Sorry it took so long guys!!! My computer doesn't exactly like me...
THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!!
Everything was hazy. Link's head ached. He could see an outline of a woman...she pressed something to his skin. The deep gash in his side flared suddenly.
He grabbed her wrist, pulled her across the cot he lay on, and slammed her against the wall. But the female was not afraid; she stared down Link with a cold patience that rivaled the desperate fury in his azure eyes. As the adrenaline rush faded from him, her face came into focus.
"It's nice to see you too, Link," she whispered quietly.
His grip on her wrist softened and he gazed at her, unfocused. The emerald of her eyes was captivating...distracting. His mind clicked on suddenly.
"Aloarn," he said softly. The girl grinned and pulled away from him, returning to the low-backed chair that stood beside his bed. Link tried to follow, but his body stung as he attempted to rise. Looking down over his chest, he cringed inwardly. Bruises discolored the flesh across his stomach, while the deep gash in his side was only half-wrapped and still pulsing as Aloarn tried to clean it. Cuts, left by the Gerudo's deadly spears, were throbbing beneath red-stained bandages. He clenched his teeth at the pain but made sure Aloarn couldn't see.
She took a strip of bandage and tied it around the wound until it was no longer visible. Her blond bangs fell halfway over her face and Link, catching himself staring, broke his gaze suddenly as her eyes met his.
"Can you stand?" she said quietly. Link didn't reply, but stood determinedly off the side of the bed. The room was restricted and small, and he was getting a feeling of claustrophobia being held within the stone walls.
But he was unbalanced from being beaten across his scalp, and swayed, catching himself on Aloarn's chair as she reached out to support him. He ran a hand over the back of his head, where several bumps had formed beneath his golden hair. Aloarn saw it and winced.
"I'm sorry - they don't know better -"
"YOU!"
Link's head snapped up at the familiar, high-pitched, assertive voice. He smiled wearily as Navi, her light flickering in fury and concern, floated before him.
"I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU! NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I CAN'T TURN MY BACK ON YOU FOR THREE SECONDS? DON'T YOU EVER KEEP ANYTHING FROM ME AGAIN, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I WORRIED OVER YOU AND WHAT THEY COULD DO TO YOU -"
"Heh...sorry Navi..." muttered Link. Navi, her light still bristling slightly, sighed.
"Well....as long as you're ok...just...DON'T EVER FALL ASLEEP WHEN I'M NOT THERE AGAIN!" she said. Link blushed at the over-protectiveness of such a tiny creature. Aloarn laughed a little and he turned at the sound of her voice.
"You have some good friends, Link of Hyrule," she said. Link struggled to grin, but the light in her emerald eyes distracted him. She broke her gaze with something that may have been a blush, but he could not tell under her tan skin.
"Let's go for a walk. I'm sure there's a lot both of us should tell each other."
Aloarn stared hazily into the hallway before her.
"You sealed Ganondorf away..." she whispered. Link, slightly bewildered by the faint tone in her voice, fixed her with a worried look and stepped closer.
"Are you alright, Aloarn?" said Navi. The fairy, though usually only worried over Link, had taken a liking to the Gerudo girl after she had heard of the teenager's rescue. Aloarn shook her head suddenly.
"Oh, sorry..." she started. She smiled up at the blond hero. "Thank you for defeating him...even though I'm sure you've heard that a lot..."
"It's ok...I just thank Frarore that the Gerudo themselves hated him...if they didn't I would be fighting an army..." Aloarn's smile faded.
"You would be surprised at the faithfulness of a Gerudo soldier," she whispered. At Link's questioning glance and Navi's worried light, Aloarn took a step down the nearest set of stairs.
"I must show you something, Link."
Link was recovering from his injuries, but the intensity of the beating still weighed in on his strong body. As he descended the endless spiral stairs that Aloarn led him down, he felt his strength beginning to go; Navi encouraged him, telling him she could sense the honesty in Aloarn, and convinced him to keep moving.
It was only when they neared the bottom steps that Link paused, feeling a rush of chilled air drift up from the depths below the Fortress. The walls were damp and cold, but the ground itself was covered in a dry layer of cool red sand. Torches flickered off the cave walls; Link could catch the forms of angry faces, painted into the stone sides. Aloarn turned at the end of the stairs and looked up at him, her eyes clouded with a strange mist..
