AN: after reading through the last chapter, I noticed that it was kind of difficult to tell where scenes changed. I think I fixed that in this chapter, but let me know if it's still confusing!
Riju returned to the Gerudo Town along with the rising morning sun. Though the rains had stopped an hour or so before, she brought a very different kind of storm along with her. The Gerudo Chief dug her index fingers into her temples as the self-righteous voice of Janta, an Elder and the most conservative member of the Royal Council, grated through the air.
"Lady Riju, I most sincerely implore you to reconsider this most reckless decision! You seek to make a mockery of our people's most lasting social code with this ill-considered, bleeding-heart quest to save a voe with no verifiable connection to our Town."
Riju really could've done with a few hours of sleep the night before. Janta's demagogic ravings about the benefits of social purity and slippery slope to anarchism should the ancient codes be violated were a chore at the best of times; she was infuriating now. The Gerudo Chief, repeating herself for what seemed like the eighteenth time, explained, "Once again, Elder Councilor, the Hylian detained outside our walls is no average voe. He is one of the heroes of legend, the one who defeated Calamity Ganon and restored peace to Hyrule some years ago-"
Janta interrupted. "But there is no proof of this claim! If the voe in question truly is the Hero of the Wild, then why does he not carry any markers of that hero? Where is the Sword that Seals the Darkness? Why does this particular hero not wear the green garb of legends? This supposed-" the Elder Councilor made air quotes with her fingers around the word supposed, "-hero lacks even the markers of the Champions of old: no Sheikah Slate, no royal tunic, nothing!" Janta stood from her seat at the table of the Council and turned away from the Chief, toward the rest of the Councilors. "My fellow Councilors, let us remember our purpose here! Our Chief is still susceptible to the influence of inexperience and youth; passion guides her more than wisdom, more than expertise, more than loyalty to her own people!"
An audible gasp sounded from most of the Councilors as the last words exited the Elder's mouth. Could she really say that, they whispered amongst themselves. Wasn't that an accusation of treason? Lady Riju, for her part, simply slumped down a bit in her seat at the head of the table and ran her palm across her face. After the gasp and the whispers subsided, Janta slowly continued, pausing on every word for effect.
"So, no. No, I will not give a green light to our youngest Chief in history in her blatant attempt to override our people's oldest social code." The Elder's lips shook with conviction as she spoke. She uttered every word a bit louder than the last. "This voe will not enter our walls. Our great Town will not fall today."
Her part said, Janta slowly took her seat, doing so to some applause from among the more conservative wing of the table of Councilors. As much as Janta was a pain in her neck, Riju had to admit that the Elder was an impressive orator. For a moment, Riju feared that she had lost the table, until she scanned for sympathetic faces and landed on Buliara. Standing guard by the door, the head of the Royal Guard and Riju's most trusted political ally gave a slight nod. It was all that she needed to offer a rebuttal.
"Rousing words, Elder Councilor," Riju began. "But I notice a flaw present in your ideology. For one who claims to be as committed to the continued practice of tradition as you do, you have a marked lack of respect for the highest tradition of Gerudo political life."
Janta scoffed. Interrupting yet again, she asked, "And just what might that be?"
Riju snapped. "Interrupt me one more time and I will have you expelled from this Council, Elder." Janta's eyes widened as another gasp made its way across the room. This one was louder than the last for one simple reason: the Chief really could say that, and had the power to make good on her threat. Though she couldn't physically change her expression for fear of sowing doubts about her conviction, mentally, she smirked just a bit; she really had their attention now. To pull them in just a little more, she jabbed a finger at the Councilor sitting across from her and slowly turned it to the rest of the table as she spoke. "That goes for all of you. Listen, and listen respectfully. There is a faction of this Royal Council – a supposedly ideological party, of which the Elder Councilor is only the most vocal member – that considers itself more truly devoted to the Gerudo people, and the traditions and codes of the Gerudo, than I am. Allow me, unequivocally, once and for all, to dispel of this myth: you… are… not." Riju took a pause and scanned the room again. As she'd expected, certain members of the party of the Council more loyal to the Chief nodded along in agreement. Others, especially in the conservative faction, looked indignant.
