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
Chapter 54 - A Promise

Link awoke with a start, hands reaching for his gut, where he could still swear he felt the blade piercing him. He found nothing but a tear in his uniform, and warm skin beneath it, the rough and puckered edge of scar tissue. For a moment, he'd thought he was still in Naboris, but the memories, such as they were, soon returned, and he realised where he was.

But not when.

He looked up at the sky, found it to be brightening. Dawn was approaching. But...the sun had been going down when he'd returned, and that meant...

"Sh-Sheik!"

At his exclamation, Teba was at his side in a moment, his large, feathered hand resting on his shoulder.

"Easy, Link," the Rito said, waiting until Link's eyes met his before continuing, "you're all right. You're safe."

Like that even mattered right now. "Sheik isn't," he forced through clenched teeth, trying to stand up. "H-How long w-was I out?" He growled in frustration when his body refused to cooperate, and Teba had to help him to his feet.

"You slept through the night," Teba said, glancing towards the dying campfire, around which the three Gerudo were sitting in various states of awareness. Well, two were aware; Riju was sleeping against Buliara's shoulder, drooling.

"What?!"

That woke the Chief up, wide eyes looking around for enemies and finding none.

"You needed the rest," Teba said firmly, keeping Link in place with a firm grip on his shoulder. "You nearly died, Link. Hell, you did die! You were in no shape to immediately head back out, and you know it."

"It d-doesn't matter," Link snarled, glaring at him. "I l-left him! Sh-Sheik is a-alone! W-With that thing! H-he needs m-my help! I sh-should have g-gone right away, n-not stayed here and s-slept!"

"He's right, Link," Riju said. "You were a mess—you wouldn't have lasted five seconds against that thing if you'd gone back right away."

"The only thing you would have accomplished by going back into the fray would be a swift death," Buliara added discreetly wiping the drool off her shoulder. "And that would have been a waste of their efforts—Sheik and Princess Mipha's—to get you to safety in the first place. Is that what you want?"

Link shut his eyes so hard fireworks began exploding behind his eyelids. They were right; some part deep down in him knew that and applauded their decision to let him sleep...but the only thing at the forefront of his mind right now was the knowledge that Sheik was alone, in Naboris, facing that abomination that wore his face like a mask. There was no telling what it was doing to him right now, what it had done while Link had been here, sleeping like a log with not a care in the world—

"Hey," Ayla's voice spoke right next to his ear, forcing him out of the spiral. "Do you really think Sheik is just going to roll over and let it do whatever it pleases with him? You think he isn't going to fight it the whole way and make its day an absolute misery?"

He opened his eyes and found hers. The golden orbs were uncharacteristically serious, the easy-going shine he always saw within them gone.

"I bet he's already given it a nickname, even," she added. "Something really dumb, like...Not-Me, or something.

Link couldn't contain a snort at that. "H-He's more c-creative th-than th-that," he said, realising she was right. Of course Sheik was giving it hell; that was literally what his life was about, by his own admission: spiting those he didn't like. And Link could hardly imagine Sheik taking a liking to the doppelgänger who'd stabbed Link and tried to kill him.

"That...can be debated," Teba said with a grimace. "Though I will admit that Slagathor was unexpected." He seemed to think for a moment, and then pulled Link into an embrace. "We'll save him, Link. I promise."

"W-We?" Link asked, drawing back.

"I'm not letting you to do this alone," the Rito said, rolling his eyes. "What kind of father leaves his chicks to face something like this one their own?"

He broke off the embrace and patted Link's shoulder before heading for the fire, where he'd left his pack and Great Eagle Bow. He had a quiver full of a variety of arrows as well, which he tied so it hung off his hip. Link stared at him, gaping.

Had...had he just...?

"Congrats, Link," Ayla said, grinning. "You've got yourselves a bird dad."

Link wasn't sure how to process that, but he couldn't argue against the slight tightness he felt in his chest at that, the warmth flooding it. He wasn't alone—he hadn't been since he woke up in the Shrine of Resurrection. He'd had Sheik all along, and had picked up more people along the way. Impa, Paya, Purah, Sidon, Dorephan...too many to count, really. But knowing Teba felt this way... Link wasn't alone, didn't feel alone...but now he felt even less alone.

Frankly, his emotions never made sense to him, but he liked this one.

Ayla ruined it a few seconds after. "I wonder if he's going to ground you once this is over...bundle you up in a nest and never let you go."

