I've decide to include some suffixes in the Sheikah's speech to convey titles and such. They can either be tacked onto the end of someone's name (as a suffix), or used independently; however, if they're used independently from a name, it is usually because the two that are speaking are familiar or close with each other. Here's a chart so nobody gets confused:
To one of lower rank/status: -líta
To one of equal rank/status: -parí
To one of higher rank/status: -näba
Meaning friend:-mala
Beloved/One of My Heart:-nalí
The two I'll probably be using the most are mala and nalí. For… reasons… :D
As always, thank you for your continued reading, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Legend of Zelda. All other original characters belong to me.
The Sheikah
Chapter Three - Parting
"Where have you been?" Brock demanded, anger apparent in his tone as Link entered their tent after Sheik had gone off.
"Talking," Link answered honestly, coming in and flopping down on one of the large pillows dotting the floor.
"With that filthy Sheikah boy that started this whole mess?" Brock's nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Boy, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times." His voice lowered to a hushed tone, and he looked over his shoulder as if there were spies listening in outside the tent's canvas. "Sheikah are slimy curs, and they're not to be trusted. Check your pockets, son, did that devil steal anything from you?"
"My pockets were empty, dad," Link murmured, staring at the floor dejectedly.
"Were they?" he growled.
"Yes!" Link shouted, angry with his father's blind hatred. "He's a good person!"
Brock ignored what he said. "You just stay away from him. They're plotters and schemers, all of 'em."
"Link just has a crush, dad," Jasten snorted, throwing a pillow at his younger brother's head. "He's got it for that one named Sheik."
Link's face reddened considerably. "I don't!" He threw the pillow on the floor as Davin watched the whole scene quietly.
Brock fixed all three of them with a harsh gaze, ending on Link. Link got a special look, one filled with disdain and a seething dislike. "No, he doesn't," he said icily. "Not only is that mongrel a Sheikah, but he sure as hell isn't a girl, and no son of mine is queer, do you hear me?"
Link shrank back against the ground, away from his father's gaze. "Yes, sir." He didn't see anything wrong with liking another boy; what was the harm? But arguing that point just wouldn't be worth it in this crowd. "But I don't," Link insisted half-heartedly, brow furrowing in a defeat he could not understand. He didn't think he could take it if he was forced to suppress one more part of himself. Link looked up. Jasten rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing, Davin doing much the same. Brock strode across the tent and sat, facing away from his sons.
Link was left alone. He settled down in a corner, hugging himself and trying not to cry.
A few hours after Fen had brought the Hylians into their camp, he went to their tent, informing them that meals in a Sheikan village were to be eaten together as a community in the center of the village. "As Hylians, you are new to our ways and practices." Fen glanced at the golden-haired boy, taking special note of his reddened, puffy eyes. "But all in the village must come together to eat."
"Fine," Brock muttered, clutching the collar of Link's shirt and dragging him along behind; as if the young boy wasn't eager enough to escape the tent. The other two boys followed along behind their father in silence.
As Fen watched them walk out, his eyes fell once again on the smallest lad, who couldn't have been any more than sixteen. Betali came up from behind to stand beside him. "The Hylians act strangely from us, nalí," she said softly in their native tongue. Fen draped an arm around his wife's waist as they walked.
"They've seen great hardship, from what I have gathered. Especially the young boy. The man nearly struck him when we found them out on the dunes," he answered.
"It is such a shame," Betali sighed, fingering the long braid hanging over her shoulder. "I have born you no children yet, Fen-nalí, but you know I think of Sheik as my own."
"I know, nalí."
"I cannot imagine raising my hand to him in such a way, no matter what he had done. That boy is too much of a treasure. Any child is."
Fen chuckled, a deep, hearty chuckle, resonating from his chest. "And the Hylians look upon the Sheikah and call us devils!" he jested.
"Fen, Betali!" Sheik called, running up behind them.
Betali turned, welcoming him to walk with them. "Ah, my fateson, I have not seen you since first light," she crooned in Sheikan. "You go out hunting too often."
"Sheik," Fen murmured, putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling his fateson close. "You must stay near that Hylian child. Keep him safe from that father of his."
"Broken father, hûrla," Betali hissed, uttering the Sheikah curse under her breath.
"All right," Sheik agreed, hurrying up to the long wooden tables that rested in the middle of the village. He was eager enough to see the Hylian boy again anyway. He felt a little guilty for leaving him the way he did earlier; but while they'd been talking, the reality of his future had come crashing down on him all at once, and he'd had an immense amount of trouble in that moment dealing with it. Sheik peered across the tables and spotted Link, sitting aside his family, and quickly crossed the rapidly cooling sand to claim the seat next to him before another who was curious about the Hylians grabbed it. He was supposed to be their interpreter anyway, according to Fen.
Link blinked at him as he sat down, surprised it seemed that Sheik had chosen him to sit with. He appeared slightly pleased, but wary as well.
Sheik smiled, noting that the entire broken family was staring at him. The brothers were neutral enough; they appeared bored, even. But the father's eyes shown with hatred and distrust. The man said nothing, looking away with anger.
Sheik ignored him. "I regret leaving you while the day was still so young." He grinned, touching Link's arm with friendly affection. He was more than happy to keep an eye on this boy for Fen, even if both of their futures would allow only a few days of it, perhaps less. He liked the boy. He was easy and interesting to talk to, and he was pretty. Sheik also liked the way he scrunched up his nose when they talked about certain things. "It is good to see you again, Link-mala."
"What does that mean?" Link asked quietly.
