91Never My Destiny
A Ganondorf/Impa Romance
by Galaxy Girl
This chapter was rewritten to edit out the suck and reposted on December 10th, 2006. I will be going back through and editing most of the earlier chapters in this manner. Enjoy! Again!
PROLOGUE: A New Beginning
At last, it was over.
Cheerful bonfires raged throughout the land of Hyrule as the people celebrated their long-awaited liberation. Singing, dancing, drinking and general merry-making were rampant, having been forbidden and squashed out under the thumb of the dark lord Ganondorf.
Lon-Lon Ranch was the liveliest place of all. Gorons, Zora, Kokiri, Gerudo and Hylians alike gathered around the pasture, celebrating the announcement that thousands had died to hear- The Evil King's castle had collapsed upon itself. The dark one was gone, cast away into the white nothingness of the Sacred Realm by the Six Sages, their beloved Princess Zelda, and the mysterious Hero of Time. The legend had come true, and the time to rejoice had come.
Those who were watching the sky that night caught a special glimpse of something unusual- five glowing lights etching through the sky, leaving trails of glittering stardust; one red, one orange, one forest green, one deep blue and one a calm, mellow purple.
The five lights flitted to and fro across the starry distances, seeming to dance with joy. They continued skipping through the sky until they formed a circle around the peak of Death Mountain, illuminating the clouds for miles around.
Five brilliant flashes of light later, a group of silhouettes materialized on the mountaintop.
With a thump, the red light became the massive figure of Darunia, Big Brother of the Death Mountain Gorons and the mighty Sage of Fire. Sitting on top of his head, depressing his wildly static hair was a giggling Kokiri girl all in green- Saria, the Sage of the Forest.
The blue flash formed into the slender, silvery frame of Ruto, the Zora princess and the Sage of Water. Her fins flapped gracefully in the cool breeze, and she shivered slightly. "Woo, it's cold..."
"Ah, toughen up!" The orange light went out slowly to reveal a seated Gerudo woman, her flaming red hair strung up into a ponytail- Nabooru, the Sage of Spirit. "It's colder than this in the desert at night,"
"Yeah, this is nothing," Darunia boasted proudly, gazing up at Saria fondly and beating his chest for extra show. Saria laughed playfully. The big Goron had always had a special attachment to the composer of his favorite song.
"It's a beautiful view from the peak..." Saria whispered. "I've never been so high up before!"
"Don't get too excited, now, don't want you to fall," Darunia warned her, moving left and right and mocking losing his balance.
"Can Sages fall?" asked Ruto curiously.
"Want to experiment?" Nabooru suggested brutishly, prodding Ruto with an elbow.
"Don't fight, guys!" Saria scolded. "We should be happy! We helped Link save Hyrule, after all!"
"Hey, yeah!" Nabooru gasped. "Fancy that, a group of losers like us…"
Darunia smacked his lips. "A rock sounds good right about now."
"But I want to know something!" Ruto squealed. "Now that we've helped Link, and he's gone back to the past..." She paused. "What's going to happen to us?"
"Didn't you listen to Rauru?" Saria asked. "He said that as soon as Link regains consciousness in the past, all of time will reset along with him... We'll all wake up seven years ago, still Sages, but able to relive these seven years again."
But Ruto wasn't satisfied yet. "Well, yes, I get that, but... I guess I meant..."
She turned to her fellow Sages, a brief look of worry on her face. "Can we... stay here? In Hyrule? Or do we have to live in the Sacred Realm?"
"I think all of us want to know the answer to that," Nabooru said quietly.
"I ain't living in any Sacred Realm!" Darunia boomed in protest. "Somebody's gotta keep an eye on those rascals down in Goron City!"
"I miss my friends," Saria added gloomily.
"We will awaken in the past, with only the knowledge that we are Sages, and the knowledge that Ganondorf had taken over before Link stopped him. We will all live normally, in Hyrule, until our services as Sages are needed again," a new voice replied from the side of the peak.
All of the Sages turned to the fifth of them, Impa, the Sage of Shadow. She was a well-built Sheikah woman in her mid-thirties, with silvery hair tied in a ponytail, elaborate face markings, and body armor. The former personal attendant of Princess Zelda always had an air of wisdom and calm about her, and her presence was comforting.
She took a deep breath. "Everything that has happened to us in these seven years will be forgotten, so that we do not alter our fates and prevent them from occurring."
"You mean, we won't remember what our lives are like now?" Saria queried.
"Correct. We will relive all of the events from the past seven years, with the exception of those caused by Ganondorf's rule. None of us will remember anything of these seven years, except for the fact that we are Sages, and Link is the Hero of Time," Impa repeated.
