Author's Notes: Thank you muchly to all my reviewers: FlamingDoritos, noperfect917, Liael, Yume Keki, Eisenkrähe, and Venks. Also a special thanks to Albel Nox who says she's making fan art from this fic. YAY! I say "she says" cus not only does strip out web links in the reviews, but it even seems to cut them out of the private messages. Ugh. Makes me remember why I perfer skyehawke.
I looked at your deviant art account, Albel (though your link to it in you profile is spelled wrong) and your stuff is cool!. My deviant art is askaniblue. Send the link to your picture to my email or post it up on deviant art. I'll keep an eye out for it.
Chapter 9
The mass panic of the Goron city I could deal with. It was a disaster but a disaster still in the making. It could be controlled, helped, avoided. There were things that needed to be done and people to save... but here? My eyes scanned over the once familiar city and only Sheik's soft gasp broke the ringing silence.
Before us, down the main walk, was a pair of Zora lying dead. By their wounds it looked as if they had been cut down by enemies wielding swords and their blood left a dried pool around them. Sadly, by what we could see from the entrance, they were far from the only ones. To our right the large main pool that connected to many of their homes was drained of its water and across its floor was a dozen or so other bodies in the same state. I could see the entrance of the tunnel to Lake Hylia from where we stood and though there was a small cluster of dead around it, I hoped that some had made it out before they had been killed.
I don't know how long I stood there, frozen by the sight before us, but eventually Sheik's soft voice broke the horrible silence. "Hero...?"
At that I let out a short mirthless laugh that almost came out as a sob. "Not today, I wasn't... not here."
"Hero..." Sheik began again, the admonishment clear in his voice but I shook my head to silence him. I had failed the Zora quite thoroughly and at that moment I wanted no words of comfort. Without another word, I started forward.
With our weapons drawn, we made our way through the destroyed city but for the longest time all we found were more bodies and dry waterways . We'd been creeping through the city for more than an hour when I heard a ratchety "wark" from ahead of us. A second later, three dinalfos came rushing around the corner with their swords drawn.
Meaner, stronger cousins to the lizalfos, they came down on us fast and I charged forward from Sheik to meet them recklessly. One met me head on and made a fast swipe at me with one of its swords, but I was able to block it away. The clang of his sword against my shield was deafening in the silence of the abandoned city and now the sound of metal against metal drowned out even the excited cries of his fellows.
This was what I was used to: an enemy before me with weapons drawn. The group of dinalfos was actually a relief for me. I wasn't sure how much longer I could have taken searching through the city only to find more corpses of Zoras. Being faced with the aftermath of a battle I hadn't been there for and bodies I should have saved was crushing but this? This was something I could control and act upon.
I wasn't sure, being too focused on the fight's patterns of lunges, parries, and blocks, but as the fight raged on I was fairly certain that other dinalfos had joined into the fracas. It was all a blur of steel and scales and blood; little beyond the furious fight mattered. One caught me across the back but all it earned him was a separation of his head from his shoulders as I spun around with my sword. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one move to lunge for me but before I could jump around to block him, his head snapped back. The dinalfos fell backwards limply with a dagger sticking out of its throat. For a moment I sparred a glance back to my left and saw Sheik drawing another dagger to fend off the attacks of a pair of his own dinalfos.
That part was foreign to me entirely. Never had I fought with someone else at my side. My whole life, since childhood I had been on my own in battle with no one to concern myself with but my adversaries, but now Sheik was fighting along side. Now that I had looked around, I saw that the noise of our battle had likely drawn every dinalfos in the city to us. This was a massive fight, us two against more than two dozen of the creatures and I was painfully aware that I most likely wouldn't have stood a chance on my own.
Seeing the situation we were in also made it very clear that we were losing ground. Certainly I had dropped several on my own and Sheik probably as well, but there were more moving in to take the fallen's places, while we were slowly becoming more tired and injured. I felt one of their blades cut into my left arm a moment before I heard Sheik cry out in pain. This wasn't working and, with my shield drawn up over my face, I barreled through the ones surrounding me. I had to get as far from Sheik as possible.
