Chapter 11
Escape

"Enjoying yourself?" Asked a Hyrule guard as he walked by Nabooru's cell.
She didn't let their snide remarks bother her.
The same happens in the prisons back home, after all.
Their comments and stares were easy enough to ignore. But her peace was soon cut short by something loud approaching.
Something, in contrast to the peace she'd been enjoying now that the guards were gone, was actually a little frightening.
While guards walking one by one or two by two would have a marching rhythm to their step, what now approached the row of cells sounded more like a wild animal.
From around the corner, Nabooru was bewildered to see a boy being forcibly dragged by two guards into a cell. His grunts and cries were muffled by a cloth gag and his struggles were subdued by the rope tied around his wrists.
Despite the effort to keep him steady, he was struggling like a beast to break free.
Even after being pushed into the cell, he banged and kicked the bars with his arms unable to do anything behind his back.

Nabooru sat up to watch him struggle.
He was thrashing about on his feet as he banged against the bars. His face was bright red as he yelled and cried into his gag.
Nabooru had seen men in cells before. But never a boy. Yet this was the most ferocious prisoner she'd ever seen.
'What in the world is he?' She wondered, watching the boy eventually tucker himself out before he finally fell down crying to himself helplessly as he curled up on the floor.
Nabooru looked back at the hall. The guards had gone already, leaving her alone with the crying child.
Nabooru had no real experience with children. Honestly, she wasn't particularly fond of them.
"Come here, little Voe," She pulled a face, reminding herself to break a habit around Hylians. "Little boy. I'll untie you."

The boy looked at her with tear-soaked eyes. He didn't move at first, but soon started to shift his way over to the bars of her cell.
Nabooru lifted him to sit up properly while she untied him.
She felt such pity for him. All his struggling had given his wrists small cuts and bright red rope burns.

The instant the binds were loose enough, he pulled his hands free and crawled back to the cell door, rattling the bars with everything he had.
"I know that probably hurt, but you need to calm down or they're just going to tie you up again." Nabooru warned him as she pulled the bindings into her own cell, thinking the rope might come in handy later.
She was curious though. She herself came in with weapons and was clearly in attacking distance of the princess. But the guards didn't restrain her with anything.
So what did this boy do to merit such a response?
"I'm Nabooru, What's your name?"

"Link…" The boy muttered, looking at the floor while his head rested on the bars. "I think they…" He sniffed as a tear trickled from his nose. "I think they killed my friend…"

Nabooru watched him with horror as he fell to the floor in tears.
She was aware that the death penalty was used in Hyrule, but surely not against petty thieves like him. It was hard to imagine a kid like him doing anything more severe. He didn't look the assassin type. But maybe his friend put up a fight that got them killed on the spot.
'Are they going to kill me too?' She wondered to herself, thinking that maybe coming so quietly was a mistake after all.
"Listen, Link. I might be able to get us out of here, if you cooperate," She waited for his answer.
But he said nothing.
Nabooru quickly gave up trying to get the boy's attention. She had his bindings anyway.
The next guard that stops to stare at her will lose his keys.
Should be easy enough. Nabooru had watched flirting happen with mixed results. If she could lure one guard close to the bars, it should be a simple case of strangling him with the rope until he passes out.
'Except all the keys are on the wall,' She sighed, letting the rope fall to the floor at her feet.
All her plan would accomplish is killing a guard.
If they hadn't taken her lockpicking tools, she might have gotten out before Link had even arrived.

"Finally learned to be quiet, did you?"
Link and Nabooru looked towards the hall where a single guard appeared.
"You should have known better than to try and break in, lil sneak thief," He smirked at the boy's sadness, not truly understanding the loss he was feeling. 'A little fear will do him good,' the guard thought, believing the experience of being in jail will scare him into never attempting it again.
Eyes turned to the foreign woman, the guard approached the bars.
"Sav'aaq." He said looking into her eyes, seeing the confusion in her. "I spent a week in one of your cells…" He glared at her through the bars. "A week in a prison cell, just for trying to meet my daughter."

