Hehe, uhh... Hey guys? Been that long? Really? Well that's embarrassing... Uh... onward?
Chapter 7
The creature's smile grew wider as it raised its fat green hand, bringing the horn to its mouth. Before it could blow into it, another bolt of light had already been shot, knocking the gnarled thing out of its grasp. Sheik scowled under her muffler. That arrow should've pierced through its head.
Taking several steps back, she sprinted towards the window. Tightening her grip on the golden bow and coiling her legs, the Sheikah tucked her chin down and kicked off, her body practically horizontal as she shot through the window and cleared the ledge of the house, landing with a swift roll in front of the boar and its rider. Maintaining her speed, Sheik launched herself up at the creature, the curve of her bow hooking around its fat neck as she forced it off of the boar. She felt a sharp pain throb through her side, her entire body aching as she wrestled on the ground. Her breathing was labored, uneven, and her muscles screamed at her. She couldn't keep this up.
The green monster was on top of her now, pinning Sheik's body to the ground, her golden bow and messenger bag abandoned a few yards away. It leered at her, beady eyes glowing, rancid breath washing over her face. She forced herself not to gag, and not for the first time, Sheik was thankful for the cloth covering her nose.
In the background, the Sheikah could hear Epona's distressed cries as she beat the ground with her hooves. The sound seemed to meld with the monstrous shrieks that came from the boar, both sounds bouncing off of the rattling of the wind-blown leaves. Realizing that she couldn't fight the creature off of her, Sheik could only brace herself as she saw it ready for an attack. Resigning herself, the Sheikah forced herself to stare defiantly into beady eyes,refusing to cringe.
Suddenly the clawed hand that held down her shoulder was ripped away, the jagged nails tearing at her clothes and raking across her skin. The weight that had been pinning Sheik down was gone, the monster lying in an agitated heap just before the edge of the forest. Releasing a shaky breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Sheik turned her head, taking in the scene before her.
There, standing between the monster and the Sheikah was Link, holding a wooden sword.
What, in the names of Goddesses, is that boy doing…
As Link stared the creature down, muscles tense with the urge to spring, it glared back at him, decidedly pissed. A low grumble vibrated from deep in its throat as shining eyes darted from the Hylian to the Sheikah, debating which one to maul first. Its eyes flashed and its jagged mouth curved up into a smile as it ran at Link. Sheik slammed her hands into the ground behind her head, forcing herself to ignore the pain that shot through both of her arms, and swung her legs into the air, jumping to her feet.
And that's when she felt it: the ground vibrated through her feet, rumbling her bones as she turned to see the great boar charging at them from the opposite side.
"Link!" He yelped in surprise as Sheik grabbed his arm and ripped him from his stance, flipping him around so she could kick him square in the back. Screaming a cry of protest, he was sent flying out of the creatures' paths as the Sheikah used the force to propel herself in the opposite direction. Sheik was fairly certain he'd be fine – he was well enough to curse her at least, mumbling and shooting her a glare as he rubbed his sore back and tried to right himself.
Sheik watched as the two monsters continued charging at each other until the green rider jumped on top of the boar. The two reared around, their expressions contorted into masks of crazed glee, the pale moonlight carving skeletal, eerie shadows into their faces, the golden light of Link's house shining like a blazing fire behind them. The boar raised its massive front hooves and reared back, ready to charge.
Sheik, tensing her muscles, ready to spring, glanced around at her surroundings; the enemies had begun their stampede, heavy hooves pounding the grass and dirt, Epona was still braying and screeching, struggling against the rope that tied her to a post as she tried to fight her way to her rider, Link, who looked frozen, his left hand a vice around his wooden sword, blue eyes wide, darting between the sheikah and the monsters, as if he was unsure if he really had an ally in this battle. They stood in a circular arena, made up of the rocks, Link's house and the thick lining of trees that formed the edge of the forest, and there, not two yards to her left, lay her golden bow, glowing against the dark blades of grass.
The boar and its rider were getting closer to her, and she dove for her bow, grabbing it and rolling into a kneeling position. Her right hand glowed for a moment, and then erupted with light as a shining arrow appeared in it. Stringing her weapon, she took aim, the monsters almost upon her, the rider wielding a thick wooden club. Forcing herself to let out a slow, even breath, Sheik steadied her bow; the last shot had been too weak to do any real damage, but she hoped that if she could just wait until they were close enough, she'd be able to pierce the rider's thick green skull. She narrowed her eyes as it looked down at her, its expression triumphant as the boar charged at her, almost upon her now.
It was at this moment that Link finally decided to take action, running up to her right side and knocking her out of the way of the monsters, his left hand, still clutching his wooden sword, knocking against her right hand. Once again, the two were struck with the blinding, searing pain that shot up through their arms. The amount of energy that had built up in her hand was enormous, power pulsing through her veins, filling her muscles and her bones until it was too much to bare. The energy leaked out through her palm and into her arrow until it swelled to three times its size. Sheik's eyes widened against the pain and against the blinding light of her magic and she could only stare at it, frozen with shock as her body, entangled with Link's, skidded across the ground.
