The Waters of Nayru
Chapter 31: The Oasis Flight
By, Frank Hunter

The militia was formed up and ready to leave by sunrise, and Rigo was collected before then. He had slept, but not restfully. He couldn't. His heart filled with anticipation. He wanted to get this over with, get rid of Sooru, and get back to the places and people who mattered the most.

Five hundred men strong were lined up and set to march down the drawbridge from Hyrule Castle Town. As Rigo walked toward the group, he stepped through a sea of concerned citizens, men and women who had just woken up and planned to start their days. Though he guessed many had heard the rumors of what was happening in the desert, he doubted if many knew the details, and when they saw Rigo, dressed as he was in clothing emulating that of his Gerudo heritage, he could see how concerned he made them. The presence of all the soldiers and Rigo's acceptance among them helped to make the situation more palatable, but he guessed that Zelda's decision to leave at sunrise was more than just dramatic. She'd been hoping to avoid a scene like this one.

Colonel Tydus rode alongside the infantrymen at the head of a small cavalry division, along with a few small wagons filled to capacity with eight-foot long wooden planks. As Rigo was now his direct responsibility, the Gerudo was given a horse, a large chestnut mare, and instructed to stay beside the Colonel at all times. Tydus, though he was still full of obvious venom, was now preoccupied. He was at home when he was in command of a unit of soldiers. This was clearly what he loved to do, had been trained to do, and so despite their past he treated Rigo with at least some degree of gruff professionalism.

When it was time, Tydus shouted the order, and the men began to march onward, leaving Castle Town gradually behind them. They turned and made their way into a narrow rock chasm, covering the distance between the Castle and Lake Hylia. It was a different route than the one Rigo had been carried away down before. It didn't follow the river, and seemed instead to loop around north of their starting point, blocking out the view of the grand fields around Hyrule Castle and leaving nothing much to look at besides the haloed peak of Death Mountain that peeked over the lip of the crevasse. Rigo watched it as it marched along with them in the distance, thinking about Gor Gurdy and his promise to the big Goron, wishing he could go and fulfill his friend's wishes.

Someday, he thought. Someday I will. But not today.

The men marched in silence, the absolute embodiment of military discipline. As such, Rigo didn't have much trouble keeping quiet as well. There was nothing really to say, he didn't know any of these men nor was he particularly interested in their stories or opinions. He was a bit curious about the wooden planks, but not enough to share his ignorance with everyone. Unexpectedly though, Tydus was the one who finally broke the silence.

"So their commander was the one responsible for leaving you in Hyrule?" he asked.

Rigo glanced over at him. The Colonel refused to look at him, keeping his eyes straight ahead on the path and his men, but the tone was conversational enough. There was no threat or mockery in it.

"Yes," Rigo answered.

"And you want her dead?" the Colonel continued.

Rigo considered before answering. "Yes."

"And you're hoping we'll do your dirty work for you?" Tydus asked. The question sounded legitimate.

"No," Rigo said. "I'd rather it be by my hand."

The Colonel chuckled. "You think you can stomach something like that?"

Rigo glared at him. "You really don't know what life is like in that shithole you threw me into, do you?"

"You survived," Tydus said. "I suppose that counts for something."

They rode in silence for a few moments, but now it was tense. Rigo's agitation was growing. He hated the man's smugness, and his disposition. Hell, he just hated the man in general. It wasn't long before he had to say something else.

"You think you might finally be ready to be honest with me?" he challenged Tydus.

"About what?" the big man asked.

"Tell me," Rigo said. "What do you plan to do when we get out into the desert? What is it you want out of this?"

Tydus bit his lip and took a long breath of air through his nose. When he answered, Rigo was completely sure it was the most truthful statement he'd ever heard from the man's mouth. It shook him.

"I plan to kill Gerudo," Tydus said Plain and simple, no sugar coating or anything. That was what the Colonel wanted.

He continued. "I can't be sure on the number of them just yet. It might be just the one, like you're hoping for. Or I might have to kill all five hundred of 'em. I expect that's the more likely scenario. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna kill as many Gerudo as necessary to make sure that Hyrule stays safe. You're a king, you say. Should understand that at least, or you ain't much of one."

Rigo's mouth opened to answer, but no sound came out. He had nothing to say about it. Here was a man casually and calmly discussing the obliteration of his entire species as though it were a minor labor that just needed to be done. And Rigo should understand that?

"What about the Chalice?" he asked, his voice cracking a little.

Tydus shrugged. "Get the cup or don't get the cup. I'll do what needs to be done one way or the other."

