I am back after such a long time of inactivity in this fandom.
The reason why I am getting active again now is simple: Halloween!
I have written this pretty long one-shot last year, but I have totally missed it to upload it on Halloween.
But this year, I haven't forgotten about it and here it is.
This one-shot is based on a theory, which I have heard in the german Zelda community.
I don't know if this theory is a thing in the english community as well.
The theory is about the well and the shadow temple and Bongo Bongo.
A pretty dark and scary theory; perfect for Halloween.
Of course this one-shot still has a lot of things inside, which are based on my own head-canons. Just saying.
I hope you will enjoy it and I would be so happy, if you would leave me a comment, if you like this story.
Comments keep my motivatin up to write and upload more of this stuff. So please, don't be shy.
Oh and one more thing: Sheik is a male in here, because he is also a male in OOT. Just saying.
Oh and let's see who can find the little easter egg which I have hidden in here ;).
And now have fun reading and, even if we don't celebrate this here in Germany: HAPPY HALLOWEEN YA'LL! :)
And I am also sorry for grammer/spelling mistakes.
This has been such a pain in the a** to translate. I can tell ya!
If anyone is interested in the german version of this, not me!
The terrible secret of the Sheikah
In the course of her long journey through Hyrule, Navi had often had to see how much Link had to suffer from the burden which he had to carry to bring peace to this kingdom.
Four temples had already been freed from their curses, but Navi could see how much this stressed the hero out. The first temple, which had been hidden deep in the lost woods, hadn't stress him out though. On the contrary, because Link had come out of the temple with a proudly swollen chest, glad to have broken the curse and returned peace to the Kokiri Forest. After that had come the fire temple and that was already a different kind of story, because in this temple lived a beast that Link had to kill, even if he didn't want to. Volvagia, the fire-breathing dragon and which Ganondorf had brought under his control and who had forced him to follow his will and to make this world burst into flames. Link knew this dragon from his childhood, because he had bought him as a dragon baby in Castle town and they had become friends. In the end, Link was forced to fight against his friend and kill him, so that he could break the curse of the fire temple. He had never forgiven Ganondorf for that and Navi still remembered the time after this terrible battle. Link had changed; in a way that scared Navi and even today she could see hatred in Link's eyes when he looked back to the day where he had been forced to kill his friend...
It had taken weeks before Link was again able to continue his dangerous journey and free the next temple from its curse.
The water temple...
Navi still shuddered when she remembered what they had experienced there together and how broken Link had been afterwards. All the monsters that lived in this temple had been nothing compared to the horror that Link had encountered in this one, uncanny room. He had had to fight against a clone of his, had been forced to defeat the darkness that lived within his heart, to continue his dangerous journey and it had been this fight, which had left not only terrible wounds on his body, but also inside his soul. And the inner wounds had been the worst, because they had tortured Link for a very long time afterwards and these wounds had shown themselves in terrible nightmares, from which the young man had to suffer for weeks.
But there was something much more terrible than what he had experienced in the water temple.
Even before Link had entered the shadow temple at all, he had been send back in time and had descended into the well, which stood in Kakariko just before the mill. Sheik had told him he would find there, in the dark depths of this ancient well, which would show him the way through the shadows, but he had found more than just that down there...
Terrible things had lingered on the bottom of the well and he had been glad to leave this dark place as fast as he could.
Kakariok's inhabitants told each other terrible stories about the well and about a man who seemed to have lived there a long time ago. When Link had later traveled back to Kakariko as an adult, the old man, who had lived in Castle Town earlier had told him that the house of this eerie man stood where the well was now, but hardly anyone knew what had happened to this man or why he had demolished his house and above all, Link asked himself: Why had this man had a huge torture chamber in his basement?
For Navi, the bottom of the well had been even more terrible, for down there she had heard the voices of those who had died there in agony.
But if she or Link thought that this was the worst thing in their journey, the shadow temple showed them that it could get indeed much worse.
The shadow temple was a place, crueler than anything Link and Navi could have imagined.
A place, whose history was written with the blood of those who had lost their lives under cruel torment.
Every single room of the Shadow Temple told its own terrible story in the form of torture devices, monsters and other cruel things.
And there had been so much blood. So much blood...
But all this was nothing compared to the gruesome monster that had been waiting for the young hero. Bongo Bongo was his name and, even if his name sounded harmless, the beast that this name belonged to was anything but harmless. It had been a gruesome demon that had been waiting for Link in the depths of the shadow temple.
The hero still remembered this terrible battle much too well.
