Part II – Evil Sands

Chapter I – The Prince Returns

Noon was the worst time for a fight. When the sun was at its peak and the ground at its hottest, fights lead to heat stroke and dehydration. Nabooru knew this but still accepted Nisha's challenge. Nisha had said that Nabooru was only appointed to lieutenant because her mother was a general. Nabooru responded to such an accusation by simply stating that if Nisha believed she was unfit for the leadership role then she could challenge her authority at any time. The altercation, of course, was much less polite. It would've been a simple fight if not for one condition.

Nabooru said she'd do it all with one hand tied behind her back, which was exactly where here right arm was pinned with rope.

In hindsight, she should've kept her mouth shut. It was bad enough that she got angry at a private, but issuing herself that challenge was just stupid. She still would've had to accept the contest or risk losing rank and respect, but she would still have her right arm for the fight.

The area that the Gerudo met at for these kind of occasions was little more than a section of the training grounds sanctioned off by a fading white line. There were no structures inside the arena, no barrels of water, and any weapons or equipment of any kind was strictly forbidden. Just your honor, your skill, and your two fists, or in Nabooru's case one fist, between you and your opponent. In Gerudo culture, this is the purest and most honorable way to settle disputes. Though the honor of this particular fight was questionable due to Nabooru's handicap. But even with her dominant hand out of use, Nabooru was still a force to be reckoned with.

Nisha kept her lieutenant at a distance but held her hands up in case Nabooru decided to rush her. Nabooru held her one free arm in front of her as if she was ready to arm wrestle. This allowed her to compensate for her defenseless right side while still maintaining a somewhat offensive stance. The two women crossed their legs in front and behind their own as they circled each other, carefully sizing the other up. Nabooru, being disabled as she was, surmised that she would need to play this fight more defensively than she would've liked. This meant more dodging instead of blocking which was not Nabooru's preferred style. She favored a style that brought her up close and personal with her opponent; blocking attacks to frustrate and tire her attacker before the takedown. She called it being "Offensively Defensive" and it won her many a fight. In her current state, however, that wouldn't be possible.

And Nisha knew it. So, before she could take advantage of the situation, Nabooru attacked first with a high kick aimed for Nisha's shoulder. She had no trouble dodging the attack and followed up with a flurry of her own. Nabooru was forced to backpedal as she dodged most attacks and blocked the ones she couldn't. Nisha's early advantage was just Nabooru's tactic to bide her time until Nisha made a mistake. However, Nisha was only second to Nabooru when it came to hand-to-hand combat and rarely made mistakes. Her combinations were fierce and her style was formulated with multiple trainers' influence which gave her moves a slight unpredictability that had a chance to surprise an enemy. Nabooru would know, she trained her herself at one point. The girl was quite gifted when it came to picking up and executing techniques she was shown but lacked the creativity to formulate her own combos and new moves that utilized multiple techniques. Even now, while in the heat of battle, Nabooru evaluated the moves used against her. The most notable were Nisha's drop-kicks which were a perfect mirror of her own.

With each failed or blocked hit, Nisha became more and more frustrated. Finally, at the end of her latest combo, Nisha threw a high kick that Nabooru easily ducked under, but the kick was a fake out. She must've thought that she had caught the lieutenant off guard as she quickly followed up with a fully powered low knee thrust aimed to split Nabooru's nose bridge. But her attack was a fraction of a second too late and Nabooru threw her head up and out of the way just before her face received a new mark. Nisha threw a lot of power into that last attack and her knee sailed past Nabooru, leaving her wide open. Nabooru, seeing her opportunity, kicked Nisha's leg away to spin her around. Nisha used the unexpected momentum to flow into a roundhouse kick. Nabooru ducked again and immediately went into a shoulder thrust that connected with Nisha's sternum. Nabooru learned the move from Ganondorf who had used it on her many times when they used to spar. The blow sent Nisha staggering back and, while Nabooru only suffered a mildly sore shoulder, Nisha was shocked by the sudden bold attack.