Rigo gritted his teeth. This man, this stubborn jackass of a man, had such a way of complicating everything he touched. Rigo would need to be completely perfect in order to bring this whole thing to a peaceful resolution. He'd need to deliver the Chalice, to satisfy Queen Zelda's demand, and he'd have to get the Gerudo gone from the desert immediately, before this power-mad zealot could get the chance to unleash a bloodbath. This talk settled any question Rigo could ever have had, about ever coming to understand the Colonel or make peace with him. It wasn't possible. The man's paranoia, his hatred of the Gerudo, was too deeply ingrained. He would enjoy it if this came to a fight.

What can you do with a man like that?

Rigo kept silent for the rest of the trip. Thankfully, Tydus didn't try to speak with him either. Rigo thought, briefly, of assassinating the man in his sleep, but wrote the idea off as foolishness. There would be no way to get away with such a thing, and chances were the rest of Tydus's unit would see it as an act of war and take it out on his people anyway.

They made camp that night, and Rigo slept under the stars in a roll-out sleeping blanket. Early the next day, they continued on and quickly made it as far as the lake. The whole body of water was bigger than Rigo had remembered it, though granted he hadn't gotten a particularly good look when he plunged into it head first in the dark. It stretched out before him in a glistening sea of sparkles, reflecting the sunlight back into the air of this beautiful day. He wished he could take the proper time to appreciate the sight of it.

The army marched out onto the lake, breaking formation somewhat to make their way around narrow ledges and across simple wooden piers. The horses had the most trouble with this, but Tydus allowed his to wade through the shallow water at the lake's shore, and the rest of the riders followed suit. The wagons were left at the back.

Their destination was a small island at the other side of the lake with two structures set on it: a colorful house and an enormous, ancient-looking cannon. The first of the group reached the island, and the single-file line of soldiers stretched back across the full length of the lake. As Rigo's horse trotted around the cannon, he caught sight of a pudgy little man sitting on the stairs of the house. When the menagerie of soldiers got within voice range, the little man seemed to spring to life. He jumped to his feet with an enormous smile on his face and held his open hands out in a gesture of showmanship. He was dressed as colorfully as his house, and made up as some sort of clown.

"Hey hey there, kiddies!" the man exclaimed, so loudly and giddily that the first horses whinnied and pulled back slightly. "Welcome to Fyer's Fliers! I'm your host, the ever-lovable Adolphus Fyer the Third! Can I interest you in a flight that'll change your li-"

"Can it, Fyer," Tydus said, without an inkling of patience. The big man let himself down from his horse and strode over to Fyer purposefully. "You were informed we'd be coming. Did you have time to prepare?"

The smile drained from Fyer's face and his shoulders seemed to slump all in one slow gradual motion. When he spoke again, the excitement was gone from his voice and a rasp had developed that was certainly not there before. "Ya know, you military folks drain all the fun outta this line'a work." The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cylinder wrapped in paper. He brought it to his lips, produced a small flint, struck a spark, and lit a fire at the end of the cylinder. He inhaled deeply and when he exhaled, a cloud of smoke came out of his lungs, blown directly toward Tydus.

If the big man noticed, he ignored it. "Have you prepared?" he repeated.

"Prepared? Prepared what? The machine does all the work. I ain't done a Desert Oasis flight in years, but that don't mean I can't do it right now if I wanna. Ya'know who's flyin?"

Tydus turned back to the group of soldiers behind him and gestured for one to come forward. "Private Sanders, front and center."

A nondescript soldier in military uniform came forward, carefully through the throng, trying not to shake the wooden bridge leading to the island too much. "Sir," he said. In his hands he held two large, shark pieces of polished steel that resembled enormous corkscrews, each the size of a man's torso. Coiled over each shoulder were separate and very heavy-looking lengths of braided rope. As he reached Tydus, he dropped the coils of rope and tied one rope to each of the two corkscrews he held, until they were both attached like anchors. "Ready," he said, and Tydus nodded.

The soldier went to climb into the big cannon, but Fyer stopped him.

"Nah, nah," the little man said. "In the house."

Tydus looked vexed. "Can he not just use the big cannon?"

"No one can use the big cannon," Fyer said. "Freakin' thing's got too much power. Will shoot'ya clear over the desert and straight to the moon. I dunno where my grandpappy got it, but it's nothin' but a waste o' space."

Sanders confirmed with Tydus, and then stepped up the stairs into the house, carrying the two corkscrews and dropping the ropes inside so they lay coiled on the ground.

"By the way, that'll be ten rupees," Fyer said, holding his hand out to Tydus.

Tydus folded his arms. "Take it up with the Royal Family."

Fyer puffed another cloud of smoke angrily before withdrawing and grumbling to himself. "Lousy cheapskate."

The short man stepped over to a little control panel beside front door and with the push of a button the front door, a large, solid, vault-like contraption, slammed shut, cutting Private Sanders off from the world. Fyer then stepped over to another small device that looked as though it would be at home in a circus and began turning a crank.