"You mean I'll forget about my son?!" Darunia gasped in an outrage. He stomped his foot angrily. "I'll forget about my only kid?!"
"You won't know that you are destined to have a son," Nabooru explained very slowly, as she had grown used to doing with the Goron people. "Link will still be born, Darunia. But you won't know it until it actually happens. Does that make sense?"
He blinked. "... No."
"So I guess we just have to wait for Link to wake up in the past..." Ruto mused. "Then we'll forget all that's happened these seven years..."
They all went back to their own conversations, talking about what they'd do back in their old lives, before the Evil King took over.
Impa still stood in her previous place, alone, not wishing to speak to anyone.
Impa wondered if it would really be possible for her to forget.
She did not particularly want to.
The pinks and oranges and purples of the clouds blended together into a spectacular explosion of color, stretching out across the land of Hyrule. Soon, Link would awaken in the past, and a new beginning would dawn for the land of Hyrule. All of the violence, bloodshed, and hatred would be wiped clean from the people's memories, and everyone will be free to live the lives they would have had, if not for the dark one. Everybody looked forward to their new beginnings—chances to laugh and cry and love and rejoice and embrace fate the way it was meant to be, before the darkness and the deaths and the misery.
But there would be no new beginning for some. For one, rather.
Impa took a deep breath, and tried to remember where it all started. It was futile, she told herself, futile to hope that her recollection was part of anything permanent. But she remembered it anyway, simply to prove that she could—somewhere, in the back of her mind, she would know that once, she had known.
There is no such thing as an eternal darkness.
As with light, it must begin somewhere.
CHAPTER ONE: Two Lone Stars
"There's got to be some explanation for this! There must be some reason why…"
"But there's no telling, sir," the monk said solemnly, shaking his head. "No one saw it happen."
"But there's no way an entire village full of Sheikah can disappear like that!" the guard said in exasperation. "Someone has to know why!"
"Who brought her in?" asked the monk.
"A bunch of Gorons. They'd come down to the village to trade, and found it completely deserted, except for her. She was standing outside her home, looking around... Poor thing was totally inconsolable..."
"Have you tried asking her?" the monk insisted.
"She says she doesn't know," a second guard said. "We were thinking perhaps she'd been possessed by a demon and forgotten... And that's why we called you!"
"But I'm telling you, she's perfectly fine," the monk said calmly. "She's perfectly oriented and knows where she is, her name, and where she came from. But if you ask her what happened to the rest of her village went, she doesn't know."
"Can we talk to her?" the second guard asked. "If we can't think of an explanation, we're both gonna be in a deep pile of Dodongo crap."
"You two were in the village at the time?" asked the monk.
"Yes," the first guard answered. "We went to bed normally last night... And when we woke up, the entire village was completely deserted. We panicked, naturally."
"King Harkinian wanted us to be diplomats to the Sheikah to try and convince them to come to the new treaty signing in a few weeks..." the second guard continued, "But what are we supposed to do when the entire population of Kakariko just vanishes as soon as we show up?"
"The legend of the Sheikah says that a thousand of years ago, the first King of Hyrule was protected by a shadowed being that appeared out of nowhere... Ever since then, the Sheikah have always been devoted to protecting the Royal Family of Hyrule. No one knows why... I don't even think the Sheikah can say for sure," the monk sighed.
"We know that," the first guard complained.
"But we have to find out where they all went! Or we'll be held responsible!" the second finished.
"I don't think that questioning a sixteen-year-old Sheikah girl is going to get you two the answers you're looking for," the monk chided. "She's been through enough."
"What was her name again?" asked the first guard.
"She says her name is Impa."
"Well... do you think maybe we should let a sorcerer look at her? Y'know, to see if she's got any weird..." the second guard was starting to say.
"The Sheikah are all perfectly normal and human," the monk snapped.
"Humans don't just disappear like that..."
"Nevertheless," the monk groaned. "If you want to talk to her, go ahead. But if you upset her, I'm going to be forced to remove you. The king wants her to be perfectly comfortable and happy."
"Why?" asked the first guard.
"A king should be concerned when an entire race of people vanishes into thin air. He wants to make sure that she doesn't disappear too," the monk said, strolling out of the room.
Impa was sitting on a large four-poster bed in the castle's infirmary, the events of the morning still fresh in her mind.
It wasn't every morning you awaken to find your entire family missing- mother, brother, baby sister, her entire village, even. All of the Sheikah were gone, except for her.
She was an athletically-built and muscular girl, with bright red eyes tattooed with the Sheikah tribal markings: two silver half-suns below both of them, giving her the appearance of very big eyelashes. Her hair was a shade of whitish silver and very short, pulled back in a small ponytail. She wore the normal Sheikah clothing- a shirt, shorts, and body armor decorated with the eye symbol and a pair of bracers over both hands.
