A Thousand Red Threads

Chapter 4- Memories

Kohana woke up first but laid there under Ganondorf's arm as he slept, snoring softly. She stared at him silently in thought and glanced at the thick iron ring on the wall where the other end of her shackle was clamped. Still, this went on? Even now? That dream she had seemed so vivid and real that she reached out and put a hand on Ganondorf's unarmed chest while he slept, to felt the soft vibrations of his rib cage from his beating heart. She let out a small sigh of relief as he stirred to life for a brief moment to bury his face in her shoulder before drifting back to sleep. Kohana hugged his head, sighing softly on the matter of how troublesome he was but something couldn't escape her mind. The Statue in her temple room was clearly of the woman in her dreams- but she had no wings, like in her dream. Who was she aside from someone with her name, or was Kohana the one with the woman's name? She looked at Ganondorf and the bright eyes and devilish grin flashed in her mind, making her back up a bit but when the phantom image faded and Ganondorf remained, she laid back down and tried to relax. She could still feel it though.

She could feel the deep settled fear of the woman in her dream and her stubbornness seemed to overcome Kohana's own personality.

Kohana felt insecure and in that instant that she recognized it, the man next to her pulled her closer to him, looking at her in a sleepy daze as she looked back. "It's ok." He said but it sounded more like something to comfort her and she smiled softly as he drifted back to sleep. She slowly drifted off into a deeper slumber too- one now plagued by another nightmarish scene but filled with some strange but song singing that relaxed her further.

When they woke up again, Ganon woke up first this time and unshackled Kohana from the wall, the two getting ready for the day. Kohana silently braided her long hair as she stood up to get the task done, Ganon sitting on the bed and watching as she worked before she coiled it up and tied it to hold in place. "Leave it down, today." He said and she looked at him. "At least leave your braid down?" Kohana looked away and shyly untied the braid, pulling it over her shoulder and he got up. He went over to her and kissed her head, holding her hand, " Did you sleep well?" He asked and she didn't give a nod this time.

"I had a strange dream." She said, "It disoriented me, but I will be fine." Kohana assured and he nodded, opening the door for her and she stepped through first, waiting for him before he walked next to her. "I was wondering if I could go and meditate back at my temple room." "Of course-" "Without you." Ganondorf stopped and narrowed his eyes at her, "If you are uneasy about be being on my own for a little while, then have guards posted at the entrance, but I need to meditate in silence."

"I can be silent." He assured and she looked at him, questioning the sincerity of his assurance. "I can try really hard to at least." She laughed a little and smiled,

"Alright." She said and they went to the room she had been kept in, Ganon standing off to the side as Kohana lit the candles in the ceremonial circle and around the room, before going into the circle and kneeling before the statue. She clapped her hands and they echoed in the silence and she fell to her hands before it, her fingers pointing towards the statue under it's unfazed gaze as she prayed and muttered in prayer. Kohana sat up and clapped twice more before falling into the same position and continued to mutter, then sat up and lit some incense in a incense smolder next to her before praying more as a faint blue smoke crept from the smolder and fogged the room. Ganondorf felt dizzy as the smoke seemed to get thicker and numbed him as he put his hand on the wall to steady himself, "Kohana." He called. "Kohana-"

A pair of bright grey eyes glowed brightly in the fog and Ganondorf shuddered. The same sharp, animalistic instinct within them, looked him over. "…Kohana?" He questioned, and the eyes blinked from existence and the haze cleared ever so slightly to show that the eyes of the statue had began to glow brightly as Kohana continued to pray obliviously. There as a dull noise, slowly rising up in Ganondorf's ears before it took a sharp and piercing rise and let out a shrill sound that made Ganondorf cover his ears, yelling out the red-haired woman's name.

She looked over just as a beam of light shot from the eyes of the statue and blasted right into Kohana, slamming her against some type of invisible wall in the ceremonial circle as Ganondorf moved towards her. Time slowed as the statue lifted it's sword from the ground and made a swipe at the Gerudo.

Ganondorf dove towards Kohana and barely missed losing an appendage as the candle flames were blown out from his move. He grabbed Kohana from the circle and rolled away from the statue to the opposite side of the room before skidding to a stop as the noise in his head faded out. He panted ruggedly, looking up at the statue to see it held the sword across the back of it's shoulders- like he had saw when he entered Kohana's dream- and stood immobile and ominous now. He looked down at Kohana who just laid limply in his hold. He set her down and felt for a pulse, letting out a relieved sigh to know it still drummed…if unusually slow. He gave her a once over, finding that she held no visible injuries. "Kohana." He said and she didn't open her eyes. When Ganondorf thought back to the strange light, she did hit something pretty hard- maybe she hit her head in the process? He picked her up after wrapping her up in his cloak, leaving the room from the passage way, "Guards." He called and yelled louder, "GUARDS!"