He shoved her away with his shoulder (not hard), mock-scowling at her. "I n-need a s-sword," he said, realising he only had the clothes on his back, the rest of his equipment strewn all over Naboris. The Master Sword would have a few things to say about that, he imagined, and was not looking forward to hearing them.

"Way ahead of you," Ayla said, holding out her scimitar and its sheath. "Balance will probably feel a little off given the shape of the blade, but you'll figure it out soon enough, I think."

He took, grateful. "Th-Thank you," he said.

"I'll be expecting it back, so take good care of it," she said with a wink, turning to the rest of the camp.

Buliara was helping Teba with the straps to his pack, making sure it was all secure.

Riju was holding the Thunder Helm, fiddling with it apprehensively until she noticed Link was watching her. She strode over to him, shoving the helmet into his hands.

"Here, take it!" she said. "There's no telling what the creature's capable of. It'll protect you from lightning, at least."

"I th-thought only G-Gerudo c-could use it," Link said, running his thumb along the rim of the helmet. It looked smooth, but he could feel small bumps and sharp edges in the gold paint, evidence of the wear and tear of generations. It definitely wasn't a ceremonial piece—that much was obvious.

Riju looked away, frowning. "That's just...something I said so you would let me help," she said. "I know I'm not exactly impressive to look at, and I'm young and not very strong yet...but I didn't want to sit it out, and appear as useless as some people think I am—"

"Y-You're not useless," he said, smiling at her. "And I th-think you're v-very impressive. F-Few have the s-strength to k-keep leading their p-people after everything y-you've been th-through. If I f-feel like g-giving up in the f-future, all I'll h-have to d-do is th-think of y-you, and I'll f-find the s-strength to k-keep going."

Her face went through a very complicated set of expressions as she took this in, and while she ended up punching his arm (surprisingly hard for such a little thing), she couldn't hide the pleased expression on her face.

"Worthy of Lady Urbosa?" she asked, grinning.

"M-More th-than worthy," he told her.

She punched his arm again, and he was pretty sure he'd have a bruise there before long. "Go get him, Hero. We'll follow."

"Link, I'm ready," Teba said. "You?"

He tied the sheathed scimitar to his back, so it wouldn't be in the way, and, after receiving an encouraging nod from Riju, put the helmet on.

Wearing it felt strange—there was a persistent hum that filled his ears that seemed to reverberate through his very bones, and apparently the green gems were somehow allowing him to see through them. The world around him was given an emerald sheen, and it was almost as if he could see the outlines of the people around him, a white, smoky layer encompassing them.

"Weird, isn't it?" Riju said, grinning. "Be careful with it, okay?"

"I w-will," he replied, his own voice echoing in his ears. He turned to Teba, nodding. "R-Ready."

"Then let's go rescue the loud one, shall we?" the Rito said, letting Link climb onto his back.

As Teba took a running start and kicked off the ground, beating his powerful wings and taking them higher and higher above the desert sands, Link felt his heart soar...and his stomach plunge. They were going to rescue Sheik!

...and he hoped to Hylia that there was still something left to save.

Warning messages were clogging up Sheik's logs to the point where he'd been forced to cut them off. He couldn't afford to be distracted, not even by his own operating system telling him he was about to be shut off.

Not now.

His plan was insane, and risky to the point of being apocalyptically catastrophic if it went wrong.

Actually, according to his analysis, there were two fail-states. The aforementioned apocalyptic one, and the other one where...well, the only one truly affected by it was him. If things did go wrong, he prayed to Din that it would be the latter affair, and not the first.

Stabby was getting close, now. It had to be. The system messages from the mainframe were slowing down from thousands of login attempts a second to hundreds, meaning Stabby must have discovered a sequence of characters that were close to the administrator's password, and was now simply going through as many variations of it as possible until stumbling upon the right one.

Din above, how Sheik envied Stabby for its computing power. So many resources, so little brain and imagination with which to use it...it was so fucking unfair!

How goes it, little one? Urbosa asked, her voice slightly muffled. Her power was weakening, and she was rapidly losing the ability to keep herself manifested. I fear time is running out.

"Oh, you know it is, Biggie," Sheik said. "And my name is Sheik, not 'little one'."

If someone dared to point out the hypocrisy of that statement, Sheik was going to bite them. He'd find some way of getting a mouth and would then bite them hard enough to leave a mark.

Why?

He had no idea. He was just that annoyed and pissed off right now.

I don't believe you are in a position to argue about monikers, Urbosa pointed out.

