Seedle Excerpt!

Here is an excerpt from a SikaxBeedle fic Roy is working on for the zine!

  *        *        *

“Ow…” My head feels like I just got bludgeoned by a bokoblin club…. Aaaannnd I’m in a dark room again. I have a feeling that girl will show up again-BRIGHT LIGHTS- ok there she is. Except she looks nicer this time around, her red hair done up in a neater bun, her face touched up with make-up. Goddess she looks beautiful-NO! I mentally shake those thoughts out of my head. This isn’t right!

“So,” Sika (that is her name, right?) squats down to my level. “Mom was right. I really should have taken you out for diner before moving to the kidnapping. So I brought you here! We are gonna have dinner together!”

It takes some time for me to process what she said. “So,” I annunciate, “you kidnap me in order the have dinner with me so that you can kidnap me?”

“Well, when you put it that way…”

I groan, my hand going to my eyes. Wait, can move freely. I’m not bound like last time?

“Oh! Looks like dinner’s about to start! Come on!” She grabs my hand and drags me out of the dark room. I yelp at the sudden movement. I am definitely gonna feel that whiplash in the morning.

Looking around the area I find out that, well, it’s not as bad as I thought it was. A palace is carved into the rock face, something that must have taken centuries to build. My mouth opens in awe. This place is huge!

Sika must have seen my expression, because she suddenly states, “Pretty, ain’t it? We use to travel around a lot, never staying in one place at a time. But then we took back our palace from the Hylians and now we live here, where we belong.” She has this wistful look to her face. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, she isn’t as bad as I thought.

“So, you live in a palace, huh?” I feel a small, serine smile on my lips as she turns around in happy surprise. Suddenly, a huge grin brightens up her face. Goddess, she’s beautiful when she smiles.

“Yup!” She tugs at me to go faster. “And there will be no diner left if we don’t hurry. Link and Dad are such gluttons.”

Wait… As she drags me across the sands, I finally put two and two together. I dig my hell into the ground to stop our progression, not that it does anything, really. It does get the Gerudo’s attention, though.

“What’s ‘a matta? You not hungry?”

I don’t say anything, just shake as she forces my wobbly lags to move. If what I heard her say is right, then she has a dad. The Gerudo race is all women with only one male, and that male becomes King. Which means that I-I’m going to be eating w-with the King of the Gerudo! I’ve heard so many brutal stories about him. He could kill me with just a glare! AND THIS GIRL IS HIS DAUGHTER! Oh Goddess have mercy on me I am going to meet a monster he will tear me from limb to limb if I say or do anything wrong! Before I know it, we are inside the palace, just outside a curtain.

Sika suddenly rounded on me, making me tense up. “Now, there are a few rules.” Of course there are. “One: only one serving of each food per person. We are still low on food, despite having this super awesome palace. Two: don’t listen to anything Link says. He’s an idiot that doesn’t know when to shut up. And three: by the Goddess, do NOT joke with my dad. Once you laugh at one of his embarrassing jokes, he will. Not. Stop!”

I just nod my head stiffly. She grins at me then grabs my hand again and drags me through the door. 

The hall is huge! High ceilings, lots of spacing, but what surprises me the most is that there are no tables. There is an elevated slab at one end of the room with a set up to look like a buffet table, but in the middle was just a long blanket with pillows surrounding it. Gerudo are dotted throughout the room, getting food or sitting on one of the pillows eating their dinner.

Sika places me on one of the pillows. “Stay. I will be back the food, ok? Then we can enjoy ourselves.” She winks at me before scurrying off, leaving me in this… awkward environment.

That’s when I spot something I recognize out of the corner of my eye. It is just a flash of yellow and… pink? But even so, I can recognize that face from anywhere. The Gerudo boy. I lean over to get a better look at him only to flop face-first onto the floor. Good going, Beedle, now everyone is staring at you, including the Gerudo boy- aaannnd he’s comng over here. Well, at least he’s another Hylian that I can talk to. Maybe he’s a prisoner here like I am.

“Hey!” Or maybe not because there is no way a prisoner would give such a cheery greeting. “You’re that Cockroach guy, right?” He occupies the pillow next to me.

