Hi, everyone!
This chapter took longer than I thought it would and I really struggled with it because I knew exactly what I wanted, it was just the writing it down to match that was hard. On another note, I thank everyone who has been reading and reviewing consistently, it's been a really big help! My family is moving soon, so it's been pretty hectic at home and your reviews really motivated me to make time to do something that I love!
The last chapter had a record 5 reviews! *heart melting with happness* Your support as been awesome and I can't wait to write the next chapter! :D
I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...but this storyline is mine at least!
Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!
-X- a different point in time
"L-link? Link? Oh no, no, no, no. Link, wake up!"
Zelda pleading as she felt her tears start falling, her eyes darting to his other injuries as she tried determining why he fell unconscious. Rusl set Link's hands down by the boy's sides and untied his white headband to wrap around Link's bleeding left arm.
"This is not going to be enough for him. Zelda, keep pressure on that cut, we've got to stop the bleeding."
Rusl unbuckled his sword and pulled off his shirt, then quickly produced a knife. He began cutting the shirt into strips while glanced in the direction of the Mayor, before turned his eyes back down to his work.
"Bo, check to be sure that all these Bulblins are dead. Ilia, go get the animal stretcher from Fado's house and tell Uli to start preparing to treat multiple lacerations."
The Mayor reacted in surprise and turned his head, noticing for the first time that his daughter had followed them. Ilia and Bo frowned at each other, both mentally preparing for another one of their arguments on Ilia's chosen behavior. She crossed her arms, daring him to speak his mind on what she had done while he regarded her with more shock than anger.
"I-Ilia! You were told to stay behind and lock the gate, how could you just abandon your post like that?"
"Zel ran out, so there was no way I was just gonna-"
"Now is not the time for this, you two! This boy needs to be taken to the village to be treated and to do that we need the stretcher, now please do as I said!"
Both looked sheepish for a moment before Ilia ran off for the stretcher and Bo began checking the dead Bulblins.
The wound on Link's abdomen was the worst that they could see, but the bleeding was slowing thanks to Zelda's constant pressure and Rusl's hasty wrappings of the other bleeding wounds. They wrapped the slash in what was left of Rusl's shirt and when Ilia returned with the stretcher, Bo and Rusl carefully lifted Link onto it.
Zelda hurried ahead of the two men carrying Link, flying down the path and into the village. She sprinted to her home, flung the door open just long enough to locate her herbs bag, and sprang out the door again, racing to Uli and Rusl's house.
The stretcher bearers had already entered and she walked in just in time to see both men lift Link out of the stretcher to place him on the large dining table. Rusl was saying something to Uli about going back to check where they had found Link, but Zelda barely heard them.
Link was too limp, his only movement the rise and fall of his chest as they stepped away from him. Uli looked so scared and sad and worried as she stared down at Link from the head of the table. Zelda knew that Uli normally treated Rusl when he got hurt in battle and as such had seen many different kinds of injuries. She was a brave woman that had been healing not only Rusl, but anyone else who needed it since the two had met years ago, but Zelda had never seen her hesitate before.
Zelda stepped closer and the sound of her voice seemed to break the three adults out of their trances.
"Uli, I brought my herbs and I want to help."
All three looked at her and Uli gave her a strained smile, the other emotions she had on her face previously never leaving her eyes.
"Of course, Dear."
She gestured for her to approach and she did, but Zelda saw the look that Uli gave Rusl when she thought that Zelda wouldn't see it. A silent plea for him to finish his work quickly and hurry back, because they didn't think Link would make it. Rusl said that he and Bo would be back as soon as they were done, and that Ilia was to wait outside on the porch should Uli need anything.
"Be safe."
Uli said as they left. Zelda could hear Ilia out on the porch say something quietly to them, but she couldn't make it out.
She numbly set about checking Uli's poultice mixture and mixing another thinner paste, all while watching Link carefully. He looked much paler and his breaths were shallower than before, causing her hands to tighten on the bowl and spoon she held.
"Zelda."
She looked up at Uli.
"I think that's ready, Dear. We have to remove these bandages now to see what we're dealing with."
Uli set a bowl of warm water down next to Zelda and another one on Link's right side with some soft cleaning cloths resting beside both of them.
"You start with his neck and face, while I'll start with his arm here."
