The Hylian-Gerudo War

Chapter 5 To steal a Cucco?

Our Lord never responded to me, instead, he urged his great steed forward, and together, the three of us trekked back down the mountain. The townspeople were also wary of our presence, we spoke no words to them, and they spoke no words to us.

Once we exited the town, the almost-full moon was climbing into the darkness of the night, Ganondorf didn't seem to be fazed by this, he never seemed fazed by anything. I knew that my leader was strong. Yet he had a hatred for the Hylians, a great hatred that was so powerful, it was the only thing you could see in his eyes. Sure, all of us had a strong contempt for the Hylian race, but the malice our Leader had for them was so unreal, we never quite understood it.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his voice. "Go, pitch the tent." He commanded lowly and solemnly. "Zarue, light a fire to keep our bodies warm."
Without a moments delay, we immediately obeyed his commands, and did as we were told.

I unpacked our tent, it was old, and worn. It made me shiver to know that it was made from the very skin and fur of our animals who perished in the frigid gale of our Gerudo nights. Our animals often perished in the scorching sun, they starved or became dehydrated due to the lack of provisions. It never used to be like this, not since that cold and bloody unification war.

Once the tent was up, and the fire was lit. We sat down by the fire to enjoy our meal...However, that was when I noticed there was a large tear in the bag, our food and water was gone! There was only enough for one. "You two, partake of what is left. I will survive." Ganondorf murmured with a somber tone.

"No." I responded, "You are our leader, you have taken us on this mission, you survived on nothing but the fat on your body, and the small amount of food in your belly." I continued, it was then that Zarue piped up.
"If we were to partake of this, then our hearts will be so full of shame and guilt that we would not be able to go into a peaceful slumber, thus we would not be able to continue further."

He stared at us with his sharp eyes, with every look, it seemed as if he was going to pull a dagger out and stab us.
"Zarue and I will go and find provisions for ourselves. Please master, I implore of you. Please partake of this meal, for this one time, we cannot follow your great orders." 

"Very well..." He finally replied, "We will leave you to your peaceful consumption." And with that, Zarue and I exited the tent, and walked back to Kakariko Village to seek out some food for our own consumption.

We walked up the ramp to the entrance of the village, it was quiet. Nobody was around, the only sound that remained was the clucks of the cuccos in a nearby pen to the east.
Upon entrance, Zarue seemed to be walking towards the direction of this cucco pen!

"Zarue...You aren't going to do what I think you are going to do...Right?" I whispered, "Of course! I am hungry! And there are a lot of cuccos here." She whispered back, climbing over the fence.

The cuccos clucked slightly as they were in a deep sleep, I couldn't help but snicker at the sight. Zarue got closer and closer to them, taking one step at a time very quietly.

It was then that she accidentally stepped on a twig, that released a loud CRACK! The cucco rooster woke up, and upon seeing Zarue approaching, he let out a loud cucco-version of an alarm, waking the other cuccos.

In a panic, Zarue jumped on the harem, managing to grab one of the squawking cuccos. A light went on in the nearby house that was connected to this pen.

"Zarue!!" I cried, trying to warn her.

She too, noticed this light. And in an attempt to get away, she leaped over the fence, and we took cover inside a crate by the wall.

The door creaked open, "Who's there!?" the person standing in the doorway called out. It was a woman with short, slightly shorter than shoulder length hair and blue eyes. She stepped out into the darkness, checking on her precious pets, only to find one missing.

A man followed her outside, and they talked amongst each other.
"What happened?!" The man exclaimed, seeing her holding one of the cuccos.

"I don't know...But one of my poor cuccos is missing!"

Upon hearing her voice, the cucco Zarue was grasping started squawking again. Having no choice, I busted open the crate, pushed them aside, and ran as fast as I possibly could, with Zarue following close behind me, clutching that cucco as if her life depended on it.

For a short while, the couple gave chase, but quickly gave up as we disappeared into the darkness. We stopped by the large arch at the entrance of the village to catch our breath.

"That cucco caused us a lot of trouble..." I growled, trying to refrain from screaming at her.

"Can you blame me though? We're both hungry, and out of provisions. Besides, I was lucky to catch us a big, fat one. Ganondorf is sure to praise me for this." She responded quite proudly.

"If it weren't for me though...You would get caught. I was smart enough to get us out of that mess!"
By now I was super angry with her, but that could've been because I was hungry, and she was right...We really didn't have a decent meal in days. After living in the desert so long when food and water are so scarce.

"Now we just have to cook this..." Zarue murmured, holding the creature close.
I looked around for a good place to cook this thing.

"How about we just go back to the tent? Remember how we lit a fire earlier?" I replied, my voice low.
"And, we have to be discrete..." I paused for a moment, looking at the cucco. "Though, that thing might have raised awareness of our presence, they will want to search early tomorrow morning, if they haven't already started searching...That is."

Zarue grunted in response, stood up, and together we exited the village, and headed towards our camp to enjoy our freshly caught meal.

We have one more day left, what will happen?