A/N: Thanks to ZeldaRubix, alwaysingirl and (NEW REVIEWER!) Ananymous Reviewer for their reviews!
Thanks for the reviews Ananymous Reviewer! Oh, and to answer your question, you don't have to meet Dampé when he's alive, but you can get a Piece of Heart out of doing so. So I recommend it.
Poetry, alwaysingirl? Haha, wow. Never did like poetry in school, but wow. Thanks!
So, Zelda is in the hands of the Gerudo. What will she do?
Read on!
Chapter 28 - Weapons
Zelda awoke as she was unceremoniously dumped in a room. It was almost pitch-black, apart from a soft light filtering from a gap in the wall which was perpendicular to the ceiling. Due to this light, Zelda could see the room dimly, if she really strained her eyes. There were chains along the walls, and hanging from the ceiling. Zelda could have sworn she could also see some human skulls. They lay in a pile haphazardly, as if they had just been thrown there. The Gerudo obviously showed no sympathy for their victims.
The door behind Zelda slammed shut loudly, bringing her back to reality. Her side stung with pain as she propped herself up on her elbows. She looked down, and could see an outline of an ichor puddle next to a wound in her skin. There was a bandage over it, which helped stem some of the flow, but being thrown on the ground caused the bandage to drift off, letting the wound go and resting lazily on the ground. The wound had opened again, but the flow of the blood wasn't as bad as when she had been sliced by the spear. Maybe. The details were hazy.
Zelda stood up. From everything that had occurred, she inferred she was in the Gerudo prison. No mention had come as to what they were going to do to her, and she didn't want to imagine. But from the look of the pile of skulls, they didn't seem to be a very negotiable people. She walked over to the wall, holding her hands out for makeshift eyes. When they hit the wall, she stopped. All she had to do was escape, and the wall looked quite rough. Some bricks illuminated by the light appeared to jut out ever so slightly ahead of the rest. Perhaps if she were to get a good hold of them...
She felt around the wall in front of her, at shoulder level. Most of the wall felt smooth. Nothing out of the ordinary yet... Ah! There! Her fingers clasped around one of the bricks, and she pulled. It didn't move at all. Good. Her other hand now felt above her head for another abnormality. It wasn't long before she found another disobedient brick and grabbed it. Now, using her great strength, she hoisted her leg onto the first abnormality, and rested her left hand on the second for support. Her left hand slithered up the wall again, and quickly found another brick. So far, so good.
She had gotten about two metres up the wall in five minutes, a rather impressive feat for anyone, let alone a princess. On occasion, her hands had slipped from the bricks, and she scrabbled back onto the wall in fear of falling and injuring herself. This served to sting her side with pain again, but she kept on the wall, waiting for the pain to subside before she continued.
She was doing well, climbing another metre within two minutes. If she kept at the same pace, she would reach the opening in about 20 minutes. With this hope, she searched more frantically. The quicker she got out the quicker she could get on with her side of the quest.
Suddenly, one of the bricks on which Zelda's feet was resting crumbled. A cool wave of goose bumps rushed through her body as her fingers clasped desperately for the other handholds, but her fingers were slippery. They betrayed her and fell from the bricks, sending her plunging toward the floor. She landed on the ground with a sickening thump and her wound splurged with red fluid.
'Goddess!' she hissed, clutching her side. When she removed her hand and looked at it, it was drenched with blood. She wiped it meticulously on her leg until it was gone, and looked back at the wall. The brick that crumbled lay on the floor, and Zelda looked at it accusingly. But then she realised her own folly. What an idiot! You can't just go into a fortress, all needles blazing without getting taken down and chucked into their jail! If she had given this at least the slightest bit of thought she would have got into the desert without much trouble. She could have used her needles, or snuck up to the guard instead of just running straight up to her and alerting the others to her presence. That way she could have been halfway across the desert by now.
Zelda heard a clank, and quickly scrabbled to a corner of the room. The door opened and a Gerudo woman holding a tray stepped into the room. A small rectangle of light appeared, obscured by the woman's lithe figure, but the corner that Zelda was in stayed shrouded in near darkness. The guard gave the room a once over before taking another step.
