Chapter Three: Mongrels
Music blared and people from all over Hyrule came to see the spectacle and eat and drink to their hearts content. And drinking would be abundant. Gathered on the shores of the great lake of Hyrule, Lake Hylia, formed within the walls of a flooded canyon, were the usual Market shop owners who had set up their booths full of the new products they had to sell as part of the tradition of the Fall Bazaar. This was more of a Hylian event really, but none of the other races in Hyrule had ever been excluded because of it since the end of the Civil War. The Gerudo chose not to attend in large groups by their own choice.
Link, on the other hand was going, but chose to be fashionably belated. Truth was he slept in late. There was something about sleeping under the stars of the Field that made him sleep hard as a rock…or on one. The Bazaar had been going on for a day already before Link got there and the King had begun to wonder where he had gone off too.
Even people from the different countries that closely bordered Hyrule came to the Bazaar, which brought in all sorts of new items for the people to browse. Link wasn't particularly interested in shopping though, never had been. No, Link looked forward to the Fall Bazaar for time he could spent with the few close friends he had managed to make over his time-jaded lifetime and to eat. Never had been a drinker.
Link led Epona along through the throngs of people and tied her to the hitching post by the Lakeside Lab, which she greatly disliked. Navi had already flew away from him and found Malon and Talon by the pottery shop and were chatting lightly when Link walked up. He gave Malon a quick, absentminded peck on the cheek before Talon swept him up with some sort of news about the Ranch or another subject before Link could get away. Link wondered if Loraefin and the others had gotten there yet.
It was a very warm day and Megeara looked forward to stripping down to her swimsuit and diving into the cold, clear water of the lake. In fact she had been dying to go all day and grew even more envious of the people who were in there already. It seemed like shopping with Lola, Mariva, and Staceana could take forever and forever was keeping her and the water from one another. Megeara knew now she was a fool to willingly walk into Lolita's trap of 'just a quick look around' instead of staying with Loraefin, Joshuan, Take and Berg. Even the afternoon with Zannon would be bearable compared to this. There was a break in the crowd just long enough for Megeara to get a glance of Joshuan's tuft sand colored hair and Berg's dark reddish brown bouncing along and made a run for it just as Lolita was commenting on yet another scrap of cloth. With one dodge she rushed straight into Berg's unsuspecting arms with a sigh of relief.
"Don't ever, ever let me do that again," she panted, arms still wrapped around his neck. Berg made as if to speak but only shot Joshuan a sidelong glance of amusement and patted Megeara's back as she laughed. Loraefin appeared next to her brother silently and put an arm around his waist and he her shoulders in his brotherly way. She may have been two years his senior, but Joshuan was a good head taller than her. Loraefin smirked and could guess the reason for Megeara's hasty flight. I told you, was what the grin said to her friend.
"Had enough of shopping?" Loraefin laughed in Gerudo as Megeara untwined herself from Berg.
"Lolita and Staceana are crazed," Megeara replied, rolling the soft Gerudo syllables off her tongue like water. "Aye, go off with those two and you're lively never to come back." Megeara ran a look over her friend. Loraefin's brown hair was brushed and smoothed with small braids of woven ribbon accented around her face. The ribbon was burgundy just like the simple, feminine tunica she wore fastened around the waist with a band of the same material. The sleeves were long and the skirt cut at mid calf so you could still see the ankle high leather boots Megeara admired very much.
"You look good Fin," she grinned and squinted in the sun that was beating her face. "It's a good color on you."
"I thought so," Loraefin said and smoothed the creases along the hemline. "Has anyone seen Link yet? I've yet to run into him and I didn't see him with the king's party." The others shook their heads.
"No, but there are a lot of people here Fin, I wouldn't be surprised that our paths haven't crossed yet," Joshuan shrugged his shoulders.
"Shouldn't be too hard to find, just look for the only fairy and a line of swooning women."
The crowd swirled around them in either direction, leaving them like an island in the middle of a river. As the crowd moved there were flashes of detest in passing faces, low grumbles and whispers, all aimed in their direction. These were not the first people to do so, in fact it had been happening all day. People looked upon them with either curiosity or disgust. Young children wound bound up, chattering with tons of questions like, 'so your grandmas are the scary ladies huh?' or 'do you like having that big nose?' Some questions had to be answered with laugh, others shrugged off or walked away from.