He had stood on a gigantic drum and this monster had pounded his hands, which had been cut off his arms, onto the drum over and over again as it hung over him, staring at him with that giant red eye, which Link could only see when he had used the lens of truth. The rest of the creature had been hidden in the darkness before his eyes and perhaps that had been better for him.
At night, Link still heard the drumbeats in his nightmares...
The fight had been hard and long and the young man had suffered many wounds and he had been glad to get away with his life at all.
When the curse of the temple was broken and when Link had gotten the Shadow Medallion from Impa, he had departed as far as possible from Kakariko. He couldn't bear it to stay in this place any longer. Not, after all, what he had seen in the shadow temple. Above all, he had seen the sign of the Sheikah everywhere in this temple and he could figure out why this sign had been painted everywhere. It was certain that the Sheikah had previously brought people into this temple and had tortured and killed them in the cruelest way he could imagine, so that no one would dare to enter this temple and keep its story locked away forever.
And Link no longer wanted to stay in a village, built by the Sheikah, so he had traveled back to Lake Hylia; far, far away from Kakariko and its dark history.
And now he was sitting here, completely exhausted from his long journey and his body was trembling slightly when the cold of the night crept underneath his clothes.
He had made a fire and for hours he stared with an expressionless look in his eyes into the flames. The sun had long since passed and the darkness was enveloping him. The cold of the night crawled under his tunic, made him shiver, but all this didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Not a word left his lips and not an emotion went through his body. Not even when his fairy Navi tried to start a conversation. He didn't react to her and her attempts to get his attention and slowly the little fairy became concerned about her friend, because she had never seen Link like this before. After the water temple he had already been broken and it had taken a long time for him to be back to his normal self, but this time it was different. When she looked into his eyes, she could see how disturbing the events in the shadow temple had been for him. She wanted to help him, wanted to distract him, wanted him to feel better, wanted him to forget, but he didn't react to anything and that almost broke her heart.
At the beginning of their journey, Link was still a cheerful, innocent boy who had even had found fun in the long journey through Hyrule. Often she had seen this excited glitter in his eyes when he had discovered something new. But this glitter had long since disappeared and darkness had taken place. Little by little his soul had dived into the darkness and she had often seen this wild sparkle in his eyes, when the rage was boiling up inside his belly.
But this time it was different.
There was no grief to be seen in his eyes, no anger, nothing.
There was only endless emptiness in these otherwise radiant blue eyes to see and that just scared her.
In the end, Navi didn't know what to do and she decided to look for help, but there was not much that she could have done in such a situation, so she did the only thing that could have helped Link in her opinion: She was looking for Sheik, hoping that he could help Link and actually the Sheikah responded to Navi's help call and came to her and Link a little later.
They met a bit off the camp fire, as Navi didn't want to frighten Link and she told the Sheikah what had happened in the past few days and how bad Link was feeling since then.
"Do you think that is a good idea when I go to him now?"
Navi hadn't thought of that, but...Sheik was different.
He had been a good friend in all these months, who had helped Link a lot on his journey. So why would he be afraid of him?
But exactly that happened when Sheik sat down next to the hero and addressed the word to him. Once Link saw the big Sheikah symbol on Sheik's chest, his eyes widened and he crawled backwards and away from him; pure panic sparkling in his eyes as he did so. Only the sight of the symbol was enough to bring back all these terrible memories of the shadow temple.
Sheik tried to stay calm in this situation, but this sight hurt him in his heart. To see Link like that...so scared and broken...that was just terrible.
But he didn't let himself be discouraged, just sat there and watched Link and how he got a hold of the master sword and how he held the blade in front of him. Sheik didn't dare to get closer to him, but he didn't move back from him either. The boy's reactions frightened him, however, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what horrors he'd been through to react like that to his presence. He knew what had happened in Kakariko, knew the stories the people told about the Shadow Temple. The story of this temple was written with a lot of blood and in fact it didn't throw a good light onto the Sheikah, because they had been involved in these cruel acts, but this was a time before Sheik and he had nothing to do with all of this. But Link couldn't know that and so his fear was justified.
"Calm down, Link. It's me. You know me..." Sheik tried to soothe the boy, but he didn't react to his gentle words at all, held the holy blade in front of him and when Sheik looked more closely, he could see how the sword was shaking in the hero's hand.
He was scared.
Scared of him and he had thought he was a good friend for Link, who helped him on his journey. Even if he knew what Link had been through, this sight hurt him in the soul, even if he didn't show that.
