Curse band boot camp! Curse it I say! And curse the flute section, with their ceaseless cries of: "And this one time, at band camp...^_^ Tee hee!" Oh, how I loathe August. T_T()
The memory lost its dreamlike quality as it played out...
Sitting up, Zelda looked about the dark, quiet room. She was still half-asleep, but something had woken her. What was it, though... A noise? Or rather, the absence of noise. Impa's soft (as soft as the growl of a bear can be) snores couldn't be heard from the bed across from hers. Sighing, Zelda hoisted herself out of bed to investigate. She wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, anyway.
"Too earrrrly..." She groaned as she shuffled across the cold hardwood, looking like some tormented apparition, with wild, tangled hair and an all-around droopy expression. Teenagers' circadian rhythms are such that most are not fond of morning, and Zelda was sound proof of this, oh, yes indeedy.
"Impaaaaa, what are you doing?" She managed to grumble out in a most un-princesslike fashion as she entered the small kitchen/parlor....thing. Klivingchen. But Impa only glanced up, gave Zelda a warm, loving, entirely uncharacteristic smile, and went back to strapping on her armor: shoulder guards, breastplate, gauntlets, shin guards, et cetera. Then, slipping her dirk into its sheath, she replaced the floorboards over the cunning hole from whence the armor came, crushed Zelda in a brief hug, gave her a light peck on the forehead, and blithely strolled out the back door.
By now, of course, our hylian heroine had become a bit more lucid, and the curiousness of these recent events she found most puzzling. {What.......................was THAT all about?} Acting more on premonition than logical thought, as was her custom, she quietly but quickly followed, catching a glimpse of white hair and violet clothing just as her guardian disappeared around the corner of the next-door house. Running to catch up, Zelda shadowed Impa as they made their way east through the village, sticking to the dark places, and finally running while looking almost straight up, since Impa had decided to take to the rooftops. {What is it with sheikahs and climbing over things?} she thought exasperatedly.
Then, without warning, Impa dropped from an eave and padded across the town square, Zelda not far behind. Impa seemed oblivious to the world, and Zelda was so engrossed in not loosing track of the woman that she was a bit shocked to discover that they had entered the graveyard. It was all rather picturesque, in that morbid, grotesque sort of way. Curling, damp mist laid near the ground, blanketing and all but obscuring from view the weathered and mildewed headstones, the moping, stunted trees, the sickly and pale vegetation. Zelda shivered a little, having nothing more than a cotton nightgown as protection from the elements, not to mention the general creepiness of the area.
{She never prays at this time of day...and you don't need to be armed to the absolute TEETH for that, anyway. I wonder what she's doing... I hope she hasn't gone mad...} Up the steep hill at the very northernmost edge of the cemetery Impa sprang, Zelda scrambling and toiling behind her. Impa really must have been in a trance, or she just didn't care, because Zelda was making all sorts of betraying noises as she fought her way up the slope.
When Zelda reached to door to the shrine, she was amazed to find every last torch and candle lit, sending blazing light into all but the far corners of the room, casting a warm glow over the carvings on the walls and the intricate gold inlay on the floor. In the center of the inlay stood Impa, before the central torch, with her back facing the entrance. {Wait...isn't that space sacred? I thought no one was allowed to walk on that.} She recalled both Impa and Sheik's past admonitions regarding the beautiful circular design wrought in gold into the very stones of the floor. It was an alter. No feet, save those of the priest or priestess keeping the flame, were to touch it. To do so was sacrilege. But here was Impa, who was certainly no priestess, tromping right through the middle of it... Trying to unravel the meaning behind her guardian's very very very unusual behavior, Zelda became aware of something else. You know, the way you become aware of a hard, blunt object just as you smack your head against it. A terrible grinding and scraping came from the north wall, and then....THEN....a very unexpected thing occurred.