'Hey,' her voice cut the darkness. 'Dinner.' She laid the tray on the floor.
The solitary word echoed in the room. Zelda made a split-second decision. It was risky, but what other chance did she have? She reached for her dagger. What she hadn't counted on was that they had stripped her of her weapons. The only weapons available to her were her hands. And they had already betrayed her before.
'Goddammit,' she whispered lightly. The guard turned to leave, and Zelda's mind clicked. She remembered a skill that Impa had taught her, something only the Sheikahs knew. Zelda was always fascinated by it, how it worked. Impa never let that on, but she still Zelda in on where on the body to do it and what pressure to apply. One of the guard's areas was exposed, as unlike the other guards she didn't wear a scarf that covered her mouth. Zelda contemplated, but then it was probably her only choice. This was the perfect opportunity as well.
She stood slowly, quietly. The guard still hadn't been alerted to her intentions, so she still attempted to leave. Zelda chose the moment to strike. Wait for it... wait for it... Now!
She grabbed the guard by the neck and pulled her back into the darkness. The guard yelped quietly but was quickly silenced by Zelda's hand as it clasped her mouth.
'Shut it,' she hissed threateningly. The guard struggled against her and screeched into her hand. Zelda's other hand clasped around her nose.
'Shut it or I'll break your nose,' Zelda hissed again, and the guard instantly went limp.
'That's good,' Zelda breathed. She removed her hand from the guard's mouth and the guard breathed out heavily.
'Now, where are my weapons?'
The guard remained silent. Zelda shook her nose and she yelled in pain and discomfort.
'Where are they?' she whispered a bit more strongly.
The guard's soft voice stopped whimpering and she reached for a dagger. Zelda didn't notice.
'I...' the guard stuttered. 'I'm not sure.'
Her hand closed around the dagger.
'But maybe if you...'
She cut her speech short and swiped at Zelda's face. Zelda saw the hand come up out of the corner of her eye and snapped her head backward. It missed her face by centimetres. The hand came back quickly but wasn't quick enough. Zelda grabbed the dagger, wrenched it from the guard's hand and held it to her throat.
'Okay, screw breaking your nose,' she breathed ostentatiously. The guard looked up, at Zelda's red eyes. They sparked with an anger not seen in the stupid ninja they had stabbed and thrown in the cell earlier.
'Next it's just death.'
Zelda jabbed the dagger at the guard's neck quickly. She snapped it back before it could do any real damage, but had at least shown that she meant business.
The guard looked up at her fearfully, but then surrendered, nodding.
'Down the hallway. First room on the right.'
Zelda opened her eyes in surprise at the guard's speed to save her own life at the risk of the other's safety. She shook her head.
'How courteous of you,' she whispered. 'Now if you don't mind...'
She pressed a finger on the guard's bare neck, and the guard looked up.
'What are you doing?' she asked, her voice panicky.
'Shh, sh sh sh...' Zelda hushed the guard and pressed her neck harder. The guard's eyes rolled back so that only the whites of them could be seen.
'Sh sh sh sh...' The guard fell asleep, laying her head contentedly on Zelda's arm.
'That's it,' Zelda whispered, laying the guard's head down. 'Just stay there.'
She stood up and spun the dagger around before putting it her holster. It had a nice feel about it; about the right weight and a very sharp edge. Zelda could definitely use it in her later fights.
She ran into the hallway, which was unguarded, and entered the room that supposedly contained her weapons. It was also unguarded, which confused Zelda, but she left no time to ponder over it. She searched through the bags on the table and easily found her weapons, her dagger distinctly different from the Gerudo's and very noticeable. She smiled and took them out, putting them in their respective holders.
Shouts came from outside. Zelda looked over at the wall, which let the sound in without much trouble. The guards. Someone else had appeared that wasn't one of them. Zelda took that to be Link and hurried out of the room. No time could be wasted. Whatever was to happen, she had to get to the temple before Link did.
So begins her escape from the Gerudo Fortress.