The Gorons who'd taken her to the castle had been very comforting, even as she was screaming like a child in loneliness all the way along the road to the castle. Things had been less comforting at the castle, with a series of monks and priests and guards and sorcerers interrogating her all morning... Always the same question, and always the same answer. Impa had been on the verge of breaking down each time someone new opened the door. She hated having such a big fuss made about her. Even the king had come in to see her at one point.
Impa remembered being surprised at how handsome he was. He had paced around in front of her, looking very concerned.
"I'm sorry to have to bring this up again..." he'd said quietly. "But... do you..."
"I don't know!"
The king had looked stunned at how she shouted at him. Impa couldn't take it anymore. She'd leapt up from her spot on the bed and walked right towards him, something that a Sheikah had never done. Then, staring up at him with a look of defiance, she had continued.
"I don't know where my mother is, or my sister or my brother! I don't know where the baker went, and I have no idea why the Sheikah bodyguards at the castle have disappeared! If one more person asks me, I don't know what I'll do. If I knew where they went, I would have gone with them, all right?"
The king took a step back and watched her gradually breaking down. She'd quickly covered her mouth with her hand and stepped away from him. Her eyes were wide with horror at what she'd done... She yelled at the King of Hyrule!
Her limbs began to shake and after a moment or two of quiet realization, she collapsed to her knees, burying her face in her hands.
Harkinian had watched, and felt his stomach tying in knots as something shiny and wet came streaming down the sides of her hands.
Impa let out a little sob, and curled up on the floor. "Why am I still here? Why can't anyone tell me?"
He stepped towards the door.
"I want to die… I don't want to be alone, I'd rather die than be the last one!"
She'd melted away into a long sob, barely hearing the latch on the door click as the king left her by herself.
After an hour that seemed more like days, she opened her eyes again. It hurt to look at the light as her own dried, salty tears were staining her hands and face and stinging her eyes. Her knees were numb from being on the hard floor for so long. She stumbled to try and stand up, and shivered.
Impa was gripped with a coldness she'd never felt before today. There was this feeling that no matter where she went or how hard she looked, she would never find anyone who cared about her.
Stumbling back towards the bed, she had a seat and stared straight ahead at the wall.
Three hours later, here she was. Still alone. Now, here, in this empty dark room, she was set in her decision...
She wouldn't care.
If she was going to be the last Sheikah, she might as well get herself ready to be unloved and abandoned. She repeated to herself over and over that no one loved her, and no one was there to protect her... Impa was alone now, and she kept telling herself that, too. That way, she wouldn't be hurt...
Impa felt very coldly about the Royal Family's efforts to help her. After the king left, he'd issued a search party, and announced to the kingdom that anyone who knew of the Sheikah's whereabouts would be rewarded upon their return. But the fact was that no one had any idea where they'd gone.
Kakariko had always been a secretive town, as the Sheikah themselves were very secretive. Shadowy magic practices and martial arts were the pride of the race, and their long history as bodyguards to the Royal Family had earned them a place of respect among the Hylians. But even the Sheikah's allies knew very little about them.
A million thoughts were rushing through Impa's head. The last thing her mother had said to her the night before... The thought of what would happen to her if they couldn't find the rest of the Sheikah... What they'd do to her to find out where her people had gone. People had always wanted to know exactly what made the Sheikah so mysterious and able to slip through the shadows as silent as a Garo... what better person to experiment on than a young Sheikah girl, with no family to protest?
Impa could hear the people on the floor above talking through the pipes that fed the water pump in the corner of the infirmary.
"No sign of them, your majesty..."
"How could they have vanished like that...? It doesn't make any sense..."
"Neither do a lot of things, your majesty."
"And two weeks before the treaty, too. This has got me very worried..."
"We've tried questioning the Sheikah girl, your majesty. She really doesn't know anything about what happened."
"Have you asked any of the Sheikah in the castle what they think?"
There was a pause.
"... Your majesty... There are no Sheikah in the castle."
"What do you mean? Of course there are."
"No, there aren't."
"My bodyguard? Little Zelda's..."
"All gone."
"You're kidding me!"
"No, your majesty. The princess was never taken out of her nightclothes this morning. They found her crying in her cradle, all alone. There were no signs of a struggle... It appears that the Sheikah really are disappearing, your majesty."
"How could that happen?"
"I don't know... No one does, your majesty..."
"And we're keeping a close eye on the girl?"
"Absolutely... Especially considering..."
"Considering what?"