Zelda nodded, dipping one of the cloths into the water and began cleaning his face. The lower half of it was covered in a sticky, dark green colored stuff that completely coated his mouth and jawline. She didn't really want to know what that gunk was, or how it had gotten there and felt relieved as it was wiped away to reveal uninjured tan skin.
She found a small lash mark on his left cheek and applied some of the thinner paste she had made to it once it was clean. She set aside the now filthy cloth she had cleaned his face with and picked a new one, then carefully untied the bandages covering the lash on his neck. It had stopped bleeding awhile ago, so she was careful not to reopen it as she washed it, spread some paste on it, and rebandaged his neck by gently wrapping the whole thing in clean bandages.
With his face clean, he looked better she decided with a nod. Though the more she looked, the more it only seemed to highlight how unnaturally pale he was now, a thin layer of cold sweat glistening off his skin in the fire and candle light. She shook her head, then looked up at Uli.
"I'm finished, what should I work on now?"
"Why don't you bandage his left arm? When I'm done here we can start working on the slash across his stomach, that way we have the least chance of causing him to bleed out."
Zelda paled slightly, but nodded and began unwrapping the bandages over his upper left arm. She frowned as she started cleaning the strange cut on his arm, noting how it was like the ones that were on his face and neck.
"Uli? I've never seen cuts like this before, do you know what made this?"
Uli paused in her work and looked over at the now clean wound, her eyes got a strange look in them as she saw it. She looked back down and continued bandaging, avoiding Zelda's now confused stare.
"Let's wait till Rusl and Bo come back and tell us what they've found, then we'll talk about it."
Zelda bit her lip and then looked at Link's face for a few seconds before going back to her tending of the strange cut. It didn't take her very long to finish and her eyes drifted down his arm to what she could only describe as a large metal bracelet around his wrist with its trailing bit of chain. It looked ugly and heavy, like it was painful to wear.
Her eyes fell on the thin, dirty bandages wrapped around the palm of his hand and she started untying them, remembering that he hadn't wanted her to look at it before and praying that it wasn't an infected wound or something else of that ilk. There was nothing wrong with his palm which surprised her, so she turned his hand over to look at the back of it.
Her breath caught in her throat with her hair falling like a curtain in-between her and Uli so the other woman missed her shocked expression. He had the same triangles marking on his left hand that she had on her right.
Both of their marks were glowing softly and she couldn't help tracing the outline of his with her finger. Now that she looked closer she could see some differences, his brightest glowing triangle was the bottom right one and hers was the bottom left one. These differences didn't explain why what she had always regarded as a birthmark was glowing or why he had one that was so similar to hers, as she had read that birthmarks are unique to every person.
"I'm done now, Zelda."
Zelda started slightly, flipping his hand over so that the back of it was resting on the table and his glowing mark was out of Uli's sight.
"I-I'm ready."
Uli nodded, then both began unwrapping the makeshift bandages from his torso. She frowned as they got down to Zelda's blood soaked handkerchief and the remnants of Link's tattered shirt, muttering under her breath to herself as she produced a small knife.
"Rusl. You should have cut this shirt away, now I just hope that it hasn't stuck in the wound."
Zelda peeled away her handkerchief as Uli started cutting away at the tatters and using some of her water to loosen the cloth stuck to him with his blood. The wound looked worse and worse as they saw more of it, and as the blood was being cleared away it became clear that he also had a massive bruise covering his side. It's horribly dark and fresh blue-black coloring mixed with the red-brown of his dried blood made Zelda's stomach tighten, and a slightly sick expression washed over Uli's face.
"He's worse off than I thought. Hopefully he doesn't have any broken ribs because if he does he may be bleeding inside, and if he is than there's nothin-"
Uli peeled up a small seeming strip of his shirt while talking and crimson red blood came seeping out of the reopened knife wound. Zelda slapped her last completely clean cloth over the wound and started pressing down on it like she had on the path, not too hard, but firmly enough to stop the bleeding.
"I'm out of clean cloths, Uli."
She said tightly, glancing up just in time to see the woman's horrified face as she stared down at the darkening cloth. Uli turned away to face front door quickly, as if hoping that Zelda hadn't seen how bad it really was, and hurried towards it.
"I'll have Ilia get us some more clean cloths and fresh water, keep pressure on it."
