The castle walls at night were only as comforting as they were imposing. They were tall, looming, slabs of stone, painted a shimmering silver beneath the moonlight, and they crowded the paths and walkways of Hyrule Castle like some ancient stone giants, keeping their eternal vigil. Zelda always felt small and overwhelmed beside them, and so she moved down the path with hurried strides; her slippered feet casting little hushes across the stone underfoot as she did. A cool wind swept down off the mountains to the East, lifting a few stray leaves into a dance, and prompting Hyrule's Princess to pull her night gown tighter around her slim frame to keep warm. Somewhere beyond the walls, a wolf howled. The shrill song send a shiver up her spine.
"Princess," her guard began in a breathless plea beside her, doing his best to match her pace, "are you sure this cannot wait till the morrow? It is dangerous for you to be out here under the veil of night. There are shadows… and shadows bring out the worst of people."
Zelda faced him with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "There is nothing to fear tonight, kind Sir, for I have you." She laid her hand on his forearm and squeezed.
The big armored man sighed and bowed his head. "As you say, my Princess. I only wish you wouldn't walk so fast."
Her eyes returned to the path before them, twisting down the dark, shadowed channels of the castle's inner wall. She pulled a breath and steeled herself with determination. "I apologize for my pace, Sir, but tonight's work demands urgency."
"This intruder…"
"I need hear no more of the intruder," Zelda interjected. "I'm sure I'll have their story from their own tongue soon enough."
"As you say, Princess."
They walked to the end of the path, and a big stone tower rising from the earth greeted them at the castle's corner. Flanking the door at its base, two more armed and armored guards stood at attention as Zelda stepped between them. She smiled and bowed cordially before gesturing to the door. The men hurried to open it for her, then solidified back into their statuesque watch at the flanks. Zelda thanked them, allowed her personal guard to step inside, then quickly followed behind him. The door at their backs was closed, and at once the cold winds of the outside world were snuffed out, and Zelda was able to loosen her grip on her gown a bit then, thankful to be back inside.
"We've got the intruder locked away in the deepest dungeon, Princess," her guard informed her. "We've disarmed them entirely, but I would still stress caution. This one… this one is deceptive and snaky. Stay away from the bars of their cell. Do not-"
"I assure you I can handle one caged prisoner, Sir," Zelda told him. "You have my thanks for accompanying me here. You may wait at the door till I return."
"Wait here!?" Her guard echoed incredulously. "Princess, please, I must argue against such a thing. Surely, I shall accompany you to-"
"You shall do as I instructed, Sir," Zelda interjected, "but you most certainly have my thanks for your concern. It is very sweet of you." She stood on the tips of her toes and leaned forth to kiss his cheek. The man gaped at her, but her kiss had seemed to stolen his will to verbally protest. Zelda did not waste the opportunity to make her retreat. "I shall return soon enough." And with that, slipped into the narrow, curved, staircase that wound down into the tower's dungeon.
The staircase turned and turned, tunneling deeper into the earth with every step of her slippered feet, lit only occasionally by an ensconced torch overhead. When the serpentine path finally ended, Zelda knew she'd come deep underground, and the only thing awaiting her was a thin hall with a dirt floor; a sectioned off quadrant at the rear behind a row of ten iron bars. A pair of torches flanked the cell, spilling red/orange light inside and casting the shadows of the prison's bars in flickering, slanted, lines against the back wall. Between them, their captured intruder sat.
Zelda neared and stood at arm's length from the cell, narrowing her eyes onto the prisoner. There was something… avian about the woman behind the bars. Even seated, she appeared tall and lanky, with sharp features and a long slender neck. Her dark hair matched her dark skin, and sat behind her head in a tight ponytail. It's her nose though, Zelda realized as she stared at the woman's lowered face. It was a long, jeweled nose that hooked at the end, almost like a bird's beak. Or a vulture's.
As if reading into her thoughts, the woman's head lifted ever so slightly, her dark eyes raising to meet Zelda's own. The twin flames at her sides reflected against her pupils; the rest of her features awash in shadow. "Princess," the prisoner greeted with a grin, her voice laced with the subtle dessert accent of the Gerudo. "A pleasure to finally meet you."
Zelda held her tongue a moment as she continued studying the woman. Her guard's words of warning resurfaced in her mind, This one is deceptive and snaky. Looking upon her then, Zelda could not disagree. She looked like a coiled snake there at the floor of the cell, posed and ready to strike from the shadows at a moment's notice. The Princess crossed her arms and drummed her fingers against her elbows, keeping her distance from the bars as she spoke. "You requested to speak with me, I understand?"
"I did."
"You were caught sneaking into the inner gardens of the castle."
"I was."
