A Hidden Kindness

1965 words
Wednesday

The next morning, Rabia woke to an empty bed and cool sheets beside her. She sat up with a frown. It was still early in the morning, and the cool from the night had not yet fully lifted off the desert. She pushed herself out of bed and got ready for the day. After she had dressed, still with no sign of Ganondorf, she headed over to the fortress to get some breakfast alone. When she got there, she was relieved to see him sitting with Kamilah, Aveil, and a young Gerudo girl with light skin and short orange hair. Rabia sat on the end of the short table between Ganondorf and Aveil hesitantly.

“Da must i, Rabia!” Aveil chirped.

“Good morning,” she smiled at Aveil. “Where did you go this morning?” Rabia asked Ganondorf.

“Ah, sorry, I forgot to tell you another guest was coming early this morning. I went to greet her and didn’t want to wake you,” Ganondorf said. “This is my daughter, Kabira,” he gestured to the young girl sitting beside him. “Kabira, this is Rabia, daék pr í λ sa(1).” Rabia blinked, but smiled kindly at the girl.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Rabia said to her. Kabira looked at her, then raised an eyebrow at her father.

“Pas daék pr í λ? B’af két i r λa(2)?” she looked back at Rabia with obvious distaste.

“Rabia, Kamilah and I were wondering if you wanted to spar this morning, before the festivities pick up,” Aveil interjected.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied. The three of them stood and left, heading to the training grounds.



The fight had started in silence as the three of them faced off. Rabia and Kamilah seemed to move in sync with each other, something Aveil couldn’t ignore as they sparred.

“I didn’t know Ganondorf had a daughter,” Rabia finally said.

“Yeah, he had her with some Hylian girl a couple years ago,” Aveil responded. Rabia snorted.

“A couple years? She’s like, eleven.”

“Yeah, they had her three years ago,” Kamilah said. “There was some magic involved that made her age quickly. No one is really sure what the purpose of that was, but…” she shrugged and dodged a blow from Aveil’s sword which Rabia blocked for her with ease

“She doesn’t seem to like me very much,” Rabia said.

“She doesn’t like anybody very much. Don’t take it personally,” Aveil said. “I think she’s just bitter that she’s only half Gerudo. Usually kings don’t have trysts with Hylian women, but Ganondorf has a type.” Rabia’s sword slipped from her fingers.

“A… A type?” she asked. Aveil didn’t seem to notice her discomfort as her attention was on Kamilah.

“Yeah, he likes red-heads, but he sees all Gerudo as his sisters, so he looks… elsewhere,” Aveil responded. Rabia sat down in the sand, chewing her lip. “Oh, hey, no…” Aveil set her swords down too and sat beside Rabia. “I wasn’t trying to insinuate that Ganondorf only likes you for your hair or because you didn’t grow up here, Rabia. I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you, and I’ve known him since we were kids. It’s sweet, if you could ever use that word to describe him.” That prompted a watery chuckle from Rabia.

“Come on, I’m sure he’s done scolding his daughter by now,” Kamilah said, pulling the two younger girls to their feet. She wiped the few tears from Rabia’s eyes gently. “Besides, it’s getting too hot to fight, and the festivities will be starting soon.”

“Oh! I should go get his gift, then,” Rabia said. “I’ll be right back!” She hurried back towards Ganondorf’s house to get the gift she had so carefully wrapped in gold paper. No one seemed to notice the unnatural way her shadow shifted as she moved.



Gideon waited until the door closed behind Rabia, waited until silence descended in the room around him, then morphed into his physical form in the bedroom. He had seen what the useless **** had done, and he would not stand for it. Gideon opened the nightstand drawer and glared at the offending piece of jewelry. If that cretin proposes and she says yes, all this will have been FOR NAUGHT! He was so enraged he nearly smashed the night stand to pieces, but he managed to hold himself back. “The worm better hope he knows what he’s doing,” the demon growled to himself and vanished into thin air.



“What do you mean, there’s a ring?!” Finn roared, flipping over his coffee table in rage. Gideon frowned at him and flicked the pieces of splintered wood from his cape. “Are you telling me they’re ENGAGED?”

“No. But he has a ring. The **** is clearly very serious about Rabia, and she is m-yours. You need to do something about this. NOW.”

“Oh, I’ll do something about it,” Finn growled lowly.

“You’d better. I need to keep a close eye on this situation before it becomes a real problem. Plant a few seeds of doubt. Now, GET THIS HANDLED.” Gideon vanished, returning to Rabia’s side once more while Finn paced around his living room, planning and plotting.



The festivities were in full swing, when Rabia hurried downstairs, but she suddenly felt… light. Much lighter than she had in a while. She set the gift with the others and hurried off to find her new friends. Ganondorf spotted her and waved her over.

“Rabia!” he called. She smiled brightly and hurried to his side, standing on her toes and kissing his cheek. “What was that for?” he chuckled. Rabia shrugged.

“You looked like you needed a kiss,” she responded. Kamilah and Aveil both laughed out loud. “What? I think he looks great with a lipstick smudge,” she laughed and wiped it away with her thumb. Ganondorf wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, then turned to Kabira and gave her a look. Kabira sighed.