As she opened the door, Zelda looked back down at the reddening cloth and then up to his face. Uli didn't think that he was going to live, she had never seemed to, and Zelda knew that if he lost much more blood then he really would.
"P-please Link. I know that you did this because you didn't want my home to be destroyed, but I don't want someone else to d-die for me. You can't do this to me. "
She lowered her head with hot tears gathering in her eyes, but then she saw her birthmark. It was glowing brighter than it had before and she felt a slight warmth blossoming in her chest, something she hadn't felt since that black night so long ago. Her mind and eyes were suddenly awhirl with book pages and rough illustrations as she mentally searched for the one thing that she had done that night that had been right.
"I-I I won't let it happen."
She pulled the cloth off and rested both hands over his wound instead, spreading her fingers out to cover as much of his injuries as possible.
She concentrated as hard as she could and felt the warmth spread slowly down her arms, glide over her fingers, and lace its way into his pain racked body. She could distantly feel the dissimilar warmth of his liquid blood coating her skin and the almost unnatural difference between his sliced flesh and the smooth muscle of his abs. She focused on that blood, turning its path back to within him and interweaving the soft flesh that had been separated into its original hardened form.
She followed the pulse of his heart, looping, weaving, twisting, and connecting that beat to the thrum of his magic as it mixed with hers; mending what had once been broken. She could feel the damage, the inner shapes and muscles contorted tightly out of formation. She poured her magic into him, steadily soothing and repairing them as she tried not to lose herself to the soft light and rush of magic like she had that night.
She felt the wound close itself beneath her touch, but as it did she felt a slight prickling of a darker magic as it came creeping up through his towards her. She instinctively flinched away from it, pulling her magic from Link's and gathered hers from where it was still in him as she fled this dark. It was as familiar to her as a nightmare that you can't seem to forget, but was no more clear than a nightmare was as to what it is that you actually fear.
She heard a door hinge squeak and her eyes flew open as she whipped her head around to look. Uli was coming back in with the water and cloths. Both women froze as they looked at each other, fear meeting confusion, and then Uli was suddenly appeared next to her by the table.
"What are you doing, Zelda?"
Her eyes glanced down to where Zelda's hands still rested on Link's torso and Zelda lifted them off quickly as she started saying whatever came to mind, unsure of what to say or where to begin.
"I-I healed him. I-I mean, I-I-I thought that he was go-going to bleed out like you said, so-so I, I tried-"
Uli gasped as Zelda's hands lifted and she saw that the slash wound was gone, then looked up at Zelda in amazement.
"How did you do this? Have you always been able to do this?"
"We-well no, I di-did this once before, but that was a lo-long time ago and I th-thought that I wouldn't be able to ag-again."
"Oh! Well, no matter how you managed to do this. You've just saved his life, Zelda."
Uli poured some clean water into the empty bowl that Zelda had been used before and set a cloth down beside it.
"Here, clean your hands while I finish cleaning this blood off him and then we can admire your handy work."
She smiled at Zelda, then walked around to the other side of the table where her bowl was and filled it before setting everything down to begin her task. Zelda dipped her hands into the cool water, numbly watching Uli wipe away the blood that was left from the knife wound.
The door opened as Rusl and the Mayor appeared, both grim faced until they saw Uli's smile, then confusion settled in.
"How is he?"
"He's going to make it, Zelda managed to save him."
There was pride in Uli's voice as she said the last part and Zelda couldn't help but blush at the warmth in it. Both men smiled at her and her blush deepened even more as they praised her work. After a minute or so of this, Rusl set them back to the matter at hand.
"Now that we know he's going to be alright, we have a lot to talk about. Bo, why don't you go ahead and send Ilia home. I don't think that she needs to be present for all this, plus I know that she must be exhausted from her long day."
The Mayor nodded in agreement and stepped out to talk with Ilia, while Rusl and Uli held a brief conversation about where to move Link to. After drying her hands, Zelda started brushing Link's slightly damp hair out of his face. He still looked a bit pale to her, but he didn't feel clammy anymore and just that knowledge made her smile to herself.
