The Yiga Clan leader sat in his chair with his feet on the table. His backside hung off the front edge of the chair, his legs splayed open. Kohga's hands rested on the sizable girth of his belly. It must have been the most undignified way of sitting Astor had ever seen.
"I'm not going to hold a conversation with you sitting like…that! Show some deference for the Calamity's chosen disciple."
Kohga grumbled and sat upright.
"Good! Now we can proceed… Lord Ganon has revealed to me the purpose of the other Guardian. And, just as I suspected, it is a threat to the Great Calamity's revival. Consider yourself informed on what must be done."
Kohga gave a dismissive wave of his hand. Astor moved past the two Yiga leaders, seeing that his harbinger had resumed its place on the altar. "My harbinger, show me your will..."
The Harbinger sounded and once again a vision spread out before them. The princess, the young knight, and the royal advisor were moving through the desert canyons that led into Gerudo Desert. The princess was dressed in her usual field attire that day, for when out conducting research. Her blue and white corseted blouse resembled her royal attire, but she wore a pair of soft figure-hugging pants with it.
The seer's yellow eyes flitted over her and then looked away, pushing all mental commentary down and away, substituting the ones that made him feel in control.
As the seer silently observed the princess, the two Yiga leaders began to plot aloud. "Looks like the princess and her entourage are on their way. That can only mean that she plans to speak with the chief." Master Kohga mused.
"Now would be the perfect time to attack. Our men have reported that Chief Urbosa is away on an errand." Sooga suggested.
Kohga practically jumped out of his chair. "Sooga! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I apologize, Master Kohga, but I don't follow-"
"I can disguise myself as the chief, assassinate the princess, and no one will know the Yiga Clan was responsible, and Urbosa will be the one blamed."
"Yes, good thinking. I'll inform everyone else of this."
Sooga and Kohga got up to leave, and then Kohga looked over his shoulder, seeing the prophet standing serenely and completely immersed in the vision.
"Hey, prophecy man! Get your mind out of the rotten banana pile!"
Astor jolted back to awareness, flinching. "You know nothing!"
"Trust me, I can read people's innermost thoughts. Secret technique passed down from my father's mother's father." Kohga said in a teasing manner. "Anyways, she'll be dead soon, so I hope you haven't gotten too attached! We're leaving!"
"And you are testing the limits of my patience! But yes… she will be… It has been willed by Ganon, and we must make sure fate follows its proper course."
Kohga's teasing observation left the prophet exasperated. How dare this slovenly lump infer that he was wavering in his devotion for the Calamity. In the beginning, Astor had just passed it off as a sick sense of humor, but the more Kohga ran his mouth the more it was taking root in the prophet's psyche. Just the other night, his mind had regurgitated Kohga's observation referring to the two egg-like Guardians as twins.
I am looking forward to using him as a blood sacrifice for the Calamity...
"Geez, touchy. I didn't hear a denial there," Kohga said.
"I will not dignify that with an answer!" Astor ended the vision there. "Just go, and do not disappoint me. She is, after all, the foremost threat to Calamity Ganon."
oOo
The princess held tightly to the Sheikah Slate as they made their way to Gerudo Town, the sands crunching and shifting under her knee-high boots.
She hadn't seen Urbosa in many years now, and it saddened the princess that they hadn't remained in close contact. But knowing that her father had selected Urbosa to pilot Vah Naboris, it was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with her old friend.
"Look, Your Highness!" Impa brought Zelda's attention to the figures of three approaching Gerudo warriors. The three vai were rushing towards them armed with Gerudo spears. And the closer they came, the clearer it was becoming that they were hostile. Zelda braced herself, motionless, trying to make sense of the situation.
"There she is! Grab her!" Shouted one of the Gerudo, motioning to the princess.
Impa and Link moved to shield Zelda, weapons drawn.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Impa shouted at the Gerudo who were now surrounding them.
"Chief Urbosa knows of your scheme to seize our lands," said one of the vai, this one a captain.
This couldn't be right. It had been a long time, but Zelda never imagined Urbosa would believe such nonsense or worse, act on it. She tripped over her words, discouraged, but there was no way she'd turn back.
"What? I would do no such thing! I'm here to—"
"She's lying. Grab them!" The Gerudo captain said to the other two.
"Run!" Impa shouted, grabbing the small Guardian before breaking into a sprint. Link hung back for a moment, ready to hold off the Gerudo soldiers.
"Link! Don't fight them. Something isn't right here! Just run!" Zelda shouted, not wanting any harm to come to the Gerudo soldiers over a misunderstanding.
Zelda ran as fast as she could, nearly tripping at some points, her boots not well suited for the sandy terrain. She was nearly out of breath from sprinting when Link directed them to stand behind a rock outcropping. Zelda tried to stifle her labored breathing as she crouched down. Her mouth was dry from running at full tilt and from the extremely arid environment.