That's it, she was first on the bite list. Ghost or not, Sheik would find a way.

"Nicknames are my thing, Biggie, don't fight it," he snarled. Only a little longer, now. The script was compiling, and while he was confident in his own programming abilities, there was no telling what sorts of stupid little errors had made their way into the hastily-written script. Just a single missing or superfluous punctuation mark could bring the whole thing down.

There! Compiled, no errors.

"Yes!" he shouted, a feeling of horror slowly creeping up on him as he realised his processor was slowing down. He checked his system log and found that the shutdown procedure had been started automatically by the slate's failsafe protocols. "No!"

What is it? Urbosa asked. What's wrong?

"I'm running out of time, and I have no idea if this is going to work! Biggie...if I don't make it...can you tell Link—"

I will let him know what happened...and I think he already knows what you want me to tell him, Urbosa said.

"You will tell him anyway, damn it!"

Of course. Stay strong, little one.

Fuck me, here goes nothing, Sheik thought as he used his super-user access to run the script despite his system shutting down. It was the last processing cycle he was in control of. The rest was up to the script, and he could only hope it'd finish before...before...

Little one! He is coming! I can feel him!

Urbosa's words seemed to come from a great distance away, and Sheik realised he had gone blind; the slate's camera had shut down long ago, and the microphones and audio processors were following suit as the system closed down all superfluous processes and components.

Who is coming? Sheik wondered. Is it—

All went dark and silent.

Link and Teba's arrival at Naboris was anything but elegant. Finding the beasts among the winding canyons among the mountains and hills had been a challenge in itself, especially since the huge machine seemed to have gone dormant, standing quietly with no sign of life. The winds caused by the area's geographical features also made it difficult for Teba to navigate, and they'd had more than one close call with the ground when they'd suddenly been tossed about by the appearance of a rude gust.

It was only be sheer luck Link had spotted the shape of the Beast standing in the middle of a canyon, its body's colour causing it to blend in with the sandy cliffs nearly perfectly. Teba, apparently feeling no less urgent about this than Link, had immediately thrown them into a dive after warning Link to hold on.

Having spotted the one entryway to the Beast's interior—a wide doorway near the top of one of the tumblers—from a distance, Link had directed Teba to fly directly through it.

And they would have done so perfectly, if it hadn't been for yet another gale that threw Teba off-course so violently it had dislodged Link from his back entirely...and sent him skidding along the platform and through the doorway.

Teba disappeared somewhere over him, likely trying not to slam into one of Naboris' humps. He was all right, Link told himself. He would catch up.

It was only luck that allowed him to right himself in the air and turn what would have been a painful impact with the floor into a somewhat graceful roll along the sloped floor of the central tumbler. He slid to a stop, taking only a moment to orientate himself before setting off for the mainframe at a run, drawing Ayla's scimitar and gripping it so hard his knuckles whitened.

He could see it, he could see the Sheik-faced thing, kneeling in front of the mainframe where, mercifully, Sheik's forcefield was still active.

That meant he was safe, that Link wasn't too late, that—

He gasped as the forcefield shut off. In a matter of moments, the Sheik-faced thing was on its feet, hand reaching for the slate.

He was too slow. Link was too slow! He couldn't reach it in time. His feet pounded up the stairs, to the platform, but it was too late! The thing had the slate in its hands, studying it with a blank look on its face.

"Let him go!" Link snarled, willing his body to move faster, faster than he'd ever gone so he could reach—

Sheik's face gave him an unimpressed look before the creature gripped the slate with both hands and, with barely any effort, broke it in half. Sparks flew between the two pieces, abruptly dying when they were dropped to the floor unceremoniously.

Like they were trash.

Link felt like his heart had just stopped beating. Time slowed to a crawl as his body continued to move, charging at the thing wearing Sheik's face, which watched him come with a bored expression as it drew its own short sword.

Sheik was dead. It had killed him. Link was going to kill it. He was going to destroy it, pulverise it, leave nothing behind that could even be identified—

His throat burned with a scream as he collided with the creature, slamming into it with his shoulder first, which sent it crashing into the mainframe, barely able to lift the blade in time to block Link's first strike with the scimitar. Link struck again and again, but whatever this thing was it knew how to fight, almost effortlessly parrying the strikes.

"Die! Die! Die!"

He was barely aware of the words and curses streaming from his mouth—Link had never felt such hatred before, never felt such bloodlust. He wanted this thing to die, to suffer, to perish!

