Chapter 33: A Home Under Attack

Lingering Nightmares of the Past Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.

Featured Music: "Bittersweet Victory" - Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Sage Laruto" - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker OST. Scene 1 (First Half).


In their collective effort to restore Hyrule's dilapidated water supply via Lake Hylia itself, the Hylianis Militaris Ordinis are pushed to near extinction, at least as far up as their head officers.

With the last surviving member of the Van Garrick clan, Raynard Van Garrick turning turncoat on their country's rebellion forces, the H.M.O. find themselves being eaten from the inside out. Thanks to the slithering efforts of Dreadlord Dragmire's right-hand, Scaverin; former bishop to the original H.M.O., manages to manipulate the young renegade into fighting his former commander and companion.

In infiltrating the Water Temple to clear the evil that king Ganondorf has breathed into it, Sheik finds himself outmatched and outnumbered by the Hyrulean military forces and is beaten into submission. Arriving to rescue his commander and, with hopes to save even his rival, Link engages in mortal combat with the last surviving member of the Van Garrick clan. Unfortunately the young Hero of Time finds himself outstripped and, relying once more on his demonic second side – Kage Narumono, – the savage apparition chillingly murders the young mercenary in cold blood.

Having used him to lure Kage out from the young Link however, the spectating Scaverin sends in one of Ganondorf's created creatures to extract the very essence of his demonic persona; he is successful and Kage Narumono walks the earth as a separate form at last after eighteen years of captivity.

Turning on his former vessel, the rage-filled Kage attempts to eliminate the Hero of Time and inherit his very identity. In their fate-filled altercation however, when Link eventually realises that they truly are mirrored forms of one another, he opts to engage his enemy with one last tactic; the very thing that Kage draws strength from.

The Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai... and, by extension, his and its odd connection to the Holy Triforce.

By simply coming to a realisation that he and Kage cannot truly be the same identity, the demonic warrior finds his formerly endless power dwindling and meagre. Having dealt with this horrific demonic second side all his life Link at last puts Kage Narumono, and all the hatred he held for everyone in his life, to rest.

Not all is well however; in the chaos of the battle, Raynard Van Garrick loses his life to the demonic Kage, just as Barkner once had seven years past and to make matters even worse, Scaverin somehow manages to take control of the veteran Zoran soldier Alwyn, lowering the alliance's forces morale by that much more. Even after Kage's defeat however he leaves his former vessel with a parting message in Ancient Hylian.

"As long as the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai sleeps within you... I will never die."

Chilling words indeed.

Now down by two more men and losing spirit fast, the surviving members of the H.M.O. attempt to push on their gained momentum in targeting their next house of worship...


Scene 1

Gloop...

Somehow, sensing by the sound of the calming water around him, Link knew exactly where he was.

Splash...

As the inky-whiteness around his eyes slowly began to dissipate the watching blonde Hylian frowned forward at the blue humming island before him.

This was the same chamber I've been in three times now, he thought to himself.

"Well... four I guess." He rectified, a light smile on his face when he saw the form stand up before him; the designated Water Sage.

Somehow, unsurprisingly, the lightly-smiling face of the Zoran princess Ruto stood before him; Link couldn't help but return her smile in a well-meaning expression of his own.

"Look at you... standing there...," the Zoran woman spoke softly, her words echoing across the dream-like landscape of the Chamber of the Sages. She tilted her head very lightly as she finished her sentence. "You really do look like the Hero of Time."

Realising she was referring to the holy sky-blue hilt hanging off his left shoulder he absent-mindedly fingered it softly with his left arm, frowning lightly as he did.

"You know we in Zora's Domain... we never took anything you Hylians said seriously," Ruto added into the conversation, a kind of childish-looking grin adorned on her face. Link couldn't help but push out air softly through his nose, as if in restrained laughter. "Even after that bloody civil war...," she continued, a saddened frown morphing through her words. "We just couldn't have the same faith your people did."