He even went a step farther, moved closer to the boy, who then backed away fearfully, clutching the handle of his sword so firmly that his knuckles turned white.
"What is wrong with you, Link? This is Sheik. You know him! Please calm down," Navi said, but he ignored her completely. His blue eyes were focused only on the Sheikah, who was getting closer and closer until he sat right in front of him.
"Don't come closer! I'm warning you!"
Link's voice trembled just as the rest of his body did and his eyes became rigid with fear as Sheik lifted his hand slowly, placing it on the sword blade and pressing it down slowly and carefully.
"I know what you saw in the shadow temple and I know what you think of me now, but I can assure you that I never had anything to do with it. This all happened before I was born, Link. At a time, when neither of us has lived. Don't blame me for the deeds that my ancestors are responsible for."
Link didn't answer and it didn't look as if he would calm down, which made Sheik sigh, but he wouldn't give up. Cautiously, he took the sword out of his hands and put it aside, before he put his hand onto his shoulder, causing Link to wince and he could see how much the boy was fighting against the urge to slap his hand away.
"Calm down," the Sheikah whispered and it actually seemed to work, because he could see how Link calmed down, could see how his body stopped shaking and he could see how the fear slowly faded from his eyes.
When Link realized what he had almost done, his facial expression changed and where fear had just been seen, now reflected the naked horror in his eyes.
"Sh-Sheik? I...I'm so sorry I...I was not master of my senses. Please forgive me."
"Shhh Link. It's okay. Nothing bad happened."
"But...but...I almost hurt you."
"But you didn't. Don't think about it. It's important that you came back to your senses. The rest doesn't matter."
The young man gave Link a gentle smile, which was hidden underneath his mask, but Link could still see it in his eyes and almost embarrassed, he returned the gentle smile. His heartbeat had almost normalized again and much more relaxed than before, he put his sword back into the sword scabbard and put it back to his shield, which stood next to him, leaning against a small rock. However, he avoided eye contact to the Sheikah, because he was still ashamed for what had just happened and he was ashamed that he had almost hurt a good friend, just because he didn't have his feelings under control.
"What are you doing here, Sheik? I thought we'd meet you in the desert?"
A smile flashed over Shiek's lips again and he sat down beside Link, staring into the flames of the crackling fire.
"Your fairy has called me and I've heard her call, because I happened to be nearby."
Link raised his head and looked at the other man questioningly.
"Navi called you?"
"Yes."
The young hero's gaze went to his fairy, who had made herself comfortable on Sheik's shoulder and giggled softly as she saw how Link raised an eyebrow as he looked at her.
"Why are you giving me that look? You needed help and I thought I was trying my luck and look what happened: Sheik managed to calm you down. You didn't want to listen to me and thus I had to look for help."
She rose again into the air and flew against the side of the hero's head, which made the boy grumbling.
"Don't scare me like that ever again!" the fairy growled right into his ear and the former Kokiri noticed that she was serious, but Navi also had to understand him and his reactions, because she had seen how terrible it had been in the shadow temple and what horrors had been waiting for both of them there. He couldn't just forget all of this so quickly and he was sure that he would be suffering from cruel nightmares for a long, very, very long time again.
As if Sheik could read his mind, he turned his head to Link and looked at him and Link shuddered as he looked into those red eyes of the other, but this time he didn't turn his face away from him.
"Do you want to talk about what you saw in the temple?"
Hardly noticeably the hero shook his head and he stared back into the flames.
"It would help you when you talk about it and I can tell you something about the temple and Hyrules dark past. It would explain everything you have seen there and perhaps you understand the reason why this temple was cursed and why there was a creature like Bongo Bongo."
Link seemed to think about the words and some moments passed, in which he thought about what he should do now. When his decision had been made, he turned his head back to the Sheikah and looked at him resolutely.
"Tell me what happened back then. Please…"
Sheik returned his gaze quietly for a few seconds, before he nodded and his red eyes turned back to the flames of the camp fire. He took a small stick and began to poke around in the flames as he searched for the words with which he could start.
"You've certainly heard a lot of stories about us, the Sheikah, and the Shadow Temple, right?"
Link nodded silently.
"Then you will also know that we have always been loyal to the royal family of Hyrule. We have done everything they have told us to do. Really everything; which included the torture of prisoners of war. At the time, when the Great War in Hyrule was in full swing, we had served the royal family out of the shadows. Never should a soul know about the Sheikah and their terrible deeds they have done for the royal house of Hyrule. The soldiers, who had been captured, were taken to the shadow temple, where they were held captive and cruelly tortured, to elicit information from them. Many of them broke after all these tortures and talked after only a few days. Others tried to resist and even managed to do it. These soldiers were useless in the eyes of the king and he ordered the Sheikah to kill them. You've seen the torture chambers, right? Then you can surely imagine how these prisoners were killed."
