Gerudo Forest

Chapter 48

The next few weeks went by in a blur. Melissa was unsure if she would get used to how the girls treated her now. When she would go anywhere a hush would always follow. Melissa hadn't seen hide or hair of Nabooro since her arrival. She didn't know if it was a good thing or not. Maybe Ganon had told Nabooro to stay away from her. It seemed a silly thought but she couldn't help but wonder.  

She had started learning the bow from a really strict woman named Kona who thought her incompetent. She was actually one of the few people who still treated her as a nobody and she was surprisingly grateful for that. 

Melissa asked the woman about it once and she had responded that it was her job to be the best teacher she could be because that was what her king would want. That she couldn't do it if she had to constantly kowtow. When Melissa had told her thank you she gave her a funny look but laughed. She didn't take it any easier on her but she seemed to have a little more respect for Melissa. 

She didn't feel she had made any progress under the woman's tutelage so far and had begun to get frustrated. She was constantly hurting her hand on the bow when the string would snap back and was getting blisters on her fingers. If she could just get a hang of compensating for the wind she might actually be able to hit a stationary target more than every once and a while. Moving targets would probably be even worse. 

Today she woke early so that she could sneak out before anyone would catch her in Ganon's room. She had been secretly staying with him every night even though it was breaking tradition. He lay peacefully beside her this morning. 

He had fallen asleep the night before wrapping her in his arms to keep her warm and apparently hadn't moved from that position all night. He gave off so much body heat and the room was already fairly warm making it uncomfortable for her. The sun had barely risen and it was already this hot? She cringed to think of how bad the heat would be today.  

She wiggled free and she guessed that he must have been really tired because he didn't even stir. He had pulled his hair down that night and sometimes she wondered exactly how he was able to put it up by himself. She brushed a strand that had fallen over his face behind his ear giving him a kiss before leaving to her room. 

No one was up yet and she was glad. It would make sneaking to her room much easier. She opened her door and shut it quietly behind her. To her shock Nabooro was sitting at her reading table. At first Melissa had thought she had been caught but as she looked at the woman she saw that she was leaning back and was quite asleep.  

Had she been in here all night waiting on her? Why would she do that? How had she not frozen in front of the window without a blanket?  

Melissa decided to let the woman sleep and went to water her little tree. It looked unhappy and a few leaves had turned yellow.  

"Are you not getting enough sun? Well we will fix that." She spoke to it affectionately pruning off the bad leaves. 

"Do you always talk to plants?" She heard Nabooro say groggily behind her.  

Melissa turned around, plant in hand, to see Nabooro looking her over. Melissa walked slowly over and placed it in the window behind the woman.  

"Not always."Melissa said smiling to herself before rounding the table to sit on the other side so that they were face to face. "So may I ask why you are in my room?" Melissa inquired politely.  

"Well I wanted to meet the girl everyone was talking about. Plus this room used to be one of mine long ago when Ganondorf and I were arranged to be married." Nabooro said airily.  

She had known Nabooro and Ganon had been together at one point but the thought that this used to be Nabooro's room had never even crossed her mind.