Author: Rydia Highwind
Email: chichiri_is_hot@hotmail.com
Fandom: Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time (in-game)
Rating: probably eventually R. PG, for this chapter.
Summary: Sheik's thoughts and feelings throughout the game.
Warning: Eventual shounen ai (in other words, two boys getting it on), Link/Sheik. Semi-AU, as in Sheik and Zelda are not the same person. This will be explained in later chapters.
Disclaimer: The characters (excepting occasional shop owners and the like) and the setting aren't mine, though I wish they were cause I'd be rich then.

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Thanatos
by Rydia Highwind

Chapter 3 - Staccato

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I'd sail ships for you
To be close to you
To be a part of you
'Cause I believe in you
I believe in you
I would die for you

- Garbage "#1 Crush"

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One hand clawing for purchase on the bank, I pull myself up, gasping for breath, and then collapse there for a long moment, thanking the Triforce that the river slowed to this gentle current so soon after I had stepped into it. I am truly lucky to have survived this far.

The rocky ravine had given me many small cuts and bruises as well as an unsightly gash on my right leg, but aside from that, and of course the two broken arrows in my left shoulder, I seem to be all right. No broken bones, no concussion--the Goddesses must be watching me. Or not, as I would not have had to be in the river in the first place if I had not been chased all over Kakariko by a band of Gerudo bounty hunters. Selective luck, I suppose.

My luck or whatever it is seems to hold out a little longer as I have climbed out of the river in a place completely deserted. The last thing I need, besides a Gerudo to find me here, is a worried Hylian trying too hard to help. The area seems to be a laundering sight, as there are many garments hanging up to catch the gentle breeze, and some soap and other laundering tools. This also is my advantage, as I had not determined how to return to the inn without being seen. I will have to 'borrow' a cloak on a long-term basis but I will not be seen.

I remain lying on my chest, still halfway in the water and with my forehead pressed against my arm for a long moment, trying to steady my breathing and my heart rate. It will not take the Gerudos long to start searching the river for my body--dead Sheikahs are worth money too after all.

When I finally stand up, pulling myself completely out of the water, I begin to wonder if maybe I did hit my head in my trip downstream, because as soon as I stand, a feeling of lightheadedness follows me. It is possible, after all, that in the river I may have hit my head without realizing it.

It is also possible, however, that my leg is bleeding worse than I thought, and my lightheadedness is due to blood loss. It is rather difficult to stand and I know I should wrap up the leg wound, but there is not time to spare. The Gerudos came here searching for someone and I am willing to bet that that person is Link. Link, who is ill and in bed, completely unaware of the danger he is in staying here.

I find a dark cloak hanging, conveniently dry, dark enough to hide any bloodstains it may acquire from my still bleeding back and shoulder, and slip it over my shoulders, wincing as it grazes the arrowheads still lodged there. There is also a hood on this cloak, which I pull over my head as I limp from the alley. My scarf has been pulled down in the water and I leave it as such to make myself less conspicuous, for a limping figure in a concealing black cloak is conspicuous enough as is.

As it turns out, I am a fair distance from the inn I brought Link to the night previous and it takes me a while to get there. However, since I brought him to the first inn I could find and the river washed me back toward the entrance of the city, I am not as far away as when I stepped into the ravine in the first place. I get a number of odd looks from strangers milling about in the streets but I fortunately am recognized by none and see no Gerudos.

By the time I reach the inn, the lightheadedness I felt earlier has progressed into out and out dizziness, and I consider the possibility of wrapping up my still bleeding leg wound before we set out from Kakariko. It probably requires stitches, but there is not time for that. I must get Link ready to go and get him far from here, this is my top priority.

After making sure no one is really paying much attention to me, I enter the inn and climb the stairs in a slow, staggering pace. I do not know how much further I will be able to go. If I thought Link would be all right on his own, I would send him off without me, but the ReDead venom may be affecting him still and I cannot take that risk. It is my duty to ensure his safety, and that is what I intend to do.

It takes me a long, tense moment to even remember which room I have left Link in, but soon enough I remember and knock on the door, my key to it probably at the bottom of the river. There is some hesitation as I hear shuffling from inside of the room. Link's voice, when it comes, is muffled by the thick wood of the door and sounds tired besides. "Who is it?"

"It is I," I say as loudly as I dare. "Sheik. I lost my key."

The door opens a few inches, and I see Link peering out suspiciously. Blue eyes widen when he sees the state I am in, and he pulls the door open all the way so that I can stumble in. I do just that, pausing to sit on the edge of the bed and drop my cloak, trying to see past the dizziness swimming in my vision. Link shuts and locks the door before turning to me. "Sheik? What happened?"

"No time to explain," I say as I reach over and try unsuccessfully to remove the arrowhead lodged in my left shoulder. Giving up, I glance up at him. "We need to leave Kakariko, and now."