Having gotten the first successful hit, Nabooru was understandably cocky so she smirked at the recovering Nisha. She was less than amused. In fact, she was so offended that she came running full speed towards Nabooru uttering a rage-filled war cry.

Stupid mistake Nabooru thought. The lieutenant stood up straight and patiently waited for Nisha to lose her charged attack. Nisha came near and unleashed a punch that would've seriously hurt Nabooru if she weren't ready. But she was ready, and added a sweeping kick to her low dodge. Nabooru's leg caught Nisha's foot and caused her to trip. As Nisha began to fall forward, Nabooru caught her opponent by the chest and pushed her backwards. Nisha's feet flew out from under her and Nabooru's backwards force became a downwards one. She plummeted down to the ground and made a loud and painful sounding thump when she hit the stone floor. Nisha had hit the earth with such an incredible impact that the air rushed from her lungs, forcing her to gasp for breath. Nabooru stood and undid the knot behind her back that held her arm with her free hand. The ropes loosened and fell right in front of Nisha's face.

"I am lieutenant because of my skill, not my connections. Do you understand?"

Nisha was too busy trying to force air into her lungs to answer.

"Good!" Nabooru resolutely said after a few conformational sounding gasps, "As punishment for your disrespect, you will run double laps tomorrow as well as meet up with me later that day to go over your technique. This is a learning experience, not a defeat. Any questions?"

"No." Nisha croaked with some difficulty.

"No… what?"

Nisha rolled to her knees and bowed her head respectfully, "No, Lieutenant Nabooru."

"Good. Go inside and rest if you need it, under my orders if you're questioned."

Nisha cleared her throat, "Thank you ma'am."

Nabooru turned away and walked towards the edge of the arena where people were already filing away from the fight faster than usual. Some even seemed to be running with concerned words floating from person to person. Nabooru quickened her pace and grabbed the first girl she came to. It was Indira.

"Indira!" Nabooru grabbed the woman's shoulder before she could follow the crowd, startling her a bit, "What's happening? Where's everyone going in such a rush?"

"The gatekeeper has sent word that there is someone coming from the desert. They're saying it's Ganondorf!"

Nabooru's eyes went wide at his name, "G-Ganondorf?" she whispered.

"After so many years, I doubt it's him. I mean, how can someone survive in the- Ow, hey!"

Nabooru shoved past Indira and made a full sprint towards the desert gate. She pushed and shoved sister after sister out of the way until she came to her familiar rock. She nimbly jumped onto the top of it and was treated to a full view of the front gate as it was slowly raised.

….

Ganondorf was slightly annoyed at his two adoptive mothers. When he had trekked out into the desert four years ago, it had taken him several weeks to reach their temple oasis. The trip back, however, took the boy only two days before he spotted the large gate and surrounding mountains. This meant that either he was extremely lost in the desert those four years ago, or the twins messed with his perception and hid the structures from him.

But given a choice between the two, he still would've gone with the twins, so it didn't pay to hold a grudge against them. They had helped him gain control over his powers and he was overly thankful for that. In truth, he didn't really want to leave them. He had food and shelter in the temple and there was no guarantee that he would be welcomed back at the compound with open arms. He could've learned so much more about magic and how to use it if he stayed.

But then, there was her.

She was the reason for most of his decisions along this journey. He left for her, trained for her, and now he would return for her. Of course he had a mother to comfort, a people to lead, and dozens of sisters to go back to, but there was one special person who he longed to see again. He longed to see her slender figure, her caring smile, and could even smell her perfume. The smell of-

"Halt!" an angry woman's voice rang out, "Who goes there?"

Ganondorf, reeling from being ripped from his trance, looked up at the tower beside the gate that the somewhat familiar voice came from. The sun was high up in the sky and looking up at the tower only allowed him to see the bright silhouette of a gatekeeper. He tried to remember who's voice he was hearing but wasn't entirely sure.

