The walk through the maze was long and tedious, with Nabooru having to dodge or block the many flying deku nuts that the deku scrubs spat at her and getting completely turned around twice. At least these deku nuts didn't flash every time they shattered.
"Stupid kid!" she snapped, jumping sideways out of the deku scrub's line of fire then running past it. If only Sheik hadn't vanished, she could have been used as a human shield.
Many twists and turns and lots of cursing later, Nabooru made it to the end of the maze and stepped out into another clearing.
Across the clearing was a stone tunnel mounted high up on the cliff face, carved with intricate designs of vines, flowers and fairies, probably the entrance to the Forest Temple.
Below and slightly to the right on a ancient tree stump sat a Kokiri girl with green hair and a pink fairy floating around her head. She held a simple ocarina to her lips and was playing a song unfamiliar to Nabooru. In front of her sat Sheik, harp out and playing the same tune as the Kokiri girl.
"How did you get here?!" Nabooru demanded, striding over to the Sheikah and whacking her over the head. Sheik leaned over rubbing her head before turning to look at Nabooru.
"The music." she said simply, like it made all the sense in the world.
"You keep saying, "the music!" How is that relevant at all!?" Nabooru was frustrated with the amount of trouble she had had getting here, and here was Sheik, a little kid, sitting and playing with fairy children like she had all the time in the world.
"Saria is teaching me her song, it's the song that guided us here. She's the one who helped me get here." The Kokiri, Saria apparently, stood up and smiled at Nabooru.
"Nice to meet you!" she said. "I'm Saria." Nabooru glared.
"Did you hear the song Sheik played earlier? That's the Minuet of Forest." she giggled. "It's a very special song that teleports you here. I had to help a bit though because you can't teleport to a place you've never been. It's amazing that Sheik learned the song alone though. Usually you need to be taught, very few have such gifts as to be able to learn from the forest itself." Saria smiled at Sheik, who put away her harp and stood up.
"Your want to go into the temple, right?" Saria asked. Nabooru nodded.
"Okay then, just try not to break anything, oh, and watch out for the Poe Sisters." Saria warned. Nabooru grinned, this was too easy, Saria wasn't even trying to stop them.
"Well then, lets go." Nabooru grabbed Sheik's arm and pulled her over to where it looked like a stairway had once been, now it was a crumbling mess.
Sheik looked up at the entrance twenty feet above and backed up a few paces.
"How do we get up?" Nabooru asked. Sheik didn't hesitate for a moment. Red eyes took in the surrounding landscape, and in less than a minute decided on a path.
Sheik ran forwards and jumped, grabbing a tree branch near the entrance and using her momentum to fling herself the other eight feet or so to the platform above. Nabooru growled as Sheik landed gracefully and turned to wait for her. Gerudo were skilled, but even she, the best of the best, could not move like that. There was no reason to learn such skills in the desert. Instead, Nabooru jumped from tree to tree, like wall jumping, and eventually got close enough to leap across the gap and grab the ledge, pulling herself up to join Sheik.
Without a word, Sheik led the way into the temple.
-0-0-0-
The Forest Temple was really beautiful, serene and peaceful as the rest of the forest.
Nabooru felt kind of sad knowing she would be the one to destroy this place. When they were done the entire temple would be swarming with monsters, and not just deku scrubs and a few keese.
They walked through the temple with no trouble at all, admiring the sights and enjoying the fresh, earthy smells that filled the place. In one room there was even a river where they stopped and ate lunch, like a real picnic.
Eventually they reached the large room deep within the temple where the Sage was supposed to be. It was circular with red carpets covering the floor and pretty paintings of the forest hung along the walls. In the middle stood the Kokiri girl.
"Why are you here?" Nabooru demanded, pointing her saber at the girl accusingly. Saria smiled, a sad smile, like she knew something bad was about to happen and was going to die to stop it.
"I am the Sage of Forest. I will not let you defile this place." she informed them. A glowing green staff appeared in her small hands. "I was worried it would come to this. I don't want to fight you."
"Too bad." said Nabooru, "Because we need to take you with us and if you aren't going to come peacefully, we'll have to force you." Nabooru hefted her own weapons and stepped forward. A short fight ensued and, predictably, the small Sage lost.
Saria lay on the ground, the tip of Nabooru's sword at her throat.
"Are you going to come with us peacefully now?" The small Sage shook her head slightly, careful not to get the saber through her neck, a soft green light began to surround her body, Nabooru stepped back in alarm as the magic gathered thickly around her. Saria took this opportunity to stand, and held her staff out in front of her parallel to the floor.
"The Kokiri are a peaceful people, and the forest is not a place for violence." her now glowing green eyes turned to Sheik. "Choose your path wisely Sheik, it could change the outcome of this war." Green eyes closed and Saria's body dissolved into the light, which then condensed until it was the size of a fairy, then flew back to the center of the room and vanished.
For awhile there was an uncertain silence.
"We didn't get the Sage... Ganondorf 's gonna kill us." Nabooru said, her voice oddly conversational and it took a moment for Sheik to realize that she meant this quite literally.
"We better try to find her." Nabooru continued. Sheik shook her head. Saria's presence had disappeared.
"The Sage is gone."