Janta stood from her seat and prepared what was, no doubt, a withering rebuttal. She had no time to launch on her tirade, though; Lady Riju resumed speaking, staring Janta down as she begun. "The utmost tradition of Gerudo political culture, as I was previously saying, is that of respect for and deference to the Gerudo Chief. I admit, I am a young Chief. I am the youngest Chief in living memory, yes. Claims that I lack experience in the executive function are generally true. But there is no provision in the Gerudo codes that carves out an exception to the Chief's authority based on her age. There is no statute that posits that the Chief's ruling is final, so long as she is older than thirty. This attention, good Councilors, that is paid to my age is not some age-old tradition of revering expertise; on the contrary, it is nothing but a shrewd, cold-blooded power grab by those who are ambitious to hold more power than I do." Janta, awestricken at the ferocity in Riju's voice and the power behind her glare, slowly sat back down. No murmurs reverberated through the chamber this time. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Riju gathered herself for a moment, packing her anger away to be used later. "Now," she said, leaning over the table, "back to the matter at hand. This conference of the Royal Council was ordered to session for an emergency discussion on the matter of a limited suspension of the Gerudo code to allow the Hylian voe known as Link, in our custody outside of the Town walls, to enter the Gerudo Town for the purpose of receiving potentially life-saving treatment from our doctors. I strongly encourage the Council to vote to authorize this suspension of the code. If this Council elects not to hold a vote, I will use my discretion as Chief to suspend the code myself and allow Link into the Town. If this Council votes against the proposed measure…" Riju took a deep breath before finishing, knowing that what came next would inspire some controversy. "If this Council votes not to let Link into the Town, then I will use the powers vested in my position to override the Council's decision and allow Link into the Town."
As expected, the table burst into an uproar. The shouting opposition became a cacophony quickly, but Riju could make out a few repeated phrases. "Tyranny" was a common one.
Janta stood from her seat once more and looked Riju in the eye. With a furious demeanor and a steely look in her eye, she shouted, "This is preposterous! I had my doubts about you before. You have gone and proven them! You have no respect for this Council, no respect for the codes that have guided us for eternity! You will lead this great Town to an abomination of a future if left unchecked. Well, I am here to check you! This violation of the spirit of the Gerudo will not go unpunished!"
Riju laughed a single, short high-pitched laugh in Janta's face. All the rage she had bottled up a moment ago returned with a vengeance. "No. I violate your idea of what the spirit of the Gerudo is while acting completely within my power. I am Lady Makeela Riju, Chieftain of the Gerudo, Successor to the Desert Throne, and Chair of the Royal Council. I do not request the Council's permission to embark on this course of action, for I do not need it." Riju turned away from Janta and toward the rest of the table. "I request the assent of the Council, for this body's approval will ease the burden placed on my shoulders." Finally, her gaze returned to Janta. "If, Elder Councilor, you find this state of affairs to be disagreeable, I suggest you step down; this is not the last battle you are likely to lose on this Council."
Janta was legitimately shell-shocked. Never before had Riju, once the timid girl thrown into power too early, spoken to her like that. "You…" she began, stumbling over her thoughts, for once unsure of what to say. "You will rue this day. Mark my words."
Riju didn't even grace her with a response. "The day's heat is coming. Let us schedule this vote immediately. I won't allow the voe to die in the heat of the sun."
Shortly after the Council voted (in Riju's favor, narrowly), Riju retired to her room to get some rest. It would be difficult to fall asleep under normal circumstances, given that the daylight was hard to evade even behind the thick curtains of her bed, but she was exhausted enough to sleep through the glaring sunlight. As the worn-out Chief slid off her shoes and undid the knots tied in her hair, Buliara slid into the Chief's room. The hair on the back of Riju's neck rose to attention before she called, "Who's there? If it's anyone other than Buliara, leave immediately and find me when I wake up."
"It's me, my liege," Buliara's gruff voice replied.
Riju's instinctual anxiety eased at the reassuring sound of the voice she trusted most. As pleasantly as she could manage, she inquired, "What is it?"
"Pardon my intrusion, Lady Riju. I can see that you are fatigued, so I will make this quicker than anticipated; despite your weariness there are still matters that cannot wait to be attended to."
"Consider yourself pardoned," Riju replied in a joking tone.
