While in the Desert

÷÷÷ Chapter 1 ÷÷÷.

Traveling across the desert was awful. Zelda felt like her skin was melting off. It was so hot she couldn't even feel sweat on her skin. It seemed as if she had any sweat it evaporated before she could realize it was there. Zelda didn't know if she preferred that or not. Her boots sunk into the sand with every step. They couldn't bring their horses with them, not that Zelda would have. The desert was far too extreme for that type of animal.

They had stopped and rested in a small settlement half way from Gerudo Canyon Stable and Gerudo Town, Kara Kara Bazaar. There was an oasis in the middle. The sun was low in the sky as late afternoon settled upon them. Zelda took her boots off and stepped into the water. It felt cool and refreshing. She thought about submerging herself into the water but then her clothes would be wet, and she only had one pair with her.

Zelda turned around and stepped out of the shallow water. The sand was hot on her feet. She ran hissing in pain into the shade of a nearby palm tree.

"Be careful."

She heard from her left. Link was standing there with the hint of a smile on his face. Clearly he had just watched her do that, but he had held back the laugh she heard in his voice.

"I'm fine."

Zelda looked over to the water she had just made her way from. Her boots laid there in the sand. She couldn't get them without crossing the hot sand again. Oh well, her legs hurt so sitting down for the first time in hours felt great anyway. She'd just relax in the shade for now. She could ask Link to get them for her, but for some reason she didn't want to.

She laid back on the ground and closed her eyes, not caring if she became covered in sand. Not that she wasn't already. A minute later she heard two soft thuds as her boots appeared next to her. Link stood on her right. Of course, he would do that. She thanked him.

"I'll go get some food for us, princess."

Her eyebrows narrowed. She'd told him repeatedly to just call her by her name, she sighed.

"Alright."

A few minutes later he came back with some hydromelon and sand blanket, thin tightly woven material for sitting on. He laid it in the shade and Zelda moved to sit on it and he joined her. Taking a knife from the supply pouch he carried he started cutting the fruit into small pieces. Zelda grabbed one and took a bite, it was sweet and juicy. They ate slowly enjoying the delicious fruit.

"I reserved two beds for us for the night in the inn. We should rest early so we can leave early in the morning. It won't be so hot the earlier we leave for Gerudo Town."

"Good idea." Zelda said reaching for her boots.

Early the next morning they got up and ate some breakfast. The sun was hardly breaking the horizon when Link and Zelda made their way out. The trek there was a lot more comfortable than it had been yesterday afternoon. By mid morning Gerudo Town was in sight, it wouldn't be much longer before they got there.

Outside the walls of Gerudo Town a traveler informed them that only women were allowed inside. Zelda was aware of this fact as Link was. She had come here to visit. She hadn't been to been to Gerudo Town since before the Calamity. Link sat underneath the tent set up on the front wall.

"Enjoy your visit, Zelda." He said.

"Thanks."

One of the guards guarding the main entrance greeted her.

"Sav'otta. Welcome to the Gerudo Town."

Zelda repeated the greeting with a smile before she walked inside. The main square opened up right in front of the entrance. Zelda remembered being here many times before the Calamity had struck, and she was still quite taken with the desert village. The special air of peace that she remembered still resided inside these walls. She heard quiet music playing from somewhere. On both sides of the open center square of town were outdoor shops set up. Zelda walked around town and checked out what each shop keeper had to sell. Everyone was kind and polite and nobody addressed her as "princess." They didn't seem to know who she was and it felt strange that they didn't. Her whole life she had been known as her title, always recognized and respected as someone who was higher than everyone else. But she realized something else as well, she enjoyed being treated like a normal person. Being seen and talked to casually as if she were just another traveler in town felt really nice.

She came across a clothing shop with a large sign above it with the words "Fashion Passion" hung above the door. She was greeted by a woman who introduced herself as Saula, On two walls of her small shop was a collection of Gerudo clothing. Handmade tops, sirwals, and veils. They were of mostly the same style but there were many different colors to choose from. Zelda looked through the selection and considered heavily on buying an outfit. It was so hot outside, wearing pants and her usual long sleeved top felt like torture in the heat. She no longer had the white dress she had owned before, as it was ruined and stained. It would feel so much better to walk around in more airy clothing.

So she bought a red and dark purple set. Saula let her change in the back room of her shop. Putting it on she realized just how little material there was to it. She stood in the small room looking down at herself and immediately felt extremely self-concious. She felt almost naked. The short top didn't even reach her belly button but at least it hid her cleavage. The sirwal went just below her knees. It was so revealing but that was normal for Gerudo clothing. Showing so much skin was the usual. Gathering up her normal clothes and folding them she walked out of the back room. The shopkeeper turned around and saw her.

"That looks great on a beautiful vai like yourself." She said, using the gerudo term for "woman."

"Thank you." Zelda said as she felt her cheeks go red.

Before she left Saula hooked her up with a pair of sandals to complete her outfit as well. Zelda thanked her again with a smile before leaving.

"Sarqso. Have a lovely day."

Zelda walked to the center of the main square. Her stomach growled loudly, it had to be about lunch time. There were many outdoor shops that sold food here. Zelda thought about what she wanted to eat and wondered if Link was hungry too. Actually, she wondered what he was even doing. There wasn't much outside town except the desert. Curious and not really wanting to eat without him she went back out the main entrance of town.