There wasn't a sound. Not for what seemed like a long while until a couple guards appeared as he passed through the area where the girls' cage was. "Get some water and a rag or two and bring it up to my room." Ganondorf ordered, the girls going up to the bars,

"Oh no…" One of them peeped sadly and Ganondorf looked over at the girls, the one who had spoken on the edge of tears, "Miss Lady-!" She sobbed and the other girls started to sniffle,

"No, no, It's alright girls." Ganondorf reassured, the girls about to cry, "She's not dead." He snapped, the girls flinching, "I didn't meant to yell. She hit her head…I think." Ganondorf said and one of the girls spoke up, the youngest of them,

"My grandma helps sick people! I've helped her." The little one said, "Maybe I can help if Miss Lady is sick?" Ganondorf hesitated and looked at Kohana as she laid against his chest, in his arms. What would she do?

'Probably let the girls help me get better if I was sick.' He thought and a guard came over after he nodded to them. Ganondorf gently passed off the woman to the guard to he could release the girls for the day, and took Kohana back, leading the girls to his room as he laid Kohana down in the bed. The youngest put a hand to Kohana's forehead, "She's really hot, Mister. I think she has a fever." Ganondorf checked himself, her forehead feeling as if it was on fire. "Miss Lady can't have any blankets on her. She needs a cold rag on her head, I think." The girls all started working together to pull the bed sheets off Kohana as the water and rags Ganondorf had requested earlier, appeared. He soaked the rag and wrung it out like the girl told him, and put it on her forehead, sitting down on a chair and had a bench brought up for the girls and they waited.

Kohana sat in the body of the bird-winged woman again, in the same tent, a stranger in another's body who was merely observing. As the tent flap opened, Kohana quickly got to her feet, "Demise!" She snapped, as the black-skinned giant she had seen the night before, entered the tent. He looked over and grinned darkly at her as she continued, "Return my ceremonial garbs to me! This instant!" He set his strange sword down on a table and went over to her, "I know you've put them in that chest. It's the only place you could have put them." She snapped angrily and pointed to a pitch-black chest near the foot of a giant bed that was probably made specifically to fit the ogre who glanced at the chest with a wicked grin as he crossed the room to run a hand over the gold and silver leaves inlaid upon the wood.

"Do you refer to…this chest?" He asked slowly as he looked at Kohana and she stiffened at his mocking but chilly gaze. "The one made from a tree from my unholy land?" He asked and she nodded, "Why…if you think they're in here, why not look for yourself?" Kohana let out a sigh, "What is wrong with the clothes I have given you?" He questioned and crossed the room as Kohana turned around to look into the same mirror she had the first time she was in this body. She wore a piece of cloth that could hardly be called a 'dress'. It was black and red, and was tied just under her wings and across her voluptuous chest, then swept to the back where the back was so low that it showed the dark triangle of shade just before her butt crack. She wore a heavy necklace to hide most of her cleavage, but Kohana folded her wings around herself as Demise stopped behind her, "You look ravishing, my pet."

"I look like a tramp." Kohana sobbed and covered her face with an edge of her wing, "This dress…is the worst one you've made me wear yet. I am a maiden of virtue, an Angel! Yet you dress me like a whore." Kohana lifted her head slightly, Demise looking down at her, "I just want my old dress back. At least one of them." Anger rippled across his face as he threw a hand towards the direction of the trunk,

"They are tattered and torn, they are no longer for you." He growled and she pulled her wings closer about herself to shield herself from his rage, "I lavish you with gifts; Gems, jewelry, clothes, presents, and possessions. I ensure that you want for nothing, yet you want nothing from me. Your ungratefulness tests my patience, Kohana." He roared and there was silence. After a while he sighed, and there was the soft brush of his fingertips against the feathers on Kohana's back. "You frustrate me, woman, with your neglect. I, too, require caring to." He voiced much more gently and she unfolded her wings a bit, "I will dress you." He said and pulled away, going to the chest and opened it, pulling out amount of fabric, "Sit on the bed and remove the dress." Kohana crossed the room and did so, using her wings to cover herself up before Demise knelt before her.

She gently arched her legs and he slipped his hands inside the skirt of the fabric, putting it past her legs and up her thighs, his palms running against her skin were actually quite smooth. He pulled the fabric over her butt and used his hands to smooth the creases away, leaving gentle and tender kisses against her skin. Her arms, her inner wrists, her palms and her shoulders got said treatment and she reluctantly laid against his chest as Kohana pulled the fabric over her bareness, and he reached around to her back and clasped something under her wings, then latched the circular silver ring that held the dress up, behind her neck. His palms faintly brushed against the fabric to smooth out creases once more as Kohana blushed, before he tilted her chin up with the tip of a finger and kissed her. It was hot and passionate, but Kohana retrained herself despite how she let out a little gasp of surprise. More than enough of an invitation for his tongue to wander her mouth as he gently pushed her back onto the bed. "Stop-" Kohana gasped as Demise broke the kiss and squeezed her thighs playfully, his sharp nails cutting her skin, "OW, enough!" She snapped angrily and he pulled away a bit, "You cut me again." She sighed as she ran a hand over the freshly bleeding scratches.

"I…I had no intention of doing so." Demise voiced and looked at his hands, then back at her as Kohana narrowed her eyes at him, "Our wedding night will be far more than you think, Kohana. We will mix and I assure you- you will love every second of it and completely fall for me." He vowed and gave her another violently passionate kiss, to where she faded out of the dream world again.