"But you're injured," he says, attempting to inspect my shoulder and back. "You can't go anywhere like that, you've got to get those arrows out or they'll get infected...you don't look so hot anyway, Sheik. You need to rest and--"

"There is not time," I hiss, batting him away from my shoulder. "The stakes will be both of our lives if we do not leave immediately. It is you they are after, I am afraid, and I cannot even be certain I did not lead them here." I force myself to stand again, ignoring the shot of numbing pain that lances up my leg. "We will head towards--"

I am forced to stop, for the mild dizziness seems to have grown into complete vertigo, and I would have certainly hit the floor had Link not been standing a few feet away. He manages to catch me with his good arm (his left is still weak from the poison) and I find my face muffled in the green fabric clothing his shoulder. I can see in my mind his frown of disapproval even before I push myself away from him slightly with a murmured apology.

"At least let me wrap up your wounds before we go," he finally says. "And while I do, you can tell me why the hell you're all wet."

But I shake my head resolutely, noting that he has not let go of my arm. That fact shouldn't bother me but it does anyway, though as much as I would like to move away, I know I cannot stand very well on my own at the moment. Being forced to accept help makes me uneasy as I will have to depend on someone.

"I will tell you what happened on the way out of here," I say, then sitting back down on the bed, attempting to press back the dizziness plaguing my vision. I am again supporting myself wholly, though. "I will wrap up my leg while you use the tourniquet to apply more of the holy water to your bite and pack up whatever you need from here. Then we will leave. The arrows will remain until we can get elsewhere, for the wounds will not bleed as much this way."

He nods and sets to work while I am finding it increasingly difficult to focus on the simple task of binding my leg. At this rate, I will only be a hindrance to his escape. Realizing this, I bite my bottom lip gently, wondering if there is any way I will be able to get him to go without me.

He finishes long before I do, for he is fairing much better than I, and I nod to him. "Your horse is tied up in the stable outside," I tell him. "Your next obstacle lies up the mountain, but you must leave this place first. It is too dangerous to travel through the city at this point."

But he simply gives me a wry look, seeing my hands fumbling with the bandages, and he kneels in front of me to take over. "I'm not going without you, so don't even try," he says with a knowing smile directed up at me, and then wrapping my leg for me. Again, I am forced to put my safety into the hands of another. I have not known him long enough to even begin to trust him. I am loath to trust anyone but myself and the Order regardless.

And yet, the uncertainty I feel so strongly starts to ebb quickly after I acknowledge it. Ever present, yes, but not nearly as strong as it should be. Why do I feel like I can trust him? Why do I feel that I have nothing to fear from this young man in front of me?

Before I know it, he is finished and standing, offering a hand to help me stand. I realize though, now, that it will take much more than one hand for me to make it to my feet. I carefully adjust the cloak back over my shoulders before reaching up and taking his hand. He quite literally pulls me up, another wave of vertigo threatening to push me over as he does, but he swings my right arm over his shoulder and puts his arm around my waist, and this is the way we make it down the stairs and to the stable, each step getting minutely harder to perform until Link is quite literally dragging me down the road. The odd stares we must be getting do not even register with me.

I do not remember closing my eyes, yet I can feel that they are closed, and I do not remember being lifted on to the horse, but here I am on the saddle, someone behind me supporting me and two arms reaching around me to handle the reigns. I force my eyes open, blinking past the beginnings of a serious headache and shivering at the wind generated by the horse's movements.

It seems we are still in Kakariko, so my brief black out can only have lasted a few minutes. The horse speeds up suddenly, as the rider behind me, whom I assume must be Link, kicks her forward a bit. And then, one of the strong arms is around me, keeping me in place as the ground ceases to be under the horse's hooves. A whoop of pleasure in a voice that can only be Link's is yelled behind me, ending only as the horse lands at the bottom of the stairs that lead up the mountain to the village.

And then we are off, the horse galloping away from the village, and I let a sigh of relief form on my lips. That reprieve is short-lived though, for I begin to realize how warm I am feeling now, despite the wind on my face, and I know this is not a good sign.

It is sometime later when I find I have somehow gotten down from the horse and am cradled in Link's grip. He has one hand on my forehead and he is frowning in what can only be worry. I know he must have taken me off the horse from how I am resting, and I remember how tightly he had held me on the horse before, so I cannot have fallen. Besides that, I feel no pain from landing on the ground--only from the injuries I sustained earlier.

He sees my eyes and regards me critically. "You're feverish," he says plainly. "I told you we should've wrapped up your wounds before. We've got a few hours before we reach Lon Lon Ranch, and I can't do anything about infections out here." There is a certain amount of fear and worry in his tone, and it is because I am ill. Why this suddenly bothers me, I am uncertain, but it does.