She heard an argument erupt out on the porch and that sudden noise made her aware that she was ghosting her fingers over his angler eyebrows as she listened to the conversations around her. She blushed, but then smiled slightly and continued running her fingers over his facial features lightly. She strictly regulated herself and tried to keep her eyes focused solely on his face. He wasn't wearing a shirt anymore and it wouldn't be proper to look, but her eyes still slid a bit south once or twice before she blushingly caught herself.
After this happened for the third time, she distracted herself by looking at his bright blue earrings. They looked relatively plain to her as they were just small rings, and she didn't want to mess with them because she didn't know if it could hurt him in some way. She touched them gently and found that they were made of some kind of stone that had been carefully chipped into a smooth textured circle. She blinked and looked at his face again, her head slowly tilting sideways as she thought.
The door opened and she turned her head to see the Mayor walk in with a tired look on his face.
"It didn't go very well I'm guessing."
Rusl said as he and Bo walked over and lifted Link off the table and to the carefully covered sofa.
"No, it didn't."
The Mayor sighed heavily.
"I just don't understand her sometimes, but I guess that she's a young woman now and maybe I'm not supposed to. I just wish that her mother was still here to help me bridge the gap."
"I can try talking to her tomorrow if you'd like Bo."
Uli said as she and Zelda moved some of the dining room chairs to near the sofa for everyone to sit on.
"That would be helpful I'm sure, but you may be too busy with this one and your little boy to be worrying about a perfectly healthy teenage girl."
"I would be happy to keep an eye on both of them for you, Uli, while you talk to Ilia. I-"
Zelda was silenced by Rusl's raised hand and a clearing of his throat as they all to their seats.
"I believe that this talk with Ilia can be discussed at a later time because we have a far more pressing topic on hand to deal with."
"Of-of course, Rusl. I'm sorry for distracting us, it's just that I worry about my daughter too much sometimes and it interferes other business. However, I can set that aside while we put together what we know about this mystery boy and decide what to do with him."
"Do with him?"
Zelda echoed confusedly.
"What do you mean, 'do with him'? Won't he just stay here in the village with us?"
Rusl frowned slightly at the Mayor, then leaned forward and patted her knee comfortingly.
"He most likely will, but we need to be careful and review what we know about him. Not to learn if we should throw him out, but to help him fit in here or even just to know if we should be keeping a close eye on him for his own sake. So with this all in mind, why don't you tell us what you know about him? He somehow knows you because he recognized your voice and knew your name, how do you know him?"
She took a deep breath and glanced at Link's face before speaking.
"His name is Link and I only met him about a week ago when I was at the Spirit's Spring. I had been there with Ilia, but she left early to do something for Sera, so I was alone when I met him. He- he was a wolf then and didn't say anything, but he-"
"A wolf!?"
Uli and Bo exclaimed at the same time, eyes wide with surprise and disbelief.
"Let her finish please."
Rusl said before nodding at Zelda to continue.
"He-he was injured and I wanted to help him, so I told him about the Spring's healing powers. I-I could tell that he was a Hylian, and not a wolf, and I wanted him to trust me. So I didn't tell anyone about him and kept meeting him alone at the spring. I wanted him to come back to the village with me because I didn't think that he would be safe sleeping out there in the woods, but it took a few days before he seemed like he trusted me enough for me to ask him to do that."
"Was he skittish or frightened of us for some reason?"
Uli asked and Zelda shook her head.
"No, he's not like that. I don't think that he was scared of us or anything like that, but he never came out to see me when Ilia was around and I think that he was careful to avoid everyone else. I don't know why."
"What happened when you asked him to come back with you?"
"W-w-well..."
Zelda started while fiddling with her skirt nervously.
"I-I sort of ra-ran away after asking him. I was asking him and he surprised me an-and I got flustered. So I left him there telling him to think about his answer and that he could tell me it when I saw him the next day."
"What was his answer?"
Uli asked softly.
"I-I I don't know, that happened last night and I never got a chance to talk to him again today before this h-happened."
Zelda felt tears welling up in her eyes and she lowered her head even more.
"Oh, Dear, it's alright."
Uli said as she reached over and started gently rubbing Zelda's back.
"What did he do to fluster you last night?"
"W-well, I was talking to him, but wasn't really facing him and he moved his face very cl-close to mine. I think he was trying to see my expression or eyes, or maybe he was just trying to get me to look at him, but it was very sudden and it was getting dark, and-and that's what happened."