Feeling the mourning she conveyed so well through the tone of her voice, Link's own frown lowered into a softened melancholic one.

"But now...," she restarted, her frown very gradually turning into a smile. "After watching you beat that thing... and save the rebellion's commander..."

Lowering his blonde-haired head in sorrow for the loss of the friend she so tactfully left out of her speech.

Just like with Barkner, he thought...

That will go to my grave.

"I can see why your people believe in you," the Zoran woman claimed, a confident look in her ruby-shaded eye. "You don't just have physical strength... but strength of the heart...," she smiled, shutting her eyes as she briefly lowered her head and rose up her hands to clasp softly on her chest. "Too many people... especially in our community... they can't even appreciate what that means." The Zoran princess laughed, re-raising her head to face the youth before her once more.

Although the listening blonde had the urge to respond to her with many a negative thing he pushed it down deep into his larynx.

There's no need to spoil the conversation, he thought.

"I made the right choice... seven years ago... when I chose you to be my husband," she began again as she smiled widely over at him; the listening Link spied a tear staining the side of her eye as she spoke. "That Zelda...," the Zoran woman began with a more jolly grin. "She's a far luckier woman than she realises."

Though he laughed in a nervous sense it wasn't out of the usual sense of childish anxiousness.

It was because of his conflicting feelings for the missing Hylian princess.

If only she knew, he thought.

"She's still alive... I'm sure of it," Ruto put forth, a confident look in her eye as she spoke. "So don't be discouraged... darling." She ended her sentence with a well-natured grin.

Link merely smiled back at her wanly; a growing sign of the weariness his task had weighed on him.

"You'll always be my first... Link," she spoke this time in an unusually sort of modest sense, a sad kind of smile attached to her words. "Know that I'll always love you... wherever you go."

His listening frown couldn't help but bend in tribulation. "Ruto..."

"No...," she batted back, shaking her head almost as soon as he spoke her name. "It cannot be," she stated, a hardened frown to her features; as if to contradict her words, the crease in her eyes twitched and the same tears Link spied from before began to rear their heads a second time. "Instead... I will fulfil my duty... as holy Water Sage of this country's defence. If helping your people is the only way I can get close to your heart... then that's what I'll do."

Her words, spoken with such bold conviction and low-hanging sadness, couldn't help but tug at the listening Link's heart-strings.

It only made him dislike his rebellion's hidden leader all the more.

"You must take this medallion, darling...," Ruto at last finished, this time a smile on her teary complexion before she laughed and tilted her head at him. "Take it respectfully!"

Her nostalgic call heralded the high-pitched whine that the chamber was filled with; as the cerulean-shaded coin-shaped emblem came plummeting down to meet him, so too did the inky-whiteness that so plagued his eyesight earlier.

Only the sound of Ruto's voice left with him as he also did.

"If you see Sheik... please give him my thanks, okay?"


Narrowing her indigo-shaded eyes through the darkness Impa looked for some kind of exit but, as she had previously feared, the dingy dark-blue labyrinth she waded through offered none to her.

If only I had the Eye of Truth she thought.

The technique limited only exclusively to those in the Sheikah clan and, even then, said to have been but mere legend.

A testament just to how absurdly rare and mythic the technique truly was.

Reaching her gauntleted left arm forward she furrowed her brow in concentration as she hesitantly hung her reach ahead. Finding her fingers passing through the wall before her, her fiery-red eyes widened.

Bingo, she thought.

Now confident in her action the experience Sheikah stepped forward and shut her eyes as she also passed through the invisible wall previously blocking her progress. Standing before her appeared to be a door and she narrowed her eyes at it.

Knowing my luck, she thought...

Something's in there waiting for me.

As the door vertically rose up and shut down behind her, stone bars also joined them, blocking her exit thusly.

DROOM

Her eyes narrowed in the door's direction behind her before snapping back to the front, only to find a horrifying sight indeed.

