The Legend of Zelda:

The next few weeks at the Gerudo Fortress was unlike anything Kat had ever witnessed. The Gerudos were always mouthing off about the Neroth tribe and how much they hated them, but now it appeared as though the Gerudos actually enjoyed having them around and were getting along with them as if they had been a part of each other’s tribe for a long time.

As usual, Kat sharply disagreed with Nabooru’s decision. Although it was nice having some men around to help out, Kat had a feeling that sooner or later something bad would happen, and this would all turn around and slap Nabooru across the face. It had seemed too easy to get the Neroths to join them; were they really just stupid? Could they not resist living alongside a tribe of women? Probably not, Kat decided.

The Neroths were reunited with their leader, Dace. At first he seemed hesitant about Ruat having made the decision to accept Nabooru’s offer, but after about a week or so, he started to become comfortable and was satisfied with his decision.

The Neroth tribe was surely proving itself as it was clear that they wanted to stay. They had made several trips over the weeks back out to their old base to gather up and deliver weapons, armour, supplies, food, and other crucial equipment to strengthen their new tribe even more.

Kat knew that Nabooru was going to be making some drastic changes over the next little while. She had been on patrol one afternoon at the gate to the desert, making sure everybody was in line as new equipment arrived, when she looked out to the desert and had seen a familiar group of dark beings heading towards the fortress. As they came closer, she saw that they had a huge wave of sabers on the move in one large pack.

“Aha! The sabers have finally arrived!”

Kat looked over her shoulder, seeing Dace standing behind her and looking out to the desert. His eyes shifted to Kat, a wide grin set across his face. “You’re going to love them. Although they’re smaller then horses, they’re easier to mount and are a hundred times more ferocious. They can run twice as fast, too. The only problem is we have trained them to go after and kill any horse they see in sight, because the Gerudos always ride them and they can easily be taken down if their mounts are killed first, leaving them to be very vulnerable.”

“So that means that they will kill all of our steeds when they arrive through the gate?” Kat crossed her arms. Who did this guy think he was? He was obviously trying to make himself seem more superior then her, their battle still most likely on his mind.

“Well, yes, but you won’t be needing them after you’ve seen what a saber can do.”

Kat glanced around at the fortress grounds. Sure enough, there were many horses in clear view, being ridden around the grounds. Kat turned back and glared at him. “So, what, do you think I’m just going to let all of these things come on in here and tear our horses to pieces?”

Dace looked past her. “It’s a little late for contemplating, don’t you think?”

Kat whirled around, seeing the sabers only a few feet away now. “Shit!! STOP!!!” Kat waved her arms in the air pathetically, but she soon knew it was too late. The sabers thundered past her, through the gate and into the grounds of the fortress. This wouldn’t be good.

The sabers tore across the sand at an amazing rate, their orange orbs immediately identifying the Gerudo’s steeds as prey. Their speed caught the Gerudos off guard, as they did nothing but watch them lunge at their horses like flies on a fresh pile of dung. The Gerudos atop the horses launched themselves into the air and away from the attacking beasts, blood and guts flying everywhere as the creatures ripped into the horses.

It was truly a disgusting sight. It became blatantly obvious to the Gerudos just what sabers where capable of, as they stood back and watched them feast violently.

Kat watched them in horror, while Dace stood there laughing, enjoying every moment of it. Kat of course did not take this very lightly. She stomped towards Dace and grabbed him ferociously by his collar. She glared at him, her nose almost touching his.

“Call off those monsters before I wring your neck!” she spat.

Dace’s eyes widened, but he really wasn’t afraid of her. “Okay, okay!” he gave in, not wanting any more trouble from her, and not wanting to push his luck with his newfound group. Kat let him go and he turned to the grounds of the fortress. He placed two fingers between his lips and whistled sharply.

The Gerudos watched as one by one the sabers stopped what they were doing and turned towards their leader, awkward looks scrawled across their stubborn faces as blood dripped grotesquely from their sharp fangs and gaping jaws.

As if on cue, Nabooru appeared atop of the fortress, hands on her hips and a familiar grin crossed her lips. “Nice job, Dace. Perhaps we underestimated you,” she shouted to him as the rest of the Gerudos and Neroths watched uneasily.