It took some fighting, as well as some pushing, but when I was finally sure that I was far enough from him, I dropped my sword and slammed my fist downwards with a shout. In a flash, a ball of fire spread out from my fist and through me to slam into the dinalfos around me. They cried out in shock and pain but they weren't able to get away before the flames burned them to the ground. The ones behind them didn't do much better and when I snatched my sword back up and looked around myself, I found that I had gotten the majority of them with that spell. Now only six remained and they were all on Sheik.
I tightened my grip on my sword and charged one of them. With a leap, my blade cut through his shoulder and down through his chest. The one next to him turned to try and face me but I slammed my shield into his face while I yanked my sword free of the body of his compatriot. Before he could regain himself, I plunged my sword through his chest and, with a wet crunch; I twisted my sword free of his ribs as I drew it back. While he fell, I had a view of Sheik slitting another one's scaly throat before swinging backwards to catch another in the skull. One of the two remaining ones jumped at me but I blocked his wild attack easily and brought him down with my countering swing. With that one dead, I turned to fight the last but found Sheik had beaten me to it and was drawing back one of his daggers as the dinalfos dropped.
"Well..." I said as I panted to get my breath back. "That was a work out."
He nodded and once he had caught his breath a bit more he pointed to the charred bodies of the dozen or so I had killed with the spell. "You can summon the goddess's fire?"
I nodded and realized that I had never had to use that spell or any other in front of Zelda when she'd been wearing Sheik. I'd used spelled arrows against Ganondorf but really I suddenly wasn't sure she even knew now that I had gained spells from the Three. "I picked it up along with the others when I was fighting Ganondorf, way back when. I can also use magics to spell arrows."
"A tapestry of you showed you firing a brilliantly glowing arrow. Was that what it was showing?" he asked and I drew my bow.
I focused for a second and the arrowhead was suddenly surrounded by a shining golden light. "This?" I asked and he nodded. Iwas aware of the awestruck look in his eyes and I was suddenly embarrassed to have shown him in such a dramatic way. I started to pull down the bow, but he stopped me.
"Did you say you could do more than one?" he asked and I obliged by raising it up again. With a moment concentration, I changed it to flames and then to ice.
"Those are all I can make," I said as I cut off the spell and put my bow away.
"I've seen the ice, a few times, actually," he said as he looked around for any daggers he had thrown. "The Gerudo had it. They used to use it quite a lot to raid royal caravans or stun guards."
"Yeah, I can see that. I got it from them actually."
"From them?" he asked disbelieving as he wiped off his last dagger.
I nodded as I looked in my pouches for a potion or something to try and patch us up. "Yeah. I had to go through a training course a few dozen times but once I had beaten it I got the spell to use on the arrows."
"Why? I mean, why would they give it to you? You were at war with them," he asked, clearly confused by this and I shook my head at his misunderstanding.
"No, I was at war with Ganondorf, whom they had the misfortune to share blood with," I explained and though he started to correct me that he was their king, I kept going. "They couldn't stand him and they wanted nothing to do with him. When they realized what his goals were they started working against him. They're very nice people actually. Thieves, but honorable ones, if that makes sense."
"It doesn't," he replied, the doubt clear in his voice.
I could only shrug to that. "I'll have to take you to see them then. They're a fun group and damn fine archers."
He shook his head but his eyes showed an amused smile as he did.
My own smile mirrored it, but it slowly fell away as I saw one of the many bodies of the Zoras not too far from where we had battled. It was a small comfort to think that we had probably killed most of the Zoras' murders and it got smaller and smaller the further we continued into the city. "The tunnel that was back at the first pool leads to Lake Hylia and the Water Temple. Once we've checked out the city we'll go through there and see if there are any survivors."
He nodded and we slowly wove our way up through the city till we reached the King's chambers. I was relieved to see that Ruto's father's body wasn't there though his enormous robe was, and I allowed myself a dim hope that he was still alive somewhere. "This way," I said as I lead Sheik up and around to the now dry water way that was hidden behind his throne. There was no clear water to splash through anymore, but instead just dry earth till we reached the end of the cave and the Zora's Spring. Beyond the cave's mouth, the poisoned rain fell perfectly straight at the same soaking rate. Seeing the steady curtain of rain gave me an idea and I told Sheik to wait as I ran back into the throne room. There I got the king's robe and dropped it at Sheik's feet.
"We can cut this up and use it as a cloak to protect us from the rain," I explained but Sheik looked shocked and appalled as I sliced it in half with my sword.
