The sun drifted slowly and mercilessly over what many Hyruleans dubbed the Sea of Sands, more commonly known as the Gerudo Desert. Suffocating heat pressed down on and rose from the eddying dunes, creating mesmerizing waves in the air. A small spurt of sand betrayed the presence of some creature resilient enough to call the barren region home. Whatever it was showed itself no further, either out of respect for predators or hope for prey.
Bertri lowered her spear once assured the disturbance was not a threat. The dark-skinned Gerudo mentally berated herself. Her mother, ancestors protect her, would have sent her running laps around the city walls for startling so easily. She briefly wondered what her father would think, then discarded the notion. Like all of her people, she had never known her father.
Refastening her spear to her back, Bertri took a small drink from the waterskin that hung at her waist. Her momentarily raised gaze lighted upon her people's recent cause for concern: a dark dust cloud, occasionally illuminated by flashes of unnatural forked lightning. It swirled east of the only road to cut through the desert, and the travelers on that road made no effort to approach the phenomenon. They had been warned of the horror within that storm, and were eager to leave well enough alone.
Some of those travelers had spotted her, now, and gazed curiously in the way grasswalkers so often did when encountering her people. Bertri ignored them because they held no interest for her. She was neither a trader nor a softhearted maid desperately searching for a voe.
Instead, the red-haired Gerudo set her sights on where sun, sand, road and travelers coalesced. Walls built by man (or, in this case, woman) filled in the gaps of natural sunbleached stone that had once formed a natural outcropping. Open archways marked the three of Gerudo Town's four sides, though the northern entrance was the only one by which travelers were allowed to enter. Half a score of similarly dark-skinned women, each heavily armed, manned what the Gerudo dubbed Trader's Gate. The line to enter was long, but the women did not rush their task of visually appraising each foreigner. Goods needed to be shown. More importantly, hoods were forced to be lowered. No voe was permitted within Gerudo Town, on pain of death, a thought which made Bertri sneer at a man who seemed particularly annoyed at being forced to wait outside the city walls.
He should be grateful, she thought viciously, that my sand sisters do not send him walking back through the desert naked and covered in rotten voltfruit!
Bertri had refrained from joining the path until she was nearly upon the Trader's Gate. Two of her sisters looked up suspiciously before recognizing the newcomer. Smiles alighted on their sharp, angled features.
"Vasaaq, sister!" one of them greeted warmly. "You have returned! Did the ancestors favor your quest?"
"Silence!" hissed her much larger and less congenial companion. "Her quest and its fruits are for our people alone, not these peddlers and dreamers!"
Bertri embraced each of them, then rested a hand on their shoulders to include them both her greeting.
"I am well, thank the ancestors," she reassured them quietly. "But Fegran is right, Merina, my news is for Lady Riju before any others."
"Of course," Merina acquiesced readily. "I am here until dusk. Meet me at the Noble Canteen tonight after!"
"I will," Bertri agreed with a squeeze of her friend's shoulder. She bid them farewell, her mood souring quickly as she shouldered her way through the crowd of would-be visitors. She had little patience for grasswalkers. In her eyes, they were weak. Cloaks and trousers hid their milk-white skin from the same sun that made the Gerudo as strong as anything else that survived here. Even their pathetically necessary protection did not stop them from whining of the heat, as though Hylia should grant them water and shade in unearned abundance. Their eyes followed her hopefully - and, in Bertri's eyes, greedily - as she emerged from their distasteful midst and entered the home of her people.
Low, flat dwellings made of bone-white stone lay before her in spacious order. Aqueducts connected their roofs to allow the transport of the desert city's most precious commodity. Gerudo Town's waters were a mysterious wonder, but one gratefully received by its people. Their channeled course allowed for the carefully placed and grown palm trees that lined city's main avenues, the widest of which began almost immediately upon entering through the Trader's Gate.
Bertri strode through that avenue now, briefly acknowledging the hailing welcomes of her sisters. More grasswalkers were already milling about the Vendors Plaza, but they paid little attention to the presence of one more Gerudo. A Hylian tradeswoman was attempting to loudly talk down the price of a set of topaz earrings. Bertri snorted. She would wind up paying more than the original cost for her insolence.
