Navi watched Sheik spring into action. The Sheikah went out to gather wood and supplies. He built a fire and soon the cavern warmed up even more, despite the chilly breeze that seemed to be coming from the entrance of the cavern. Sheik quickly took care of that, too, standing in front of the entrance to the temple and whispering a few words. The tunnel closed. Now none would be able to enter and taint the Shadow Temple again.
Once the fire was bright and warm, Sheik set about making soup, using the supplies he bought earlier.
The whole time, Link slept soundly, his breathing still ragged an uneven. He still shivered and coughed occasionally. Navi rested on the tip of his boot, taking turns watching Link and Sheik. "You seem pretty good at cooking," Navi commented to Sheik as delicious smells wafted up from the small boiling pot. "Though how did you manage to carry that pot here?" Navi hadn't seen the Sheikah carry the pot in, nor had she seen him put in on the fire.
"Same way Link carries all his weapons and prizes from the dungeons. Besides, I was trained to survive out here in the wilderness. Been doing so for the past seven years, since Ganondorf came to power."
"So you knew all this would happen?"
Sheik hesitated. "In a way, yes." He turned his back on Navi, stirring the soup. Navi watched him curiously. This man before her was very strange indeed.
"Soup's done," Sheik said after a moment, glancing over his shoulder toward Navi. "You want to try to wake him up?"
"Sure." Navi fluttered over to her friend's face. "Hey, Link, wake up!" When the Hero didn't stir, Navi tried harder. "Hey! Hey! Wake up! Listen! Hey!"
The constant stream of high-pitched words soon caused Link to stir. He moaned slightly. "Navi, shut up!" he muttered.
"Hey! Wake up! Come on!"
"Alright, Navi, I think you've woken him," Sheik said.
Navi laughed. "Come on, Link, we've got soup."
Link opened his eyes, looking blearily at Sheik, who was ladling some soup into a bowl. "You didn't have to go to all that trouble," he rasped.
"This was no trouble, Link," Sheik said, coming over to him with a bowl of the steaming soup. He helped Link sit up and handed him the bowl. "You're to finish the entire bowl, got it?"
Link sighed with annoyance. He still wasn't hungry, but he figured it was all part of the illness. He took a sip of the soup anyway. It was delicious. He took a few more sips, and found some of his strength returning. But he was still incredibly exhausted.
Sheik moved away from him, and stoked the fire once more. Link studied the quiet warrior, only to be reprimanded by Navi.
"Eat your soup," the fairy said.
Link glared tiredly at her. "I am," he grumbled. He coughed, and brought the bowl to his mouth once more.
Before he knew it, he was tiring, he couldn't stay sitting up. He finished what he could of the soup and set the bowl aside, lying back down and pulling his cloak over himself, closing his eyes.
"You didn't finish your soup, Link."
The Hero opened his eyes to see Sheik standing over him.
"Can't. Too tired."
"Fine. Go back to sleep."
Link nodded, but instead of going back to sleep, he began to cough, that same, deep, hacking cough, gasping for breath between each cough. Sheik set down the bowl and went back over to Link, helping the young Hero sit up.
Finally, winded and gasping, Link's coughing dwindled to a stop. Slowly, he lowered his hands from his mouth, and Sheik's eyes widened at the sight of blood. "Goddesses, Link..." the Sheikah muttered. He stood and wet a rag in a basin of water next to the fire before moving back toward Link, handing him the cloth. Link nodded his thanks and proceeded to wipe his hands and mouth before lying back down and going to sleep.
Navi watched him. "I'm worried, Sheik," she admitted.
"Don't be," Sheik replied. "He's got a mild case. Not too bad."
"Mild? You call that mild?"
"Yeah. It can be a lot worse."
The fairy sighed. "You better be right."
Several days passed. Link spent most of the time sleeping, trying to recover from the pneumonia. Zelda could tell he was getting better. He coughed up less blood, and seemed to be more hungry, but then again, she always had him eat all of whatever soup she gave him.
Zelda took to plucking out tunes on her harp, instead of talking with Navi and Link – when the Hero was awake that is. She found it hard to talk so much while using a deeper voice than she was made for. Impa had told her once that the Princess could use her magic so that her voice would be deeper without having to try, like she had changed her eye color. But Zelda had declined learning the spell. She didn't want to change herself too much.
One rainy day, she made the mistake of playing her lullaby when she thought Link was asleep. His raspy voice broke through the music and silence. "You know Zelda?" he asked.
Zelda hesitated, glancing over at her friend. "I apologize if the song woke you."
"I was already awake." The Hero pushed himself up slowly and weakly. "But that song. Only those who are close to Zelda know it."
Zelda sighed. "I guess you could say I am friends with the Princess." Time for a lie. If only to protect her identity. It hurt that she couldn't even tell the one she loved who she really was. "She and I met about a year after Ganondorf took over. And we traveled together for awhile. But we parted ways. I haven't seen her since...a year before you woke from your seven-year sleep."
"Oh."
"Why so downcast?"
"I miss her." Link paused to cough a few times. "I really miss her. The last time I saw her, she looked so frightened, so helpless. I wanted to help her so much it hurt. But I couldn't."
Zelda felt tears spring to her eyes, and she looked away, glad that her bangs hid the silent tear that slipped down her cheek into the cowl she wore around her face. "Do you care for her?" she asked.
"Care for her? Sheik, I love her." These words caused Zelda to freeze, her breath catching in her throat. "If it were up to me," Link continued in a hoarse voice, "she and I would have never been separated-" Link stopped, cut off by coughing. He woke Navi, who fluttered up with concern. After a few moments, Link stopped, looking weary.