"What did you two normally do together?"
Rusl asked, his eyes resting on Link's face with a soft neutral expression.
"Well, he was a wolf the entire time that I was going there to see him except for last night and besides eating the food I brought him, he just normally stood or sat beside me; listening to me tell him about the herbs in the garden or what had happened in the village that day."
"Did he tell you anything about himself other than his name?"
"N-no, but I don't think that he could talk while he was a wolf because the first things he did last night was telling me his name which I didn't know before then."
"So you don't really know anything about him."
Bo said with a slight frown.
"We-w-well, I know that he's very kind and brave and honest, and that he really liked the feeling at the Spring. Evil things hate the feeling of the air there and so he couldn't have been anything but a good man if he liked it so much there."
"Is there anything else you can tell us about him, Zelda?"
She shook her head while staring down at her hands resting in her lap, keeping them from seeing her eyes and guilty face.
"Well, him being able to change into a wolf matches up with the very strange injuries that we found on the Bulblins bodies. Large tearing bites from a mouth that's much different than his led me to think that he had an animal with him that ran away after he got hurt, but now we know that it was just him there."
"Which isn't any less scary than if he was some kind of freakish animal tamer."
Mayor Bo added with a frown and slight shudder.
"Be that as it may."
Uli started with a worried glance at Link as she spoke.
"He's only a young Hylian man, why is he able to turn into a wolf? He can't be a spirit of the forest because these horrible injuries couldn't happen to a spirit, what's wrong with him?"
Uli, Zelda, and Bo all looked at Rusl who was stroking his beard thoughtfully, waiting for him to speak his mind because between them he was the most traveled and most likely to have at least an educated guess as to what they were dealing with. They sat quietly to let him to gather his thoughts for a minute or two and then when he went to speak, the three leaned forward slightly.
"You're quite right, Dear. He isn't a spirit I don't think, but don't get your hopes too high on him not being an animal tamer yet, Bo. Zelda, have you ever heard of the Sheikah?"
Zelda blinked.
"Yes, the legendary Hylian shadow tribe that guarded the royal family. My green past book talks about them, why?"
"I believe that Link is a member of the Sheikah tribe."
"What?!"
Bo and Uli gasped, staring at Rusl while Zelda's wide eyes flashed to Link's face.
"But-but the purge that Ganondorf ordered after the plot by them seventeen years ago!"
Bo exclaimed to an impassive Rusl.
"What about it?"
"How could a child survive that? Ganondorf purged some of Hyrule's nobility and hunted extensively for the Sheikah because of what happened!"
"He did, but the Sheikah are nothing if not resourceful, and Ganondorf had already been hunting the ones still loyal to Hyrule's Princess for the seven years of his reign before that. All that you've brought up simply points to Link having had good parents that were careful to avoid where the hammer fell, that's not a crime and it is certainly possible. I mean, look at where we live. We have a whole village here and we're not even remotely trained in the same level in secrecy and concealment as they are."
"But Rusl, surely-"
"What makes you think that he is a Sheikah?"
The other three turned their heads to look at Zelda, who was still looking at Link.
"Well, I think that he's one of them for a few reasons. Firstly, from what I could see of the Bulblins injuries, this boy fought them with his natural weapons as a wolf and through hand to hand combat even though his opponents were armed. It's a dangerous thing to do, going into battle with such a disadvantage, but he did and it certainly seems that he had the skills to pull it off. There's only one Hylian tribe in what was once the lands of Hyrule that I can think of that had the training to be able to single-handedly take on eight Bulblins; and that's the Sheikah."
"Oh..."
"Secondly, do you see those blue earrings he's wearing?"
Everyone nodded, all eyes now trained on Link's ears.
"Those are special earrings given to boys during their coming of age ceremony in the Sheikah tribe, that are carefully carved out of a very rare kind of blue stone."
"Those might not be his though, and earrings combined with a foolhardy plan of attack don't prove-"
"I'm going to cut you off right there, Bo, because I wasn't finished yet. Thirdly, after the supposed attempt on his life seventeen years ago, Ganondorf, with the help of some other magic users from the desert, placed a curse on the Sheikah."
"What kind of curse?"
Zelda asked, visibly repressing her urge to touch Link and release the tears of sympathy she was struggling to hold at bay.