A group of six long corpse-like arms hung up from the ground not far from her position at the door, as if having been lying in wait. On the arms' fingers lay mere claws; seemingly of a dark and unnatural kind.

I don't like this, she thought.

The arms gave off an anxious vibe; something she expected to feel from a corpse itself.

Lifeless... dead.

Pulling the long katana from the similarly lengthy sheath at her side, Impa glared ahead as she rose the blade upwards threateningly. Bringing it down on the arms she widened her eyes when she caught sudden movement out the corner of her boiling eye.

WHOOSH-CLANG

Finding her assault bouncing off the firm similar steel to what she herself wielded, Impa was sent skidding backward to the left-hand corner of the room, spinning only once in her recovery. Narrowing her eyes forward at the new figure standing before her she could only glare before soon widening them in surprise.

A similarly lifeless looking Zoran man stood between her and the Dead Hands.

"What the...?" She murmured out disbelievingly.

What was a Zoran doing way out here?

Furthermore weren't they having issues with the recent curse having been put on them not that long ago?

This is very odd, she thought.

"What are you doing here?" She called forward, relaxing her battle stance into a simple standing stature, dusting herself off as she did. "Shouldn't you be elsewhere? What is your name?" The Sheikah pressed him, raising a curious eyebrow as she stared back at the man before her.

Strangely, the Zoran's eyes were as white as the skin on the corpse-like hands raising up out of the ground.

That could only mean one thing, she thought.

"Ah... Lady Impa... of the Sheikah..."

Her crimson eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sound of the intruding second voice.

"I knew it."

Finding a robed man stepping out from behind one of the slim hands – somehow – the watching Impa glared as she soon recognised his form.

A man of the former Hylian military.

What was his name, she thought.

Scaverin was it?

"It is certainly very nice to see you again...," he spoke in a knowing, smirking tone. "After the coup seven years ago your people certainly are in short supply..."

"Enough of the pleasantries," the Sheikah woman shot back, reaching for her katana again. "You can tell me what you're doing here and fill me in on him while you're at it," she warned him with a hard-eyed glare. "And don't even think about lying."

"My you certainly know what you're doing, don't you?" The grinning bald-headed Scaverin replied, a raise of his eyebrow spicing the tone of his voice. "Well... if you must know... Sir Alwyn and I are here at God's request," the robed schemer smirked back as he outstretched his right arm to his side, a superiorly confident expression on his face as he did so. "We are... reinforcing the divine presence he breathed into it."

"Cunning choice of words...," Impa muttered lowly, eyes narrowed before re-setting them to frown forward. "So... you're here on that tyrant's order are you...," she spoke before briefly eyeing the lifeless-like Alwyn. "Does he approve of this?"

"He approves of whatever God approves of...," the smirking Scaverin sounded out before suddenly lowering his head and scowling threateningly. As he did, the light blue glowing of his Aegir encompassing his arms began to light his facial expression hauntingly. "My child..."

2

"Are you feeling all right?"

As his consciousness slowly returned to him, Link realised who the owner of the familiar concerned voice was; the sound of a bird singing in the distance and the water filling up before him made him also realise where he was.

Lake Hylia.

"Sheik...," the teleported Link smiled back in response as the cerulean-shaded aura of Aegir-warp began to wear off around his body. He stepped forward out of the small stone platform he stood on with the Zoran's national symbol before soon joining his similarly blonde ally. "I should be asking you the same question." The Hylian batted back as he grinned confidently and, with some sense, a cheekiness that made the listening Sheikah smile in response.

"You've always been the good one Link... you didn't have to save me you know."

"Yeah I did," Link countered in a well-meaning disagreement, smiling similarly as he did. "The rebellion'd be lost without you."

Finding an oddly sad tone in the listening Sheikah's fiery-red eyes Link couldn't help but raise a curious straw-haired eyebrow upward.

