Twilight-Dipped Dreams
Chapter 10
Ganon stretched in the warmth of the morning light that shone through the window, letting out a yawn and rolling away from the edge of the bed towards the inside. A good snuggle's worth of Kohana was the way to wake up and he pulled her too him, snuggling to his satisfaction into the scent of her. Though there was no warmth. Ganon opened his eyes, blinking away the remnants of slumber, to find he snuggled a pillow. He sat up abruptly and patted the sheets next to him to confirm what he thought was sleep's delirium was not so.
Kohana was gone.
And the window was letting in a very cold draft.
Ganon got to his feet and threw open the doors, looking around for any clue or sign of where she could have gone. The Knights laid unconscious and on the ground and various doors down the hall were open, including the door to Kohana's old room. Ganon growled and slammed his fist against the wall.
Kohana stirred else where to the sounds of hushed whispers and low talking between two people. Ganondorf and another maid? No…the voices were softer and less gruff. Female voices. Letters and phrases were garbled and thrown together and her mind slowly awoke and her fuzzy vision remained dark. She caught a glimpse of a light-colored blur with brown on top, and another of a dark colored blue with bright orange on top. "Nnn…" Kohana managed to get out though her voice denied her the pleasure of speaking as her ears opened up.
"She's waking up." "That's -" There was the sound of a soft gasp, "Quick, a guard is coming. We have to hide her. Now." "But where?" "Anywhere! Kelik just can't know. Quick, in the chest!" "Furs and all?" "Furs and all." Koana felt lighter for a moment before she was placed in something with a harder and firmer bottom than what she had been laying on and it grew darker. A sliver of light entered her confinement through a semi-sheer cloth of some sort over the light. "That's good, just stay like that." Another voice encouraged. The door opened as Kohana's eyes cleared. A large black creature with folded wings stood in the doorway,
"Ladies. You seem far from your outpost." The creature said gruffly and another female voice said,
"Yeah, sorry. We took a wrong turn at the wrong bend, I guess." It said, "We had lost our map but we have another one now. We'll be setting off shortly." The creature grunted,
"Hard to navigate with no map. I'll go on ahead and explain the delay to Master Kelik." It grunted and left. After a while the lid to the chest was open and Zelda smiled, holding it open, Midna shutting the door and locking it. Zelda and Midna both helped Kohana to her feet, the thick furs they had taken with them when they collected her, rumbled around her calves to show a thin-dark blue night-gown that was semi-sheer. "Zelda?…Midna?" Kohana questioned as little mischievous smiled played on both of their faces.
"We're so glad you're ok and Ganondorf didn't do too much damage." Zelda said, prim and proper as always as the girls helped her to the bed she was once on. Midna busied herself with collecting the furs and wrapping them around Kohana. "Good thing I remembered the secret passage you showed me." Kohana was very, very confused. "We rescued you!" "Just in time before that weirdo got there too." They…rescued her? No…she needed to go back. She needed to take that drug-
"You…I have to go back." Kohana said and stood up but she quickly put a hand to her head and her hand on the edge of the bed to steady herself from falling. The girls helped her to sit back down.
"You can't walk really…can you?" Zelda asked and Kohana defiantly said, "Yes, I CAN!" before getting to her feet and taking a few steps before almost falling over and the girls caught her, "What's wrong with me now?" She growled angrily as she was sat down on the bed once more.
"A minion of that bastard, Kelik, slipped into Ganondorf's Castle under the guise of a maid. We only just heard about it two days ago. They were given a vial of some sort of numbing agent to give to you so that it would be easier to pick you up when they ransacked the Castle to get you." Midna explained and Kohana sat there, "We left as quickly as we could to get you before Kelik did. If you're not there, Kelik won't go."
"That black thing we were talking to was a scout." Zelda added on, "It was on its way to see if you were still at the Castle. Us being here distracted it…for now. It will return to Kelik, but if we take a shortcut, we can get back before it does and explain to Kelik that you ran away again and Ganondorf is busy finding you." Kohana rubbed her temples,
"I don't see the point of all of this. I understand the tricking of this, uh, Kelik, and the Scout and the maid- but why? Why so much trouble?" Kohana said and the girls said in fusion, "Because he wants you!"
"His base is in some place in the mountains where even the Gorons won't go but the entire thing is a mess. He's rebuilding and needs you for something…we don't know…but he wants Ganondorf dead, as in forever." Zelda said and frowned, "But- if Ganondorf dies again, you'll fall back asleep. And he'll get his way and we don't know what will happen then." Kohana put her head in her hands, "Ganondorf took Hyrule from me. He may have some of an army, but Kelik- he has monsters behind him. Monsters that seem even stronger than Ganondorf's." Kohana couldn't listen to this anymore.