"Well, your majesty... It appears that the girl, Impa, is the only Sheikah still in Hyrule..."
"You mean..."
"She's the very last of the Sheikah."
The very last...
The words echoed in Impa's head as she sat on the bed, staring straight ahead. "The very last of the Sheikah..."
"Hmph. The better to be with my thoughts."
Later that evening, the castle was still in an uproar about the disappearance of the Sheikah. But there didn't seem to be anything that anyone could do about it... If the Sheikah wanted to vanish for some reason, there was little that anyone could do to make them stop.
An entourage of guards was escorting King Harkinian through the hallways of the palace. He was a fairly young king, only in his early thirties. With cornsilk blond hair and bright blue eyes, he was also fairly handsome. His brow was furrowed with concern as they headed for the infirmary.
"Let me speak with her," Harkinian said solemnly. "It must be told to her gently."
"Yes, sir," the guards echoed back.
Through the rafters of the wide hallway leading into the east wing of the castle sounded an unending scream. The infant princess was crying again. Harkinian shook his head, wishing that he had time to comfort her.
Impa looked up towards the ceiling. Someone was crying up above.
It was such a mournful sound... Like the howling of Wolfos at night to the full moon. It reminded her of Kakariko... On a festival night, when they'd gather in a circle around the well and sing until morning or until their voices gave out and they all fell asleep in a big clump of bodies on the ground.
That wouldn't ever happen again...
Impa grew more and more annoyed with the crying as the minutes went on. She wondered if perhaps, she sounded that depressing when she was crying a few hours ago...
"It's just a little baby… maybe needs help," she told herself under her breath.
Impa stood up, and took a look around... There were more than likely people standing outside the doors... she'd no doubt be forced back inside if they found her.
She reached into the thin pocket on the side of her shorts and her hand grasped a small, round object.
"Something tells me that I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this..." Impa thought, as she pulled it out.
"But who cares? What are they going to do... tell my mom?"
She tossed the object on the floor, and there was a blinding flash.
Reaching the door to the infirmary, the guards positioned themselves on either side of the hallway. Harkinian sighed deeply and lifted the brass knocker on the door, letting it drop three times. The ringing slowly faded out as his head guard spoke through the door.
"Young lady, Harkinian, the Great King of Hyrule, has requested an audience with..."
"Don't be so formal," Harkinian pushed the guard aside rather roughly. He leaned into the door and spoke to her. "Lady Impa... It is I, Harkinian... May I please come in and speak with you?"
The guards leaned in towards the door to listen for some sort of noise... Crying, sobbing even... Talking... Lunatic rantings... Perhaps some sort of weird incantation to curse them all into dying?
There was silence.
Several minutes later, the king knocked again. "Please, Lady Impa... I realize that it's been a hard day for you, but I must tell you something very important..."
The captain of the guard began to shout through the keyhole. "Open in the name of the-"
"Stop!" barked the king. "Be gentle!"
"Sorry, your majesty... But what if something's happened to her?"
"What will have happened?" the king sighed. "I'm afraid she may end up doing something drastic anyway... How would you like to be the last of your kind? We need to be very calm and gentle with her..."
"If the rest of her race has vanished, why not let her do the same?" questioned one of the guards.
Harkinian took a deep breath and shook his head. "What sort of king allows an entire race of his people to vanish? For whatever reason, if I could not save her people, let me save her."
There was still silence.
Finally, the captain grew impatient. "Your majesty, how dare she show such disrespect to you?" With that, he threw open the door and ran inside.
Harkinian was dismayed. He sped in after him, screaming. "Don't barge in on her! We need to be especially sensitive to her feelings while she's..."
"GONE!"
"What?"
The captain was standing on the far side of the bed that the Sheikah girl had been occupying. "Your majesty, she's not here!"
"What?" gasped Harkinian. "She's not here?"
The other guards were looking around in confusion. The bed was unruffled, a glass of water on the table untouched... It appeared that no one had ever been in the room at all.
What followed could be described as a great panic.
Harkinian's hands began shaking as he lifted a hand to his forehead.
"Your majesty... what should we do?" gasped one guard.
He spoke in a booming voice. "Find her! Find her, immediately!"
Impa crept towards the tiny bed, realizing what she'd found.
This was the Princess's bedroom... And there, in the crib, crying at the top of her little lungs, was Princess Zelda.
She was very small, for her age of six months, with bright blue eyes like her father's and a fuzzy, miniscule wisp of blonde hair crowning her otherwise bald head. She was wrapped in a pink velvet blanket with her mouth wide open and yelling.
Impa couldn't help but pity the little princess. "Shh, shh," she whispered, "You'll give me away..."
