Chapter 11: Escape From the Dark
The darkness had become intolerable. Saria shut her eyes tight and banged her head up against the cold damp stone behind her. She didn't know how long she was going to be in here or whether she would ever escape. She tried to sleep, but her head was humming with misguided thoughts. This prison was a living hell.
"What have you done with her?" The burst of noise from the slamming door filled the room, each vibration echoing in the darkest corners. At the end of the long room sat the infamous queen of Gerudos, shadowed in darkness. She hung limply off her throne, her hair twirled in her fingers. Not even startled, the Gerudo queen lifted her head from her meditation, and looking at Link, a sly grin slid over her tanned face.
"My dear swordsman… whom do you speak of? And what audacity do you contain as to come into my court and yell at me?" Naburoo purred as she straightened up in her chair. She dismissed her servants with a wave of her hand, so that she and Link were left alone in the room.
"You know exactly who I speak of. Where is Saria?" Link stamped his foot impatiently, his hand clenching into a fist at his side. He walked cautiously up to the queen, lying before her Saria's green cap. "I know she's here, I found this on your grounds." Naburoo twirled her hair in between the tips of her fingers, squinted her golden eyes, and smiled at the hero. She looked like a sly fox, perched upon her throne with a look of playfulness in her eyes. This was all a game to her.
"Saria… hmmm… the name doesn't ring a bell." At that moment, Link burst. He pulled his sword from within its sheath, and pointed it directly at the queen's throat.
"I'm not in for a game right now. I have been through enough as it is within the past few days, and I do not need you and your jealousy to give me even more trouble," Link growled. Naburoo's eyes widened at first, but soon calmed as the queen let out a hearty laugh. She put up her hand and pushed the blade from in front of her face. She stood up from her throne, face to face with Link.
"How dare you threaten me, you incompetent fool. You think that that little dagger of yours is a threat to me? In hylian years I may be only a few years older than yourself, but in the years of Gerudos, I am far beyond you in wisdom and in strength. If you even think that you can come into my court, threaten me and then get away with it, you are sadly mistaken. You may have defeated our Lord Ganon, but I am a whole different game," she said, her face completely expressionless.
Link took a step back and withdrew his sword. He looked at the Gerudo queen and smiled. Although her face was stern, Naburoo's eyes glittered, and no longer than a minute after that outburst, a smiled wiped across her face. Her expression loosened and the queen collapsed into her chair.
"Damn, I could not help but smiling. I am no good at this whole 'stern authority' thing," she laughed, relaxing her head on her fist. "Your little thing is in the dungeon. She's perfectly fine, we just wanted to give her a good scare so she knew not to come back."
"And you wonder why people are scared of you…" Link smiled. He saluted the queen and exited into the wandering corridors of the Gerudo fortress. He had gotten past the queen, now all he had to do was find the dungeon… which was this way… right?
After calming the nerves of the fallen farm girl and the steaming Zora, Zelda had finally gotten a little time to herself to prepare for her date tonight. She sat patiently by the river, twirling her finger in the water, and watching the slow gentle ripples spread around in graceful waves. The sun was still high in the sky, and Zelda knew she still had time before her date with Link, but she was getting quite anxious. After Malon returned early from their date, with tears brimming in her eyes, Zelda worried that Link was not going to show. The calm serenity of the quite forest village was relaxing though, and eventually Zelda's nerves calmed.
"How dare you… you… you little sardine!" Zelda had spoken too soon. From the other side of the Kokiri village, the two other girls stormed in. Ruto was a little ahead of the farm girl, although looking quite different now from this morning. Her usual pearly blue scales were now a greenish tint, and a string of seaweed was dragging from her foot. Not far behind her was the young farm girl, clutched tightly in her grasp looked to be a large chunk of auburn hair.
Soon enough the farm girl had caught up to Ruto, and with one good pull, twisted the Zora all the way around to face her. From Zelda's point of view, it seemed as though they were about to bite each other's faces off. Preferring not to witness a bloody battle, Zelda thought it best to step in.
"You, there," she said, pointing Malon in the direction of a small log, in which the farm girl sat down and growled. "You, there," doing the same to the Zora, placing her a little farther away from Malon. "Not what is going on?" Zelda really felt like someone's mother by this point.
"That little slime ball put seaweed in the spa for bathing. Well I don't react too well to seaweed… and… and," Ruto started to get all choked up, not being able to finish the sentence. Zelda looked to Malon, who was squinting her eyes at the scaly being.
"Well… well Ruto took a huge chunk out of my hair… my hair which I work so hard to look pretty, and now has a huge chunk missing from it," Malon stammered, holding out the scrap of hair as evidence. Zelda placed her palm on her forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"Ruto… your scales will eventually turn back to normal… try using soap? And Malon, just pull the small parts in front off to the side and make them into bangs, it will look fine," Zelda finally said, trying to calm the girls nerves. They both looked up at her, pondering over what she had said, and eventually stood up and went off in different directions. Zelda walked over to one of the logs and slumped down, burying her head in her hands.
"One more day… and it will all be over with."
"Saria," A voice said, stirring the Kokiri from her slumber. "Saria, wake up." Saria opened her eyes, a dark blurry figure was kneeling right in front of her. Eventually her eyes came into focus, and a great smile wiped across the girls face.
"Link…," she smiled weakly. He took her hand and helped her to her feet. "Thank the goddesses that you found me, I was scared they were going to throw me into the desert."
"You're okay right?" he asked with a serious look on his face. She nodded her head and grabbed her rucksack. "What were you doing in the Gerudo area to begin with?" He said as she followed him out of the dungeon.
"I… I can't tell you," she said meekly. He turned his head towards her and looked at her with a curious look on his face. The dark corridors soon became lighter and lighter as they reached the surface.
"You shouldn't be just running around like that," he said. From staring at the ground, Saria's eyes snapped upward and looked at him.
"Link… I'm not a little kid… don't treat me like one. I know exactly what I was doing, I just can't tell you what it is," she said, turning his eyes away from his.
"Well, with what you did today, you sure were acting like one. You caused me a lot of trouble today, I hope you know that." They had finally exited the Gerudo fortress, and the blinding desert sun flooded into Saria's darkened eyes.
"Oh… I'm sorry Link, did I disrupt your little dates today. Did I weaken your chances of finding your perfect woman?" Saria's voice was just dripping with sarcasm.
"What is wrong with you? You agreed to help me."
"I… I… did it for you Link, because I… I… forget it." By this point the two had crossed the Gerudo Bridge and were exiting Gerudo Valley. Link mounted Epona once the two had reached Termina field, and extended his hand to help Saria up. She shook her head.
"This is where I part. Sorry I caused so much trouble for you today, I'll make sure it never happens again," she words were catching in her throat. She turned and walked the opposite way, towards Hyrule castle.
"Saria…" Link said, but she had already started into a run. The tears were no longer contained behind her green eyes, but she couldn't let Link see that. She heard the pounding hooves of a horse start into a gallop. Saria spun around… just to see Link headed in the opposite direction. Link hadn't even tried to stop her…