Part II – Evil Sands
Chapter XIV – Treasure
Ganondorf cracked open another gold rimmed pot and spilled its valuable contents into his loot sack. Each member of the raiding party had one and it was able to hold a moderate amount of treasure without overbearing the carrier. It had a long and narrow center pouch and several secondary pouches lining the inside that buttoned closed. These were supposed to be utilized to evenly distribute and organize loot so it did not sit strangely on the raiders back. Ganondorf, however, simply dumped the valuables into the center cavity as his greatest concern right now was leaving. Between the living dead, deadly traps, rows of graves, and constant magical headache this place gave him, he was just about done with this nightmare and couldn't wait to get back to his bed. The cafeteria would have hot food waiting for them and they would have days off corresponding with their collective loot haul. Maybe the trading caravans would have steak they could put in a stew, or maybe some fresh fruit.
Suddenly, he realized that in his distraction he had accidentally cracked open a non-gold rimmed pot and was currently spilling priceless and ultimately useless artifacts into his half-full bag. Wooden beads and iron talismans spilled onto the floor as he threw the pot aside and dug into his bag to throw out the useless items. But one item gave him pause and he stopped to take a closer look. It was a toy of sorts made out of copper and it was casted in the shape of a bird. The wingspan was huge, much larger than a guay, and its beak was much larger than its head ending in a deadly looking hook. Ganondorf shrugged as he tossed it aside as it was neither valuable nor useful.
When the figurine hit the ground, it made a loud clang and the entire tomb began to shake. Ganondorf yelped and heard the other do the same as he scrambled for a nearby grave to stabilize his footing. Small and large rocks rained from the ceiling and supporting pillars on the rows of graves and unfortunate raiders. Ganondorf moved constantly to avoid the falling debris and looked around to find the source of the quaking. What he found was the large central pillar, much bigger than the others, was seemingly shedding an outer layer of wall and revealing a tiered pedestal inside. At the top stood a spear that looked made of gold.
Finally, the rumbling stopped and Ganondorf scanned the room for his teammates. Gita had moved from the right of the room all the way left and looked to be out of breath as she clutched at her chest. From under her popped up the two heads of Manju and Kanta, looking just as confused as he was.
"You girls alright over there?" Ganondorf called out to them.
"We'll live!" Kanta called back with the other just giving thumbs up in response.
Then they heard a familiar voice from the center of the room call out, "Is that my squad I hear?!"
Ganondorf spun around to find Devika and Nabooru both emerging from the newly opened passage in the central pedestal.
"Thank the goddess you're both ok," Ganondorf called back, "but what in the world did you do?"
"We pulled a lever at a dead end," Devika called, "and then the whole world started to end!"
"Well since everyone's good, keep searching." Gita reminded everyone, "Pots with gold on them!"
"Understood." Nabooru responded.
"Oh, and watch out for Gibdo!" Ganondorf warned. Nabooru acknowledged with a thumb in the air.
With that, the squad split again to search for more gold and gems. While Ganondorf tried to do the same, his mind was kept drifting and, for some reason, it was filled with questions about the spear atop the tiered pedestal. What's its significance? Why was it sealed away? More importantly, why did Ganondorf's headache suddenly vanish? It was weird to think, but not having a constant throb of pain at the base of his skull felt strange and slightly unnatural after having to push through it this whole time. This made the spear all the more interesting and Ganondorf started to gravitate his search closer and closer to the pedestal. On closer inspection, he found the spear was actually a three pronged trident made of gold, steel, and sparkling with flawlessly polished inlaid jewels. Now that his head was cleared, Ganondorf tapped into the magic around him and found the trident to be oozing a thick cloud of indigo colored magic that coiled around in tantalizing swirls and curves. The magic was so heavy it crawled along the floor like a thick mist. Ganondorf breathed it in and found it had a very pleasant smell along with its pleasing color. It smelled like freshly baked sweets and bread, a smell his stomach couldn't ignore.
