It wasn't until Sheik almost reached Hyrule Field proper that he caught up with Vasheel. Before the boy could even respond to his sudden appearance, Sheik grabbed him around the waist and started carrying him.
Predictably, he started shouting and flailing. "Put me down!" He was half dropped, half tossed, and since they just so happened to be facing a hill, rolled a bit before coming to a stop on the ground. "Ugh… What is wrong with you?"
Sheik leaned over him, hands resting his weight on his bent knees. His response to the shocked expression was a smirk. "I have proof." The tone was overly excited, and he hauled the other up and started dragging him back to the lake by the arm with an ease powered by that same energy. When they got to the shore, he let go and undid the straps holding the harp on his back to pull it out. "Here, I can show you."
Vasheel was still heavily disconcerted from being tossed around, and the pain in his head exacerbated the dizziness. The other's sudden reappearance and manic attitude didn't do much to ease him. He had expected that Sheik would return at some point, but not so soon. Then, he noticed what was happening. "Wait, what are you going to do?" He shuffled back a distance, eyeing the unfamiliar instrument warily.
He responded by playing the harp. The song seemed to echo as it finished and he disappeared into a shower of blue sparkles, leaving the other to look around for him wildly. "Hey! Over here!" The Sheikah called from the far side of the water, revealing where he had been transported.
Vasheel's mouth opened in confusion, but he shook his head and started walking over once it became clear he wasn't getting an answer by shouting across. The first thing he noticed was the stone platform.
"Pretty neat, huh?" Sheik gestured at the image before the other could get too close and have the concealment spell detect him. "See, seal of the Royal Family and the sage. That enough proof for you?"
He frowned. It could have been a construct made to convince him, but it was vaguely recognizable from some old book he had acquired about ancient legends. Vasheel stepped forward towards it, and while it disappeared from sight, the smooth stone could still be felt. Looking up, he said, "You at least could have stood to be less dramatic about the whole thing, you know."
"I'm taking that as a yes."
Turning away, he folded his arms. "Took you long enough, too."
Sheik puffed up angrily. Was he really trying to start something again so soon? "It would have been easier it someone hadn't been so annoying."
"Heh. You're just sensitive."
"Augh!" He clenched his hands into fists and then out in a grip as if to strangle the other. "As if you aren't."
Glancing backwards, Vasheel gave what was probably a small grin. "Glad to see we agree on something. Before you get too hopeful, though, I should tell you: I still don't quite trust you."
He blinked. "Why?"
"Well, I believe I was promised involvement in matters that actually concern me. The criminals in town."
"Oh, right." Sheik brightened. He was about to agree and take him, but stopped. "Yes, I understand that. However, this whole time I've been the one to trust you completely and give out valuable information. And you still keep asking me to prove myself without doing a thing to actually deserve it. It's your turn to do something for me. I'm exhausted. We're stopping for a while so I can rest, so if you can show some patience for once and wait, it'll do a lot to make me feel better about what happened earlier. Deal?"
A very long sigh, followed by a pause. "I suppose I can deal with that."
XXXXXXXX
Sheik gave a soft murmur and snuggled further into the ground. With his cowl shifted under his head as a pillow, the grass was comfortable rather than irritating to his face. He buried his head deeper into the fabric, inhaling the scent of grass and a faint hint of fire nearby. Wait.
Hissing, he pushed his upper body up with his arms and turned to the side to see Vasheel sitting next to his lantern. "What are you doing?"
He looked up from whatever he had been holding over the fire. "You haven't been asleep long. What does it look like?"
Sheik scooted himself over to the other's side and looked over his shoulder to see a ceramic cup full of items he couldn't identify. Raising his eyebrows, he gave a questioning glance. "I'd have thought you would know how dangerous it is to have a light. I doubt this is that important."
"If someone is close enough to see it, we're in trouble either way." He pushed a stray bit of hair back behind his shoulder and dropped something else in the mix, turning the liquid inside an odd red color. "Besides, if you don't want me passing out on you, I need this."
He stared blankly. "Why didn't you just sleep, then?"
Vasheel continued to focus on the cup, swirling the contents with more concentration than was probably necessary. "Not that kind," he muttered. "Speaking of, though." Finally making eye contact, he reached into the bag and held out some bread.
