The sand slid through his fingers, coarse and supple against his skin as Link reached for handholds. His belly was bare, and laid flat against the baking sands, felt as if there was a fire crackling just below the earth under him, waiting to cook him up. When he saw Kotake squirm forward higher up the dune before him, he was eager to match her slow, meticulous movements and creep along himself; moving, at least, kept the heat from building too severely against any one spot on his exposed skin. Her foot slid up the dune, her toes dragging a little line in the sand, and Link followed its trail with his hand. When her ownhand moved, his foot did, and so they went like that, matching strides, slowly crawling their way up the golden hill that was the Gerudo camp's southern flank. When the dune crested and flattened out, Kotake gestured him beside her with a wiggle of her fingers, and Link obeyed. He wormed his way onto the flattened tip of the dune and kept his chin pressed to the burning carpet of sand that crowned it, the same as his Gerudo partner beside him.

Below them, the camp lay sprawled out in its myriad splash of colored silk tents and pavilions, flanked on all sides by the high, rolling dunes of gold that swallowed it up into a little valley. Link narrowed his eyes against the hot white light of the afternoon sun and swept a long look across the land. The Gerudo were out in full. Some were gathered before tents, chatting with one another and gesturing with their slender bronze arms; what they spoke of, of course, Link could only guess at. Others were grouped up at the mouth of the big pavilion at the camp's northeastern quadrant, where Link could see a few more girls heading in and out of the tent's big gaping entrance; the silk roof poking up in a half-dozen spots where the stakes had been planted beneath. More stood in long lines down outside the stables, and when Link squinted, he could see part of the wooden planks that had made up the outer gate were splintered and cracked. That must've been Epona's work, he surmised, glancing over his shoulder to cast a smile on his white-maned horse, waiting patiently at the foot of the slope with her big dark eyes watching over him.

"I don't see Jolene," Kotake said.

Link followed her eyes to the rear of the camp, where the Gerudo fortress loomed over all, its carved windows peering out across the tents like the watching eyes of some massive stone beast. He began, "If she's got Aveil locked up…"

Kotake nodded. "That is most certainly where Jo would be keeping her." The girl winced. "I only hope my sister has not been harmed too severely. In truth, Aveil and I were never that close, but I can still remember playing with her at the ponds when we were little. She was a bit older than me, tall and curvy, and we all knew one day she would be beautiful." Kotake's eyes moved sideways to Link. "But, of course, you already know of her beauty, Mr. Link… in more ways than one, I suppose."

Link refused to meet her eyes; he knew what sort of look was awaiting him there. Kotake had not tried to hide her desire for him. The entire ride back to camp atop Epona, she had ridden seated in the saddle between his legs, with Link's arms wrapped around her sides to guide Epona by the reigns. Kotake had taken great delight in that, wiggling her hips from time to time, inching her rear end further back along the saddle to press against Link. Thrice she had reached up and stroked at his bare arms, laying her head back so that her wavy, copper, hair bounced against his face. It smelled clean and fresh, but Link had simply moved his head to the side to keep his eyes on the sands… and the uncomfortableness in his breeches at a minimum. When they'd dismounted, she'd 'accidentally' stumbled into his arms, and her hands had slid down across his bare chest. "My apologies, Mr. Link," she'd cooed, fixing him with a smile and that hungry stare of hers, but Link had again avoided it.

Now, he was busy avoiding it again as he stared down at the Gerudo camp. "Can you sneak in without attracting attention?"

"I am small and supple, and though many of my sisters accuse my mouth of being big and noisy, I can keep it shut when I need to," Kotake replied with a quiet giggle. "And I go many places where I should not, and no one is ever any the wiser after I've gone again. Yes. I can sneak into Jolene's little fort." Her hand reached out and fell atop his own. "I only wonder if you can defeat her, Mr. Link. She is strong and well nourished, and you… you have been starved and staked, bound and beaten. The sun has baked your face and chest, and the cruel sands have put blisters on the bottoms of your poor feet. Can you, Mr. Link? Can you defeat her truly?"

