Chapter 5: The Family We Choose
Ganondorf rode ahead of them. He was in one of his moods again, and Nabooru knew not to disturb him from years of experience. She'd let him sit alone for hours just staring off and occasionally muttering to himself or checking the scrolls he had in his packs.
So she rode with the rest of the warriors telling stories and making certain they were all in high spirits.
"Do you think he'd do it again if I asked?" Makeela whispered to Bethmasse.
"On what?" Bethmasse gave a snippy reply. "He sent all the moblins away didn't he? Or are you offering for him to pull your head off your shoulders?"
"Well maybe if we find something to hunt on this hunting trip," Makeela groaned. "I'm just saying I wished I saw it, instead of being stuck tending to the horses."
"No, you really don't. It was terrifying. It was like he wasn't our king anymore. He was… something else."
Nabooru coughed behind the two. Bethmasse turned to her, then her eyes went wide.
"You didn't hear- did you?"
"No, don't stop on my account." Nabooru rode between them so they wouldn't have to strain their necks. "Bethmasse you were saying that Ganondorf wasn't our king, or something?"
"No, no. That's not what I mean. I only- look it was scary, wasn't it? You saw him. His eyes. It just- please forget it. Don't tell him, please?"
Nabooru gave her a quick laugh. "Don't worry, Bethe. I know what you meant. Besides, he'd probably take your reaction as a complement. If it scared you, it must have made the moblins and the rest near piss themselves."
"Oh, I didn't think of that," Bethmasse gave an embarrassed little giggle. "I guess his plan definitely worked then."
"Like always," Nabs said. "Alright, he's been off by himself for long enough. I'm going to go get details from our 'mighty and perfect' king. You want me to address anything to him? Anyone?"
There were a few mutterings of 'no.'
"Well," Makeela said. "If it's not too much to ask-"
"No, I am telling him to pull the head off a deer."
"No, not that. Well- that's disappointing. But, tell him the words he said over Boszura and Tressa were beautiful." Some of the sisters gave their agreement.
"I will," Nabooru prodded her horse forward. They saw it too, then. That thing that Ganondorf kept well hidden within him. When they were growing up she'd seen the beast a few times. When his mothers were being particularly loathsome, and then again after Kakariko. But it was always something he forced down, he controlled.
The way he reveled in it before the monsters. That was something the company was right to worry about.
"But is it balanced within me?" Ganondorf muttered, as she got close to him. He stared off at the forest they rode toward, unblinking. "It has to be. Who else could it be?"
"Can you talk? Or is the air finally answering your questions?"
"What?" Ganondorf's eyes focused back on the world. "What did you say?"
"Nothing. Some of the vai are getting a bit on edge with what happened back there. It's one thing to plan on beating Hylians. But, the moblins? They're monsters, using them is dangerous."
Gan shrugged. "We need expendable foot soldiers that can't be linked back to us. They seemed the easiest solution."
"They'll turn against you."
"Of course, some new chief will try to challenge me when I get old and they think me weak. But by then I plan on growing stronger than their entire miserable race."
"Please don't start saying that stuff in front of the others. They're tense enough without having to listen to your mothers' voices coming from your mouth."
Ganondorf sighed, he looked back to the forest once more before looking back to Nabooru. His eyes looked normal again, the same golden iris in the boy she'd played with as a child. "You believe me though, Nabs? You think I can do this?"
"I-" Did she? He was the smartest most driven person she knew. She'd seen him turn defeat into victory a hundred times. But some of the things he said. "I think if anyone can it's-" she stopped herself. She never lied to him before. She wasn't going to start now. "No. I don't think you can uncover the power of the goddesses.
"But you stay by my side?"
"Until the end. And whatever comes after."
"Hmm," Ganondorf nodded. "Thank you. We're almost there." He nodded toward the trees. "You remember this place?"
"Of course, where we raided that caravan." Where your strange obsession with old legends truly started. "Just before our failure at Kakariko."
"My failure, Nabs. You did everything you could, like all our sisters that fought that day."
"Not everything is your fault, you know? If Shashem had held the left like she was supposed to. If those... things hadn't come from underground. You don't need to carry the burden of everything on your shoulders."
