Twilight-Dipped Dreams
Chapter 5
"Would you like something to eat for breakfast, Kohana?" Ganondorf asked her, "Maybe some pancakes? Or juice?" The orange-haired man's prisoner didn't even look at him. Ganondorf frowned, "…not hungry again, huh?" He asked, but again, he received no answer from the red-haired girl. A servant entered the wood-walled room, Kohana gazing out the low window on her knees, as Ganondorf sat on the bed to her right, against the wall. "Look, Kohana," Ganondorf said enthusiastically, the servant watching with sympathy, as his master offered some oatmeal to Kohana.
She didn't even look at him. "Um, I'll, leave it right here then." Ganondorf said hopefully, setting it on the window sill. Kohana grabbed it, and simply- moved it away from her- before putting her hand back in her lap. "You haven't eaten since we got here and it's been three days." Kohana said nothing to Ganondorf's words, "I didn't drug it or anything. Do you want me to have a bite first to prove it to you?" Kohana sighed lightly, and he sat there as the servant watched. "I'm going out, but when I get back that bowl had better be empty." Ganondorf said, standing up and walking out of the room, the servant exiting as well as he shut the door behind them both.
"Sir, she hasn't eaten or drank anything since you brought her. If she keeps this up…" The Servant said, pausing as Ganondorf raised an eyebrow before the servant swallowed. "She won't be able to make it through the winter if she doesn't eat soon. The winters here have gotten far colder than any other year before and she'll need to keep up her strength." Ganondorf sighed.
"Alright, move her to my room, throw a log on the fire and start making some soup. I'll try again tonight." Ganondorf said and the servant nodded as another servant gave him his cloak, two others giving him a bow and quiver, before he went out into the white-blanketed surroundings of the house. The Servants quickly shut the doors behind him as he walked out to the snow, pulling an arrow from his quiver and setting it to the bow, pulling it back slowly, before letting it go. The arrow vanished into the forest before there was a thud. He walked over, ignoring the crunch of the white snow under his black boots, and moved the trees aside. His arrow rested in the side of a twelve-point buck. Lucky shot.
He grabbed it's neck and dragged it back to the stone-walled house and dropped it at the kitchen door before going back into the forest as he pulled another arrow out and set it to his bow. Why? Why did she refuse to speak to him? It wasn't his fault that she overreacted so harshly! Ganondorf crouched in the snow, waiting. He had no other choice than to keep her sedated- she hated carriage rides and she would have protested if he hadn't. Its not like he gave her a lot of sedative, anyways, just a little bit at a time.
You lied to me! All of you! Traitors!
Her words still stung, even as they whirled in his head. She was right to be mad- he had promised he wouldn't give her anything, yet made another servant do his dirty work. He'd broken that promise, yes, but then why the suicide attempts?
He slowly and steadily pulled his bow string back, arrow ready, at the sight of a doe not too far off. Suddenly, three little fawns darted out and pranced around. "Shit." He hissed under his breath and lowered his bow, picking up a rock and throwing it far to his right, hitting a tree in the distance and startling the mother and her children. They prance off and he grimaced. Luckily, another buck was not too far off and he slowly crept closer to it, arching his bow before letting the arrow fly. It pierced the buck but it wasn't enough- this one wasn't going to fall down as easily. He put three more arrows to the bow string and launched them at the creature, killing it and walking over to it. This one was a lot heavier than the other one.
Ganondorf grunted as he picked it up and flung it across his shoulders, tying it's feet beforehand, and carried it back to the house. The one he'd killed first was already gone and a few servants were waiting. Including Kohana. He hesitated, before dropping the buck and leaving it to the servants, Kohana wearing a cute little shawl and hood as if she was preparing to play in the snow. "I broke my promise to you about the sedatives in the carriage. I know how much you hate those carriages, so I thought if you slept through it that you wouldn't be so distraught." She looked at him,
"Thank you for apologizing." She said, looking away, "I thought it was your selfishness." Ganondorf steeled himself against the wince he'd gotten from her words.
"Will you start eating now?" He questioned and she nodded slightly. "I killed some deer that we can eat for the next week or so." She turned from him and walked off. "Make sure you put some of the meat in the soup and make it a stew." The servants nodded as he gave them what he'd taken with him, going to his room to find Kohana on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked over and he sat behind her on the bed, the room toasty and warm, but the window was open. Ganondorf got back up and closed it before sitting back down, "No need to let the warm air out."
"I like the cold though." Kohana said and he chuckled.
"Then when I fall asleep, go ahead and open it back up." He answered and poked her cheek, making Kohana jump. "What's the matter? Am I cold?"
"You're freezing!" Kohana huffed and he chuckled deeply, a servant coming in with a bowl of deer meat stew and a wooden spoon, giving it to Ganondorf as the servant left. She stared into the fire as he looked at her.
"Open your mouth." Ganondorf said and Kohana glanced at him.
