Thank you to LiddyRose for favouriting me, to Master Halycon, Origin12 xxxPurpleMoonlightxxx, Cressie-Chan, omaiga and LiddyRose for favouriting this story, and to Dyrezz, 00cLosetFreak00 and once again LiddyRose for your reviews. I love you all :D
Seventy seven... Seventy eight... Seventy nine...
Link sighed and slumped back against the wall. The stone he had been kicking at the opposite wall rolled back towards him and stopped dead at his foot when he didn't push it back again. There's only so many things you can do with a pebble, he mused.
He sighed, slid his back along the wall and fell to the floor, glaring out the high window above. The sun is setting already? I've been in here for ages. He huffed and rolled onto his back. The heat of the desert had sapped all of his energy, and despite the shade in his cell it remained swelteringly hot. His tunic felt heavy and damp, and he just felt sticky and uncomfortable.
Navi said the desert gets cold at night... Night can't come soon enough. He rolled over again and hissed in pain as the pebble dug into his ribs. He fished it out from under him and flicked it away, watching it bouce off the wall and come back at him. One...
This time the previous day, Link, Dark Link and Navi were settling down to rest in Hyrule Field just outside of the Valley to get an early start. While they were originally intending to sleep earlier than usual, they ended up staying up late, just chatting.
"So, what do you know about the Gerudo Desert?" Link had asked Navi after they settled down and got themselves comfortable.
"It's a desert, and it's home to the Gerudos." Dark Link muttered. Link shot him a glare and turned back to Navi.
"Well... Deserts are pretty harsh places. They're very hot during the day, and at night they can get very, very cold. Generally they're characterised by a lack of rainfall, though, so not only will the heat dehydrate you quickly, but you won't be able to find much water around."
"Sounds like it's not a nice place to live."
"Not really. But the Gerudo manage it, somehow. There's a Valley with a river running at the bottom, and they have quite an intricate system to get water from it."
"How do they cope with the heat?" Link wondered aloud.
"They often wear loose, thin clothing... Literally the opposite of yours."
Link looked down at himself and grimaced. Dark Link elbowed him in the side. "At least you won't be cold at night."
Navi fluttered her wings and shook herself. "You'll probably still be cold in a desert. But, onto the Gerudo themselves. Have you heard they're an all female race?"
"What? But... Isn't Ganondorf...?"
Dark Link spluttered with laughter at the thought of Ganondorf as a woman. He'd always imagined him to be... Well, rather masculine.
"Well, yes, he is, you see-" Navi was cut off by Link joining in with Dark Link's contagious guffaws.
"Demon Lady Ganondorf," the albino snickered. "Doesn't have quite the same ring to it."
"If he were female he probably wouldn't be called 'Ganondorf' I don't know... he'd probably be... Debbie?"
"Demon Lady Debbie?!"
Link, having seen Ganondorf before, teared up with laughter.
"If he could see you now, I'm sure you wouldn't be laughing." Navi muttered, but even she chuckled at the thought of Ganondorf being called 'Debbie'.
Dark Link waited for the laughter to subside. "There was probably someone, somewhere in history, who was called Demon Lady Debbie, and I for one feel sorry for them."
"Anyway," Navi interrupted before the two of them could burst into uncontrollable laughter again. "Once every hundred years, a male is born into the Gerudo race, and he becomes their king automatically."
"Wait, so they live for 100 years?" Link asked.
"No, their life expectancy isn't much shorter than a Hylian's. Between Kings they have a rather complex system for electing a leader. They usually remain in a position of power even when the king has been born, but the king is simply higher up in their society."
"If they're all female, and only one male is born into their ranks every hundred years, why aren't they dead yet?" Dark Link pointed out.
"Well... They have, uh... Gerudo women may or may not kidnap men from Hyrule to, um..."
"To mate." Dark Link interjected. "Don't be such a prude, Navi."
Navi blushed a furious shade of scarlet. "I am no such thing!"
Oblivious, Link continued. "Why don't they just come and live in Hyrule?"
"There's a lot of heat between the Hylian Royal Family and the Gerudos," Navi began, ignoring Dark Link's sniggering. "The two simply don't agree on how things should be run. For starters, The Gerudo believe their King should be the kind of everything. And Hylians are quite touchy about the regular and repeated kidnappings. The politics of it are quite convoluted, really."
Navi had gone on to talk about how the politics between them worked and almost bored Link and Dark Link to sleep. Link didn't remember much that happened after that.
While remembering those events was certainly entertaining, he still had nothing to do. He groaned and rolled over again to watch the sun set.
Watching the window, he saw some kind of black mass begin to crawl its way onto the sil. He hastily clambered to his feet and drew his sword. The black mist began to converge into a familiar form, and Link relaxed, suddenly remembering the black mist from when the trio found a way to cross the Valley bridge.
The mist solidified into the form of Dark Link. "Your rescue party has arrived, Princess Link." He teased. Navi flew over his shoulder and back to Link's side.
"Thanks," He muttered dryly. "Nice of you to come at last."
Dark Link simply smiled and tossed the Longshot at him. "Next time, don't throw important tools at the fairy and make enough of a racket to get yourself caught?"
Link aimed the Longshot at the wooden frame of the window and grappled himself up, landing next to his ex-shadow. "She started it."
"I did no such thing!" She piped up.
"You were making fun of me!"
"You kept singing that blasted song about me and Sheik!"
Dark Link rolled his eyes. "I don't care who started it, I'm gunna finish it!" He planted a firm hand on Link's back and shoved him off of the ledge.