"That's the royal robes of the Zora's king, isn't it?" he asked as he watched my work with wide eyes.
"Yeah...?" I answered, not getting why he was so shocked by this.
"But... but... you can't just cut that up," he pleaded. "It belongs to royalty."
I sighed heavily and tossed him the section I had cut for him to wear. "It's a bit of cloth that will keep us from being burned while we try to find a way to restore the king's spring as well as his city. Really. I don't think he'll mind. And if he does, that's his problem then, isn't it?" I finished cheekily and Sheik just looked dumbstruck at my words, so I sighed again. "Listen, I'm the Hero of Time right?" He nodded. "Then I can do stuff like this and on my order, you are to wear that to keep the rain off of you."
That seemed to finally convince him and, still looking a bit pale to be doing it, he wrapped the cloth around himself well enough to keep any rain out. Thankfully the brilliant red fabric seemed to be made of some scaly hide. I had good hopes that it would provide a good shield against the rain.
As we stepped out and up to where JabuJabu should have been, I heard Sheik make a soft sound of awe. "This is the Zora's fountain? Not even when I was being worn by the royal family did I ever see this..."
I tried to put myself in his shoes and see the fountain as something deeply meaningful and important, but it was hard. I was too jaded by my life and all the impossible and amazing things I'd done and seen. My spells were gifts from the great fairies and thus from the goddesses themselves, I had seen the heart of every temple, and gone into every sacred place in Hyrule. To me this was the place that Ruto had gotten herself eaten by JabuJabu and where I had had to toil through the ice cavern. It was another chore, another stop down my long road, though, for a moment, I kinda could see it from his perspective. Even without the great fish spirit and with the spring all but dry. I could better understand that this was the source of all Hyrule's water and the magic that fed it was a gift from the goddesses. This was a sacred, magical place, and with that thought, I felt a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it was better if I didn't see things as he did, I thought with a wry smile and stepped up onto the platform to look into the spring itself.
"The water's stopped from some reason," I said as I pointed to the deepest part of the nearly empty pool. There was a small bit of water that was only a bit deeper than I stood and at the bottom of it was a hole where the water should have been rushing out to fill the huge fountain and overflow to the Zora's River. Instead, it was only stirred by the drumming rain. Ducking oddly under my makeshift cloak, I pulled out my backpack and retrieved my Zora's tunic. "I'm gonna swim down that. You stay here," I said as I yanked off my green shirt to put the Zora's one on.
"What?"
"I'm going to swim down there and see if the witch has done something to muck up the spring. This shirt is enchanted to let me breath underwater. I'll be right back, don't worry," I promised and left the cloak behind to jog down to the remaining water. The water was a bit over ten feet deep and I leapt in to dive for the opening below.
The tunnel was about seven feet wide and I found it easy enough to move through as I proceeded down through the winding tunnel. Eons of rushing water had polished the stone down to glass smooth walls and had prevented any vegetation from growing so it was much easier than I had thought it would be. The water flowed oddly in and out of my lungs, but thankfully I was far enough in that the contaminated rain hadn't mixed with the water here.
The water sadly hadn't moved in a straight line or even a singular one. As water does, it found the path with the weakest bedrock to burrow through so that not only did I have a path that went every which way, but I also had to contend with many branching dead ends. For a moment I had a clenching fear of becoming lost and trapped here, but I quickly pushed it away. I had the tunic on, so drowning wasn't an option. I'd find my way out eventually.
With a strong kick I propelled myself a little faster though the tunnels as they widened to more of a round hallway. It wasn't far before I came around a corner to find myself face to face with a spear wielding dinalfos or lizalfos, or maybe some other relation of the races entirely. It released a stream of bubbles in a hiss at the sight of me and used its tail to push itself through the water swiftly and charge me with its spear.
With a silent shout I pushed myself back to avoid it and drew my hookshot to shoot it in the head. The mechanism immediately snapped to life and cut through the water to slam into the creature. As it went still in the water, I kept the weapon out. In the water my sword was near useless but as ever my hookshot was still deadly effective. Slower than swinging a blade, but down here it was my best bet.
My guess that the answer to the cut off water could be found down here was correct, I thought with twisted amusement when the next few turns found me face to face with a dozen or so other of the water bound lizalfos.
