I don't own anything to do with Zelda.

--

Orca snarled silently to himself as he watched Aryll dig through an overfilled drawer, searching for the ocarina and chain. Her brown eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill, and her mouth was set as she dug deeper and deeper. Tetra had run over to Orca's house to get Sturgeon and the two letters. Orca was certain that she would not be attacked due to her relation to the royal family of Hyrule, but he was not so certain of the fourteen year old girl. In the past ten minutes, he had cursed himself a million times, angry that he had not been able to stop Link's kidnapper.

"Found them," Aryll said quietly, holding up her prizes. They had been placed back in the box they were found in and then on the drawer's bottom. The box was made a deep brown wood, and it had the Triforce insignia on its lid. However, instead of the typical three gold triangles, there was one each of blue, green, and red for Nayru, Farore, and Din respectively. The middle triangle, normally left empty, was a silver colour, for Time.

"Come, we'll join Tetra and Sturgeon then," the old Sheikah said gently. Aryll nodded, the tears finally beginning to spill from her eyes.

"We'll get him back, right?" Orca nodded; glad that Aryll had not been able to understand the other Sheikah. He held the door open and then followed her out.

When they reached his house, papers were flying everywhere as Sturgeon hunted for the two letters. Tetra, standing out of the way in a corner, quietly explained to Orca that Sturgeon had misplaced the letters.

"What do you mean you've misplaced them?" Orca thundered, his patience snapping. "One of them could have been written by the Hero of Time!" Sturgeon shouted something back at him in Sheikah, still searching.

"Hero… of time?" Aryll asked softly. "But, I thought those letters were from our parents?" Tetra looked over as well, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Does this have to do with that freak who took Link?" she demanded. Orca sighed.

"Yes. Aryll, I think yours and Link's father was the Hero of Time."

"But he died eons ago," Aryll protested, confused.

"Not died, disappeared," Sturgeon corrected, holding up two envelopes triumphantly. "Here they are, though I still have no idea what they say."

"That's fine," Orca said, taking them before they were lost again, "From Link's tales of the Deku Tree, I think he'll be able to help us. Tetra," he said, turning to the girl, "How soon can you get us there?"

Pausing to think, Tetra sighed. "Without Link to guide the winds for us, about a week. A few days would be the quickest we could get there, but it could also take as long as two weeks. It all depends on the winds." Orca sighed, and Sturgeon looked troubled.

"You're sure this is another Sheikah?" he asked his brother, and Orca nodded. Tetra, when she was sent to get the letters, had been instructed by Orca to say it was a Sheikah who took Link.

"What is a Sheikah?" she asked.

"The Sheikah are a race of people, much like the Hylians. They are larger and generally more apt at arms, though not as skilled at magic. One of the seven sages from the time of the Hero of Time was a Sheikah, the Great Impa. Now, however, there are two tribes. There is the tribe that hates the Hero because they erroneously believe that he deserted Hyrule, leaving it prey to Ganon," Sturgeon explained. "That is the tribe this young lady is from, due to the sounds of it."

"The other tribe," Orca cut in, "Is the one we belong to." Tetra and Aryll stared at them in shock, and then in mild apprehension. Orca smiled wanly, "Don't worry; the reason the tribes spilt was over what the other tribe believed. As Sturgeon said, the Hero did not die, he disappeared. There is a tale that the Hero and the Princess Zelda, after sending away their Triforce pieces, went to another world, sealing the body and spirit of Ganon in the process."

"And this is what you believe?" Tetra asked cautiously.

"Yes," Orca answered, looking her in the eyes. "Now, how soon can we set sail?"

"Not until tomorrow, when the tide comes back in," Tetra said without pausing. "So what is this tale of the Hero of Time?" Orca looked at Sturgeon, indicating that his brother tell the tale.

"Well, there are many," he began, "So I'll tell the one that I have determined to be most true as you three start getting ready for the trip. Since you know the tale of how he defeated Ganon, I'll start it after Ganon was defeated, the first time he disappeared. Many think that the Hero lost the Triforce of Courage then, but many also disagree. I hold with the latter view as the Triforce of Courage does not simply leave someone, nor can one lose it. This Triforce piece, more than the other two, must be earned. I believe that this is because while one can be born into a position of power or be born with a penchant for knowledge and wisdom, one is not born with courage. That is something that is gained over the course of one's life through the experiences that one goes through.