Serious as ever, Buliara continued, "Thank you, Lady Riju. Back to the matters of this morning. First, Link is in the care of the Town's finest doctors. They haven't had time to make a formal diagnosis of his condition yet, but their first impression is consistent with your earlier report: he is unresponsive, in a comatose state. His pulse is weak but strengthening. All his other vital signs are consistent with a healthy, active Hylian voe in the prime of his life. The physicians cautioned that comas are unpredictable, but Link's general vigor leads them to believe he is likely to recover, or at least become responsive again, shortly."
"That's good. If he snaps out of it, bring him food and water and wake me. I have questions for him."
"Yes…" Buliara replied.
Normally, Riju wouldn't have blinked at such a response; curtness and deference to authority was deeply engrained in the vai. This time, though, there seemed to be a bit of hesitation in her voice. "Speak your mind," Riju urged.
"Lady Riju, I don't mean to question your authority."
"Questioning my authority is encouraged." A hint of confusion flashed briefly across Buliara's face. Thinking back to her earlier confrontation with Janta, she saw the apparent contradiction and continued, "I take issue with baseless accusations of treasonous intentions. Please, Buliara, I deeply value your perspective, so speak."
"I understand, Lady Riju, that our people owe a great debt to Link, whether the Council sees it or not. Still, I do not understand your urgency in bringing him here. It would have been simpler to arrange for the Royal Guard to transport him to the stable in the valley, where he could have been treated safely and without sparking a political firestorm."
"Simpler, yes, but not adequate to our needs. The situation that brought him here is deeper than I've explained. We face a crisis of unknown proportions, and I will need to brief the Royal Council on it soon. I chose not to yet because I haven't slept in almost a day and didn't want to leave details out of the story."
Buliara pursed her lips, and her face got somehow stonier. Riju couldn't tell if she was suppressing an emotion or showing one. "A crisis of unknown proportions? Should I ready the guard?"
The chief pondered the question for a moment. "It couldn't hurt," she concluded. "I need to get some sleep to clear my head. We'll discuss this in depth later, but for now you should know that an unusually high density of very dangerous monsters was in the southern desert. Link slayed all of them, but I found the decapitated head of a Lynel, among at least fifty other monsters. Put the guard on high alert for more."
"As you wish, Lady Riju. Sleep well, and call for me when you wake."
Riju slept deeply and dreamlessly. When she woke up, it was almost night. She thought about how best to brief the Council of the dangers that Gerudo Town faced; how she might be able to convince even Janta of the extenuating circumstances that warranted drastic action. After a while, she settled on a course of action: she'd take Patricia back South to the Arbiter's Grounds, and return with the Lynel's head. As Riju rushed down from her quarters, she ran into Buliara.
"Sav'saaba," Buliara offered.
"Indeed," Riju curtly replied.
"You seem in a hurry."
"I am, though I suppose there's no deadline to complete my task. What do you need?"
"I need nothing. I would like to know what you are doing."
"I plan to go to the Arbiter's Grounds and return with evidence of the presence of a Lynel."
"It's dangerous to go alone," Buliara warned.
"I know," Riju said as reassuringly as she could. "But I can be quick and quiet if I'm alone. To bring a group would only attract attention to myself."
Buliara sighed. Her Chief had a point. "Very well. Pardon my insubordination in directing your actions, but I believe that my expertise in protection may aid you."
"It is no insubordination to try and protect me," Riju replied with a laugh.
Humorlessly, Buliara continued. "Very well, Lady Riju. Take care. If you come across danger, turn at a 90-degree angle and flee – it will be your best bet to get away. If you are not back by sunup, I will assume the worst and send the guard on a search and rescue mission."
"I will," she promised. Shortly thereafter, Riju was off. Though she knew she was likely heading into danger, she couldn't help but enjoy the feel of the wind against her face, blowing through her hair.