Ganondorf didn't respond. Back in his head again. He didn't say anything until they reached the treeline and called for the riders to stop. "Alright sisters! Make camp here, and wait for me."
"You're not going in alone, are you?" Saevus said, the young scout the first of many to protest.
"My king," Bethmasse said, "the forest is cursed. When people enter they wither away and die."
"Or turn into something," said Nubuli. "Or tricked by wild fae."
"My sisters, that may be true," Ganondorf pulled one of his scrolls from his saddle bags and held it out. "But I have studied the ancient paths that will lead me to my goal. I promise you, I will be safe."
Enough of this. "If you think we're going to let you into a cursed, fae infested woods by yourself, then you're madder than I thought you were."
Ganondorf gave Nabooru a withering glare. The one he gave most people when he wished them to be silent or fall in line. And it usually worked. But Nabooru had been on the receiving end of that look far too many times to let it affect her now.
"Only a few days ago," Ganondorf looked about the rest of his guard, when he must have realized Nabooru would not back down. "I stood before you all. Two of our sisters at our feet in boxes. Tortured, devoured, and who knows what other miseries befell them. I made you all a promise. I will not throw away Gerudo lives needlessly."
"Well then it's a good thing you're not throwing any of us away." Nabooru said. "We're deciding to go with you on our own." The others cheered.
"Ehhg," Ganondorf looked to the sky as if trying to think of something. "Three of you. I can protect three of you. Decide among yourselves who's coming, then we leave immediately if we hope to return before nightfall."
All of the warriors announced their desire to enter the forest with him. Ganondorf just shook his head, dismounted his horse and walked away from the commotion. Nabooru took charge, and decided that she would go along with Bethmasse and Saevus. If things did get dangerous Bethmasse was large and tough enough to handle herself. And though Saevus was still young, she had keen eyes. If something happened, of all the guard, Nabooru thought she would be the one to find a way out.
Once that was decided, Ganondorf came to her. "Don't you think my second-in-command should stay behind in case something happens?"
"Shut up."
"Uncalled for."
"I'm sorry, 'shut up, my king.' I'm going with you."
He knew better than to argue with her further. They gathered some food and their equipment, then into the woods. Immediately a dark swirl of fog surrounded them, when Nabooru looked back over her shoulder there was nothing but the grey and the trees they just walked past. The camp and all their friends and compatriots were gone.
"Stay close," Ganondorf said. "Defend yourself if you need to, but do not let the fog confuse you. Stay on the path I tread."
"You never told us what we're doing here, exactly," Saevus said.
"I need to make a bargain with a guardian spirit."
"Oh, great," Nabooru said as something skittered just out of sight. "We're going off to meet a myth."
The noise of scratching legs and hissing surrounded them. Bethmasse muttered something about curses, before she stopped and tugged at Nabooru's shoulder.
A large skull, far bigger than a human's appeared in the fog, low to the ground. The bottom of it moved, as if the canine fangs of the skull rubbed together, before it disappeared back into the fog.
"I don't think the myth wants us here," Bethmasse muttered as she pointed her spear toward where the skull disappeared.
"Do not leave the path," Ganondorf said again.
"Anyone else see that?" Saevus shouted.
"See what?" Bethmasse looked around frantically, as she tried to wave her spear in every direction at once.
"Over there!" Saevus pointed to their left. "A child."
But where Saevus pointed, all Nabooru saw was the thick swirling fog. But she could hear something, almost like, a deep breathing. Perhaps a groan.
"Saevus," Ganondorf's voice was calm and low. Like he was trying to steady a wild horse. "I need you to listen to me. There is no child. The fog is toying with you."
"But, it's right there. The child won't hurt me."
"Bethmasse, take her hand. Make certain she does not leave my path."
"I'll keep her safe," the big Gerudo woman said as she grabbed onto Saevus' arm. Though her voice did not sound nearly as sure of herself as Nabooru would have liked.
"It looks so real," Saevus said. "There! There it is again!"
This time Nabooru saw something moving within the forest. Out from the between the trees a corpse with their flesh dripping from its bones shambled forth. Another followed it, then another. From the fog the creatures sprouted like leaves from the trees.
"By the goddesses," Bethmasse said.
"You have to see them!" Saevus shouted. "The children."