There was a tiny gasp for breath, and the princess paused. She gazed up at her visitor with a shaking lip, and eyes that Impa knew could only mean one thing.
"You're lonely, too?"
Zelda let out another long scream and began gasping for air. She'd cried herself into exhaustion.
Impa smiled, only a little, and kneeled down next to the crib. "Your mother died giving birth, didn't she? My mother disappeared. I don't know if she's dead or not. We're sort of in the same boat, you and me, aren't we?"
Zelda was on the verge of screaming again, as soon as she gained enough breath to do so.
"You remind me of my baby sister," Impa mused, placing her hand in the crib. She felt tiny fingers grab onto it and squeeze. "She cried all the time... So much that my mother thought she was possessed. Mother used to sing her a song to put her to sleep. Hearing that song always calmed me down, too..."
Zelda seemed comforted as she held onto Impa's fingers. She seemed to have stopped crying, at least for a moment. Maybe she found Impa's voice soothing. Then maybe...
"Would you like me to sing for you?" Impa asked, feeling a bit foolish for talking to an infant.
Zelda stared forlornly at her.
"I'll take that as a yes..." she smiled, clearing her throat, "Okay... this is your lullaby."
Guards, maids, butlers and cooks raced through the halls of Hyrule Castle, screaming back and forth to one another as they searched every room for the last Sheikah in all of Hyrule. Throwing open doors and digging through chests full of clothes yielded no sign of her, as did screaming her name through the hallways.
Harkinian paced back and forth in the infirmary, his brow furrowed with worry. "We've got to find her... If she's disappeared too..."
"Your majesty, we musn't panic!" consoled one of the maids, who had wasted no time in arriving to clean the empty room. "I'm sure she's somewhere around here... What reason would she have to disappear?"
"If she's gone as well, then an entire race of people has gone extinct from Hyrule!" Harkinian bellowed. "And only weeks before the new treaties are signed..."
The maid stopped stripping down the bed and faced the king with her hands on her hips. "Is that really appropriate to worry about right now?" she questioned.
"Do you realize what this could do?" Harkinian snapped, annoyed with her defiance. "The allies of the Sheikah will believe that we've done something to them... the war could start all over again!"
The maid wrung her hands together nervously, watching several guards go running by the door in clanking armor. "Has anyone checked the courtyard?"
"No sign of her," the king sighed. "Or in the kitchens or the basements or the dungeons... It certainly appears that she's disappeared out of her own accord... But I feel terrible! I can't help but feel that this is somehow my fault..."
The castle was a cacophony of panicked yells of guards searching for Impa, and the clattering of objects being thrown out of rooms as every nook and cranny of the great castle was searched. Other than that, the stone halls were silent, as silent as death.
There was absence of a noise that everyone in the castle had grown accustomed to since the death of the queen months ago...
Harkinian suddenly seemed to realize something. His eyes widened, and he listened again, carefully. "Elsa..."
"Yes, your majesty?" the maid gasped.
"Has anyone checked up on my daughter recently?"
"I don't believe so, your majesty... Princess Zelda was crying last I heard. No one has had time with all the searching to be with her..."
Harkinian shoved past the maid and raced through the hallways, ripping guards out of their searches in order to protect him. He ran in a very undignified manner, all the way upstairs and towards the grand doors where his daughter's room was...
He stopped outside the door, hearing something quietly humming inside.
"Get back," he barked at the guards, who instantly flattened themselves against the wall at the other end of the hall.
The king very slowly turned the large steel handle of the door and let it creak open as he peered into the room.
A large window had been opened, bathing a part of the room in moonlight. In the center of the elaborately painted rug towards the median of the room was Zelda's crib, and a figure crouched behind it, reaching inside.
That figure was humming a melody very quietly.
Harkinian stepped into the room as carefully as he could without letting his boots make a lot of noise on the stone floor. He stopped a few yards away from the crib to watch Impa singing to the tiny princess.
The melody was one they'd never heard before, very soft and comforting like a lullaby. In fact, Zelda seemed to have dubbed it a lullaby on her own. She was sleeping quite peacefully.
"Impa," the king said in an awed voice.
Impa gazed up at the king and gasped, her eyes showing a rising amount of fear. She didn't know for sure, but as the king and his guards stared back at her, she had a terrible feeling that breaking into the princess's bedroom was not an innocent thing to do... Would she be punished? And if not for breaking in, would she be punished for ignoring the screams of castle personnel looking for her?
She stood up immediately, backing away from the crib and looking like a child caught breaking into the cookie jar. "I'm sorry, your majesty... I'm very sorry..."
