Part 1: Pain

They say you can win a war but still be defeated. Anyone who hasn't experienced the physical, mental, and psychological consequences of war wouldn't understand such a sentiment. Warriors who've experienced the horrors firsthand however, would know exactly what the wording suggests. Even the best heroes of legend are not immune to the terrors of battle...

As the war to restore light to Hyrule continued on, the Hyrulian forces remained strong for the most part. Their princess was lost, and that left pain and emptiness in the hearts of the most devoted that could not easily be filled. But they also had something else...something that encouraged them to march forward and strode into the darkness head on like a beacon of hope and light.

They had the Hero.

He was a hero of myth and legend, and though he was young to the eyes of any that rested on his handsome features, Link was the descendant of the lineage of all major heroes in Hyrule's history. This young man had the spirit of the Hero, the blood of a warrior, and the triforce of courage to prove it. For millennia the land had faced the deepest, darkest evils of the land and none could fight the death that loomed over these evils than the almighty Hero in green.

And now he was here, fighting beside them. How could they fail with such a legendary support?

So despite the cold or heat, the injuries and loss, the pain and suffering of those less fortunate, the Hyrulian knights and allied forces marched on in the shadow of the Hero's stride. They were all proud to become part of the legend and thusly turned a blind eye to all the dangers that plagued their foundation's mind and body.

All but one.

Shortly after the princess had vanished under the castle's siege, a dark stranger approached their forces. He called himself Sheik, or so they had assumed he was a he. It didn't take long for the mysterious warrior's voice and subtle curves of a feminine form to make the soldiers question the mysterious Sheikah's motives, history, and gender until she herself confirmed it. As one of the Sheikah long forgotten, this individual had skill and speed that far surpassed Hyrule's best knights. Mysterious to a fault, Sheik kept herself hidden from nose to toe and refused answers to many a question thrown her way.

But…

Sheik had the all-seeing eye like that of the Sheikah symbol embroidering her chest but she seemed to keep her sights predominantly focused on one individual in particular. It wouldn't come as a surprise then that the evening the Hyrulian forces set up camp on the edge of Faron woods and the Hero of legend excused himself for the evening the mysterious Sheik kept a skeptical eye and followed him shortly after.

Link was very visibly struggling to breath at all when she found him leaning on a tree beside his tent. She had suspected something was amiss when she watched the usually stoic Hero give a shaken smile before disappearing to his own devices. She'd narrowed her eyes at the way he held his left arm tightly to his side.

He'd been injured.

Now as she stood atop a tree silent as the night and completely unperceived to the Hero, she watched the man that was supposed to be leading the charge clutching his blood-soaked side and gasping for air with watery, shaken wheezes that spoke of grave danger.

Link kept his eyes tightly closed and tried to breathe through the pain but felt his shoulder and back ignite in flames as the attempted breath erupted in violent coughing from his chest. He was the Hero. He was not supposed to show weakness.

The sounds of the woods rang in his ears so loud and cacophonous he struggled to hear his own thoughts. The immense pressure on his side swelled in his chest and pressed into his lungs until he couldn't breathe.

He glanced for only an instant into his hands as he coughed and saw dark red splotches of blood on his gloves.

He was dying. He was sure of it.

Sheik stood with startled eyes as the man in green took one shaken step towards the tent and then collapsed to the ground.

She reacted instantly. Moving the wind, Sheik landed next to Link's wheezing body before she even felt herself leave the tree branch she'd been perched on. Link's wide blue eyes franticly shifted from her face to the sky above. He gasped short, badly grasped breaths and tried to breath through another coughing fit.

Blood reddened the edge of his lips.

Sheik's eyes widened at the severity of the man before her. Link's skin was beginning to lose the healthy pink hue and turn blue. The vein in his neck swelled as his struggled to breath. She could hear his heart struggle to pump in his chest.

Her hands ripped at his tunic without any further thought and she froze at the amount of blood and purple coloring she found on what should have been pale, smooth skin of his ribs.

Link's eyes caught her just as he'd grasped on her arms, and then his world went black.

She'd almost died of fright when he lost consciousness. Sheik had watched Hyrule's hero clinging to life with his last breaths and then grab her arm in desperation just before his eyes rolled back and his heart stopped in his chest.

She shuddered and closed her eyes as a deep and shaken breath pushed back the memories.

Hero or not, he was not invincible, nor was he immortal. If she hadn't been there...if she hadn't noticed his suspicious movements and followed him to his campsite…

She swallowed the growing swell in her throat and felt her throat burn just as the thought.

They almost lost him.

