Chapter 5: The Family We Choose

Her king -her true king, not the slab of fat she swore allegiance to- rode ahead of his guard muttering nonsense to himself. Since they were children he would wander off to 'think' though the young Nabooru expected half the time he just wished to get away from her. They spent so many days with no one else, and she had done everything she could to pull him away from his scrolls, his ramblings, and his mothers. Sometimes so she could have some fun, but most often because he needed a break.

And now he trusted her to keep the rest of the warriors away while he concentrated on his plots. He never asked her; he did not need to. Let Gan have his brooding silences, she enjoyed telling stories and swapping jokes with the rest of the guard, keeping them in high spirits. Usually easy enough after a victory, though this time some of their sisters seemed troubled. Most rode in silence as deep as their king's. But not all. Makeela, one of the newest of the Gan's honor guard always chatted about something.

"Do you think he'd do it again if I asked?" Makeela asked Bethmasse.

"On what?" Bethe said. "He sent all the moblins away on whatever his plan is. Or are you offering for him to pull your head from your shoulders?"

"Well maybe if we actually found something to hunt on this hunting trip," Makeela grunted. "I just wish I saw it, instead of getting stuck tending to the horses."

"No, you don't," Bethe grunted with a sense of finality to her words. "That black magic of his surrounded him. He didn't even look like our king anymore. He was… something else."

There it was. The root of that uncomfortable sullenness among the guard. They saw it, too.

"Is that so?" Nabooru pulled on the reins of her horse, Mouse, and the rouncey fell back until she rode side by side to the two.

"Did…" Bethe said. "You heard that?" Her jaw set, but there was worry in those eyes. Or perhaps shame.

"That you didn't think Gan looked like our king anymore? Something to that effect."

Bethe grunted. "Not what I meant. I only- it looked wrong, didn't it? You saw him. His eyes. And his voice. Forgive me, I did not mean to imply anything wrong."

Nabooru gave her a quick laugh. "Don't worry, sister. I'm giving you a hard time. I know what you meant. And he'd probably take it as a complement. He wished to cower the Moblins, if his spells scared you, then those creatures were probably near pissing themselves."

"I didn't think of that," Bethmasse gave an embarrassed little grunt. "Good plan."

"Like always." Nabs looked around at the crowd of faces. A few of those listening in looked a little relieved. That was something. "He's been off by himself for long enough. I'm going to go get details from our 'mighty and perfect' king. Any of you lot want me to tell him something?"

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 him, that beast. She had seen it a few times over the years. Most often when his mothers were being particularly loathsome, and then again after Kakariko. But that was ten years back, and none of these soldiers witnessed him then. She thought he had it under his control, but it was still there behind his eyes. Waiting.

"But is it balanced within me?" Ganondorf muttered, as she drew close. "It has to be. Who else could it be?" He stared off at the forest unblinking. She did not know how he did it, the swirling darkness just behind the first layer of leaves gave her shivers.

"Can you talk? Or is the air finally answering your questions?"

"What?" Ganondorf's eyes focused back on the world. Normal eyes. Gerudo eyes. "Did you say something?"

"Nothing. Our sisters want you to know they appreciate what you said about Tressa and Bozz."

"They deserved more."

"True. Look, Gan, 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 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' words coming from your mouth."

Ganondorf sighed and gave a wistful glance to the trees once more before looking back to Nabooru. Still normal, the same golden iris in the boy she'd played with as a child. The one she could trust when all the world was terrible. "You believe me though, Nabs. Don't you? 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 couldn't be true. "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."

He looked down, away from her. His disappointment clear in his frown. "But you'll stay by my side?"

"Until the end. And whatever comes after."

"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. If Shashem had held the left like she was supposed to. If those... things hadn't come from underground."

"My plan, my command, my fault."

"Even the best commander in the world can't predict the impossible. We lost. Together. What's one battle against all that we've won?"

Ganondorf didn't respond. Back in his head again. But at least he wasn't angry. The hidden monster wasn't glaring behind those eyes.

They didn't speak until they reached the treeline and he called for the riders to stop. "Sisters! You will make camp here, the rest I need to go alone."

"You're not- you're going into the woods?" 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. "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.

"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."

"Nabs, you're being ridiculous."