"I... guess I'd miss you too," the ex-Kokiri added in a good-natured chuckle, briefly shutting his eyes as he did. Listening further, the Sheikah leader of the Hylianis Militaris Ordinis rose his own eyebrows; perhaps similarly surprised. "If it wasn't for you and Navi... I wouldn't be here I bet." He shot over his shoulder with a deft grin in the direction of the similarly-faced guardian fairy.

"Now that I can agree with!" The sky-shaded fairy shot in enthusiastically.

"It's... just a shame about..."

Realising he was talking about their former ally Link couldn't help but lower his well-natured smile in favour of a similarly saddened frown.

Raynard, he thought.

If only you hadn't turned.

"At least something good came out of it...," the Sheikah commander smiled in his words as he turned his head 'round to watch the long lake before him fill up with beautiful pristine water. "As the water rises... king Ganondorf's evil has all but faded from this province," he claimed, the sun giving the field they stood on and the lake before them a sunset, orangey tint. "Well done... Link." Sheik claimed, a smile in the tone of his words as he turned briefly to re-eye the frowning Hylian.

Odd, Link thought.

It seems like any time he does that I feel something different.

Maybe it's nothing...

But it is an instinct.

"I uh..."

His restart to the conversation made the listening Sheikah briefly raise up his head.

"I meant to tell you... Ruto told me to thank you," the youth offered over in a light smile. "She... seemed quite happy about how things ended... all things considered."

"I'm glad," Sheik smiled back in a positive nod before turning his fiery eye to his left to face the sun-kissed lake. "We have to return peace to Hyrule for her sake too... don't we?"

Though he wanted to forget about the very task his leader and commander was referring to he couldn't.

Not now; especially not now.

Even if I were to go back to the Kokiri Forest, he thought...

Now that Saria, Ruto, Barkner and even Raynard's gone Sheik and Navi really are my only friends.

"Thanks to her... and, of course, to you," Sheik amended his sentence with a grin in the tone of his words as he briefly re-eyed the Hylian before continuing. "This lake is filled with pure and pristine water," he spoke in a satisfied smile. "All is as it was... the nearby towns and the country's water source will be saved."

Stepping forward Link's brown boots crunched against the grass softly; he couldn't help but smile alongside his last fighting ally left, standing next to him in the bathing orange-like glow of the sunrise.

"Link... I..."

Raising his blonde eyebrows in response to the Sheikah's query, Link swerved his green-capped head to face him.

"I'm sorry about Raynard," the man lamented, his similarly blonde head lowered in moroseness. "If I... had realised something was off then maybe I could have-"

"Don't apologise."

Surprised by his ally's interruption Sheik swivelled his head 'round to widen his eyes at the smiling blonde.

"What happened, happened and couldn't have happened any other way...," Link mused aloud, the early morning air blowing the strands of his hair to compliment the warm apricot of the sunrise that kissed his face. "I'm sure Saria or Zelda would have said something like that," he finished, a grin on his face before turning back to 'round it on the Sheikah. "Right?" He pressed him in a good-natured ribbing, an infectious beam upon his face.

Laughing, in spite of all the heartache and misery the trio had been befallen upon, the watching Sheik could only grace the grinning Hylian with a blushing giggle.

"Come on... I imagine maybe, for once, we'll actually get a decent meal."


Propelled on by his comrade's smiling words Link couldn't help but smile back as he stepped off of Epona's saddle. 'Rounding himself to face the faithful horse and companion he had gained the smiling Link patted her across her neck.

"Thanks so much... Epona," the Hylian smiled back at her, his eyes briefly shut as he did so. "I guess I owe you and Malon a lot... huh?" He chuckled, re-opening his eyes as he patted the horse's left side, eliciting an affectionate whinny from it. "I'll have to thank her myself next I see her."

"Come on Link!"

Called on anxiously by his ever trusty guardian fairy Link nodded before swiftly tying Epona close-by and leaving her with a cheerful smile before following his comrades up the stairs to Kakariko Village.

When they entered, however, Link soon found his relatively good mood soon switching.

The horrid burning smell that filled the air came along with the horrifying sight of fire atop some of the buildings nearby.

