Part II – Evil Sands

Chapter XIII – Gibdo

Now that Gita knew Ganondorf's deepest secrets, every moment in close proximity became excruciatingly awkward. Quiet moments went from normal breaks in conversation to silent judgement of his character, and every interaction became a minefield of possible uncomfortable questions. The path they were taking wasn't helping his sense of hopelessness either. Branching paths, dead ends, going in circles, ladders, stairs, all made the tomb feel like a labyrinth with no end. To make matters worse, Gita forced Ganondorf to take point through the whole trek making him question if the eyes he felt staring at the back of his head were the dark magics' he was feeling, or Gita's judgmental stare vilifying him further.

"So, tell me," Gita began after another eon of silence causing Ganondorf to scream internally as he awaited the awkward questions, "what can you do with magic?"

Ganondorf released his breath in a sigh of relief as he silently thanked the goddess, "I… I can sense and manipulate it. Make it do what I want it to do."

"What, like anything you want?"

Ganondorf slowed his pace to be side-by-side with the girl, "Well, kinda. If I move the magic the right way and know how it works, I can ask it to do just about anything."

"Ask? It listens to you?"

"In a way, I guess. But I still have to abide by the laws of nature, you know? If I want to make a fire, I have to make something hot."

"But anytime you want?"

"Anytime."

"What about now?"

"Wh- like right now!?"

"Yeah!" Gita smiled mischievously, "Can you make a fire right now?!"

"Well… not exactly."

The grin faded from Gita's face, "Why? I thought you said anytime."

"It's something about this place. There's some kind of presence that making the magic act weird. It's giving me headaches and it feels like it's watching us from everywhere all the time."

"Wait," Gita said slowly as if coming to a realization, "so that means that you've been looking back this whole time because the magic is tricking you into hearing or, I guess, 'sensing' things watching us?"

"Yep." Ganondorf lied.

Gita cocked an eyebrow at him, but then shrugged, "Sounds a little too convenient, but I'll take your word for it."

"H-hey, look," Ganondorf pointed ahead, thankful for the convenient distraction, "there's light coming from the next room. Maybe the other hallways do meet up."

"Finally," Gita sighed as if the awkwardness was taking a toll on her as well, "the sooner we explore the rest of this place, the sooner we can leave."

The two privates hastened their pace towards the flickering light that came from the open doorway. However, as they got closer, Ganondorf noticed that the light was stationary and no shadows moved within it. When they finally emerged from the doorway, he was amazed by the large room and all its adornments.

The room they found themselves in was most definitely a tomb. Large iron braziers hanging from the ceiling cast a gloomy light on rows upon rows of stone sarcophagi. Each grave was adorned with symbols, lettering, and pictures of what that person must have done in their life. Around each one stood more pots much like the ones they have been seeing throughout the tomb, but these were ornate with more symbols, colors, and some with gold accents on their sides. The architecture of the of the room was remarkable as well. Four stone pillars rose from the sea of graves to hold the ceiling up. A much larger pillar proudly stood in the center of the tomb and was absolutely covered with symbols on each brick. The carvings seemed to curve and spiral up the pillar together, giving it a corkscrew design. Even the walls were adorned with fading, tattered and ripped tapestries that looked older than the desert itself.

As Ganondorf's eyes adjusted to the new light, he found that some of the graves had broken tops with the inside either empty or with unrecognizable rubble. There were also some effigies standing completely still in-between the some of the graves and they intrigued Ganondorf. He moved to investigate but was stopped by Gita's outstretched arm.

"Don't," she warned, pointing to the motionless figures, "I know what you're thinking and no, they're not statues."

"Then what are they?"

"Gibdo."

"A what now?"

"Gibdo. It's the word we keep seeing associated with them. We've tried to translate it but the closest we got was 'cursed dead' or something along those lines. It's just easier to call them gibdo."

"Dead? Like, actually dead but back alive?"

"Yep. You can go check them out if you like, just don't get too close. It… irritates them."

Ganondorf nodded in agreement and Gita lowered her arm blocking his path. He walked forward between two rows of stone graves towards one of the motionless gibdo standing with its head lowered and posture slouched. The first thing he observed were the bandages. A continuous run of cloth that went from feet to head, splitting only to run to the arms and legs. Some of the bandages were torn and hanging off but they only revealed more layers underneath. Written all along the wrappings over and over was what looked like an incantation that repeated the being's title many times over. As Ganondorf crept closer the stench of rotting flesh and mold assaulted his nostrils. The foul odor was so bad that he physically gagged and used the top of his shirt to protect his nose and mouth. It helped to block the smell but only slightly. Unfortunately, the offending fetor continued to burn his airways and caused him to lightly cough into his arm.

