Year of the Great Kingdom 583
Several Weeks Later
It took many weeks, and an immeasurable amount of patience, but Gormund was slowly able to encourage Telma to trust him. For a long time, the little girl held out hope that her "Mama Vai" would miss her and return for her, but as the days dragged by, she steadily began to accept the awful truth.
Her father's cabin frightened her. The shadows from the nearby forest sometimes stretched in through the small windows and made ghastly shapes upon the floor and walls. The air was different here too. It was damp and smelled strange to her. Every sound, every movement, filled the poor child with terror and she was alone with this strange man. Her trust came more from necessity than true affection. The outside world was massive and she couldn't survive in it alone. At least this man seemed to accept her and give her food to eat.
Gormund was normally a rather lazy man. He would put just enough effort into his farm to yield a small crop – enough to supply the garrison at the citadel, then spend the rest of his days drinking or playing table games with his friends. All of that changed however, when Telma arrived. By the grace of the Goddess, the new-found father resisted his urges to drink and committed himself to his daughter completely.
Within days, Gormund had gathered enough wood from the forest to fashion a small bed for the little girl and even carved a small handful of dolls or figures for her to play with. They weren't very good – he was not much of a carpenter – but his kind smile encouraged Telma to take them for her own. For blankets and a pillow, he traded much of his hidden liquor to another farmer farther down the Hylian road. His daughter was awed by these last gifts. Only Mama had ever had a proper bed and blanket and she believed that only adults received such things.
They communicated, at first, with gestures and basic hand signals. It was easy for Telma to point to herself and say "Telma" to give her name, but the other Gerudo words she tried to use were too hard for her father to pronounce. He pointed to his own chest and said "Gor-mund", but quickly shook his head and changed it to "Pa-pa." Gradually, as small children are able to do, her mind was able to learn the Hylian language and she was able to communicate with him.
Once he was certain that she would not try to run and they were able to speak to one another clearly, Gormund introduced his daughter to the family trade: potatoes. To his delight, the little girl seemed fascinated by the ugly, brown masses that grew at the bottom of his plants' roots. After demonstrating to her how a plant could be carefully unearthed and checked for ripe potatoes, Telma giggled with delight and eagerly sank her hands into the damp soil, searching for the buried treasure. By the day's end, "Papa! Papa! I found one!" had echoed over the farm nearly a dozen times.
Working together on the farm allowed the two to become accustomed with each other's presence without conscious thought. They called to one another, helped one another, and made the farm a success all without hesitation. In time, little Telma lost all fear of Gormund and became comfortable living with him.
He was alarmed to learn how little of an education the Gerudo had given the girl. She was inquisitive and sharp eyed, but there were many concepts which were totally foreign to her. She could not count, even in the Gerudo language. She had never heard of "voe" or "men" before meeting her father, and had no concept of the differences between the sexes.
Of course, Gormund would not reveal any of the more "adult" aspects to her at such a young age, but he was forced to explain that all animals had mothers and fathers – that was the natural way of things – and that there were certain differences between the bodies of men and women. The most obvious to Telma was the whiskers that grew from her father's face. "Ah-ha, yes yes!" he chuckled, "Men grow 'beards', honey, they are meant to show how strong we are! And to keep us warm in the cold!" But when his daughter tapped her hand upon his chest, Gormund's face turned white and he struggled to think of an appropriate explanation.