"We gave our oath to protect you," Bethe smiled. "Can't do that if you leave us behind."

"You also gave oaths to obey me."

"True," said Desquesza, "but the protecting one seems more important."

The other warriors voiced their agreement, even Caeiti managed to give a grunt.

Ganondorf sighed then looked to the sky, shaking his head. "Three of you," he eventually said. "I can protect three of you. Decide among yourselves who's coming. But be quick, I hope to return before nightfall."

All their sisters 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 Nabooru trusted Bethmasse to handle herself. And though Saevus was still young, the scout had keen eyes and ears. If the forest fog proved too much for Gan, Saevus might be their only chance to find a way out.

"Dessi, you're in charge until we return," Nabs said.

Desquesza nodded before ordering the rest to break out the camp and feed the horses. Nabooru checked her equipment, her sword she'd need of course, and she would not face anything mystical or magic without her shield. She took it from its pack, glimpsing her reflection in its mirrored surface, before slinging it over her shoulder.

Nabooru led the rest she chose to Ganondorf, who waited at the treeline.

"Don't you think my second should stay behind?" He said. "In case the worst happens."

"Shut up."

"Uncalled for."

"Oh, my sincere apologies. 'Shut up, my king.' I'm going with you."

Gan grinned and pulled her in to a one armed hug. Bethmasse slung a pack of food over her shoulder, and the rest checked their equipment before they entered the Lost Woods.

One step was all it took before the fog surrounded them. By ten paces, Nabooru could see nothing but grey and the rough shape of her companions. When Nabooru looked over her shoulder she saw nothing but darkness, even the trees melded into black. Shadowy poles with entangling limbs reaching toward her. No sign of the camp nor sound of her sisters.

"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 beneath the fog. "We're off to meet a myth."

They must have walked for miles through the dark. Every step haunted by scratching and hissing of creatures just out of sight. Nabooru gripped her sword, using it in part to swipe away at vines and low branches, but mostly just for comfort. Gan claimed to know some hidden path, but she couldn't see it. They just moved through the trees, turning at random points.

Before her, Saevus stopped. "Anyone else see that?" She pointed into the dark.

A twisted skull, far larger than a human's appeared just within the fog. Bethmasse sprang forward thrusting at it with her spear. But the skull skittered away into the dark. To their flank another skull appeared, still half masked in the fog. Its gleaming bone white jaw moved, but not like a real jaw. It split apart and rubbed together, all while the hissing grew loud.

It stepped out of the fog, spindling spider legs propped the skull up. It clicked and hissed as it rubbed its mandibles together.

Nabooru thrust her sword at the skull. Come on. I'll take you.

"What are you doing?" Saevus pushed Nab's sword low. "You're going to scare her."

"Her?" Bethmasse asked.

"Of course," Saevus stepped to the creature and knelt. "We won't hurt you." But the figure melted back into the dark. Saevus leaned forward, holding out her hand.

"Saevus!" Gan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the monster in the fog. The vai's eyes were wide, and her smile wider. Gan spoke slow and steady, as though calming a wounded horse. "I need you to listen to me. There is no one there. The Woods are trying to confuse you. To get any of you to leave the path. You must not."

"But it's just a little-"

"It is your death! Nothing else."

"I don't think your myth wants us here," Bethmasse said, she clung to her spear as though it alone could save her. Nabooru had fought beside the big woman for years, never before had she seen panic in her eyes.

"No, he doesn't," Gan said. "Bethe, take her hand. Make certain she does not leave the path."

"I'll keep her safe," she said and grabbed Saevus under the arm. Pulling her after Ganondorf as he continued through the trees.

"It looked so real," Saevus muttered. "I- I was so certain." She gasped and pointed. "There! There they are again! You have to see them!"

"Saevus," Nabooru hissed. "There's nothing-" but there was.

Moving toward them, out from among the trees a figure approached. Bulira, Nabooru's mother smiled as the mist dispersed around her. She raised her hands wide beckoning Nabooru toward her.

Nabs shook her head. Her mother was hundreds of miles away in the desert. This could not be her. She growled and shut her eyes, when she opened them again the figure stepped out of the fog. Her mother no more, a corpse with flesh dripping from its bones shambled into the light. Another followed it, then another. Their dead eyes staring empty, as insects crawled about them, eating at their decaying skin.