Almost all the Gerudo vendors were similarly engaged in trade talks, each of them situated at every type of station imaginable. Some sat before goods displayed atop brightly dyed rugs. Others stood behind small wooden tables on which their best wares were set to catch the wandering eye. The most wealthy of them owned the shaded storefront dwellings that ringed the plaza itself.
Most dealt with Hylians - Easy rupees, Bertri thought in satisfaction - but she nodded in absent-minded respect toward a large Goron engrossed in conversation with one of her sisters. The stone-made being held a fistful of glittering rubies in his oversized hand. Such gems were among the rarest to be had in this region of Hyrule, and Bertri thought her sister would ultimately lose this bargain in her eagerness to obtain them. Gorons were the only Hyruleans as gifted as Gerudo when it came to bartering.
Sure enough, the deal was struck before Bertri had passed out of earshot. She heard the Goron deliver hearty thanks in an impressively deep voice, making her wonder for the hundredth time whether the volcano-dwelling creature was, in fact, male. For the hundredth time, she dismissed the question. Gorons had been allowed entrance into Gerudo Town for as long their histories were written. The ancestors knew why they were granted such a blind exception, but there it was.
Bertri wrenched her attention away from her people's bustling trade and focused instead on the wide, stone stairway that led from the plaza to the Hall of Chieftains. Two guards awaited at the top of those stairs, but to Bertri's surprise they directed her elsewhere.
"Vasaaq, sister," one of them greeted formally. "Lady Riju awaits you within the barracks."
"Why there?" Bertri asked curiously. Her sister, who like so many of them had the lower half of her face veiled, shrugged in reply.
"She takes more lessons with the sword," the Gerudo answered, unconcerned. "Given the reason for your search, it is only natural for Lady Riju to hone her defenses."
Bertri nodded in agreement. Undetected, intruders had stolen into Gerudo Town and taken their people's most sacred relic. What would stop them from doing so again to slay their chieftain?
"Sarqso," she thanked them. "I meet with Merina at the Canteen tonight. You will join us?"
Both Gerudo nodded enthusiastically. A night at the city pub was always a standing invitation among sisters and almost always accepted when extended. For now, however, duty waited.
Bertri reluctantly made her way back down the stairs and through the plaza, glancing askance only when overhearing the over-ambitious Hylian pay a hefty price for her affrontry. She smiled in approval at her sister, who returned the unspoken compliment with a pleased grin of her own.
The barracks were most easily accessed from the Spear Gate at the western wall, but Bertri was forced to walk the rigidly designed streets to reach it from within city. By the time she arrived, the sun was well begun on its long-awaited descent.
The heat, however, had hardly subsided, nor would it until the sun had set. Only then would the day's extreme warmth give way to equally biting cold. Such was the forge in which the Gerudo were melded, shaped and strengthened.
Like nearly every building in Gerudo Town, the barracks were devoid of the formality of doors. Open archways provided entry, though only after the approval of their assigned guards. Another pair warmly acknowledged Bertri. One of them was old enough to be her mother, but looked just as capable with her spear as the young initiate stationed alongside her.
Bertri passed through the archway and found herself on the outskirts of an audience. She was tall, however, even for a Gerudo. Her considerable height allowed her a clear view of the main attraction.
Two combatants circled one another within the tight ring formed by their observers. One was an adult in the prime of life, her physique chiseled and honed to practical perfection. Liana's hair was as red as any of her sisters, but her skill with the short-bladed scimitar and round shield was equaled by none. Her movements were sure and skilled, the strength behind them made more visible by an upper body bare save for the snug halter favored by all Gerudo.
Liana's opponent was alarmingly short compared to everyone else in the room. Her body still bore much of the softness of youth, but Bertri could see lean muscle beginning to take shape on Lady Riju's arms, stomach and legs. The Chieftan's own halter was much smaller, as her womanhood had not yet fully blossomed. Even in the midst of battle, however, it was clear the Gerudo's young leader had been blessed with an added beauty that would someday stop voe in their single-minded steps.