"They're not children!" Nabooru rushed toward the closest one and carved at it with her blade. It did not bleed, but when her sword struck through the bone of its chest, neither did it stop.
"Saevus!" Bethmasse shouted. "Saevus help me!"
Nabooru looked around, trying to keep her feet on the path Ganondorf had gone. There was so little room to move. The dead grabbed at her. Each trying to drag her deeper into the fog. She screamed and hacked away at every limb she could reach.
Beside her, Ganondorf roared. His sword flashed into his hand and he swung about himself. With each strike dark energy leapt from his blade and surrounded the dead things. While Bethmasse tried to keep the things away from Saevus.
"Behind you!" Nabooru screamed as one of the things took hold of Bethmasse's shoulder. The corpse pulled hard and the big warrior fell to the ground. Her head bouncing hard on the ground.
"Get away from her!" Nabooru stabbed one of the corpses and dug her shoulder into it, pushing it down. She grabbed at Bethmasse's foot and pulled, sliding her out of the dead thing's grip. She stumbled back, landing on her tailbone.
"Reesu, is that you?" Saevus said. "I haven't seen you since you died."
"Ganondorf!" Nabooru called as she smashed the pommel of her sword into one of the skeletal hands that clutched at Bethe. The big warrior's eyes were half-closed and unfocused. "Help!"
Dark armor passed by her, sword swinging and witch-fire burning. With fist and blade and magic, Ganondorf drove all the dead around them away. Nabooru got back to her feet and stood atop Bethe screaming her challenge to all the dead that remained.
But they retreated. Each of them turning back into the fog as quick as they came. Nabooru panted still holding her blade out.
"I missed you so much, Bergesza," a voice came from the fog. "I always looked up to you."
"Saevus!" Nabooru ran to the sound of the scout's voice.
A large armor blocked her way. She slammed into it, her breath bursting out of her lungs. "No," Ganondorf said. "She is gone."
"But I can still hear here. It's not too late."
"Yes, it is." He frowned as he looked down at Bethe. He bent down, checked her breathing. "This is why I didn't want you coming here." He grabbed Bethmasse's arm and pulled her up over his shoulder.
"I missed you too," Saevus said, her voice echoing through the trees, just out of sight. "I missed all of you, so much."
"Then what do we do?"
"Continue." He adjusted Bethmasse on his shoulders and continued into the fog, following some path that only he could see.
Nabooru remained as close as she could to her king. But every step seemed to make her weary. From the fog she saw lights, little flickering things just out of reach. The wanted her to follow them, to reach out and play with them.
She hissed through her teeth and closed her eyes. They weren't there. It was just a trick to get her to abandon the path. She wouldn't let them. She would make it out. She wouldn't end like Saevus. She needed to get out. She wanted to see Sir Jora again, she wanted to see the Gerudo flourish. She wanted to live.
When she opened her eyes, Ganondorf's back was still visible a few feet before her. She rushed toward it, and focused on him. Only him. Don't let the fog confuse me.
Ganondorf stopped, and Nabooru nearly walked into Bethmasse's dangling head. "We're here."
The fog rolled away, and before them stood the biggest tree in the world, as far as she was concerned. It's branches blotted out the sky, and it's trunk looked as big as a tower with a face carved into it.
"Is the guardian inside the tree?"
Ganondorf put Bethmasse down and walked toward the tree. "Guardian of the Forest, Great Deku Tree! I am Ganondorf Dragmire, and I have come to treat with you!"
A great booming voice spoke, so deep Nabooru could feel its words in her chest. "Treat with me, son of the desert? Thou hast come to bring death and suffering unto my home."
"Nabooru?" Bethmasse's voice was slurred and uneven. "Is that tree talking?" But before Nabooru could respond she slipped back into unconsciousness.
"I sensed the foul crowd drawing unto to me for some time. But now thou hast arrived, I feel thine corruption has not consumed thee completely. Abandon thine quest, son of the desert. Leave in peace. And save thine soul."
"I am trying to create peace!" Ganondorf said. "To my people, to the entire realm. Our goals are aligned. You should be aiding me."
"Aligned? No. Thou canst not bring peace through violence."
A low sound came from Nabooru's side. A slight buzzing, she looked away from Ganondorf and the tree, away from Bethmasse. The fog that surrounded them was gone.