"Ancestors," Bethe muttered.

"You have to see them now! The children!"

"They're not children!" Nabooru rushed toward the closest one and carved at it with her blade. It did not bleed, though her sword bit deep. It did not scream, though it now had a wound tear through its chest. It did not stop.

Dead hands reached out toward her. Grabbing at her shield and arms and pulling at her hair and throat. Nabooru screamed as she swung her blade across her, hacking through every limb that touched her.

Ganondorf roared. His sword flashed into his hand, and he swung it in wide arcs. With each strike dark magics leapt from his blade and turned the dead things to char. Nabs leaped to his side. He struck strong, while she danced between his blows carving up whatever he missed.

"Saevus!" Bethmasse shouted. "Stay back."

Nabooru spun around. The big warrior held tight onto the scout, all while thrusting about them against the dead. But no matter how skilled Bethe was, there were too many to defend herself and her charge.

"Behind you!" Nabooru screamed as one of the dead took hold of Bethe's shoulder. Nabs tried to cut her sister free, but pain shot through her leg and she couldn't move. One of the creatures, cut near in half, dragging itself across the ground bit into her ankle. She kicked herself free, but not fast enough.

Three of the forest ghouls pulled Bethmasse down. The big warrior fell, her head slamming against a root and bouncing.

"Get away from her!" Nabooru lunged at the nearest of the monsters tearing into Bethe. Her sword struck first, piercing it through. Her shield struck next, forcing the dead thing away, collapsing into another of its kind. Nabooru swiped at the third, before she grabbed Bethmasse's foot and pulled. Prying her from the dead things grip.

"Reesu, is that you?" Saevus laughed. "I haven't seen you since you died."

"Saevus! Help!" But the vai would not listen, and Nabs was not strong enough to pull Bethe free from the monsters. Her fingers slipped from the warrior and she fell back. "Gan!"

Dark armor passed by her, sword swinging and witch-fire burning. With fist and blade and magic, Ganondorf drove the dead around them away. Nabooru got back to her feet and stood atop Bethe her sword held out at point, screaming her challenge to all the remaining corpses.

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," the scout's voice came from the fog. "I always looked up to you."

"Saevus!" Nabooru ran toward her.

Arms in black armor wrapped around her. She tried to pry herself free, her breath burning in her lungs.

"No," Gan said. "She's gone."

"I can still hear here. It's not too late."

"Yes, it is." He let her go.

"Saevus!" Nabs called. "Saevus! Come back! Listen to my voice!"

"I missed you too," Saevus said, her voice echoing through the trees. "I missed you all so, so much." And then silence.

No matter where she looked, Nabooru couldn't see any sign of her lost sister. Beside her, Ganondorf knelt beside Bethmasse and checked her breath and the wound on the back of her head.

"What do we do now?"

Ganondorf grabbed Bethmasse's arm and pulled her up, slinging her over his shoulders. "We continue."

Nabooru remained as close as she could to her king as they traveled through the forest. Lights shone from the fog, little flickering things just out of reach. They called to her, each one. They wanted her to follow them, to reach out and play in the darkness. To stay.

She hissed through clenched teeth and closed her eyes. They were not real. No more than the children that turned Saevus mad. She would not let them take her. She would get out. She would see her mother again, she would see the Gerudo flourish. She would 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. 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?"

"No." Ganondorf put Bethmasse down before he stepped to the three. "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 rumble in her chest. "Treat with me, son of the desert? Thou hast come to bring death and suffering unto my home."

A talking tree, its limbs creaking as they moved in the wind. But… no. There was no wind. It just moved on its own. Slow, unstoppable, and ancient. This was the thing Gan needed to speak to?

"I sensed thee drawing near. Long have I watched thy shadow loom over the land. But now thou hast arrived, I feel thy corruption hast not yet consumed thee. Abandon thy quest, sone of the desert. Leave in peace, save thy soul."

"I am trying to create peace!" Ganondorf said. "For my people, for the entire realm. Our goals are aligned. You should be aiding me."

"Aligned? No. Thou speaketh with the fire of youth. Thou canst not bring peace through violence."

A low whisper came from Nabooru's side. She turned 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 back into the forest, 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. Mad. Talking to a tree. He'd thank her, once Saevus was safe.