"I say again, who goes there?"

"Hail! Malati, is that you? How long are you going to be gatekeeper?"

"Malati?" the woman replied incredulously, "Malati hasn't been gatekeeper for over two years! Wait, I mean-" the woman recomposed herself, "Who goes there?!"

Then the name hit him like a ton of bricks, "Esha!? Esha, you're gatekeeper now? Congratulations, I didn't know you wanted to-"

"Last warning, who goes-"

"Esha, it's me, Ganondorf! Do you not have eyes on your head?"

Then it was silent for a while. Ganondorf could hear slight whispering from the stone tower but was too far away to hear. Not only that, but there seemed to be a fight going on inside the compound that had the entire tribe in a cheering uproar. He was just about to manipulate the air to allow him to hear their conversation, but Esha spoke out to him just before he could.

"How do I know it's really you, Ganondorf?"

"Who else could possibly be roaming around in the desert?"

"Stranger things have happened."

"Well then, come down and see for yourself!"

"I have a better idea. How about you tell me something that only Ganondorf would know."

"Would that prove that I am who I say I am?"

"A detailed explanation of how you survived four years in the desert would be better, but it will suffice for now."

Ganondorf sighed, "Alright… umm… Oh, I got one! Esha, you remember when we were little? When we were just trainees? I remember that you wet your bunk one day because you had a nightmare that a leever had come out your-"

"OK! Ok, fine, I believe you! Goddess, I'll never be rid of that shit."

"Language Esh." Ganondorf said in a mockingly chastising tone.

"I'm older than you!"

"By one year."

"And a half! You never remember the half! Ugh, you'd think four years would change a person."

Ganondorf snickered as he walked up to the gate. It took a while but the metal barrier finally started to rise after a moment of awkward silence. When the gate rose above his head, Ganondorf was treated to the most amazing sight he had ever seen. Standing on the edge of the courtyard, on the ridge of the outward leading road, was the entirety of the Gerudo people. It seemed that news of his return had spread fast making the compound clear out, the guards leave their posts, and even some of the pregnant were out to see the prince return to the valley. He walked a bit forward away from the gate and tried to see everyone's faces, but the sun was directly overhead and making everything a pain to look at. All he could tell was that there was a stunned silence about them and nobody dared to move a muscle.

Then one single person moved. She was standing atop a large rock that overlooked the gate's path. She slid down the face of the boulder and sprinted at Ganondorf. When he caught a glimpse of her face he could see tears streaming down her cheeks and, yet, a broad smile with joy dancing in her eyes. He only had a few seconds to brace himself before the girl's full weight slammed into him and her arms locked onto his neck with suffocating strength. He reeled back a bit from the impact but rebounded with an embrace of his own. He wrapped his muscular arms around her, enveloping the girl… no, the woman, in his happiness.

"Nabooru." was all he could say.

For four years he had avoided her name. For four years he had forced himself to put her out of his mind for the sake of his training. Now, after four years, just saying her name was like a weight lifted off his shoulders. Like the final confession to a terrible betrayal. They may have been standing in their embrace for a few seconds, but those seconds were as precious as jewels and as endless as time itself. Ganondorf finally realized how much he had missed the smell of the honey perfume on her desert-burnt skin.

Nabooru wiped her tears on his shoulder and sniffed a little, "I… I waited for you. Every day, I waited."

"I thought I told you not to wait for me."

He felt her smile, "You know I don't follow orders very well."

Ganondorf couldn't help but smile as well. But then there was a small rumble in the ground followed by the distant screeches of, what sounded to be, nesting keese. When he looked up and removed Nabooru's hair from his face, he was awed by the hoard of women rushing towards him. Beholding such a sight dumbfounded Ganondorf and he loosened his grip on Nabooru. The woman silently slipped from his embrace but Ganondorf, too busy with the magnificent sight before him, didn't even notice. As the huge mob of women got closer, he could make out individual faces and hear their voices overlap each other. He stood up straight and opened his arms as wide as his smile.

