Shorter chapter today.

Chapter Seventeen: And again…

"So, instead of moving the rock and letting Sheik out, you left her there?" Aveil asked in disbelief,

"I panicked, that and, the rock was quite hot, and by the time I went to move it, it had melded to the ground," said HoT,

"Well, have you tried going back in time?" Tetra asked,

"That didn't occur to me, but I think I might be 'time locked', that means I'm unable to travel in time, thanks to the Triforce deserting me," replied HoT,

"Well, try,"

Knowing it would be unwise to argue, HoT pulled out the Ocarina of Time, and played the Song of Time.

A time 'wormhole' opened behind him, but quickly closed again.

"See, time locked, and if I'm time locked, it means one thing, a powerful evil force has awoken, and has locked the time vortex, nothing can get in, or out, without some serious time energy," HoT informed the gathered beings,

Suddenly, the sound of someone singing the Song of Time came from behind him, near the door, and a wind from another world blew into the room.

"Like I said, serious time energy," HoT said, hoping to achieve dramatic effect, and failing miserably.

A blinding light had filled the doorway, and then, HoW stepped through.

"And that, kids, is what happens when you abuse the wibbly wobbly ball of timey wimey… stuff," said HoW, somewhat triumphantly.

"Link!" Tetra shouted, rugby tackling him into the wall that had once been a vortex of time travel energy,

Once again, faced with that feeling of familiarity, HoT turned away, and then he turned back to HoW, with a question; "How did you get back here? I know you must have had an enormous amount of time energy to travel through the time lock, but how did you get that amount of energy?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story, and I'm not going to tell it to you, until someone goes and rescues Sheik from that fountain," HoW replied,

"How did you…?"

"It took a long time to open that portal, as it began to open, I heard your story," HoW nodded, for some reason, "I forgive you,"

"Thanks, now go get Sheik,"

"Gotcha,"

HoW climbed up the ladder, found what he was looking for, and jumped down again, rolled, and ran out of Grandma's house.

The rain had stopped, and a weak sun was attempting to break across the horizon. The island seemed peaceful, but Link didn't have time to appreciate the scenery. He ran as fast as he could towards the forest. When he saw the rock, instead of walking up to it slowly, he didn't stop and ran straight towards the rock, wrenching it from the ground as he leapt at it. After getting up again, he ran into the Fairy Fountain.

Sheik had pulled her knees up to her face and had buried her face into her hands. As he drew closer, he could hear that Sheik was sobbing.

Dropping down so he was crouching, Link looked at Sheik, finally, he asked, "Are you alright?"

Sheik, startled at the sound of his voice, recoiled slightly, and when she looked up, Link could see her face was stained with tears.

Slowly she nodded, and then she stood shakily. Link smiled encouragingly, and helped her back to the house.

When they arrived, everyone let them move towards the fire that was in the grate, to allow Sheik to warm up.

"So, now that's done, can we get to your story now?" HoT asked.

Hope you enjoyed it.