"That's not possible. Ganondorf's monsters are creations of black magic. The Master sword can kill them, yes, but it still takes many strikes." Kohana said and Midna interjected,
"They have human-like intelligence." Kohana hesitated as Midna continued, "They don't just waddle around, cutting things. They have free will and they're smart. Smarter than Ganondorf's creatures. There was a test run by Kelik that we watched. They had captured a moblin of Ganon's and put it in a room with a key on a string, hanging from the ceiling, and a box with a lock and button inside. The moblin eventually broke the box and pressed the button after fifteen minutes. They did the same test with one of the things under Kelik's thumb. It ricocheted a dagger off a wall, cutting the rope, then used the key to open the lock and pressed the button, all in fifteen seconds." Kohana took this information into account. No matter how much and how tough Ganon's forces were. "Do you realize it too? Ganon doesn't stand a chance."
"If we move you, Kelik will have no need to go after Ganon. If we hide you long enough, you can live out your life-like a normal person. We could take you to the Kokori Forest. The magic is strong and pure there and it can keep Ganon out too. It's always spring too! You wouldn't have to worry about the winter ever again." Zelda said and Midna nodded as Kohana rubbed her arms. As much of an escape as it sounded, there was the lingering draw back.
"Ganondorf will continue to live on." Kohana voiced, "His life span is tied to mine and I'm so old, I've forgotten my age." She said, looking up at Zelda. "Do you even remember me? Do you remember the countless times I've seen you? Or you ever seeing me? I've seen Link many times before falling asleep. Each time I wake up, there's always a descendant of yours there to take your place." Kohana covered her face, "No matter how far you throw him into the darkness, as long as I wake up, he'll be free. The Goddesses have no reign over this curse." Midna and Zelda looked at each other as Kohana finally said it.
"I will have to die for all of this to end."
"No, you don't-" Zelda tried to oppose but Midna put a hand on her shoulder. "At one point or another, she will have to." Midna said softly as Kohana pulled the furs around her a little more while she looked at the floor. "They're bound from thousands of years of this happening." Midna told Zelda who stared at her, mortified, "We can delay it, but the reality is that it will keep happening. Ganon can die and trigger it, or Kohana can die and end it all." Zelda pulled away from Midna as Kohana meekly watched.
"What if it doesn't work!? Then Kohana will be dead for nothing! It will be a waste of a life!" Zelda yelled at Midna, looking at Kohana, "You could have seen all my ancestors - every single one - but don't you ever wonder what your ancestors look like!?" Kohana sighed,
"Midna is right. You will simply be buying me some time." Kohana said, her voice cracking, "It doesn't matter. I can never really have a life. Every moment, every second, Ganon could be somewhere and the second he dies, I die. I can't have love on borrowed time; I can't marry when I know every second could be my last, even if every one is treasured; I can't raise a family, full-well, knowing that I could die in the blink of an eye. It's not fair to anyone." Kohana said, "My existence is a painful one." Tears ran down Zelda's cheeks and she closed her eyes. Midna cleared her throat while Kohana pushed the depressing thoughts a bit farther away.
"Kohana, we have to get rid of your night-gown." Midna said and she blinked, blushing, "Those things have a really good sense of smell. If it wasn't for the incense, we'd be caught by now." Kohana stood up, taking her night-gown off as Midna held up a fur to cover her nudity, "There's some clothes in the room across the hall." Kohana wrapped the fur around herself and peeked out into the hall as Midna tried to calm down an upset Zelda, before Kohana crossed and entered the other room. She pulled on the light green baggy shirt they had gotten, that went to her knees. She pulled on the trousers that were a little snug too and the soft sheepskin bra.
"Don't go outside." Ganondorf's gruff voice echoed in her head, "Just stay inside." "Stay behind me." Kohana shook the thoughts from her head. How could her brain just go and conjure those up like that? How troublesome. She crossed the hall again and entered the room, Midna and Zelda looking over.
"We'll need to leave soon. The forest is on the other side of Hyrule Field." Zelda said, calmer now. Kohana pulled the furs around her like a shawl as the two women led her to a small, run-down caravan wagon lead by a team of four horses. Kohana slipped inside, Zelda going in with her as Midna got to the driver's bench and whipped the reigns for the horses, moving them into motion while Kohana shared her blankets with Zelda in a corner.
"Do you really think- you won't be able to break the cycle?" Zelda asked and Kohana looked at her.
"Can a slacker win a marathon?" Kohana countered. "With proper training, yes, but I don't have it." Kohana hugged herself and buried her face in the furs, "If I…ran away long enough, perhaps the both of us could have had a longer life span…but that dolt will keep chasing after me until I'm next to him again." Zelda stood there, stunned, "Every lifetime…I can always remember this painful feeling…I've never known the name of it, but I run and run from him and he'll just give chase until the day when he fights you and Link and loses. Then its right back at where we both began."