Harkinian watched her thoughtfully as she hurried, trembling, over to him. "I'm sorry I made everyone worry... I heard the baby crying and I wanted to help her feel better... I snuck out of the room and came here... I used to do the same thing for my baby sister, your majesty... I'm sorry I made everyone worry... I promise, I won't do it again!" Impa pleaded. "Please, don't be angry..."
"That song," the king whispered. "What's the name of it?"
Impa looked surprised. "I don't know... my mother used to sing my brother and sister to sleep with it. I guess I thought it would help the princess. She was crying and no one would help her..."
He smiled and nodded, not, to Impa's surprise, seeming angry.
Impa bowed her head in shame. "I'm very sorry, your majesty... I promise to stay in my room from now on, I really do..."
The king took a deep breath and sighed, staring down at the floor. It seemed that it was time to make a decision.
All of the events of the day, the Sheikah disappearing, the rescue of the lone girl from Kakariko, her own disappearance and her comforting of the princess had all come down to this moment. Harkinian had a very important decision to make. What to do with her?
He spoke, very softly. "That song is called Zelda's Lullaby. It's the song passed down through the Royal Family of Hyrule."
"It is?" Impa asked, looking a little surprised.
"The fact your mother knew it reassures me you come from a fine family of Sheikah, perhaps one that has served the Royal Family in the past," Harkinian went on. "I will ask one more time. You're sure you have no idea where your people have gone?"
She shook her head, remembering her promise to accept her loneliness. "No your majesty... I don't know."
"And you have nowhere to go, do you?" asked Harkinian.
"I could live back in Kakariko on my own, your majesty. I don't think I have enough Rupees to live for long... but I will go there if it is your will, your majesty..." Impa said humbly, kneeling down. "I'll do whatever you ask, your majesty!"
Harkinian shook his head. "If your people are truly gone for good, Lady Impa, it is the least I could do to comfort you and give you a place to stay..."
"I'm all right, your majesty... I really don't have any money... I could never afford to pay to live here at the palace."
"What is this nonsense of payment?" asked Harkinian. "I would be honored to have you as my guest."
"I could never live off of your kindness, your majesty..." Impa shook her head rapidly. But she could feel her resolve flickering.
Harkinian shook his head as well. "That's not what I mean... I am offering you a job here. You may stay in the castle as long as you like in exchange for your working here."
She finally gave in. "I will work hard, your majesty! I promise! I'll wash dishes or cook or do anything, just as long as I can stay..."
"I have a job in mind for you," Harkinian said, touching her on the shoulder. "The way you took care of the princess like that... I think that you would make a wonderful nanny and attendant."
The young Sheikah looked surprised. Her red eyes widened slowly. "The princess's nanny?"
Harkinian beamed. "You seem to be good with children. I promise, if you help me and take care of my daughter, I will help you and give you a place to stay until we find your people. You can come and go from the castle as you please, and you can have free roam of both the castle and the market... But your top priority would be to take care of Zelda."
Impa nodded quickly, leaping to her feet. "Yes, your majesty! I would be honored!"
"You're a very important girl, do you know that?" he asked warmly. "You are very important to us, as the last of your kind... May I ask you to sign the treaty on behalf of the Sheikah, when the time comes?"
"Yes, of course, your majesty!" Impa agreed. She hadn't thought about that.
Harkinian smiled beatifically and patted her on the shoulder. "You're a lovely young lady... I feel you'll be a great asset to the kingdom of Hyrule someday. Not as the last of the Sheikah, but as a person. I know you'll certainly be an asset here at the palace."
Impa hadn't even considered this. He really did see her for more than the last Sheikah- something that no one, all day had been able to do. "I'm honored, sir..."
"Guards, please show Lady Impa to a more suitable room than the infirmary. She will be staying with us for a while," Harkinian ordered.
They all saluted. "Yes, your majesty!"
One of the guards touched Impa's arm, but only a little. He seemed to be the tiniest bit afraid of her. "Lady Impa, if you'll please come with us..."
"You can start tomorrow," Harkinian told her as she swept a small bow and reluctantly went with the guards. Her eyes seemed to be stuck to the princess, asleep in her crib.
Harkinian let out a little sigh as Impa disappeared into the hallway with the pack of guards. Quietly meandering to the side of his daughter's crib, he smiled as he watched her sleeping peacefully.
"It is only natural you be soothed by that song, precious."
Zelda moved her tiny bald head only slightly and yawned.
The king gazed out of the window behind them, where the night was clear except for a few wispy clouds around the moon. The center of one wisp was broken out, and a solitary star was floating there triumphantly, having broken through the mist.
"Your new nanny is quite the little loner, Zelda," he said.
A LITTLE LESS THAN TWO WEEKS LATER...
The wind calmed, the dust settled, and the storm was finally dying down.
