With another great cheer, the men were thrown into the air for the fifth time. The world span; star studded, velvet black sky to hundreds of wide,blue eyes staring heavenwards at us, and then sky again. When the Gerudos came back into view, they were several units drunker, and more than half were comatose on the floor, either from drink or because a rival sibling has just beaten them over the head with a club.
It was a drinking game. All the Gerudos filled their tankard, goblet, Wellington boot, etc to the brim with wine, whisky, beer, vodka, ethanol, whatever was lying around. Then they grabbed a male (willing or not. It didn't matter) and threw them 50 feet into the air. Whilst the men sailed into the air, each Gerudo had to drink her drink and be ready to catch him as he fell. Obviously, the last women standing got to keep a man each. Kind of like musical chairs.
Sailing downwards, through a wave of spilled beverage (they liked waving their mugs round as they sang) and temporally airborne mugs that had slipped out of hands, I was caught by 5 women and their snatching, clawing hands. They staggered unstably under the weight, giggling furiously.
More alcohol flowed, and then I was back in the air again.
There seemed to be connections to pass the parcel too. Each time, I seemed to be loosing more clothing. In horror, I noticed my sleeve had been torn off. My faithful hat had been lost long ago.
The moon sailed past and I glared at it for as long as I was able, just as my dad had taught me. Nabooru's face swam past for a moment before I lost it in the sea of bodies beneath. She looked happy at least.
SMACK! My face hit the wet mud. It had happened. That awkward moment, just like in netball back home. The ball would land perfectly between two people, each expecting the other person to get it and neither would get it. The only difference was that the ball was now an injured young man and the players, instead of catching each others eye and laughing, each went to retrieve me at the same time, paused, and dived onto their opponent in a drunken rage.
Hands grabbed me and I looked up into the familiar if not ridiculously happy face of Nabooru. She tried to focus on my face, but her eyes kept crossing and slipping away.
She tried to speak but she was too drunk. It just came out as, "I wuv zu". Then, with a hug, I was flying through the air.
It was bad thrown. I flew abouttwenty metres intoa keg, which exploded.
And that's where I lay for the rest of the night, buried beneath the crumpled remains of a beer barrel, unnoticed, untouched, unconscious.
Damn her.