"A curse that would make other people terrified of them, it was thought that with this curse on them the Sheikah wouldn't be able to hide from him any longer or receive aid from anyone."
"And you think that this curse is why he turns into a wolf?"
Uli questioned in a cautious voice.
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh, the poor boy."
Uli said looking across at Link sorrowfully.
"Do you know what it does to him and the other Sheikah more specifically?"
Zelda asked, looking up in time to see Rusl shaking his head.
"No, the only reason I know anything this detailed about them is because of my friend Shad, who you should remember from when he came to visit, is quite the avid scholar. He looked into the Sheikah for someone and told me a good deal about what he had learned when he was finished; although most of the people in what was Hyrule know of the Sheikah tribe by name as either monsters or as the guardians they once were."
"Oh..."
Zelda said thickly, reaching out to gently adjust the thin blanket that Uli had draped over the still unconscious Link. Not because she thought he needed a blanket, but more for his modesty's sake. She then started at him as Uli continued her circular rubbing on her back.
The crackle of fire the only sound in the room as everyone sat lost in their various thoughts.
"What weapons did the Bulblins have?"
Uli asked suddenly, breaking the heavy silence that had followed Rusl's explanation.
"Bows, whips, knives, and clubs."
Rusl answered after a couple seconds of surprised silence.
"Well that matches up with his different injuries, which may mean that he killed all the Bulblins before any managed to get away...Did they have any rope or chains with them?"
"Rope or chains? Not that I saw, but they had two riding boars with them so they may have some being carried by them."
Zelda lifted her head and looked at Rusl.
"Rusl, what is a whip?"
"It's a weapon that is made of a length of hard leather with a handle on one end that you hold while using it."
"Is that what made those strange cuts on him that I pointed out to you, Uli?"
"Y-yes Dear."
Zelda blinked at Uli and cocked her head.
"If you knew what it was, why didn't you just tell me when I asked?"
Uli looked away from her and Rusl leaned forward to get Zelda's attention.
"She doesn't really like to talk about it, Zelda. But you know Uli, even if she thought she knew what it was, she would have wanted to check the evidence with others before telling you something that may have been false."
Zelda bit her lip and looked at Uli again, then reached out and hugged her while resting her head on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry if I said something that upset you Uli."
"No, it's fine Dear."
The Mayor was oblivious to this distraction before him as he stared intensely at Link.
"That boy, is-is one of the feared Sheikah? How is that possible?! I mean, what in the Sacred Realm is he even doing around here in the first place?!"
"Now that is a good question."
Rusl said, leaning back in his chair while stroking his beard.
"Furthermore, we know that he was imprisoned wherever he had been before because of the manacle around his wrist."
"Perhaps he's part of that wall project of Ganondorf's that you found out about."
Bo suggested with his arms crossed, eyes scrunched, and face screwed up in deep thought.
"It could be, but I have a feeling that we won't really know until he wakes up and we ask him."
"Perhaps then now would be a good time to adjourn this meeting and go to bed, some of us have had a very trying day."
Uli said with a pointed look down at Zelda, who indeed looked quite exhausted after she had pulled out from her hug and turned back to partially facing Link.
"I agree, however we should have someone out here with him in case he wakes up."
Rusl said as he stood and stretched.
"I can stay with him."
Zelda said with a valiant attempt to look more awake than she really was. Uli stood up and gave her a gentle smile as she patted her shoulder.
"I'm sure that one of the men can do it, you go get some rest, Dear. You've already done a lot for him today, now do something for yourself and go get some sleep in your own bed."
Zelda looked at Link one last time, then nodded and stood tiredly. She turned to pick up her chair, but Uli stopped her.
"It's fine, Dear. We can put the chairs away, you go on."
Zelda nodded slowly, then walked to the front door and said a "good night's" over her shoulder as she stepped out onto the dimly lit by a single torch porch.
She froze, staring out into the darkness as the songs of frogs and crickets drifted up to her. She took a few steps to the edge of the porch and froze again before hastily backing to the door. She did a few more starts and stops, but never made it quite as far as the first time before backing up to the door again. Shivering slightly with her back pressed against the door, she turned her head and raised a fist to knock on it when she heard the conversation going on inside the house between Rusl and the Mayor.