Can I? He slipped his hand out from under Kotake's. "I have to try, don't I? You said it yourself. The Gerudo will never fully abandon her unless I do."

"Sadly, that is the way of it."

"Then it's what I have to do."

"You are very brave and courageous, Mr. Link."

Link did meet the young woman's eyes then, for a question had risen from the back of his mind that needed answering. "And If we succeed… what then, Kotake?"

"What do you mean, Mr. Link?"

"Will I be free to go? Will I be allowed to mount my horse and gather my things and ride out of here without protest? Or will you girls attempt to keep me again? Bind and gag me and lock me away?"

Kotake's vibrant eyes grew even more so as the idea, clearly, awoke some clandestine little fantasy within her. "Well… I suppose if Aveil and yourself have truly joined as one, she will try to claim you. Of course, I mean to make a claim for you myself. I'm sure others will as well. You are… quite the prize, Mr. Link."

Link sighed. It was the answer he'd been expecting, but wracked him with disappointment nonetheless. "So that's it then? Even after I help you remove Jolene and put an end to her cruelty… you still mean to make me a prisoner here?"

"Not a prisoner, Mr. Link!" Kotake protested with a frown. "You will never taste the whip again, if that is what you mean. Never ever. That was Jolene's cruelty, not the Gerudo's. And you would be free to move about the camp as you please, of course. You would dine with us and ride with us and make love to us when we desire it. Your place here would be one of honor, not of captivity."

"…and if I refuse this 'place of honor'?"

Kotake stared at him. "Why would you do that, Mr. Link?"

"That's not an answer, Kotake. What would you and the others do if I refused you? Tell me."

Kotake turned from him to set her eyes back on the camp, though the frustration was clear enough upon her face. "…we would be very disappointed."

"Disappointed enough to bind me with ropes and keep me against my will?"

Kotake ignored that. She gestured across the camp. "I will ride your Epona around the dunes if she will allow it. I can move unseen all the way to the back of Jolene's tower in that way. From there, I will sneak in and see to freeing my sister. It would be easier for me if you were to make your challenge before I dismount."

Link nodded, but would not simply 'forget' Kotake's refusal to answer his question. "Alright. I'll wait until you've gone beyond the western dune to head down. And you're certain Jolene will face me? What's stopping her from simply having me whipped and chained the moment I'm seen?"

Kotake shook her head, her copper curls brushing against her bare shoulders as she rolled to her back. "No. She can't. Not now. Once my sisters see that you've survived her punishment, they will already begin to doubt Jolene's strength. When you openly challenge her, a refusal would do nothing but ensure her weakness, and Jo would lose her grip on them. She must face you if you challenge her, or risk losing her leadership. So make your challenge quickly, Mr. Link, before she can silence you."

Link nodded, but when Kotake returned the gesture and made to slide herself back down the dune to Epona, he took her by the arm and held her in place. "Kotake… when this is over…"

She wiggled free of him and scowled. "Yes, when it is over, you will flee back to your wonderful little Hyrule and your pretty fair-skinned girls with their dresses and their fancy shoes, and us Gerudo here will be left all alone…"

"You'll let me go then?"

Kotake's scowl only deepened. "I want to give my heart to you, Mr. Link! I want to be yours and you to be mine! It's not fair! You are a big, mean man if you would break a young girl's heart in such a way, and a big mean man deserves chains and captivity. Yes, alright? Yes - I will try to stop you and keep you for myself if you make to flee… even if that requires a rope for your cruel hands and a gag for your cruel mouth! There. Now you know." And before Link could respond, she'd twisted herself around and launched into a little hop that got her sliding down the dune. At its base, she swung herself up onto Epona, but the horse looked to Link for approval before she would move. Link gave it with a nod of his head, and Epona allowed herself to be spurred around towards the western edge of the valley. The two of them disappeared a moment later, both Kotake's hair and Epona's mane dancing wildly in the wind. But which of the two is truly wilder? Link mused. That girl is going to be trouble.

