Year of the Great Kingdom 583
Everything that was spoken aloud, Telma did not understand. Sometimes the men were shouting, sometimes her mother would shout, but mostly her mother and this new stranger spoke softly to each other, occasionally motioning toward her and saying "vai."
The sun gradually set behind the Gerudo Mountains and the deep blue-black of the night sky rolled overhead. The two soldiers seemed to become annoyed with Mama Vai and the strange man, and began to shout at the two of them. The farmer began shaking his head "no" at the woman and pointed back at the road.
For the only time in her life, Telma witnessed the impossible: her mother began to weep. Tears streaked down the proud warrior's face – twinkling in the starlight. Very slowly, she lowered herself to her knees, placed her hands upon the man's stomach, and rested her forehead against his waist. Sobbing with grief, she begged him to take her daughter and spare her the awful act of having to slit her own child's throat.
The poor little girl still did not understand what was happening. Her terror multiplied as she watched her own mother crying and kneeling to this stranger. Gormund turned his eyes from Mama Vai's head, and looked right at her. She was so tiny and meek. A terrified, innocent, beautiful child -His child. With a horrified shiver, he imagined her crying in fear as the Gerudo dagger slashed open her throat. How she would twitch and squirm pitifully upon the sand, her eyes filled with absolute horror, until her little body bled out and death took her.
It was impossible to bear. Even Gormund, within his own little wretched life, could not stomach the idea of a child being cast away into the darkness like that. "Alright." He groaned. "I will take her." The desperate mother let out a sudden, bubbling sigh of relief as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Thank you, Voe." She croaked through her tears.
She stood, wiped the wetness from her face, and composed herself, before turning back to her daughter. She knelt down again and looked Telma directly in the eyes. "This voe is your 'father' Telma. Do you understand?" she asked, in Gerudo. The little girl shook her head "no" – she had never heard the term before. Mama Vai shifted her eyes back and forth as she struggled to think of an explanation for her. "As I am a part of you… he is a part of you." She tried again, but the child was only more frightened. "No! No! Y-you are my mama! I… I don't know this voe!" she sobbed, trying to grab hold of her mother's arms, but Mama Vai pushed her away.
"You must be strong!" she said, struggling to keep her voice clear, "Obey him as you have obeyed me!" she finished, nearly shouting over her daughter's cries, as she reached up and unbound a string of beads from her hair. Shoving them into Telma's little hands, she finished, "May the Great Goddess keep you." And swiftly strode away.
Her daughter tried to follow her, but Gormund quickly grabbed her arm and would not let her go. She began to scream and called to her mother, "Mama! Mama Vai! Help me! DON'T LEAVE ME!" but the Gerudo simply dropped Telma's bundles from the mule's back, and led it back to the Hylian road.
The two soldiers glared at the farmer for one last moment, before following her back to the desert.
Little Telma shrieked and wailed into the night, pleading with her mother not to leave her with this strange person, but she was gone and the child would never see her again.