Doors slid open. From an unassuming fissure in the wall, two doors slid back along unseen tracks, making loud protest the entire way. Zelda unintentionally did a spectacular and convincing impression of a fish out of water and gasping for air. Impa sedately watched, as though it was an everyday occurrence, until the whole tunnel behind the doors was exposed.
"Impa?"
No response. And then Impa walked in.
"Impa!" Dashing unheedingly across the gold inlay, she dove towards the doors, pulling herself back just in time as the doors slammed shut with impossible speed for things that heavy, nearly catching her nose and making an unbearable CRACK! as they met. Uncovering her ears as the last deafening echoes died away, she stared at the closed portal before her.
*whoosh*
The shrine was plunged into blackness as the myriad torches and candles were simultaneously and miraculously snuffed out by a chill gust of wind. Then stillness.
Numb with shock, Zelda turned and gazed at the smoke twisting up from the extinguished candles, then back to the doorway, finding it from memory though it was now only a mere crack running up the wall. She fingered the seal, knowing she couldn't open it again; whatever was back there, it obviously hadn't invited HER in. But Impa...Impa had gone through, and was now totally out of reach. And her actions earlier... The surrealism of it all, the inexplicability, was mind-boggling. She came to the conclusion that she was dreaming, and pinched herself.
"................Ow..." she whined quietly as she blinked and found herself, not in her bed in Kakariko, but still in the shrine, and now with what was going to be a bruise on her left forearm. Zelda's lip began to quiver as she stood alone in the darkness.
"I'm having a bad day.....!" She wanted to cry, no, to the dark realm with wussy crying, she wanted to SCREAM! She wanted to scream and scream and scream her frustration and fear until her poor little hylian lungs went POP from the pressure. Finding herself too tired and weak to follow through with this whim, however, she contented herself to sink to the floor and stare at her own lap.
And stare.
And stare.
And, just for a change of pace, stare for a bit.
The memory skipped and sped up randomly as the uneventful parts of the day transpired. Sometimes she'd start crying. She lay down and dozed fitfully for a few hours. Boring.
After a bit, the memory skipped on to the middle of the night, when, at the height of Zelda's despair, who should come slinking through the entrance but that loveable masked minstrel: Sheik. Zelda was so dazed she hadn't noticed him right away, but her relief at seeing a familiar figure was nearly overwhelming.
Good ol' Sheik. Her bonded soul, her best buddy, her homie, her brotha', and so on and so forth. With an enthusiastic yelp of joy, she leapt at him as the deadly jungle cat leaps upon the helpless and doomed fawn. His panicked scream was pleasantly comforting as she tackled him to the ground, a huge smile stretching her face.
Sheik slowly felt his own limbs again as the vision wavered and faded. He and Zelda lowered their arms, and Zelda sighed, snuggling deeper into the folds of Impa's blanket. She looked worn-out and fatigued. Fragile.
"..........................." Sheik looked thoughtful for a moment, then, "Does my voice really sound like that?" He leaned his head against his hand, disappointment and wonder etched on his features.
In spite of herself, Zelda giggled. One really never knew what he'd say at times, not even if one was bonded with him. "It does tend to catch people unawares, a sheikan warrior who sounds like a choirboy tenor. One would think puberty had completely forgotten you. You can look so menacing at times, but then you speak!" She winked, baiting.
Sheik stuck out his tongue and pulled a face. Zelda reciprocated. Then Sheik looked pensive again.
"Zelda, I take it you were in there all day..."
"Yes...I was."
She shot a reproachful glare her way as he stood and felt her forehead with the back of his hand. "Why?! Do you have a death wish? You might get sick! It's cold and wet in there and you haven't eaten or drunk anything and-"
"And you're as bad as Impa!" She softly slapped his hand away. "I swear, you two must be related!" A sigh. "But I am wearied. You may fetch me some food and drink now, I have a bit of an appetite; after that, I am going to bed. I'm so very tired." She waved him off, sighed again, and looked into the fireplace
Sheik would have balked at her imperious manner, but she looked so pitiable, huddled up in the chair and nearly disappearing in a mass of blanket. And she HAD been through a lot today, and she HADN'T had anything, after all...and it was a bad time of year for colds...
