This is what happens when I think too much about Twilight Princess and then stay up too late. While not to good at videogames myself, I love the Zelda games for their stories and characters. I had a thing for Sheik from his very first appearance - when he turned out to be Zelda, I was a little disappointed... At the loss of a character. I have nothing against Zelda. I love Zelda, but I also liked Sheik as himself.
NOTES: I. Yes, I got the name Dawn Guard from Skyrim. Because how the hell is that not awesome?
II. I play fast and loose with a lot of history in this, most notably OoT stuff to make room for this story. So... Yeah. Here we go.
It was a story years in the making, since the day the Castle Hyrule fell to the Dark Army, since the day the Dawn Guard vanished from the face of the earth. The day their Captain fell, and his body was carried out and burned. But his sword, the Captain's Blade, was never found, nor was Captain Kiotchi's son, who was rumored to be among his officers. Another mystery that sprang up that night was the fate of the elf-mage Ranos, who fled the castle when it fell, and disappeared into the sands of time.
There were other legends, older than these, of the time before the Queen came to Hyrule, when the King was younger, and when he was charmed by the young Sheikah warrior who was chosen to be his bodyguard. Wether or not the whispers were true, that something happened between them, and that it produced a child, a son, was never confirmed, but one day, the young woman merely faded from the backdrop of the castle, and no one, not even the King, could guess where she had gone. It was years and years before anyone so much as even thought of the rumors again, when the Sheikah were presumed extinct, and the Dawn Guard obliterated...
"Mama! Mama, look!" The little girl pointed across the square, to where three of the town's resident hoodlums where surrounding a thin, cloaked figure that looked like it was soaked to the bone. Her mother frowned angrily.
"What are those children doing?!" She demanded, and began to march towards them. It turned out that the figure did not need their help, for with a few graceful jabs, they had rendered the teenagers completely incapacitated. Then, however, they retreated back into their wet cloak, shivering. The mother and daughter approached close enough to see that it was a man, but only that; his face was covered in wrappings save for his eyes, which burned magenta out of his face. "Are you hurt?" The woman asked gently. The man looked at them carefully, then shook his head. Struck by how thin he was, the mother invited him to eat dinner with them, something which seemed to surprise him. He stepped out of the shadows and allowed his cloak to fall back just enough that they could see his clothing and the little girl gasped.
"You're Sheikah!" She cried, but her mother shushed her quickly, taking the stranger's arm and pulling both her daughter and him down the street. Once they reached the safety of their farm, she took the girl aside.
"If he is really Sheikah; especially is he is really Sheikah; do not announce it in the street. He may be the last of his kind, and loudly declaring that would put him in even more danger. Do you understand?" The girl nodded. The woman turned back to the man. "You must forgive Ana. She is young, and doesn't understand what is happening." The man removed his cloak fully, shaking water out of his hair. It seeped out from the crack in his face mask that allowed for his eyes, falling into them in a mess of straight, shaggy, golden-brown light. From what little they could see of his face, it was a handsome one; his profile was a sharp, with straight features and high cheekbones. He was a slim man, with narrow shoulders, and a build that was better suited to speed than strength, though there was no doubt he could pack a punch. While it took them some time to get him to speak, when he did, his voice was a quiet one with a gentle and tired air.
"So, what's your name?" Ana asked him eagerly from her seat at the table.
"Sheik." The man said softly, smoothing his fingers across the fabric of his sleeve. It didn't take the two long to become friends, and Sheik was more than willing to help the entire family in their work. Though he spoke little, there was a genuine kindness and grace about him that eased any doubts they might have had. During the tail end of dinner, however, their lives were sent spinning on their heads. The door burst open, and crowds of Dark Soldiers burst in, their weapons drawn. Sheik took down several of them quickly until he was knocked on the ground and the leader of the attackers grabbed Ana and put his sword to her throat.
"Surrender now, Sheikah, or we'll slice the girl's head off!" Sheik froze, looking frantically between the guards lowering their spearpoints at his chest and the Captain, then raised his hands slowly, the rest of the family huddling in the back. The Captain handed Ana off to another soldier and stepped over to where Sheik lay, the spears pressing against his ribcage, setting the sword tip at his throat, kneeling down. "Your people are said to be great trackers, right?" Sheik made no response, just staring at him. The Captain pressed sharply with his sword, drawing blood and causing the Sheikah to grit his teeth sharply. Ana struggled toward him vainly, her expression distressed.
"... So it's said." The Captain grinned.
"And you're the best?"
"I don't know. Perhaps you should ask someone else?" The Captain shoved him down sharply, leveling his blade.
"We know who you are, Sheikah." The Sheikah's magenta eyes widened, making the rest of the family wonder just who he was. "So why don't you just cooperate so that we don't go to the trouble of ruining your life?" The young man closed his eyes, as if he were in pain, then opened them again.
"What do you want?"
"There's someone we need you to track."