Not expecting the sudden motion and trained to expect a threat, Sheik flinched back and almost knocked it out of his hand.
A moment of silence passed where they both stared at each other, unsure how to react once they realized what happened. Then Vasheel sighed and ripped off a piece that he ate before dropping the rest in the other's lap. When it remained untouched, he said, "You know I haven't done anything to it, and you look like you haven't eaten since we started."
"Oh." That much was true, although the sudden kindness was startling. Perhaps he was trying to make up for his actions. Sheik slowly picked up the bread and examined it, still a bit hesitant about the unfamiliar food. Not to mention the fact that caution around food offered from anyone had been drilled into him since birth. The outside was speckled with seeds and seemed to have a hint of green in addition to brown, although that could have been the firelight. A darker spot of color suggested there was also fruit in it. Finally deciding that it was unlikely the other would chose to poison him at this point, he chewed a bit of the crust, paused, then smiled and took a larger bite. "It's good. Thank you."
"Hmm. The last thing I need is you getting light-headed on me in the middle of us doing anything important, so finish it all." He was sorting through his bag again. One hand stopped partway in taking something out as he used the other to swat Sheik away from the cup, which was resting on the grass.
He made a face and shook out his hand. So much for being nice.
"Don't drink that; it'll make you sick." Vasheel began picking individual seeds out of his palm and dropping them into the cup just above the surface so they wouldn't splash. Then he wrapped a cloth around his hand and used it to hold the cup over the fire, counting under his breath.
Sheik stretched around him to try to get a look at the bag. On top of it were a number of flowers, all some shade of blue and with long, thin petals stacked in rows and on top of each other in a way that gave the impression of a puffball. A few looked as though they had been taken apart, tiny pieces scattered everywhere. He picked an intact one up and twirled the stem between his fingers. A quiet swear redirected his attention back towards the fire.
"Farore." Pulling at the front of his shirt which now had a dark spot on it, he hurriedly placed the cup back down. When the heat had faded enough so that it was just wet, he dropped the shirt. Vasheel pressed down on his temples. "Now I really need this." The mixture in the cup was downed quickly after.
"What is that, anyway?"
He stopped in the middle of picking at the fabric again. Ignoring what the question was actually directed at, he pointed at the flower Sheik was still holding. "That's called Nayru's bloom, both for the color and the way the leaves under the flower, when viewed from the side," he tilted the other's hand slightly, "make it look like the goddess's symbol. It's a strong ingredient good for improving certain remedies, but it changes the composition of whatever you're making, so it's risky to use unless you know what you're doing."
Vasheel hadn't actually let go of him after grabbing his hand, so Sheik took the opportunity to pull away, a bit rougher than needed. "That wasn't what I meant."
"It's for when you keep asking me all those questions." His expression suggested he wasn't being entirely sarcastic, although the comment was enough to discourage probing further.
Sheik had figured what was meant, though. He had thought the boy was having some kind of issue with his head earlier because of the noise sensitivity, and this supported it. Although it did make him wonder how much of a problem it actually was if he was using stronger plants to deal with it, assuming the explanation was to be trusted.
"I trust you're ready now?" Vasheel had packed everything away and gotten up, leaving only the lantern and Sheik still on the ground.
He nodded and pointed in the direction of the town. "Shall we, then?"
XXXXXXXX
The barest hints of the sunrise came into the sky as Sheik crouched on the rooftop, hidden behind the chimney as he clung to every sound he could catch from the people down below. At the moment, there was only confused muttering and a bit of movement, making it frustratingly impossible to predict their actions. He looked over to a nearby tree, where Vasheel could just be seen through the branches.
When he noticed the Sheikah's gaze, he rolled his head sarcastically as if to say 'well, now what?' and made a few motions with his hands.
Sheik only knew a few Hylian signs, but he didn't recognize anything the other was doing. He suspected it was because they were actually just rude gestures. Shrugging, he pressed a finger to his mouth. As long as Vasheel stayed still and quiet, all he had to worry about was himself. When his concentration did go back to below, he frowned and very slowly began to edge across the roof to determine why everything had suddenly gone silent.