"Is that not what you have done?" Ganondorf said. "How many have died since you cut off your forest to the outside world? What happened to the Alcott sisters who lived here in peace until you sent out your cursed fog?"
Something shone on the ground in the trees, a bright sparkle of light. And the sound continued. Was someone crying?
"Saevus?" Nabooru stepped toward the sound. "Saevus, are you there?" She shouldn't be doing this. Someone had told her not to leave the path. But, who said it? It couldn't be anyone important or she would remember. She'd should ask Ganondorf about it.
But he was busy talking to the tree. Later, once Saevus was saved, she'd talk to him about it.
"Saevus?" She stepped between the thick trees trying to find the sound. Saevus couldn't be far. She had been right beside them not long before.
But the sobbing didn't come from Saevus. The flickering light was a blade. But not one of Saevus' curved swords, it was a straight blade. One could barely call it a sword really, just a knife. Hylian made by the look of it.
She picked it up and looked around. "Is this yours?" She asked the woman that lay beneath one of the trees.
If the woman noticed her, she did not say anything. She just cried, her breath a gasping uneven sob. Her eyes wide open, staring out.
"Are you alright?" Nabooru stepped to the woman, knelt down and took her cold still hand. "Did you get lost? We can help you, if you are."
Still the woman just cried, though her gaze wandered higher until they reached Nabooru's eyes.
"Do I know you?"
The crying eyes didn't change, but they seemed to beckon Nabooru closer. They were trying to tell her something.
The cold hand pulled itself from Nabooru's grasp, and her arm tucked down along her ribs. As if she was holding something.
"I don't-"
Red blood, welled out from under the woman's arm.
"You're hurt!" Nabooru tried to pull her arm away to dress the wound and found an arrow piercing through the woman's side. Her arrow.
Nabooru scampered back away from the woman. Her arrow, it had been hers. She knew this woman. The Hylian gown, her arm craddling… the baby. Her heart pounded in her chest like a war drum as she finally met the woman's eyes. They were wider now. The tears streamed down her face as blood spread up her body.
"You're her. It wasn't my fault. I didn't know. I couldn't see the child. I thought you were a coward, deserting your people. I didn't know."
The woman opened her mouth and blood spilled out of it, mixing with the tears until the ground around her turned red.
"I didn't mean to do it!"
The woman grabbed at the empty air around her, and rocked the nothing in her arms. The missing child, nowhere to be seen.
"I don't know where your baby is! We were at war. I couldn't just stop in the middle of a battle to protect a child!"
The woman's mouth opened even wider and through the stream of blood came a sound of loss and sorrow Nabooru had never heard before. The sound of hearts breaking and dying wishes. The sound of trees sprouting over the blood-drenched fields.
Nabooru tried to look around, hoping that there was something she could do to help her. But all she saw was the fog that completely surrounded them. "I can't find your baby." I can't find anything. "I'm trying to help you!"
But her words sounded hollow even to her. Where would the child crawl off to? Perhaps the spiders took it. What help could she give someone she killed? And she had killed them. It was her arrow that took the woman in the back. One dart had robbed mother and child both. And they had been innocent.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry." She fell atop the mother, her head buried in the blood-stained gown. Her own tears mixing in with the Hylian. "I'm sorry."
A hand grabbed Nabooru and pulled her to her feet. She whirled around to see a massive man step through the fog, a body over his shoulder.
"Not you," Ganondorf's voice sounded firm. A command, but not directed at her. He spoke to the world itself and expected it to obey. "I will not lose you." He pressed his massive hand over her eyes and pushed her forward.
"But, it's my fault."
"Move!" This time he did command her, and she listened to her king.
His hand never left her eyes, so all she could hear was the stomping of his feet and his curses. The moans of the dead and the cackling of spiders. She could feel the power rolling off Ganondorf in waves. He would shout and grunt and the creatures would flee before him.
Until he pulled his hand from her and they burst through the woods.
"See to them," Ganondorf said as he fell forward on his knees. "Bethmasse has been… huufh… wounded."
Their sisters gathered around them, taking Bethe from Ganondorf's shoulders a moment before he fell to his side. His eyes open, but panting.
