— Ganondorf's Castle —
Link emerged from the crumbling castle with Zelda right beside him, escaping just seconds before it collapsed in on itself, leaving a flat, roundish platform floating on top of the lava.
"It's finally over..." Zelda breathed.
Link nodded and smiled at her. She turned to face him and looked like she was about to hug him when a rumbling sound redirected their attention.
"What was that?" asked Zelda, turning around quickly.
Link shrugged and drew his sword, cautiously walking forward toward the pile of rubble from which the sound originated. He was about ten feet away when the pile of rubble erupted, throwing Link backwards.
Ganondorf pulled himself out of the rubble. His cape was shredded, and he looked like he was in pain. He staggered out of the rubble and collapsed to his knees, breathing hard.
Link picked himself up and got into a ready stance, sword poised to strike.
Ganondorf's hate-filled eyes turned towards Link, and, letting out a terrible roar, the King of Evil began to grow. He roared again and his body began to change shape. Link looked on in horror as Ganondorf's back bent and he grew longer, his skin changing into thick hide, and his head stretching and growing until it had the shape of a giant boar, razor sharp tusks gleaming in the dim light.
Fire blazed up around Link and Ganon, trapping them together while on the other side of the wall of fire, Zelda screamed.
Link met Ganon's yellow gaze, the boar's little yellow eyes glared back, full of hatred and anger.
"This time, we can face this thing together!" Navi said determinedly. Link nodded gratefully at his constant companion and steeled himself for the coming fight, ignoring the pain throughout his body that begged him to rest. There would be time for that later.
Ganon swung one of his two massive golden swords at Link. He dodged one, but was forced to block the other one. The bone-shattering blow connected with his sword, knocking it from his grasp. The sword flew across the fiery barrier and imbedded itself in the ground near Zelda. Link mentally panicked. Scrambling to get out of the way of the next attack, he circled around behind Ganon, searching for a weak point.
"I can't tell what it's weak point is!" Navi cried, dodging a sword and flying back to Link. He rolled out of the way of Gannon's massive tail, whacking it with the Biggoron's sword as he passed, sheerly out of desperation.
As soon as the metal made contact, Gannon screamed and staggered away.
"That glowing orb on it's tail must be it's weak point!" Navi exclaimed, a little unnecessarily. Link nodded and blocked one of the swords with his shield then rolled between Gannon's legs, coming up behind him and cutting his tail.
Gannon screamed and stomped away before turning around and attacking again, barraging Link with his swords.
Link desperately tried to block them, relying heavily on Navi to tell him where the next attack was coming from. Link was wearing out, and there was no opportunity to counter-attack. Navi yelled, and Link spun to meet the next strike, but he was too slow was knocked to the ground.
Ganon pointed his massive sword at Link's chest and chortled. Glowing yellow eyes alight with malice and a cruel, insane glee.
Link groaned in pain. He was going to die. He didn't have anymore fairies, and nobody could save him right now. A wall of fire was between him and his one hope for survival.
He blinked, trying to clear the heavy rain from his eyes.
Gannon raised his other sword.
Link grit his teeth and struggled to keep his eyes on the monster.
The sword began it's deadly decent.
Zelda screamed.
— Eight Years Earlier —
Sheik was up at sunrise, as usual. She ate a quick breakfast, put on her armor and went to find Impa for today's training.
It had been almost two years ago that Impa had taken Sheik with her to Hyrule castle. Zelda's guardian had been visiting the Sheikah tribe that lived on death mountain and in Kakariko village when she had met the five-year-old Sheik, who wanted to train as a Sheikah warrior. Traditionally, Sheikah start training at the age of five, so after Impa had said yes, Sheik began training immediately.
After a bit of wandering, Sheik found Impa in one of Hyrule Castle's many gardens, watching the young princess Zelda, who was gardening.
"Good morning!" Zelda called cheerfully when Sheik entered. Zelda and Sheik were good friends, and took many lessons together since Impa was both Zelda's personal guard and nursemaid, as well as Sheik's mentor.
"Good morning, Princess." Sheik greeted. Impa nodded a greeting to her, then instructed her to meditate for awhile. Each morning started with meditation, a Sheikah had to be completely in control of their minds, it's part of what made them such deadly warriors. No sympathy or sentimentality to get the way of their duties, and no unwanted distractions. After an hour of that, Sheik did physical training, practiced some of the things that made Sheikah different from other warriors, such as poisons, the art of not being noticed, and shadow magic, while Zelda was learning etiquette. She then attended language, geography, and history lessons with the Princess. After their lessons were over, Zelda asked Sheik to go with her to dinner, since the other option was having food delivered to their rooms and doing their homework, Sheik accepted. Impa had disappeared after class, but both could guess that she was close by. Zelda led the way to the dinning hall, Sheik walking quietly a step behind her.