"Link...I must ask you something." she whispered.
"What is it, Aloarn?" Link said warily. The torchlight flickered off her beautiful face and Link felt his heart stop. He gave a mental shrug and refused to acknowledge it.
"The Gerudo are the Children of Din, Goddess of Power," she whispered. Her eyes left his, unfocused. "The Women of the West. The Thieves of Me'lkmar. In our blood runs strength. Loyalty. Honor. The secrets of the Gerudo are deep Link, old as the Desert itself." She looked up at him, her eyes shining with a crimson tinge from the torch's light. The red fires of Din on the plains of Frarore.
"You have vanquished evils from our Fortress. You have sealed away all that would have doomed us. The Secrets are before you Link. The Code of the Gerudo."
She turned slightly, welcoming him into the caves. Navi fluttered anxiously. Link watched her, motionless.
"What Secrets are these?" he whispered. Aloarn bowed her head slightly, her eyes still upon him. A blond bang fell over her left eye. Crimson locks brushed her bare shoulders. The small gold hoop in her ear glittered.
"Ucm esia el ao Kagari r'iu, Gerudo m'ishk o hte," she whispered. She stepped back half-way into the cave as Link walked forth beside her, Navi at his shoulder. He turned, and his gaze met the past; faces stared at him from carven walls, statues of beasts towered above the dark sand, rolls of ancient law piled high against the stone. Link turned to her, unable to understand her words. She bent down and picked up a handful of the red sand, sifting it through her fingers.
"Th Secrets of the Gerudo are written in the red earth," she said softly.
Standing, she walked full length into the cave. Under her breathe, she muttered a prayer to Din. Then in one smooth motion she tossed the sand into the air.
Link watched, silently, as the pictures began to move.
At the bottom steps, yellow eyes glared through the torchlight and turned, darting back up the stairs into the heat of the furious desert.
The sun was setting. Deep, red, deadly. It glinted off the metal fastenings of a hundred saddles, off the shining mouth pieces of stallions and the silver clips of the mare's girths. Gerudo filled the area, silent in the dying sun of the desert. Their fierce eyes glared out sinister and gold from beneath the contrast of their auburn hair. Women unfolded purple scarves and wrapped them delicately across the bridge of their nose. Others pulled up their hair and wrapped gold string around it, pinning it up away from their neck. Red paint was smeared across tanned cheeks, the custom of the Gerudos before battle. Curved blades were being whetted with pieces of stray rock; the points of spears were being secured. The crimson sky flickered in the menacing eyes of Ramil.
The women looked up from their tasks as she strode forward on her golden bay, fully clad in armor with a heavy spear set in her hand. Over her right eye, the star of the Gerudo was painted in scarlet.
"Gerudo of the West! Thieves of Me'lkmar!" she cried, her white fangs of teeth flaring in the sun.
"The traitor, the child, Nabooru's faithful wench! She has given the scripts to a stranger, stolen the code of the Gerudo, destroyed the ancient law!" Women screamed agreement into the air, clashing blades with a sickening ring. Ramil's eyes flickered.
"The Gerudo alone hold the desert Secrets, the Gerudo alone can raise the sand of Din to life! No man, peasant, thief or hero, canbear the Scripts! The Code is life, the Code is death, the Code is the way the Gerudo! Who but the Women of the West could carry it?"
Spears clashed against shields. Swords gleamed in the dying sun. Savage yells split the air like knives. Ramil licked her teeth and fixed them all with her piercing gaze.
"The return of the King is near. We must crush those who oppose him. We must kill those who seek his demise. We must destroy the traitor of Aloarn. She has brought a foe within our walls, sisters. The very one, the very one to seal away our promised King. The very one!"
Angry cries filled the air. Women tore at their sunset-dyed flesh.
"We ride to the castle, sisters. But first, there is a score to settle. The Code is sacred, and none but the Gerudo bear it. The man dies. But Aloarn is mine. I will call her Advisor no longer. The blood of the traitor will quench the red ground tonight."
The women roared and leapt on their horses. The stallions reared, their white eyes wide and crazed, as the flats of curved blades slashed their flanks. The unbearable thunder of three hundred horses hooves echoed through the cliffs. Ramil, securing the veil around her mouth, drew her spear with a hidden smile and spurred the mare forward.