They had actually done well in getting to the hideout, a small hut just out of sight of the village that looked like it was used for storage by the farmers. Faint noises could be heard within, so after a hastily whispered discussion and some emphatic pointing, Vasheel hid in the bushes just under the single window while Sheik climbed up the side to see if he could find anything from the roof. As he was just getting onto it, a few loose tiles were dislodged, breaking on the ground and alerting those inside. Vasheel had just managed to scramble up a tree before half a dozen people spilled out and started shouting at each other in confusion.
Leaning out from around the chimney, Sheik could just make out a few figures clustered around the torchlight. He laid down on his stomach and crawled almost to the edge of the roof.
"There's no-one around here. Let's just go back." The one holding the light swung it around as if to demonstrate.
Another voice scoffed, speaking with a tone suggesting they were the one in charge. "I know I heard something. Break up and search the area. They can't have gotten far."
The group broke up in different directions, but stopped when a small voice asked, "You think it's her?"
"Who else would it be? I've known the mayor's bodyguard's been suspicious of me since she got here. But you can't prove anything if you don't have the chance to make it back. Now go. We'll reconvene here."
Sheik remained exactly where he was until he was confident any sounds made by them had faded away. Well, while that talk hadn't confirmed anything, the fact that they were so paranoid and obviously had something to hide certainly suggested they were up to something bad. Now, if only he could find out what it was.
A thud from somewhere to his left shocked him out of his thoughts and he jumped up with a knife in his hand. Scanning the area, he noticed slight sounds coming from the undergrowth of the trees. Once he saw movement, he threw the knife.
There was a shout, and a head of pale-purple hair emerged. "Watch it!" Vasheel hissed, clutching the side of his arm.
"Well, what are you doing?" He was forced to nearly slide off the roof as the other ignored him and hurried towards the door. "Hey," he grabbed Vasheel just as he tried to walk in. "you didn't know if it was empty! Besides, they're coming back." Sheik moved as if to leave, hoping the other would follow.
Instead, Vasheel pulled away and towards the building. They had come this far, and he wasn't about to waste their effort so soon. "And we might as well use the time they're gone to our advantage."
Sheik groaned and leaned into the doorpost. "Do you really think they would have left anything valuable just lying around?" He paused when he didn't receive any response, then looked inside. It seemed almost smaller on the inside, the walls lined with tools and clothing, a small worktable in the center taking up most of the floor space. There were no chairs. He wondered at how they had managed to fit six people in there at once. Vasheel was mysteriously not visible, despite there being nowhere he could really hide. "Hey," he called softly.
Shuffling came from under the table, then a soft impact. "Shit." In another moment, Vasheel crawled backwards out from under the table, papers crumpled in his hand. He slowly sat up, finally noticing the Sheikah once he had pulled his hair back from where it had fallen in front of his face. The papers were dropped on the table, revealing what looked like a few scribbled maps. "How about these?" He leaned over them. "See, these lines look an awful lot like trade routes, considering the way they connect all the towns and food-providing areas. And this," he tapped on one of the circles drawn around part of a line, "is pretty suspicious as well. They're all in isolated areas, a few hours from any town. Good spot for ambushes, maybe."
Sheik made a noise. It certainly did look like some kind of plans.
He slid another paper from the pile. "Hmm. I'd say rough lists of the supplies being carried from one place to another, all with a lot of numbers scribbled in the columns."
"Oh, you can read."
Vasheel wrinkled his nose and glared. "What is that supposed to mean?"
He backed off from the table. "I just meant that I knew not everyone in Hyrule can, and I hadn't wanted to assume..."
"I would hardly have allowed myself not to have so valuable an ability. Especially when you consider its capacity for information." His gaze was fixed on the ceiling, as though he were hoping to break it open just by looking at it.
"Alright, I'm sorry. But what are we going to do with these? They're surely going to notice if they just go missing." Studying one, he smiled. "But it shouldn't be too bad to copy out; there are only a few pages. Come on, you've got to have something to write with."
After crossing his arms and giving a heavy sigh, Vasheel finally dropped a few loose papers and ink on the table. Grabbing one of the plans with a hiss, he started furiously rewriting the list.
Sheik took the two maps, doing his best to get the details down accurately. He stopped every few minutes to glance out the door for signs of anyone returning, eventually stopping altogether. "We should go, now."