"Oh no...," Sheik murmured out, narrowing his boiling-red eye forward at the sight before him. "Come on!" He urged, suddenly breaking into a forward run. Gasping in surprise but, nevertheless obeying, Link followed on after his commander.

Oddly enough, the young Sheikah blonde appeared to be aiming for the well of all places.

What's he hoping to find there, he thought.

Stepping forward to re-join his ally, Link raised a curious eyebrow upward as he opened his mouth to speak to the Sheikah and voice his concerns.

"Sheik, what's going-?"

"Get back Link!"

Almost immediately after the blonde's warning, the ground began to shake.

And violently at that.

DROOM

Dredging back a shocked gasp, Link instinctively brought his arms up defensively as the explosion of pressure from inside of the well gave out; as it did, the large wooden post that hung over the well protectively shot up in a skyward flailing vault. Spinning wildly through the air it finally landed a few steps back where Link had once tread; about-turning on his position the watching Hero of Time winced from the sheer level of sudden destruction he had just witnessed.

As if to add to the growingly threatening atmosphere the sound, and appearance, of sputtering rain made no difference to the narrow-eyed Sheik. As the raindrops pattered noisily against the green field of Kakariko the firm-eyed Sheikah leader of the Hylianis Militaris Ordinis attempted to search for something in the air, readying himself for some sense of combat. Watching as he swerved back to face his commanding officer Link could only furrow his brow concernedly.

"Sheik just what in the hell is-?"

"Link, not now!"

Silenced so suddenly and sharply by the sharp-tongued Sheikah made the listening Hylian wince.

I suppose if I can't tell what's happening I'm just a weight to him, he thought sadly.

Without any real warning for the poor watching youth the gasping Sheik was suddenly thrust into the air; widening his eyes Link watched up helplessly as his companion and friend was rag-dolled through the air as if he were nothing but an insect. Just as quickly as it had happened however the young Sheikah was tossed ruthlessly across the raining sky, landing in a pained grunting thud just a few strides from the small staircase. Watching the air around him carefully as if for fear of being ambushed the firm-eyed Link backed on up down the steps in an effort to reach his fallen companion; standing next to him he knelt down.

"You all right?" He breathed down, eyes remained focused on looking for their invisible assaulter.

"L-Link...," Sheik managed to cough out as he struggled to raise his hand up, as if to warn the youth. "Y-You have to... g-get out of-"

"Link it's coming back!"

Navi's abrupt call made the listening pair stiffen; turning his blue-eyed gaze to his left he, oddly enough, found a pure dark patch of inky blackness travelling across the very walls and buildings of Kakariko. Widening his eyes in a mixture of horror and amazement he gulped down whatever fear was holding him back and unsheathed the divine holy blade from its resting place.

SHIIING...

As the patch of darkness began to travel across the very rocky walls of the village Link lowered his stance to ready himself for combat. Realising its speed was halting very quickly in its charge however he furrowed his brow in half-confusion as he watched it stop just a step ahead of the village tree.

What is it doing, the young man thought.

"W-What the...?" Sheik murmured out as he re-rose his head back up to watch the form before him. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, somehow seemingly sensing his sudden reply, the form of darkness began to materialise and even stand. "N-No...," the watching Sheikah gasped past the injuries he suffered. "That's... impossible...!" He hissed out, visibly shocked to his very core.

"W-What is it?" Link queried skittishly, exchanging his wide-eyed look to go from his commander and to the dark patch of blackness before him. Narrowing a single eye in wonder as he watched it slowly begin to take human form he creased his face to match his perturbed tone of voice. "Is it... like Kage...?"

"N-No...," Sheik managed out in a pained gulp and shake of his straw-haired head. "It's... worse than Kage..."

Worse than Kage?

Somehow, even as he himself doubted it, the listening Link could sense the very danger the humanoid form before posed to them.

"Link you have to go."

