The Young Chief

Evening of Sunday, June 10, 2018

The Young Chief

When the night was cool I walked out from the Gerudo Canyon Stable to Kara Kara Bazaar to go arrow-shopping. Then it was off to Gerudo Town for more of the same, chased by Lizalfos all night....

My goodness, that arrow-stall in town.... It’s like a candy store. A very expensive candy store where the sweets come with fletching and they oftentimes explode. I bought most of the lady’s stock, spending thousands of rupees I am sure. But I got a little of it back when, after I was done purchasing, I sold the lady my spare Gerudo attire. I don’t need it.

I met Jules in passing on the street again—“Sav’otta!” she said, “Instead of ‘good morning’.” She said she wanted to practice using Gerudo words.

So Sav’otta meant good morning....

Well, that was one phrase I could translate, then!

I approached the palace. The guards maintained a fierce manner (“. . . or else you and my spear will have a very personal conversation!” Link flinched at threatened retribution for bad behavior!) but they let me in. Evidently Chief Riju was still up to entertaining visitors.

The throne room was wide, with gently-flowing, shallow aqueducts lining the way to the throne. Riju sat leaning to one side upon it, her cheek resting lightly on delicate knuckles. Her clothes were exquisitely beautiful, and an ornate headdress nestled perfectly in her fiery hair. She certainly had the air of a Chief, but she was still so young—short in the midst of all these towering women. To her left stood her protector Buliara, an enormous guard with intimidating armor. She looked down at me with wideset eyes flanking a broad nosebridge....

“Just another traveler....” Riju started, but then seemed to subtly notice something, and added that perhaps there was more to this one that met the eye.

It was that thing on my hip....

The Chief seemed to have a soft-spoken way. So young but so collected. Calm. Her blue lipstick only ever bent her mouth between a coolly disconnected concern, mirrored by her brow.... and a quiet, intelligent smile, beneath eyes that could see a thousand miles.

They asked me what I wanted. I told them I could calm Vah Naboris. And as I saw Link gesticulating in his Gerudo Attire I just imagined him talking in a girly voice, and laughed.

Somehow it felt relatable to a contralto like me.... |D

Buliara scoffed that only Champions like Lady Urbosa could possibly stand a chance at such a venture. And she didn’t recall any Hylian vai among the Champions.

Riju asked me my name.

“Link.”

There was one Hylian among the Champions, too, Riju reminded Buliara. The Chief remembered hearing that the Princess Zelda had put the fallen warrior into an enchanted sleep. And his name was Link, too.

Chief Riju opened her eyes from thought and looked at me.

“You’re a voe.”

Oh they found me out.

Buliara became incensed at this incursion!

But Riju directed her protector’s attentions to the object hanging on my hip: “A treasured relic of the Sheikah,” she said, “You don’t think, Buliara, that they’d entrust it to just some drifter, do you?”

I think Riju knew who I was....

Though her face and demeanor were so well masked.

I suppose it came from dwelling in a city of all women.

Still, Buliara had limited faith in me, and suggested—perhaps not entirely out of good will.... “Why not have him prove himself by retrieving the stolen Thunder Helm?”

Riju softly considered this and hmmm.... agreed to it. “Go through that arch,” she directed me to my right, “It leads to the barracks. Talk to Captain Teake.” The Captain and her subordinates, Riju suggested, would be able to give me any information I needed on the whereabouts of the thieves....

And so I took my leave.

I remembered these barracks—I walked down the stairs and visited with all the Gerudo in training again, gleaning what tidbits they could give me, until I came to Captain Teake on her higher platform in the back.

Captain Teake stood strong and solid with her arms crossed, overseeing the exercises of her soldiers. I’d forgotten that she had the lightest complexion of any Gerudo I’d ever met. I wondered if she burned in the sun....

The Captain and her women seemed to have been made aware that they were to cooperate with me, and they did. I asked around, collected some clues, and wouldn’t you know it.... It seemed the thieves who had stolen the Thunder Helm were nestled away in Karusa Valley.

Or as I had become wont to refer to it....

SATAN CANYON.

Yup.

There was nothing for it then but a quick warp to the Sho Dantu Shrine in that valley, a little bit of a hike up the way—worked my way up, killed some Yiga—and before I knew it I had once again come to the end of the canyon.

But this time.... the doorway into the sandstone was wide open.

....

So I called my brother David.

He sounded busy. “What’s up?” he asked, or some variant thereof.

“Well I am about to enter the Yiga Nest and I wondered if you wanted me to wait for you.”

I heard him gasp.

Seemed like a real dilemma.

I knew this was the part he’d said he was most excited to watch me play.

“Where are you?” I asked him.

“Shara’s house.”

“What are you doing?”

“Just talking.”

“What are you talking about?”

“. . . .”

Sometimes I feel like such a family dog.

Not that I guess I’d know at all—we’ve never had a dog.

David hemmed and hawed and huffed and hmmmed but.... in the end he said he just couldn’t make me wait, when he knew where I was, when he knew what I was playing. He was too far away to be back any time soon . . . . though if I felt like waiting for him at all.... that.... would be cool.... Oh but he couldn’t, not really. I should just go ahead....

I should just go ahead....

I should just go ahead....

. . . .

Mmmm ehhhhhh I would just....