"I can't believe I'm such a pushover..." Sheik grumbled as he stalked off to procure sustenance for his princess.
A chunk of bread and butter and a mug of nearly-expired-but-still-safe-hopefully goats' milk later....
Zelda sat curled in the chair like a contented cat, staring with drooping eyelids into the sputtering fire Sheik had lit for her. Sheik had made her eat the small meal slowly, so as not to upset her stomach, and she had sipped the goats' milk tentatively, since it was a little old, and milk is notorious for encouraging nausea. She had taken around half an hour to eat, the memory had taken two hours, and now it was only one or two hours before dawn. She watched as Sheik, red-eyed from lack of sleep, strode out of sight, presumably into her and Impa's room, from the sound of it.
Ten minutes later, he reappeared, gamely smiling as he stifled a yawn.
"Tired? Good, so am I." Not waiting for an answer, he helped Zelda from the chair, and gave her an arm to lean on as she walked, a bit unsteadily, towards her room. In the ten minutes in which he was there, Sheik had cleaned up after the small tornado of a patrol that had been there earlier, putting mattresses back on their frames, putting clothes back in drawers back in dressers, and straightening out the sheets and pillows. He hadn't told Zelda about the search; she seemed stressed out enough as it was, and he hadn't let her see any of the mayhem the officers had left in their wake. Best that she find out when she was coherent and not likely to have any sort of mental breakdown.
Zelda fell into her unmade bed, unaware that it wasn't unmade as she had left it that morning, pulled the covers over her, and grinned up at Sheik.
"Thank you."
Sheik shrugged, muttered "No problem." and turned to leave.
"Sheik?" Zelda propped herself up on her elbow. Sheik stopped and looked back at her through messy blond hair. Zelda continued, unleashing the dreaded cute puppy eyes, "Could you.........could you stay here......please?" Her independent side was revolted, but she really didn't want to be alone just no, she had clung to Sheik's presence like a lifeline for the past several hours, keeping her from despairing again.
Sheik was just plain bushed. His eyes were sore and his limbs were dead weights. Without hesitation, he turned on his heel, and walked back into the room.
"Well, if you insist." He then promptly collapsed on Impa's bed, and was sound asleep within seconds. [Finally, some rest...]
Zelda felt herself nodding off, lulled by Sheik's steady breathing. {If only he snored...}
The memory lost its dreamlike quality as it played out...
Sitting up, Zelda looked about the dark, quiet room. She was still half-asleep, but something had woken her. What was it, though... A noise? Or rather, the absence of noise. Impa's soft (as soft as the growl of a bear can be) snores couldn't be heard from the bed across from hers. Sighing, Zelda hoisted herself out of bed to investigate. She wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, anyway.
"Too earrrrly..." She groaned as she shuffled across the cold hardwood, looking like some tormented apparition, with wild, tangled hair and an all-around droopy expression. Teenagers' circadian rhythms are such that most are not fond of morning, and Zelda was sound proof of this, oh, yes indeedy.
"Impaaaaa, what are you doing?" She managed to grumble out in a most un-princesslike fashion as she entered the small kitchen/parlor....thing. Klivingchen. But Impa only glanced up, gave Zelda a warm, loving, entirely uncharacteristic smile, and went back to strapping on her armor: shoulder guards, breastplate, gauntlets, shin guards, et cetera. Then, slipping her dirk into its sheath, she replaced the floorboards over the cunning hole from whence the armor came, crushed Zelda in a brief hug, gave her a light peck on the forehead, and blithely strolled out the back door.
By now, of course, our hylian heroine had become a bit more lucid, and the curiousness of these recent events she found most puzzling. {What.......................was THAT all about?} Acting more on premonition than logical thought, as was her custom, she quietly but quickly followed, catching a glimpse of white hair and violet clothing just as her guardian disappeared around the corner of the next-door house. Running to catch up, Zelda shadowed Impa as they made their way east through the village, sticking to the dark places, and finally running while looking almost straight up, since Impa had decided to take to the rooftops. {What is it with sheikahs and climbing over things?} she thought exasperatedly.