Surprised again by his leader's command Link briefly eyed his friend before re-facing the slow-forming humanoid before him. Re-stating his hardened glare as he leant his body to the side Link shook his head back in a direct disobeying.

"Link you have to listen to-!"

Almost as if sensing the pair's argument the inky blackness before them at last formed fully; before the three appeared to stand what looked like a human woman perhaps around their age.

Certainly at least around their power bracket.

Realising that the watching Link glared back at the darkened form before him.

In spite of all the courage in the world however, as the dark shape marched forward Link found his form shaking, even before it managed to fully approach.

There was something seriously off about its Aegir.

It was as if it was pure evil itself.

In a sudden burst of speed the female form before him shocked him by crossing the distance all at once; reaching for his Hylian Shield to defend he was, alas, far too late. Only the conjoined calls of his name shouted out by his commander and guardian fairy were the last things to go through his ear before he fell unconscious.

3

Even the outside of the area he resided in felt wavy and dream-like.

Where am I, he thought.

"Shh..."

His eyebrows lifted up almost as if in shock and in realisation.

It can't be another dream surely, he thought worriedly.

"You were wounded pretty bad back there."

He tried to open his eyes and, just as before, found his vision blocked by blackness.

His eyes were probably covered by something.

"W-Where-?"

"It's okay," the voice laughed back at him good-naturedly, audibly coming closer to him. When he felt her approach his laying form he narrowed his eyes past the blindfold he wore. "You don't need to be so scared."

Easy for you to say, he thought.

This is the second time this has happened to me.

"You've done so much since last I saw you..."

Widening his eyes beneath the block to his vision, Link began to recognise the voice's owner. Though it was a similar mezzo-soprano to the last one he encountered it was different somehow and, yet, even after all that it was the smell that tipped him off.

The smell of her perfume was almost enough to identify her.

I think I know who this is.

"You really need to stop getting yourself in these kinds of situations fairy boy."

There it is, he thought.

Finding he could very slowly regain movement he rose up his hands to paw at the cloth hanging over his eyes.


When the young blonde at last regained his sight he couldn't help but grow a long-awaited grateful smile at the big pair of sapphire-like eyes staring back at him. As the owner of them leaned down and shut them, he felt her very delicately pry his lips open with her own. When the pair finished with their greeting embrace, Link at last got a decent-eyed view at his saviour; somehow, as he expected...

It was Malon.

"Did you miss me?" The young red-head grinned down at him as she stood back up to lean her head to the side. Link couldn't help but laugh very softly and quietly through his nose as he sat back up to a sitting position, finding himself laying on what appeared to be a familiar bed of a similarly recognisable living area.

We're still in Kakariko, he thought.

So what's she doing here?

"Yeah," he answered honestly, allowing his right arm to rest over his raised right knee. "I'm actually happy to see you." The blonde added in a cheeky, if genuine, chuckle. Though she grinned back at him in obvious joy she playfully hit him across his bare back with a soft slap.

Reaching for what appeared to be a mug of something the smiling Malon gripped it by its wooden handle before taking a seat with her free hand and passing the container over. "Here..." She urged, hovering it toward him. Taking it gratefully the Hero of Time nodded in silent thanks as he held it close with both hands, blowing over the steam that floated on up into his nose.

Tea.

"Sheik told me you've been busy."

Surprised, he looked up from the drink to find the farm girl leaning down to sit across from him; when he caught her folded-armed and staring back at him in a knowing grin he couldn't help but feel very guilty.

Thoughts of the very similar dream he had quite recently up in the Fire Temple with the mystery woman reared their shameful heads.

It was a dream, he thought.

It's nothing to feel bad about.

So... why do I?

"Y-Yeah...," he answered at last, a shaky chuckling tone to his normally confidently-expressed voice. "Sorry... I'd have came to see you other-"

"I know," the red-head interrupted him softly, lowering her folded-armed form to thread her fingers together in her lap, a much softer and understanding look in her body language. "You're the only one that can do what you do... and people really depend on that, don't they." She said, more of a statement than a question. Losing his cheerful smile as she referenced his title in the rebellion openly Link lowered his hardened, annoyed frown.