Now, however, Riju's exotically youthful face was set in tight concentration. Sweat poured down her body as she held up her own curved sword and shield, ready and waiting for Liana's next attack. Clearly, they had been at this for some time.
Liana's eyes narrowed, searching for the opening her opponent was inviting her to find. Without warning, she leapt forward, seeking to use her size to overwhelm her diminutive foe.
Bertri gasped in approval as Riju spun sideways and out of the powerful blow's path, then raised her shield when Liana's experienced sword arm followed her opponent's path. The blade resounded off the bejeweled guard with a sharp clang, but the swordmaster followed smoothly with a broad slice of her own shield.
Riju rolled under and away from the shield's sharp edge, then swiped quickly with her own blade at Liana's exposed calves. Like a dancer, the elder Gerudo quick-stepped around the slashing scimitar, flowing into her own return blow with a downward stab. Riju quickly lifted her shield to meet it, then pushed it into Liana's chest as she rose to her feet.
Bertri inwardly applauded. Such a move was unexpected and would have sent almost any foe sprawling on her back. Riju's relatively small stature, however, only caused Liana to stagger slightly backwards.
"Stop!"
Bertri was not alone in being startled by the barking command. Only now did she see Buliara, Captain of the Gerudo Guard, overseeing the duel from the other side of the enclosed circle. She was by far the most physically imposing fighter among her people, an impression emphasized by the enormous gold-hilted claymore that never left her side. She banged its point on the flagstone floor to emphasize her next words.
"You are dead," Buliara announced flatly. She did not mince words on the Chieftain's behalf, not even with half of her warriors present. "What you did would have worked for everyone here except you. You must fight to your strengths, Lady Riju, and flee your weaknesses, no matter how unfair or temporary they might be."
Liana opened her mouth, but Buliara silenced the potential protest with a look that would curdle stone. Bertri hoped her report would not produce a repeat of that look.
Riju, meanwhile, was already replacing her sword and shield on a nearby weapons rack.
"You are right, of course," the young Chieftain coolly agreed. "Still, I am encouraged with the progress made today. You are a worthy teacher, Liana," she added warmly to the swordswoman. "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."
"Of course, Lady Riju," Liana returned, and Bertri could not help but notice it was with the same respect that she herself felt upon seeing her Chieftain's bearing up close. "Sav'saaba."
"You are finished?" Buliara interjected in surprise. "If this is as high a priority as you have said, why not continue until sundown?"
"Because," Riju returned with a patient smile, "while you were seeing to the perfection of my practice, I made the mistake of diverting my attention long enough to notice the arrival of one of Captain Teake's scouts."
All eyes turned and eventually found Bertri, whose heart hammered against her tightly haltered chest.
"Bertri!" Buliara immediately barked. "Surely you knew we awaited your return? Why did you not announce yourself! "
"Because whatever she has found is not important enough to interrupt her Chieftain's practice," Riju answered knowingly, her finger tapping her blue-painted lips. "Is that not so, Bertri?"
The Gerudo scout nodded dumbly at her Chieftain's simple logic, to which Buliara clearly had no ready response. Bertri felt some of her confidence return. The Captain of the Guard found success only in hard results. Lady Riju, however, seemed to find value in anyone and anything, a quality that was resonating more with with her people with every passing day.
Bertri remembered well the day Makeela Riju's mother was slain. The people had mourned her loss heavily, only to then watch with apprehension as the youngest ruler in their history ascended to the throne. The most elderly of them had shaken their heads at the thought of a young girl taking on the mantle of Chieftain. Many credited her successes to advisors, her failures to her. There had really only been one of the latter. The loss of the Thunder Helm had rung like a gong of alarm throughout Gerudo Town.
Little by little, however, Lady Riju was winning over her people even in the midst of crisis. Her combination of kindness and command seemed to touch everyone, even the most reluctant. Looking at her now, body drenched with exertion but green eyes sharp with intelligence, Bertri could think of no other more fit to guide the Gerudo through these troubled times.
