Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who responded to my previous Author's Note.

I'm happy to say that after a long break from writing and reading all the reviews and PM's I got, I have decided not to quit this story. =D However, we ARE very close to the end.

I want to thank everyone who has been supporting this story along with Buried in the Desert Sands. If it weren't for you guys, these stories would not even exist. So thank you!

I also wrote a little one-shot about Ganondorf's thoughts and regrets he mulls over during his imprisonment in the Evil Realm. So just a little something extra for anyone who is interested in reading it. It's called "Nabooru: Ganondorf's Lament" and it's already posted up and can be found on my profile. ^-^

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gerudos, Gerudo Fortress, Ganondorf, or anything from The Legend Of Zelda…I do however own any OC's that appear, mainly Nalissa/Nali, Kali, and Katara/Kat.

Enjoy! =]

Chapter 7

"Yah!" I shout, slapping Comet's flank and urging him to go faster. The white beast's hooves can be heard beating against the sandy floor.

We near the archery range quickly, and I prepare my bow. We sail past the first target, and I let my arrow fly.

Bull's eye.

"Yah!" I urge Comet forward again and take aim once more at the next target.

Bull's eye.

Third target: bull's eye.

I smile in victory as we near a taller target, suspended up high by a long wooden post.

I take aim and miss the red inner circle by a quarter of an inch.

"Darn it!" I shout in frustration. Comet rounds the corner and we begin heading back the other way.

I turn my body slightly so I'm facing the target I missed and take aim again.

There's my bull's eye.

Smiling, I turn and begin to take aim at the seven pots we have lined up underneath the targets.

I miss the second one, so I focus on getting the others.

Just before Comet and I near the finish line, I turn my body again and take aim at the pot I missed.

Even from this far away, I manage to break it just as we hit the finish line.

"YES!" I shout, grinning from ear to ear. Comet skids to a stop and whinnies, almost as if he were congratulating me. I leap off of him and give him a big hug. "Thank you." I tell him, kissing his nose. He snorts and stares into my eyes.

I love how he always looks me in the eyes, like he knows what I'm feeling and what I'm going through all the time. Actually, sometimes I think he does.

"Come on, boy. Let's get you some water." I tell him, leading him to the tent that provides shade for our livestock. I tie his reins to the post and begin filling a wooden basin with water just as I hear footsteps approaching.

I hear a loud gasp behind me.

I set the water down for Comet (who begins lapping it up happily) and sigh.

"Nalissa Dragmire! Just what in Din's name have you been doing up here? I've been looking for you all morning!" my mom shouts, eyeing the targets nervously. "Did you do the horseback archery challenge?"

"Yes Mom." I sigh exasperatedly. Finally I grin. "Look at all those bull's eyes."

Mom looks over in surprise before turning to me again with a look of pure concern.

"You know very well you're not supposed to shoot targets on horseback until you're eight and have been properly trained by a seasoned Elite. Do you know how dangerous horseback archery is? You could have seriously injured yourself!"

"But Mom! I'm eight in two days, plus Comet was bored! He doesn't like being cooped up all day; he deserved to go for a little sprint! And I think you should be happy I'm getting a head start on my training."

"But…"

"Mom, look at those bull's eyes again." I tell her, pointing. "Aren't you proud of me?" she looks at them for a minute, sighs, then turns to me again, her expression soft.

"Of course I am, sweetheart." I grin and she hugs me. "But I'm just concerned you might get hurt. You've never been properly trained on how to do this. Just promise me you'll wait to do this again until you start lessons, okay?"

"But Mom…"

"It's only two days." She says, grinning. I sigh.

"Okay." She smiles and pats my head.

"At this rate, you'll be an Elite by age twelve." She says, shaking her head in disbelief. "Let's walk back to our chambers." I nod and walk alongside her, smiling back at the targets I shot.

Mom has always been somewhat protective of me (seeing as I'm her only daughter, naturally any mother would be protective), but her protectiveness increased after that fateful night almost a year ago, when an intruder broke into my dad's tower and I killed him. You'd think she'd cool it with the protectiveness after that, seeing as I can take care of myself. But no, she worries even more now, possibly just because of the fact I was in such a dangerous situation and she wasn't there to protect me.

"Nali, is it okay if I invite Nadhiyah to your party?" I stop dead in my tracks.

"Nadhiyah?" I say with disgust.

"Yes, her mother just fell incredibly ill and she deserves to be around girls her age right now." I sigh.

I hate that girl with a passion, but I'd never wish anything bad upon anyone's family, no matter what they did to offend me.

"Sure, you can invite her." I say. Mom smiles and pinches my cheek.

"Thank you for being sweet." I pout and rub the spot she pinched my cheek.

I hate having my cheeks pinched.

"But anyway, I thought I made it clear I did NOT want a party." I grumble. Mom turns and grins down at me.

"And I thought I made it clear that no matter whether you want one or not, I will ALWAYS throw birthday parties for you. Your birthday is a cause for celebration, Nali. You're incredibly special, and you're destined to do great things." I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Birthday parties are lame…"

"Since when?"