The gibdo twitched in response to Ganondorf's sound. Just a slight move of the individually wrapped fingers into a claw-like position. But that slight movement caused a sickening crack in the joints as if the being hadn't moved from its slouched position in centuries. Ganondorf took a cautious step back but accidentally stepped on a pot that shattered noisily when it fell over. In response, the gibdo's head snapped to look straight at him emitting another even worse crack and with hundred-year-old dust exploding outward from the unnaturally quick movement. Ganondorf tried to cautiously backtrack away but the gibdo's blind gaze remained locked onto his soul. Then the gibdo's leg moved and Ganondorf's heart sunk into his stomach. The movement caused more nauseating cracks and groans from its joints to fill the silent tomb and more mold scented dust to fall from its ancient wraps. It let loose a pained, almost growling moan from where its mouth should have been, muffled by the tightly woven bandages, and took another painful step forward. Ganondorf unsheathed his glowing sword to ready for the monster. He had no idea what its capabilities were but he was sure him and Gita would be able to handle it.

It was at this moment that he realized that Gita was not, in fact, behind him. After a quick search, he found her four rows away examining a gold accented pot.

"Shit." Ganondorf swore under his breath. His focus shifted back to the gibdo who stepped closer with another sickening crack. He readied his sword to attack when a knife flew in from nowhere and buried itself hilt-deep into the side of the gibdo's neck. This caused the monster to faulter and when it recovered, the creature turned its head in the direction the knife came from and opened its mouth. The wrappings around its mouth could only stretch so much before ripping along the bottom half of the head. They revealed a severely decayed and rotting corpse that was only held together with strings of ligaments and long dead muscle. As the wrappings fell away the gibdo let loose a blood curdling scream so loud, Ganondorf had to clamp his ears shut. It was a high-pitched unnatural scream that made Ganondorf's body tense up all over and prevented him from moving. It was as if the sound itself was pinning his body to the spot. Luckily, another knife, identical to the first, flew in and lodged itself into the gibdo's forehead, ending the sound. The undead was still for a moment then finally collapsed to the floor, truly dead this time. As Ganondorf's body relaxed, he was able to remove his hands from his ears.

"Hey Ganondorf," the boy heard Manju call and spun around to find her and Kanta walking in from a different entrance, "didn't your mother ever tell you not to mess with the corpses of the cursed undead?"

"You know what?" Ganondorf called back as his heartbeat went back to normal, "I don't think they covered that in the nursery rhymes or basic training."

Manju came in close and playfully punched him in the shoulder as she walked past, "Nah, you just disappeared before you got to them."

Kanta walked up to Ganondorf after Manju had moved on and punched him in the shoulder as her teammate had. Except her punch was much less playful and energetic, and instead weaker and more unsure. Ganondorf cocked an eyebrow at the deadpan stare Kanta gave him.

"I'm trying to be more of a," she brought her hands up to make air quotes and accentuate her words, "team player." When she moved on, Ganondorf snorted in amusement.

"Girls!" Gita called from her end of the tomb, "Got something you might want to see."

Ganondorf and the new arrivals weaved their way through the graves, avoiding the 2 gibdo on the way as far as they could. When they came up to Gita, they found that she had placed two pots on top of a nearby sarcophagus. One with gold inlay around its middle, and another without.

"Alright cadets, we've found the treasure room. Here's your target." As she said this, she smashed a hole in the side of the gold adorned pot causing an avalanche of gold coins and a few jewels to spill from the inside onto the floor. "Find them, load up, and then we can leave."

"What about the others?" Kanta spoke up.

"We will go and find them once we're done here. The mission comes first. Understood?"

"Yes sergeant!" the squad responded.

"But what if-" Ganondorf tried to interject, but Gita shut him down quickly.

"Shut it, private. I'm second in command so I make the rules now. Now get to work."

"Gonna be singing a different tune once I'm king." Ganondorf said under his breath.

"What was that cadet?"

"I said we should at least send at least one person to look for them. What if-"

"Ganondorf," Gita's face became uncharacteristically stern and callous, "I said the mission comes first. If you want to go looking after you've picked a fair amount of treasure, you are free to. But your first duty is to follow my command. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sergeant." He reluctantly conceded.

"Good. Then let's get to work."

Ganondorf was the first to break from the group, but not before snatching a loose gold coin from the ground. The coin was a strange rectangular shape with rounded edges and depicted a three-pronged trident on both sides. One side had the trident pointing towards a strangely detailed skull and the other side had it pointing at a hand print. The coin was no bigger than Ganondorf's palm so the detail in its design was remarkable to him. He pocketed the treasure piece before moving on to find more. He was going to have to move quickly if he wanted to go searching for his best friend.