The trident itself had to be the work of a master craftsman, as it was beautifully crafted and, stranger still, had the Ganondorf's name engraved down the handle. The weapon seemed to become even more pleasing to the eye as he observed it for longer. He could hear it beckoning him. It told him he was special. That his destiny was to be king of the Gerudo. His people would prosper under his rule. His enemies would tremble in fear as he subjugated them all with an iron fist, spilling their blood onto the fields and sands alike, destroying anyone who dared stand in the way of the fearsome usurper Ganondorf, bending the world to his –
"Ganondorf, stop!"
The boy was ripped from his trance but was too late to stop his hand from grabbing the trident's handle. In an instant, he was thrown from the pedestal and would have landed hard on a stone grave had it not been for Nabooru who caught him just in time. Ganondorf looked up at his savior and half-smiled.
"Shoe's on the other foot now, huh?" he joked.
"Just don't sprain an ankle, I'm not carrying your fat ass." Nabooru snidely replied, dropping the prince to the floor.
As he got up, rubbing his sore behind, he chanced a glance back at the towards the trident. The relic had changed drastically and even the magical aura it generated had altered. Now, instead of a tantalizing gold, the trident was a foreboding and evil looking obsidian color with its magic now forming black clouds above it. Then Ganondorf realized he wasn't tuned into magic and the clouds were visible to everyone. As soon as he noticed, almost on cue, a crack and blinding light came from the dark culminating clouds. Bolts of lightning arced all around and struck the stone lids of every sarcophagus in the room. The group, after uncovering their eyes, silently retreated towards an exit behind them.
"Kanta," Nabooru half-whispered when she was close enough, "please tell me your pathfinding is working again."
Kanta looked at her and shook her head apologetically. Nabooru swore under her breath and continued to back away from the graves. Suddenly, a nearby sarcophagus had its top exploded as if something burst from inside. As the dust settled, a single heavily bandaged hand could be seen rising above the broken stone. Gita lit her lantern in preparation for their escape.
"More gibdo?" Ganondorf whispered to his team.
"No," Manju answered, "Worse."
As she said this, the lettering on the bandages pulsed with a bright green light and unraveled themselves from the appendage. As they fell away, the cloth revealed a skeletal arm mostly stripped of its rotting flesh, yet unnaturally held together. Then, one by one, the other graves had both skeletal and bandaged arms thrust through their broken lids until a legion of arms surrounded the retreating group. Then they all moved, almost in sync, and their attached bodies rose from their prisons. Some of them had on armor that time had not claimed, but they were all ancient and skeletal. As the legion rose, the first of them to awaken stood and looked directly at the intruders who had finally reached one of the exits. It raised its arm to point a very ancient and rusty sword at the group before letting loose a hissing roar toward them. Every undead skull snapped to the thieves, their eye sockets glowing an angry red.
"Run!" Nabooru commanded and the group bolted down the exit. In response, the skeleton army chased after with their own rusty ancient swords in hand. Devika and Kanta led the group but none of them really knew the right way. Ganondorf silently berated himself for not leading the group towards his entrance as that was more or less a straight hall into the room where they split the group.
"Kanta!" Devika suddenly shouted above the constant noise of bone on stone and steel scraping the walls, "We're going to need that pathfinding soon!"
"Damnit Devika," Kanta uncharacteristically snapped back, "we have an undead army behind us, a maze of traps ahead,… You don't think I've been trying?!"
"Well, try harder!" Devika barked before swatting Kanta on the back of her head. Kanta winced and stumbled slightly but then glanced around the tomb as if she had just woken up. Ganondorf saw her magical aura change right before his eyes and she let loose a shout of triumph.
"I-I got it. I'm in! I know the way, follow me!" Kanta excitedly shouted as she pushed ahead of the group. The rest of the team similarly celebrated as they fell in line.
From what Ganondorf remembered, the route that Kanta led them on to get out of the tomb seemed very different from the path they took in. Then again, the walls and floor of the tomb were pretty indistinguishable from the rest of the labyrinth so he had little choice but to trust Kanta and her strange power. Just as he was questioning the ability of this pathfinding, they passed a very familiar room and came up to an even more familiar stairway. At the top they could see the light of the desert sun and they all leapt up the steps two at a time, the sounds of the undead army growing distant behind them.