Resigned to her Chieftain's wisdom, Buliara dispensed her sternness elsewhere.
"Leave us!" she commanded loudly.
The remaining Gerudo warriors silently exited the barracks, until only Chieftain, Captain and scout remained.
"You are right, my Lady Riju," Bertri finally exhaled. "I have no answers from my search. I assume, then, others have bourne similar news?"
Riju shook her head as she took an informal and weary seat atop one of the low stone steps leading up to the practice platform.
"Nothing, but even no news means we have eliminated places to look," the young Gerudo said bracingly. "Tell me where you went and what you did not find."
Riju and Buliara listened sharply to Bertri's report.
"By order of Captain Teake, we separated for our search," she explained. "We would cover more ground with less risk of discovery. I was dispatched to the great cliffs south of the Birida Lookout. It was there that I saw the great tower of bronze bearing the Sheikah eye. When the sun set, it glowed orange. I saw no difference between it and the tower that now stands atop Spectacle Rock."
"I assume you searched this wonder," Riju offered encouragingly.
"Oh yes, Lady Riju," Bertri nodded fervently. "I had never seen its like before, but I found nothing and no one near it."
"Why would we not have heard from others who have seen this tower up close?" Buliara asked suspiciously. "Last I looked, traders were still massing at our gates. Surely they would have brought news?"
"Birida lies well north of the desert road," Riju answered dismissively. "Besides, even had a trader explored this thing, have our people invited their confidences? I would hesitate to say they have."
The young Chieftain was looking appraisingly at Bertri, who looked down and shuffled her feet in ill-concealed shame. It was as though Lady Riju could read her earlier thoughts about the Hylian traders.
"Very well," Buliara clipped with a nod of acceptance. "What more did you find?"
"Sand and rocks," Bertri answered resignedly. "Not one lizalfo disturbed the floors below the cliffs."
"You did not find this odd?" Riju offered.
Bertri looked up in surprise, ready to answer "no." Now that it was called to her attention, she was forced to admit that the complete lack of lizard-like monsters was indeed rare in a land where they festered like a plague.
"Another piece to the puzzle," Riju mused in distracted satisfaction. "But is it the one that currently besets us, or another altogether? Oh, I am sorry, Bertri, was there anything else?"
"Nothing, Lady Riju," she responded with even deeper respect than that with which she had begun. "Only that when we set out, Barta and Leena made for Karusa Valley.."
"We have neither seen nor heard from them," Riju informed her with a frown. "But Karusa lies farther still than the cliffs. Perhaps your return portends their own."
"May the ancestors make it so," Bertri offered with a bow.
"Indeed," Riju replied with a smile before rising to her feet. The Gerudo Chieftain had to use all of her modest height and reach to touch Bertri's shoulder, but she did so with a grace and kindness that more than compensated for her lack of stature. "You have done well, Bertri. Rest well with that knowledge. May Hylia walk the sands with you."
Bertri bowed again, not because protocol called for it, but because she wanted to return the respect her Chieftain so freely offered.
"And with you, Lady Riju," she stammered.
It was not until she had exited the barracks and could no longer feel Riju and Buliara's eyes on her that Bertri began running to the Noble Canteen, eager to share her story to her sisters.
"You know that more of our people pray to our ancestors than to Hylia, do you not?"
Riju knew the question, which was really more of a commentary, would come. I'm getting better at that, she thought happily. Maybe one day people will think I can read their minds. Buliara told me Mother used to make her think that.
"I do," she admitted. "I wonder why that is - and whether we are paying the price for it."
"Surely you do not think the Helm was stolen as punishment-," Buliara incredulously began.
"Oh, of course not," Riju snorted with a dismissive hand, then immediately regretted it. Chieftains should never snort. "Perhaps, in venerating our ancestors and clinging to their ways, we have allowed ourselves to forget She to whom we are initially indebted."
