Aveil was the one to lead Aria back towards Nabooru's quarters, they were relatively deep in the compound and it was one of the few times Aria had ever gone to Nabooru's room. The room was extremely extravagant compared to her old room, the bed just a mess of furs and pillows beneath a see-through red canopy. The floors had a thinly woven reed mat on them- easy to clean, easy to replace, and kept the floor from being too cold when you first rolled out of bed.

Aveil sat down on one of the few chairs littering the room. There was a desk in the corner of the room, but it didn't look like it received much use besides to put weapons on when Nabooru passed out right after training. Aria stood, casually glancing around the room as they waited for Nabooru to come. Nabooru arrived rather shortly, rubbing her shoulder.

"The pyre has been lit, Koume and Kotake are with the King, probably trying to see if they can figure out a proper way to communicate with him. Tali and the Mirah are under watch. Mirah is the woman who betrayed us at the camp- from what the others that returned from being captured have told me so far." Nabooru plopped on her bed. There weren't any major injuries on her, besides the usual scratches and minor bruising as far as the eye could see.

"You know you shouldn't have run away." Nabooru closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "A good amount of the clan don't trust you anymore. Some of them were on the wall- but when you left during the meeting… it's changed a few minds for the worse."

"You returning has probably changed a few minds as well. You brought back King Ganondorf." Aveil butted in.

"He's still a beast in form, though it seems not in mind. That might not change as many minds as Aveil believes."

Aria sighed, turning away. "I didn't intend to come back. I.. I don't want to stay where I'm not wanted, and the others have made that very clear."

"The others do not make decisions for the gerudo. Koume, Kotake, Myself, Aveil. We make the decisions while Ganondorf is away. Not Tali. Not Mirah. You don't even know what was decided."

"Does it matter anymore?" Aria scoffed, crossing her arms. She stared down at the mat on the floor.

"Yes, it matters. Of course it matters. Koume and Kotake made the final decision. They trust you, you are an honorable sister to the gerudo- with or without the ceremony. We've already started plans for the ceremony to make you an honorary member of the tribe. With or without Ganondorf, although it would be great to have his blessing and it would ease the others' minds, you are going to be a member of the Gerudo."

"I.. I don't know how you guys can still want me. I'm.. I was from the same Kingdom that's at war with you, I haven't magically fixed Ganondorf, or healed the land, or even been useful in battle."

"How can you say that? How can you not see that you have made a difference? You brought back King Ganondorf. You've shown the Gerudo that even a stranger can go beyond their limits. You beat me in battle."

"I had an advantage. Magic is.."

"It's not cheating, using the gifts that you have to battle. From what I heard, your gifts have saved many gerudo. We owe you."

"I…"

Aveil laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know you doubt yourself. I understand, I really do. Trust us when I say, we accept you here. You are wanted."

"Maybe Ganondorf would be able to convince you more… thoroughly." Nabooru winked. Aria tried to ignore the slight heat rising to her cheeks, but Nabooru saw it and burst into giggles. "You spent four months with him and nothing happened. Could you guys be anymore dense!"

"I am not dense. He was.. iis/i a beast right now. He didn't have his mind for such a long time. Besides, I'm not…"

"You can't say you're not interested in him. I swear by the Sand Goddess, if you say-"

"No no. I'm not saying anything. I just.. He's so…"

"Handsome? Strong? Big?" Nabooru winked.

Aria sputtered, her cheeks reddening so much she tried to hide her face in her hands.

"In any case. It's late. There's a whole lot of stuff we need to do tomorrow. Are you hungry, there's the feast going on right now. No? Come join me on the bed. We'll hit the baths in the morning and deal with the rest of everything tomorrow." Aveil nodded, digging into one of the packs that Nabooru had laying around the ground. She passed Aria a nightgown. It was a rather sheer thing, but Aria took it anyways.

"Cute. Seduce any men in this little thing?"

"Nope. I got it for you a while back, so you could seduce Ganondorf."

"You're joking right? You didn't actually expect me to… 'seduce' Ganondorf?"