"Zelda's quite taken with this boy and I don't like it."
"I think it's more that she's very sympathetic towards him. I mean, she said that when she first met him he was injured and was in all probably, half starved as well. Who wouldn't be?"
"But he was a wolf! What was she thinking, not telling us about him!?"
"She said that she wanted to get his trust and if she felt like that was the only way to get it, then it probably was. She is a very smart and wise girl for her age, so she had a plan and if she suddenly felt that she couldn't handle it, then she would have come to us."
"Why was he hiding from us in the first place? If he was a good person, then why was he sculking around the village?"
Uli suddenly spoke up angrily from further back in the house and Zelda blinked at the strong emotions she heard in her voice.
"For any number of reasons! We don't know what was happening to him before he found his way here and into the kind and capable hands of our Zelda. He had been imprisoned as we can see because of this horrid manacle, and we have no idea why! Although it is most likely as Rusl said, because he happens to be a Sheikah. He may have been beaten and starved regularly or simply locked up somewhere away from other people. After something like that, could you just instantly go back to trusting people again? I mean, the curse was put on them seventeen years ago, so the poor boy has had to deal with it his whole life!"
"Be that as it may Uli, we know next to nothing about him and-"
"He's no older than Zelda, so how much danger do you think he could be to us!? What's he going to do, reveal where we are and go back to his life as a slave and prisoner?! He was willing to risk his life for people he didn't even know by fighting eight well armed Bulblins right outside of our village, for Goddesses sakes Bo!"
"Uli, dear. Perhaps we should contin-"
"I saw the marks on his back, Rusl, and on his wrists and ankles as well. He's such a strong looking boy that they would have locked him up with thick manacles like the one still on him, for fear of him breaking free."
Zelda heard Uli start crying and she pulled her head back from the door, blinking back tears of her own. She put her ear back to the door after a few seconds and could just make out the Mayor's voice.
"I'm sorry, Uli. I didn't mean to upset you and you're absolutely right, *unintelligible murmurings* please stop crying."
"I-I don't think that we should tell anyone else about him being a Sheikah."
"I agree, I'll tell Zelda when she comes back here first thing in the morning to check on him. I'll stay up with him first, dear, you get some sleep."
"I'll head home then."
Said Bo from near the door and Zelda panicked, hastily knocking on the door before he had a chance to open it to find her just standing around outside. He opened it and his eyes widened when he saw her.
"Ze-zelda! What are you still doing here?"
"I'm-I'm sorry, but it's so d-dark out and I-I-"
"Say no more."
Bo said, relaxing as he thought that this meant that she hadn't heard any of what they had said and giving her a gentle grin.
"I forgot about your fear of the dark and didn't see how late it was. Come on, we'll walk back home together."
A big Thank You to all who Read and Reviewed last chapter!
Faithy : Aw, thanks! I'm glad that you're liking it and I hope that you liked this chapter too! Let me know what you thought! :)
NinjaBrony8891 : *blushes* I'm so happy that you like it thus far and regarding Link's changing, it is mostly explained here but it will be fully explained later on too.
ZeldaPotter29 : *blushing deeply* Th-thank you! I'm so happy to read that you're loving it and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the editing advise. I could NEVER see your suggestions as hating, they're so helpful, and it makes me so happy that you are taking your creative energy and applying it here to help! I can't wait to see what you think could be improved in the chapter above, (a lot of things I bet xP) so keep that GOOD habit of yours rolling! Gotta to love suspense, right? ;)
Imagination that : *blushes* Thank you! How they managed to catch him will be reveled shortly...I hope! :'( Stick around and you'll get to see what I'll do/have done to them! *evil laughter* My poor characters! *sobs heart out* I'm such a meany!
FCL : Thanks buddy! Yes, I love writing her because she's so different than any other character I've done before. It may have been a wee bit more clunky than I wanted and I normally avoid using measurement systems in my stories, but it was important for the story so I put both in there. Maybe I should have had Rusl say one and Colin chime in with the other, but I didn't think of it then. *Embarrassed grin* I try really hard to write good fight scenes so it's great to hear that you're loving them! Golden Wolf forever! Gah! Stop guessing the plot before it happens, FCL! Am I that perceptible? *sits in a corner*
Leave a review and I'll thank you too!
Best wishes till next time!