It ducked under a wide scimitar swing and swiftly kicked Link in the ribs, robbing him of air and forcing him backwards before swinging at him its sword. Link avoided it, lashing out with his left fist and catching its jaw, but that barely registered with the creature, which continued forcing him backwards off the platform, towards the stairs.

Link's boot heel caught the edge, and the minute pause it caused him was all the opportunity the creature needed to kick out again, catching Link directly in the chest and sending him stumbling back, and down the stairs. He hit the floor at the bottom with a thud, the scimitar disappearing to Hylia knew where, clattering across the stone-like metal surface.

"You are back," the creature said as it descended the stairs at a leisurely pace. "Foolish."

"The only fool here is you," Link spat back, spotting the Master Sword lying on the floor just beyond the platform, along with the Ancient Shield's cylindrical handle. If he could make it to it... "Your master will meet its end soon, and you along with it."

"No," the creature said, not even a twitch in its expression. "I will not die. Cannot die. Will not die." It stopped in front of Link, gazing down at him with its one mad eye spinning. "You will."

Link kicked out, emulating a move he'd seen performed by the sparring Sheikah at the Domain. It was clumsy, and probably looked ridiculous, but the creature didn't recognise the move, and Link would have cackled at the way his leg swept the creature's out from beneath it and sent it crashing to the floor, but there was no time.

With the creature down, he was free to make a run for the Master Sword, which he did, sprinting like there was no tomorrow.

He had barely gotten his hands on the handle when he heard its reproachful voice:

You lost me. Again.

Give me a fucking break, Link thought as he heard the creature come at him from behind, its footsteps amplified by the magic of the Thunder Helm, too fast for him to reach his shield. Just help me!

The blade began to glow, but Link could tell the Sword was reluctant, as it did not extend the way it had on Vah Medoh. It seemed that was the extent of the assistance he'd receive for this fight.

I hate you so damned much, he thought, rising to meet the creature once more. Once this was all over and done with it, he'd give the blade back to the Deku Tree, and let them make each other miserable for the rest of eternity!

The creature had prevented him from picking up the shield, preventing him from going on the defensive. That meant he had to keep attacking and never relent, or he'd be backed into a corner and finished off. That couldn't happen.

He let out a battle cry and threw himself at the creature, going through a complex series of half-remembered, half-imprinted sequences that he could only perform because of the Master Sword's perfect balance and the way it felt like a part of him rather than just a tool. The creature met it with surprising dexterity, twisting out of the blade's path and parrying what it couldn't dodge, narrowly avoiding getting its head lopped off at one point.

A pity.

Link wondered if he should feel guilty, fighting a creature that looked exactly like Sheik, but in his heart, he knew this wasn't Sheik, couldn't be Sheik, and was just some thing that had stolen his lover's face, parading around like some grotesque parody. It had killed Sheik. Link would kill it.

It was just waiting for its moment. It ducked under the Master Sword and struck out with a reverse-gripped swipe of its blade that caught on Link's side, cutting shallowly into his skin. He didn't feel the pain, but he did feel the warm wetness as blood began to run. He returned the favour by using its proximity to him to knee it right in its stomach, causing it to wheeze and double up, which he followed up with a double-handed overhead cut it only just managed to get away from with a bloody cut down its right arm.

It bleeds, Link thought. So, I can kill it.

He had no idea what the fuck this thing was, if it was a machine or not, but it was definitely vulnerable to the old-fashioned methods.

The creature looked at its bleeding arm, its one red eye widening in surprise before focusing on Link, narrowing to a glare. At the same time, the blue, spinning eye, which Teba had said seemed to have the same capabilities as a Guardian's, began to glow brighter, a loud hum growing in Link's head serving as the only warning, telling him to dodge.

Which he did.

He threw himself to the side just as the laser-beam shot out of the creature's eye, missed Link by so few inches he could feel the heat of it, and struck the sloped tumbler wall. There was an explosion of blue light and the sound of crackling electricity as the energy was dissipated along the surface.

Link was back on his feet within moments and saw his opening: The creature was swaying from side to side, holding its temple with its free hand, as if in pain. Clearly firing the cannon wasn't risk-free. Link ran towards it, slashing at it with another two-handed attack augmented by the torque of his torso twisting. The creature noticed and raised its blade for a parry just in time, but it wasn't strong enough. Its sword was ripped from its hand and sent clattering away, and it was forced to throw itself to the side as Link let the momentum carry him around in a spin that would have bisected the impostor, had it struck.