Nabooru softened her stance. She did not know this about one of her wardens.
The all-female city she comes from would stop any man who dared try to enter.
Those that attempt to sneak in would find themselves locked in a cell.
Although the cells were meant for punishment, cruelty was not a standard pastime of the guards.
Yes, the cells could sometimes get very hot under the blazing sun, but they were ventilated enough to not cook the prisoners and they'd never be denied water.
Nabooru's first look at a real man was through prison bars when she was five years old. It was seen by the mothers as an opportunity for young ones to see the rougher sex first-hand, and Nabooru would later grow up to be guarding prisoners herself.

Despite this coincidence, she did not recognise him.
"How old would she be?"

"Now?" He scoffed, staring at the floor. "Twelve, eleven maybe?"
Nabooru let out a somewhat disappointed sigh. Had she been able to convince him that he was in fact her father, maybe he'd have let her out.

"Well that narrows it down to about thirty children…" She crossed her arms. "Her mother's name?"

"Vokaka."
Nabooru turned her eyes from him. Finding his partner would be impossible.
"I heard it's a common name…"

"I'm afraid so…" Nabooru crossed her arms as she tried to bluff the truth. Vokaka is one of the most common names for women, despite no one actually being named it.
It's how Gerudo introduce themselves if they don't want to be found later. In hindsight, Nabooru wished she'd done the same when introducing herself to Zelda.

"Darn it…" His hand tightened on the cell bars for just a moment before his grip loosened. "You'll be free to go once your chief comes to get you…" He said with his eyes to the ground as he walked away.

Nabooru watched him go with a newfound fear. The guard was vague about the timescale.
Is Zaeim coming Now or is she going to be locked up until his scheduled arrival?
Either way, it's immediate bad news for everyone if it's the former and elongated bad news if the latter.

Using the rope she got from the boy, Nabooru tried to whip the key from its hook on the opposing wall.
The chances of this working were very slim. If it were possible, someone would have succeeded years ago and the system would have changed.
There was just no leverage at all. Even with her arms through the bars, the rope just brushed the key without bothering the hook.

Twenty minutes pass.
Nabooru had given up and Link hadn't moved from where he sat on the floor. He didn't even entertain the mat.
Link couldn't stop picturing Navi being hit against the wall. Watching her drop to the ground like that. It tore his heart out.
The other half that every Kokiri waits for, his fairy, was killed on the second day of being together.
It felt like a sick joke.
After all, he did as he was asked.
He found Hyrule royalty, he delivered the message, and then Navi is killed.
He imagined having to tell Rose about her sister. Saria knew Navi too. Navi had friends of her own. Link remembered her mention of one named Sekk.
Navi had more friends back home than he did, but now he faces a lonely walk home to tell them all how he failed to keep her safe.

"You never did tell me why you're here…" Nabooru muttered as she rested against the back wall.
Having given up on her plan, she wanted something to occupy her mind.

Link curled up more. Although he was able to hear and speak, he didn't want to.
"climbed over the wall… spoke to, Zelda…" He spoke in a small voice, going over every part in his head. "had to warn her about Ganondorf…"

Nabooru rose her head at that word. The legends of the plight Ganondorf don't reach the desert. But the name was significant all the same.
"What do you know about him?"

Link said nothing. He was tired of being asked that question. Tired of everyone demanding answers he didn't have.
"I don't care anymore…"
Closing his eyes. He pictured everyone back home.
He went out because the Deku tree promised failure would cost everyone their lives.
He pictured Maron and her family. The people at the market. Even the guards who arrested him.
The Deku tree promised their worlds would end too.
He pictured Navi sitting with him that night.
"He was just trying to get rid of a few pests…" Link's fists tightened as he lay on the floor.

Nabooru raised her voice to him, dipping mostly into her native tongue before she regained composure. "I'm sorry about your friend, but you need to tell me what you know of Ganondorf!"

Link lifted his eyes to see her staring through the bars.
"He's, evil… going to end the world… I already warned the princess so, it's over…" He shut his eyes again, feeling the same apathy most people suffer when they find themselves in a cell.
With his head resting on the floor, he felt the coldness below and ignored the light streaming in through the window above the floor mat he was meant to sleep on.
He tried to turn back time in his head. Return to when he was sleeping that morning, the first time Navi woke him.

The fluttering of wings went past his ear as a set of tiny feet landed on his face.
"Link, tell me you're just asleep… They didn't hurt you did they?"

Link's eyes shot open to see a small blue face peering into his left eye.
"N, Navi?" His hand moved to get her, but he stopped himself just in time. "Y-you're alive?"