"No one has ever made it so far. I must ask, how did you accomplish such a thing?"
"Skill, mostly." The woman's thin lips wormed their way into a smile. "You are very pretty, Princess. Your hair looks as if it's been kissed by sunlight. Your skin, as smooth and supple as fresh poured milk. Yes. You are quite beautiful. I could see how any person that looked upon you would just want to… drink you up." She snickered quietly to herself.
"Did you request my presence to speak with me, or to try and seduce me?" Zelda questioned with a raise of her brow. "If it's the latter, I assure you your attempts will find no success."
"No?" The Gerudo woman stared. "Don't you get lonely in this big, empty, castle, though, Princess? Doesn't your heart sing the same song as the rest of us? A song that just begs for another voice to join in and sing with it? Are you so cold, Princess Zelda of Hyrule?"
A serpent's tongue, too, Zelda thought with a frown. "My patience runs thin. If you have something to say, say it now, or I'm afraid I must take my leave of you."
The woman looked down at her own hands and rubbed her fingers against one another. Just when Zelda thought she was going to take a vow of silence and was readying to make her departure, the prisoner spoke. "I did come quite far into your precious castle, didn't I, Princess? A lone Gerudo… so close to breaking into the fables Princess of Hyrule's chambers. Does that notion frighten you?"
"No. It does not."
The Gerudo laughed. "You are quite full of yourself, aren't you? That haughty way you lift your chin and look down your nose at me… the confidence in your voice… the way you take your every step as if the ground should be thankful just to have your royal feet fall upon it. You're certainly a Princess. There's no denying that. You have all the false bravado of one. I wonder, though, Princess, how brave you might've been if I'd made my way into your bed chambers? Without your big guards and your big walls to protect you… would you still be able to lift your pretty chin high enough to look down on me then?"
Zelda had heard enough. "You've waste my time, and I will take my leave of you now. You will remain here, locked up, until I find suitable work for you in the castle grounds. You can atone your crime of breaking in through labor, then I'll release you and you can crawl back to the dessert where you came from for all I care. Goodbye." She turned to leave.
The Gerudo's words halted her in place. "There's war coming to your castle, Princess."
Zelda turned her head so she could cast a shrewd eye on the prisoner. She knew better than to reveal the worry the word 'war' had put in her chest, and replied evenly and calm. "Oh? War with whom, I must ask?"
"My people."
That was enough to turn Zelda back around. The last Gerudo to invade the land of Hyrule… No, she thought, casting the thought aside. Best not to think of that vile man and his treacheries. "The Gerudo?" She questioned with a raise of her brow. "And what, may I ask, has prompted a war with them? We've stayed out of your business, you've stayed out of ours."
"We tire of the desert," she answered with a shrug. "And we tire of your Hylian snobbery. We want your castle, Princess, and all the lands it rules over." The woman snickered in the shadows. "I'm but a messenger. The calm before the storm, if you will. And look what I managed all by my lonesome… nearly had you at my mercy with a few simple climbs and leaps."
Zelda swallowed a lump that'd formed up in her throat. "You… you're lying. The Gerudo would not wage open war on the castle. You'd never stand a chance."
"Open war? Likely not. But the Gerudo have never been one to show our hand. We will slip into your castle like the sand snakes you think we are, infiltrate, spread, and then strike from within. What makes you think there aren't dozens more of my sisters all throughout your precious castle grounds right now as we speak? Closing in around you like a noose tightening on a dead man's neck?"
The woman's voice had grown quieter as she spoke, and Zelda took a step nearer to hear her better. When she finished, the Princess narrowed her eyes on the woman's and shook her head. "If you're trying to frighten me, I'm afraid you're failing. My guards-"
"Are well trained, I'm sure, but poorly experienced. That, I suppose, is the burden of having such dominant rule over the land. When's the last time war has…" Quieter and quieter she spoke until Zelda interrupted.
"If you're going to threaten me, at least have the decency to make yourself heard! I can't-"
The woman uncoiled herself, long, lanky, limbs unfolding and working together in perfect unison to spring herself forth. Her hands spread like the talons of a vulture her beaked nose reminded the Princess of and jutted through the bars of the cell. Zelda gasped and stepped backwards, but the woman's arms were long and supple, and before she could flee the woman's reach, those talon-like fingers were digging into the soft flesh of her upper arm and yanking her back. Zelda yelped and twisted and pulled, but the Gerudo woman's other hand had joined the fray by then, clamping down around her wrists and twisting at it till Zelda submitted it. When it was all said and done, the prisoner had managed to get her spun around and pulled right up against the bars of the cell. One of her arms was twisted painfully around her back, and the Gerudo had a tight hold on her chin, pressing her head back and turning it.