"If...," he began lowly, eyes narrowing at the dark floorboards below. "If it wasn't for Saria asking me to, then..."

Listening intently and curiously Malon raised an auburn eyebrow, opening her mouth to press him. "She was... your friend in the forest wasn't she?"

"She... was... yeah," Link answered, a longing saddened smile upon his complexion as he looked down into the liquid in the mug he held onto. "Now that she's helping Zelda...," he trailed on, narrowing his eyes as his smile very slowly evaporated into a hateful frown. "I guess I won't see her ever again."

"I'm sorry," Malon offered over, a quiet volume to her frowning voice. "She was... important to you... wasn't she?"

Re-raising his blonde head to face her he slowly regained his smile and nodded as he thought of the green-haired Kokiri. "She's the one who raised me," the youth clarified before chuckling. "I never really knew my parents but... sometimes I wondered if that's what it was like to have a mother."

Joining her hands together again as she rose them up to her chest Malon couldn't help but quiver her lower lip back at him. "Oh, Link..."

"I'm... fine," he laughed back unconvincingly, shaking his straw-haired head at her. "I guess I just...," the youth trailed off, a far-off look in his eye. "Miss her..."

Uttering no more words Malon stood up from her chair and leaned down, wrapping her arms around his bare chest comfortingly. Although the frowning Link allowed her to take him into an embrace he didn't return it, his guilt still eating away at him.

"You know I've stopped caring?" He spoke into her ear softly, his frown very slowly morphing into a sorrowful low smile. "About this country's people, I mean."

Malon opted to listen in silence as she ran her right hand across his back lovingly.

"Even when Sheik told me in the Temple of Time when I woke back up like this," he explained in a half-angry, half-amused grin. "Does...," the Hero of Time restarted, his grin very gradually dropping in sadness. "Does that make me a bad person?"

"Shh..."

Malon's mezzo-soprano voice hushed his own, echoing out softly across the walls of the room they resided in quietly.

4

"Thank you, Aran." Sheik smiled behind his white scarf gratefully, his tone thankful but politely dismissive. The young Hylian boy smiled back in an acquiescing nod before agreeing to leave; in about-turning to walk out the door he gave the entering pair a greeting smile of his own. Link couldn't help blink down at the boy before soon receiving am elbow in his side courtesy of his frowning red-headed companion to his right.

"Hey Sheik," the Hero of Time smiled over in greeting as he swept past the young Aran, Malon close-by. "Feeling any better?"

"Ah, Link... yes I'm-" the Hylianis Militaris Ordinis leader similarly smiled back in response before catching himself mid-sentence; double-taking in the cheery Malon's direction. "Fine." He spoke lowly, his tone of voice surprisingly shifting; confusing the watching Link even further, the detached Sheikah even turned his blonde head from the group.

"You... don't sound fine...," the listening Link couldn't help but chuckle in a mixture of nervousness and uncertainness as he stepped forward. "Did that thing do any lasting-?"

"I said I'm fine!" The Sheikah brusquely and bitterly shot back with, cutting into the young Hylian's words with his own, as if to silence them swiftly. With a painful wince Link retracted his right hand slowly, puzzled at the man's odd shift in tone.

"Maybe I should... leave you two alone..."

Malon's whisper and demure touch to his left arm made him 'round his head to eye her briefly before opening his voice to respond.

"No I'm sure that everything's-"

He couldn't help but double-take in Sheik's direction when he caught his commander glaring at them both. Oddly, he found him focusing most of his visual ire on the red-headed ranch girl on his arm.

What the hell is wrong with him, Link thought puzzlingly.

"I'll meet you outside..."

Feeling her pull him delicately toward her he realised her intention; rolling his eyes he agreed to fulfil the young woman's request regardless. Malon draped her slender arms over his broad shoulders as he took her firmly by her hips and leaned up into his embrace with a shut-eyed kiss.