After they'd been gone a dozen heartbeats, Link pulled a breath, got his knees under him, and began the long slide down the dune himself; though his slide carried him in the opposite direction. He kept his arms and legs tucked tight together as he rode the warm sands down to the Gerudo encampment. With each start and stop, he expected someone to see him and cry out in a call to arms, but no one did, and he'd actually managed to reach flat ground again without a single woman raised to alert. He dug his feet into the sands and pushed himself to a sprint, breaking for the little clearing that mounded up towards the center of the valley, where the Gerudo women held their makeshift 'combat pit'. He was halfway there when a shrill cry filled the camp somewhere between the forest of tents on his left, but Link ignored it and kept his feet moving. When he ascended the little mound and had a good vantage point over the rest of the camp, he stepped to its center with his hands cupped around his mouth and bellowed, "Jolene! I've returned! I've returned, Jolene, and I challenge you to combat! I challenge Jolene, leader of the Gerudo, to single combat against me!"

It did not take the clearing long to fill out. Women were rushing to the foot of the mound from every angle it seemed. Some came with whips in hand, ready to lash him, others with spears clutched between knuckles gone white, others still with daggers, their fine, steel points glimmering against the afternoon sun. Yet there were many Gerudo who came bearing nothing at all, save for curious expressions wrinkling their jeweled and veiled faces. And when the clearing was filled to the brim, every last vacant spot at the base of the mound filled with the onlooking eyes of a Gerudo, Jolene herself materialized from within her fortress; her four crimson guards tight on her flanks as always. When her eyes found Link, rage lit afire within them and her expression contorted with fury. She marched down into the camp at once, her teeth barred like some feral creature coming to eat its prey. When she reached the crowd, they split apart for her and Jolene did not hesitate in the slightest to ascend the mound and stomp into the clearing across from Link. In one hand, her whip lay uncoiled, in the other, a dagger.

"I challenge you to single combat, Jolene," Link announced before she could bring that whip across his mouth and silence him.

Jolene was huffing and puffing as she stared incredulously across the gap between them. "How!?" She wailed. "How did you free yourself!? Answer me!"

"I challenge you," Link repeated, sweeping his eyes across the crowd of women to make sure they'd heard. "Do you accept, Jolene? …or do you fear me?" That will ensure her answer, Link hoped.

Jolene's cheeks flushed a deep red. "How dare you, you… you murderer!" She snapped her head towards the crowd. "Aveil's killer has returned to us, ladies! How are we going to deal with that!? Well!?"

A quiet uncertainty layered over the Gerudo as they turned to fix one another with pensive looks. A few muttered words, too quiet to be heard from Link's position centered in the clearing, but none, thankfully, looked to be willing to charge and attack him.

Finally, someone piped up. "The man challenged you, Jolene," a woman with thick arms and legs and a curved sword resting in a sheath below her plum silks said. "You must answer the challenge. Go on. Bring justice to Aveil."

"We should have never let the prisoner out of the camp in the first place," another woman added.

"He should suffer the same fate as our sister," yet another spoke up. "With a blade across his throat."

"But first…"

"You must answer the challenge, Jo."

"Yes, answer the challenge."

"Answer! Answer!" A woman began chanting, and before long, they'd all taken the words up, and the camp filled with dozens of voices bellowing in unison, "Answer! Answer! Answer!"

"Silence!" Jolene shrieked to drown them out and quiet them down. When they had, she turned her dark eyes on Link; the nostrils at the end of her beaked nose flaring in and out. "I accept your challenge your murdering, craven man! I accept, and this time when I have your neck beneath my foot, I will show no mercy. I'm going to kill you, for Aveil… and for Kotake, whatever you may have done with her, as well."

"She's alive," Link began, "and so is Aveil."