"Let me go!" Zelda demanded, writhing against the woman's grasp.
The Gerudo twisted her wrist again instead until she went quiet. "Call to your guard, Princess," the woman spoke right beside her ear, close enough that she could smell the warm, spicy, trickle of her breath. "Call your guard down here now, before I break your wrist."
"No…" Zelda whispered, wincing against the pain. "I will not…"
"You will, or after I break your wrist, I'll snap your neck. Now call your guard down."
She hesitated, and the Gerudo did not waste time twisting her wrist harder, wrenching her up towards her shoulder blades. When the woman commanded her again, Zelda knew she had no choice but to obey. "Guard! Come down! Quickly! Come down to the dungeon!" She bellowed loud enough to carry her voice up the curved stairwell.
It wasn't long before she heard the heavy plating of her guard clanking against itself, and a moment later, he appeared in the doorway, breathless and red-faced. The woman is right, Zelda thought upon seeing him. My soldiers are well-trained but long out of practice…
"Princess!" The guard wailed, but when he took a step forward, the Gerudo woman halted him with a threat.
"Don't move or I'll snap her lovely little neck. Now listen to me you oaf, are those my things there by your feet? In the brown sack?"
Zelda's guard glanced to the bag, back to the woman, and nodded. His complexion had gone pale and sickly as he glanced helplessly towards Zelda and swallowed.
"Good. Then toss me the key to this wretched cage you've locked me up in."
"No!" Zelda commanded, but after that, she'd command no more as the woman's hand slid up from her chin and clamped hard over her mouth instead. "Mmmph!"
"Do as I say or she dies."
"You must not harm her!" The guard pleaded. "You give me your word on that! She is the Princess of Hyrule, she must-"
"Toss the key here or you're going to watch her royal wrist snap."
"No! Please! Here, you vile thing, here!" He fetched the key from the ring looped around his waistband and tossed it forth. The woman released her clamp over Zelda's mouth only long enough to catch it and transfer it to her other hand before silencing her again. "Now let her go!"
Behind her, Zelda heard the click of the cell door being unlocked, and a moment later, the bars were swinging forth, forcing her to take awkward half-steps as the iron pressed into her back and shoulders. The Gerudo slipped out, and snatched her more firmly, pressing their bodies together as she took a handful of Zelda's hair and wrenched it back.
"Now get in there," the woman instructed of the guard. "And close the door behind you. Now before I hurt your princess in a way she won't heal from. Go!"
Her poor guard, practically in a panic, did as the woman said. When he'd closed himself in the cell, the Gerudo tossed him the key, made him lock himself in, then made him toss it back to her. When he was securely locked up, Zelda was shoved to the floor.
She felt in the dirt on her hands and knees, but before she could rise again, the Gerudo's foot landed between her shoulder blades and thrust her down till she lay flat on her belly.
"Stay where you are, Princess Zelda," the woman commanded. "It's where you belong, after all. Beneath our feet, in the dirt."
Zelda grit her teeth and turned her head to face the woman. "What do you mean to do? You can't possible believe you'll escape this castle? You-"
"Shut your mouth," the woman demanded, leaning down to snatch up the brown sack nestled into the corner of the hall. She dragged it over and fished inside a moment before producing a pair of rags. A moment later, she took another fistful of Zelda's hair and wrenched it back till the Princess yelped. When she did, the Gerudo stuffed one of the rags into her mouth, then used the other to tied around it. "It's long past time someone gagged you, Princess. Your royal mouth has been allowed to run free for far too long. Now you'll behave."
"Hrrmmmph!" Zelda could only grumble into the gag as it was fastened tightly at the back of her head. "Mrmmnmph!" The woman ignored her muffled protests, and instead fished a length of rope from her bag to wrench Zelda's hands behind her back and begin tying them there in place. When her hands were tightly secured, the Gerudo lassoed her torso a few times before moving to her legs and binding her above and below the knees, then finishing with a tight coil around her ankles.
"There we are," the woman cooed, patting her hand down atop Zelda's rear end. "Trussed up good and tight and ready for transport."
"Transport!?' Her guard, helplessly locked behind bars, echoed. "Surely, you don't mean to try and smuggle the Princess beyond the castle walls! That's madness!"
"Listen to me," the woman began, "when someone inevitably finds you down here, you big dumb oaf, you're going to explain what happened exactly, then you're going to inform them that the Gerudo have declared war on all of Hyrule. Specifically, this castle. We want it. And if we don't get it…" The woman's hand patted softly at Zelda's behind again. Zelda could only grunt and mumble and glare, twisting helplessly at her useless hands bound together. "The Princess here will be punished. Severely."
"No…" Her guard muttered, his eyes falling downwards dejectedly.