The sounds of footsteps in the sand receded. Impa peeked over the top of the rocks, only to come back down fast as the last of the three women passed by.
"We just need to find Urbosa…." Zelda said quietly. And then she came up with a solution. "Advancing directly on the town will be difficult. Let's go around the south side."
Impa nodded. "Yes, good thinking, Your Highness."
Zelda braced herself to start running again, but when they came out from behind the outcropping they were horrified to witness a sea of Gerudo warriors spreading out over the dunes, cutting off any chance of getting by undetected.
oOo
The princess, her knight, and her royal advisor were marched into the chief's throne room at weapon point. Zelda's hopes fell through when she observed Urbosa's severe expression.
"Urbosa! Why? What is all this?" Zelda entreated her dear friend.
Urbosa met Zelda's eyes with a cold, murderous gaze uncharacteristic of the Gerudo queen. She addressed the princess in a tone she had never heard from her friend before. "Thwarting your destiny of course," the Gerudo chief said, raising her scimitar. "Princess Zelda…"
Her blood ran cold.
She really means to kill me...?
A deep hurt and confusion immobilized the princess. Zelda braced herself as Urbosa charged, scimitar in hand. Link and Impa moved to block, but it wasn't necessary. A loud SNAP resounded throughout the throne room and Urbosa became electrified. The electricity buzzed, Urbosa sputtered and fell to the floor. The Gerudo guards in the room stood silently, horrified to see their leader in such a position.
"I came back as quickly as I could…" Urbosa said casually as she strolled in.
Zelda turned. "Urbosa?" The princess cast another glance at the fallen Urbosa on the floor.
An imposter?
"Not exactly what I expected to find," Urbosa said, shaking her head at the figure lying in a heap on the floor. "I hope you're not hurt….little bird."
Zelda breathed out in relief, beaming with gratitude to be reunited with the Urbosa she knew. "I'm not!"
"Then...who is this?" Impa said, glancing down at the fallen Urbosa.
A gruff male groan issued from the figure lying on the floor as they began to stir. There was an explosion of smoke and the imposter revealed himself.
"You've got some nerve thinking you can go toe to toe with….MASTER KOHGA! I'll show YOU…" The Yiga Clan leader clapped his hands together and started to chant, summoning several Yiga footsoldiers.
Link, Impa, Urbosa, and the Gerudo guards readied their respective weapons, taking a defensive stance around the princess.
Kohga struck a dramatic pose. "YIGA ASSEMBLE! Me excluded of course," Kohga said quickly, before making his escape in a puff of smoke, leaving his minions bewildered and cross.
"We can't let him get away. Locate Kohga at once," Urbosa instructed, running out of the throne room, Scimitar of the Seven in hand. Zelda, Link, and Impa followed only to see all chaos breaking out between the Yiga and Gerudo forces in the streets of the women-only desert town.
Seeing the others taking on the Yiga, Zelda activated the Sheikah Slate, determined to help in the fight just as she had done the day prior when they had fought monsters and malfunctioning Guardians on the way to the Royal Ancient Tech Lab. Eventually, the Yiga were chased out, fleeing to the desert outside the town walls, Urbosa and the others pursuing them.
Urbosa called out to the others. "There is a beast in the north that will keep them busy if we can lure it out of hiding. It's sensitive to noise, so if the sound of battle rings loud enough..."
"Sensitive to loud sounds? What about an explosion? The Sheikah Slate's remote bomb rune just might work."
"The Sheikah what?" Urbosa asked, casting Zelda an intrigued look.
"I'll show you later."
The group lured the Yiga clan members deep into the desert, coming to a stop where Zelda sensed the sand was less packed and more disturbed; as if something was living within. Zelda looked to Urbosa.
"Yes, this is it!"
Urbosa crossed blades with the Yiga masses once again only to electrocute them while their guard was down.
Zelda activated the remote bomb rune on the Sheikah slate, laying down several bombs on the loose sand.
"Good thinking, little bird."
Within seconds the remote bombs went off, sending a massive shockwave into the sand. Urbosa stood back, waiting for the telltale sign that the molduga had been awakened.
"Wait for it…. Wait for it…" Urbosa called out to the others, cautioning them.
And then the ground beneath them started to quake. The footsoldiers looked around in confusion, but it was slowly starting to dawn on them what had been summoned. At last, the enormous whale-like creature erupted out of the sands, jumping high into the air and then diving back down into the depths with its wide-open maw coming in fast. The Yiga members shouted and scattered, escaping one by one into a multitude of bursts of smoke before they could be devoured and dragged into the sandy deep.
Urbosa gave a resounding laugh. "I almost pity the Yiga scum."
"I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get to see the molduga make a meal out of them," Impa replied, laughing.
