Raiding Troubles

I was furious the next day!

The raid on the caravan of goods we desperately needed was almost a disaster. They herded cows and pigs, horses, carried bread, vegetables, enough that we could have either had a feast, or rationed it to make it last for a month. There was even enough cloth to make everyone a new set of clothes. It was like a pot of gold for us, and someone tried to sabotage it.

It was a trap.

Stained with blood across my uniform, my arms, and face, I dragged the only Hylian I spared to the throne room within the fortress. My goal? To present him before the Gerudo king so that he could confess exactly what happened, and why.

Ganondorf was honestly shocked when I barged into the throne room and shoved the injured Hylian at his feet.

"Speak, whelp!" I ordered. He whimpered and said nothing, so I explained the events, in detail, to help him open up. "The traders moving the caravan were armed, and they were prepared for us. We were forced to kill all of them, but managed to still bring the produce, and the animals."

"How many Gerudo were injured?" Ganondorf asked, concerned. And people wondered why I respected him.

"Two of my team were shot with arrows," I explained, turning a death stare to the long-eared Hylian man. "They'll live, as long as their wounds don't become infected. The other I barely managed to save from being stabbed by his sword."

Ganondorf lifted the man up by his shirt and fiercely glared at him with their gazes locked. Fear and intimidation made sweat drip from the Hylian's scalp. "Who is your informant? How did you know you were going to be attacked?"

"M-makoi," he whimpered.

"She's one of the girls that plotted against you," I pointed out quickly.

The Hylian man continued. "She told us the Gerudo were p-planning to steal all our food we were going to trade in Hyrule."

"Didn't it seem suspicious that a Gerudo was selling out their own kind?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"She only said that we'd be doing the Gerudo Queen a favor."

"Gerudo Queen?" I snapped. 

"Makoi!" Ganondorf shouted, and dropped the prisoner. He stumbled to keep his balance. The Gerudo warrior entered from the hallway, and I recognized her as my former archery trainer. "Kill him," Ganondorf ordered coldly. "We can't risk him going to the King of Hyrule and ruining everything I have worked so hard to achieve."

"My lord, are you sure?" she asked, almost timid.

"If you question my orders again, I will kill both of you! Now kill him," he ordered with a voice that filled the room. She drew her sword.

They stared at each other, Makoi and the Hylian prisoner, him begging for mercy, and her trying to build up the nerve to take his innocent life. It might have only been a few seconds, but it was long enough that I became impatient, and slit his throat for her.

"Why did you do that?" she screamed at me. "He was just trying to provide for his family!"

"I did it because your king ordered you to and you hesitated! We have to provide for an entire civilization to survive," I screamed back at her, and pressed my bloody blade to her throat. "We almost lost three comrades today because you wanted to follow a weak leader!"

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Ganondora," Ganondorf said, his voice calm and deep, and stopped me from slicing her throat too. "I have a more suitable punishment for her."

And that was the first time I witnessed the transformation of a Gerudo into an Iron Knuckle/ I watched the destruction of her will. Her eyes went completely blank, as if her soul had vacated her body and she was left with just bone and flesh. "So, Makoi's completely mindless?"

"Entirely. All she's good for is fighting. I'll send her out to the Spirit Temple to rot in some armor."

I let the silence fill the room, and watched the blood still flowing from the dead body. "Did you really make her queen?" I asked, fearful.

"You have to trust me," was his only answer.

He neither confirmed nor denied it, so I took my wounded heart and left. I heard him shout an order to clean up the room before I was out of the corridor.

For two weeks I sulked while at the fortress, because Nabooru had taken her act so far that she never left his side. Everyone whispered that Ganondorf had finally offered the position of queen to her. Me, and only a handful of others, refused to accept the general belief. I kept up a good act while I was with Ganondorf in Hyrule. After our fourth meeting, I had a difficult time coming up with anything to talk about, other than Nabooru, so I was silent the entire way home. I only finally opened up again after the incident with Zelda, and that conversation reassured me that not everything was as it seemed.