"Afraid so. Remember: the Gerudo declare war. All of us. Tell them, and your precious princess might live to see herself returned here as our slave one day." With that, the woman simply bent down, scooped Zelda up in her arms, and rose again with the Princess slung atop her shoulder as if she were nothing more than a sack of grain.
This can not be happening, Zelda thought, writhing and grunting against her gag, but her meek protests did nothing to stop the woman from carrying her out of the dungeon and into the stairwell. When they'd made it back to the main floor, a surge of hope coursed through the Princess when she eyed the wooden door and imagined her guards on its opposite side. But the Gerudo woman did not go through the door. She hesitated there, catching her breath, but when it was caught, simply headed into the next stairwell and began ascending the tower further. Where is she taking me? Zelda wondered, but did not need wonder long, for the answer became clear soon enough.
At the most upper floor of the tower, their ascent finally ended. The Gerudo woman set Zelda on the floor and caught her breath again a moment before rummaging back into her bag. From within, she produced a very long coil of hempen rope, far thicker and more heavily knotted than the one she'd used to bind Zelda hand and foot. When the entire length of it was uncoiled, the swarthy woman began wrapping one end around the legs of the chamber's bed, and then the other end around her slim waist. When both were tied and knotted, she fixed a grin upon Zelda and took her back in her arms. "Hope you're not afraid of heights, Princess."
Zelda's eyes widened and her teeth sunk into the rag keeping her silent. "Hrmnmmmm!"
Without further hesitation, the Gerudo climbed to the windowsill, shoved the wood and glass pane back on its hinges, and carefully began moving to the outer sill. At once, the cold wind sweeping down off the mountains came barreling forth, throwing Zelda's hair and gown about in a wild dance. The Gerudo only went on climbing though, as if impervious to the wind's shrill wail. Zelda had to close her eyes as the two breached the outer sill, and then they were lowering, slowly, down onto vertical face of the tower itself, only the Gerudo woman's tenuous grip on the rope keeping them from plummeting entirely. Her head spun, a cold sweat pooled in her palms, and her heart hammered against her chest, but Zelda made herself keep still, refusing to let her fear potentially make the woman lose her grip.
At some point, they reached solid ground, and Zelda pried her eyes apart to take in the surroundings. Hyrule field was dark, the massive sprawl of dark blue sky watching over it, littered with the myriad white pinholes that were the stars. The winds were less severe there, but the chill was just as cold against her skin. Zelda was only dressed in her night clothes and a gown, and with every gust of wind, they shook loosely around her frame. She'd even lost her slippers at some point during the scuffle, and so when the woman set her down, the slightly damp grass of the field met the soles of her bare feet and sent a shiver up her spine.
The Gerudo tucked her slender fingers between her thin lips and blew. The whistle was sharp but not overtly loud, and a moment later, from around the nearest bend of a hill, a horse began trotting their way.
She had it all planned, Zelda realized, an uneasy feeling stirring profoundly in the pit of her stomach. Getting caught, talking with me, the escape out of the top of the tower, the ride away on horseback… all of it. She must've planned all of it. The idea made her head swim. Her entire kidnapping was seen long in advance, and now she was helpless but to see it to its conclusion.
When the horse galloped beside them. The tall woman, slung her over her shoulder again, as easily as ever, and then tossed her on the back of the saddle atop her belly. Zelda was unsure of what was happening to her until the Gerudo yanked her legs up into the air and began binding her feet to her hands. She's hogtying me like some animal! She realized as her binds were pulled more and more tight.
"It's not going to be a comfortable ride for you, I'm afraid, Princess," the woman explained. She leaned down so their eyes met and grinned a malicious grin. "But I don't care." She laughed and made to climb to the saddle before halting and returning. "Oh, and we never had proper introduction either. My name is Jolene, Princess Zelda of Hyrule. I am the former, and soon to be future, leader of the Gerudo tribe. You, Princess, have just earned me my ticket back into my sister's family. For that, I thank you from the very bottom of my heart." She leaned in and kissed the tip of Zelda's nose. Zelda recoiled and grunted, but the woman, Jolene, only stared into her eyes. "Hmmm… that fair Hylian skin of yours… sweet… like his."
His? Zelda thought, but before she could think further, Jolene threw her head back, cackled into the night like some wild beast, then slung one long leg up over the saddle, spurred her heels into the horse's sides, and raced them off towards the West. Towards the desert, Zelda thought, that uncomfortable tension in her belly pulling taught once more. She's kidnapped me, and now I'm being stolen away to the desert… to the Gerudo.
Jolene spurred the horse on, picking up speed as they crested a grassy hill and began racing down the other side in the night, only the moon and the stars to watch over them as that ominous brown horizon of the desert grew closer and closer with every stride.