A brief pause arose and silence enveloped them and no one dared to say a word and Link could see how difficult it was for Sheik to tell him all of this. He was ashamed of his people's past and no one could blame him for that, for who wanted to belong to those people whose name was written with blood?
"When the Great War was finally over, the king decided to seal the shadow temple. For years, peace prevailed and the people began to forget what had happened in this temple at the behest of the king. But there was a man, a Sheikah, who lived in Kakariko and who wanted more. His name isn't known and the Sheikah, who knew his name, are dead already. It was this man who polluted the name of my people. In Kakariko you were surely told the story of the lens of truth and of a man who had his house where the well now stands, right?"
Again, Link nodded and he hung on Sheik's lips when he continued his story.
"Stories tell that this man has created the lens of truth. But he always wanted more. He tortured indiscriminate people in his basement, which he had developed into a torture chamber and somehow this became boring for him as well and he began to kill innocent people and experimented with black magic. His soul was devoured by the darkness that lived deep within his heart and when the Sheikah found out about his terrible deeds, they brought him into the shadow temple and tortured him badly, before killing him and locking his soul up into the deepest depths of the underworld. But the seal broke and the creature could free itself from its prison. The demon, whom you fought in the shadow temple, was this man. His soul was so devoured by darkness that he took this form after his death. You certainly heard him play a song on this big drum. This was the song he has always played when he had killed his victims. It was an execution song. Something that the Sheikah played when they were killing war prisoners in the shadow temple. If you hadn't destroyed this demon and broken the curse of this temple...I don't want to imagine what would have happened. Even if there are not many of us left, my people are deeply linked to your guilt. None of us can reverse what happened back then, but those who are still alive try to do it better. Many have since abandoned the royal family and are fighting only for themselves, but there are still those who are loyal to the royal family. Just like Impa. Now you know the true story of my people. A story about which no one speaks and yet everyone knows. I can even understand it if you now hold a grudge against me Link, but as I told you already: This all happened a long time ago. In a time, when we weren't born yet. I beg you not to direct your grudge against me or the Sheikah who are still alive, because it's the sins of our ancestors and not ours... "
This dark story had to sink in for a moment and Link desperately searched for words, but he didn't find any and thus he stayed silent and Sheik and Navi did the same.
Sheik had never told him much about himself or his ancestors.
Listening to all this now hit Link almost like a hammer blow.
He would never have thought of how dark the Sheikah's past was...or that of the royal family!
Link grew up in the Kokiri Forest, far away from the world and its terrible battles and wars. In his life there had never been such a thing as death or horrible wars and even more terrible torture. All this was still so new to him and it just rolled over him like a tidal wave. Especially when he recalled the images from the shadow temple. He had seen them, the torture chambers and the cruel equipment with which prisoners had been tormented and even killed there. And he had also seen the monsters that still lived there and Link didn't even want to imagine how it would have been for a prisoner who had been thrown into the room where the Dead Hand had lived. That thought made him tremble with fear.
He winced heavily as he felt a hand on his shoulder again and his head turned to Sheik, who looked at him with worry in his red eyes.
"Is everything all right?" he asked.
"I think so...but it's hard for me to believe all of this."
"For good reason, because there, where you come from, there is not such a thing as war and other terrible things."
Link nodded silently and stared back into the flames.
"Has all of this happened for real?"
"Yes."
"That's awful. Why did the royal family do such a thing?"
"In war, people do many things they later regret, Link."
"Why didn't anyone try to do something about it?"
"You mean to stop the king?"
"Yes."
"The person who would have done this would have been accused as a heretic and, like all other prisoners and traitors would have landed in the torture chamber. In war, you would do everything, just to survive and therefore no one has stood up against the king. These were very dark times for Hyrule. And now the darkness is back and it lies over this kingdom again. But there is no such thing as war. This war creeps quietly and secretly to the people, fills their hearts with hatred and darkness and you are the only light that can break through this darkness and give peace to this kingdom forever."
The young Hylian sighed, pulled his legs up to his body and wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face in them.
"Nobody has asked me if I wanted to do that, Sheik."
"You have met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
A small smile appeared on Link's lips, which, however, never reached his eyes as he raised his head again and looked at Sheik.