There were some that saw them for no more than what they were, people, and did not give them a second glance when they walked by. One woman had the audacity to spit on Loraefin's shoes as she scurried past, passing an ill-tempered glance over her shoulder with a sneer. Take and Lycus nearly took off after her, but Loraefin wiped her boot clean on the grass and begged them not to. And they were not the only ones who experienced such things; every other person from the village would have a story by the end of the day.
They sat under the shade of a tree at high noon when the sun was supreme and at its hottest. No one else sat with them; nobody dared to sit with the mutts birthed by Gerudo savages. There was another group of young men and women their own age down by the water's edge swimming and laughing in the lapping, sparkling waters of the lake. The air was humid and the wind had died down since the hour before, making the cool, crisp waters that much more beckoning. Loraefin shifted in Take's lap as she raised her arm to wipe the sweat from her brow. Take grabbed her arm and wiped his forehead on her sleeve as well. She didn't do anything about it though; it was too hot to do anything about it.
"Oh come on," Take grabbed Loraefin's hands and pulled her to her feet, causing her to jerk upward with a stifled gasp.
"What are you doing?" She would have looked startled if the heat had not made all her features go soft. Indeed she was almost completely limp with only enough steadiness to keep her standing. Take nodded to Berg and Joshuan who got up themselves, Berg pulling Megeara to her feet and Joshuan stretching his arms behind him with faint gleams in their eyes.
"Up we go Fin!" Take laughed and bent down and hoisted the young woman up and over his broad, masculine shoulder. Loraefin protested briefly but she knew an attack by Take was futile to get out of. The next thing she knew she and Megeara were being carried away down to the water's edge slung across the shoulders' of two strapping young men with a younger one in their wake.
"Hey, wait!" Megeara laughed as Berg reached the dock first and threw her head over heels into the cool water and dove in after her. Loraefin was deposited with more or less with care into the water as well followed by both Take and Joshuan. She surfaced with a sharp gasp as the clear water swirled around her, as did the skirt of her dress, a torso floating in a mass of crimson. Loraefin did her best to keep herself covered when the fabric would drift up to far on one side or the other.
Megeara and she swam over to Berg and dunked him underneath the water, ruffling his hair before they were shoved under as well by Take and Joshuan. The water felt so good on the skin it could not be believed and it sent a cool wave up and down Loraefin's spine. It was only a few moments more before others joined them: Lycus, Mayin, Mariva, Witt, and Zannon, all diving into the water. They were quite a spectacle, the ten of them, flashes of tan bodies among the white froth, the Gerudo red hair glinting in the sunlight, and all of the noise their shouting and laughing could produce. Some people watched from the shore and a few of the boys from the group of young men and women they had seen before glared at them.
"You! Mongrels!" One of them cried out at them. Loraefin turned sharply, still treading water. "What do you think you're doing? Get out of our water you filthy bastards!" One of the young women pleaded with him to stop but he threw her off and he and his friends came tromping down the shore. Take and Lycus nodded to one another and swam to shore to meet them.
"Where are you going guys?" Loraefin's voice was hoarse from yelling as she began to swim after them.
"No Fin, stay here," Take turned around and his voice made her stop in her tracks. "Let us deal with this." They swam to shore with Witt, Berg, Joshuan and Zannon in their wake, leaving the four girls in the empty water by themselves. Their men reached the shallows and stood, the sun glinting brilliantly on the wide birth of their shoulders and the muscle. The men on the shore seemed to withdraw for a moment, taken aback by the shear size of their opponents. Gerudo blood was good for warrior physique.
Loraefin couldn't hear what was being said, but she could see that it was nothing friendly. She was not about to stay behind like some helpless woman while the men took care of this and she took off toward the beach. As she got closer she could make out the slanderous remarks that slapped her in the face. Indeed she had heard low mumbling all day but never anything right out in the open. When she reached the shallows no one seemed to notice her and she took her place next to her brother. He turned halfway around regarding that she was there. Oh well, can't do anything about it now.
"What's your problem?" Take said in a low, husky voice, one that Loraefin had only heard him use in times of extreme seriousness, "we're sorry you're not happy about us being here, but it's not our problem. Now why don't you leave us be before you regret it."
"Fuck you!" Retorted one of his companions. "Why don't you go back to your own kind!"
"Oh, that was a good one," Joshuan snickered from behind Lycus's back. The man's eyes and nostrils flared.
"What was that Gerudo?" He snapped and startled Joshuan who did not expect him to hear his comment.