"Well, never mind that. We've still got to find Kohga. That voe has been a thorn in my side ever since I took the throne and this is my last straw with him."
The party arrived at the Yiga outpost, and Urbosa spotted Kohga hiding behind some large wooden boxes.
"I suppose my nimrod foot soldiers WANT me to croak! Looks like I will have to end you myself!"
Urbosa scoffed. "Not a chance! I will banish the Yiga Clan once you're out of the way." Urbosa charged the Yiga leader, meeting him in battle, scimitar against Eightfold Blade.
Kohga summoned an oversized spiked iron ball. It hovered over Urbosa, but the Gerudo Chief leapt out of the way before Kohga let it drop. She snapped her fingers, hitting Kohga with a bolt of electricity in retribution, frying the Yiga Clan leader for the second time that day. As the Yiga Clan leader regained his bearings he was dismayed to see the party had surrounded him. Kohga gulped, waiting for the Gerudo queen to strike.
Urbosa brandished her scimitar. "This is it, Kohga. You've lost. This is your last chance to surrender. I wouldn't want to have to spill your guts in front of Her Highness."
Zelda could see Urbosa hesitating, although the warrior queen's determined expression never faltered. A mistake she would soon regret as Urbosa was momentarily distracted by an imposing figure, RUNNING down the pillar that Kohga was cornered against. The large Yiga bodyguard unsheathed his dual blades and went for Urbosa, who blocked his attack with her scimitar, pushing him back with some effort. Sooga landed in front of Kohga and then charged at the group again, this time crossing blades with the princess's knight and Urbosa once again. The two blocked but had the air knocked out of them by an immense magical attack that manifested from Sooga's dual blades.
"Master Kohga, are you hurt?" Sooga resheathed his twin blades.
"Sooga, you're late! I was nearly peeled like a banana," Kohga yelled, at his wit's end, but still all too relieved by the perfect timing of his right-hand man.
Sooga ignored the verbal lashing, simply hoisting the rotund man over his shoulder effortlessly, Kohga giving only a sound of surprise.
"Forget these cowards. It's time to retreat."
"I think not!" Urbosa rushed forward, but before she could engage the two, Sooga disappeared into an explosion of smoke, taking Master Kohga with him. Urbosa shielded her eyes as she ran straight into the blast.
Kohga's taunting laughter echoed through the outpost, and Urbosa grunted in frustration as she regained her bearings.
Urbosa turned back to the group. "Forgive me, little bird. Next time I will show the Yiga no mercy."
"No worries, Urbosa…" After everything Zelda had been through today, the Yiga Clan leader getting away was the least of her anxieties.
oOo
Zelda approached Vah Naboris, trying to figure out how she would phrase her request for information as casually and discreetly as possible. On the way back from the Yiga outpost, Zelda had quietly pulled Urbosa aside and asked if they could meet later and alone. Urbosa had given the princess a concerned, but conspiratorial look, and agreed, telling her to meet her by the Divine Beast.
Oh, come on Zelda. You have a perfectly good reason to ask if she might know who he is… You're just asking because you want to know how he figures into the Calamity...
Zelda was feeling high-strung. Urbosa had always been able to discern the princess's motivations and raw emotions before, but...
Oh, just get it over with, Zelda scolded herself. Urbosa had never said or done anything to make her feel foolish, unlike her father.
Urbosa met her gaze, giving her a warm smile. Zelda took a deep breath and smiled back, feeling more at ease.
"Urbosa, thank you for meeting me here."
"Of course. Anything for you, little bird. I trust you didn't ask me to come here only to recruit me to pilot the Divine Beast."
Zelda nodded, pulling out the Sheikah Slate from its pouch on her belt, powering it on.
"Just the other day… a strange Guardian appeared in Hyrule field. We took it to Robbie and Purah and they were able to extract some visual data from the Guardian's memory and transfer it to this." Zelda held the Sheikah Slate between herself and Urbosa, showing her the pictures of the destroyed Castle Town. "As you can see, these images show what will happen if the Calamity awakens."
Urbosa frowned, paying rapt attention to the pictures and what Zelda was telling her.
"And then there's this…" She scrolled to the image of the mysterious individual. "Some of his jewelry looks Gerudo in nature. Do you know who this man might be? I believe he has some connection to the Calamity, but I can't be sure... I'd like to locate him so I may question him." Zelda spoke as matter-of-factly as she could manage.
Urbosa gave the mysterious man on the Sheikah Slate a hard look. "No… I've never seen him before. But yes, the jewelry does look Gerudo. Sorry I could not be of more help."
Zelda breathed an inner sigh of relief. It was disappointing to have come to a dead-end, at least for now, but any secret ambitions she had seemed to have flown right over Urbosa's head. Zelda shut down the Sheikah Slate and put it back in its pouch.
