Bab 38: RIJU IS KINKY

Riju questions me in a firm tone, "Are you really royalty? What branch of the family do you belong to?

"Oh yeah, My name is Arjon. I married a Duchess," which is technically true.

"Oh. A Hylian. Not a real royal. Well, follow my orders and we will both get out of here. My Family will rescue us."

There isn't really anything I can do right now, so I wait. After a few hours, we are still in the carriage, and I take the time to mess with Riju a little bit.

"Riju is a dumb name."

"That is neither mature nor comical. I hope you know tha-"

"Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess."

"I am not a princess, I am only a descendent of Lady Urbosa, and you WILL treat me with respect. Insulting a member of the royal family is treason."

She cannot take a joke, I guess it does make sense growing up with constant political pressure.

Time slugs by in the pitch black carriage. There are no windows, so the only method of timekeeping I can use is the amount of time we are sedated, always by a sharp prick in the dark.

After waking up from her second sedation, Riju calls out to me in the darkness, "My Family will come. They must be having a bit of trouble."

I sigh and don't respond.

After she wakes up from the fifth sedation, I hear quick inhales and the tapping of nails against iron bars.

"Arjon, are you there? Please?"

"I'm here Riju. It's ok, what's up?"

"My family isn't coming. They would've found us by now."

The silence drags on in the darkness of the carriage. I don't know what to say.

"You're probably right, but I'm here."

"You're here," the tapping stops.

I hear the slowing of Rijus' breath, and after a few minutes, know that she is asleep.

Damn I really wanna give that girl a hug right now.

I focus on myself. I am concentrating on my inner mana, trying to purge myself of the effects of the Muddlebud.

Muddlebuds are powerful, they are vicious herbs that pump destructive mana into the body of whoever they make contact with, but I have been training my internal mana to purge my body of this negative effect, slowly developing resistance.

What feels like weeks stretch on. The metal of the cells we are in gets hot in the day and cold at night, and I woke up from a Muddlebud shot twenty minutes ago.

I hear a rustle of chains; Riju just woke up from the Bud. "Twentieth sedation," she calls out.

"Wanna play a round of dnd?"

"Sure!" She chirps.

Riju and I have developed many games over the course of our capture, playing chess or checkers in our heads. She also loves when I tell stories(That I steal from earth's literature) but an improvised version of dnd has been her greatest pleasure.

Surprisingly, she plays the game as an orc named Grog, who loves peanut butter.

She has mostly dropped her commanding tone, but it still comes out sometimes.

"You are entering the fores-"

My speech is cut off by the screeching of metal wheels. For the first time in weeks, we have come to a stop.

The door to the carriage opens, and sunlight streams into the room.

I finally see my surroundings. Five cells are in the carriage, and everything is made out of blue metal. Two of the cells are empty, and the farthest one from Riju and I has a Goron skeleton chained to the wall.

I look over at Riju, who is one cell away from me, finally seeing what she looks like in real life for the first time.

She doesn't wear the fine golden ornaments and clothes from the games and is instead clothed in long plants and a too-small shirt that exposes a toned midriff, despite her being malnourished.

Riju's hair falls over her shoulders, flecked with bits of sand and grime, and yellow and purple bruises line her arms and legs. Her shirt is soaked with sweat, and her fingernails are long and dirty.

Paint, caused by what seems to be tears, runs down her face, originating from what I assume used to be makeup.

Still, she stands up with her chin raised high and proud. Her sharp, green eyes stare back at me, dragging themselves over my body before flicking to the figure walking through the door.

I turn to see a hulking Yiga member draped in red and black. The figure is wearing a white mask with a painted red eyeball that seems to follow Riju and me in its gaze at the same time. At its hip rests a long, serrated katana, which excludes an aura of sharpness and brutality.

I know immediately, even with my powers, that I am no match for this Yiga blade master.

In a puff of smoke, a Yiga assassin appears in my cell. Its movements are jarring and distorted as it walks towards me. The steps it takes are too long, and sometimes it slumps down, trailing a hand on the cage floor while leaning its head towards me. Its hips flex unnaturally to account for the odd strides and movements.

The most unnerving thing about the assassin is the laughter. At first, It sounds forced, like someone laughing at a bad joke, but as the Yiga comes closer, it becomes maniacal and sadistic.

The assassin walks around me, and I back up as far as the chains will let me away from it. As it walks, its head always follows me, turning one hundred and eighty degrees to stare at me.

It unlocks the chains from the wall and yanks at my neck, pulling me like a stubborn dog as I resist getting out of my cell.

I hear a scream of pain and a yell and turn to see Riju being hit to the ground.

Blood trails out of her mouth, but I see that it isn't hers when she spits out a long finger.

The assassin in her cell is bleeding from its hand, but it laughs even more, not seeming to feel the pain.

I relax a bit as I realize the Yiga aren't invincible and stand a bit straighter. Riju grins at me, whipping her mouth on her shoulder.

We are led out into the sun, which burns our eyes after being trapped inside for so long, but we barely have time to take in our surroundings before two sacks are thrust over our heads.

Now blinded, I am pulled forward until my feet feel like two weights strapped onto my ankles. Through my bare feet, I can feel that we are going up hills and through water, over smooth floor and jagged rock, and at the end, countless ladders.

At last, the hoods are pulled off, and I take in my surroundings.