A hushed chatter moved through the crowd immediately, and Link watched—for the first time—a strange look cross Jolene's face. It might have been anger. It might have been doubt. It might have been fear. Truly, it might have been all three. Her lips twisted beneath her big nose and her eyes flittered back to her guard. She gestured to the fortress with a nod of her head, and they moved for it at once.

Only they never made it, for halfway towards the wall, two figures emerged from the shadow of the stone that halted them in their tracks.

"Aveil!" A woman shouted from the crowd, and a chaotic din followed, sweeping a chorus of shouts and yelling across the camp.

Kotake came struggling forward from the fortress with Aveil held carefully against her body. Aveil's face was bloodied, cuts lined her arms and legs, and shackles bound her hand and foot, but she was alive, very much so, and the crowd of women were dumfounded one moment, cheering joyously the next, and, finally, turning narrowed, mistrustful eyes on Jolene. Jolene looked from one woman to the next, perhaps searching for a friend, but when her search clearly did not produce the results she'd hoped for, she swallowed and turned back to stare at Link.

"I accept!" Jolene wailed over the crowd's din. "Do you hear me, ladies!? I accept this vile man's challenge, and I expect you all to respect the fight. I must face him. Stay out of this, and after we will talk. There is… much explaining to do."

"You lied, Jo!" Someone shouted.

"Why did you deceive us!?"

"Did you hurt Aveil!?"

"Did you chain her!?"

"Why, Jo!?"

"I did what I did to protect you girls! Nothing more!" Jolene tossed her whip and dagger down and slipped out of her sandals. "And now I fight for you. Because I love you all. Because you are my sisters. And when this treacherous man is dead, you will understand that love… and you will appreciate it." She angled a long finger at Link and sneered. "I am a strong leader! I am your leader! And now I will kill the man who has stirred up such trouble within our family! For all of you" With that, she sprinted the gap between herself and Link and leaped into the air.

For a fleeting moment, it looked as if Jolene could fly. She was high above him, suspended against the pale blue backdrop of the desert sky, her knees clad in their puffy trousers pulled up to her belly, her arms thrown out to her sides. Then she was descending upon him, like the vultures had descended on him and Kotake out in the desert, and her beak looked just as menacing as theirs. Link threw himself aside. He cleared the narrowing shadow of his attacker, but one of her feet lashed out and drummed across his jaw. He stumbled down to a knee, collected himself, rose-

-and Jolene was charging again, her mouth wide and wailing some shrill staccato cry. Her knee lifted to shatter his chin, but Link threw himself forward to meet her momentum prematurely. They collided in air, twisted a half turn, and fell to the sands tangled in one another. Jolene's fingers came raking across his eyes and lips, looking to tear them asunder. Link snapped his head this way and that, wrestling to tame the woman's wild arms and keep her clawing hands at bay. She roared, craned her neck back, then thrust her head forward. Her brow collided with his own, and for a moment, the world went black and wobbly. Then Link's eyes snapped back open - just in time to dodge a closed fist barreling down at his nose.

He jolted his momentum sideways and the two went rolling in the sands, Jolene's relentless assault never giving him even a solitary second of respite as she clawed and punched and kicked and kneed, and when their roll finally halted with Link mounted atop her, she wailed again and threw the heels of her feet up under the pits of his arms to drag him backwards and off her waist. Link fought it, but was not strong enough to stop the woman's long legs from wrapping him up between her thighs when she'd gotten him down and squeezing; squeezing as she had in their first confrontation days earlier. Link grit his teeth and pulled a deep breath before she could choke his air off, wrestling his fingers down between her knees and pulling to ease off the pressure. Jolene screamed and squeezed harder, but Link thrust his hands up and his neck down, and a moment later his head popped out beneath her thighs just as they closed off above him.

