Sandy
Smash Champion
Prologue
The Hero of Wind jumps up to bury the Master Sword in my head. As the Sword touches my scalp, memories flood back in...all of my life came flashing before my eyes, ever since I had lived to the Gerudos till now...
I had always hated my name. The last syllable always provided a good excuse for people to make fun of me for. Mayhaps that is why I was so evil.
When I was little, I had very little friends my gender. In fact, given my race, Gerudos, I had no friends my gender. It was only when I finally left the Valley when I found out that I was not the only male in the world.
It was not until I was seven that I found that that I was supposed to be the Gerudo King.
“A great ruler? Me?” I had asked of my mother. “But nobody likes me.”
It had been true at the time. No one had liked me. But, when I gained power at fifteen, it turned different. Whenever I passed, a Gerudo was bowing down low, curtseying, or would stop their work. When I asked why they did that, they explained, “I am too low to have you see me toil away under the hot sun. ’Twould ruin thy eyes, my King.”
When I was nineteen I heard that Hylians had found an entrance to the Sacred Realm and the Triforce in the Desert long, long ago. I was enraged. Who dare enter my Valley!
I gathered up a score of my followers to scour the land. I was not sure if they had been telling the truth. Had they been trying to make me look like a fool?
Just as I was about to give up, one of my followers sat down on a rock and fell through. I leapt down after her to find a beautiful and luscious land that looked just like Hyrule. The Sacred Realm!
“King, mayhaps we should stock up on supplies and search for the Triforce later,” suggested a pretty Gerudo, Nabooru. She was my second-in-command, the female chieftain if I was slain. “It may take hours, days, weeks, months, to find where the Triforce’s exact location is.”
I gave out my first compliment ever. “Good point, Nabooru. All right, let’s go! Up to Hyrule! To the desert!” When we arrived back at the rock (which I had marked with making a square in the sand around it), I took out my twin swords and slew my followers. I didn’t need them now! I would rule Hyrule my whole life! No one could stop me, not even Din, Farore, or Nayru!
I was so blinded by power that I didn’t notice one of my followers get up on her knees and crawl away. Nabooru!
I laughed and wiped away the square around the magical rock entrance. I then kicked the rock, expecting to go through it. Instead, I got a sharp pain in my foot.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!” I screamed in fury. “This is impossible!”
They had locked up the entrance to the Sacred Realm!!!!!!!!!! I took out my swords and began hitting the rock. When it did not break, not at all, I went about slicing up the corpses of my old followers. Not even then did I notice that there were only nineteen corpses.
It was a while before I calmed down. I decided to wage war on the Hylians, who I need had closed up the Sacred Realm entrance. I called on creatures that had nothing else to do and my Gerudos. They fought. When I was atop my black stallion, Midnight, I saw a couple racing away. The woman was clutching something to her chest. I ordered a Gerudo to shoot them with arrows. The Gerudo got the man. He stumbled and fell. The woman stopped to help him, but the man gasped out, “Save our son!”
The woman, her eyes shining with unshed tears, raced away. I ordered the Gerudo to kill the woman. The Gerudo got her on the shoulder! She didn’t kill the woman! The Gerudo escaped before I could kill her for that blunder. I didn’t know this at the time, but that woman was carrying a boy named Link. The woman got hurt by flashing sword and stones from slings and slingshots. As she stumbled into the forest, she was already dying. She saw some small children grouping around her. A girl with green clothes and green hair came forward and asked, in a worried and kindly voice, “What is wrong?”
“Please, save my son from the horrors out there,” rasped the woman. Blood spilled from her wounds and her eyelids closed forever. The green-haired girl, who I believe is called Sara or Saria, took the blonde haired blue eyed boy into her arms. She held the young boy close and promised the woman, “I will be his best friend.”
Those words fell upon deaf ears. Link’s mother was dead.
I lost the fight. I lost the war. I had waged a war for two years and now there was nothing gained. I retreated to the Valley. For a year I hid there, hoping that no one would recognize me. I then went to the King of Hyrule. I gave a large, sweeping bow to him.
“My lord!” I murmured as I straightened up. “It seems that you have cleaned up from the war.”
“That you began?” replied the King coolly. I grimaced.
“My dear King, I was given false information,” I lied. “I had been told that the entrance to the Sacred Realm, the one in the desert, had been sealed. I had been searching for the Triforce to make me prosperous.” “Oh?” drawled the King.
“To make me prosperous after I enriched Hyrule, of course,” I added on hopefully.
The King raised an eyebrow. Curses. He was not as gullible as I thought.
“We have made another entrance to the Sacred Realm. Not even I know were it is.”
I knew that he was dismissing me. My blood boiled. I pointed a threatening finger at the King. “This is not the last that you have heard of Ganondorf Dragmire!”
It was nine years later when I went back to form another truce. The King accepted this time and I knew that this time, I would gain the Triforce...