"I'm not disabled, I can feed myself." She hissed and Ganondorf forcefully turned her around to face him.
"Nor am I. I know you'll pretend to eat in front of me and then spit it out." He said and she looked down. "I only pretended not to notice. You've also been finding ways to cut yourself again, haven't you? I've noticed the marks too." She rubbed her upper arms self-consciously, "Come on, eat. It's not drugged, I swear." He offered a spoonful to her and she hesitated before accepting it. She chewed slowly, her eyes never leaving his, and begrudgingly swallowed. "There you go." He fed her more, pacing every morsel she took in. When she had finished the bowl he called for another for himself and she stared at him.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She asked and he looked at her.
"Well, because I need you alive." He told her simply and she looked down, as if she was hurt by his answer. "My mortality depends on you." Ganondorf tilted her chin up slightly. "Don't look so sad, Kohana." He told her as he pulled his hand away. "It's cold here but there's lots of free space to roam. (As long as you're being supervised, of course)." He wrapped her up in his blanket, pulling her against his chest. This certainly was no way to be treated, but it was a start.
~O~ Hyrule Castle ~O~
The doors that were open had let in the snow, and the halls were empty and desolate as the two searched for any clue to Kohana's whereabouts. Nothing. Midna was able to find the book Kohana had found and the page had been ripped out, "That bastard must have left while she was sleeping. There's no other way he could have pulled this otherwise. She would have left us something, right?" Zelda stood up, frowning.
"I think so. She seemed so unhappy here." Zelda murmured as they kept looking. "All the pictures Ganon has hung are of himself. Only a few in the kitchen have the maids and servants, but none of them have Kohana."
"Maybe we should check his room too then?" Midna suggested and it took them both to open the door. "How long were you here?"
"A few months. Ganon assigned Kohana to me and she seemed reluctant but willing. She helped me escape and took the blame. I came back to help her and I just ended up getting helped again." Zelda said as they looked around the room. "He used to get her gifts. Little trinkets. She never took to any of them and hardly accepted them at all."
"I found something over here." Midna called and Zelda went over. There was a fake wall in his closet and pictures behind it. Some of them were of Kohana, some were pictures of Ganondorf and Kohana as children. "What the hell?" Midna said and Zelda stared back. In all of the pictures, Ganon looked to be about 14 and Kohana looked to be about 5 or 6. "What have we stumbled on?"
"It looks like- This is when Ganondorf first found Kohana." Zelda murmured, pointing to one picture. Ganondorf was asleep in a chair, next to the foot of a bed, where Kohana was sleeping in a shirt far too big for her. Another had her in a dress that was too long and she was sitting on the floor next to Ganondorf, who was standing. "She's so adorable in all of these pictures and Ganondorf, well, just looks like a jerk. Nothing's changed much since he was young."
"I think there's a reason for all this. Did she tell you anything?" Midna asked and Zelda thought about it.
"Something about waiting for him." Zelda said and Midna grimaced. "Why?"
"Well, there's a very powerful hex that requires a lot of magical prowess that binds two people together for life." Midna said. "If Ganondorf dies, and Kohana is the other half of the hex, then she'll fall asleep until he wakes up. If she dies, Ganondorf will fall asleep- or die. It depends on how strong the hex is." Midna said, walking over and putting her hand on the closest picture of a small Kohana. "These aren't just pictures. They're evidence of when she became the victim of the hex." Zelda frowned sadly.
"Is there a way to break it?" Zelda asked hopefully, "Maybe a counter-spell?"
"There's a potion that has to be accurately made and fed to one of the people who is hexed by the other person. Other than that, no. Kohana is his eternal life line to this world. No matter how many times he dies, as long as she's alive and healthy, he'll come back." Midna answered and Zelda looked down. "She'll be living her miserable days out as long as she's hexed. She can't kill him herself either, nor can he harm her. A vicious cycle where you want to kill yourself every single day but you just can't." Zelda whimpered.
"She had her wrists and legs bandaged when I last saw her…from trying to kill herself. Poor Kohana…" Zelda murmured, knowing why there was such a darkness in Kohana's eyes. She knew, and she had known, all along. That's why she was hesitant to go with her.
"If she'd lost every single drop of blood in her body, then maybe it'd kill him too, but that bastard saved her every time probably." Midna grumbled. "Maybe…he took her some place where it's too cold for her to do much than sit inside."
~O~ The North ~O~
Ganondorf had fallen asleep, leaning against the wall to keep his back up as he slept, Kohana staring at the fire as it flickered and burned. She moved the blanket off of her, getting to her feet. "Going somewhere?" She looked over, Ganondorf fully awake and staring at her. "Well?" She slowly moved towards the door.
"Bathroom." Kohana said and he raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? But the bathroom is over there." Ganondorf said, pointing to the other side of the room, opposite where she was standing. She glance from the bathroom to him, and then ran out of the room as Ganondorf threw off the blanket and ran after her. "Kohana!" He thundered as the staff in the small cabin yelled in exclamation as she ran out of the house through the kitchen door, losing Ganondorf for a few mere seconds. "Where?" He questioned them and they pointed to the kitchen door.
