The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.

The Voice
33 - Yeah, barrel roll!

Sheik felt a little awkward as the conversation (Link would call it an argument, but since no death threats had been made yet Sheik was unwilling to agree on that point) with Teba tapered off once the two of them realised the Hero wasn't actually listening. Link's eyes were glassy, and his mind was apparently miles away.

The Rito Champion must have finally decided to speak, undoubtedly complaining about how unstylish their landing on Vah Medoh had been, saying how he would have done it so much better.

Sheik didn't know anything about Revali, but based on Link's spotty memories of him, he had no doubt the Rito was exactly that kind of person. Head up his own arse and no regard for anyone but himself.

Sheik knew the type. He was that type, on occasion. But he had Link there to ground him, luckily, unlike Revali who must have had everyone blowing wind under his feathers since birth...or some stupid avian-related pun like that. He could only hope Link would have some choice words for the Champion later.

Sheik certainly did. Granted, his words would probably be considered rude and unnecessarily hostile. They mostly revolved around how Revali was quite dead, had utterly failed at his task (which had apparently been so beneath him), and the only legacy afforded to him by his own people was a glorified springboard. There certainly hadn't been any statues or tapestries or holidays dedicated to him. Oh, if only Sheik could talk to Revali now, it'd give him so much pleasure to just rub it in his stupid face. Beak. Whatever.

"...what is he doing?" Teba asked, eyes narrowed. Those coloured feathers above his eyes made him look annoyed. "Is something the matter?"

"Oh, don't mind him," Sheik said, realising Link probably wasn't making the best impression of a legendary Hero and warrior as he was right now, looking for all intents and purposes like he'd eaten random mushrooms from the forest floor. "It happens every time we retake a Divine Beast. The Champions' spirits have a tendency to linger, see, and for some reason only Link can hear them until we vanquish the malice that Ganon has left behind."

It was honestly the best explanation he could give without convincing Teba that he'd just helped someone with glaringly obvious mental issues up here. Which, Sheik supposed, was true enough. His Hylian was a bundle of neuroses, anxiety, and depression, but at least he didn't hear voices...ones that weren't actually there, that is.

If I ever write my memoirs, I'm going to have to take a lot of creative freedoms when it comes to Link, Sheik thought. People are going to think the Hero of Hyrule was absolutely nuts, otherwise.

Teba, as usual, seemed to take the explanation in stride, nodding calmly. "I see," he said.

"That's all?" Sheik asked, causing the Rito to look down at him.

"What do you mean?" Teba said.

"No follow-up questions?" Sheik elaborated. "No snide remarks that Link may be off his rocker? No accusations of bullshit? No shocked realisations that Link is—right at this moment—hearing the voice of your long-dead Champion Revali, whose soul has been languishing in this place for the past century, tormented by his failure?"

Teba, to his credit, took a moment to consider it. Then, with eerie nonchalance, shook his head.

"No, none of that. I do not know the extent of Link's clairvoyant abilities, nor do I have a reason to distrust what you are saying. As for Master Revali...I have no strong opinions of him. If he is truly a Rito, however, he will be rearing for another chance to spread his wings and defeat the evil that bested him the first time. Hopefully, we can help him achieve that."

Sheik was quiet. For the first time in his existence, he had no words.

"Is...is anything capable of knocking you off your perch?" he asked after a while.

"My wife," Teba answered immediately. "My son."

"I don't know what I expected," Sheik said. "Are you all right?" he asked when Teba winced after trying to put his weight on his injured foot again. "Look, that burn is quite serious—"

"I'll be fine," Teba interrupted with a scowl. "I may not be able to fight on foot, but I can still fly. And I am not leaving," he said before Sheik could get a word in. "What if something happens and you need a quick getaway? Does that alternative mode of transport you mentioned work up here?"

Sheik wanted to reply with a duh, of course, but found to his disappointment that the tower network was being unresponsive to his pings. Something appeared to be scrambling the signal this high up. Presumably the malice, because of course it just had to find a way to make everyone's life miserable in every single way.

Problem was, without being able to actually connect to the network, he also couldn't access the teleportation function. Or, he could engage it locally via Medoh's systems once Sheik gained access, but that would only serve to break Link into billions of tiny little particles and scatter them over a wide area since Sheik wouldn't have somewhere to actually send them.

Complete annihilation. Not unlike an explosion, really.

Undoubtedly hilarious, but so very counter-intuitive to their designated task of saving the world.

Plus, it'd make Sharky sad. Even Sheik couldn't stand the thought of crushing the walking ball of enthusiasm that was Prince Sidon.