"What?! How is she just gone?" Sheik shrugged, small shoulders rising and falling indifferently. Nabooru grit her teeth in irritation.
"Fine. I guess we'd better report back then." She grumbled and pulled a red crystal from her pocket.
"You'd best go back to Kakariko, I'll deal with Ganondorf." Nabooru smashed the crystal, leaving Sheik alone in the temple.
"Thank the Goddesses." Sheik whispered. The Sage was safe, the consequences might be bad for Nabooru and Sheik, but it would definitely be better for the world.
Sheik lifted a deku nut and envisioned her home. The deku nut smashed, and Sheik vanished.
-0-0-0-
"Thank goodness your safe! It's been four days." Zelda had Sheik in a tight hug, which Sheik was struggling to get out of. Zelda was pretty strong for a princess.
"Yeah." Sheik said, patting her shoulder. If this kept up she would suffocate. Impa chose this moment to walk into the room. She stopped in the doorway, arms crossed and a smile on her lips.
"You skipped four days of training, Sheik." she scolded, but the smile took the threat out of her words.
Two other Sheikah stepped out from behind Impa and ran to join the hug. Sheik recognized them as Amur and Anise, friends from when Sheik was still living in the Sheikah village. They had also come to the castle a few times. Apparently they had just come back from their mission escorting a farmer carrying flour, beans and rice to Kakariko back to their farm. For a moment Sheik felt guilty about leaving Nabooru to deal with Ganondorf and come here where she had friends to welcome her home. She wondered if Nabooru had a family and friends.
"Hey Sheik, long time no see!" Amur - or at least Sheik thought it was Amur, it was kind of hard to tell when they were wearing armor and their faces and hairstyles were nearly exactly the same - interrupted her thoughts. Sheik smiled and made a noise that sounded similar to a greeting, since an actual greeting required more air than she currently possessed. Zelda seemed to notice this and let go.
They all sat down on the large pillows placed on the floor, which were meant for this purpose, and Zelda left to make tea, a drink she and Sheik consumed way to much of, and they all spent the rest of the afternoon talking and playing childish games in Impa's main room, catching up on the years they had missed while Sheik was at the castle.
When morning came again, all four children followed Impa to the gate that led up to Death Mountain where they met up with the twins' mentors, Izzati and Haytham. They greeted one another briefly, then set a quick pace for their morning run, which was also intended to get them to their destination.
Sheik and the twins took off after their mentors, with Zelda only a second behind. She still wasn't quite used to reading what the Sheikah would do next.
"Race ya! called Amur. His twin grinned and ran harder, speeding up to overtake her brother. Sheik picked up a bit of speed too, and soon all three had passed their mentors, who were watching with amusement, knowing full well that all three would tire before they finished their run. Zelda ran harder as well, just enough to catch up to Sheik, who was about five feet behind the other two.
About halfway, the twins began to slow down, dropping back so they were level with Zelda and Sheik. Impa, Haytham and Izzati were now making bets on who would win.
Half an hour later their destination came into view, a large, round area imprinted into the top of one of the smaller peaks of the mountain range, like a giant Goron had stepped on it and crushed it's top.
Sheik couldn't see the bottom of the crater yet, but she knew it would be covered in wildflowers and have a thin stream running through it. Before she had seen the Lost Woods and the Kokiri Forest, Sheik had thought it the most beautiful place in all of Hyrule. The Sheikah often used it as a training ground.
Fifty meters from the small winding passage that cut through the mountain they were currently on and connected it to the other mountain, the Sheikah began to sprint, running harder than they had the entire hour and a half long trip.
The passage was only wide enough for one person to fit through at a time, so whoever reached it first had a 98% chance of winning.
Anis reached it first, poking her brother as she ran past. Amur yelped and flinched away from her finger, slowing down slightly and giving Sheik and Zelda an opportunity to run past. Anis laughed as she ran into the passage, sure she would win.
Sheik smirked beneath her mask and leapt up onto the wall of the passage, which was only three feet tall, but that was far enough that Anis couldn't push her off into the abyss below. The abyss was also the reason nobody ran on the wall, but Sheik was confident she wouldn't fall.
Sheik and Anis ran neck in neck for a few seconds, the end of the bridge almost upon them, then Sheik leapt down in front of Anis. Sheik knew she was faster, and proved it true once again as she raced into the field and ran a circle around it to give herself time to gradually slow down.
Anis threw herself to the ground with a annoyed noise and rolled a few feet, which effectively stopped her movement.
Zelda came through next, Amur practically on top of her. Both collapsed at Sheik's feet next to Anis, panting hard.
Some time during all of this their mentors had come in and were now standing in front of them, prodding those on the ground with their toes.
"Come on, get up." Haytham said. There were groans as they pulled themselves to their feet and reached for their canteens.
"So, who won?" Izzati asked. Anise groaned.
"Sheik. Again." Impa smiled as both Izzati and Haytham handed over a blue rupee. Then the mentors became serious and Haytham said;
"Okay, enough playing around. Today your going to learn how to fly." Flight was a valuable skill, but all the others who had learned said it was very difficult. Amur and Anise thought it would be easy, and so volunteered to try first.
It was nice to be back to normal training. Sheik thought.
A/N
Sorry I'm doing such a bad job, I am really trying to fix it though, so I hope the next few chapters are more interesting.