"Only a little. I did get it for you, sort of a name-day gift. Red really looks good with your eyes."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, just get in bed!" Nabooru huffed, flopping over into her pillows, tossing one at Aria. Aveil caught it before it could hit Aria, tossing it quickly back to the gerudo lying in the bed. They piled into the bed and passed out.

The next morning they were disturbed by a knock at the door. Nabooru groaned, holding a pillow over her head. Aveil glared at her. Aria mumbled something into her pillow trying to ignore that oddly wet feeling on her waist where Aveil's head had previously been laying

"Your room, your door. Answer it"

"You answer it."

Aveil yanked the pillow from Nabooru's grasp and kicked her shin.

"Hey! Fine fine.." Nabooru groaned and rolled out of the bed. For a moment she tried to take the covers with her, but Aveil had a very firm grasp on the sheets.

"Whatdoyawant?" Nabooru opened the door, leaning against the frame. It was a younger girl. Her knees shook a bit as she stared up at Nabooru.

"The-the…"

"Hey. It's okay, calm down. I'm not going to like knock you out if you don't deliver the message."

"S-s-sorry. Koume and Kotake requested the p-presence of Miss Aria."

"Aria, wake up. The bosses want you."

"Mmm..okay." Aria yawned, stretching. She quickly changed into the clothes she wore the previous day. Her packs were somewhere.. She wasn't actually too sure. Maybe the majority of them had been burnt in the encampment, maybe some of them were still at the Spirit Temple, or there could be a few packed in the room she had left.

Aria followed the young girl to somewhere she hadn't been before in the fortress. She could only assume they were going to Koume and Kotake's personal rooms. By the time they reached the doors, Aria was wide awake. The young girl knocked three times then backed away from the doors.

"Enter." The voice behind the doors was rather muffled, indistinguishable even. She could only assume it was because the doors were considerably thicker and heavier than the other doors in the young girl bowed to her, before darting off back the direction they had come.

Aria slowly opened up one of the doors.

The room she entered wasn't an office or a training room of any sort. It was someone's bedroom. It was rather lavish, large weapons decorated the wall. The floor was covered in various furs. There was a desk in one corner. It was well organized, stacks of papers on one side.

Aria was so busy taking in the bedroom she almost didn't notice the figure on the large bed. Ganondorf sat up, stretching as he did so.

"I almost didn't expect you to come."

Aria nearly jumped out of her skin. "You're back to normal!"

"I am… mostly. My mothers worked through most of the night. You broke the initial chain, which began to unravel everything. They suspect in a few months I may have been able to transform back on my own. I…" he rubbed the back of his neck. "I wasn't sure you would come if you had been told the summons was by me."

"I… it doesn't matter. What do you mean by mostly."

"It's complicated. I hope you never have to see it." He advanced on her so that he stood next to her. His chest was bare before her, black pants riding low on his hips to the point where you could see the red trail of hair dipping beneath them.

"In the cage… when that man was offering you a way out."

"You mean when when I scolded you for us losing the chance to gain and deliver wrong information?"

"I mean when you basically told me you would be his whore to pass along wrong information!"

"I wasn't going to be his whore."

"You certainly implied it."

"It's nothing any other gerudo wouldn't do in that situation."

"You aren't any 'other' gerudo."

"Wha… what is that supposed to mean? I"m… I'm almost considered part of this family, and you have the nerve to imply that-"

"That's not what I'm saying!" He shouted punching the wall behind her. His red locks few everywhere over muscled shoulders and the wall had a very deep dent in it. Dust crumbled to the ground as he removed his hand and ran it through his hair.

"I'm trying to tell you that you're important to me, and I would have.. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"King Ganondorf… I…"

"We are in private Aria. I am… I'm not a king here. Not..alone with you." A large hand came up and brushed her cheek gently.

"The others…"

"Just us…" he murmured, before he swept her into his arms. His mouth devoured hers, sharp canines nipping her lower lip. She wrapped her legs around his thick waist as he lifted her up. She tried to return his kisses, clutching onto his shoulders.

He fell backwards onto the bed, grunting as his back hit the sheets, jostling her a bit. Aria pulled away from the kiss, and he took that as permission to kiss along her neck. Ganondorf nipped the delicate skin of her throat.