"Sisters, I've-" was all he could utter before he was knocked almost off his feet by the swarm of Gerudo. Nearly forty women surrounded Ganondorf and he knew every chatting, talking, ranting, screaming, yelling, crying, pushing, pulling, hugging, and kissing one of them. Ganondorf was being tugged this way and that as sister after sister tried to get their time with the boy who survived four years in the desert. And the center of their attention, despite being tossed around like a rag doll, smiled the entire time.

This was his home, just as he remembered it. He didn't really realize how much he had missed it. As he was mercilessly pulled in every which direction, Ganondorf found himself becoming misty-eyed as well. He never really thought about how his absence would affect the compound when he left. Now, seeing everyone around him so happy with his return, it just solidified the fact that, just as with the twins, he would always be welcomed back.

The churning mass of women was hard to navigate but Ganondorf did manage to slowly make his way towards the ramp leading up to the compound's main yard. The women continued to talk and chatter all at once both with Ganondorf and amongst themselves but, when Ganondorf stepped up to the yard, the outer layer of the mob suddenly just stopped and went quiet. After some urgent whispers and an uncomfortable amount of time, the entire group around him had fallen silent. Then the women split the group down the middle revealing the compound and three people standing before it. Nabooru and the Allmother stood in front of the entrance and another came out from behind them to walk towards Ganondorf. At first glance, Ganondorf didn't even recognize the woman. But as she got closer, her features finally betrayed her identity despite the physical change. The woman was Rila, his mother.

Ganondorf knew that people would change after four years but he almost didn't even recognize his own mother. She had gotten so thin that her ribs were showing under her top and her cheeks had sunken in. Ganondorf remembered that she used to have moderately wide hips that held up the metal lining of her pants, but now she was so thin that they were on the constant verge of falling. Her hair used to be solid crimson and only before he left did she begin to pick out greying hairs. Now her tied up hair was sprinkled with the bleached strands, making her hair look more sullen than it was back then.

Rila stopped a breath away from Ganondorf and he was forced to stare into her eyes. Ganondorf had never seen as much pain and anguish than there was in his mother's eyes. She needn't say a word as her eyes showed him all the pain he had put her through. Her lips kept involuntarily twitching as she fought to keep her tears on their shelf. Even her cheeks were marred by the rivers of them that hadn't stopped since he left.

"Mother, I-" Ganondorf's head suddenly snapped to the right as a bony-handed slap left its burning sting on his left cheek. The sound of her strike echoed through the mountains and made the entire congregation recoil as if they'd also been hit. But that slap didn't just hit Ganondorf's face, it wounded his soul. Through that split-second of contact, Ganondorf felt all the suffering his mother felt because of him. The anger, the denial, the sadness, and the overwhelming despair destroyed Ganondorf's spirit and left him with nothing but shame. He kept his head to the right as he dared not look at his mother again.

"You left." were her first words to him. They were simple words that declared a simple fact but, for Rila, they were the final realization of how close she had come to losing her son. For Ganondorf, he could only absorb the emotion behind them like a sparring dummy. Her voice was shaky and frail but it still carried the matriarchal command it always did.

"There was no note, no message, and the only hope that you were still alive was in the eyes of a silly girl who held a trinket. You… you just left."

"Mother-"

Rila trampled over Ganondorf's words before they even came out, "I grieved for you. I mourned my son's death. I thought that my life was over and that you were dead!"

"I just-"

Rila started to become angry and tears as hot as molten metal burned their way down her cheeks, "You come back here expecting fanfare? Thinking that there won't be any consequences!?" Every word she spoke was a dagger straight into his chest. Stabbing, twisting, burning, and branding their weight and meaning into his spirit.

"I'm… I'm sorry mothe-"

"Sorry?!" Rila's voice cracked, "I thought you were dead for four years, and all you can say is 'sorry'?"