Navi started at him with grief.
"You, thought I died?" She shut her eyes as she apologised. "They hit me hard, my wings were too sore to fly for a while… but I'm okay now. I'm so sorry I scared you"

Link looked past her head. Her wings used to beat so fast he couldn't see them. Now, there was a slight irregularity causing one of them to be a little slower and shifting her off balance just a little.
Now that he'd noticed, even her face looked like it was hiding pain.
"I won't let anyone hurt you again…" He promised, putting his hands out to her.
Navi had never done this sappy caring stuff before, but she sat in his hands and allowed herself to be held close.
After everything they'd been through, they owed it to themselves to feel comforted.

"What in the world are you doing, Voe?"

Link sucked a breath in when Nabooru's voice startled him. He'd forgotten she was there.
"Th-this is my friend, Navi." He introduced, proudly holding his friend up. "She's not dead!"

Nabooru stared at the fairy. She was very unimpressed but tried to act optimistic.
"Oh, that's nice…" Rolling her eyes, Nabooru wondered how much of Link's insight to Ganondorf should be trusted.
After all, no one outside of her tribe should even know of him, let alone have any idea of what his long term plans are.

Chief Zaeim the 12th was known as such a nice person and a brave protector. Strong jawed, dark-toned, full shoulder-length hair of just a slightly lighter shade of red than the Vai he lived with.
Those who knew him personally would talk very fondly of him, and even as a young man he had many admirers swooning over his every move, not that Nabooru would ever admit feeling that way herself.
Then one day there was a change.
He left the town and disappeared into the desert without any escorts or bodyguards.
Months passed, then one night alarm bells were ringing to alert all the guards.
A small army was approaching, spotting by their torches and warned by their war horns, and the glints in their golden eyes.
As Gerudo warriors prepared for a counter offence, they were met halfway by a man speaking in their tongue.
Chief Zaeim had returned. The shock of seeing him again was matched only by the horror of the army at his heel. They were all creatures of nightmares, yet they followed his orders like well-trained dogs.
He did not welcome the army into his city, but camps were to be made at strategic points around the desert near the borders of Hyrule.
Once settled back at home, the harem eagerly waiting for their chief to return was disbanded. His ambitions were too great for such simple pleasures and his every waking hour was spent training, learning dark magic, and planning the following years.
Soon after he proclaimed his desire to take Hyrule, he decreed that once the throne is his, he shall no longer rule under the birth name of Chief Zaeim, but will go by who he truly is; King Dragmire Ganondorf.

"Link, now that you have your fairy. Will you tell me how you know about King Ganondorf?" Nabooru asked, holding the bars between their cells.

"He's the king?" Link looked to Navi, but she was just as confused as he was.
"Zelda's father is…" Navi shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense…"

Seeing the boy's confusion, Nabooru cleared up the misunderstanding.
After all, the point of no return had been reached when she left her city to come and warn the Hyrule king herself.
"All the Moblins stopping travel, the Lizalfos attacking fishermen, the Bokoblin raids, even Lynel obey him now."

"I fought a Bokoblin!" Link said with a proud smile. "Kicked him in the stones!"

"Please, I don't ever want to think of those things having sex…" Nabooru shuddered, vowing to hit her head on a tree later. "You, Ganondorf, Talk, Now!"
Nabooru sat and listened to everything Link knew on the matter. Which turned out to not be a lot.
"You broke into Hyrule castle, knowing practically nothing at all, because a Tree told you to?"

"Yeah…" Link could see Navi shaking her head at him. "Actually, the tree part was supposed to be a secret."

"Well I don't really believe that part anyway so, you can pretend you never told me." Nabooru sat against the back wall. This new information didn't do anything to help her understand what she had to do or help her escape the cell.
So there was nothing to do but wait until Impa comes back, whenever that is.

"Link, there's a key on that back wall!" Navi suddenly recalled where they were kept. "I'll get you out of here, don't worry."

Nabooru kept an eye on the boy's fairy as it flew from his hands and left the cell.
As Nabooru tracked the small creature's movements, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Impossible…" She gasped as the fairy tried to lift a key from the hook.

"Almost!" Navi couldn't fly with the iron key, it was far too heavy. But using her wings to keep balance on the hook, Navi was able to lift with her knees and drop the key on the floor.