Jolene scrambled around in a wide arc as she returned to her feet. Link clambered up himself. His opponent charged him, feigning left and sweeping right like some serpentine reptile moving through the sand. But when her leg suddenly lurched, and her foot came up to drive against his chest, Link snatched it at the ankle and twisted, and Jolene was helpless but to go spinning down to the sands. He made to mount her again, but the woman writhed out of his hold and slipped herself under his legs. Link turned back to face her-

-and the heel of her foot came spinning furiously across his jaw. His head snapped sideways as he stumbled back a half-dozen steps before the world spun and he plopped down to his ass. When the blurred haze left his vision, though, he saw Jolene was flying again; soaring up against the sky with her knee bent and ready to drive down across his throat. He roared himself then, slamming his fist against the earth and rolling aside just as Jolene's attack thundered into the ground, sending up puffs of sand in every direction. Link stood, lurched, grabbed her wrists as she was rising. Jolene threw her weight back, though, and when she landed laid out atop the sand, planted her feet against his stomach and hoisted him up and over her head.

Link sailed forward, momentarily weightless before crashing back down to the sand. He winced as the air was driven from him and pain wracked his lower back, but made himself stand all the same. When he had, Jolene was rushing on his position, relentless as ever, and Link could only stand and wait, collecting what breath he could for the next scuffle. Her hands came battering down on him when she'd closed the gap, but Link swatted them aside, attack-by-attack, using his forearms as makeshift shields. When she started joining her knees and feet to the fray, he had to shift his defense downwards to protect his body. The woman's energy was seemingly limitless, though, and soon enough she began to press the attack forward; Link helpless but to fall back on his heels and give her ground.

He'd gone not ten steps when the fall of land shifted beneath his feet, angling off and sloping downwards. The edge of the mound, he realized. I have no more ground to give. Jolene must have known that as well, for at that same moment she screeched and sent her hands and feet driving on him more ferociously than ever.

Too ferocious, as it turned out. She made a mistake, kicking high while trying to move forward, and her back foot came off balance where it was planted in the sand, sending her whole frame wobbling. Link did not waste the opportunity. He drove himself forward, caught her stretched leg against his shoulder, and tackled the woman back onto the sands. That time, he was sure to keep her body under his own, and when they landed, pinned her down with his weight over her shoulders. Her foot came up to hook him away, but she'd used the trick one too many times by then, and Link was ready with the counter. He hooked her ankle beneath the pit of his arm and squeezed, locking it in place. Her other leg was suspended uselessly above his head, all the strength of her thigh worthless with his shoulder pressed to its backside. Her hands came flailing up to swat at his face, but Link snatched them by the wrists and pinned them down to the sands.

"It's over," he told her between breaths.

Jolene's face was as red as the desert horizon at sunset, her teeth barred and clenched so tightly they looked read to shatter, her eyes wide and alert… but there was fear there as well. "No!" She tried writhing and squirming, twisting and jerking every which way, but all her momentum was held awkwardly away from her, and all she accomplished was tiring herself out as Link kept her pinned right where she was.

"It is over, Jolene!" He repeated.

By then, the rest of the Gerudo were moving in around them, braving to ascend the sand mound themselves to get a closer look at their helpless leader as she writhed and screamed her fury. By the time Jolene had finally exhausted herself, the entire camp was huddled up around them, staring down at her. From the back of the crowd, Aveil came, her chains removed, her arm slung over Kotake's shoulder for support. The rest moved aside for her and looked between the bloodied woman and the fallen leader she stood over.

"Aveil…" Jolene said, forcing a smile up at the other woman. "My sister."

"Tell it true, Aveil," a woman began from the opposite side of the crowd. "What did Jolene do to you?"

And so she told them. The story was brief, but the telling brutal. Jolene had kidnapped her from the camp at night, had her dragged down into a dungeon, and then had beaten her bloody with both whip and fists before 'using' her womanly parts for her own pleasure. Jolene listened along with the rest of them, her lips pressed tightly together, her expression steely and resolute, and when the tale ended, stared from Gerudo to Gerudo.

"She has lied to us all along," Aveil told the crowd. "She has poisoned our minds with treachery, our hearts with deceit." Her almond eyes met Link's, the faintest hint of a smile brushing her lips. "And this man is innocent. He is a… good man. Gentle and caring. And us Gerudo have wronged him in more ways than we could ever hope to amend."