Somehow, even while similarly shutting his vision, he sensed his commander behind him glaring at them.

When she finally pulled back from him Malon gifted him with a smiling wink before turning wordlessly to leave the room. As the door shut with a quiet creak the remaining Link couldn't help but feel somewhat sheepish as he swivelled 'round to face the back of his leader.

"Should we...," he re-began, a similarly uncomfortable and zig-zag smile adorned on his face. "Get going...?"


The tension in the air truly was palpable; as Link and his commander trudged on through the avenues and streets of Kakariko's quiet village he could veritably feel Sheik's cold mood. Opting to march on obediently and similarly reticently behind him Link couldn't help but exchange a worried look with his guardian fairy.

"You should say something to him..."

"Like what?" Link hissed back, eyebrows risen up questioningly. "I don't think he wants to talk, especially with me." The youth admitted his suspicions as he stared on at the back-facing Sheikah ahead of him.

"There's even less of us now that Raynard's gone..."

The listening Link lowered his eyes in a morose sort of frown as she spoke, realising her intention in mentioning the deceased young man's name.

"We shouldn't be in-fighting like this..."

Sighing softly through his nose the guardian fairy's charge nodded in silent agreement.

She was right.

Whatever issues Sheik was having with him he'd have to root them out.

How best to do it, he thought to himself.

"Listen, uh...," he began uncertainly as they stepped on up one of the village's small staircases toward the well once more. He rubbed the back of his green-capped head as he did. "I hope that thing didn't bang you up too mu-"

"Do you enjoy what you do?"

Interrupted so sharply and so suddenly the listening Link could only blink his big cerulean-shaded eyes back at the speaking Sheikah before him.

"W-Wha-?" He murmured back, finding their march halting somewhat abruptly at the top of the staircase they once stood at hours earlier.

"I said...," Sheik re-began, half-turning his blonde head to eye the Hero of Time behind him with fiery-crimson sight. "Do you enjoy what you do to women?"

That surprised him.

Finding his frown creasing into yet further confusion, Link could only tilt his own blonde head back at his leader, positively mystified.

"W-What are you talking-?"

"I had thought you were a trustworthy sort of man Link," Sheik re-started as he glared on back at the baffled Hero of Time. "But I see you're like all of the rest of them."

Shaking his straw-haired head back at his commander Link started to gain an annoyed frown to his complexion, beginning to grow irritated at the Sheikah's seeming need to speak in riddles.

"Just tell me what you mean for Din's-"

"Is Malon the only woman you've ever kissed?"

Again, he was surprised.

What the hell is his problem, he thought.

What is even going on?

"I-" he began with a confused blink. "I think so, I mean-" the muddled youth started before shaking his head suddenly and irritatedly, shutting his eyes as if to re-affirm his thoughts and memories. "No there was... at least two others."

Listening intently this time Sheik narrowed his calmly angry red eyes back, allowing him to continue.

"But... I'm not sure if that one even happened...," the Hero of Time admitted distractedly, his words murmuring as he thought of the mystery woman in his dreams. "I know Ruto's happened," he re-affirmed as he re-raised his head to furrow his brow back at his commander. "But I had to do that... unfortunately," he admitted with some sense of regret, turning his eyes away in brief shame. "Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the-"

"Spiritual Stone, yes?"

Surprised by the Sheikah's sudden knowledge Link swept his eyes back over and narrowed them suspiciously.

"How-?" He cut himself off, brow furrowing a second time before tilting his head. "Yeah...," he confirmed quietly. "W-Why is this so important to you anyway?!" He shot back this time, his voice heightened to convey his frustration. "I didn't realise my love life was-"

"No reason."

Even as Sheik turned to continue his march Link was left staring after him in a mystified half-narrowed glare. Shaking his blonde-haired head at him in disbelief he followed on silently after him, a single thought pressing him on.

"It's like talking to a woman..."