Link was sitting on top of a crate under the sun tent they'd parted at. She heard him laugh at something a male traveler was saying. The other man was talking excitedly while sitting on a sand blanket. Zelda walked up to them and the stranger noticed her first. He paused in the middle of his sentence with his mouth open. It took Link a couple more seconds to look over and see her standing there.

Link had been enjoying a story a fellow traveler had been telling him about the crossdressing man at Kara Kara Bazaar. Apparently he had been found out when on one of his trips into Gerudo Town. The guards inside had chased him around for several minutes before catching him. A loud ruckus had been heard outside the walls. Bozai, the man he was talking with, had witnessed them throwing him out into the sand. He said it had been hilarious to watch. Link wished he had gotten to see that.

The man before him stopped talking suddenly and his eyes popped out of his head as he looked to the side to Link's left. He followed the man's line of sight and felt his heart skip when his eyes laid on what he found. Who he saw, rather.

Standing there in colorful Gerudo outfit was none other than the woman he was traveling with. Zelda. Her outfit left little to the imagination. His mouth dropped open a second but he clamped it back shut quickly. He was shocked to see her wearing something so revealing. This was far less clothing than he had ever seen her wear. She was wearing a top that showed her belly button leaving her mid-drift completely exposed. Her top connected to a necklace in the middle. Two thin gold chains hung down over her belly and connected to the waistband of her sirwal. She had a pair of sandals on instead of her boots as well. She held her regular clothes in her hands at her sides.

Wow. She looked so beautiful. Not that that was anything new, Zelda was always beautiful. But right now it was if Link was seeing her in a whole new light.

"I'm back. I was wondering if you were hungry."

He watched as her cheeks grew red as she stood there. Her green eyes looked back at him and he saw her eyebrows lower above them.

Link realized he'd been staring at her and she had definitely just noticed. He blinked and adverted his eyes slightly to the wall just to the right, and swallowed to clear his now dry throat.

"S-sure. We can eat lunch now."

A couple seconds passed and the Zelda cleared her throat and Link looked back in her eyes. But she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were staring at the man sitting on the ground below the crate Link was sitting on. Looking at the guy he had been talking with before she showed up he noticed that he was giving her quite the look. His eyes were practically bulging out of head, his mouth was in a grin and his cheeks were red. He was staring at her intensely. His eyes went up and down her body and he let out a low pitched laugh. The sound irked Link.

He could understand why the guy was staring. That he got completely as Zelda was quite the attractive woman, but he didn't like the way he was doing it. Link glanced at Zelda and saw that she was giving then man a dirty look and had her regular clothes and boots held up in front of her body.

"Hey. Knock it off. Show her some respect and stop drooling like a pig."

Link said. Bozai ignored him completely. His grin got even bigger. It made him sick to see other men stare at women in a degrading way such as this, as if they were some sort of toy or prize. Like this freak was looking at the Princess of Hyrule right now.

Link's blood began to boil.

"Hey cutie. How about you and I go some place fun together. I know a great place not too far from here where we could go."

Link got down off the crate and stood in front of him. Bozai leaned to the side as if he didn't realize that someone was the reason he could no longer see the pretty girl in front of him.

"I suggest you knock it off." Link said loudly, his voice was full of disgust and fire.

When Bozai didn't respond or even look at him, Link lifted his foot and shoved his boot into the creep's chest. The man fell backwards into the sand with a shriek. He finally took notice of Link in front of him and yelled.

"What the hell, man!? What's your problem?"

Bozai said scrambling to his feet. He gave Link a nasty glare as if he had been the one doing something so degrading.

"Get lost. She's not interested." He said with a dangerously low voice.

"Pfft. Get out of my way you little punk, I think the lady can speak for herself."

"I'm only warning you once."

Link said reaching back and putting his hand on the hilt of his sword. The perverted pig's eyes followed the action and then looked back into Link's murderous glare. He raised his hands up in front of his chest and stepped back several feet in surrender.

"Okay, okay! I'm gone. Just relax, man."

He said with a high shaky voice. Link could see fear in his eyes before he turned and ran off the opposite direction. Letting go of his sword Link let go of the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It was a good thing the man had the brains to back off, he wouldn't have hesitated teaching him a lesson. Link had never used his sword on another person to scare them off or hurt someone, but he knew that he would have done whatever it took to get him away from Zelda.

It was a shame really, the guy seemed to be alright when he had been talking to him before Zelda came over.

"The world is full of nasty, disgusting people. You can't trust anyone."

Those words popped into his head. He remembered someone telling him that once. He couldn't remember who, but the words were certainly true.

Turning around he saw the princess staring at him. A moment later she smiled and he felt the same warm fluttering in his chest he always did when he saw her beautiful smile.

"Shall we eat then?"

He said. Zelda giggled and nodded. What's funny? He thought as he turned to the small pack of supplies they brought with them atop the crate.

Zelda stepped over beside him. She put her extra clothes and boots down. They enjoyed some fruit that they had brought with them. Zelda knew she would have to go in and buy them some more food later. But for now a snack would satisfy her hungry belly.

Hey. Thanks for reading. : ) So… I originally I was going to have this story in a one shot compilation I planned to do. But then it started getting really, really long till it was almost 10k words lol, and I'm not even done writing everything I made notes to write about. There's that and I've written it like a continuous story all the way through. So I'm going to post what I've written in chapters since all my Gerudo Town ideas connect together. If you see any mistakes send me a note or something so I can fix it. I hope you enjoyed this and will also like what's next to come. Tell me what you thought please. Reviews make me very happy.