So, that was not an option right now. And as much as he hated to admit it, Teba was right. He was their only way off Medoh if things went south—and given their luck and track record so far, something was bound to do just that at some point. And while Sheik was convinced by now that Teba wasn't actually a death seeker, he was still somewhat reluctant to involve him, given his injury.

But beggars could not be choosers, he supposed.

"Eugh, it doesn't," he admitted. "I don't have the necessary access in the first place, and the rest of the network is unavailable. I guess we have to rely on you, then."

"Good," Teba said, nodding. "I'd rather not leave you two alone up here. It's dangerous."

"What, you don't think we're capable?" Sheik asked, bristling.

"I think that a pair of children, no matter how capable, could use an extra set of hands as support, especially since neither of them can fly. That comes in handy, on account of us being several miles above the ground," Teba explained. "That is all."

It made sense, certainly, but Sheik found it difficult to ignore being called a child (technically true, for both of them), or the sudden, nauseating thought of Teba somehow imprinting on them and thinking of them as his chicks. The tone hadn't suggested any insult, but Teba in general seemed to be sort of...flat in his vocalisations, so Sheik found him difficult to analyse.

"So, you think of us as children?" he said, falling back on the one thing he knew could be misconstrued. "That's kind of rude, don't you think?"

"Aren't you?" Teba said., shrugging "Link appears to be around seventeen, and you...well, your emotional maturity matches the same age. Or perhaps you are simply lagging behind..."

Now those were fighting words! Sheik was about unleash hell on Teba when Link blinked his eyes, looking around in a daze before his eyes landed on them.

"Ah...s-sorry, I w-was—"

"Listening to Master Revali, I know," Teba said, gesturing to the slate. "Your friend told me."

Sheik saw Link's vitals immediately calming down in the face of Teba's easy acceptance of something that, to anyone else, would be considered downright insane. Condescending bastard that he was, he couldn't help but appreciate Teba for apparently knowing the exact right things to say to calm Link down.

And rile Sheik up, apparently.

"Oh, th-that...is g-good?" Link said, holding Sheik up so he could look at the screen. "S-Same procedure, it s-seems."

"Hmph, can't say I'm impressed by Ganon's creativity. You'd think it would change things up a bit to make it harder for you, but it seems to believe that a series of puzzles, skull-shooting eyes and a big monster at the end is the extent of its imagination. Kind of sad, when you think about it." Sheik sighed. "Then again, I suppose I should be thanking Din for that, seeing as we know exactly what to expect and can prepare accordingly."

Link nodded vigorously. "I appreciate th-the l-lack of originality!"

"If we are quite finished," Teba said pointedly, standing in a way that put most of his weight on his uninjured foot. His hand was grasping his bow, quiver hanging at his hip. "We should probably get moving. The thin air up here isn't going to do any of us any favours, and the sooner we can finish, the sooner we can calm the villagers down." He looked at Link. "Did Master Revali have anything of tactical importance to say?"

"O-Only in wh-what I n-need to d-do inside," Link said, pointing to the nearest shadowy opening that led to Vah Medoh's interior. "F-Find a m-map, activate th-the terminals, th-then return here and insert Sh-Sheik into th-the m-master terminal."

"And that will wrest control of the Beast away from Ganon?" Teba asked.

"That's how it usually works," Sheik piped in. "Usually pisses off whatever monster took control of it in the first place too, so we'll have a fight on our hands."

"Understood," the Rito said, nodding. "Is there anything I can do to help? I won't do much good inside, on foot, but I can still fly."

Link looked hesitant, reluctant to put Teba in more danger than he already was. Sheik, however, had no such qualms.

"If you can do a bit aerial reconnaissance, that'd be great," he said. "Until we can get our hands on the map, we have no idea what this place looks like, or what sort of threats we can expect. We'll handle the inside, if you can take a look at the outside?"

"I can do that," Teba said. "But the guns..."

"If you stick close to the hull, they won't even be able to see you, much less fire at you," Sheik said. He'd calculated their effective range, and while they were very capable of fending off external threats at a distance, once the target was actually on Medoh, or flying immediately around it, they had no chance whatsoever of even finding a targeting solution. "I guarantee it, Tweety."

"I see...then I will do my best to scout and eliminate any threats I see from the air."

"S-Sounds good," Link said, nodding. "As l-long as y-you're up f-for it."

"Don't need my foot to fly," Teba said with a frown, stepping back.

"I think he's just a glory hog," Sheik whispered theatrically.

"Maybe I am," Teba said with a wink before beating his wings, with each beat carrying him a little further into the sky. "We will rendezvous up here later, yes?"