"Mother!" he said with a little more force, "I… I will never know the grief I've caused you. Nor will I know the pain you've felt. I've caused pain both after I left and before. But I thought that less people would get hurt because of me if I left. Then you wouldn't be ashamed of me. You wouldn't love me less."

"Then I've failed as a mother."

Ganondorf looked at Rila in confusion, "…Why?"

"Because you should know that there is nothing you could do in this world that would make me love you any less."

The anger in Rila's eyes slowly dissolved away and was replaced with sparkling compassion. Her sudden smile was still reminiscent of some sadness but betrayed the unending love she still had for her son.

"Welcome home, Ganondorf."

Rila pulled Ganondorf down and wrapped her arms around him in a loving embrace. Ganondorf, overcome with emotion, hugged his mother back as the crowd around them silently smiled with respect to their moment.

"I thought I'd never see you again." she sobbed into his shoulder.

After drying their tears on each other's shoulder, Rila pulled away and faced out to the crowd. She cleared her throat before addressing them.

"Sisters and daughters. Ganondorf, my only son and your only brother, has finally returned after four long years in the uninhabitable desert. He has grown since then into a stronger, smarter, and greater man. And now that he is returned to us, he is ready to take his place as King of the Gerudo!"

The women around them began to cheer and clap as Rila held her son's hand up triumphantly. However, just as quickly as the cheering started, it was ended by some yelling coming from the back of the crowd. Ganondorf couldn't make any of it out but most of the women in the crowd did and the air went stagnant once more. Then the sound of steel greaves hitting the stone floor resounded through the silent crowd.

"And what meaning of festivities is this?" rang a voice that pierced the silence from within the crowd, making its way towards Rila and Ganondorf, "Guards leave their posts, Gerudo leave their duties, all for what?" the crowd reluctantly parted just enough to reveal the foreboding presence of General Naberna. Time hadn't been kind to the general either. Her wrinkles had only gotten worse and the scar on her face, going through her dead right eye, seemed to have only deepened instead of faded. When she fixed her gaze on Ganondorf and Rila, her mouth became a smug grin and she even raised an eyebrow.

"So, the late 'king-to-be' has returned." She said, adding a drop of venom to each word, "Under normal circumstances, we'd try you for desertion."

Naberna suddenly lost her smug grin when she spotted Rila's menacing gaze and her voice dropped to a hiss, "But these are hardly normal circumstances." Naberna then got uncomfortably close to Ganondorf, "Why did you come back?"

"Am I not entitled to come back to my own family?"

"Family? Is that also why you left?"

"I didn't want to hurt people. If anything, that should be celebrated because the king-"

Naberna cut him off, "You may be heir to the throne, Ganondorf, but I-"

"Am happy for his return." Rila cut Naberna off this time with her own threatening hiss and grabbed her forearm, "Right?"

Naberna sneered and shook Rila's hand off her armor.

"And you will allow us to celebrate his return accordingly."

Naberna simply scoffed indignantly and spun to return to the compound. Ganondorf had never seen this side of his mother. The general seemed to bring out the most ruthless parts of Rila, parts he didn't think she had, and it was apparently enough to deter even the fearless General Naberna.

Rila sighed away her annoyance and turned back to Ganondorf, "Well, I'm happy you're back."

"What was that ab-"

"Ganondorf, we'll climb that dune when we come to it. For now…" Rila then raised her voice to address the entire crowd again, "now we prepare a feast to commemorate the return of our Ganondorf!"

The cheering began anew and most of the crowd hurried off to prepare for the celebration. Ganondorf thought he saw Nabooru for a second but she seemed to disappear within the crowd. But before he could give chase, Rila pulled him off towards the training area to meet the trainees. Her excitement and the awed faces of the trainees drove Naberna and her angry words from his mind. As Rila excitedly rambled off the different names of children and their respective mothers, Ganondorf couldn't help but smile.

He was finally home.