BOOK 1: THE ADVENTURER

The Waters of Nayru
Chapter 2: The Prince of Thieves
By, Frank Hunter

The desert sun beat down on the adobe dwellings of the Gerudo as it most always did. The desert was a harsh place, where all but the most resilient signs of life were baked away by heat and grit, but it was a place the Gerudo had always called home. Theirs was a race of proud survivors, and survival was a virtue they drilled into their children.

Three stories above the desert floor, where the sounds of trade and business echoed about the bustling marketplace, a young boy hung from the rafters by his knees. The boy was good looking, with curls of fiery hair streaming down around his brown skin, and he had a thick coil of rope tied about his waist. Standing off to the side of the rafters, the other end of the rope clutched in her hand, was a young orange-haired girl of the same age. Her eyes were wide, but her fists were clenched tight around the rope.

"We really don't have to do this," she said to the boy.

"But you know we're gonna anyway," he answered without looking at her. His gaze was fixed down below him, on a fruit stand with produce imported from across the river, from the Jirin, with their green fields. He'd never been across the river himself of even seen one of these people, but wouldn't have cared about the Jirin if they'd had three heads each and viper teeth. Their fruit was excellent.

"I'm serious, Rigo. We're gonna get caught."

"No we won't. Who cares anyway, Amili? Get ready to start lowering me down."

"Rigo…"

"Shh!" Rigo dangled over the hole and watched the customers come and go from the fruit stand. He'd have to get down there at the precise moment the shopkeeper's last customer was paying for her fruit, that way both the shopkeeper and the customer would be busy with the transaction and no one would be watching the merchandise.

He waited, lifting his arm slowly into the air. "Almost," he told Amili. "Almost…" The people below moved into the perfect position and he was finally ready.

"OK, now!" He gestured at her and let go of the rafter with his knees. At the same time, Amili started putting slack into the rope, grunting as she braced herself to take on the bulk of her friend's weight.

"Still don't see why you can't hold the rope," she mumbled, but knew he was slipping out of earshot.

Rigo had lined himself up well and was coming down behind the canvas tarp that made up the fruit stand's roof. If anyone in the market noticed him sliding down out of the ceiling, they didn't make any indication of it. Before long he was dangling at the back of the fruit stand at counter level, behind the shopkeeper who was animatedly haggling with her customer over the price of some pointy brown thing. Amili, now out of slack rope, tied off her end on the rafters and leaned over the side to watch Rigo work. "Come on…" she goaded from her perch.

Rigo looked around for a moment before he spotted it, a small pile of bright golden apples just out of his arm's reach. They called to him, and he knew that was what he'd come for.

Shifting his weight to gain some momentum, Rigo began lightly swinging on his rope. He kept an eye on the shopkeeper and tried to keep his movements subtle. Each swing closed the distance between him and the pile of fruit a little more, and after a half-dozen arcs back and forth, he was finally able to grab one of the apples and tucked it into a fold in his tunic. With that secured, Rigo gave himself a little more momentum and went back for a second piece of fruit. Once, twice he swung, and on three he got hold of another one, but that's where his luck ran out.

His fingers barely gripped the second apple and as he flailed for it, he knocked the pile loose. It happened almost in slow motion. He saw several of the round fruits come loose and fall from the counter toward the floor. Rigo wasted no time and got his second prize into his tunic.

That caught the customer's attention. "Huh?" she asked the shopkeeper. "What's that?"

The shopkeeper turned around baffled and saw her apples spilling onto the ground. She quickly went to catch what she could, but as the fruit was her first priority, by the time she noticed the rope dangling beside her, it was too late. Rigo was already shimmying up back toward the rafters and a moment later the shopkeeper dropped her stock and jumped up to grab a rope that was already slinking out of her reach. "Hey!" she yelled up at him. "Stop! Stop, thief!"

Rigo couldn't help but roll his eyes as he kept climbing. An entire society of thieves, and they still get crabby when one of them gets stolen from. As though it was personal.

Rigo reached the rafters again and could still hear the shopkeeper making a fuss down below, though it was dying down as she realized no one was paying attention. Like the guards would come for thievery. Amili grabbed his hand once he was back within reach and helped him get his footing. Rigo took one last look down at the scowling shopkeeper and the grin was wide on his face. She made a rude gesture up at him, but he knew better than to take offense. Instead, he reached out his hand, caught her sentiment, and blew her back a kiss.

"Rigo, come on!" Amili pleaded and hopped out a wide skylight and onto the roof. Rigo turned and followed her.

The kids ran across the rooftops away from the market with a dexterity that only comes from practice. They hopped over dips and alleyways and a few minutes later settled into a hiding place they knew and frequented, behind some wooden crates above the dormitories that never seemed to get used or moved. By the time they got there, the adrenaline had set in and even Amili was giddy. The both of them collapsed under the sun, laughed, and just delighted in each others' company and the stunt they'd just pulled. Rigo took the fruit from his tunic, tossed one of the apples to Amili, and bit into the other himself. It was running with liquid so precious in this part of the world, and was sweeter than anything he had ever eaten before.

"You are so lucky she didn't catch you down there," Amili told him. Rigo just closed his eyes. "Mhm. It was worth it," he said with a mouth full of fruit.

Amili took a taste herself and her eyes went wide. "Oh! Yeah, yeah it was!" She bit into the apple and stuffed her mouth with it too. "They could have beat you in the town square for this and it'd have been worth it," she said, though it sounded more like, "Hecuufbeefuuintaasaarefidwofit."

In good spirits, the two spent the afternoon on the roof as the sun set, following the shade, telling stories, and generally enjoying all the privileges of being young. The weight of the world was something still far away and unfamiliar to them, and as far as they knew, that's the way it would be forever.