Painful Memories
"C'mon, Link." Sheik called heartily, jogging ahead, "We should tell the Kokiri that the Temple's fine now!" he jumped off the platform that had the mark of the Forest Medallion on it, and began jogging towards the steps that lead down to the meadow.
"Yeah, I'll be there." I said, feigning my happy mood.
As soon as he had his back to me I slumped forward like a branch of a willow tree, leaning on my knees as sweat dripped down my hair. Sheik turned back at the lack of response, cocking his head to the side. "You okay Link?" he sounded almost impatient, if not tired.
I gasped, gulped in air and nodded as I leaned on my knees, fear and fatigue making me shake. That was what I'd have to go through for another couple of weeks? Monsters and demons like the ones on the Forest Temple? Only worse. Much, much worse as we carried on. And Sheik was friggin' eager!? It was either he was crazy, or it was because he was a Sheikah therefore he was used to the demon thing. And obviously, he didn't get much blows as me, since he was hopping around, having the time of his life, while I was in a world of pain!
Wait a sec. Did he just sway? And was the hopping . . . a limp?
My answer was of him crumpling the ground, gasping.
…Shit.
"Sheik, you okay . . . ?" I took several steps towards him, when dizziness swept through my conscience. I swore slightly as I was forced onto my knees, and then onto my fours. Sweat bleared my eyesight as they fell down my face and hair and onto the wet grass as I breathed harshly and coughed, my throat dry and hurting. Had all the things Sheik had done only seconds ago . . . been fake? What was the point of acting that he was fine when he clearly wasn't? Why did he do it?
The dizziness escalated at the number of questions I wanted to ask, and fell onto my side, grunting harshly. Shoot. My side was hurt. I lay on my back and reached for the wound, noting the ache when I touched it. Bruised. Fractured if I wasn't lucky. I lifted my hand to examine it, seeing the red liquid that lay on my gauntlets and skin. How had I gotten that . . . ?
Was it when Joel . . .? No she wielded fire. Beth? Ice. Amy? No, the green Poe had nothing compared to her sisters before, except her really creepy laugh that chilled me to the bone. It could've been Meg, with her lantern shards, but surely I would've noticed it before. And it didn't explain the big bruise, either. With difficulty I went through the fight with the boss of the Temple, shivering like a frightened hare as I recalled the demonic face of the real Ganondorf, as well as his skeletal Phantom's.
Phantom Ganon had fallen from his horse, which I had finished off by giving it a long cut down its ghostly black neck. Then both of Sheik and I had ambushed the phantom when it was on the ground, but a dark wave of powerful energy had flung us back. Sheik onto the floor, me, onto the spear-like fences that surrounded our arena.
Now that explained the bruise as well as the blood.
But what was worse was that I'd been struck by his dark energy again, and I'd screamed at the power that raked through my muscles, pounded through my skull and had sucked almost all strength out of me. It was possible that I would've died in the next attack if Sheik hadn't pulled me out of its range. He had shouted at me to wake up – I hadn't noticed I was near unconscious – and hit the ball of dark energy back with the Master Sword; it was the only way to get the demon down to hacking range. We'd dodged again before I was able to stand, doing as I was told. It had worked like a miracle, and after the phantom had fallen and I had stabbed through its skull, it was thrown into a world between dimensions, leaving us with Ganondorf's voice.
I just knew I was going to have nightmares about it.
But when the question about my injury arose, another question nagged at my already aching head.
Sheik's knowledge.
" . . . How did you know all that stuff?" I asked him, rolling onto my side to stop the bleeding, despite the pain of the bruise, "You're almost like Navi . . . except you actually have detail on how to beat these guys. Lots of it too."
I hissed at the pain in the side as well others on my body, gulping in air to continue. My hands shook as more images of the monsters came into my mind, scaring me. Damn it, if there was ever a Hero that was more afraid than me, I'd like to see the face of him! "Where'd you learn all about those monsters? Half of them I didn't even know existed, but you knew their names, habits and how to defeat them all. What's up with that? How do you know so much?"
