A Lesson from the King

Faith and trust in the Gerudo king was restored in a matter of days after he started training with us. They finally showed him proper respect willingly, instead of choking on every "sire". Defeating him in practice became my new goal, since I had become bored with the other pointless training I was assigned. I knew that if I could gain victory over him, my training would be complete at last.

The concept that you learn more about a person through battle is entirely true. I learned every aspect of his personality: greed, rage, distrust, arrogance, pride, passion, and even jealousy. I was privileged with this opportunity and never took it for granted. What did he learn about me? Probably selfishness, anger, desire, determination. Whatever it was, he enjoyed it, and came back for more every couple of days, especially when he was mad.

When Ganondorf was furious, for any number of reasons, he would not even look at another Gerudo to spar. Honestly, he might have killed them. Even if I was in the middle of training with my teacher, he would grab his sword and interrupt. He was able to let off quite a bit of steam, and I gained experience. I think that, in a way, he was disappointed when he walked away from those fights, because I was still not able to defeat him while he was blinded by rage.

Eventually I became obsessed with victory. I wanted to hate him, but it was during the course of our training that I found myself infatuated with him. I longed for more than just our sparring matches. It made focusing on his defeat more difficult. Failure began to enrage me to the point I was like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I remember one time distinctly.

Ganondorf had me pinned against the ground, the point of his large sword pressed against my stomach. Instead of staying dead like I should have, I kicked the underside of his wrist with the tip of my foot. He lost control of the sword and I rolled away. "At last," he exclaimed! I was confused at first. How could he be happy that I just cheated in a fair duel? And then I realized, nothing was fair to Ganondorf.

Now, you might say that he held an advantage, because he can use magic and I can't. If you're wondering this, you must understand that I don't accept failure, no matter how high the odds are stacked against me, and neither does Ganondorf. There was no excuse.

I fought so fiercely against him that he had to force me into submission, and practically suffocate me to unconsciousness, before I quit. He stood up and walked away with his sword in hand, not even bothering to say a word to me. Seething, I pulled myself up to one knee. I beat the ground with my fist and scraped my knuckles on the stone. While everyone watched, I screamed at him, "You jerk! How? Why can't I win? Tell me how you keep beating me!"

"Dora!" the mentors yelled at me, and started apologizing to Ganondorf for my disrespectful outburst. They were silenced by a wave of his hand.

He turned to face me, that smug smile on his face that I just wanted to claw to pieces. "You have much emotion, which makes you an intriguing opponent," he started off, almost mocking me. "You allow it to interfere with your skill. You miss blatant opportunities because you are so wrapped up in what you feel. It controls you. You must control it, or you will never excel above your peers," he lectured.

Out of nowhere, I felt completely calm. The fire that uncontrollably burned in the spirit was suddenly quenched, as if a merciful rainstorm paused overhead. Even with all the Gerudo staring between him and me, I felt like I had just been bestowed the most sacred gift of the Goddess of the Sand. I finally stood to both feet and walked toward him, just to lower myself to one knee again. "Thank you," I said. He seemed confused, but I just grinned and said, "Next time, you won't walk away from our match."

I made good on that promise.