A thought occurs to me and I sit up carefully, with his support. "I do not think it is infection," I tell him honestly, trying to see past the headache that has stained my vision red. One hand goes to my shoulder to try and remove the arrowhead lodged there. Despite a high pain tolerance, I am forced to give up without getting it out, due to the strange angle I am working from and a generalized sense of weakness. "Help me get this out."

Link turns to my shoulder, frowning. "I can get it out, but it's going to be painful," he tells me after regarding it for a long moment. But I simply nod to him to give him the go ahead, and he sets to work. I have dealt with much more pain than this, and if my suspicions are correct, it may have been a critical mistake to leave the arrows in place.

He works quickly but carefully, and despite the wave of pain that nearly knocks me back unconscious in my already weakened state, the first arrowhead is removed without much trouble. The second one is worse, however, imbedded deeper and in a more sensitive area. This one causes the need to lean against my companion for a long moment to regain my bearings.

"Well, you're right there," Link says, mopping up the now bleeding wounds with some leftover bandages he has taken from the hotel room. "Neither of these is infected. And I cleaned up your leg as best I could...but may it's infected?"

"No," I reply, finally stabilizing enough to take the arrowheads from Link and inspect them. "There has not been time for these to infect yet." I carefully wipe the blood away from the tips of the arrows and hold them up to the light.

I can feel Link's confusion as I tell him this, and then as I raise the arrowheads up to the sunlight. "Is it just me or are those purple?" he asks, confirming my fears.

"Yes, they are." I lower the arrowheads and run through a list in my mind. "These arrows were dipped in a substance called qahwa before being fired. It is a fairly common and rather deadly type of Gerudo poison," I explain in a monotone. I am fairly disgusted with myself for not seeing this before. Had I gotten the arrowheads out sooner, I could have prevented all of this...

Link's startled voice cuts into my thoughts. It is quiet, laced with an undercurrent of dread and disbelief, and I find myself the cause of this again. "Sheik...what do I do? Do you need some sort of antidote? Tell me... tell me what you need, I'll get it. I can--"

"Calm down, Link," I cut him off gently. "This is a common sort of poison with which the Sheikahs are very familiar with. I have spent a few years building an immunity to qahwa, and the only reason it is still making me ill is because the arrows have been there with the poison on them. In a few hours, I will most likely be fine."

"Oh." He looks embarrassed, and I wonder how he has managed to make me feel guilty three times in such a small amount of time.

I feel that I should somehow rectify the situation, at least a little, for I did not make it clear right away that the poison would not be fatal for me. I suppose I sort of expected him to know, for the Gerudos probably knew and they were likely trying to use it as a sort of tranquilizer for me. Which, I realize now, worked all too well. "I do, however, appreciate your concern and willingness to help," I say softly. "I...apologize for making you worry. I should have been more clear about the nature of the poison."

I can feel the tension ease even as I say this, and he relaxes enough so that I can see him smile. "That's all right," he says as he begins to quickly bind my still bleeding shoulder. "I'm just going to wrap this quickly and fix it up once we get to the ranch." I simply nod to him, feeling the sway of sleep taking over again. He hoists me up by my right arm, like he had in the inn, and then lifts me up on to his horse's back. While I lean against the back of her neck, he jumps up behind me and again secures me with his arms before kicking the horse into a canter.

I lean back against him, knowing I have no choice but to trust him further with my life. He has saved me already and I am beginning to realize how much he is willing to do for me. It seems if I had told him I needed a jewel from the Dark Lord's crown to rescue me, he would have attempted to retrieve one just to save my life. I am not certain I understand this dedication; while certainly I have saved his life once or twice and have given him instruction on where to turn next, I do so because it is my duty, not because I want him to feel as though he owes me.

This devotion almost resembles the selfless devotion of a Sheikah to the Royal Family of Hyrule, only with a degree of childish innocence. Perhaps he does not even know why he feels the way he does. He wears his emotion on his face, easily noticed and readable, and I have often noted a degree of curiosity and confusion in his eyes as he regards me. Or perhaps I simply do not give him enough credit. It is possible he knows exactly what he is doing and why, and I just cannot see it.

"Sheik," he murmurs, even as I am beginning to fall back into sleep, "…I'm glad you're safe."

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Many Hylians believe mistakenly that the Sheikah tribe in Hyrule is simply a band of Hylians working behind the scenes to protect the Royal Family. This is false--the Sheikahs actually are their own race, but the amount of them in Hyrule is limited and those there often remain hidden with a few high ranking exceptions, such as Lady Impa, the nursemaid to Princess Zelda herself.

The Sheikah people have divided themselves into two separate main tribes and a third lesser tribe. The Eastern Tribe, often referred to as the Mountain People, and the Western Tribe, or the Desert People, were rather unfriendly competitors before the war, each trying to gain approval with the Royal Family by the quality of the fighters they sent to the castle. However, they were forced to band together when the King of Evil came to power. The King and Queen removed from power and killed, now the only one left to protect was the Princess and the one the Dark Lord wanted the most.