Nabooru leapt from the top of the fortress gracefully and landed on two feet on the ground.

Kat rolled her eyes, smelling one of her dramatic speeches coming on.

“It is clear that these beasts you have brought to us are magnificent creatures. It was right of you to call them off; there are not enough for all of us and therefore our horses will still be necessary.” She glanced around at the fresh mess of dead horses as she made her way towards Dace.

She approached him, not even so much as glancing at Kat. “You’ve trained them to attack horses, correct?” she said, still speaking fairly loudly so she could be heard, which of course, she loved to be.

Dace nodded without hesitation. “Yes, but it is possible to train them not to, even when I am not around to conduct them,” he said, knowing that’s what she would be wondering.

Nabooru smirked. “Excellent. Get on it immediately.” Dismissing him immediately from her thoughts, she turned back to the rest of the group.

“Get these corpses out of here as soon as possible,” she ordered to them all as she began heading back towards the fortress. “I don’t want to see a drop of blood on my sands by sunset. We’ve had our men build us a special stable at the upper end of the fortress near the archery range for the sabers. You’ll need to put two sabers in each stall for now since our second half to the stables are not yet completed.”

And she disappeared into one of the fortress‘s lower doors.

The fortress was back to normal almost instantaneously. The sabers were gathered immediately into a rough group at the middle of the grounds and were taken up the hill to their stable.

“Wow,” Kat said to Dace’s back. “Not very many people manage to get on Nabooru’s good side.”

He spun around on the ball of his foot and faced her. “Really? Well, that’s good then isn’t it?”

Kat grinned. “Yeah, considering how she’s only nice to people whose pants she wants to get into.”

He glared at her annoyingly. “Ha ha ha, very funny, considering how your tribe was full of females before we arrived.”

“That’s exactly my point,” Kat countered, never letting anyone laugh at her and get away with it. “I’ve never seen her in a better mood.”

Kat looked past Dace and saw the familiar shape of Rin barrelling towards them at a pretty fast rate for a Hylian. “Oh please, no,” she said without thinking.

Dace looked over his shoulder and saw the little blonde Hylian running right for them. “Huh?!”

He drew his sword that was at his hilt and pointed it in Rin’s direction as she neared.

“Wait,” Kat said grabbing Dace’s hand and lowering his weapon. “She’s with us.” She almost winced as she heard herself say it.

“What?! She’s a Hylian!” he blurted glaring at Kat in disbelief.

“I know…”

“Kat! Kat!!” Rin ran into Kat and threw her arms around her, smothering her torso completely with unnecessary care.

“I was so worried!! I thought one of those monsters had gotten to you!” she squealed, her grip tightening around Kat.

Kat scowled and pushed at her shoulders to get her off. “Rin for fuck sake, stop it.”

Rin let go and frowned, obviously hurt that Kat did not return her affection to her. You think she would have learned by now?

Dace looked down at Rin. “Why in the hell do you have a Hylian with you?” He slipped his sword back into its scabbard at his side, although his hand still rested on the hilt.

Kat bit her lip. She really didn’t want to explain it.

“We found her outside of the fortress a few months ago. Says she was attacked and doesn’t remember anything. Nabooru was dumb enough to spare her life and put me in charge of her.” She decided she would skip the part about almost having been beaten by the little brat.

Dace didn’t look convinced. “I…see?”

Kat looked at Rin, who now had her arms crossed childishly as she listened. “Yeah… I don’t get it either.”

“Kat, I wasn’t lying! I swear on my soul that that is the truth!” Rin turned to Dace, her eyes now filling with convincing tears. “You believe me, don’t you?”

Dace’s brow twitched as he looked down at her, into her moist sapphire eyes. Not trusting Hylians being in his blood, he tried to look for a sign that she was lying. Her story did not seem to be very realistic at all, but she didn’t crack. Something in her eyes told him that she was telling the truth.

“I…”

Kat extended her neck, curious about his answer. “Don’t let her fool you, Dace.” There was no way he could believe her. “She claims she doesn’t remember anything, but yet she knows how to stop an out of control horse and could shoot an arrow perfectly on her first day here.” She frowned at him sternly. “Don’t believe a word she says. She’s a Hylian.”