"Mala?" Sheik repeated. Link nodded, and Sheik raised his eyebrows. "I am addressing you as a friend." He suddenly hoped he hadn't been too forward. He had thought that they were getting on as friends.
A small smile brightened Link's dim expression. "Oh. Thank you, Sheik-mala."
Relieved, Sheik laughed into the night. "Yes, that's right! You're getting the hang of it." He gestured around the three long tables, which were ringed by a circle of torches that lit the area and kept the bugs at bay. A large bonfire burned in a space of open ground not too far away from the tables. "This is your first meal with the Sheikah. The table in the center is reserved for the clan chief, Osidian-näba and his family. You met him briefly, when we first brought you into the camp." The middle table was currently empty.
"He must have a big family," answered Link, eyeing the long bench seats.
"Aye," Sheik laughed. "Most of the families in the clan are large. Many go away to marry when they come of age, and bring their husbands and wives back here, and they have lots of children, which only make them larger. My friend Torren, he has more brothers and sisters than I can bear to count. Large families are common among the Sheikah, except for mine." He sighed. "They've all gone, except for me, and I'll be gone soon as well. I am the last born of my family."
"Unless you have children," Link pointed out quietly, dropping his gaze down to the table.
Sheik snorted, looking away. Link tucked his chin into his chest, trying to hide the redness blooming in his cheeks, though Sheik had seen it well enough. Sheik stared at the table and its whirling pattern of grains. This wood had been traded for long ago by Sheikah ancestors. Finally, he said: "I have no wish to father children into a world where they will be made to serve as pampered slaves."
"I can understand that," Link murmured, looking up and watching him.
Sheik looked up and smirked. The boy had sounded so sure of himself. "Can you, Link-mala?"
Link shrugged, smiling back; his cerulean eyes sparkled in the torchlight. "I can try."
Sheik laughed, extremely amused. "Oh, mala!" He grinned, holding Link's shoulder. "You must come hunting with me tomorrow!"
"I would love to," Link murmured, casting a glance over his shoulder at his father. "It—it would be an honor, if—if time permits."
"I look forward to it," Sheik said, just as Fen and Betali sat down beside him.
"You are getting on quite well with our Hylian guests, Sheik-líta," Fen murmured from behind a cup of wine.
Betali leaned over the table, smiling warmly at Link's family. "Welcome, our village welcomes to you." Sheik smiled at her broken Hylian and thick accent. She'd never bothered to learn the language. What she knew she had picked up from Sheik's lessons with Fen.
Link's brothers grinned back at her, clearly taken with her exotic beauty. Even Brock managed a tight smile.
Sheik procured two cups of wine for Link and himself as the food was served. Link eyed the thin liquid with uncertainty, tasting it with obvious dislike. Sheik watched him. "I was that way at first, too," he said. "You get used to it. Drink."
"I won't have time to get used to it," Link whispered.
Sheik frowned. "I know."
Sheik had dragged Link out of his seat after they had finished eating to dance. The bonfire was broiling at a blisteringly hot temperature now, and many Sheikah were dancing around it as others sat back strumming on harps and blowing out tunes on ocarinas. All of the music weaved together into a magical spell that—with the aid of the wine—had Link believing it was all a dream and he really had died out in the desert.
Link grinned sheepishly, cheeks warm from the wine as Sheik took both his hands, winding him this way and that and in loping circles around the fire. Many watched the Hylian and Sheikah dance together; some whispering in each other's ears that perhaps there was more to this pair than just a dance.
They danced for what felt like hours, but Link knew it had been less than one. Sheik grabbed his arm, hauling him out of the village to that same spot down by the cool waters of the desert spring they had talked by earlier.
"So," Sheik said, plopping down close beside Link. "Did you enjoy your first night with the Sheikah?"
Link giggled. "It's so exciting here!"
"Aye," Sheik laughed along. "I will miss it when I am called away."
Link caught Sheik's eye. "So will I."
The crimson-eyed boy smiled sadly. "Your father will take you away tomorrow, won't he? He is eager to leave this place."
Link nodded sadly, his leg brushing against the other boy's as he folded them. "Well, we're both heading for Castle Town eventually, so—" Link stopped himself, and began again. "At least we had the time we did. I'm glad to know someone like you."
"You won't have time to hunt with Kaiden and I tomorrow, will you?" Sheik asked Link, noticeably disappointed.
Link stared dejectedly at the ground, drawing swirling patterns in the sand absentmindedly with his finger. He hated to hear his own sadness reflected in the other boy's voice. "I wish I could, you know."
"Me too." They looked at each other, just stared into each other's eyes for a moment. The Sheikah's gaze was intense.
Link cast his eyes back down to the sand again, a small sad smile playing around his lips. "I suspect he'll ferret us away sometime in the night or early morning. Will you tell Fen that I'm grateful to him?"
Sheik blinked. "Of course I will."
Something was breaking in Link. He didn't want to go. He didn't want this night to end. "I will miss you, Sheik-mala," he said.
Sheik looked up, locking gazes with him once more. Link's eyes were wide with the emotion he felt building up in his chest. The Sheikah smiled at him. "Nayru tells me that this is not the last we will see of each other," he whispered. "But until then, Link-mala—" The desert boy leaned forward, touching his forehead to Link's. "I will miss you as well."
What if I just ended the story here? How awful of me would that be? I could never do that, though! I could never leave these sweet blonde children all alone and miserable! Leave a review or send me a PM if you have any comments, questions, or if you just liked the story!
Next chapter, you ask? Castle Town! ^_^