It had come on quickly from the west, roaring wind that lifted the sand effortlessly into its wake. If the burning sun above wasn't miserable enough, the sand and the wind were certainly strong enough to tear the flesh from the bone of anyone stupid enough to venture out into them. It was the summer, a particularly brutal season for sandstorms, and for three days the Gerudo had been forced to stay inside their fortress.
Finally, the sun was once again visible setting along the horizon, throwing a crimson glow across the valley and lighting up the surface of the sand. The "all-clear" signal came from the horns, and like ants from an anthill, the desert people ventured back out into the open to resume their duties.
The Gerudo Prince, soon to be king, leaned against the doorway leading out into the courtyard, watching as the guards once again took their positions around the fortress. His broad arms were crossed against his chest as his yellow eyes darted back and forth, taking in the sunset and the wispy clouds in the southern sky. His messy, thick red hair was slicked back against his head as best as he could get it to stay, but still stuck up stubbornly in a few parts along the back of his neck.
His head and neck were bespangled with various chains and head ornaments, as was custom of a young Gerudo lord. Miniature pieces of armor hung over his arms, and a loose strip of cloth wrapped several times around his waist served as a belt to hold up his ripped-up pants. Olive green skin and a broad, pronounced nose stood him out from the rest of his tribe.
"Young master, no more pouting," a woman's voice said from behind him, as a hand appeared on his shoulder. "We're heading to the castle town tomorrow whether you like it or not."
"I don't see why I have to go," he grumbled angrily. "What do they need me for?"
The Gerudo woman smiled warmly. "The king wishes to meet you, young master. It's been a long time since we Gerudo have had a king of our own. You'll be a member of the king's council when you grow up, you know."
"Mm. I'm so excited," Ganondorf snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm to be an unwanted member of a coward's council."
"Watch your mouth, young master!" the woman gasped. "We can't have that tongue of yours going off in front of the king!"
"What do I care?" he grumbled, shaking his head. His eyes stared off at the blood red sunset, and narrowed. "Harkinian has never cared for us... He never will. He only wants to meet me so he can size up the competition for the next hundred years."
"Who told you that?"
"Everyone knows it's true," Ganondorf replied. "I have nothing to say to Harkinian's people that would be of any use in establishing peace, Marya."
Marya leaned against the opposite wall of the doorway, and eyed her young nephew. She had expected that reaction. "Nabooru offered to go with you, if you like," she said quietly.
Ganondorf threw her a sideways glance. "That would be nice."
"I'll go tell her, then," she replied, turning back into the fortress. "Dinner will be ready in half an hour or so. Don't spend your whole evening out here pouting, you hear? There is plenty else to do besides sitting around feeling sorry for yourself."
"Yes, Auntie."
The bangles hanging from her lavender clothes always made a jangling noise as she walked. She jangled all the way inside and up the stairs, leaving Ganondorf to his thoughts.
Sighing angrily, he left the doorway and began to stroll across the sandy courtyard, towards the archery range. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at his feet, taking turns sinking down into the warm sand.
Perhaps Koume and Kotake could help him avoid having to go to the market tomorrow... They always had some sort of tricks up their sleeves. But it was a long hike out into the desert to the Gerudo sacred ground, and it was already nearly dark. He'd have to wait until tomorrow.
The young king finally sat down on the roof of one of the higher stone buildings, letting his feet hang off the edge and leaning back on his elbows to finish watching the sunset, hopefully undisturbed this time.
Ganondorf found he didn't have much taste for the Hylians after the atrocities he'd witnessed in the Great War. Hyrule had only recently put an end to the bloody battle, a gruesome crusade of the races warring against one another. While they'd never been terribly popular among the other races of Hyrule, the Gerudo had taken an even more unpleasant turn in the majority's opinion when it was found that they were in responsible for starting the terrible war.
This was only partially true. The Gerudo were the first race to mobilize their armies, the first race to openly attack the others and the first race to declare war. The Gerudo even knew the name of the woman among them who had, in effect, started the whole chain reaction in the first place.
Her name was Milana. She was not a terribly extraordinary Gerudo; she was an experienced thief like the rest of them, beautiful, but no more so than her sisters. There were only two things that set Milana especially apart from the rest of her tribe.
One was the manner of her death. Milana was arrested for robbing a duo of Hylian guardsmen and taken to Hyrule Castle Town, where she was placed on trial and sentenced to death by stoning. Her body was found, barely alive, floating down Zora's River just north of Gerudo Valley. She died later that very day of her extensive injuries.
The other was her title—the Golden Mother. Milana had given birth to this century's only male Gerudo, her son Ganondorf.