"Since I am old enough to be ranked. I'm practically an adult!" Mom snorts and ruffles my hair.

"Come on, Squirt." She says, jogging ahead. My competitive streak gets the best of me and I race after her.

I love my mom.

She's awesome.

XXX

"Happy birthday, Nalissa!"

Is what I wake up to this morning.

I sit up slowly, yawn, stretch, and then rub my eyes.

When I open my eyes, I see Mom sitting there holding a very long present, smiling eagerly.

"What's this?" I ask, taking the wrapped present.

"It's your birthday gift, silly." She smiles. "You can use them now that you're finally going to be ranked."

I open it to find a box. Curiously, I remove the lid to find two sheathed scimitars. The sheaths are dark blue and stitched with gold designs.

I smile in admiration as I take a scimitar out to look it over.

The blade is so polished I can see my reflection almost clearly, and the hilt is gold encrusted with rubies.

"They are AWESOME!" I shout, swinging one gently to test its weight.

"How does it feel?"

"Perfect! Not too heavy for me like Daddy's. Oh, Mom! Thank you so much! I promise that I'll use them everyday!" I put the scimitar back in its sheath and throw my arms around her.

Mom laughs and returns the hug.

XXX

My birthday party came and went…it was all a dull blur.

It's not that I mind having all my friends and favorite adults over; I love spending time with them. It's the fact that no one else in the whole fortress has birthday parties because they can't afford them. I get them because I'm the "princess" (I still hate that word with a passion) and everyone treats me as such at these parties, even my friends. My friends usually treat me normally except at my parties when they are in the presence of my mom or my dad (who was actually here for this party and even gave a speech about how proud he was to have me turn eight and be ranked…he almost made me tear up. But as a Gerudo, I can't show emotion like that in front of others).

But nonetheless, I had more fun there than I normally do…probably because I'm actually excited to be turning eight.

Even Nadhiyah was nice. I apologized to her about her mom, and she actually hugged me! She was nice to Andalee too.

I got measured for my uniform the next day, and two days later it was ready for me…while for normal people it usually takes anywhere from a week or two.

That's another perk to being the Gerudo "Princess". Anything ordered for the "princess" is top priority and gets finished faster.

This is the one thing I'm actually psyched about being the "princess" for, though. The sooner I get my uniform means…the sooner I can start training!

I take my stance with my scimitars, circling my opponent Asalah. She was recently ranked too, and we've already begun our training. This time, my mom was appointed to overlook the training since our teacher is on "maternity leave"…whatever that means.

I never take my eyes off Asalah.

Come on, make a move already.

As if on cue, she lunges at me. I quickly roll to the side, attempt a Gerudo spin attack, and actually manage to knock her to the floor. I pin her down to signify my victory.

"Game over." I declare.

"Enough!" I hear Mom shout. "Good practice, Nalissa." She says. "Shake hands with your opponent." I help Asalah up and shake her hand. She glares at me bitterly and walks away, but I don't let it bother me.

I'm in way too much of a good mood to let something like that get me down.

"Excellent." Mom says, looking quite proud. "Come, Nalissa. You need to practice archery now." I sheath my scimitars and walk alongside her to the archery range.

As we're walking, I can't help but notice how dark Mom's skin is. I look down at my own arm next to hers and although I'm also a bronze color, she's much darker, especially when I hold my arm up in comparison to hers.

"Mom, why is my skin so much lighter than everyone else's?" she looks down at me, surprised at my question.

"It is the way the goddesses created you." She responds quickly and speeds up her pace.

"But you and Daddy are so dark, and Belina told me I look nothing like you."

"Never mind what Belina said. She's just jealous you're the princess." She says. I frown at her having called me "princess" and telling me my friends are "jealous" of me.

I don't want people to be jealous of me, especially my friends.

But I don't think Belina's jealous; she was just making an observation.

We stop at the archery range and I shoot a few arrows, not really paying attention to where they land. My mind is elsewhere.

"Mom, who was Nabooru?"

I've heard so much about this woman yet never met her. Nadhiyah (now that we're friends) was telling me of all the stories she'd heard about her. She sounds very admirable.

Mom looks extremely surprised for a minute…almost scared. But then she speaks.

"She was a Gerudo warrior. She was and still is your daddy's second-in-command. She's different now. She became corrupted so your daddy had to brainwash her so she wouldn't mess up his plans. Now she lives in the Spirit Temple. She still comes here every once in a while to give orders to some of the Gerudos, but she doesn't realize what she's doing. Because if she did, she'd try to steal you away." My arrow falls uselessly to the floor at this.

"Why would she want me?" I ask. Mom sighs.

"Well Nali, you are the princess of the Gerudo thieves. You are very valuable. Besides, Nabooru couldn't have babies. She liked your daddy and she was jealous of mommy being with him and so she tried to steal you away from us. Now she is brainwashed. So you are very much safe now."

I nod, satisfied with her answer, and shoot a bull's-eye.

"Great job, sweetie!" She shouts. "Let's go tell Daddy!"

"Daddy, Daddy! I shot a bull's-eye!" I shout at Dad.

I've gotten bull's eyes before, but never really told him about it, especially about the horseback archery challenge because Mom didn't want me telling him about that since I technically wasn't allowed to be doing that when I was seven.

"Good. Like your dad, huh?"

"Well she certainly has your stamina. You should have seen what she did to Asalah today during a spar." Mom says. Dad nods.

"Very good. You may play now." I hug him and sprint to my room.

When I get there, I take out my polishing kit and begin polishing my scimitars.

"Nali!" I hear Dad shout about five minutes later. I drop my cloth in surprise and it falls somewhere under my bed.

After deciding to retrieve it later, I cartwheel into the living room excitedly to see what he wants.

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Go play with your friends. You're off for the rest of the day."

Off?

Sweet!

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaaah!" I shout, darting out of the room excitedly.

XXX

I returned to my chambers around five-thirty. After eating dinner, Dad ordered me to go study.

I sighed. I hate books…I'd rather be out in the action, sword fighting and such. But I did it without complaint, so here I am now in our personal library, bored out of my mind.

"Nali!" I hear a voice.

"Over here." I shout. Soon Katara appears and smiles at me.

She somehow looks different. Hmmm…

"Hey, Purple. Are you excited about being ranked?"

"Oh yes. It was the best day of my life, my eighth birthday. I love my training classes." She smiles.

"That's good! Nabooru would be so proud of you!" I look up from my book confusedly.

"What? Nabooru?"

"Oh, uh…yeah. She used to train the young girls. She would have liked you a lot." She says quickly.

"Oh." I say, frowning.

"Whatcha reading there?" she asks, as if trying to change the subject.

"It's apart of my home education. It's the history of Hyrule." I say in a bored tone of voice.

"Oh."

"So what brings you here?"

"I was actually wondering…um, how are you? Can I join you?"

"Sure. What type of books do you like?" I say, excited to put my book down and take a brief yet well-needed break.

"Um, I was actually wondering if your father had any books on brainwashing?"

"On brainwashing? Let me check." I say, reading the spines. "Oh, I don't see anything on it."

"Oh, well maybe a spell book?"

"Spell book…here's one. And another." I hand her two thick books.

"Thank you."

"Mm-hmm. Please have a seat." She sits and begins thumbing through the books.

Brainwashing…

That's random.

But then again, it IS Katara we're talking about here.

I shrug the matter off and continue reading about the "history of Hyrule"…yawn.

We read in silence for about ten minutes. I must have blanked out about fifty times. Checking the page I'm on, I'm only on page thirty-seven out of like three hundred thirty-two or something like that.

I flip to the end of the book to clarify how many pages there are.

Oh, it's three hundred thirty-six.

Even worse, even if just by four pages.

Four long, boring pages.

I sigh, knowing that there is no way I'll get through the whole thing tonight.

But I have to keep reading it until one of my parents tells me it's bedtime.

For once I'm actually looking forward to bedtime.

"What are you doing here?" a voice shouts, causing me to jump in surprise. It's Dad.

"I came to say hi to Nali. I was just leaving." Katara says. I jump up to give her a hug.

"Bye, Kat!" I say, causing her to smile.

"Later, Kiddo. Keep practicing your fighting!" Katara smiles at Dad, who doesn't look too amused. She waves at me and exits. I look up at him, hoping he'll tell me I can go to bed. His eyes darted over to the textbook, and then back to me pointedly. I sigh and sit back down to continue reading.

He makes his way over to the book Katara left open.

"Brainwashing." I hear him growl.

I continue reading for about two minutes before he speaks up.

"Nali, you can go to bed."

"Okay!" I shout excitedly, slamming the book shut and hugging him. "Goodnight Daddy."

He grumbles a response and I rush back to my room.

As I'm changing into my pajamas, I notice my cloth I'd forgotten about earlier under my bed.

I get on my hands and knees and retrieve the cloth, but then pause as I notice a little slip of paper next to it. Curiously, I take the paper. It's folded up and looks old.

I unfold it and read.

"To my sweet little angel on her first birthday. Happy Birthday Nalissa! – Love, Nabooru."

My heart skips a beat.

Nabooru knew me?

Wow, things are getting weird lately.

I quickly run to the hallway to ask Dad about it, but then pause as I hear voices.

I sigh at the realization that he has yet another woman over.

Oh well, I guess I'll just talk to Mom about it in the morning.

I crawl into bed and sink underneath my covers, clutching the note tightly in my hand so I won't forget.

A/N: So there you have it. We're finally starting to catch up to the final events of Buried in the Desert Sands!

Don't forget to leave a review! Not leaving reviews is like not filling a car up with gas and expecting it to run…wait, actually that'd be awesome. Haha j/k, but please, feel free to voice your opinion about the story.

Again, thank you everyone who supported this story and the other. And don't forget to check out "Nabooru: Ganondorf's Lament" on my profile if you're interested. =]

~Green Eyed Gerudo