A/N: Look! Another chapter in record time! And it's a long one, too. ^^; Kaluuna is my
own creation… kinda. Er, you'll understand. ^_~
Chapter Two: Follow the Leader
Nabooru sat in the centermost platform in the Spirit Temple's sacrificial hall. It hadn't been used as one for centuries, of course— not since the days of the former Gerudo elders, Kotake and Koume. They'd gone a little mad in their final years, she remembered, their obligation to their new King overruling all else.
It had happened before she was born, but she wondered more and more about the woman who bore Ganondorf. As the mother of the only male to be born that century, she must have been exalted. Why was it, then, that no one seemed to remember her name?
It didn't really matter in the end. Ganondorf had mysteriously disappeared early on, when he was just beginning to show signs of a lust for power. It was like he vanished out of space and time… The entire society was devastated. Who would rule them now?
She smiled. Nabooru, that's who.
She liked being here, in the depths of the Desert Colossus. She didn't really know why. She just knew it was special— a holy place that meant something more to her than it did to many other people. She supposed it just had something to do with being a Sage, but she felt she belonged here. The strings of her lute shone gold in the torchlight as she began to play, eyes drifting up to the ceiling.
Something caught her eye suddenly. A disturbance of sorts, in the far wall that stood flush with the unsurpassable mountains behind it— it was as if the stone was suddenly made of water, rippling and emitting light.
Nabooru stood, frowning, a hand dropping to the curved blade at her waist. Then, out of the pool came a hand.
"Come…"
"What the hell…?!"
The hand became an arm, which joined a shoulder, which joined a torso. Seconds later, a female figure wrapped in a nearly blinding pink glow beckoned to her.
"By the Goddesses' decree… We bid you come…"
Nabooru stood frozen on the spot. The Goddesses! The woman's light was overpowering, rays of intermingling white and red forcing her to hold her arm in front of
her eyes. Red…
She fell to her knees, prostrating herself before the shape. "Lady Din!"
No acknowledgment came as the shape retreated into the portal. Only when her hand remained came her voice again: "The Hero and the Sages… We bid you come…"
The light retreated, and she was gone.
Nabooru stood, shakily. The strange distortion in the wall was still there. With great hesitation, she jumped down off the platform and approached it. Her fingers ghosted out to touch it and retracted quickly, as if she feared being burned. It seemed safe enough. She touched it once more.
Indeed, it did feel like water, but her hand didn't come away wet. In went her arm, waving around in self-defense, should anything attack her from behind the door. She withdrew again. A deep breath… and she poked her head in. Her eyes grew enormous.
There was land there! A barren, misty, mountainous path, fenced by dark cliffs that stretched high enough to be completely obscured by the fog. She staggered back a
few steps until she returned to her familiar sanctuary.
"What… is this?!"
*******
"I take it you are Link," Sheik smiled. "Yes, I am Sheik. But I don't believe we've met before. …Or have we? Somewhere in the flow of time…"
Link grinned. "You still like to be poetic."
A soft chuckle came in reply, but Sheik couldn't say anything else as the doors burst open and a flushed, harried messenger bolted in to kneel messily before Zelda's throne. Link recognized him as the man who brought him to the castle.
"Princess! Princess! A summons," he panted, "from the desert!"
Zelda stood upright. "What does it say?"
"It says, ah…" the man carefully unfolded the parchment. "Something strange is happening to the Spirit Temple! Lady Nabooru has discovered… a door to another world?!"
The messenger looked faint.
So did Zelda.
"Princess, are you all right?" Sheik peered at her.
She held her hand to her brow for a moment, then spoke. "Y-yes. But we must go to Gerudo Valley at once."
Link frowned. "Even you, Princess?"
He got a stern look in response. "Yes, even me. You forget— I am also a Sage."
Sighing, Link raised his hands in consent. "All right, all right…"
As Zelda excused herself to prepare, he turned back to the front of the room and seated himself on the steps. Sheik was looking at him curiously, pale golden hair obscuring one of his eyes. Link squirmed a little under his stare.
"W-what is it?"
"Nothing at all," he replied as he took a seat next to Link, "It is of no importance."
A brief silence passed between them, broken by the rustle of Link's tunic as he shifted.
"So… do you remember anything?"
"Remember?" He looked a little taken aback. "Vaguely. But never enough to piece together a clear memory… I tend to dream about it, though. And the Princess has told me my part in that story as well."
"Um… could you tell me?" Link chuckled sheepishly, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees. He idly noticed the mysterious Shiekah eye symbol dangling from his ear. "Because up until now, I didn't think you were real at all."
Sheik's eyebrows rose a bit. "The Princess never told you? …Hmm. Interesting."
"Huh?"
"Well, no matter. Let me tell you then, Link. I was given my task long before Ganondorf's evil gripped Hyrule, when only the threat of his reign began with his search
for the sacred Stones. I was young, then… but trained well by Impa. And it was she who assigned me the duty of guiding the Hero on his quest to awaken the Sages while she and the Princess hid from Ganondorf's minions. However… the Princess chose to intervene when you reached the final temple, under the guise of my form. She went against Impa's urges to remain in hiding and went to face Ganondorf in person. …And you. It was never her intention, certainly, to be captured by him as she revealed herself to you in the Temple of Time. She thought it still to be a sacred place, where his evil would not reach…"
He shook his head. "Well, we all know that chapter has ended. And now it would seem the pages have turned…"
Link sat quietly, absorbing all this new information. So Sheik was real all along…
"Thank you for waiting," Zelda said as she emerged from the adjoining hall.
