Mid Afternoon, June 21, Year of the Great Kingdom 597
The captain could see that the lost woman was badly dehydrated – her lips were cracked and her eyes sunken – so she pulled the stopper on her water-skin and offered it to her. In truth, Telma was dangerously close to death at this time, and she desperately wanted to die and look for her papa in the Goddess' Realm, but the instinct for survival is a very powerful one, and the girl could not resist the urge to take the skin and drink.
"What happened to you?" the soldier asked. But when Telma looked at her, she could only shake her head "no" in response. The captain sighed, clearly this poor Gerudo had been savaged by the Hylians and now she had found her way here. "Come," she commanded, tugging at Telma's arm, "We'll put you up in Agnes'." The name made her ears twitch and she echoed, "Agnes'?" "Yes, Agnes' bar – there. Come, let's get you out of the sun." she answered, though of course Telma had no idea what she was saying.
Still clutching her basket tightly, she followed the captain across the village and approached the large mud-brick building once more. She recognized it, and remembered that her mother had brought her here once, but everything looked… so different to her now. It was much smaller and less imposing – though she was still terrified to enter it.
Memories flooded back to her as they stepped through the beaded curtain and observed the long entryway – lined with boots, cloaks, staves, and weapons. The same greeting counter stood ahead of them, with the same ancient crone that Telma saw all those years ago. Holding onto her arm, the captain pulled the delirious woman forward and cleared her throat loudly to get the clerk's attention.
"This one needs a room – she's sun parched and needs rest." Her guardian said. The old clerk looked from the captain, to Telma for a few seconds, and back again. "This one isn't one of your soldiers?" she croaked. "No, but I'll not see a Gerudo die in the desert – not while there's a war on." She answered firmly. "Its twenty for the room, five more for bread and water." The crone muttered – business had come to a crashing halt once the war began, so the rooms had to be given away for cheap.
The Gerudo captain dropped thirty rupees on the counter. "Give her something better than bread. She looks terrible." The clerk nodded, scraping the rupees into a small box behind her station, and handed the woman a brass key marked with a Gerudo "3". "Down there," she croaked, pointing to the right-hand hallway, "on the left."
The warrior pulled Telma away from the counter and down the hall, turning to the second door on their left. The room was quite small – only enough space for a slender bed and one side table with a wash basin -which was dry. The young woman drifted into the room and sat at the foot of the bed without thinking. "You will be ok here. Just… rest." The captain said, but again, Telma did not acknowledge her. She just sat there, hugging her basket and staring, unfocused at the wall. She took one last look at the poor girl, before turning and pulling the door closed behind her once again.
For many minutes, possibly hours, Telma just stared dumbly at the wall of her room. Her mind was still lost in the terrible darkness of that night and the bitter anguish of everything that had been taken from her. At some point – she did not remember doing it – she set her basket down upon the floor, and lay on her side on the bed. Still the world seemed to spiral slowly. "W-where am I?" her ruined mind cried, "What am I doing here?" but she could not muster the courage to even sit up from her bed again.
Very slowly, due to her complete exhaustion, she began to dose. Just as her heartbeat began to slow, a sudden, violent banging tore out against her door. The young woman shrieked in terror, and pulled her knees nearly up to her chin and hugged her legs in fear. A voice, outside the door, shouted several times in Gerudo, but the girl was far too terrified to answer her… or to even move.
After several more attempts to get the girl to open the door, the stranger gave up and retreated back down the hall. For the rest of the night, Telma sat upright at the head of her bed – in the corner of her room – watching the door with wide, panicked eyes.