The Northern Tribe is often referred to as the Dark People, for it consists of those who do not believe the Sheikahs have the obligation to protect the Royal Family. Rogue Sheikahs, those banished for disobeying the Order, and those who dishonor their tribe in any way are sent away from their tribes and often end up in the North where the darkest of the Shadow People reside. This tribe started out rather small and unthreatening to the other tribes, but after a deception by a member of the Royal Family nearly one hundred years prior to the Great War, the tribe has grown significantly and it has become unsafe for a Sheikah of either main tribe to venture to the North alone.

While the Mountain People continued to thrive amid Death Mountain in the years directly after Ganondorf took power, the Western Tribe was not so lucky. They shared their land with the Gerudo people, the minions of the Dark Lord, he being their king. When he put a price on the collective head of the Shadow People, his followers had only to look just outside their borders to find bounty. The villages of the Desert People were burned and pillaged mercilessly and the denizens massacred by the hundreds, and the survivors were forced to hide their refuges away, retreating back, finding safety only in number.

Eventually, of course, the promise of bounty spread to other races as well, and the Sheikahs were hunted in all parts of the world--except, of course, the North. The Dark People thrived greatly during this period, for the King of Evil accepted their services as assassins. They remained independent but willing to freelance for him.

Now, the only Western Tribe villages that remain are carefully hidden with magic and the entryways guarded tightly. A Desert Sheikah is a very rare sight, as barely a hundred of them remain alive, and most of them in service for the Order and assigned to different areas of Hyrule. The Eastern Tribe fares better but not by much any longer. The Dark Lord has made the Shadow People a quickly dying race.

The Sheikah Order came to power shortly after the Sheikahs came into the service of the King and Queen of Hyrule, more than four hundred years before the Great War. It was they who split the race into the two main tribes, in order to guard the main entrances to the castle--the eastern entrance and the western entrance. The castle has been remodeled many times since then and the only true entrance now is to the south, but the ceremonial tribes remained, each claiming a piece of land in their respective direction.

They grew apart from each other, evolving in their own ways specific to their own environments and adapting to the changes in their habitats. The Mountain People are generally shorter, somewhat stockier, with long ears and strong legs. The Desert People, on the other had, are tall and lithe, with rounded ears, tan skin, and nimble legs. Both tribes still exceed at that which makes the Shadow People unique: this is a combination of excellent senses, incredible stealth, and a weak telepathic on top of a slightly stronger empathetic link between them--and of course, their blood red eyes.

The Order that commands all the loyal Sheikahs is made up of members of either tribe. They instated presets for all their people to enhance their natural fighting ability (even though in normal times, not all people become fighters). The Shadow People are naturally reserved, saving emotion for only the most appropriate times, because of their innate empathy towards one another. The Order simply asks its people to enhance that slightly, that the less emotion felt and the less emotion acted on, the stronger fighter one can become. It is generally understood that to cease one's emotions is not always possible and leeway is given as is due, with two basic exceptions. A Sheikah who gives his or her life to the service of the Royal Family willingly is required to take an oath that they will never partake of the two strongest emotions: Love and hatred. And if one breaks this oath, he or she must willingly resign their position. A Sheikah fighter is allowed to marry only after resigning from his or her duties to the Royal Family. There is no flexibility to this rule, no exceptions made.

As for the circumstances of how the Sheikahs came into the service of the King and Queen, well, there are many myths and rumors but no one alive today knows the entire truth.

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End of Chapter 3 : Staccato.

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I love how the last chapter took me five months to write and this one too me eleven days. Yeah, I'm sort of.. UNRELIABLE. Well, people have been taking random interest in this fic lately and contacting me about it, plus that my beloved beta-er Mara wrote me a FABULOUS Link/Sheik, which inspired me to get my ass in gear, I guess.

I hope I didn't lose anyone at the end there. It sort of ends suddenly, because I realized just how freaking long I could write about the history of a race that doesn't exist. And this is all made up. I don't know, I think there's something wrong with me. XD

All that crap about the Sheikahs was pulled from my own brain, but it was started with help from Wyna Hiros (whom you should seriously check out, her fanfiction and fanart are way too awesome T_T). I recall asking her why she thought Impa had pointy ears and Sheik had round ears and she said something about there being an Eastern and Western tribe. So I SHAMLESSLY STOLE HER IDEA and ran around with it like it was mine. Har. I'm a bad person.

The word I used for the Gerudo poison involved me looking up a "learn Arabic on the web!" site and picking a random word. I have NO idea what it means. Because I am that friggin' awesome. Shit yeah, ladies. I bring those blue sparks.