"From Hyrule it seems that the Hero went to Termina, a land connected to Hyrule through the mysterious Kokiri forest. Remember, the Hero grew up in the Kokiri forest, so he had a better knowledge of its paths than most. In Termina, a young man fought a demonic mask known as Majora's Mask. The boy is always referred to as the Mask Hero and as being about ten years old. I think that this error is due to the ravages of time and poor manuscript copying, for the Mask Hero and the Hero of Time is clearly the same person." Orca rolled his eyes at his brother's dramatic emphasis, causing Tetra to smile a bit. Sturgeon decided to ignore the two and continued on his tale.

"He then returned to Hyrule, if the Tale of the Seal is to be believed, which I deeply believe is to be so. The Sage Impa was sent to greet him, and the two were caught in a spell woven by three witch sisters that sent them back in time. This, more so than his battle with Ganon, gave the Hero his title. No one is really sure what happened during the months they were in the past, for neither the Sage nor the Hero spoke much of what happened. However, they returned and defeated Ganon's minion who had orchestrated their journey to the past. He was known as the Skull King.

"The Hero then returned to Termina; some sources say it is because he went to say good bye to his friends as he was now Sage of Time, and the Sages must reside in Hyrule. Others say it was to grieve, for his horse, and best friend, was killed in the battle. Which ever it is, for I have not determined that yet, he returned three years later, in time for a ball celebrating the rebuilding of Hyrule Castle Town.

"It was at this ball that Ganon broke from the seal put on him by the Seven Ancient Kings. The Hero and the Princess Zelda gave their bodies to reseal Ganon, and the Sages, five of them, gave their powers to complete the seal. That was when the Hero split the Triforce of Courage into eight parts and the Princess split that of Wisdom into two, giving one to the king, her father, and the other to his new heir. The Sages later died, one by one, and the Hero and Princess never appeared again."

--

Shi'ah smirked as she stared down at Link. The young man slowly scooted back a few feet before rising, his eyes never leaving her face.

"Who are you?" he asked. She did not answer, but lashed out with her foot, aiming for his jaw. He just barely dodged, and her foot hit his collar bone instead. Her smirk grew into a grin as she heard the soft crunch of the bone, and she straightened, watching Link gasp in pain.

He was tall and thin; gangly was a better word for it. They were about the same height, though Shi'ah had been this tall for years, while it looked like Link had just recently finished growing. His muscles, then, had not caught up with his bones.

"This is almost too easy," she muttered to herself, and Link's eyes darted up to stare at her.

"What?" she asked, patronizingly. "Can't do anything without your daddy's sword?"

"What do you mean?" Link growled, his eyes flashing in anger. Shi'ah smiled; this was where she wanted him. Now he would fight back; now she could instill the seeds of doubt that would turn him against the Hero of Time.

"You can't even defeat Ganon on your own," she leered, "You need to use your famous father's sword to seal the bastard. You even had to use his Triforce piece to gain the power necessary to fight Ganon. I don't even see why he got it; he's a traitor, leaving the land to become prey to Ganon." By now she was standing over Link again. Suddenly he lashed out with his legs, trying to knock her down. She let her legs be knocked out from under her, landing gracefully on her hands and pushing herself into a crouched postition.

"That won't work," she hissed, grinning, as she stared at the now standing Link. She launched herself up, hitting Link's chest with her shoulder as she pushed him to the nearest wall. Grabbing his hair, she pushed his head back while gently pushing her elbow on his broken collar bone. Link paled due to the pain, and Shi'ah laughed.

"Think about it, mighty hero," she crooned, "Your father was a traitor, and you had to use his sword and his power to seal your foe. You're pathetic, traitor's son." With that, she slammed his head against the wall, letting go as his eyes rolled back. She let his unconscious body fall to the ground and then took a thin white wand from his pocket. She took the Wind Waker and placed it on a shelf outside of the cell, in plain view due to the cell door's window. She then locked the cell door and the door that led to the room that the cell was in. She was confident that Link would not get out, as both doors could only be opened by the one who locked them due to the old magic in them. The complex that she lived in had been around since before the time of the Great Impa, and it still retained many of the magic that the Hylians who, working along with the Sheikah, had placed in it. This complex was one of the few places still remaining from before the Great Flood.