He'd been very young when it happened, but he could remember it well.
He remembered the blood, the buckets full of cool water and the cloths they'd laid on her forehead to comfort her in her final moments. He remembered holding her hand as she weakly pulled him close to her and whispered in his ear, tears running down her face. He remembered her smile, the last glint of light in her eyes, and the last words she spoke.
"Ganny," she whispered, "Precious, boy… be a good king."
Enraged at what they called the merciless killing, the brutal murder, the beginnings of genocide against the Gerudo, the thieves planned and carried out their attacks. It was ten years ago. Ten years ago, Ganondorf's mother passed away and the land was engulfed in war—a war that had only ended mere months ago.
Now, King Harkinian had sent out for what he called "a great unification" to take place. Leaders of all the tribes of Hyrule were called upon to come to the great palace at Hyrule Market and sign new treaties to ensure peace for many years to come.
Everyone was very excited about it. Every race in Hyrule was falling under new management, their old leaders dead or abdicated. Harkinian himself had only recently taken the throne from his father, who'd started the war and died in a great battle.
He'd heard from Gerudo scouts coming back from the castle town. The new leaders from all the races were to come to the castle for a week-long stay. The days would be marked by long, eventful meetings to decide the future treaties of the land, and the nights would be full of celebration, tributes to peace and brotherhood and unity.
Everybody seemed to be anticipating it, looking forward to wiping the slate clean and starting anew.
Everybody except for Ganondorf.
He spotted a lone star hanging up in the sky, appearing just beyond the great rusty cliff over his head. The rest seemed to be clustered at the center of the sky, with that one lonely one far off to the side.
He pitied it.
All this responsibility, all of this dumping down on his shoulders because he was different from everyone in his tribe... He was the lone star, the lone male Gerudo, the one predestined by thousands of years of tradition to be the king and exalted leader.
No one ever knew when it would happen. Every so often, usually every hundred years or so, one Gerudo would say to another, "Gee, seems like a long time since we've had a male baby."
"Let's go get a new king," the other would say.
He'd always found the courtship system of the Gerudo to be a bit amusing. Packs of females would ride off into the night like a pack of wild tigers, seeking out the poor male soul who happened to be wandering the field or a back alley of the castle town.
Nine months later, a new batch of Gerudo would be born, each a little different than the generation before it. So many Gerudo were of mixed blood anymore, it was hard to tell a few of them were of the race at all.
And then, as luck would have it, one female Gerudo would be "The Golden Mother", and have the supreme honor of delivering the new king, the only male Gerudo.
Each male Gerudo's birthday was carefully marked and celebrating heartily, with great banquets and feasts and the occasional raiding party. Sixteen years ago had seen Ganondorf's own birth and celebrations.
A random Hylian man was his father, leaving Ganondorf with bigger ears than normal and his interesting tone of skin. His mother had told him the story many times of how she and his father met.
"I saw him walking down the back alley. So I grabbed a big rock and you could say... it was love at first sight."
Of course, Ganondorf could never go looking for his father. That was strictly forbidden, as was written in the Gerudo codes. He'd always wondered what kind of person his father was, and if he would be ashamed to say that he'd been the victim of a lonely Gerudo. He had no interest in seeking him out anyway.
But Ganondorf was considered special, even among the male Gerudo. His grandfather had been the last Gerudo King, making his mother full-blooded and refreshing the bloodline. When he grew up, he'd be expected not only to lead the Gerudo, but to bring about a new bloodline of his own. Strict rules were in place about who he could and could not "associate with".
Strict rules were in place about basically everything he did.
Ever since he was a child, Ganondorf could remember being treated differently. And it was about to get even worse. He was coming of age.
Soon, he'd be told that his days of exploring out into the desert with his cousin, Nabooru were over. Soon he'd be told that he'd be expected to lead the Gerudo army into battle, and he'd be expected not to die.
Soon, his visits to his great-great-great grandmothers, the witches Koume and Kotake would be to learn the art of sorcery, and not for a nice cup of tea or a chat. Soon, he'd be forced to forget all of those Hylian fairytales he'd read as a boy, about beautiful damsels in distress locked up in towers in need of rescue by a brave knight, not unlike himself.
And soon, one of his childhood playmates would come to him, expecting him to father her child.
Too soon for Ganondorf to want to think about, the carefree days of his youth would be flushed down Zora's River, landing beyond Lake Hylia and into the untouchable realm of the past.
Ganondorf knew that tomorrow, as he left the valley on the way to the castle, he'd be forsaking more than his solemn vow to never associate with the filthy Hylians who killed his mother. He'd be forsaking his freedom for the bonds of captivity.
And all because he was that lone star.