The rest of the women looked from one another to Link with their brows furrowed and their eyes narrowed uncertainly.

"His name is Mr. Link," Kotake explained with a grin. When she looked aside to Aveil, though, the joy in her expression waned some. "And he and I have grown very close."

Aveil's brow lifted. "Oh?"

"Yes," Kotake confirmed, lifting her chin a bit. "Very close."

"Get off me!" Jolene demanded from her position pinned below Link.

Aveil turned to Jo's crimson guard. "Do any of you still mean to follow this woman?"

The four ladies in their dark red masks looked to one another. Slowly but surely, each of them shook their head.

Aveil nodded. "Good. Then fetch ropes and bind her hands and feet."

"NO!" Jolene wailed, writhing furiously beneath Link's weight. "No, you little whore! You will not bind me like some beast! I will not be tamed! Do you hear me, Aveil you whore!? I am your LEADER!"

Aveil rolled her eyes. "And gag her as well."

When it was done, Jolene was trussed up as tight as Link ever had been. Thick hempen rope covered her from head to heel. Her former guards didn't even offer her the comfort of a cloth gag, opting instead to simply run a few coils of rope between her teeth. It wouldn't be the most comfortable thing in the world, Link knew, but it had shut Jolene up… for the most part. Her muffled shouting filled the clearing until they dragged her off to a dungeon.

Inevitably, as Link knew it would, the attention turned his way. The women swept shrewd, scrutinizing looks over him as they bunched up around his position with their hands atop their hips or folded across their chests. It was Kotake who came to him first, wiggling her way through the crowd and slipping her arm under his own to entwine them.

"Mr. Link here saved me from a pack of hungry vultures," she proudly proclaimed, squeezing at his arm. "Then he rode with me between his arms all the way back to the camp atop his horse. It was very… intimate."

Aveil stood at the front of the crowd listening, her fingers drumming impatiently atop her arm. "I suppose we must figure out what to do with you now, Link of Hyrule."

"We can't let him go," someone voiced immediately.

"No," another agreed, "he knows too much about our camp and our ways. If the Hylians were to find out where we were…"

"Their kind has always detested our kind."

They have good reason, Link thought. Ganondorf…

"What would you have us do then?" Aveil questioned. "Bind him and put him back in a dungeon? After all we've already done to the poor thing?"

"I can stay with him," Kotake offered. "I will keep him company day and night and I could feed him and wash him and-"

"Have your way with him?" Aveil finished.

Kotake's mouth gaped, but she closed it back up quick and averted her eyes.

"We need a new leader," someone suggested. "Then whoever it is can decide the man's fate."

A smattering of agreement coursed through the crowd.

Both Aveil and Kotake nodded along as well. "We will have a choosing, then," Aveil began, "and until a new leader is chosen, we will keep you here as our… guest, Link."

"Our special guest," Kotake chirped, squeezing at his arm.

"You can have Jolene's quarters in the fortress. They are big and well furnished, comfortable, with a pretty view of the whole camp."

Link sighed. "And I suppose I'll be locked inside…?"

Aveil smiled wanly. "For a little while, at least… Link of Hyrule. Until the choosing."

Link lifted his eyes to the fortress. Epona had crested the dune behind it. She watched down over the scene with a placid stillness. "My horse…"

"Will be well taken care of, I assure you."

"Come on, Mr. Link!" Kotake cheered, tugging at his arm. "I will show you the way! Oh, isn't it wonderful!? No more Jolene and now we get to keep you! Well, for a little while at least. Come on come on come on!"

With no other option before him, Link went. Still a prisoner, he realized as Kotake ushered him through the crowd and Aveil fell in on his other side soon enough. Even after all that's happened… I still belong to the Gerudo… still their 'slave'… but for how much longer?

That, he did not know, and it was with that unsettling uncertainty he lingered with as the girls took him away to the fortress to be locked up.