"I'm fine," Nabooru brushed aside the dozen of hands that came to see to her. "Just some scrapes I'm fine. See to the king!" The vai did their work looking over each of them with a practiced efficiency, knowing not to ask about Saevus. They would remember the dead later.
The others brought them food and drink, and Nabooru sat back next to Ganondorf. Letting him catch his breath, waiting for if or when he decided he was ready to talk.
"Next time," he said taking a huge gulp of air. "I tell you to do something, you will do it without question."
"You know I can't make that promise." Nabooru laid down beside him and looked up to the sky. "Did you get what you need?"
"No."
"I'm sorry. If I hadn't left the path. If I hadn't been so stupid. Maybe-"
"No, this wasn't your fault. The Guardian would have nothing to do with me."
"Then what are we going to do next?"
Ganondorf took a deep breath. "I'll need my mothers."
"What?" Nabs sat up and peered over her friend.
"You're going to call the Twinrova?" Nobuli asked, the others hushed their conversations.
Nabooru gave Nobuli a quick glare, causing the vai to step away from them. It wasn't as if the conversation was private, the others were all moving about them. But still, she did not wish for them to pester them about the witches now. "We don't need them. They only make things worse."
"I can't think of another way. If you don't want to be here when they arrive you should go. I can send someone for you, when they depart."
"I'm not afraid of those crones."
Ganondorf gave her a nod, then stood up. Nabooru followed him as he went to Storm and collected a few items from his packs.
"Is he really going to summon the Twinrova?" Mulli whispered to Nabooru. "I've never seen them before."
"Then I'm sorry your luck ran out."
Mulli gave her a confused look, but didn't say anything further.
Ganondorf took a jar of desert sand and spread it out over the ground, in a strange pattern of lines and circles. In the center of the shape he placed two small carved sigils of ice and flame. "Mothers, I offer you the sand from your door and look upon your emblems. I request your aid."
At first nothing happened, some of the other warriors started to look about trying to see what was going on. But Nabooru knew to look to the skies. The clouds about them covered the setting Sun and the stars starting to appear in the sky. A whirling black vortex covered the sky, and from it two shapes spiraled down, cackling on their brooms.
"So our son remembers us?" Kotake croaked as they descended.
"I thought we were forgotten." Koume stepped off her broom. The twins barely came to Ganondorf's waist.
"Or perhaps he simply had no need. Finally embracing what he was to become."
"You thought wrong, sister," Koume prodded her broom into Ganondorf's chest. "He is too weak to best a tree."
"Pathetic," Kotake said.
"Disappointing," Koume agreed.
"Enough," Ganondorf said. "You clearly know why I called you, will you help me or not?"
"We have helped you," Koume said.
"It is not our fault that you have not remembered your lessons."
"Didn't we teach you the proper spells?" Koume took her broom in hand and smashed it against Ganondorf's arm.
"I am not powerful enough-"
"Power!" Kotake screeched. "He talks of power. As if we didn't provide every means for him to attain it."
"Weakness." Koume smashed at his arm again.
The other vai looked between each other. They whispered, just loud enough for Nabooru to hear their words of shock. But no one did anything. No one ever did anything when the witches came.
"Four kings we trained, four kings we raised."
"And you have to be the runt of the lot. King Haraldorf united the tribes through his will alone."
"King Derwinnyr drove out the Lizalfos with nothing but that sword you tarnish with your touch."
"King Yesasorn raised Castle Town to the ground and slew a Hylian King!"
"What have you ever done but disappoint us?" With each sentence they smashed their broom onto Ganondorf's arm again and again. And he just stood and took it. His jaw set, breathing deep as if barely controlling his anger.
"Enough!" Nabooru grabbed Koume's broom and ripped it from the witches hand. "He is still your king you old hag! Why he hasn't torn your wrinkled heads off I-"
The witches turned on her and screamed. Fire and ice filled their hand. "And then there's this one," Kotake hissed. "If you wished to see where your weakness stemmed from, look no further."
"Should have burned her away years ago." Koume said.
"Froze her and shattered her to pieces," Kotake said. The gems on their heads glistened with blue and red light as their magic spilled around their hands.
"Shall this be the day, dear sister? To fix a terrible mistake."