I heard about a little boy going on a quest to get these jewels. I didn’t take much notice until I heard that the jewels were worth a lot...the Kokiri’s Emerald, the Goron’s Ruby and Zora’s Sapphire all sounded to be of wealth. I hopped upon Midnight and galloped into Hyrule Castle Town to capture the beautiful princess, Princess Zelda. She and her nursemaid, a Sheikan named Impa, raced out on a white mare. I wheeled Midnight around and chased after the two. When I came out, I saw this boy. He was dressed in green clothes and had blonde hair. The Princess threw something into the moat of the castle. I gave an evil grin to the boy and chased after Zelda and Impa.
After a bit I gave up chasing their horse. I hate to admit it, but their horse had obviously been treated with love and care and wanted to please its mistress and was much faster. I, on the other hand, had scared my horse into doing things for me. How else could I have trained it?
I entered Hyrule Castle Town and caught snatches of a conversation:
“This boy, he dashes through the town to the Temple of Time.”
“What d’ye think he’s going to do there, eh?”
“And why did he have such a scared expression on his face?”
The next conversation I heard was about me.
“It’s him! The Gerudo King!”
“Hey, you, King Ganondorf! Have you come to wreak havoc on us, eh? Or just to have us kill your minions?” That was greeted with hearty guffaws. I turned to the townspeople and yelled, “The Triforce will be in my hands and when I get it, I will turn you all into zombies! You will become horrifying creatures and will never escape!”
They laughed at this. I ran through the crowd, towards the Temple of Time. Of course! What better place to hide the Sacred Realm than there?
When I entered, I saw the boy, Link, pulling a sword – the Master Sword! – out of a pedestal. I lunged forward and rasped, “Thank you for showing me the way to the Sacred Realm, boy.”
I fell into the Sacred Realm...right in front of the Triforce. I rambled on a long list of what I wanted. “I wish that the townspeople who mocked me to become zombies...No, something worse than zombies...ReDeads! I want an army of minions. There will be plenty of them! A whole horde...a huge one, so that not even all of the Hylians, Sheikans, and Gerudos can defeat me. I will win! I want this land to be covered in darkness. I want to rule this world!” I rambled on about what my minions would be like. I then approached the Triforce and laid a finger on it. I will win!
My wish came true. For seven years I was the ruler. Then, something horrific happened. I saw the boy Link again! Worst of all, he could time-travel! I was enraged. That boy with a talkative light bulb with wings as a sidekick was trying to defeat me!
I did all I could to defeat this...this...this...this “Hero of Time.” When he went back in time, I tried to steal things he needed as an adult...but the stupid boy was always a step ahead of me!
One day, I heard a sound of battle in my lair. I asked a minion what was going on and heard the horrific news: Link had entered my castle and was going to kill me!
I fought savagely. It was impossible to beat this guy, though. In the end, he was the one to deliver the final blow. They all believed that Link had killed me but he had not. He had merely made me hover between Life and Death in the Sacred Realm.
For hundred of years I was in between Life and Death. Fate could not choose where to place me. In the end, Fate placed me in Life. I was grateful. I waged another war against Hyrule, with all of my minions. I won. As I was about to bring my sword down on the King, King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, I was stopped. I was standing still in time. My Moblins and Darknuts were still. Daphnes and I looked around, confused. Three orbs, red, green, and blue, came down. Din...Farore...Nayru! I bowed low to them, and then the Three Great Goddesses turned into replicas of three beautiful women.
Din had fiery red hair and light brown eyes. Her eyes shone with the light of battle. She wore a long dress that seemed to be made of flames. Even though she was three yards away from me and the King, I could feel her heat. She looked at me with a mixture of pride and hatred: pride because I wielded her Triforce piece, and hatred because of what I was doing to the world she had helped to create.
Farore had green hair cut down to a bit below her earlobes and lime green eyes. Beneath all of my awe, she reminded me of the Kokiri girl named Saria. She wore a green tunic and a green, soft skirt. The angry look on her pretty face read, “Do you worst, Dragman Ganon. I fear no Gerudo.”
Nayru was looking at me with a calm face. Her pale face was lined with sea-blue curls and two perfect cobalt eyes set right above and to the side of her nose. Her cherry-colored lips were curved into a frown. Not of hatred or confusion, but of...disappointment. That made my stomach turn. Nayru looked like one of the innocent girls that I had driven out of their house, ruined their lives, made them orphans...I shook myself, sending a shudder through my body. Nayru made all of the things I had done turn back on me. Before my eyes flashed the visions of a village on fire. Instead of a little girl weeping as she obeyed her mother’s orders to run, run and save her life, to forget her mother, it was me. I was a little boy, crying and stumbling over rocks, screaming as horses and escaped cattle stampeded by, and not even caring that they broke an arm or a leg when they saw me, Ganondorf Dragmire, emerging through the flames and smoke...