"But- Ganondorf won this time." Zelda said and Kohana raised her head, "You guys won't fall asleep."
"Perhaps, but with Kelik around, that lingering acknowledgement that there is someone out there, against the both of us, wanting to put us out of our misery or even one of us…"
In Hyrule, Ganondorf gripped the handle of his sword as a bittersweet thought crossed his mind, "I know him too well. Ganondorf will raise his sword to whatever it is that will stand their ground to him and his well-being. But the thought of there always being something, perhaps in the shadows, that is on a path to collide with his ambitions, slowly drives him to the mental brink." Ganondorf exhaled deeply into the chilly air at his own conclusion. "Every time I fall asleep, I pray that I wake up as someone else. Or something else. Perhaps a cat or a dog. I hope that he revives as something else to so that we're not so crossly cursed that these years and these millennia will not be so painfully repetitive."
Zelda frowned as she held no words to comfort the other woman who looked into the center of the wagon, "When I wake up and see Ganondorf…I always think 'I must be a bad person for my wishes never come true'."
Ganondorf exhaled again in the shattered Hylian throne. He loosened his grip and placed both hands on the hilt of his sword, lacing his fingers. He leaned over to rest his forehead against his thumbs and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. "Sir?" One of his knights asked but he paid them no attention as he continued to breathe.
"There is a scripture in the Gerudo's sacred temple, written by their Sage long, long ago." Kohana said, "It says that Gerudos came from Hylians. That the Hylian King banished a noble to the Desert, to live the rest of this miserable days in the heat and among the stands for unforgivable sins committed when Hyrule was firstborn. Amidst the sands, the noble came across a woman. She name was Shu' Dalia. It's in the scriptures because it's an ancient word for 'Sun Goddess'. Between them, they bore the first few Gerudos." Kohana continued and Zelda sat down next to her, "Relations like that between Nobles and Foreigners like Shu' Dalia were a sin as well, and the Hylian King ordered that the Gerudos be forever chained to the harsh land of red sins, and that if he ever needed their help they were to offer it willingly or he would end them all. No one paid the King any mind when, and to get their attention, the King killed Shu' Dalia in the middle of the desert, to show that he was not to be tested. Where the Temple stands now is where she was killed. Within the temple and outside of the temple are statues of their view of Shu' Dalia was. No matter the situation, famine or war, poverty or wealth, the Gerudos send their prayers to that temple for she was the mother of all Gerudos. There is no magic in the story, or 'Goddesses' that came down to leave some trinket behind. It is simply a story of a mother being killed instead of her children."
"Sir?" The Knight repeated and Ganodorf looked up and snarled at him, "Can't you see I'm preoccupied!?" The knight backed off before Ganondorf went back to praying.
"The Gerudos think she symbolizes everything, because they're the only real thing they can pray to. The Goddesses made the Hylians that banished them to the Desert- there's no sense in praying to deities that don't want you. That's what they think." Kohana said and stared into the darkness. "When Ganondorf dies, he is reborn again- when I fall asleep, it's as if time winds back. Whatever age he awakens in is the same one I wake up in. If he's 5 then I'm 5. He will always be in the same place though- in the Gerudo Valley with whatever Mother he has. It varies where I wake up but I always see something that leads me to him but is like my memory is completely erased every time I wake up. As I get older I remember bits and pieces here and there…but its always a clean slate. Every lifetime stars with him living alone with his mother, Ganondorf wrecking havoc among the town before he stops and that's when I see him." Zelda remembered all the pictures in Ganondorf's closet before a sarcastic round of clapping fills the silence and both girls look over. Kelik and two brutes of sand in the room, one holding Midna by the throat. Zelda got to her feet and Kohana stayed were she was,
"An interesting observation." One of his brutes grunted and Kelik hushed him by holding up a hand,
"Zelda, I never knew you and Midna would be so…gracious… as to bring me the woman I was seeking." The brute dropped Midna but roughly held her arm to keep her from going far. "Kohana." Kohana gave Kelik a sideways glance that made the man shiver, "What defiance those eyes of yours hold. It's simply breath-taking. Now, I would like to offer my services in escorting you and your ladies-in-waiting, back to my humble Palace. I would like it if you didn't try to fight back and not make this…messy." Zelda looked at Kohana who stood up.
Ganondorf stood up from the crumbled throne and voiced to his knight, "Send out scouts. I want to know where that Kelik is hiding." He said and swing his sword up against his armor to rest against his shoulder, "He needs to learn that I don't play nicely with others." Ganondorf said darkly and the knight bowed before leaving.