Zelda watched him lay back down before she began plucking at her harp again, this time, playing an ancient tune that had been passed down generation to generation from the very first Princess of Hyrule, called the BalladoftheGoddess. There once were words to the song as well, but those had been lost to the ravages of time. Rumor had it, though, that the song was once dedicated to a single goddess, composed in a land far above the clouds. Did Zelda believe it?
Yes. But few others did.
The thoughts on the song she was playing calmed her, taking her mind off the current situation and throwing into the history she so loved. But it didn't last long.
Though she looked calm on the outside, she was nearly shouting with joy. Even though Link's words had not been directed to the Princess she was, she had heard it straight from his mouth. He loved her! Just as she loved him!
As night overcame the land once more, Zelda's restlessness and joy caused her to remain awake, watching Link as he slept. Around midnight, her ears picked up on a strange noise outside the cavern. Someone was coming.
She stood, placing her harp on the ground where she was sitting and sneaked through the shadows.
There was a cloaked figure approaching, weaving gracefully through the gravestones below, but it was certain of their destination. Whoever it was, they were heading toward the cavern that Zelda was guarding. With an agile leap, the figure made it up the ledge and over the fence. The disguised Princess drew her long-bladed knife and attempted to sneak up on the person, but whoever it was sensed her and blocked her blade with a short sword.
The person stopped. "Sheik?"
Zelda froze, recognition flooding her face. "Impa?" She lowered her dagger.
"Yes." Impa drew the hood off her head. Zelda gasped. She dropped her dagger and rushed into her nursemaid's arms. "Oh, dear child," Impa said softly. "I am glad you're safe."
"I was trained well, Impa," Zelda replied, letting her voice return to normal. She let Impa go and pulled down the cowl so that her entire face showed. Now, to any onlooker, it was obvious that this person that claimed to be Sheik was indeed a woman, not a man. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to figure out why you and Link were still hanging around the Shadow Temple."
"Oh." Zelda glanced back at the cavern. "Link's ill."
"Ah."
Zelda nodded, but every thought of Link caused her to blush.
"What is it?" Impa asked. Nothing about the Princess escaped the Sheikah.
"Just something Link told me earlier."
"And what was that?" Impa crossed her arms. Zelda smiled and sighed, looking away. "Oh, I see. He told you he loved you."
"Technically, he told Sheik, but yes."
"I'm happy for you, my dear. If only things weren't the way they are now."
"I know."
"Sheik?"
Zelda jumped, glancing toward the entrance of the cave. Navi was there, hovering and staring at Zelda's now uncovered face. The Princess rushed to cover her face, but Impa held out a hand to stop her. It was too late.
"Wha- who are you?" Navi asked. "Your..."
Zelda looked away. "Please, Navi, don't wake Link. I'd rather he not find out who I am."
"And who exactly is that?" Navi demanded.
Zelda had no choice. She pulled her glove off her right hand and showed the back to the fairy. The Triforce of Wisdom glowed brightly. Navi gasped. She knew who bared the Triforce of Wisdom. It was so obvious.
"Z-Zelda?"
"Yes."
"But...but how? Why?"
Zelda sighed, but she told her story. She explained how she and Impa had run from place to place, seeking safety and shelter from Ganondorf. She explained how this disguise was the last resort, and how no one had figured it out yet.
"I won't tell anyone," Navi said when Zelda finished.
"Not even Link..." Zelda added quietly. "It's...it's for the best."
Navi hesitated, but she nodded. "You have my word," she said. Coughing sounded from inside the cave, and Navi's wings drooped. But she zipped off to check on the ill Hero.
"That's not how I wanted them to find out," Zelda muttered to Impa, pulling her cowl up over her face.
Impa rolled her eyes. "You can't have everything your way, you know." Zelda nodded in response.
"Sheik, I think he's getting worse," Navi called over the sound of coughing.
"I'll go get a red potion. That should help him," Impa said. She melted into the shadows, and Zelda was went to tend to Link. She hurried back into the cave and saw Link coughing, attempting to push himself up. She moved over to him and pulled him up. That seemed to help, and soon the Hero's coughs died down, but his face still showed pain.
"You alright?" Zelda asked, almost forgetting to lower her voice.
"Sorta," Link rasped. He coughed once more. "My throat really hurts."
"Do you want any tea? That should help?"
Link shrugged, his eyes half closed. He shifted himself so that he was leaning back against the wall of the cavern. Zelda watched him with concern before glancing at Navi with a worried expression. The fairy's wings drooped. "I'll make you some tea," Zelda told Link. "Try to rest."
Link nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Soon, he was asleep. Zelda decided to not make him the tea, waiting instead for Impa to return with the potion.
The Sheikah returned within the hour, carrying not one, but three bottles of red potion, and some more supplies. The Sage gave one bottle to Zelda, and put the rest with the supplies. Zelda knelt next to Link and woke him.
In the cloud of exhaustion and illness, Link didn't even realize that he had fallen asleep. He looked at the bottle of potion that the warrior before him held out. "Take it, Link." Was it the illness, or did Sheik's voice sound like a woman's...like Zelda's? He put it down as his fevered mind making things up when Sheik spoke again, this time in his regular voice. "It'll make you feel better."
Link nodded and took the bottle. He drained it in one gulp and immediately felt the effects. His headache dimmed and his throat hurt less. He handed the bottle back and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep once more.
Author's note: Zelda's not being very careful, is she? Thanks, Light-Sakura, pokefan366, LegendOfZeldaFreak, GraysonPaladin, Aerial Elephant, MetaKnight15000, SailorZeldatheLightAlchemist, and Lleu for all the wonderful reviews! Special thanks to Lleu for pointing out several inconsitencies. I haven't fixed said inconsitencies, except for one, which was cleared up in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and don't hesitate to tell me what you think!