Link gasped beside Sheik's pensive thoughts and she snapped her attention to her healing companion in time to witness another violent fit of coughing erupt from his chest. She saw what was happening and immediately grabbed a pail from the corner of the room, moving it beside her Hero just in time to catch him as he wretched the inner contents of his stomach and dried blood that had healed in his throat.

The camp echoed with the sound of his sickening spills, but she held the pail close despite the view, and stench, and horrific sounds of the Hero of Hyrule vomiting like a drunken knight after an evening in town.

But she didn't leave him.

It took several minutes, but once Link's body had ceased its violent shakes and his chest relaxed enough to breathe more normally, he lifted his head from the bucket to acknowledge the person assisting him.

Blue eyes met the mysterious red he'd only vaguely remembered being in his presence. Neither of the pair spoke a word, but for a long moment their eyes stayed locked and entire conversation was spoken between their eyes.

Thank you.

Link flopped back against his lumpy bedroll, took one long, shaky breath and then let the darkness of the night swallow him once more.

There was a brutal downpour when the Hero re-awakened the following afternoon. The light outside was dark but he could sense it was mid day by the way his head throbbed from sleeping too long and the angry buckling and popping of joints in his body after remaining motionless too long.

"You should stay resting, Hero," a familiar feminine voice rose from the shadows on the far side of the small tent. Link glanced to the corner in the direction of the voice and starred for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the darkness before making out the shape of a familiar person watching over him.

He tried to sit up and made it about halfway before a radiating, unbearable fire erupted from his left side and his shut his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth at the pain.

"Hero or not, you should realize you are neither immortal nor invincible," the voice spoke again. Link kept his eyes tightly closed as he clutched at his burning side and didn't even hear Sheik's footsteps until a hand pressed against his and a cool sensation radiated over his burning flesh until the pain subsided to only a dull ache.

When Link opened his eyes again, Sheik was uncorking a small vial of red oil.

"Drink."

He glanced at the small bottle skeptically but didn't move to take it.

"If I wanted to harm you, Hero, I would have let you die from your injuries two days ago.

Two days?

Link's eyes widened realizing he'd missed an entire two days already.

"It's a red potion, just drink it." Sheik pushed the vial into the Hero's hand before he could protest. His mind was still reeling from the idea of two full days had passed. He glanced at the vial again, then at the woman watching him with a patient stare before finally giving in.

The red potion burned the inside of his throat as he swallowed it in one and he coughed in violent spasms as his throat set aflame.

"You're throat is raw from the sickness that you acquired after ignoring your injuries," Sheik told him through the coughing without a change in tone or voice. Link coughed a moment longer and then felt the burning flame die down to a low warmth before he realized the pain was gone.

He reopened his eyes as found that Sheik had navigated to a large leather bag in the corner of the room again.

Link tried to speak a raspy thank you but found his voice to have the texture of dust that came from his throat dry and formless like a cloud.

"You almost died," SHeik spoke again. She watched him from the corner of the tent with piercing red eyes that though usually unnerving had somehow changed since the last time Link had glanced at them. "When I watched you go back to your tent that night, you were barely breathing and bleeding profusely. You collapsed from lack of air and your heart nearly gave out only moments later."

Link swallowed thickly, recalling the last memory he had of fire burning at his shoulder and chest and familiar red eyes covering the sky just before his world went black.

"You should have said something."

"And how would that have looked?" Link finally managed to speak with a raspy, dry voice. He couldn't really see from his bedroll, but something in his chest told him Sheik was scowling at him in disbelief. "I'm supposed to be the Hero; I'm supposed to be the leader they look up to and follow into victory. My own blood has promised to bring light to the darkness plaguing Hyrule, and I was hurt in battle." He stared at her directly. "How do you think our warriors would see me then after witnessing my weakness?"

She didn't say a word.

"Impa was clear about the role I play in all of this…" he had more to say but the woman cut him off.

"Impa's judgement may be well intended but she is flawed on occasion."

Link had to narrow his eyes, sensing the strangeness amis with her words. "You speak as if you know her personally."

Once more, she was quiet.

It was at this time that Link decided to test his boundaries and rise from his bedroll. The room spun slightly as he stood, and he stumbled forward a bit - causing the Sheikah to almost lunge to his assistance before he motioned for her not to - before gathering his foot.

His bones groaned and joints cracked after staying dormant and horizontal for so long, but it also felt invigorating to finally stand on his own. He stretched his arms and groaned loudly feeling his muscles stretch and joints uncling from their positions.

"Much bet…" Link had turned to the woman who moments ago had been sitting in the corner of the tent waiting for him but found an empty stool instead. A green tunic folded neatly and washed clean rested on top of the stool as if awaiting his dressing.

Link noticed the white stitches that hadn't been there before and raised a golden brow.

It had been mended.