He groaned and turned his masked face to meet my gaze, making me see his red eye. "Training," he rasped, "has some quirks. I had to learn how to fight against different opponents. And the things I had to fight included ways of destroying monsters . . . and demons . . . the likes. . . I hated studying them, but . . ." he laughed dryly behind his scarf, drawing a smile out of me. Even in pain, he laughed. Seriously. He was a freak of nature. "I guess they paid off eh?"
I nodded before not being able to bear the pain in my side and lay on my back, but still clutching the wound to stop the blood from flowing. He glanced my way and struggled to sit up, but failed. I wished I had the strength to at least try. "You okay?" he asked instead, coughing up blood onto his scarf, making it look like a rose petal in snow.
I winced, wondering how hurt he was. "I'm fine." I strangled out, trying to force a smile. It came out as a grimace.
He looked like he didn't believe me but looked away, his fringe covering his other eye. Why did he cover it up, I wondered as he breathed deeply and calmly, although tensing up sometimes. What was he doing anyway? I was about to ask when he groaned and rolled onto his front, forcing himself up. He was on in his fours after a second, and when I saw that his calf muscle was bleeding, I tried to tell him to stop moving. When I opened my mouth he glared at me, and I clamped my teeth together.
You just couldn't say no to that glare.
He was out of my sight in a painful second, and I heard rustling, confusing me even more. What the hell? What was Sheik doing? I decided it hurt my head to think about questions that I couldn't ask, so I just lay there, hopelessly hurt and too tired to move.
The next thing I heard was a muffled thud.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The crash of the thing Sheik threw at me made my ear scream, cutting my cheek in several places in small nicks in the process, which made my cheek scream as well. Glass!? I was about to scream at him for the meaningless thing he did, until I noticed a pink glow. It fluttered around my head in wisps, easing the pain.
Navi . . . ?
No, it wasn't Navi. First she'd been blue; not pink. Second she was gone; long gone. Why would she come back now, after years of leaving me to my devises? I sighed as the fairy fluttered around my face, my side, just anywhere that had some sort of injury, and nodded. It was more of a bob in the air, but I'd spent at least two months with a fairy; I knew what it did and it was a nod. She-he-it began circling me in tight circles, and then she disappeared.
Why did everything that hurt only a second ago was gone?
I sat up as I groaned, the pains healed but still hurting. I knew from experience that to use cut-and-healed muscles too quickly was a killer of sorts, but . . . I guess I never learned. I turned to thank Sheik, but I paled instead.
He was out like stone.
"Shit!" I scrambled towards him and checked that he was still alive, and then I tried to shake him awake. He just frowned and grunted painfully, his head tossing this way and that. Bloody hell he must've had more blows than I thought! Damn it how do I carry him without hurting him too much? Should I even be thinking of carrying him? Gaah, this wasn't good! I should've paid more attention to the healing sessions. I would've if I'd known this was going to happen!?
Wait a sec . . .
I rummaged into my pocket to find the fairy ocarina Saria had carved for me years and years ago, a little worn over the years. I held it to my mouth and played my friend's song, begging that it would work even though I hadn't used in ages, even though Saria was now a sage, even though I didn't have Navi to send the magic from her to Saria's fairy, Aloe. I was desperate; just plain desperate.
I felt a small connection. It was small, it was barely there, but it was there.
" . . . Link?"
"Saria! Oh thank Furore, I need your help. Sheik's out like a candle, and he's hurt and I don't know what to do!"
"Relax Link." She said in his mind, her voice faint and whispery, "Do you remember the weeds near my house that kept growing? The ones that I dared you to eat?"
Yeah, I remembered. It was pretty funny, as I had relayed that prank on Mido and had laughed my guts out for it, but, "How's that supposed to help!?"
"That weed's sometimes used as a herb or medicine. There's some in the Temple's garden. Force it into his mouth and it'll wake him up; you can't treat him if you don't know what's wrong with him."
"Um… Uh . . . okay." I did just as Saria told me, returning only minutes later with the weeds. She'd instructed me to get other plants from the gardens of the Temple too, and I had picked as much as I could, dumping them onto the ground beside the Sheikah's blonde head.
The fern I'd eaten all those years ago, for weeds, were quite big. They were hard to bite, and frankly tasted really, really, bad. It was like they set your tongue on fire with sparks made through cracking rocks together. And if you're a kid aged ten, it's hard to cut, since it could break your jaw just by trying to bite it. I growled as I tried to rip the long leaves into squares, failing quite badly.