The device came to life with joyful music and spinning colors and shapes. Rigo thought that under other circumstances he might have very much enjoyed the little show, but the presence of so many Hylian soldiers just staring into the device silently just kind of killed the enjoyment of it. "Ya'know, the ambiance is usually a little better," Fyer said as he turned the crank faster and faster.

Now the house itself began to change, shifting and growing. Before long, Rigo could see the true purpose of it: the roof elongated and a second cannon sprouted from it. The cannon pointed away, across the lake at the very cliff Rigo had fallen from when he was chased by Sooru's guard. The cliff that, at the top, held the Gerudo Desert.

Without preamble, the cannon let off an earsplitting BOOM! and Rigo shielded his eyes from the sonic impact of it. He caught just a quick look at Private Sanders rocketing through the air toward the Desert. Streaming behind him were the two ropes he had brought into the cannon chamber with him. They were remarkably long, it turned out, spanning the entire length of the lake from the cliff to the island. When Sanders finally reached his destination, the ropes went sack and drooped down into the water.

Tydus began barking orders and the unit immediately came to life. Rigo quickly guided his horse out of the way to watch the procedure unfolding before him.

Two soldiers stripped out of their armor and swam out into the lake to collect the ropes that were sagging down from the lip of the cannon. Once acquired, they pulled on the ropes, sliding them out from the cannon until the ends came free. With the ends in hand, the soldiers swam back to the island.

Two more of the corkscrew-things were produced, and the soldiers tied these ends of the ropes to them. When the knots were tight and solid, the corskscrews were pulled back until the ropes went taut. Then, two more soldiers came forward to begin driving the screws into the hard, rocky ground at the center of the island. They went down deep, and the effort was exhausting. The soldiers were sweating and breathing hard by the end of it. Rigo couldn't help but feel sorry for Private Sanders, who was likely responsible for driving in both of the other two ends up on the cliff.

While this was done, the rest of the unit began passing the wooden planks forward, one by one, from the beach where they'd left the wagons. The soldiers at the front of the unit collected them as they made their way forward down the assembly line, and began connecting them to each other by the rails until the planks made one long, uninterrupted length of wood. This took a significant amount of time, enough for Fyer to smoke two more of the little sticks and ask Tydus if he'd ever tested something like this out before. Tydus ignored him.

Once the ropes were taut and all the planks were lined up and attached, a final length of rope was tied to the center of the first plank. One private climbed the side of Fyer's little house and dropped the other end of that rope down into the mouth of the cannon. It visibly hung down into the main room of the little house when Fyer reopened the door. A second private went back into the house and tied that length of rope around his waist and waited. Finally, a third stepped up to the wooden planks and set the first several of them up on the two ropes. The ropes ran parallel to each other, and the rails on the bottom of the wood planks fit them perfectly. Once on, the planks would not come unhooked easily, and as the private slid one plank up the length of rope, the next plank linked to it would slide up and into place behind it, almost automatically.

Before long, all this was done, and Tydus gave Fyer the order to go forward again. The little man wobbled back over to his control panel, closed the door, and began turning the crank. The ridiculous circus music began again, the wildly situation-inappropriate colors and images flashed around and around in circles, and this time Rigo was ready when the BOOM! came from the cannon. He covered his ears and watched as the second man was launched into the sky. This time, though, he was attached to the wooden planks, and as he went, the rope around his waist pulled at them and they went with him.

The planks slid up the length of rope at the speed of a racing cannonball. They shot up and up, and Rigo could see the whole thing come together: a bridge, eight feet wide, that led straight up into the desert from the lake. It didn't look like the most sturdy thing in the world, but it would hold so long as the men didn't try to walk too many at a time.

Rigo and Tydus were among the first to go, though a few of the lowliest privates went ahead to make sure the bridge was safe, and to fix any of the planks that had popped loose during the construction. It seemed like there were quite a few.

When it was Rigo's turn, Tydus instructed him to walk his horse behind him slowly. "If you lose that animal, there will be consequences," he said, and Rigo rolled his eyes. The bridge was surprisingly tight enough to be walkable, if not exactly comfortable. The horse was uneasy, but continued in the straight line over the water and up the incline until, finally, the two of them reached the desert at the top.

Much of the rest of that day was spent waiting for the unit to reform at the top of the bridge, but Rigo didn't pay any of it much mind. He stepped forward, off the rocky crags that made up the cliff face, until his boots set down on soft sand. When he felt it, that familiar, nurturing softness under his feet, he fell to his knees and scooped up handfuls of the stuff, letting it run through his fingers and fall into piles at his sides. The sun had risen high in the sky, and even just this short distance from the lake, he could feel the heat of it beating on him. A tear came to his eye, and then another, and he pressed the warm sand to his face. After all this time, through the trials and dangers of his life in Hyrule, he had finally, auspiciously, returned home.