They came at me fast and I fired my hookshot at one, then another, then another, but it was slow and I had to keep moving to avoid their sharp spears. I felt one spear head bite into my shoulder and I kicked away from that attacker in time to catch him with the hookshot, but then another was ready to stab me through my leg. I cried out mutely and tried to just swing the hookshot at that one's head but another came up behind me to choke me with its spear. I struggled to break free, kicking two in front of me in the process, but in the end, the world dimmed to black nothing.
---
The next thing I knew was a strange weightlessness that immediately made me jump... so I cracked my head on the rock ceiling above me. My "ow!" was silenced by the curious heaviness in my lungs and I realized that I was still underwater. As I blinked past the throbbing in my head, I looked around to see that I was in one of the dead end tunnels. The space I was in was walled off with a crude grate of lashed together sticks.
I braced myself against the back wall and kicked hard at the grate... and found it didn't budge much. Alright... I thought, it was a crudely but effectively made grate. I patted myself down and found everything was gone, even the hookshot that everyone else tended to ignore. Damn it. Again, I set to kicking the grate but that was quickly proving to be a futile exercise. After a few minutes at that, I gave up with a silent curse and drifted down to sit with my back against the grate.
This was a new one for me. I wasn't often captured and never by lizalfos or anything like them. The Gerudo, sure, but this seemed odd to me. I was mulling over this when I felt something poke me in the back. It made me nearly jump out of my skin and I moved away from the grate so fast I rapped my head on the ceiling again.
I was rubbing it as I turned to see what had poked me, only to find Sheik silently laughing at me. Apparently his awe of the Hero of Time was wearing off, I thought wryly and I swam to the grate to watch as he undid the latch on the outside. He was wearing a Zora tunic and I reached through to tug at it in question.
He looked up and, with a hand steadying his face wrap he started to point in one direction but then seemed to think better of it and just waved my question off. We'd be able to discuss it once we were back in air. He opened the door and I swam out to find he had my belongings already.
I gave him another questioning look, but he waved me to follow him. As I did, we passed several dead, water lizalfos. Most of them looked to have had their throats slit from behind. 'Oh sure,' I joked mentally. 'Do it the easy way.' When we reached the main tunnel I got my bearings back and motioned for him to follow me further down the passageway.
Along the track we ran into a few other groups of the water breathing lizalfos but now that I had Sheik backing me up, we made easy work of them and it wasn't long till the passage way opened up into an enormous room. While the tunnels had been irregular and naturally shaped by the water, this place was a perfect sphere that had to be more than a hundred feet wide. Swimming about the middle was an enormous fish. Though I didn't know where to place it, the fish seemed strangely familiar. It was swimming languidly around the center of the room, around a small pinpoint of blue light.
I glanced to Sheik and tightened my grip on my hookshot before kicking off towards the fish and light. As I neared it, I saw the fish was pulsing with a sickening blackness that seemed to be driving back the small point of light. This had to be the cause of the stopped water and I was just about to fire my hookshot at the fish when it turned and saw me. Suddenly I knew where I had seen this thing at: the tank in the witch Rova's home.
It sent a pulse of blackness at me and I was momentarily stunned, my vision wavering in a way that made it hard to aim at the thing. Taking the opportunity, it swam fast at me, but it hadn't noticed Sheik, who had hung back a bit as I had charged in. Sheik's daggers were unthrowable in the water, but he swam fast and soon he was coming up at the fish's left side.
This caught its attention and it swung its head to face Sheik and I saw its wide maw open, ringed with needle like teeth ready to tear into him. Now that the fish's energy wasn't focused on me, I was able to fire my hookshot at it and thankfully I hit it squarely in the side. The fish twisted painfully at the shot but instead of just using it to bludgeon, I used it to hook into the creature and as it locked onto it, I was drug through the water to meet the monstrosity.
No longer as large as a Hylian, it had obviously taken to its new home in here and had grown to over ten times that size. Firmly attached to its side, I kept the hookshot gripped to it as I pulled my sword free of its scabbard. In this close proximity, the sword was useful once more, and I drove it deep into it's scaly hide.
At this the beast bucked wildly and the black waves increased viscously as a cloud of blood started to surround us. It was so disorienting I almost lost my grip on it, but I managed to maintain as I yanked the sword free again to plunge it back in. Its thrashing was nearly knocking me free with every twist and I had just pulled my sword out once more when I was thrown free of the fish.
Unfortunately my hookshot was left attached to the fish and now it was angry. As I was back peddling away, the beast turned to charge me with its mouth wide to attack. For a moment I hoped that maybe Sheik would have a bright idea, but then I saw the dangling whatevers on its head and had an idea of my own. With my sword gripped tightly I stayed exactly where I was as it barreled towards me.
Right before it reached me, I kicked fiercely against the water upwards and instead of being eaten I struck its top lip. With that, I rolled back over its head and barely grabbed hold of the extensions coming off of its head. Due to the wounds I had already inflicted, the water around the fish was dark with blood and was more than a little uncomfortable to breathe, but I moved fast to ram my sword through its skull. Once more it twisted and writhed to dislodge me, but it didn't last very long. After only a few desperate twists it slowed to nothing. Once it had stilled I drew my sword free of it and kicked off get out of the bloody cloud.
No sooner had I escaped it, Sheik rushed up to me. Because we were still in water, he wasn't able to stop before careening into me. We spun awkwardly from the impact, all tangled up, and I had to laugh silently at the ridiculousness. We awkwardly pushed apart while still trying to come to a stop. Once we were face to face again I saw he was laughing too. I didn't have time to consider our sudden closeness, though, as the tiny blue light started to brighten behind us.
I turned from him to look at it, and, with a glance at Sheik, I swam towards the tiny but growing light. There I found that the source of the strengthening light was a small crystal. All and all it was about half the size of my fist and unlike the crystals I had retrieved to gain the Master Sword, this wasn't polished and set with gold. Instead, it was simply a raw chunk of pale blue crystal. As I reached out to touch the smooth hard surface, I could feel water flowing out of it.
First it was gradual, like putting my hand in a little stream, but bit by bit, it was increasing and suddenly I realized that very shortly the crystal would be back to normal and this entire cavern system would be filled with rushing water once more. As quickly as I could I turned and grabbed Sheik to pull him back towards the way we had come.
He took no convincing and soon we were swimming out as quickly as we could when I remembered my hookshot. I swore silently in the water and turned for the cloud of blood that hid the fish. Sheik grabbed for me, not knowing what I was after, but I continued towards the dead fish. The blood made it hard but I found the hookshot and made for the exit, fast, though I could already feel the water moving quickly around me.
I saw Sheik was waiting stubbornly at the exit for me and I waved him to continue through as I followed. Though we swam as fast as we could, it was quickly becoming a moot point as the water around us was pushing harder and faster to drive us out. I couldn't help but fear being bounced into one of those dead ends and being trapped behind the rushing waters forever.
No matter how hard we fought to keep control in the speeding waters, we were less than halfway out when it became apparent that it was a lost cause. I used the last bit of force I had against the current to reach out for Sheik and hold him close. Being separated in this seemed the worst thing and judging by the way he clung on, he obviously agreed.
We curled around each other, trying to stay as tightly wrapped up as possible to better survive the occasional blows we received from the cave walls. Several times I was slammed hard and I was sure a few ribs had broke, but I kept my grip on Sheik as the water pushed us out. Suddenly we were back in the light and air as we were tossed up high on a geyser. I shouted with surprise to suddenly be twenty feet in the air. "Hold on!" I yelled to Sheik as we hit the apex of our ride up and was suddenly falling back down. Inwardly I prayed that more water had filled the spring while we were swimming out and, miraculously, it had.
We hit the water hard and fell down through it more than ten feet and before we swam back up, I looked around to see that the spring was already half full. Still holding onto each other, we burst out of the water and took another long gasp of air. "That... That..." Sheik tried to begin but we were both too out of breath and I shook my head to silence him.
"Come on, let's get to land!" I shouted over the rushing noise of the water that continued to jet high into the air.
We finally let go of each other to swim to JabuJabu's alter but we didn't linger there as the acidic rain was still falling. I pulled him along with me till we were safe in the tunnel that led back to the Zora's city, and grinned proudly to him for having finally fixed something that the witch had done.
"That..." he began again, pointing back at the spring. "That was the source of the water. That was Nayru's magic, wasn't it? That was hers," he said, the awe of what we had just seen clear in his voice and again I let myself see the wonder of it through him. It had been amazing, I realized, to see that. It had been placed there at the beginning of Hyrule, before there were people, before there was anything but rock and air. It was probably one of the oldest and most sacred things in Hyrule and I had touched it... and that witch had disrupted it.
I frowned heavily at the thought and turned back to him. "There must be a crystal of Din in Death Mountain. She must have done something to it to cause the eruptions."
He nodded and I ran out into the rain to retrieve our makeshift cloaks. "Let's get back into the city and go through the passageway to Lake Hylia. Maybe we can find survivors there."
"Alright. These tunics are odd. It took me a moment to adjust to breathing the water," he said and I was thankful for the conversation to draw my attention away from my cracked ribs.
"How did you get one of those?" I asked, careful to keep my ribs as still as possible as I said it.
"After you were gone for a long while I went back into the city and found a store that had them. As we were assuming the king wouldn't mind us cutting up this," he said holding up the cloak in his arms, "I figured taking the tunic would be alright."
I grinned widely at him. "See? Now you're getting it."
He just rolled his red eyes at me and as we walked through the city we saw the water filling up the many pools and water channels. When we reached the main pool at the entrance, the waterfall was tumbling down once more to refill it, though suddenly my plan had lost a bit of its luster.
The water that was refilling the pool was flowing around the corpses of the dead Zoras and the idea of getting into the water was unbearable till I felt Sheik's hand on my arm. "There maybe people beyond that door that need to be told the city is safe so they can tend to their dead."
I nodded and climbed down the ladder to swim though the water to the entrance to the lake. With a last look to Sheik, I dove down through the enchanted tunnel and into the darkness within it.
---
The darkness broke to reveal the lake, though it was almost entirely dry. The river hadn't yet built up enough to reach the whole way here, though the magical tunnel was depositing water into the lake in a steady stream. I stepped away from the tunnel and the water pouring out of it as Sheik tumbled out as well. "You okay?" I asked as I wrapped my own cloak around myself to fend off the curtain-like rain.
"Yes, Hero," he replied and stood up to shield himself as well.
"There," I said and pointed to the temple. Much like it had been when Ganondorf had been in power, there was only water around the entrance to it. As I looked through the rain-tossed water I saw just beneath the surface a few Zora watching us curiously. Without saying anything more, I jogged down to the water. "We're, friends, we're friends," I said as I saw them brandish weapons at us. "We were sent by the Princess," (not a complete lie). "Are there more survivors?"
One broke the surface to reply, "Yes, everyone is in the temple since the rains started."
I nodded and came up to the edge of the water. "Can we come in to speak with whomever's in charge?"
He dipped back down and spoke to the others beneath the water before they waved us in. Eager to get out of the rain, I got into the water and swam down through the door, dragging the cloak with me as I went. As I reached the doorway, I looked back to see that Sheik was following and then made my way into the temple once more.
Inside, we found that the water had been raised to the highest levels and many, many Zora came out from the various hallways to watch as we swam behind the guards. It was a relief to see that the king was alive when we finally reached the top. I was quick to explain to him what was happening and what had been done to the spring.
With the news that the city was safe and the water had been freed, he clapped his hands happily and called for the guards to go and inspect this. "Tomorrow we will go back to the city and see to those that were lost, but for tonight we will remain here. I will have my people show you two to a dry room were you can rest. I'm sure you're very much in need of it," he said warmly and then laughed as he looked us over.
"I must say, you're just as direct as I remember, my boy. I had thought that age would take your impetuousness from you, but I'm glad to see I was wrong," he said with a smiling nod at the remains of his cloak. "That was a gift from a Goron leader to my great, great grandfather. Who would have known that it would become a cloak against the rain for two young boys," he said with a chuckle. "I think it's a fine use for that old rag. Good night, you two."
I thanked him, as did Sheik (who looked a little dazed by the king's reaction), and we were led away to one of the upper rooms. Not only was it dry, but also it had a great deal of empty boxes stacked up in the far corner and I was fast to break them apart for wood for a fire. As I piled up the bits and pieces, Sheik had to laugh. "Are you capable of finding any solution that doesn't involve you destroying something?"
I grinned and set the pile ablaze. "It works, doesn't it?"
He sighed dramatically but turned as a Zora surfaced in the pool of water to the one end of the room. "His majesty sent me to bring these to you," she explained as she sat a basket onto the floor. "If you have any other needs. I will be only a couple levels below."
I thanked her and picked up the basket. "Perfect," I said with a smile and walked back to Sheik.
"What did she give us?"
"Potions, and some fruits. Probably all they had that wasn't raw fish."
He nodded and drank the potion that I gave him, while I did the same. With a sigh, I felt the bones knit back into place and my various cuts, stabs, scrapes, and bruises vanished as well. Eagerly we devoured the fruit they had given us before curling up on the stone floor close to the fire.
---
Sleep was not my friend that night. Though I drifted off quick enough thanks to the tiring day, I was plagued by nightmares of dying Zoras that I couldn't reach in time. I was both at the Zora city and at the beach in Termina and every Zora that died was Mikau. No matter how hard I fought or how fast I ran I couldn't reach him, any of him. They all died on dried riverbeds surrounded by the corpses of others I had failed.
Suddenly the sea of dead Zoras parted. Someone had grabbed me, and I threw up my hands to fend him or her off. In a flash, instincts took over and I had my hands around their wrists, ready to throw them from me when his voice drifted through the haze of Zora cries. "Hero! It's me!"
I blinked and saw that I had Sheik braced away from me and for a moment I couldn't figure out why he was there, or where we were... or where the Zoras had gone... but then reality seeped in and I remembered. "Sheik? Oh, I'm sorry. I..." I started to try to explain as I released him embarrassedly.
"You were having a nightmare. It seemed quite intense," he finished for me, concern painting his features and soft voice.
I nodded and rubbed my neck awkwardly. It was more that a little embarrassing to be caught having nightmares. "It wasn't too bad. Sorry I woke you."
"It didn't seem like a small thing," he replied, not giving in on the point. "...Who's Mikau?" he asked and I flinched at hearing the name. "I'm sorry," he apologized quickly. "I didn't... I shouldn't have pried."
"No, it's alright. It's just something from a long time ago. I, ah... don't have a good track record with saving Zoras... He was from Termina and some pirates killed him while he was trying to protect a woman's eggs. I tried to save him," I explained, almost as if I were defending myself from an accusation of negligence. "I tried over and over and over again. I kept going back, trying everything and anything I could, but nothing worked. I don't even know how many times I tried and failed..." How many times I had watched him die only to rush back and do it again? I shuddered at the memory and hid my face in my hands. Some Hero of Time.
"Because you could roll back time," he said as he shifted to sit beside me, remembering what I had told him about my first time in Termina. "You just kept going back over and over again to try and save him?"
I nodded miserably. "And failed every time." Every... damn... time...
"You were only what? Ten? Eleven?" he questioned and I only shrugged. That hadn't stopped me from fighting the Dongo, purging the evil from the Deku Tree, or anything else that I had done. "You expect too much of yourself," he said softly and wasn't deterred by my shaking head. "You're only one person; you can't fix everything."
"I thought I was the Hero of Time?" I asked him bitterly, raising my head to meet his eyes and I saw his mind working around my point.
"...You are ...but you're still a mortal person," he said slowly and I had a feeling he was saying it as much for himself as for me. After spending how long seeing me as some perfect, ultimate Hero of all Time, it had to be odd to realize that I could fail like anyone else, and despite all my talk, I had to admit I had partially bought into the image, too. To have failed, to have not saved all those Zoras was crushing, though I knew that Sheik was right. "We'll go to the Fire Temple tomorrow and find the witch and stop her and the eruptions," he stated confidently. "You've already restored the river and the Zora's city, and tomorrow you'll fix the rest of it." He laid a hand on my shoulder and despite myself I leaned into the comforting touch.
"We'll have to see about finding you a shirt made from the Goron's fabric," I said, not willing to move away from him just yet. The screams that still insisted on playing in the back of my mind got dimmer the closer he was, and at that moment, I just wanted him to drive them away for me.
"What?"
"I couldn't have killed the fish and restored the fountain without you. I don't want to take the risk that I'll need you in there too, so we'll have to find you a tunic."
He was still for a moment before he nodded. "I'd be happy to accompany you, Hero... of course." His continued formality was a little funny right then and I smiled at it and the pleased tone I caught under his words. He was "singular" to me, and very needed. Exhausted and drained, I fell asleep leaning against his shoulder, and slept well.
To be continued.