He gave it no room to recover, going after it with single-minded purpose.

Kill, kill, kill!

It would pay for killing Sheik, it would pay!

But rage isn't a good fuel in a fight against a skilled opponent. Despite its seeming clumsiness, the creature knew enough to wait for an opening. It found one as it dodged yet another downward strike that left Link off-balance...and vulnerable. Link felt its hands grip his sword hand's wrist with crushing force and wrench his arm upwards and over its shoulder, using its body to throw Link over its back and send him crashing face-first into the floor. Keeping its hold on his wrist, it then savagely turned it until Link was sure he felt something snap and dropped Master Sword with a scream.

He tried clenching his fist, relieved to see his fingers still moving and that his wrist could still bend. It hadn't been broken then. In the corner of his eye, he saw the creature reaching for the Master Sword, and with some pleasure, waited.

At first it seemed the creature could lift the Sword just fine, but an expression of pure agony crossed its face within seconds, its body seizing up with spasms that forced it to let go of the blade again.

And Link used that opportunity to get close again. He'd never done much fist-fighting, but all he wanted right now was to hurt the monster like it had never been hurt before. He cried out as he collided his fists with whatever parts of the creature he could reach, while it did the same to him. He felt a jab to his solar plexus, but fought against the spams it caused throughout his systems, punching the creature in the stomach and bringing his knee to its chin with a loud crack.

It lasted for a while, the opponents just whaling on each other like there was no tomorrow. Link's fork nearly took a direct kick, which he repaid by stomping on the creature's hand when it nearly fell. Something snapped, and it filled Link with a grim satisfaction. He then kicked it in the ribs again, but they felt much more solid than they should have, like they were made of metal.

He lost track of time, only really coming back to reality towards the end, when he and the creature both were panting with exhaustion, barely able to remain standing, sizing each other up from a few paces away. Link had no idea if he was winning, but he wasn't losing either. His mouth was filled with blood, and he spat it out, the metallic scent filling the air.

It was over in a moment, but it felt like an eternity.

The creature gave him a bloody grin, and its eye began glowing once more. Link knew it didn't take long to charge a shot, and he was too close to dodge it. Instinct took over and he threw himself forward, seizing the creature by its shoulder and rearing his head back.

He'd nearly forgotten he was wearing the Thunder Helm, having gotten used to the garish, green tint with which it coloured the world. The heavy metal brow of the helmet struck the creature right on the bridge of its nose, and while it may not necessarily have felt any pain it was definitely enough to send it reeling backwards, clutching the now bleeding spot.

"Link, get down!"

He obeyed Teba's order immediately, dropping low to the floor, just in time to see a shock arrow fly through the air over his head and strike the creature in the shoulder. Its body went rigid as the electricity of the arrow was pumped into it, falling backwards...and not getting up again, even after the arrow's charge had run out.

Then Teba was kneeling in front of him, carefully lifting the helmet off Link's head, inspecting his face. "Are you all right?" he asked urgently. "I'm sorry, the winds picked up viciously around Naboris, and I wasn't able to find a good approach—"

"I'm fine," Link said, coughing a little. He tried not to make it too obvious to Teba that he was—once again—a damn mess...but at least there were no life-threatening injuries this time. Well, coughing up blood probably wasn't a good thing, but it was better than a stab wound to the gut. "Make sure that thing doesn't get up again!"

Teba gave him a doubting look before nodding and stalking over to the fallen creature, bow at the ready with another shock arrow in case it wasn't done. "It's still breathing," he reported.

"Too bad," Link murmured, needing a moment before he could stand.

"Where's Sheik?" Teba asked. "Is he all right?"

All other thoughts went away, and Link raced to the mainframe, barely aware of his boots clattering against the steps up to the platform, of the feeling of his knees skidding along the surface as he fell, hands reaching for the broken pieces of what had once been the Sheikah Slate.

It was almost unrecognisable; its screen cracked and torn, a multitude of broken wires and pieces of metal sticking out of the pieces where they had been torn apart.

There was no life left in the slate, not even a spark. Something was leaking a thick, brown-tinged liquid that burned Link's skin when he touched it. Sheik had explained it to him once, how batteries required some sort of acid that was vital to holding a charge, but it had flown right over his head.

He didn't know when the tears started to flow, but soon enough his vision was blurred with them, some droplets landing on the broken slate. It struck him slowly, but with the power of an avalanche.