Nabooru dashed towards her bars.
"Fairy…!" She looked pleadingly at the blue fairy. "Please, that one too."

Navi looked the woman up and down.
She was dragged in for a crime, but Navi didn't know what it was.
"Should I, Link?"

Link turned to the woman. She had mentioned she'd try to get him out too, and she did untie his hands which was very nice of her.
"Yeah, her too."

Nabooru turned her focus to Link at the sound of his voice, but there were bigger problems.
Navi was struggling to drag either of the keys to the cells.
"They're too heavy…" She wheezed, rolling her shoulders back.

"Do we have string…?" Link wondered out loud, openly planning to give Navi an end so he could pull the key back himself.

"Rope!" Nabooru threw the rope towards the key. But the rope was too thick for Navi to handle.

"Take off your shirt, boy." Nabooru demanded.

"Why?"

"I'm going to use it to pull the key over, hurry!" She urged.

"Oh, okay." Link unbuckled his belt while Nabooru was staring hungrily at the key. Freedom was so close she could almost taste it. "Here you go."

"Thank you, Oh my g- Why are you Naked?" Nabooru averted her eyes from the naked child. She didn't realise his shirt and 'skirt' were one and the same, and aside from his boots and belt, it was all he wore.
"Voe…" She grumbled as she threw the tunic out by the collar and just managed to drag the key closer.

"You're doing it." Link yelled, excitedly watching her work.

"Step away from the bars, please." Nabooru asked, keeping her eyes on the prize.

Suddenly, the key slipped out from under the tunic and wouldn't budge.
It was stuck on a loose tile. Even Navi couldn't get it over.
"Come on…" Nabooru sighed into her hands.

"What string?" Link asked randomly. "where?"

Nabooru turned her head to see him talking with his fairy. He was looking right at her.
"What?" She asked.

"you have string on your back." Link pointed at the silk laces of her top.

"My back?" Nabooru felt her long ponytail. "hair might work…" She plucked a few long strands and offered them to Navi on the other side.
As Navi tied the hair onto the key, Nabooru was just about to pull when she felt a hand on her head.

"What are you doing?"

"Your hair feels nice…" Link said with a smile.

Nabooru slapped his hand aside.
"You're a weird kid…" Pulling on her hair, the key flew into her cell. "But you're darn handy!" She said with a grin as she unlocked her cell and stepped out. "freedom…"
She looked back at the naked boy in his cell.
"Here you go, Voe." She tossed him back his tunic then held a single finger to her lips as she walked away down the hall.

"Hey!" Link yelled, pulling on his own bars. "You forgot me!"

Navi watched with her face turning purple in rage as the woman abandoned him in his cell.
Despite this, she urged Link to stay quiet. After all, if he makes too much noise, the guards will detect Navi getting the key too.
The perfect cover for the woman's escape.
"Get dressed, Link…" She told him. "I'll get you your key!" She promised before divebombing to the floor and grabbing the metal log of a key she had to heave nearly forty times her own hight in distance.
It was a hard struggle. She even had to reuse the hair from Nabooru's key.

"I can't believe she left us…" Link sighed once he stepped from his cell.

"Link, some people out there are just nasty," Navi told him as they moved down the hall together.
Turning the first corner, they bumped into Nabooru, resting against the wall with a smug look on her face.

"Five whole minutes to get out…" She told him with a smile and a pat on the head.

"What do you want?" Link growled.

"I owe you my life, so now I'm saving yours," Nabooru said before leading the way down the hall.
Link followed cautiously at a distance.
As Nabooru led him, she gave life advice from her mother.
"Before you stop to pull someone else from quicksand, you should find yourself sturdy ground first!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means you should have gotten your own key before mine."
Nabooru was getting suspicious of the absence of guards.
'They must be securing the castle instead of keeping an eye on the prisoners… All two of us.' She thought as she made her way to the room where the promiser's belongings were.
Her sword and knife were absent as they were already taken to another room in the castle before her arrest.
Link was able to find his bag though, which he was happy about.
Nabooru tried to peek outside, but Link called her back so Navi could go first.
Once it was declared secure, the trio escaped the prison block.