“Yi, Rabia. E’ata Z xva Kabira. Ha’as da λæ sude bi(3),” Kabira said in a bored tone. Rabia smiled a little.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” she said. “I’m sorry if meeting me was a bit of a shock this morning,” she said. Kabira raised an eyebrow, but held back any scathing remarks.

“Father, I’m going to go to the stables and ride Snarniro. I have missed him.” She turned and walked away towards the stables.

“Don’t worry, she’ll warm up to you,” Ganondorf said, placing his hand on Rabia’s back. Rabia sighed a little, but then turned and smiled at him.

“Happy birthday,” she said, leaning up to kiss his lips. He laughed into the kiss and picked her up, spinning her around. Aveil let out a wolf whistle and some of the other women joined in.

The servants were entering and exiting the fortress, keeping the gathering clean and refilling the food and drink. The only stopped to take some time to celebrate and grab something to eat themselves. Women and children alike were dancing and singing and sparring and having a blast. As noon time drew to a close, a hush grew over the valley. Everyone gathered to watch their king receive birthday gifts. It was a long process, as he opened each gift one by one and thanked each person. The pile seemed to finally dwindle as evening drew in and a fire was lit. Finally, he got to Rabia’s gift. He pulled it over onto his lap and began to carefully peel the paper off the box. Rabia bit her lip. He opened the trunk-shaped box and let out a small laugh when he saw the green dust jackets.

“You got me the Harry Potter books?” he smiled.

“I did. I did get you Harry Potter,” Rabia grinned.

“And they’re in green dust jackets,” he said.

“Yep! Because green is your favorite color, and you’re definitely a Slytherin,” Rabia nodded. He smiled and kissed her lips sweetly.

“Thank you,” he said, touching her cheek.

“Father, you have one more,” Kabira’s voice made him pull away as he turned to his daughter. “This one is from me,” she handed him a colorful gift bag. He pulled out a book, a very old, very rare tome of magic, flipped it open, and skimmed through the pages.

“This is wonderful, Kabira. I’ve been looking everywhere for this.” He pulled her into a hug. The servants started cleaning up the gift wrappings and bringing the gifts inside. They brought out more food and alcohol while the party picked back up again. Aveil and Kamilah joined Rabia, Ganondorf and Kabira as they sat around the fire, drinking and eating and laughing.

“A-And then- and then!” Kamilah hiccupped between her giggles. “She tripped over her own sword and fell out of the ring!” she busted up laughing while Aveil scowled at her good-humoredly.

Do you have to tell everyone that story?! It was so long ago! I was TEN!” She huffed, then started laughing when Kamilah burst into more giggles, causing Rabia and Ganondorf to start laughing, too. Aveil stood on wobbly feet to grab them another round of drinks. Ganondorf gasped.

What?!” Rabia jumped, looking at him with wide, honey-gold eyes.

“I just remembered! You promised to play me more flute!” he said. “Kamilah, would you go fetch Rabia’s flute?” Kamilah stood, steady despite her own drunkenness, and headed inside.

“Ganondorf, I’m too… too drunk-” she hiccupped. “Too drunk to play the flute.”

“You’re not drunk!You’re tipsy. I’m drunk,” he started laughing at the look she gave him. “Please? It’s my birthday,” he said, setting a hand on her thigh. She sighed dramatically.

“Well, I guess one song won’t hurt,” she patted his hand clumsily and giggled. “Your hands are huge,” she said suddenly. She lifted the appendage off her leg to inspect it. “Like, bigger than… than my FACE.”

“You know what they say about big hands!” Aveil cheered, and some of the nearby women joined in when Ganondorf waggled his eyebrows.

“Whaaat? No, that’s feet, isn’t it?” Rabia frowned. “Is it BOTH?!” Aveil laughed uproariously. Kamilah appeared again and pressed the flute case into Rabia’s hands. Rabia struggled to put the instrument together for a few minutes, then held it up triumphantly. “Aha! I did it!” She put the flute to her lips, then frowned. “Wait… waitwaitwait… I don’t know any songs. ‘Cept… Harry Potter. Or… or Lord of the Rings…” She started playing one of the two, and then transitioned to the other halfway through. “Wait no… nonono, that’s not right,” she blinked.

“Well, just make something up!” Ganondorf said. He pointed to a Gerudo woman with a guitar. “You! Play something!” he said. She struck up a rhythm on the guitar and Ganondorf looked at Rabia expectantly while some of the women started to dance around the fire. “Just make something up! It’ll be great.”

“Hmmmkay,” Rabia said. She closed her eyes and listened to the guitar part, and then started to play. Little did she know, she was playing a melody, with some variation, well known to the Gerudo. She finished the song with the most ridiculous flourish she could manage and broke off into giggles. “I don’t think any of that was in time,” she laughed, putting the flute back into the case and setting it aside. Ganondorf pulled her flush up against his side with a grin.

“I liked it,” he said. The woman with the guitar struck up another song and the dancers kept dancing, the gathering filled with drinks and the sounds of laughter. The party dragged on late into the night until finally the last of them trickled inside to get some sleep.