"G-nnn Ganondorf, stop."

He groaned, pulling away from her to stare at her curiously. His hands lay on her hips, large thumbs rubbing circles into the skin where her shirt had raised.

"We can't do this."

"Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"I.. " She huffed and shifted on his lap. There were a lot of things she was uncomfortable with in this situation, but she couldn't really explain to him that the majority of the issue was Ganondorf himself, which wasn't something he could control. It was different than the idea of sex with a stranger whom she'd probably never see again. The whole idea of what could happen was bigger than itself.

"It's not that I'm not interested, I am. I just," She sighed, reaching up to put her palm on her forehead. "I find you very attractive, but there are more factors at play than the both of us. I. I'm not.. I'm not entirely interested in being just a notch on your bedpost. I'm afraid I would want more with you, but I don't know you that well."

He considered her calmly, still rubbing circles in her skin, more slowly this time. "If you wish to take it more slowly, then that is what we shall do."

"Thank you." She slowly got off of his lap. He sat up.

"I should go, I need to bathe and get fresh clothing. "

"I would join you."

"I'm sure your mothers have many things they need from you. You've been away for quite a while."

"They can wait a little longer."

"No. I don't want you to put me before the gerudo."

"I am not. I was simply intending to join you in the baths and have clothes sent for you."

"King Ganondorf, I-"

"Aria. With everything I have been informed of I would not deem it safe for you to traverse the halls of the fortress alone for some time."

"I can take care of myself."

"I do not doubt that, but I do not desire to see more of my people at war with each other over any "incident" they would blame you for."

"... If you want to join me, you may."

Aria didn't miss the slight tilt to his lips or how the glimpse of uncertainty in his eyes when he offered her his arm. She took it gently, trying to ignore the way the warmth from his skin crept into her fingers. He lead her through the hallways, visiting her room momentarily to grab a spare set of clothes, before they entered the bathing room.

It wasn't empty.

Nabooru was in there along with quite a few other girls. The room went rather silent. Ganondorf took his time undressing, even going so far as to take Aria's clothes from her after she'd undressed, allowing her to sink into the steamy waters before he joined them.

That silence was quickly broken when the women rushed forward to Ganondorf, Aria being pushed far to the side, her hip banging against the edge of the pool. She cursed under her breath. Nabooru waded over, patting her shoulder.

"I know." Aria muttered softly, turning away from the crowd of women who were bombarding Ganondorf with questions, some already soaping up his body and hair.

Ganondorf glanced over the crowd, watching as Nabooru and Aria set about kneading shampoo into each other's hair. His fingers itched to do the same for her, but another woman's voice brought him back to the conversation at hand.

"So, what did he want?" Nabooru spoke softly, for there were many ears in the room- despite the general focus on their King.

"He wanted to talk to me about something that happened when we were caged together."

"Oh? What idid/i happen when you were caged together?"

"Nothing like that. I was going to… offer myself up to the sorcerer to get information on their attack and hopefully a way to cure him of the beast form."

"Hmm.. not something completely outlandish. He wasn't happy about it?"

"Not even vaguely. He almost bit my head off for even suggesting it- which would have been very easy for him to do given the circumstance."

"True. Were you the one that brought him back to his true form?"

"No, Koume and Kotake did that last night. I guess I just started the process." Aria shrugged, rinsing her hair. Every once in a while she glimpsed Ganondorf over her shoulder. He was laughing, eyes closed, relaxed while one of the gerudo told him something and a few others were washing him.

"Jealous?" Nabooru nudged her, dragging her attention away.

"No. it's nice to see him relaxing with his family. After all that he's been through, he deserves the rest."

"Yeah, well sadly that rest is going to be short lived. We've got a lot to do today."

"Right.. The ceremony and… " Aria sighed, dragging herself out of the water.

"Hey, it's not all that bad." Nabooru handed her a towel. "Breakfast first, a bit of training, and then you have an audience in front of everyone where we'll have the trial."

"Training?"

"Mhmm. Your training was left unfinished before you disappeared on your adventure through Hyrule. We Gerudo don't like leaving things unfinished. It'll be good for you."