The jolt of the landing was enough to snap her from her trance, and Sheik gasped as the arrow shot from her hand, flying through the air. The two of them sat there, limbs tangled together, lying on top of each other, staring as the arrow shot past the monster's fat head, arcing upward, soaring until it collided with Link's house. All five of them, the Hylian, the Sheikah, the two monsters, and the mare, stared with blank eyes as the house promptly exploded in a shower of splinters and embers, the roar of the fire the only sound permeating the air.
Well that's never happened before.
Sheik cast a glance at Link who was sprawled on top of her, searching his face for a reaction. The boy just stared at his home, frozen, eyes unreadable as the crackling wood blackened and slowly turned to ash.
The two were snapped back to reality as another sound slowly mixed with the sound of burning wood; a low, rumbling chuckle that gradually grew in volume and insanity until it seemed just as destructive and uncontrollable as the inferno that consumed Link's home.
The two wrenched their eyes from the destruction, their gazes pulled to the red beads thatglinted dangerously in the new light. The monster's jagged mouth was now pulled up into a predatory grin as his mount lifted heavy hooves and began stalking towards them.
It was then promptly knocked off its mount as a boulder the size of a goat came flying at it. The monster was too slow to react, too slow to realize what had happened as the boulder crushed it into the ground. Its red eyes dulled as its body stiffened and turned black before finally vanishing, leaving nothing behind but twisting tendrils of grey smoke grasping at the empty air, a ghostly moan seeping through Sheik's bones.
"Do things usually go poof like that?"
Sheik, Link and the monstrous boar snapped their heads to the source of both the voice and the boulder to see two men standing at the mouth of the village, one easily recognizable as Rusl, the other much larger and much angrier, illuminated by the inferno that was Link's home.
The boar, enraged by the loss of its rider, let loose a deafening screech and charged at the men, head down, razor tusks out, aiming to skewer them. Rusl quickly readied himself, bending down and wielding his sword in front of him, only for the larger man to take two steps forward, thoroughly blocking the swordsman. The giant raised an eyebrow as the boar approached, and as soon as it was close enough, grabbed its tusks. Both the man and beast let out howls of rage as the boar was flung to the side in an impressive show of strength, hitting one of the many boulders littering the field with a sickening crack. There was a moment of silence as everyone watched the still body of the monster, waiting.
And then it was gone, turning black and shattering into dust with an eerie moan of the wind, blowing away until nothing was left.
Sheik laid there, still entangled with Link, all of her fight, all of her adrenaline leaving her. As the events and many fights of the evening finally caught up with her she couldn't help but let her body relax and close her eyes. There would be hell to pay and questions to answer when she woke up, but as she felt her exhaustion she could only think of one thing.
"Dangerous monsters have invaded your town," she all but whispered in a low, scratchy voice, "and your first thought is to grab your wooden sword?" She felt the rumble of Link'schest on top of her as he tried to suck in enough breath to reply.
"Shut up, you blew up my house."
Well, she didn't have anything to say to that.
And with that last thought, she found herself finally drifting away into unconsciousness.
0~~0
Sheik knew she was awake when she felt the pain. A uniform screaming in her muscles from overuse, on top of the biting throb that came from a variety of sources, most notably her left forearm and the back of her head. With her eyes still closed, she was careful to take in a deep, slow breath and learn what she could of her surroundings, until she was stopped by another stab of pain from her chest.
"So, you're finally awake."
Sheik knew that voice. With the recognition came all the memories of the past week, the revelations and battles of the previous night.
This wouldn't be fun.
With nothing to shield her eyes, Sheik finally revealed them to look at the kind woman next to her. Uli wasn't looking at her, but rather was busying herself gathering various bandages and cloths and a single bottle holding red liquid. Sheik was frozen as she took in the older woman's features. Her sharp red eyes traced the way the woman's soft blond hair curved to frame her face, the easy grace with which she moved about the room busying herself.
And then Sheik was painfully brought back to reality when the woman turned her head back to look at the Sheikah, blue eyes forcing her to remember everything that had happened.
Despite the foreign shade, there was still painful familiarity there, and Sheik let herself bepierced by the emotions in Uli's eyes. The knife in her chest, throat, heart, was a small price to pay if she could just look in those eyes and remember and pretend.
"Sheik," she heard herself croak out, not breaking eye contact.
Uli looked away then, seeming to consider something - perhaps the way Sheik's voice had begged for forgiveness a thousand times in that one word - before looking back at theSheikah. The pain Sheik felt sharpened as Uli's eyes softened and she approached her again, holding out the bottle of red liquid.
"Drink this," Uli commanded in her soothing voice. "It's not much, but it'll help."
With that, Sheik raised one quivering arm to grasp the bottle, and fumbled with the stopper until it finally came loose. Not trusting herself to look back at Uli (it wouldn't do to startcrying now and the prickling in her eyes wasn't comforting in the least) she drained the bottle in a swig before holding it back out for Uli to take.