"Did you know that the Gerudo king is coming tomorrow to sign a peace treaty with Hyrule?" Zelda asked as they walked, practically bouncing with excitement.
"That's good." Sheik said.
"That's good? Is that all you have to say?" Zelda huffed. "Our two countries have been at war for decades! This is monumental! It will change both of our countries forever!" she exclaimed.
"Yes." agreed Sheik. But for better of worse? She didn't trust the Gerudo King.
"You should talk more," Zelda said, turning around to face Sheik and walking backwards. "It would give you more personality."
Sheik shrugged. She wasn't one to talk needlessly, it was never helpful for a Sheikah to be talkative. "You talk enough for both of us, Princess." Sheik replied.
Zelda glared at her. "On second though, maybe you shouldn't talk at all! And I thought I told you to call me Zelda?"
Sheik shrugged. Zelda was about to say something more when their argument was interrupted by the castle's head cook, Elain.
"What may I get for you today, Princess?" she asked, curtsying.
"Whatever today's special is, please," Zelda said.
"And for you?" Elain asked, turning to Sheik.
"Same." Sheik replied.
Elain nodded, smiled, and shoved them down into the puffy chairs that surrounded the beautiful wooden table to wait for their meal.
-0-0-0-
The following day, Sheik went to meet Impa as usual.
Impa had her do her physical work, which consisted mostly of weapons practice, and practice her magic before she gave the two children the remainder of the day off, and sent Sheik off to escort Zelda through town.
Castle Town was full of life. The noise made Sheik's head hurt. Zelda bounced on the balls of her feet, looking this way and that. Along with the usual Hylian folk, there were Gerudo everywhere. Some had set up stalls selling things alongside the Hylian venders and others drifted through town and bought things from the various stands.
"Wow!" Zelda exclaimed, dragging Sheik through the masses to a stall selling clothing.
Sheik fidgeted uncomfortably and scanned the crowed for the billionth time. Impa had told her to wear common clothes so they weren't too obvious, Zelda was supposed to be incognito, but Sheik felt exposed without her armor and the now familiar weight of her weapons. She wondered if Impa were nearby, ready to defend them should something dangerous occur.
"What do you think?" Zelda asked, spinning around with a purple dress in her hands, holding it up for Sheik to see.
"Nice," Sheik said, wondering how she was supposed to know, she was a warrior, not a stylist. Zelda bought the dress and grabbed Sheik's hand, tugging her over to a different stall, this one selling jewelry. After another three hours of shopping, by which time Sheik was feeling quite traumatized by the large amounts of noise, people, and shopping, Sheik said, "Princess, we should go back. You have a meeting with king Ganondorf in an hour."
Zelda sighed, the happy look instantly wiped from her face. "I don't trust that man," she said solemnly.
Sheik didn't reply. The Gerudo king had an evil air about him, something that made him frightening to the young Sheikah, but her opinion didn't matter, and since the princess was still a child, neither did hers.
They returned to the castle, and Zelda left to go to the meeting, casting a baleful glance back at Sheik.
"When I return, I have something very important to tell you." she said seriously. Sheik nodded, and Zelda disappeared into the throne room.
-0-0-0-
Upon Zelda's return, she had brought Sheik to her room and told her about a dream she had been having for the last few nights.
"In my dream dark storm clouds are covering Hyrule." she closed her eyes as if she could see those clouds behind her eyelids. "Then, out of the dark comes a lone figure dressed in green, like a pillar of light in a pitch-black world. Beside him floats a small blue light, and with him he carries a glowing green stone." she opened her aqua blue eyes and looked intensely at Sheik. "I think that this boy is the Hero of Time, Sheik, and that those dark clouds represent Ganondorf. I'm sure that man is evil!" she said. "Do you believe me?"
Sheik considered this for a moment. The princess was known to have visions of the future, most often through dreams, and Impa said the princess was gifted with the power of the Goddesses, so it seemed probable. Most of the princess's premonitions had come true, so Sheik nodded. "Yes."
"Thank you." Zelda said. "I told my father but he didn't believe me. He said that Ganondorf came only with good intention, that all he wanted was peace between our two kingdoms."
"Peace is something we all want." Impa stepped out of the shadows and crossed her arms. "But not all of us want it for the same reasons, nor try to achieve in the same way."
Zelda looked up at her and nodded. As young as the Princess was, she was quite wise.
"Sheik has some studying to do now, so we will take our leave," Impa stated. Zelda nodded and watched as the two Sheikah silently left, knowing they would be in the room next door, always there if she needed them. She lay down and pulled the comforter up to her chin.
Tomorrow was special, she knew. Tomorrow, the wheels of fate would begin to turn.