"No. Not at all, but I do what the gods ask me to do, even if it's not easy. After all you've just told me, I hope...no, I just know that Zelda will do it better. If she becomes the queen, then she will return the peace to this kingdom it deserves."
"And what will you do? Will you go back into the woods or will you stay by her side and fight for her as a knight?"
There was great curiosity sparkling in the eyes of the Sheikah, which Link couldn't explain.
"I don't know, Sheik. Let's see first if I manage to defeat Ganondorf...and if I manage to survive this long journey...Often I have doubted myself and often I was just about to break under all the load."
"But you haven't and do you know why?"
Link shook his head.
"Because you have friends who believe in you. Because you are fighting for someone you believe in and because you too want this world become a peaceful place again. You are the only one who has the courage to face Ganondorf in a fight and make him pay for all the terrible deeds he has done. Once you have done that, your name will be a legend forever. Even though you sometimes don't feel so, but be proud of what you are doing for this kingdom and for the rest of the world. You have helped so many people and made them happy and it makes you happy too, am I right?"
"Yes, it does. A lot."
Again, Sheik gave him a smile, which Link could even see through his mask and that also made him smile.
"It will make you even happier if you manage to ban the darkness from here once and for all."
"Maybe it does, but right now it doesn't make me happy. What I and Navi have seen in this temple...that was just cruel."
"Now it is cruel for you, but remember that you broke the curse of this temple. Soon it will be the past and you will learn to forget such things, even if you now think that this is impossible. The time will come when you will experience so much happiness and love, where it would seem impossible for you to waste your thoughts on such dark memories. When you came out of the water temple, you also believed you would break under your memories, but you are not and so will it be with the shadow temple. Soon it will be your memory and only that. You just have to give it time."
"Sheik is right, Link. Time heals all wounds. Even those who can't be seen with the eye. You have to give it only enough time and don't forget that we will always catch you, if you threaten to fall."
"Such wise words coming from your fairy."
And it was the first time in days when a wide smile appeared on Link's lips.
"I thank both of you. It means very much to me what you have done for me and what you still do for me."
"That's the least we can do for you...Hero of time."
Almost immediately Link blushed deeply when these words reached his ears and he quickly turned his face away from Sheik, but he had already seen enough and he laughed softly and also Navi couldn't resist a small giggle.
"Please don't call me that..."
"But why not? You can be proud of this title."
"It's kind of embarrassing..."
"Hmm if that's the case then we may give you another title. How about Link, the radiant wanderer through times?"
"Or how about Link, the hero of hearts?" Navi said, giggling and even Sheik grinned slightly under his mask.
"Or maybe, Link the living Legend?" he grinned and Navi laughed even louder at that.
"Please stop it you two..." the young Hylian muttered and embarrassed, he tried to hide his flushed face behind his hands.
"Ohhh, just look at him, Sheik. Look how red his face is."
"Don't be silly, Navi. That's just the fire... "
"The fire, but of course Link. I would say that too."
The young man grumbled, but he still hid his face from his two friends.
Navi could hardly believe how fast he had recovered and how fast he was feeling better. An hour ago, he had almost attacked Sheik because he had been so scared of him and he had looked like a soulless puppet, but now the Link was back whom she had come to know and she was infinitely grateful for that.
She and Sheik kept teasing Link for a while, making him laugh and cheer him up more and more and soon the sparkle in his blue eyes was back again and Navi's little heart beat a bit faster at this wonderful sight.
As the moon was already high up in the sky, she realized how tired she actually was and Link seemed to feel the same way, but he seemed to be fighting hard not to close his eyes and fall asleep. Sheik seemed to notice this too and he could probably imagine that Link was scared of the nightmares that would haunt him as soon as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
But he already knew exactly how he could help Link with this problem...
He pulled out his harp and gave Link a wide smile, which reflected in his eyes.
"I'll make sure you sleep well tonight..." was all he said, before the fingers of his free hand began to glide over the strings of his harp and soon a wonderful soothing song filled the air which made Link sleepier and sleepier.
In the end, the Hero of Time lost the fight against his tiredness, gave himself to it completely and he lay down in the soft grass of the meadow, smiled gently as he felt how someone put a blanket over his body and when he opened one of his eyes, he saw Navi and how she snuggled up against his chest.
The gentle sounds of Sheik's harp gently put him and Navi to sleep and followed him to their dreams, which were not made of darkness that night.
No.
That night, Link and Navi slept peacefully and Sheik gave them the most beautiful dreams with his harmonious harp play.
That was the least the Sheikah could do for both of them.
The saviors of Hyrule...
The End