouth around his cock had given him another orgasm, someone new worked him stiff and then sat down upon him. He slid up into the warm wonderful cunt of some Gerudo goddess and bucked his hips as she rode him into the night.

Much later when his blindfold was finally removed and he was allowed to glimpse upon all that naked olive flesh that surrounded him, Ganondorf knew he'd abandoned the beast within entirely. He would be a servant in full to these women, eager to please and to be pleasured.

And with his wicked aspirations abandoned, he lay back and reveled in the profound pleasures hidden amidst the Gerudo women and the desert night.

End