But I did it in the end, and had a good pile when I was done. With it I shuffled to Sheik's side, holding a piece of the weed. Okay, his scarf was in the way. I lifted my hand to pull it down.
Sheik's hand had my wrist before I could blink.
"Don't even think about it." He growled, forcefully opening his eyes. The eye I could see was faint with fatigue, but they still had mild anger for what I was going to do.
"I was trying to wake you up." I said in my defence, making him scoff.
"And this involves my face, how?"
"The herbs were supposed to wake you up!" I insisted as he rolled his eyes. Well, I could only see one, but you could hardly roll your eyes without doing it with both, right? Anyway the gesture pissed me off, so I pulled my hand away and shoved a square into his palm and told him to try it.
He did so silently, slipping the weed under his mask and swallowed. I smirked as his eye bulged and he gagged horribly, the hot substance of the plant burning the insides of his mouth.
I almost expected him to demand why the hell I had done that to him, and I had a perfectly good retort already worked out, but once he had calmed down he hissed through his teeth, saying, "Point taken."
I sighed, relieved and disappointed at the same time, handing him a canteen of water to snuff the heat in his mouth. He took it with gratitude, but didn't drink. I frowned, now annoyed. "Why do you hide your face so much? Is it some kind of tradition, or do you have reason? It's not like I'm not on your side."
He glanced at me before sighing, hissing through his teeth. "I'm paranoid, okay? I have this feeling that if the enemy sees my face, they'd give the description to Ganondorf; I met him once . . ."
"Vwat!?"
He winced. Of course I'd react if I just a heard a friend had met Ganondorf! You better not be on his side . . .
" . . . When he attacked the castle."
Oh.
"A glimpse was enough to scare the blood out of me." he forced himself up, now sitting, "And, there were families I couldn't save, friends to people I was able to save. They sometimes look at me as if it were my fault that they'd died in the attack . . ."
"It wasn't your fault." The firmness of my statement even surprised me. Sheik looked at me and he sighed, turning his head to the side so he faced the other way. His shoulders sagged with unseen weight.
"I'm glad that someone thinks that, but it won't change the opinions of those who hate me."
I frowned. What had happened to the Sheik that had said sarcastic remarks towards the monsters he and I had faced, so full of confidence and the strength to survive? He was staring into the wall ahead, brooding over the nightmares he had had to live through for the last two years.
Honestly, I couldn't think of any other way to snap him out of it. I poked a wound in his shoulder, making him shout a swear. The reaction was much stronger than I'd expected; he was doubled over and was holding his arm below the wound, and I couldn't help but giggle.
He glared daggers at me as he growled like a wild hound while I tried to contain a laugh behind my hand, failing miserably like the business with the plants from before.
"Give me one bloody good reason why I shouldn't kill you." he snarled as his hand lingered towards his hip, where a long belt full to the brim with knives dangled.
I raised my hands in mock defeat and I brought out a pile of herbs from my side, which I'd brought with the weeds. "Sorry; I couldn't think of any other way to snap you out of there. Look, I've got herbs Saria explained to me about for different wounds. What hurts? Where? I'll fix you as much as I possibly can, so forgive me?"
His posture changed, and he sighed. "Fine."
I grinned as he told me the wound I'd poked was a nick from a Stalfos. I ripped the cloth of his shirt and saw that it was inch deep and had a lot of pebbles in it. It was bleeding pretty badly too. Ouch.
"Oi!" he said, trying to snatch the injured limb away, "Give me warning won't you? That's a very precious piece of my heritage, and frankly, I like being covered, thank you!"
I ignored him.
I brought out a round-ish bud and popped it, making ooze fall onto his injury, making him tense. "You okay?"
He nodded vigorously, even though the eye I could see was screwed shut. "Just a little colder than expected." He gritted out as I went for his sack for a bandage. The process of telling and fixing and complaining continued, and when I was done he was able to stand up, his energy not recovered, per se, but better none the less.
He was staring at me again, and I frowned. "What're you looking at?"