When Riju arrived at the Arbiter's Grounds, the sun was fully set. The wind was chillier and less pleasant. Riju dismounted from Patricia and tried to retrace her steps from the night before. Over the past day, the winds had blown the sands about, burying most remnants of the battle that had taken place here. At seemingly random intervals, though, parts of monster cadavers poked out of the sand and left a grotesque trail for the Gerudo to follow under the moonlight. After a while, she found the Lynel's horn poking out from under the sands. Riju brushed her hands against her pants, got a firm grip on the horn, and pulled. The head was heavier than expected – at least 40 or 50 pounds. She'd be able to get it out of the ground, and Patricia could easily handle the extra weight, but the skull's heft would slow her down as she tried to return to her sand seal. With another heave, she hoisted the skull out of the ground and took a moment to think of the best way to carry it back with her. After a few moments of pondering, she decided to remove her belt and use it to hold the disembodied head on her back, like a disgusting, rotting backpack.
The instant that Riju had tied the belt around one of the creature's horns, her surroundings became much darker, like something had blotted out the moon that provided the lighting for her task. Confused, Riju whipped to see what caused the disturbance. What she witnessed made her eyes go wide and the blood rush from her face: a giant, fishlike creature had leapt out of the sands to the east and flailed in the cool night air. The Molduga of the Arbiter's Grounds had returned. As soon as the great beast fell back into the sands, it made a beeline toward the Gerudo Chief. Evidently, her struggles to free the Lynel's head from the sand under which it was buried had created sufficient shockwaves for the Molduga to notice her.
There was no time for Riju to think, let alone panic. In an instant, she tossed her cargo over her shoulder. Riju whipped her head in a semicircle, scanning for the closest solid ground. There was a plateau a few hundred feet to her right, to which she immediately began sprinting. Her lungs quickly began to burn from the sudden exertion, but pure adrenalin kept the Gerudo running. She was closing the distance quickly, but was it quickly enough? As she ran for her life, she turned her head to try and spot the Molduga. It was buried beneath the sands, but there was a huge mound of sand not far away. Just five seconds later, the ground below Riju's feet began to tremble – it was close, she was running out of time and still a hundred feet from safety. Even when she got to the safe haven of the plateau, she'd have to scale some fifteen feet of solid rock without making mistakes. It would truly take a miracle for her to reach safety. She leaned forward in her dead heat, trying to move her center of gravity forward and allow momentum to do some of the herculean work of making it to the jutting rock. She was making good time now, and would likely make it to the rock, but the ground's trembling turned to rumbling – there was no way that she'd be able to make it up the cliff face.
When, in utter agony from her all-out fleet, she was within a few feet the rock wall, the ground was positively shaking beneath her. She had perhaps ten seconds to climb up the wall before the subterranean monster gobbled her whole – there was no chance that she could get it done. Nonetheless, she was going to try. She closed her eyes and shot a quick mental prayer up to the heavens before leaping toward the wall, when something remarkable happened. Her reaching hands didn't grab onto the rock face, as she'd anticipated; in fact, her fingers made contact with nothing at all. Riju didn't fall to the ground, either: a sudden gust caught her from behind, before bending upward at the wall. The Gerudo Chief was flung high into the air, perhaps twenty feet up, her forward momentum carrying her over the plateau's precipice just as the Molduga leapt from the sands to rid itself of the source of the irritating vibrations caused by Riju's steps. The blast of wind had blown her too high, though, and her landing on the rock surface of the highland was face-first and rough.
Luckily, a combination of shock and raw adrenalin muted the pain of crashing into solid stone and Riju recovered quickly. Almost instantly, she flipped onto her back and pushed herself into sitting up. Just in front of her was the glowing, spectral image of a Rito voe. He admired his feathers for a moment as if he was waiting for something. When, after a few moments, he hadn't received it, the Rito rolled his eyes and half-glared at Riju as he said, "Well? You're welcome."
She opened her mouth but choked on her own words, unsure what she wanted to do first: thank her apparent savior, ask who he was and where he'd come from, or just offer a bewildered "what?"
The Rito stifled a laugh – poorly – at Riju's shocked expression. "You look like you've seen a ghost," he ribbed, somewhat bitterly. "It's a shame that the ones the Goddesses choose throughout history always seem to lack in wit." He paused, waiting for her to respond, but Riju was now even more confused. He rolled his eyes, before offering in parting, "I'll be seeing you."