I forced myself to look at the powerful face of Din, then the courageous face of Farore, and finally the wise face of Nayru, to meet them all in the eyes, and to have the same message in my eyes: “I am Ganondorf Dragmire. I will win in the end.”
Din turned to Farore and Nayru. She spoke words, yet not aloud. Her voice sounded like a flickering flame and a crackling fire. Her voice was soft and gentle, yet she had the harshest voice of all. My dear sisters, what shall we do with this villain?
Farore gave a small smile. Her voice sounded like birds chirping and leaves rustling, and occasionally a bee droning. What can we do with him? He is a cruel man. Death would be too good for him; they will think that we are weak.
Nayru’s voice was the softest. It sounded like a bubbling and chuckling stream when she began to talk, but at the end of her piece, when she got angrier, her voice was the sound of crashing waves in a thunderstorm. When the gentle goddess got angry, she had a harsher voice then steel grating against steel.
Even though it is hard to believe that we would make something so heartless, so vile, so disgustingly despicable, he and his Gerudos were our creation. He had defied the order and balance and had messed up the world we created. Did he not realize that the world he was destroying was his, too! Did this Gerudo slug not think about the big picture and only about himself! Did Ganondorf Dragmire not realize that, if he destroys Hyrule, that he will be Dragman Ganon, King of Ruined Castles and Broken Buildings? Of Monsters and ReDeads? Of dirt and filth!
The waves crashed around me. I almost felt as if the seawater would capture me and drown me. I had not thought of all of that. How could I have been such an idiot? What would I rule, once I had won? I had won, once, and had ruled...oh, yes, Princess Zelda. But the only plans I had had for her was for her to bear my children. Then, she may as well have jumped into the lava pit beneath my castle. And why, oh why, had I turned those people into ReDeads? What good does it do? Zombies can’t be slaves! Those Moblins are thickheads! How could they understand orders that aren’t: “Find intruders and capture them”?
So I had been stupid. But still, I would have had my revenge. If I had had the Triforce, I would had wished for Link to be dead, for everyone to be my slave...I had been blinded by my own greed and stupidity! And look at where Fate had put me. In front of the harshest jury of all, a jury that could never be hung. I was standing in front of the Three Great Goddesses. Oh, and guess what? They were on that stupid Daphnes’ side! What horrible, stinking, rotten luck.
But I kept on looking at the Goddesses. I wasn’t going to do anything they wanted!
Let’s do SOMETHING with this...this...this Gerudo, Din finally suggested. Her angriness made her voice sound like roaring flames in a forge.
Do what, though? What can we do with the villain? asked Farore. Her voice sounded like the groaning of trees as they were bent back in a gale when she was angry.
We must get rid of Hyrule. It has caused too much distress. Grab the Gerudo, Fire Sister. Plant Sister, grab the King. Nayru’s voice sounded like the wind screaming across the ocean right before a storm as she tried to force herself to stay calm.
The Goddesses obeyed. I was grabbed by Din. She did not touch me, but she held herself in such a way that I always believed that I had been touched by a Goddess.
We’re sorry, Hyrule, Din whispered. Farore waved good-bye to the plants and trees. She and Din then made magic come from their hands. A large, magical barrier protected a good portion of Hyrule. I was disappointed to see that they did not cover my Valley.
Farore then gently placed the King inside of the Castle.
Take care of yourself, instructed Farore. She and Nayru then did a powerful magical movement and whispered something in the language of the Goddesses. All of the inhabitants of Hyrule were swept up into their grasp. Din chose a Kokiri boy and a Zoran girl and gave them powers. Later, I learned that they would be Sages.
Then, all of the Kokiris were turned into small, wood-like creatures with leaf masks to cover their faces. Farore sent them to a talking tree, the “Great Deku Tree”. The Zoras were turned into bird-like humans that Nayru christened “Ritos”. She sent them to live with a dragon.
Nayru grabbed the seas and waters of Hyrule and raised them. Water rolled down into Hyrule, covering it up. I gave a gasp.
It’s not that special, replied Nayru coolly. All gods and goddesses, depending on their power, can make enough of it so that it will cover a full planet.
When the water was done, all that remain were the tops of mountains. Din sighed and flattened out the mountains, making islands.
Din, Farore, and Nayru sent the Hylians to different islands. Slowly, and sadly, they gently wiped the memories of the Hylians, making them believe that they had always been living on this sea...
Din then carried me to a forlorn island. She settled me there and told me, We will make sure that there is someone who will hold my Plant Sister’s Triforce. He will wield the Master Sword. If you try to rise against our powers, we will make sure that he will come and defeat you.
After she left, I salvaged rocks and building materials. It took me years to do it all by myself, but I finally did it. I made a fortress.
I named it the Forbidden Fortress. In Ancient Hylian, though, its name was different. Its name was “Rarjair dwong Ganondorf’s Farmiaredoth”...Fort of Ganondorf’s Revenge!