And she was a Hylian, and that did seem very strange. Maybe she just had some background training that kept with her?

Boy this girl was beautiful, even for a Hylian.

“Dace!”

Still he looked into her eyes that had not shifted at all. She wasn’t lying.
“She’s telling the truth, Kat. I can tell.” He finally brought his gaze up to Kat. “She’s not lying.”

Kat’s jaw dropped in complete outrage. “What?! You can’t honestly believe her!!” She was still eager to get Dace to gain her side. “Oh yeah, did I mention that I fought her on the day she arrived and she managed to conjure up some ice that formed around my feet?!”

Dace cocked his head awkwardly. “Okay Kat, maybe you’re spent too much time in this heat…”

Kat became disoriented with her own thoughts. She stepped forward to storm off, then stopped, then stepped forward, then stopped in fury. “Brutal. I can’t believe you. You’re all out of your fucking minds.”

And she was gone, stomping away towards the fortress.

Dace and Rin watched her go, waiting to see if she’d make any other rude remark. She disappeared into the fortress and they turned to each other.

“I think she’s a little…” Dace said, circling his finger around on the side of his head.

Rin laughed, feeling the tension between him and her lighten. “I know what you mean, but there’s reason behind it you know…”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s something she really wants spread around.” Rin looked around innocently, knowing very well that she didn’t want anyone to know about it. She had heard rumours going around the fortress about it, but no one took it seriously and figured that she just wanted some sympathy because she really wasn’t as tough as people thought she was and she was a half-breed.

“Hey, that’s okay. I’m sure it’s a load of crap anyways.” He grinned.

“Well… I’ve only heard rumours about it, but…”

And Rin told Dace the story of how Kat’s parents were killed, how they had fallen in love with each other even though they were of opposing races, and how Nabooru had taken Kat’s mother’s place as the Spirit Sage.

Dace’s mouth opened wide with a huge smile when she finished, his brows raised sceptically. “You’re telling me this is all based on some dream she had?”

Rin smiled. “Yup. Silly, huh?”

Dace laughed deeply without reservation for a good half a minute before finally retrieving his control. “Well yeah, Nabooru is the Sage, but she’s making that up. You can’t just take a Sage’s powers by killing them, that’s ridiculous!”

Rin giggled and nodded. "I know, it is."

“Nabooru‘s always been the Sage, you can‘t just take their powers. If you tried you wouldn‘t even stand a chance against them!" He laughed again. “Jeez, how can you tell she wants pity! She's just upset 'cause she's a mix between a Gerudo and a Hylian." Dace looked at Rin uneasily, who now looked away from him. "I mean... I'm not trying to offend, but Hylians aren't very... well, liked, around here."

Rin laughed again briefly; Dace clearly hadn't been well-educated back at his tribe, and he was their leader. She looked out to the desert behind them, watching the sands whirl and surge. A mournful look came to her lips and her forehead wrinkled concernedly.

“I know…”

--------

“I am not crazy.”

“Oh, yes you are.”

“No, I’m not. Shut up.”

“Yes you are. Listen to you, all this talk about there being ice on your feet? In this blazing heat? Impossible.”

“There was ice around my feet!”

“The mind can play perplexing tricks on us when we are troubled.”

“I was not troubled in any way at that time and I’m certainly not right now.”

“Oh but you were, and are, very troubled. That day when Rin arrived, you had that dream. Your mind simply could not accept the fact that you were being beaten by a Hylian, and therefore made up the image that there was ice formed around your feet to satisfy you and give you an explanation to being beaten. You do believe in your dream, and you do love your parents, but your hate for Hylians overpowers that feeling and you toss them aside. Not very faithful, are you?”

“… I don’t need this right now. You‘re full of shit.”

“Denial… Don’t worry Kat, we all have it sometimes… it’s just… that you have it all the time.”

“SHUT UP!! I HATE YOU SO DAMN MUCH!!”

“It’s funny that you say that, considering I am your trail of thoughts. I am you. You are simply arguing with yourself, a possible sign of insanity. You should stop while you’re ahead Kat, before you get too out of control and end up hurting somebody… or yourself.”