Just as suddenly as the voe appeared to save her, he disappeared and left her on her own. Riju collapsed onto her back, gasping for breath and taking stock of her situation. She was out of immediate danger on the small mesa but had no way to get down. This Molduga seemed smarter than the others; that is, it wasn't wandering away of its own accord. Riju assumed that the beast knew it could wait her out if it just circled her location.
Think, Riju, think! There has to be a way out.
After she caught her breath, she stood and dusted herself off. She realized that, in her mad sprint, she'd lost her bearings, and looked around. Just barely, she could spot Patricia's silhouette in the distance. The Gerudo Town was only barely visible on the horizon, which wasn't good: it meant that she'd been forced to flee to the south of the Arbiter's Grounds and had an almost unbelievable distance to travel before she'd be safe. If she could get to her sand seal, though, Riju had a fighting chance of outrunning the Molduga.
"So," she said aloud – she found that vocalizing thoughts helped her to process them. "I've got two options. Either I find a way to get to Patricia, or I wait for backup in the morning."
Riju knew that waiting for Buliara to send a detachment of the Guard to rescue her would provide her best odds of getting back to town safely; in equal measure, she understood that at least one of her Guard would die trying to save her. She sighed at her conundrum, but she knew she could move faster on her own and decided not to wait. The key, she decided, would be to try to find small areas of solid ground poking out of the sand, which could serve as checkpoints on her path back to Patricia. Sure enough, there were patches of stone jutting above the dunes periodically to the north. There were the beginnings of a plan here.
The path forward was fairly obvious, but what was less clear was how she'd get to any of the rocky patches. Molduga were attracted to vibrations, and there was no way that she could get to any of the safe zones without making vibrations of some sort. Riju would simply have to get lucky – either the beast would drift away on its own, or it would notice the vibrations made by other prey and go on the hunt again.
"Wait," Riju said aloud, "that might be it!" If she could create vibrations somewhere away from her rock tower, she could draw the Molduga away and make a dash to safety. Anything would do, Molduga were sensitive enough that so much as a small stone hitting the sand registers on their sensors. Of course, bigger was better: it would hopefully convince the monster that there was larger prey to be hunted at the source of the bigger disturbance.
Luckily, there were the tools to make the disturbance on hand: one red explosive barrel. Nothing had ever looked so good to the Gerudo as that barrel did now. She could toss it over the side, but that wasn't ideal – though it'd certainly create massive shockwaves, it made for a single-use distraction. And even that one use wouldn't get her much; though Riju was far from dainty, she'd grown up learning to govern, not toning her body into the muscular physique typical of the Gerudo – she couldn't throw such a hefty barrel far.
Fortune again favored her, though, as her ancestors had foreseen situations like the one Riju found herself in. During her mother's reign, Molduga were more common, and venturing into the desert had become a death sentence for many. To solve the problem, bows and arrows had been placed on patches of solid ground throughout the desert like the one she now stood on. They wouldn't kill a Molduga, but an arrow could distract it long enough for one to flee to safety.
Riju hoisted the bow. Once, she knew, this had been a top-of-the-line Golden Bow, worthy of use as a weapon of war. Now, though, it was anything but. Decades of harsh variance in temperature and the corroding effects of sandy gusts had stripped the bow of its sheen, made it rusty and barely useable. It'd still fire an arrow some ways, though. A small quiver, replete with ten arrows in remarkably good condition, was found next to the bow's former resting place.
The Gerudo knew she had all the pieces to the puzzle here, it was just a matter of putting them together. The arrows would make small disruptions in the sand, drawing the Molduga's attention, but likely weren't loud enough to convince the beast not to pursue her footsteps. Riju remembered an old vai, world-weary but rich from selling miscellaneous items she found on her travels, who set up a shop in town where she sold various arrows. The most coveted of those arrows were bomb arrows. If only, Riju longed, she had a quiver of bomb arrows rather than these simple ones. They'd create a bigger diversion, and pack enough of a punch to hurt the Molduga if it came to that.