"Shall we depart?"
"Depart where, Your Highness?"
The three looked up to see Impa standing at the entrance, arms folded sternly in front of her chest.
"I cannot allow you to travel so far without proper protection, Princess. Please stay here and let these two go in your place."
Zelda folded her arms in retaliation, expression one of protest. "Impa! This is a serious matter that demands my involvement! And besides…" she cocked her head defiantly to the side, "You will protect me, will you not?"
"… Yes, Your Highness. I will go and guard you personally, then."
Link quietly marveled at the smug look on the Princess's face as she breezed past him.
*******
"Thank you for coming. Please have a seat."
Zelda knelt on the cushion before Nabooru, nodding politely. Link and Sheik were to her left, Impa to her right. Link noted the blue-clad Gerudo on the right of Nabooru; she looked oddly familiar. He realized after a moment that she was the one who gave him that membership card all those years ago…
Nabooru noticed his stare and gestured to the woman.
"This is my second-in-command, Kaluuna. She'll help you as necessary."
"It's an honor to meet you, Your Majesty."
"Princess," Nabooru began, tone shifting to one of strictly business, "We've sealed the entrances to the Spirit Temple because of the… "hole" that has appeared in the Great Chamber. Only Kaluuna and I have seen it. We don't know what to do about it… It's possible to walk in and back unharmed, and it hasn't closed once since it appeared two days ago. So we'd like your opinion on what comes next."
Looking troubled, Zelda hummed thoughtfully. Holes in rock… She was pulled out of her reverie when Nabooru suddenly continued.
"Also— uh, there's something else I haven't told anyone. When it appeared, I was there. And… someone came out."
"Came out?!" Kaluuna turned sharply to her leader.
"Yes, Kaluuna. Came out. Can I finish?"
"Sorry, Boss."
"Anyway, someone came out… A woman. But I couldn't see her face, because there was this strange… light coming from her. She said she spoke by the Goddesses! Can you believe that? The Goddesses! And she kept telling me "you must go, you must go," and to bring the Hero and the Sages. Well, I get the Sages part, but who's the Hero?"
Link heaved an inward sigh and looked down at his lap. There was no winning with this one… He could say he was the Hero of Time, but what would that get him? He'd heard it all before. "You? Why? You didn't do anything…"
It was always the same.
He looked up at the sound of Sheik's voice. "This man is the Hero of Time. We will explain later, I promise, but now we should go to the Spirit Temple!"
"Yes… I would like to see this for myself, if it's no trouble," Zelda said, smoothing her dress as she stood.
Nabooru hopped to her feet as well. "Of course. Right this way."
*******
The Desert Colossus was just one of those timeless things, Link supposed. It was
exactly as he remembered it; dark and quiet, the cool, dry air heavy with the smell of
incense. It was in stark contrast to the wasteland outside, but a welcome one. He wiped
the lingering sweat from his forehead and followed Nabooru and Kaluuna with Sheik by
his side. Impa had insisted on Zelda walking between them and herself to provide better
protection.
Since Link's visit, however, a stairway had been constructed leading up to the giant female statue that served as the entrance to the large chamber further in. It was just as well though, since he figured Impa would have a fit if Zelda were to use his hookshot to get in. The thought was pretty amusing, though.
Absorbed in the entertaining images it conjured up, he ran into Sheik's back as they approached the far wall of the chamber.
"Oof! Sorry…"
Sheik was silent, eyes fixed on what was in front of him. Link followed his gaze (and the gaze of everyone else in the room) to the rippling swell in the otherwise solid stone, suddenly struck speechless.
Folding her arms grimly, Nabooru gestured to the portal.
"Go on… take a look."
They did so tentatively, as she had done her first time. But as Zelda looked in, she gasped sharply, the pain in her palm reviving for a split second.
"Princess?!" Impa was at her side immediately.
"This… this is what I dreamt!"
*******
They had returned to Hyrule Castle Town the following morning. Upon their arrival, Zelda shut herself in her room to determine what to do next. That was three days ago. Sheik wasn't really sure how it worked, but he supposed she was looking for a sign of some sort. Or perhaps she was just meditating upon it. He had to admit, his curiosity was piqued— but the possible dangers of what was to come had to be considered very
carefully… He could understand if the Princess wanted to be alone.
The rest of the Sages would be coming soon … minus King Darunia, of course. It made sense for the Princess to hold some sort of conference with them before coming to a decision, though he knew they had already agreed to investigate. He and this Hero, this Link… they would stand by whatever decision was made. Which was perfectly fine,
except that it made them both dead weight in the decision-making process.
So instead he lay on his back in his surrogate room, watching the clouds drift by through the skylight. It was funny, somehow, that he should grow up to be a part of
something revolutionary— twice. Link, too.
Link… Something about him tugged incessantly at the dark corners of Sheik's mind. His eyes? The sword on his back? His very existence… He wished, now more than ever, that he could remember times already passed…
"Hero of Time…"
~end chapter two