Immediately she felt the pain begin to ebb away into a mild throbbing throughout her body and the fog in her mind begin to clear as Uli took the empty bottle away. Much more lucid, Sheik finally began to take stock of her situation. She was in a small, wooden room that smelled like spices and oil, and decided that she must be in Uli's and Rusl's home. She wassitting up in a narrow bed, with thick blankets covering her lower half, and as she looked down at her body she found herself in a simple grey shirt, with long sleeves that fell away to reveal the crisp white bandages that were wrapped around her arms. As she moved she could feel the telling pull of wrappings around her chest and stomach and knew she was bandaged under the borrowed shirt as well.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when Uli approached again, this time carrying with her a steaming bowl of soup and a glass of goat milk.
"C'mon then," she urged, "you need to eat something now that you're awake."
Sheik forced herself to look away from the offered food and back up to the woman's face and found she could only think of one thing.
"Could you please gather everyone? I need to tell you all something."
0~~0
An hour or so later, Sheik found herself in the living room with an audience of Uli, Rusl, Link, and the giant that she had learned some time early that was Mayor Bo. They were all gazing up at her as she stod before them, Uli with her quiet support, Rusl and Bo with matching looks of guarded consideration, and Link, eyes to the side, refusing to look at her as he let irritation roll off of him in waves.
"My name is Sheik."
With that statement Bo and Rusl raised their eyebrows and Link's gaze snapped to her for an instant before he forced himself to look away again, pretending to be indifferent. Sheik took another breath before starting again.
"When I first came here, I was running... I still am, I guess." Knowing she had their full attention, she took another breath, strugling to find a decent place to start her tale. Finally she held up her right hand, showing the Mark that shone on the back of her palm like a brand. "Do you know what this is?" She looked again to Link. He was openly staring at her hand with a mixed expression of shock, confusion, and finally realization as he glanced between his own Mark and hers.
They all stred for a few moments until Rusl finally spoke up.
"Triforce," he whispered, still staring. He finally brought himself back to reality at the confused looks of he others and explained, "It's the Golden Power, supposedly the ultimate force that protects Hyrule. Legend has it that it was split into three different pieces ages ago but if they were ever brought together..." Rusl trailed off, once again gazing at Sheik's hand. "The pieces are passed down through the generations, finding bearers that best exemplify the traits represented by the Triforce. The Triforce of Power went to the undying Prince ofDarkness, the Triforce of Wisdom to a member of the royal line, and the Triforce of Courage to a seemingly ordinary Hylian boy." Rusl locked eyes with Link for a moment before looking back to Sheik, eyes sharp and probing. "I've never heard of a piece going to one of the Shadow Folk though..."
Everyone regarded Sheik with new eyes, unspoken questions making the air heavy. With a sigh, Sheik lowered her hand.
"The Prince of Darkness, a Gerudo named Ganondorf," she explained, "was locked away in the Twilight Realm, an inescapable prison, long ago when it became clear that he couldn't be killed." She closed her eyes as she sifted through memories, trying to best explain the situation while not giving away her emotions. "My people have always had a connection to the Twilight Realm because of our affiliation with darker magics and Ganondorf was able to contact the most skilled spell weavers in my home and had them create a device for him." Sheik turned to her thick black bag that laid on a small wooden table to the side and felt theeyes on her as she rummaged through it until she grasped the bundle of cloth that took up the majority of space in her bag. Pulling it out, she unwrapped layer upon later of cloth until she was left with a smooth crystal orb, about the size of her head. It was deceptively light as she held it out in front of her, the smooth surface shining and iridescent in the dim light ofthe candles and rising sun. There were three holes, each just big enough to put a hand through, that joined in a hollow in the very center of the orb, and surrounding the holes were the sharp engravings of small intricate designs that cut up the light.
"This is it," she said, holding it carefully in her left hand. "This is the device they made to release Ganondorf."
Bo was the first one to look away from the object to look back at Sheik. "Hold on," he said in his gruff voice, eyes narrowing. "I thought you said this Realm of yours was inescapable."
At this Sheik felt her mouth curve up into a wry smile as she replied, "We're the Shadow Folk. As Rusl pointed out earlier, we have a habit of knowing too much."
"So Ganondorf wants to use this to free himself," Rusl reiterated.
Sheik paused for a moment, dreading what she had to say.
"He's already free."
So I'm not sure what good it'll do me, but I apologize profusely for taking a freaking year and a half to get this chapter out. Does it make it better that I made sure to make this one a little longer than the others? No? I thought not...
Anyway, all that aside, I was reading through this story and it was just so glaringly flawed to me... I mean honestly, there are so many things wrong with the story, it's painful. Make no mistake, I'm going to finish this sucker some day, it's just... I guess I'd really like to stress critiques when/if you guys review. Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked that you guys are even taking the time to read this thing, and I can't thank the reviewers enough, it's just that if no one's telling me what needs to be changed, then how can I improve? Don't worry about my feelings, I'm a big girl, I can handle it.
Just my last note, the title is very very lame, and I'm on the lookout for a new one, if you guys have any suggestions. I'll be sure to leave the new title in the notes one chapter before I change it, this is just a heads up.
Thank you thank you thank you, especially those of you that have waited so long for me to get off my ass and finish this chapter. I can't garauntee that updates will always be in a timely fashion, but I promise to never make you wait this long again
XOXo