With that thought, inspiration struck. All the materials to make bomb arrows were at Riju's disposal, it was just a matter of putting them together. She dropped back down onto her knees and began to rip fabric off of the legs of her pants, which she could fashion into pouches to hold the explosive powder within the barrel. She removed ten such patches of fabric – in the process shortening her sirwal from knee-length up to the middle of her thighs. It wasn't her preferred look, to be sure, but the dire straits she found herself in made a fashionable outfit a secondary concern. Carefully, Riju opened the top of the explosive barrel – mindful that the powder within was highly unstable and a small slip-up could be a fatal mistake – and carefully scooped a handful of the combustible material into the makeshift pouch she held in her other hand. She slowly tied the ends of the fabric together, leaving a loop in her knot large enough to slip the head of an arrow through. After she maneuvered the arrowhead through the hole, she fastened the knot around the top of the arrow's shaft. Supposing it a good idea to test this design before committing to it, she notched her makeshift bomb arrow in the ancient bow, gingerly drew back the bowstring, and loosed her craft. It whistled through the night – not very aerodynamic, but still propelled a decent distance from her plateau – and exploded furiously. The Molduga, just as Riju had predicted, ceased its patrol around the Gerudo's position to investigate the massive noise. She could barely contain a triumphant cry when she saw how beautifully her scheme had worked.
Riju hurriedly continued making arrows, before she realized that the Molduga was circling the site of the explosion rather than coming back to haunt around Riju's high ground. When she understood that she was in no rush, she slowed down and prioritized fitting as much of the explosive powder onto each arrow as possible.
Shortly thereafter, with all nine arrows fitted with the handmade bombs, Riju slung the quiver over her shoulder and shimmied it down to her waist, where it wouldn't accidentally brush against the Lynel's metallic horns and accidentally blow her up. The Molduga still far away, the Gerudo eyed the closest patch of rock. About three hundred yards away, it would be her first destination. She planned further ahead, seeing five stone patches that she could make pitstops at on her way back to Patricia. There wouldn't be many places she could stop safely, but she hoped having extra arrows to distract the beast with would make up for that problem. As quietly as she could, Riju shimmied down the north side of her safe haven. Slowly, soundlessly, the soles of her feet made contact with the cool sand below. She froze, listening for the telltale burrowing noise that signaled the Molduga's awareness of her presence. When she heard nothing, Riju took in a few deep breaths, sent another prayer to her ancestors for their protection, and ran like hell.
Making breakneck pace, Riju closed the first hundred yards in less than thirty seconds, but slowed a bit as she kept running – she was exhausted and dehydrated from the long night on the sands, and couldn't keep her top speed the entire way. Luckily, the bomb arrow she'd launched earlier had done its job, and the Molduga was too far away to catch up with the Gerudo before she made it to her first stop. The next patch of solid ground was closer, perhaps two hundred yards away. After catching her breath for a few minutes, Riju nocked another arrow and fired at a sixty-degree angle behind her. A gust of wind caught it during its ascent, though, and the arrow didn't fly as far as the first had. Nonetheless, the Molduga chased after the massive boom, and Riju made it to the second island safely. The dashes to the third island went similarly smoothly. Her trek to the fourth required a second distraction arrow, desperately lodged mid-sprint to get the Molduga off her tail.
Riju's run to the final rocky tract was to be more difficult, though. She'd underestimated the distance between the fourth and fifth safe zones; this run was the better part of a mile, and her mulligan in the run to the fourth island had left her with fewer arrows than she would ideally have. Worries aside, this was the only way the Gerudo Chief could get out safely, and without sacrificing any of her own people. She set aside her latent fear about the consequences of her upcoming run and lodged an arrow. When she heard its boom, she set off running while the beast beneath the sand chased after its new target. Almost immediately, the burn of exertion set into every inch of her body; try as she might, she simply wouldn't be able to run at her top speed here. To make matters worse, the Molduga was back to chasing after Riju, and she was less than halfway to her target. She nocked and launched another arrow, this one breaking away from her current path at a right angle – it wouldn't buy her as much time as if she could shoot it directly backward, but she could shoot at the angle she'd chosen while not sacrificing as much of her forward momentum as the alternative would've required. It took two additional shots to distract the beast, and even that wasn't enough. While Riju was within a few yards of the final island, the Molduga was catching up fast, and she simply didn't have the energy to outrun it. The sand beneath her feet began to cave in, the sign that the Molduga had positioned itself under her and was preparing to pounce from beneath the earth, swallowing her whole. At the very last second, she put all her remaining energy into leaping forward onto the solid ground. Her foot brushed against the Molduga, and the massive force of the beast's leap flipped her entire body upside down in the air. Time seemed to slow down to Riju as she flipped and her bow fell from its place fastened on her hip, dislodged by the sudden change of gravity's force on it. She flailed an arm out, grabbing the bow in midair, and instinctively her right hand reached toward an arrow. The progression of time seemed to almost stop as she nocked the arrow and loosed it into the belly of the beast, her bow's belly fracturing in two as the arrow flew.