"Master, the weather has only gotten worse. There may be a blizzard…" One of them told him as he grabbed his thickest cloak.
"Then stay inside." He grunted and exited the house as Kohana ran into the woods. "Kohana!" She looked back, scared, before she ran faster. "Hey, don't you remember what happened last time?!" He yelled after her, following her foot steps as the snow fell on his coat, making it heavier. Ganondorf shook it off the first few times but then it started weighing him down. The snow was rapidly filling in her footprints as movement drained him of strength. Her foot steps became closer together before one long drag line.
Ganondorf groaned as the winds howled threateningly while he looked for the line, leading him to a small cave. "You don't learn, do you?" Ganondorf asked as Kohana laid on the floor, looking at him as she panted. He took off his cloak and wrapped it around her as she shook, wearing only her dress and nothing else. He glanced towards the entrance of the cave as the blizzard rolled in like his servant had mentioned. There was a loud growl and he looked back, a huge wolf placing his paw in front of Kohana as it growled at Ganondorf, licking it's black gums and sharp teeth. "So this is why you're not moving." It roared at him and he chuckled, "Bring it, pooch." With that, Ganondorf was thrown far from the cave and the wolf jumped out, running towards him and howling, before tackling him.
The beast clawed at Ganondorf who punched it repeatedly in the stomach before throwing it off of him and kicking it in the side, not having brought his sword with him. "Get lost, this is my cave now." Ganondorf told it, the wolf's tail going between it's legs as it whimpered and ran off. He ripped off some tree branches from the nearest tree and struggled against the winds to get back to the cave, dropping them on the floor in front of Kohana. He snapped his fingers, producing a very small flame. "Sorry I can't do better, Kohana." He apologized, lighting the middle of a small pile of branches, a large pile not too far away as he ripped branches off the trees he'd passed by on the way back. When the pile caught flame, he gently picked up his coat and her and set both in his lap, wrapping her up tightly.
"I hate you." She told him, making him look down at her. "Why couldn't you just kill me like you did everyone else?" Ganondorf sat there, wanting to break the hex that was too strong for him to break. The hex that his own foster witches had put together.
"I was raised by a pair of witches." He told her, as she sat there solemnly. " 'A girl with a spirit as vibrant as her hair will bring fortune and victory to the one who obtains her'. I raided a village where this prophecy originated and you were there. I was against it but, the witches bound us." Kohana's mood soured more at this. "When I first died and woke up, I thought, 'this is the afterlife, I must be dead' but I had woken up in the shrine where you had fallen asleep." Kohana blinked. "You had fallen asleep on a stone bench and someone had put a blanket over you. You were so small but when I woke up, and I looked at you that's when you woke up soon enough too and kind of…stumbled… over to me." Kohana blushed, not remembering it. "You then proceeded to fall on your face and I helped you up."
Ganondorf leaned over her. "When you told me you wanted your freedom after you let what I thought was the security of Hyrule being in my grasp out, the first thing that came to my mind was the day I met you. When you cut your wrists, the first thing that came to my mind was that memory." Kohana sat there and he stared at the fire. "I have been selfish, demanding…" She closed her eyes and listened as he spoke a lot more than usual. "…unappreciative." Kohana arched her eyebrows in confusion. "A hex keeps us like this, yes, but until you hurt yourself I never once realized that you are the one that takes the high price of this forced partnership." Ganondorf withdrew and rummaged around in the satchel on his belt and held a piece of paper in his hands.
It was the page he had ripped from the Black Magic book she was looking at about the requirements to break the curse and he handed it to her wordlessly. "This is the page that was missing!" Kohana said, looking at it as Ganondorf's stomach churned from the tone of joy in her voice. Whatever their 'relationship' had been before, was gone now and when they left this cave she would be gone. "…I'm sure there are a lot of other 'vividly haired' girls." Ganondorf hugged her close to him.
"No. Had to be red hair. It was part of the prophecy- something about rivers of blood if their hair was red so the witches raising me told me to get a girl with red hair. Creepily symbolic but it had to go with the prophecy." Ganondorf told her yet hugged her closer, and she blushed and awkwardly laid against him. "I'll contribute anything you need." Kohana sat there. "Just tonight, stay here."
She blushed and said perturbed, "I still hate you." "Yeah." Ganondorf said, smirking slightly as he looked down at her but hugged her shoulders. "You're a jerk." "Yeah." "M-Meanie." "Uh Huh." "Pay attention when I yell at you!" " 'Jerk', 'Meanie'." "Wise-ass!" "Yeah." Kohana shivered and he pulled the cloak more around them. "…I can't think anything more." "Just tell me you hate me some more, so that you won't have to say it anymore." Kohana frowned and Ganondorf gently fell asleep as she slowly drifted off between the warmth of the cloak, his body heat, and the fire.