"However I am able to support you, I will. Just say the word." Urbosa gave Zelda a reassuring expression. "We're going to figure this out, and we're going to stop the Calamity."
Zelda smiled and gave a simple nod of her head. "Thank you, Urbosa..."
A comfortable silence passed between the two. It was like they hadn't been apart all those years.
oOo
Astor sat at the table with his arms crossed, glaring daggers at Master Kohga, seated at the other end. "So you turned and fled, is that it?"
Even Sooga, who was more competent than Kohga seemed complacent about their failure, which deeply irritated the prophet.
"Well… You're the prophet. You should have seen it coming." Kohga was sitting in his chair sideways, humming and moving his fingers to the beat.
Astor glowered at the man across from him and spoke as calmly as possible. "It seems that, as low as my expectations of you were, I was overly optimistic." Astor rose from the chair.
Kohga finally turned to him, taken aback. Sooga's hand went to his blade at his hip, ready to protect his master should the need arise.
Kohga jumped up, raging. "Who are you to talk that way to us, when WE were the ones to go and stick our necks out!? What have YOU done besides hang around MY hideout, order us around, eat our food, and complain about it? I could have been killed today if it wasn't for Sooga!"
Astor was unruffled. "Well, no matter… I am the Prophet of the Calamity. I interpret Lord Ganon's will and you are the Calamity's hands."
"You are a coward, seer. I sense it so clearly."
"I beg your pardon?" Astor challenged, his voice steady.
"It is my duty to protect Master Kohga, even if it costs me my life, but I wonder, seer, would you give your life for the revival of the Calamity?"
Astor was caught off guard by the question, but maintained his calm demeanor, simply giving an aloof grunt of annoyance.
"I thought so…" Sooga said. "And that's not all… You're fearful of that girl, or more specifically the power she could wield."
"Are you not? Why do you underestimate the ruin she could bring to Lord Ganon?"
"Do you know what her court says about her?" Kohga asked the prophet. "Our Yiga spies have heard them say that she is heir to a throne of nothing but failure."
Astor considered this. He knew better.
As if reacting to Kohga's words, the harbinger sounded. The three stood at attention, and Astor approached the altar, wondering what it had to communicate to him.
He held out the ancient orb, wordlessly.
This time the vision that spread out before them was of the Hyrule where the Calamity had been victorious. There was an atmosphere of despair and ruin, and Astor recognized the location, Blatchery Plain near Fort Hateno. In the vision, the princess was dressed in a muddied white dress. The young knight he'd seen at Zelda's side in recent visions appeared wounded and was barely able to stand upright. A standard-sized Guardian approached the pair and towered over them, targeting the knight. The princess screamed in protest and stepped out to shield him, raising her hand high. A brilliant flash of light erupted from her hand, creating a dome of holy power that laid waste to several Guardians at once. The malice departed from the Guardians and they clattered into the mud, broken down.
Astor's yellow irises constricted as a wave of crippling emotion foreign to the prophet mixed with hatred washed over him. If he thought he understood hatred before, then he was wrong. This… This went so much deeper. And he couldn't begin to comprehend why he felt that way. Sure the princess had unlocked her power, but she found it because of the knight? Did she…have feelings for him...? He couldn't decide who he wanted dead more. But these were all limiting human grievances that were getting in the way of his purpose. If he didn't suppress them, how long until Lord Ganon deemed him unworthy? The prophet convinced himself that it didn't matter how the princess found the power. All that mattered was that this was fated to occur, and meant the Calamity could be bound, if not sealed away forever if he did not act.
The two Yiga leaders behind him were silent as well. He could sense them staring, waiting for him to break.
Finally, Kohga spoke. "H-hey, three-eyes, you gonna be alright?"
And without missing a beat the Prophet of Doom tossed the entire bowl of mighty bananas, sending them raining down onto the floor.
The two Yiga in the room gasped, Master Kohga scrambling to his feet to collect the fallen bananas, while Sooga bowed his head to say a silent, sorrowful prayer.
Faylian: It's interesting to speculate that. I can only assume he was around, but not really making himself known to Link or Zelda, just lurking and such… I'm honestly kind of annoyed now he wasn't in BoTW as I always felt that game was lacking in the villain department. Where was he when I needed him three years ago? LOL
Glad you like the way I write Zelda. More to come!
Thanks for giving me inspiration to write Kohga and Sooga's reactions to Astor upending the bananas. At first I wouldn't have considered them being around to see that, but it's definitely more hilarious this way.
Prometheus17: Yes, even within Age of Calamity the Game, Link kind of takes a backseat. He's playable in every chapter, but it really is Zelda's journey. I'm just adding an additional complication into that journey. (Sorry Zelda)
I have mixed feelings towards Rhoam, but I will try to cover all sides of him.