"Th-That's th-the plan," Link confirmed, giving him an upturned thumb.

Then Teba was gone, letting the wind carry him through the air as he began to survey Vah Medoh up close.

"I can't get a bead on this guy," Sheik admitted. "He's very...weird."

"He's in g-good c-company, th-then," the Hylian said with a grin.

"Aw, Link, you're not weird," Sheik said.

Link's hesitant hum suggested he hadn't talked about himself. Sheik let it slide.

"Sh-Shall we?" Link asked.

"I guess so," Sheik said. "By the way, is Revali still a pompous, condescending arse?"

Link winced.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Link's heart hammered in his chest as his fingers desperately gripped the side of the cradle-like gondola he was dangling from, eyes clenched shut to prevent himself from accidentally looking down. It was bad enough that he was aware at every single moment that he was currently thousands of feet up in the air; he really didn't need to see it as well!

(And the less attention paid to the fact that the only thing keeping them from plunging to the ground were a series of fragile-looking propellers underneath Vah Medoh, the better!)

"How did you even do this?!" Sheik was shrieking from his belt. "All you had to was sit down and wait until we got to the other side!"

"N-Not my f-fault this thing is s-so unbalanced!"

"I don't care, just get us back in! I'm getting dizzy!"

"How c-can you g-get dizzy?!"

"How the fuck should I know?! Ask the idiots who designed me!"

Once safely on the other side, they both agreed to never speak of the incident again...though Link quietly filed away the knowledge that Sheik was afraid of heights in the back of his mind. It'd serve as a healthy reminder that, for all his bluster, Sheik was far from immune to some of the things that had Link balancing on the edge sometimes.

He appreciated the rock-solid foundation Sheik was most of the time, but it also helped to know that Link wasn't entirely alone in getting overwhelmed by all this.

Link rubbed his temples, groaning as the fog lifted from his mind and the world came back into focus following another round of Revali's so-called "encouragement"...which was really just the Rito Champion praising his own genius and condescendingly telling Link to get on with his task. Whatever his old self's relationship with Revali had been, Link could not imagine his new self greeting the feathery bastard as a friend.

Reluctant ally at best, probably.

Probably not an attitude becoming of someone in his position, but damn it, what was the point in being a world-saving Hero if he didn't get to hold a few grudges?

He sighed and made to move to the last console when he became aware of a sound coming from his hip. Sheik was snickering. That couldn't be good.

"Wh-What's up?" he asked, holding the slate up to his face.

"Oh, nothing in particular," Sheik said innocently, to which Link gave the slate his least impressed stare. "Look, I could tell you, but you're not going to like it. Or, I suspect you won't like it, seeing as it's something fun and you seem to hate that, so..."

"I d-don't hate f-fun!" Link exclaimed.

"No?" Sheik asked, surprised. "Well, then, you're gonna love this: I just found the rotor controls for Vah Medoh. They're a lot more rudimentary than I expected, given the amount of engineering that went into to getting the damn thing into the air, but I suppose they had to cut costs somewhere."

Link felt his stomach sinking. Sheik's voice was practically filled with glee, and he had a feeling the holographic projection would have a wolfish grin on its face.

"Now, let's see..."

"Uh, Sh-Sheik—"Link began, but before he could say anything more a shudder went through the entire structure of Vah Medoh, the surface beneath his legs vibrating as the room listed slightly to one side. Shifting his weight so as to not fall over, he gave Sheik a pointed look. "B-Be careful!"

"I am being careful!" Sheik snapped. "Now be quiet, flying looks a lot easier than it actually is, and—"

Another shudder, and the floor dropped out from underneath Link's feet, Vah Medoh's list becoming an outright lean. Miraculously, he actually landed on his feet, but his weight was balanced entirely wrong and he squawked as his shoulder slammed into the opposite wall.

"Sheik!" he shouted, almost losing his grip on the slate.

"Sorry, sorry," Sheik said. "Power distribution's a bit harder than I anticipated—didn't give enough power on the propeller. Hang on, I think I've got it now—oops!"

Link only had a moment to wonder what "Oops!" meant before he was sent flying across the room, nearly bashing his head on a low-hanging beam.

"Sorry, too much thrust!" Sheik shouted in apology. "But since we're already halfway there..."

Link flung out a hand and found grip in the grooved surface of the metal, clinging on for dear life as Vah Medoh appeared to execute a sideways roll through the air.

"Yeah, barrel roll!" Sheik shouted with glee.

I hate my life, Link thought as he lost his grip and went flying once more.

Writer's block has kept this chapter from being written for a long time, and I can only apologise. Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon!