Ganondorf sat at a desk, his eyes glued to and memorizing a map lying before him. Some of his more useful minions had been brave enough to tour the sea and chart a map of the islands, and any other information they could gather. While it was wise to have, and took much time to accomplish, none of it had propelled his true mission.
He stood up from the desk and wandered toward a window of the ship that was his temporary place of living, which he shared with Dora. The ship was perched atop the fortress they conquered, while dispatching the rest of the pirates who thought they were the terrors of the sea. He had shown them true suffering before they met their end.
The next obstacle was the once guardian of the fortress. The fight with Helmaroc King had been taxing. In his true state of power, the oversized bird would have proven an easy match. Without being able to draw on all of his magic, he had relied heavily on tact, and Dora's agility, to help bring the beast down and force him to submit. In the end, he placed an enchanted mask on the bird that made him a mindless servant.
Helmaroc King's only orders were to locate, capture, and return young girls with pointy ears, preferably girls of nobility or power. To that day, each one had not been the girl he was looking for, and the arduous search continued.
Dora constantly tried to reassure him that it was just a matter of time, but his patience was wearing out. The reason was not just the inability to locate the Triforce of Wisdom, and then wait again for the hero, but because he was powerless compared to before. Day after day, hour after hour, he would focus and try to unlock his remaining power, but it always remained just beyond the reach of his fingers. No matter how he tried, none of his power would return until the Master Sword was pulled from its pedestal again.
A bang startled him, and he turned to find Dora had thrown open the door.
"Ganondorf," she yelled. "He's back. Helmaroc King is back!"
He rolled his eyes at her childish excitement. Immediately after, he smirked. She was truly the only entertaining part of his life anymore. He held out his arm and she accepted, following him down to the holding cell for the other girls that did not possess the Triforce of Wisdom.
Dora prepared herself, just like the last four times, for this to be the girl they searched diligently for. The bird had scoured the skies, chasing young girls, but Dora had also searched the wide ocean, hoping for some information. Hyrule seemed even more vast now that everyone was dispersed on islands, that searching too far was not advisable. In other words, Ganondorf refused to let her wander aimlessly until she found Zelda's daughter.
He eagerly watched the back of his hand, and the girl's hand, as the bird alighted on the floor in front of them. It awaited the next order.
Nothing happened.
"She bears no resemblance to the princess of Hyrule. Make her comfortable," Dora sneered, then turned her back to everyone. She sighed, disappointed.
"You just wait until my brother comes to save me! He's of age now, old enough to wear those green clothes! He'll save me," the girl shouted the whole way the moblin carried her to the wooden cell.
Dora spun around, her curiosity spiked by these words.
Ganondorf paused and calmly turned around. "Your brother?" he asked.
"Yeah! His name is Link and he will kick your butt!"
He and Dora locked eyes, without trying to let the girl know the importance of this information.
"You'll see," she said, and stuck out her tongue.
"Pfft. Let him come then. We'll see how tough he is." Dora laughed, walking out the door, and shrugged her shoulders. She hid her excitement at this great fortune. At long last, their patience was paying off.
Ganondorf was surprised by the swiftness in which Link followed Helmaroc King to what was notoriously named the Forsaken Fortress. There was no doubt the boy was either courageous or foolish, and the two were interchangeable.
Dora stood on the balcony and watched Link scale the fortress, judging his skill. Ganondorf overheard her shout insults at him, even though they were too high up to be heard. "Pathetic," she said. "He's an amateur. This can't be him. I could kill you with my arms tied behind my back!"
Suddenly, she rushed into the ship and grabbed Ganondorf's wrist. She dragged him out the front door to await Helmaroc King. The bird flapped its wings, rising slowly in the sky, until he hovered just in front of the railing. There was a blonde boy, dressed in green, hanging from his mouth. The boys blue eyes were wide with fear, seeing the large man who suddenly commanded his fate. Ganondorf jerked his head, and the bird tossed the boy far to the left.
Dora stared at him in disbelief. "You know who that was, right?"
He glared at her, offended that she dare question his intellect, and then entered the room again. "Of course I do."
"Why didn't you kill him?" she asked, closing the door behind them.
"Because my goal is the Triforce, not just the pointless slaughtering of my enemies, unlike you," he pointed out, grinning.
"Oh. I guess he didn't have the Triforce of Courage yet," she said. "Or the Master Sword."
"Precisely. We will let him wander around until he proves his worth. He has not fully awakened into the hero I once knew."
"Perhaps he will bring with him the Triforce of Wisdom too!"
"That would expedite the mission, but I need my powers back first, and the only one who can do that is him," he explained in a growl. "I need him to remove the Master Sword and release my power to the world again. All of my slumbering minions will awaken below. I can bring them to the surface, and take the Triforce from these children."