“Why does everyone think my name is ‘Cockroach’?” I groan. “It’s Beedle!”

“Ah, sorry about that. I couldn’t really remember your name when I told Sika about you.” His apologetic smile turns to a cocky one as his eyebrows go up in a suggestive nature. “So, I take it Sika actually took my advice, huh?”

I squawk at him. “This was your doing?!”

“Well, someone had to initiate it! Despite how she looks, Sika actually gets a little shy around guys she doesn’t know and-“

“What’s this about me?”

The boy next to me yelps as he stands up.

Sika just rolls her eyes and sits down next to me. Then she sticks her finger in my face. “You haven’t been listening to Link, have you? You know the rules…”

My head could not turn any faster just then just now. “YOU’RE Link?!”

The boy (now dubbed Link) puffs out his chest, jabbing a thumb to his chest. “Of course! I am none other than Link Ganondorf-Nabooru!”

W-what…? “Ganondorf…? You mean…”

“Yes, yes,” Sika drawls. “This is Link, son of the great Ganondorf Anoora Dragmire.”

I freeze. So not only did I somehow get the attention of the Gerudo King’s daughter, I also pretty much tackled his son when we first met. I hope I never meet him, he would DEFINITELY kill me. But it isn’t so. I suddenly see a huge shadow loom over me and know it just HAS to be him, knowing my luck.

“What are we talking about? I heard my name.” And there is that deep voice, proving just what exactly is behind me. I shakily turn around, only to meet with the big hulking figure of King Ganondorf, his glowing, golden eyes boring into me. He snorts.

OH GODDES HES ANGRY IM GONNA DIE HES GONNA KILL ME I AM DEAD-

“Ok, someone needs to get this kid a sandwich.”

I blink a few times then lift my head up from my hunched and quivering form. What did the King just say?

“I mean, look at him!” He exasperatedly gestures to me. “He’s all skin and bone! We need to get some meat on this twig!” Seemingly bored with the other he turns to me with hands on his hips. “Haven’t they been feeding you in Hyrule? Hmph, leave it to King Daphnes to not feed his citizens.” 

I want to say something but all I can get out is an unintelligent, “Uh…” before he slaps me in the back laughing heartily. Ow...

“Well, no matter! You’re always welcome here! We’ll feed you!” 

I cough a bit, trying to get my air back from that slap (it was more of a slam though…) as he steps over the blanket to sit on a pillow on the other side.

“GANONDORF!”

That shout nearly makes me jump out of my seat. Another Gerudo with a high ponytail (different from the last Ponytail I met) comes storming up to the King.

“How many times do I have to tell you to NEVER step over the DINNER BLANKET!”

“Now, Nabbsy-“

“Don’t ‘Nabbsy’ me!!” She pinches the King’s ear and pulls. Ow, that actually looks very painful, judging on the King’s expression. “Do you realize what grime and dirt you have on your shoes could fall on the blanket?!” she continues shouting in the King’s ear. “It’s gross, especially where you like to traverse on your spare time!”

So, that was unexpected. Maybe I need to think twice about what I heard about the all-powerfull and feared Gerudo King. I turn my head to Link, who is now sitting next to me once again, only to see him readying a pea in his hand to flick. Across the blanket, I see another Gerudo with glasses and a small smile, their hands in front of them, pointer fingers up and thumbs out so that the thumb tips are touching. Link flicks the pea and it goes sailing through the air, into the open square the other Gerudo has made with their fingers. The blonde Gerudo throws his hands up in the air in celebration as I hear Sika next to me scream, “Goooooaaaal!” It makes me jump a little again, but this time it isn’t as bad. I smile at the Gerudo girl next to me then back at the other two, seeing Link dance and Glasses chuckle under their breath. I glance back at the Gerudo King to see that he is still being berated by the woman as he is trying to placate her.

My eyes once again go to Sika, though, as she starts to laugh, a beautiful sound that I thought I would never hear. And it is infectious. A few huffs turn into a full on laugh as I hold my stomach with one arm, the other going up to my lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sika’s eyes light up like the desert sun. On the my other side, I think I see Link smile and give us a thumbs up, and for the first time since I have been kidnapped, I feel like I belong.