Nabooru wanted to leave through the sewer tunnels as she'd gotten in. But Link spoke on Navi's request that Impa was going into those tunnels last she saw. So there was a good chance they'll be guarded now or at least covered up.
Link led Nabooru to the boxes where he tried to climb before. With Nabooru there, the climb was made easy.

"Security is atrocious." Nabooru sighed as she mounted the wall behind Link. "So now what?"
She watched with awe as Link leapt from the wall and swung through the branches to the trunk.
"Impressive." She smirked before finding her own way down by navigating further along to a rooftop about twenty feet below then climbing down several ledges to the street before meeting Link at the bottom.

"Well, Link. It's been a pleasure. I leave you with a few more pieces of advice. Don't return here, the guards will hang you." Nabooru didn't know that for sure, but it would be better to caution him of the worst-case scenario. "Two, don't touch a lady's hair without her permission again, you adorable little freak~" She said with a soft smile as she flicked her ponytail to the side. "And in the name of the mother, get some undergarments. I mean back in that cell, don't need to see that! No one needs to see that! I'll have nightmares!"

"What's undergarments?" Link asked, to which Navi just shrugged.

"Ask your mother," Nabooru said with a dismissive wave.

"I don't have a mother. Only Navi." Link stated, smiling up to his fairy.

"I'm not your mum either," Navi laughed. "I'd say we're, partners."

Nabooru looked at the boy and fairy. The way he off handily admitted to not having parents, it worried her.
"Do you not have a place to go?"

"I live in the woods. In a tree. All Kokiri do." Link's optimism didn't fade, for his task was finished and now he could return home as a true Kokiri. No more bullying, no more hating on him.
With his partner Navi, nothing was going to get him down again.

Nabooru gave a weak smile to him as well as a last pat on the head.
"I wish nothing but the best for you, Link. I hope for all our sake, that Princess Zelda listened to at least one of us." With that, Nabooru turned and fled into the city. A much longer walk home was ahead of her than what Link had to face, but she knew her road would lead to potential charges of treason against her people.

Link and Navi's path back to the city centre meant they were following Nabooru for a short while, but once the crowd descend, they lost sight of the foreign woman forever.

The crowd got too much very soon. Link was being bounced and thrown back and forth by busy people like crazy while Navi hovered above watching, unable to help him at all.
Luckily, under the brightly coloured stalls, stood a girl holding a crate of bottles. Her flowing red hair made her easy to spot from the air.

Although she was supposed to be working, Maron kept getting stuck in a daydream, worrying about what might be happening to Link.
When a small blue fairy appeared before her, Maron nearly dropped the bottles.
"You're back?! Wh-where's Link?" Her hair whipped back and forth as she looked for him as she placed the bottles on the ground.

"He got trapped by people, can you help him?"

Maron's face turned white. "Did he get arrested?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Navi asked.

Maron nearly broke into tears there and then. She wished so badly that she'd tried harder to stop him, but now there's no choice.
Putting the crate down, she prepared herself mentally to approach Zelda and confess that she'd broken her promise not to tell anyone about their friendship, then beg not only for her forgiveness but to also free Link.

"Let's go." She announced, before running into the crowd trying to navigate her way to Hyrule castle.
As with the boy in green, the little redhead was being bounced and pushed as well.
"excuse me, sorry, pardon me… ouch, sorry! excuse me…" Someone grabbed her arm. "Waaah!" She yelped, throwing her tiny fists at whoever it was. "Letmego! Letmego! Letmego!" Opening one eye, Maron saw Link's dizzy and slightly bruised face yet somehow managed to stay clinging to her arm. "Link!?"

Link had been hit harder in the past, but the sudden whiplash of being overjoyed and reassured to see his new friend after what was already a perilous and frightening experience in the river of bodies, only to be thumped in the face and chest several times made it feel worse than it was. Maron apologised over and over to him, then apologised again to Navi once she got him back to the stall.
Link sat holding his throbbing head while the girl and fairy argued.

"I asked you to help him, not punch him!"
"How was I to know he was in the crowd? You said he was trapped, and that he got arrested!"
"Yes! But not in that order, he got arrested, Then he got trapped by people!"
"That's what getting arrested means!"

"Hey, Maron…" Link murmured, wishing the yelling would stop. "Can I get my sword back?"

Maron's face turned bright red. Another sorry to add to the list.
"I uh… kinda… lost it…"