"You, duh." He chuckled, pulling the rip of his shirt that was supposed to cover his bandaged shoulder before offering a hand to help me up, "I was just… wondering who this Navi was, that's all. Must've been a smart person if she knew about monsters and the like. When did you know her? What was she like?"
I smiled nostalgically as he helped me stand, the whisper every time she came out of my hat, and the 'Hey, Listen!' she always gave out when I ignored her coming back. "She . . . was a fairy I had as a friend while I still lived here, in the forest. The Deku tree assigned her to me so she could help me along with getting a curse off of him. It didn't work, though…"
The image of the dead tree came back forcefully. It had rotted severely over the years.
" … I'm sorry."
I shook my hand at him, gesturing that there was no need for apologies. Think of Navi, think Navi… "She was sometimes annoying, but she tended to have good advice and she helped me through lots; sneaking into the castle, meeting the Gorons and getting rid of their problems with dodongos, getting myself into . . ."
A certain memory rushed into my mind, and I gulped with fear. I'll just hope she'd forgotten that bit, huh.
"What?" Sheik asked me, snapping me out of that creepy flashback, "You look like you've seen . . ." he stopped, thinking over his next words. I cocked an eyebrow, and he just shook his head. "I . . . won't say ghost."
I nodded with a smile, saying, "Please and thank you."
He laughed and told me to carry on. "Well," I continued as we gathered our equipment, "I got myself into Lord Jabu-jabu, and yeah, I tried pulling out the Master Sword, since the Princess told me to do it. After that there was this zoom . . . ish, kind of noise, and, she just left me. I searched for her, but didn't go too well. I asked the Deku tree why she left, and that was when I learned that I was Hylian."
There was a moment of silence before Sheik asked another question, sounding sullen. "You meet the Princess after that?"
I shook my head. "She was busy embroidering."
He laughed again, but this time coldly. Now, why did that give me the feeling that he didn't really like the Princess?
"What took Rauru so long to explain to you what was going on? You'd lived through the seven years of the prophecy that said the Hero was to sleep, right? You knew what was going on. Why did it take forever to explain?"
I grinned sheepishly, scratching my head under the green hat. "I couldn't really believe that I was the Hero of Time, and turns out, the Master Sword had erased all my memory on the fights I had with Ghoma, Kind Dodongo, and the really annoying Barinade, so yeah. Took a while to come through." I stopped the urge to shiver at the memories that had flied through my brain, of the giant skultulas, the falling anemone, the lizards that had no legs, the jelly fish that swum in thin air. It had been a serious pain remembering all that in fifteen minutes – five minutes per dungeon – and I'd been too shaken to listen to Rauru a second. Sheik looked thoughtful as I pushed my mind out of the encounter with Rauru, and into reality.
"Hm …"
I didn't know what to do next, so I laughed. He looked at me weirdly with his red eye, and I said, "Why are we here anyway? We bet the first boss, I have the medallion, why don't we get on to the next one?"
I stood and brushed myself off, extending a hand out to him. He shrugged as I helped him up, getting his pack sorted as I walked on ahead. I noticed I'd missed something, and I looked back at him, grinning.
"Thanks for the Fairy by the way. Really helped."
He shrugged. "Can't let the key between peace and domination die now can I?"
I mock pouted at the comment, pretending to be hurt. "Aw, am I just some tool of destiny that your small, cold heart can't look out for?"
"No, I'm just saying . . . Hey! Nobody calls me cold hearted and gets away with it!"
But I'd already run down the stairs when he'd finished his sentence. He screamed at me as he chased me, yelling swears that I would have to hit him for later. Or once he'd healed; I didn't really mind; just as long as I was I was able to hit him.
Sheik was fun; he lightened the burden that was the Title of being The Hero of Time. He reminded me that it was my choice to back away from the duty if I wanted; it just left Hyrule defenceless, and in a way, that gave me strength (although it felt a lot like blackmail…).
I didn't have to do it for the country; I could do this for my friends and people I considered family, and even if I'd only spent very little time with the guy, Sheik was one of them. He had secrets, sure, but none of them could kill me; it wasn't like I didn't have secrets of my own. I'll listen when he's ready to tell, and if he never tells, well I guess I'd have to live with that eh?