“I’m not going to kill myself. I am about to lose it though, and if one more person gets in my way, I will kill them. I mean it.”

“If you say so… but now it‘s dinner time… You wouldn’t want to be late for auntie Nabooru.”

--------

Nabooru had made that night’s supper sound very important and everyone was to attend, especially the elites. Only a few minors were left out on guard in the Valley, and the gates to the desert were closed as the sun slipped behind the sand dunes on the horizon.

A renovation necessary upon the arrival of the Neroth tribe, so Nabooru had a wall knocked out of the main dining area and had the already extremely long table extended even more to seat the new group of men. They were all assigned seats, going male, female, male, female, etc., so “they could become acquainted with one another.” Kat despised the idea and would really rather not have to sit next to two sweaty, bulky men. They however, seemed fairly comfortable with the idea. Rin was seated opposite Kat, about a dozen people down.

But Kat had other things on her mind, one being food, because she was absolutely famished, two, she had Dark Link sitting directly across from her, which just plain sickened her, and three, she was more pissed off then ever that another person, Dace, now thought she was nuts, after their little spiel.

Kat had little time to over think her thoughts tonight. Nabooru was eager to address her group before they were served. Kat got a horrid feeling in her stomach; things were never good when she had to speak before they ate.

“Attention everyone, please.” Nabooru pushed her chair back and stood before the group. Everyone looked her way as usual and hushed quickly, wishing for her to hurry up so they could eat.

“I have a very important matter to discuss with you all tonight. This is something I’m sure you will all enjoy taking part in. Over the past few weeks you have all gotten the chance to get to know each other. I thought it was time to put this into action.

Over the past couple of years, we, the Gerudos, have been slipping. We’ve become lazier, we’ve been drinking more, and we have been starting to let our guard down more then ever. It’s disgusting.”

The Gerudos looked around as if they had no idea what she was talking about.

“It is now time for this to change. Now being accompanied by the Neroth tribe, we are larger then we have been in several years… but not as large as we were many years ago. There is still much room for improvement, and now, that improvement may be achieved…

"It is time for us to increase our numbers. Now that we have both men and women together, we can do so quite easily, and most importantly without any complaints."

Cheers erupted from the Gerudos, most of it being produced by the males of the group. They didn’t see a problem with any of it. Even Kat wasn’t surprised, but Nabooru had that sense about her that she wasn’t done yet.

Nabooru went on over their enthusiastic approval, wanting to get this over with. “However, I do not want you all to go off with as many people as you can. This will be a very serious, monitored process and you will be limited to your partners… You must learn to become devoted.”

The men’s’ cheers shifted into disappointed groans. The women really didn’t seem to care.

Kat swallowed hard, seeing Dark Link glance across the table at her for a split second. Beads of sweat took form on Kat’s moist forehead. This wasn’t good at all. She knew exactly where this would be within the next minute or so.

“The men of the Gerudos will choose their partners. The women will not be able to decline.” Nabooru took her glass of wine from the table and sipped it proudly. Ganondorf was going to be so impressed. She swallowed and sighed deeply, soaking in the new silence of the room. “Tomorrow, a ceremony will be held at the Spirit Temple, where Lord Ganondorf himself will be awaiting us. He will witness the entire ceremony, to make sure that there are no mishaps…”

She scanned the group, her eyes eventually coming to a rest on Kat only a few people away from her. She was staring at her empty plate, her expression blank. Dark Link was seated across from her… Good… Excellent. She was upset and that was excellent.

“Further details will be addressed at the Temple.” Nabooru took another brief sip of wine and seated herself. “That is all.”

At least fifty Gerudos from the kitchen rushed in, arms piled high with plates and bowls of mostly meat and some vegetables. They spread across the room, dumping slabs of beef and veggies onto everyone’s plate. It was rare when they set their food onto their plates for them; Nabooru must’ve been in a good mood.

A pile of delicious food was slapped onto Kat’s plate, but the image of it barely came into view as horrid thoughts rushed rapidly through her head. Her face was utterly emotionless, like she was detached from everything around her. This was absolutely brutal. She could feel Dark Link’s harsh gaze grinding into her clammy forehead. A bead of sweat flowed down the bridge of her nose and onto her cheek.

Maybe killing herself didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.