Before the magic could reach her, a darkness enveloped both the witches. "No," came Ganondorf's voice through the black cloud that seemed to crackle with energy. "I demand-" He stepped out of the dark void, his shoulders hunched, his entire body heaving.
The witches burst out of the dark magic, riding on their brooms high. Their cackle echoing down. "I think we did it sister."
"Has the true king returned?"
Ganondorf took a heavy step, witch-fire bursting off him with every breath. When he looked up, he didn't look like her friend anymore. His eyes glowed with yellow light. He took a deep gasping breath, and there was something wrong with his teeth. Two protruded from his bottom jaw, growing long and sharp.
"What is going on?" Someone grabbed Nabooru's arm and started pulling her away. She was dragged several feet before she realized it was Makeela. "Is this what happened with the moblins?"
Ganondorf took another step forward, howling like a monster. Then he fell, writhing on the ground. But the witch-fire did not stop spreading in waves around him.
"Boo!" one of the witches cried.
"But he is close, sister. Closer than the others."
"Perhaps the next will be more promising?"
"Help him!" Nabooru screamed up at the two. "Do something useful for once in your miserable lives!"
But the witches only started laughing. "If he cannot contain the power himself, what use is he?"
By the Goddesses, I will make you pay for this. I will tear your heads from your shoulders! But she couldn't do anything to them now, and her friend still lay shouting as his fire consumed him and turned the grass around him to ash.
She stepped toward him.
"Nabooru!" Some of the other vai shouted at her.
But she continued anyway. He needed her. Like he did when they were children and he hid the scars those witches gave him. Like he did when he could no longer control the anger that welled up inside him.
From the darkness yellow eyes found her. "Get back," it said. "Get back, Nabs."
"Shut up," Nabooru hissed as she stepped into the dark fire. The flames licked at her ankles. It felt as though her leg was freezing with a cold so intense it burned. But as her foot touched the ground, the fires flared and licked her legs then pulled back. She could feel her skin welting up, but she did not dare look down. It was like walking over blistering sand, she had to keep moving, if she stopped that would be the end. With each step the fires crackled around her, and Ganondorf roared and thrashed about, trying to send the fires anywhere but toward her.
"You have this," she said. "You're the strongest person I've ever known. You're telling me you can't handle this?" When she reached him, he turned his head away from her. Hiding whatever was happening to his face.
She knelt beside him, and held her hand over the witch-flame that covered his shoulders. She lowered her hand to comfort him, gritting her teeth as the black flame surrounded her hand. Then it dispersed. First where she touched, then all around him. Until all that remained was Ganondorf, coughing and shaking on the ground. And the burned ruin of the land around them.
"We're going to make it through this," Nabooru said through gritted teeth. "We'll think of a new plan. We don't need them."
Ganondorf turned to look at her, his teeth were normal. His eyes no longer glowing. He grabbed hold of her and pulled her into an embrace. Even that movement sent pain through her arm. But before she could say anything she heard the witches descend behind her.
"Well done," Kotake shouted as the wind whistled through her broom.
"What power you have," Koume said.
Ganondorf let her go, giving her a nod before leaving her kneeling and in pain.
"And you thought you were too weak," Kotake shook her head as she grabbed under Ganondorf's chin. "You should be able to handle the tree with a fraction of that power."
"But because we cherish you so dearly, son. We shall help."
"No," Nabooru tried to stand, but her burned legs would not let her move. "Enough from the both of you. Gan, we don't need them."
Ganondorf stepped to the witches. He drew breath and seemed to find his strength as he towered over each of them. He glared at foul creatures that called themselves his mothers. Measuring them as he had all his enemies. His fist clenched, then slightly opened leaving just enough space for the grip of a sword. The slight movement he made before he called his weapon to him. This could be it. He could finally be rid of the two that tormented him all his life.
"You will help me?" He said, as he relaxed his hand.
"No," Nabooru whispered.
"Of course we will," Koume flicked her fingers and some kind of insect appeared in her hand. It was black with a bulbous eye.
"What kind of mothers would we be if we didn't?"
Author's Note: Well, I'm finally getting to the actual game now. This got surprisingly more views than I anticipated. Thanks to each of you who left the kind reviews, and I hope you enjoy what I have in store.