Silence met Riju's philosophical wonderings as she absent-mindedly ran her sun-darkened hand along the wooden hafts of spear rack. The young queen smiled to herself. Silence meant her words were being weighed, that they counted for at least a moment's thought. That moment, however, was brief.
"And what of these towers?" Buliara asked harshly. "It is the Sheikah we must thank for Vah Naboris's existence. Now, days after she has turned against us, ancient structures bearing the Sheikah seal have risen in places where nothing dwells? Whether by our ancestors' hands our Hylia's, I do not believe it a coincidence."
"Nor do I," Riju replied agreeably as she left the spears and came upon a displayed collection of scimitars. Stories of the late Queen Urbosa, fallen Champion of the Gerudo, said she wielded the curved blade with legendary skill. Perhaps, one day, Riju would as well. Spears and claymores were too big for her, after all. For now, anyway. "We shall have to consult the histories on this matter. Unless you know of a Sheikah vai who is willing to provide answers?"
"Books will not tell us who stole the Thunder Helm," Buliara protested. "Send out more search parties. We must-"
"I could have ten times as many under my command and still not cover a fraction of the sands," Riju firmly interrupted as she turned to face her captain. It was hard to be firm with those so much taller than herself, but her mother had not been extraordinarily tall, either. "Luckily, it is extremely unlikely a person with legs to walk and hands to steal lives in the sands themselves. Teake is doing what must be done, which is searching anywhere the thieves would conceivably dwell. More than that, we cannot do."
"I only wish to know who did it," Buliara protested, her green eyes narrowed in restrained anger for their unknown foe. "I could endure a lengthy search if I knew who - or what - we were searching for. If it was a grasswalker, she could be anywhere by now."
"No Hylian could travel that far without seeking a stable's protection along the way," Riju replied confidently. Buliara might know more than she could ever hope to learn about combat, but the young Chieftain was worlds ahead when it came to the world outside their desert home. Her queenship required her to be. "They must pass two just to leave the canyon. Our sisters frequent them enough to risk her discovery. No, I believe our enemy resides here. Somewhere."
Another moment of silent thought, though Riju knew this was focused on the unuttered destination of her spoken logic.
"The Yiga?" Buliara finally asked in hushed tones, to which Riju nodded.
"I have given it much thought," the diminutive queen confessed. "Entering this city and stealing its greatest treasure would require the utmost of stealth, and possibly magic. The signs of the Sheikah have risen. It would only be natural for their opposite to reveal itself as well."
"It could just as easily be the Sheikah, then," the stern-faced captain returned. "They, too, thrive in the shadows. Their machine threatens our city even now, while towers of untold origin and purpose bear their symbol."
"No," Riju said with a shake of her head. "Those who remained true to the Sheikah ways chose to live out their days to the east. I do not believe the doomsayers who would lay the Calamity and its aftermath at their feet. It was Ganon who wielded the Sheikah's tools to our downfall, of that I have no doubt. Mother said so."
A final, acquiescent silence greeted her words, and Riju thought she knew why. She rarely referenced her mother in conversation, mostly to prevent betraying her grief. Now, however, Makeela Riju felt her heart swell with confidence upon recalling her mother's teachings. They were the ultimate seal of her right to lead her people. Perhaps, in their most uncertain time since the Calamity, that seal would hold the Gerudo together through its daughter.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Glimpses of Hyrule's other peoples become more frequent from here on, which is great because I really enjoy writing them. Even in limited cutscenes and game dialogue, the Gerudo's austere pride came across pretty clear. This was a fun chance to delve deeper into that.
Riju's efforts to rule well - and consequently win her people's loyalty - are a fascinating contrast of outward confidence and inner hope. How many of us have to do the same in our own lives, especially at work? The young chieftain faces a far sterner test with Vah Naboris and, now, other forces threatening her people. I hope you enjoy her response to those challenges.
As always, feel free to comment your thoughts/take on this latest chapter. If I was lucky enough to write something you liked, don't hesitate to hit that Follow/Fav button! We're back with Link next time, and what waits for him will shape the days ahead. Hope life is treating you well. - MattWords