Smiling as she walked down the hallway to her room, Shi'ah pulled back her head wrap, letting her pale blonde hair fall out. It was in a tight braid, yet it still fell to the middle of her back. Silver streaks could be seen in it, as it was in the process of fading from the platinum like blonde to the characteristic silver of the Sheikah. Her dark skin was covered by the tight Sheikah uniform; a dark blue body suit with the Sheikah eye on it and a white shoulder cover that held numerous knives and throwing stars.

She was tall, by Hylian standards, and thin. At twenty one years, she commanded a great deal of respect from the Sheikah. She was the descendent of Impa, after all. Many whispered that she was on her way to becoming as great as the Great Impa herself. Shi'ah took in those comments, never acknowledging them, but taking strength from them none the less. She needed to, for her source of strength in the past, her brother, was gone.

The two had been captured during Ganondorf's short resurgence and sent to the dungeons under his castle. The cells were in horrible, squalid condition, and the guards were cruel imps with no ability to think. Screams from the other prisoners could be heard at all hours, especially those of the few Sheikah prisoners. Ganondorf had taken particular delight in torturing them.

She and her brother, Di'ath, had been lucky at first. Whenever an imp came in disguised as a rescuer, Di'ath had always been able to sense that it was truly an imp. He could see through the illusion spell on the creature. Ganondorf, after hearing countless tales of how the young Sheikah could not be fooled, had finally tired of it and ordered that Di'ath's eyes be poked out with a hot iron. Shi'ah was forced to watch as they chained her brother to the wall and then burned his eyes out. Ganondorf had been there, watching, with a smirk on his face.

When he left, he had turned to her and said, "If he doesn't survive the infection, make sure he tells that damned Hero of Time I said thanks." Shi'ah had spent nights after that, caring for her brother while praying to the goddesses and cursing the Hero of Time.

Then, a week later, when news came that Link would arrive soon, the cells were emptied. Those that were dead or almost dead, as her brother was, were sent to one part of the island while the others, herself included, were put on a boat and sent out to sea. Di'ath's eyes still had not stopped oozing pus, and he still had a fever. Despite her need to believe that he was still alive, Shi'ah knew that the chances were slim. He had either died of exposure or of the infection in his eyes.

When she had finally made her way back to her tribe's island, she made a solemn vow to draw the traitorous Hero out and make him pay for her brother's death. After determining that Link was the son of the Hero, she had her plan. The Hero would come out to save his son, and then she would cut him, deep inside, the way she had been when Ganondorf made her watch him kill her brother.

--

A few hours after Shi'ah had left, Link regained consciousness. His head felt like it had been split in two, and his collar bone ached. It was a dull ache that extended all the way down his right arm to his hand. Grimacing, he stood and walked around his cell. It was dark, but it was not damp. Walking over to the door, he cursed as he saw the Wind Waker sitting on a shelf, just out of his reach.

Snarling, he sat down with his back to the door so he would not be able to stare at the wand. His right arm he let hang to the ground, as his collar bone did not hurt as much when he did that. His other arm rested on his knees, and he gingerly set his head on that arm.

As his mind wandered, he was suddenly glad that his grandmother had passed away the previous year. Aryll's capture by the Helmorag King had been hard on her, and this would have killed her. The old woman had taken them in and cared for the two as if they were her own until she passed away silently in her sleep after a long illness.

His mind then turned to what his attacker had said about his father. Despite her constant referrals to the Master Sword being the sword of his father, Link did not believe her. The only other person that he knew of that used the sword was the Hero of Time, and there was no way that he could be the Hero's son. Even if the Hero had married and had a son, there was the slight problem in the length of time between now and when the Hero's son would have lived.

"That and he's no traitor," Link muttered to himself. His soft voice echoed in the small room, and the echo depressed him. He was alone, for the first time in his life. There was no Aryll waiting for him, no Tetra to harass him about his bad sailing skills, and no King of the Red Lions helping him out through the magic stone. Closing his eyes, Link clenched his left hand, trying to keep himself from crying.

Whoever you are, father, please come. Please…

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A/N: Sturgeon was too much fun to write. Hope you like, and thanks for the reviews!