The force of the explosion flung Riju backward through the air, making for yet another rough landing on the hard surface of the rocky patch. A millisecond later, it registered in the Gerudo's head that she was alive; save, even! She laughed out in joy, but this feeling was almost immediately replaced by dread: her bow was unusable, and she had still a few dozen more yards to get to Patricia. Luckily, the arrow's impact against the beast's soft underbelly had dazed it, and it laid above the ground barely moving. Realizing that she may never get off of the rock on which she laid if not right now, she felt a second wind enter her body. While the Molduga was still stunned, Riju scrambled to her feet and ran like never before to her loyal sand seal. Fortune again favored her, as the Molduga's pain kept it above the sand for the remainder of Riju's desperate sprint, and she was able to link up with Patricia and flee to safety before the mighty beast recovered.
When, just before sunrise, Riju returned to the Gerudo Town, her appearance drew the attention of everyone she walked past. Rightly so, as she was bruised and scraped; her sirwal was torn up, her top was shredded into ribbons in places, and her hair was down, which her people never saw; and, perhaps most of all, she carried a head the size of her torso on her back. As a younger ruler, she would've been mortified to be spotted in this state – now, she figured it would only cement her reputation as a fearless leader who tamed or slayed threats to her people to carry the Lynel's head through town. Admittedly, she hadn't killed it herself, but the gossipers would insist that she had, which would only improve her standing in the eyes of her people.
Only when she got back into the Gerudo Castle did Riju allow her weariness to show. She slung the belt – and the Lynel's skull – off of her back, dropping it onto the ground to take some weight off of her shoulders. She slumped onto the throne and waited for the morning to come, at which time Buliara would take her faithful place next to the Chief and she could order a proper meal. Unfortunately, the resurgence of the Molduga revealed that the magnitude of the threat facing her people was larger than Riju had anticipated, and it would be wise to inform the Council of the situation, if only for some basic advice and (hopefully) a sense of unity behind Riju's leadership during this time. She sighed at the thought. At least she could take solace in knowing that even Janta would have a hard time arguing with the head of a Lynel plopped on the table in front of her.
In less than an hour, the sun peered above the horizon. Reliable as ever, Buliara strutted through the side entrance of the Castle, only stopping when she saw Riju sitting on the throne.
"My Lady," Buliara exclaimed, gasping, "are you alright?"
Riju nodded in response. "The Molduga at Arbiter's Grounds has returned. The brief period where the spirits allowed us to enjoy peaceful sands appears over. Alert the Royal Guard to be at their highest level of readiness and send out a call for another emergency Council meeting."
"As you wish, Lady Riju. Are you in need of the attention of our physicians?"
This time she shook her head. "No, it's all just bruises and minor scrapes." Riju stood up and stretched. Then she gestured to the prized evidence she'd stolen from the Molduga's grasp the night before. "Have someone competent look after this, will you? It was a real pain to get it here in the first place, I'd hate to have to hunt it down again."
"Of course, Lady Riju. I will assign Babi to guard the Lynel's head."
"Thank you, Buliara. I'm going to bathe now and change into something more presentable before I address the Council. Would you do me one last favor, though?"
"Anything you wish, My Lady."
"In the main town, there lives a vai named Ashai. She used to serve on the Royal Guard, but a few years ago she retired to become a teacher. Do you remember her?"
"Yes, I know Ashai."
"Good. Please send someone to her house. She teaches a cooking class there, and from what I've heard she is quite the chef. Inform her that I'm famished and exhausted, and would like her to cook up one of her finest dishes. Something invigorating, if she knows any such recipe."
"Right away, Lady Riju."
"Thank you, Buliara. I don't know what I would do without you." With that, Riju retired to her personal chamber to get ready to brief the Council of the threat the Town faced.