"Nothing," he tried to smile as the man stared him down. Joshuan was not naturally aggressive, but nor was he prone to let anyone push him around. The young man took a step forward and quick as lightning shoved Joshuan backward into the water. He went crashing into Loraefin who went toppling down with him with a loud splash. Just as quick as the man attacked Lycus and Take were on top of him pounding with fists. Soon it was a gigantic mass of bodies, pulling, punching, kicking, and yelling, scrambling in the water's edge, gargling, coughing, and one body indistinguishable to the next. Joshuan ripped away from Loraefin and dove into the fight.
Loraefin didn't know what to do as she watched her family beating and being beaten right before her eyes and her only reaction was to stop it. Struggling in her sopping wet dress she grabbed the nearest body to her and tore it away from the others. The young man wheeled around in surprise at the girl's strength as she dove in and grabbed another. Before she knew it she was knee deep in fighting men, shouting and cursing at them just as they had been doing each other. Someone's arm flew out and struck Loraefin across the face that left her dazed and her cheek sorely stinging.
A voice called from in the crowd on the grass and soon a new body threw itself into the middle of the fight, tearing and throwing back the participants with great force. That someone gripped her shoulders fiercely as if to throw her away too, but one of the opposing young men lunged at him and with one quick, agile movement the stranger sent him flying over his shoulder. Loraefin lost her balance in the water as her foot slipped on a loose river stone and she fell forward hard against the man's chest. Two quick hands shot out to steady her and she looked up to meet a pair of brilliant blue eyes and the wild, straw colored hair she knew so well.
"What's going on here Fin?" Link asked sharply, water dripping from the slant of his heavy brows to the tip of his ski-sloped nose. Loraefin couldn't answer him right away for her mind was still reeling.
"Nothing, nothing, just uh…" she trailed off as she saw the change of expression in Link's face. Carefully he ran a callused palm over her swollen cheek in inspection, holding her still when she tried to back away. His simper was fighting between worry and amusement and the edges of his mouth twitched with a smile. The girl he had gotten to know so well was drenched from head to toe before him, hair askew, water dripping from elbows and nose and hair, eyes wild, and a very unbecoming red welt forming on her right cheek. The men from the fight started to get up slowly, their energy drained from all of the blows and struggles they had endured. When the young Hylian men saw Link, the Hero of Time standing there they quickly fled away into the crowd and disappeared.
"Joshuan, Berg, what happened here?" Link swooped Loraefin, who was having a hard time walking in her sopping wet dress, up into his arms effortlessly and carried her to shore, depositing her on the sunny bank.
"It was just a misunderstanding," Joshuan wiped the bit of blood from the corner of his mouth away with his hand, "we're not very well liked here."
"So I've noticed," Link glanced around at the dissipating crowd and noticed the hard looks over the shoulders in their direction. Two older men, unshaven and rough looking, caught Link's eye as he saw them staring with what could be described as a hungry look on their faces. Link hadn't seen them before but maybe now that the people saw the Hero of Time with them they would leave them alone. Loraefin sunk to her knees and sat on the dry grass with head cradled in arms. Lycus brushed past Link and knelt in front her where she looked up and saw the black eye forming and the split lip red with fresh blood.
"Aemt," Loraefin mumbled, dabbing her thumb once lightly on the part of his lip where there was no blood.
"Aemt il diwth," he sucked in his breath when even her soft touch sent his lip throbbing. Link helped Megeara and the others out of the water while Loraefin regained her senses and stood up. They left the shore to the cover of a vacant grove of trees a bit away where they sat again, speechless.
"I don't think those guys will bother you again, looks like you kicked the crap out of them," Link smiled and looked over his shoulder back down the lakeshore. "I'm guessing it wasn't just a friendly scuffle?"
"More like unwarranted abuse," Joshuan sighed and sat down in between his sister and Take, "damned jackasses, all of them." Link's frown deepened, as did the uncharacteristic lines of worry across his brow. Loraefin often thought it such a shame for a man that young to have lines of the sort. He looked from Loraefin to Joshuan, and then to the others, seeing the hidden look of hurt and anger there.
"I'm sorry," he said simply, not knowing that much more he could do. He kicked himself for not being there sooner, to maybe stop all of that before it happened, but he knew even as the Hero of Time he was no match against the ugliness of racism. "People act stupidly sometimes. It will pass soon."
"Let's hope so."