"Saevus?" Nabooru stepped between the thick trees trying to find the sound. The scout couldn't be far, they entered the forest together after all. She had been right with them, and it wasn't like Saevus to get lost.

But the sobbing didn't come from Saevus. The flickering light was a blade. 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.

The woman did not respond, she only cried. Her breath a gasping uneven sob. Strange. Nabooru could hear her crying, but her face showed no sorrow. Her eyes stood wide, open, staring out at nothing.

"Are you hurt?" Nabooru waved over the woman's unblinking eyes, knelt down and took her cold still hand. "Did you get lost? We can help you, if you are."

Still the woman cried, though her gaze wandered higher until their eyes met Nabooru's own.

"Do I know you?"

Words came through the tears, so soft Nabooru couldn't make them out.

"What are you trying to tell me?"

The glazed over eyes didn't change, but the hand slipped from Nabooru's grasp. It tucked down along her ribs, as if holding something.

"I don't-"

Red blood welled out from under the woman's arm. So much blood.

Nabooru pulled the arm away and tore at her shirt to form some binding for the wound, only to find an arrow piercing the woman's side. Her arrow.

Nabooru scrambled back away from the woman. Her arrow. Hers. She knew this woman, the Hylian dress, her arm cradling… the babe. The mother's eyes went wide, staring at her. Tears streamed down her face as blood spread up her body.

"You're her," Nabooru's heart pounded louder than a war drum. "It wasn't my fault. I didn't know. I couldn't see the child. I though you a coward, deserting your people. I didn't know."

But those eyes did not care for her reasons. The mother's mouth opened and blood spilled out, mixing with the tears until her face dripped red and the pool spread far out along the ground until everything was red.

"I didn't mean to do it!"

The woman grabbed at the empty air around her and rocked the nothing in her arms.

"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. Of children that never knew life before it was stolen from them.

Nabooru tried to look around, hoping that there was something she could do to help her. But the fog returned. How had she not noticed? They were surrounded. The world was nothing but darkness except for the mother's sunken eyes and the spewing red. "I can't find your baby." I can't find anything. "I'm trying to help you!"

Her words sounded hollow even to her. 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. 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 hung 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. She could still hear the stomping of his feet and cursing, the moans of the dead and the cackling of spiders. Power rolled off Ganondorf in waves, followed by howls of monsters battered aside by his power. At times he'd shout orders to jump or turn, but never to stop. They ran until her lungs burned and her legs ached. Racing, stumbling, hunted for hours in darkness except for glimpses she caught between his fingers.

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.

"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 from where your weakness stemmed, 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 gleamed bright red and deep blue as their magic spilled around them.

"Shall this be the day, dear sister? To fix a terrible mistake."

"Try it!" Nabooru snarled, though her arms ached and her breath had not yet returned, she swung her shield into her hands. Fire and ice rushed towards her.

"No," darkness surrounded Nabooru and snuffed out the flame and melted the ice. It spread out enveloping both the witches. "No," Gan said again through the black cloud that crackled with energy. "I demand-" He stepped out of the dark void, his shoulders hunched, his 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 her childhood friend was gone, and all she saw was the beast. 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 dragged her away from him. It took a moment before Nabooru recognized Makeela had her. "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 laughed. "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 king 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 feet and up her calves. Where it touched her, her skin welted burning so incredibly cold. She dared not look down. Like walking over blistering sands, she had to keep moving. If she stopped the witch-fire would consume her like it did everything else. With each step the fires crackled around her, the air hissed, and Ganondorf roared and thrashed about. His arm flailed and sent another ripple of flame, but not at her. Even in his pain he tried to shape his magic away from her. Making the path as clear as he could.

"You have this," she said only a few paces away. "You're the strongest person I've ever known. You're telling me you can't handle this?" She reached toward him, but he turned his face away. Hiding his transformation.

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. "We'll think of a new plan. We don't need them."

Ganondorf turned to look at her, his teeth returned to 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 their lives.

"You will help me?" He said, as he relaxed his hand.

"No," Nabooru whispered.

"Of course, we will," Koume flicked her fingers and an insect appeared in her hand, like a spider but with a single bulbous red eye.

"What kind of mothers would we be if we didn't?"