"What about the gerudo list in battle? Isn't today a day to mourn them?"

"There's a lot to being a gerudo that you still don't know about." Nabooru tossed her some clean clothes. Aria tilted her head at the garments, but put them on anyways. It wasn't uncommon to see the gerudo warriors wearing heels, but it wasn't something she'd done too often and never when they were going to the practicing ring.

"We don't mourn the loss of our loved ones" Nabooru said as they left the bathing room. "We celebrate their life with a feast, we battle and practice to honor their strength and increase our own skills in remembrance"

"The kingdom where I'm from just buries the bodies and has people mourn privately. It was frowned upon to publically show or share your grief."

"Such barbaric principles, it's a wonder that the people don't rebel against itself." Nabooru shook her head, bringing Aria outside. Everyone was out and about today. Most of the training rings had gerudo training in them already. The archery range and the horseback archery range were both packed with gerudo.

"Your mount returned last night, he's in the stable resting. That horse is something else." Nabooru chuckled, leading Aria to an empty ring. It was further away from the others with a small sign hanging on it.

"Reserved? Did you reserve it?"

"Nope, but no one is gonna stop me from using it."

"But-"

"No. Use your body, not your words- and no magic! You've been using magic for the past months. I want to see if you've kept your body honed. I know your magic is fine."

"Aren't these shoes a bit-"

"Fashionable. Don't worry, if you break your ankle from wearing them we'll switch to something that doesn't require you to stand."

"That's horrible."

"Don't break your ankle then."

"You're horrible."

"I know, it's beautiful isn't it?" Nabooru smirked, tossing a dagger at Aria.

Aria let out an undignified 'meep!' and dove to the side, she hardly had a moment's breath to make a retort to Nabooru's comment before the large gerudo warrior was rushing towards her, curved scimitar in hand. Aria rolled to her feet, reaching for one of the weapons that hung on the fence. She jerked a sword out of it's scabbard just in time to reflect Nabooru's attack. The scimitar slid up the length of the sword and almost caught Aria in the head if she hadn't moved.

"By the Goddess, are you itrying/i to get me killed?"

"Not yet. You've slowed down considerably though. Maybe we should put the weights back on your legs."

"Give me time to warm up you fiend!"

"No time in war time."

Aria huffed and took the offensive, rushing towards Nabooru. The unfamiliar weight of a heavier sword in her hand didn't deter her from striking with all her might. Nabooru dodged her blow with ease, but hadn't expected the punch coming from the other hand. Nabooru jumped back a few feet.

"Oh, nice one. I didn't expect you to one hand that two-handed sword. How's your wrist?"

"Strained. I didn't realize it was a two handed sword."

"Mmm, something that can be taught later, there are some swords that look one handed, but are actually two. That's one of them. It's good you can swing it with one hand- shows you haven't lost everything."

Nabooru took the two-handed sword from her hand and examined her wrist. "Doesn't need to be wrapped thankfully. We'll work with the scimitar first, although it's a lot more efficient on horseback."

"Some days I wonder, if it weren't for the war, what is the point of all this practice and fighting. The gerudo obviously have been fighting long before this war happened."

"Well, we've always been at a disadvantage in the desert. There's no real cover for the sun or enemy armies. Hyrule is the closest neighboring kingdom and we're not always on the best of terms with the hylians. We've warred with them in the past. In the end, it's better to be prepared for a fight and get to the fight capable of maiming someone, than having never trained before, getting ambushed, and being slaughtered from the inability to raise a sword."

Aria nodded and returned the sword to it's place on the fence. She grabbed a scimitar and picked a stance.

"Nope, not that one. Your defense is too lacking for the curved weapon." Nabooru shook her head and sheathed her own weapon to correct Aria's stance and posture. Aria grimaced when she realized where that left her open.

"You want to be fast enough to slice, not pierce. Piercing with this weapon makes it difficult to retrieve your weapon in a tight situation." Nabooru guided her through the various moves, showing Aria how she should bend to protect against her obvious openings that a knowing soldier would recognize. Aria grumbled about preferring a short sword or daggers earning a quick cuff to the head before they actually went into practicing combat with the scimitars.