"Give them a moment to dry."
"No, I'm serious. I think I see a light." Yanking the originals off the table and out of the other's reach, he glanced around the room. "Where were these?"
Wordlessly, Vasheel took them back and leaned under the table, curling his fingertips into the area between two planks of wood to lift up a loose floorboard. He dropped the papers inside. At the Sheikah's insisting, the copies went back in the bag between the few blank sheets he still had and they dashed out into the fading night.
They were nearly off the path to the field when the sound of voices ahead stopped them. Sheik froze in place. This was their only way out. While he was probably capable of taking them out if he was seen, it wasn't a guarantee, especially if the now slightly visible forms turned out to be all six of them. Besides, that many deaths would be bound to attract attention. The only thing that shocked him out of the ever-faster beating of his heart was the sudden grip on his shoulder.
Vasheel was pulling at him. "Unless you can think of some way to get rid of them, we need to move," he hissed, stepping back.
"Wait. I have an idea." It was a risky one, but there was no other way he could see of moving forward. He concentrated his magic in front of him, shaping the little light available to bend, forming a shape. Then, forcing himself to breathe as he had when learning it, he pushed it as far from him as his magical limits allowed and added power to let it solidify into something visible. When he noticed the people start moving in that direction, he took off the other way, not stopping until he was well into Hyrule Field.
Vasheel had just barely been able to keep up, being slower and having started behind him, and was now leaned over, panting. "That figure – was that you?"
He nodded, suddenly very lightheaded.
"I wouldn't have expected you to be able to do such complicated magic. How did you-hey!" He grabbed Sheik under the arms and lowered him to the ground to prevent him from falling.
Once Sheik managed to stop himself from shaking so much, he laughed. "You know, that almost sounded like a compliment."
Ignoring him, Vasheel took a small pouch out of his bag and dropped it on his lap.
He held it up to his face. It probably wasn't dangerous, but his habits were still hard to break. "What is this?"
"Potion." He started fussing with the bangs in front of the right side of his face. "I'm surprised you've managed this far, considering the way you push yourself."
Sheik carefully drank it, wincing a little at the taste. "It's bitter."
"It's meant to be. A lot of people think red potion should be sweet, but that's because most potion-makers don't do it right. The mixture is supposed to be cooked twice as long if it's really going to be as effective as possible." He sounded almost as if he were lecturing. "Not to mention the cheaper ingredients that get used."
Sensing a rant, Sheik cut him off by flinging the empty container at him. "Well, I certainly appreciate your concern." He didn't mention that it was the second time the boy had given help that night, figuring it would aggravate him. "You know a lot about this stuff, huh?"
Vasheel rolled his eyes. "You honestly believe someone would put me up if I wasn't useful?"
Sheik did have to admit anyone who wasn't patient or equally stubborn would absolutely have problems living around Vasheel. But he still felt compelled disagree. "People aren't that heartless, you know."
"It takes a bit more than generosity when the price for hiding a Sheikah," his emphasis on the word suggested harm if it was taken as actually meant to describe him, "is death." He stood, brushing off his clothes. "Which reminds me. As excited as you might be to talk to me again, if you go into Kakariko to get to me, it's off right then and there. I'm not putting my security and ability to hide in the town at risk because of someone else's actions. Understood?"
"Alright. I'm sure we can work out something with meeting outside town" Sheik followed, pushing himself up only slightly unsteadily. "Wait, then that means you're definitely still interested in working together?" He perked up considerably.
Vasheel frowned. "As long as it still appears to benefit me, yes."
Well, considering how things had gone, it was definitely a start. Sheik began walking back in the direction of Kakariko. "Heh, I'm sure we can find some way to convince you."
Aquila: So I've discovered I like making up fake plants/explanations for in-game healing items and food way too much. It's probably the combination of extra worldbuilding with the games I get to do and getting to see exactly how many and what kinds of references I can make with them. I'm considering making something, probably on Tumblr, where I can just dump all my ideas. That way I have another outlet for it and I only put the bits that fit into the story here. Also, I do have to admit I know almost nothing about actual plants, so if I say something that makes no sense in that topic, that's why.