A Failed Mission

I needed to hurry...

I stuffed two spare bottles in my bag, tucked a third against my arm, and ran down the alley. I tried to climb up the side of another building. I was whacked in the leg by the end of a spear and I fell. Every bottle cracked and leaked their valuable contents. They clearly didn't want to kill me, and I didn't want to be captured. I did want to kill them, but I was outnumbered.

Suddenly, I was rescued. Rayne dropped down from above and knocked their heads together. She grabbed my hand and dragged me away to find another escape route the Gerudo secretly used.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed. "I told you to stay away."

Only once we were within the tunnel hidden inside the abandoned bombchu shop did she answer. "Nabooru knows you left. She came here to find you and make sure you were captured," Rayne advised. "So I hurried to get you first."

"Thank you."

However, our return home was noticed. I wasn't able to save any of the potions, so my trip was fruitless. I had spent the whole trip home, hours of walking, beating myself up over my failure. Before I could enter my home to catch a few minutes sleep, and pretend like the night was normal, I was stopped.

"Ganondora."

His voice was so stern it made my spine crawl. I wanted to weep. I caused my best friend distress. Thankfully, she went immediately to her room to get some sleep. I was about to lose my mom, I failed to get the medicine she needed to live, Nabooru tried to get me arrested, and now Ganondorf, only in his teens but still my king, was probably pissed at me.

"Come with me," he ordered. His destination surprised me. He took me to my hiding spot on the roof of the fortress. "What were you thinking?" he asked, disappointed.

"I just wanted to save my mom," I confessed.

"You can't," he told me bluntly.

I wanted so badly to cry, but I knew I'd need those tears to shed later. "I just wanted to try."

"You obviously don't understand the consequences of what you did," he scolded.

I looked over at him, glaring. "Yes. I do. I could have gotten medicine for my mom, for the others."

"Wrong," he shouted. "Nabooru went after you, and I saw no reason to stop her. You gave her a reason to soil your reputation. She could have been arrested, you might have lost Rayne, I- The Gerudo might have lost you. Each individual is important, and you risked not just one life, but three. What you did was reckless."

I felt ashamed, with my heart sinking in my stomach to match. "I understand, your majesty. While I might lose my mother, the most important person to me, you would have lost valuable Gerudo."

"Exactly," he confirmed. At the time, I hated that life needed to be viewed that way.

"Please, don't tell my mom I disobeyed her. It's the last thing she needs right now."

"I understand. For what it's worth, I never wanted this to happen."

"Thanks," I said somberly. "I need to get some sleep."

"Yes," he agreed. "Go on."

I slipped away from our spot on the roof of the fortress, and when I got home my mom was sleeping, and shivering. I covered her up with another blanket, and then curled up beside her to fall asleep. Two days later, I lost her.