He would never hear Sheik's voice again. Would never see his projection. Would never speak with him again.

He couldn't contain it any longer, and howled with anguish, his chest feeling like it was being torn to pieces.

"Link!" Teba's voice, urgent, but muffled, said behind him. "What's wrong?! What happened?! Where is...oh...oh gods, no..."

He was faintly aware of feathered arms wrapping around him, holding him close, but it meant little to Link, whose entire world had narrowed to the broken slate in his hands...and the boy he had lost with it.

Teba had never felt more useless than he did right then, holding Link tightly. What good was a hug in a situation like this? Link's gaze was glassy, focused on the slate's remains, his hands bleeding from several small cuts caused by the sharp pieces of glass and metal.

He tried to say something, but no words would come out. What could he possibly say now? He had been so adamant about Link getting enough rest—had he been too adamant? Was Sheik dead because of him, because of his demands?

In ensuring that one of his chicks was rested, did he sentence the other to death?

He lost track of time, and only came back to reality when Link stirred in his embrace, breaking out of his hold and quickly rising to his feet. He left the pieces of the slate where he'd found them and marched down the stairs, towards the fallen form of the creature.

The damn thing was still breathing, and Teba had bound its arms and legs with a thick, sturdy rope he'd kept in his pack. There was no telling when it would wake up, or what it would do. He figured there would be time to—

"Link, stop!"

The Hero had picked up a dagger on the way, and was now leaning over the creature, poised to bury the blade in its heart...or what passed for one, at any rate.

He barely made it to Link in time to stop him, gripping the Hylian's wrist tightly with one hand. Perhaps too tight, as Link yelped and dropped the knife immediately, clutching his wrist to his chest, glaring at Teba.

"What are you d-doing?!" he all but shouted at the Rito. "It k-killed Sheik!"

"And it's still alive," Teba said, his stomach threatening to turn itself inside out. This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all. "We might finally be able to get some answers out of it, when it wakes up!"

"I don't w-want answers, I w-want it d-dead!"

He tried to go for the knife again, but Teba blocked his path.

"Link, you are not thinking clearly," Teba said, holding back his own desire to smash the Sheik-impersonator to pieces, realising he needed to be the voice of reason here...as much as he didn't want to be. "We need to question it. Find out what its goal was...and then we can finish it."

"W-We should f-finish it n-now!"

He stepped forward and seized Link by the shoulders, forcing the Hylian to look him in the eyes.

"Giving in to rage and grief right now is exactly what Ganon wants you to do!" he exclaimed. "It wants you to destroy one of the few sources of intelligence we have on it! Whatever this thing is, it must be communicating with Ganon somehow, and we have a chance to...I don't know, talk to it, or sabotage it, somehow! Link, killing it before we find out what it knows will only serve the enemy, not us!"

Link's rage did not subside, but a bit of clarity returned to his eyes. "But...but Sh-Sheik..."

"Sheik wouldn't want his sacrifice to be in vain," Teba said, touching his forehead to Link's. "We will grieve and rage for him later, but right now we have to remain focused. We will interrogate this creature, and then kill it."

He nuzzled his beak against Link's nose in an imitation of the Rito gesture of affection that felt, admittedly, a little awkward given their different physiologies, but damn it, his kid was in pain!

"I can't...I c-can't even l-look at it," Link said through gritted teeth. "I j-just want to s-smash its head in!"

Teba breathed through his nostrils. Link needed something to focus on, but what? He glanced around them, noticing the scattered equipment from the Hero's first foray into Naboris.

"Gather up your equipment, Link," he said, his tone leaving no doubt that it was an order, as opposed to a suggestion. "Salvage what isn't broken. Then I want you to head downstairs with the rope in my bag and find a way to let Riju and the others climb up here. They'll be along shortly, I'm sure."

"B-But—"

"Do it," he repeated. "Now."

Link gave him a resentful glance that lasted for several seconds, but he soon broke away and turned his back on Teba and the creature, slowly and shakily gathering up the things that had been scattered around Naboris' main chamber.

Teba breathed out, turning his attention to the creature, which was breathing calmly in its state of unconsciousness, a peaceful expression on its face.

Breathing.

Like a living creature.

Teba drew his knife and sat cross-legged on the floor next to the creature. He doubted it would be happy when it woke up again to find itself tied up, but he would be ready for it. A single sign of that cannon-equipped eye powering up, and Teba would personally gouge it out.

For Sheik.

That was a promise.