Then, without warning, Impa dropped from an eave and padded across the town square, Zelda not far behind. Impa seemed oblivious to the world, and Zelda was so engrossed in not loosing track of the woman that she was a bit shocked to discover that they had entered the graveyard. It was all rather picturesque, in that morbid, grotesque sort of way. Curling, damp mist laid near the ground, blanketing and all but obscuring from view the weathered and mildewed headstones, the moping, stunted trees, the sickly and pale vegetation. Zelda shivered a little, having nothing more than a cotton nightgown as protection from the elements, not to mention the general creepiness of the area.
{She never prays at this time of day...and you don't need to be armed to the absolute TEETH for that, anyway. I wonder what she's doing... I hope she hasn't gone mad...} Up the steep hill at the very northernmost edge of the cemetery Impa sprang, Zelda scrambling and toiling behind her. Impa really must have been in a trance, or she just didn't care, because Zelda was making all sorts of betraying noises as she fought her way up the slope.
When Zelda reached to door to the shrine, she was amazed to find every last torch and candle lit, sending blazing light into all but the far corners of the room, casting a warm glow over the carvings on the walls and the intricate gold inlay on the floor. In the center of the inlay stood Impa, before the central torch, with her back facing the entrance. {Wait...isn't that space sacred? I thought no one was allowed to walk on that.} She recalled both Impa and Sheik's past admonitions regarding the beautiful circular design wrought in gold into the very stones of the floor. It was an alter. No feet, save those of the priest or priestess keeping the flame, were to touch it. To do so was sacrilege. But here was Impa, who was certainly no priestess, tromping right through the middle of it... Trying to unravel the meaning behind her guardian's very very very unusual behavior, Zelda became aware of something else. You know, the way you become aware of a hard, blunt object just as you smack your head against it. A terrible grinding and scraping came from the north wall, and then....THEN....a very unexpected thing occurred.
Doors slid open. From an unassuming fissure in the wall, two doors slid back along unseen tracks, making loud protest the entire way. Zelda unintentionally did a spectacular and convincing impression of a fish out of water and gasping for air. Impa sedately watched, as though it was an everyday occurrence, until the whole tunnel behind the doors was exposed.
"Impa?"
No response. And then Impa walked in.
"Impa!" Dashing unheedingly across the gold inlay, she dove towards the doors, pulling herself back just in time as the doors slammed shut with impossible speed for things that heavy, nearly catching her nose and making an unbearable CRACK! as they met. Uncovering her ears as the last deafening echoes died away, she stared at the closed portal before her.
*whoosh*
The shrine was plunged into blackness as the myriad torches and candles were simultaneously and miraculously snuffed out by a chill gust of wind. Then stillness.
Numb with shock, Zelda turned and gazed at the smoke twisting up from the extinguished candles, then back to the doorway, finding it from memory though it was now only a mere crack running up the wall. She fingered the seal, knowing she couldn't open it again; whatever was back there, it obviously hadn't invited HER in. But Impa...Impa had gone through, and was now totally out of reach. And her actions earlier... The surrealism of it all, the inexplicability, was mind-boggling. She came to the conclusion that she was dreaming, and pinched herself.
"................Ow..." she whined quietly as she blinked and found herself, not in her bed in Kakariko, but still in the shrine, and now with what was going to be a bruise on her left forearm. Zelda's lip began to quiver as she stood alone in the darkness.
"I'm having a bad day.....!" She wanted to cry, no, to the dark realm with wussy crying, she wanted to SCREAM! She wanted to scream and scream and scream her frustration and fear until her poor little hylian lungs went POP from the pressure. Finding herself too tired and weak to follow through with this whim, however, she contented herself to sink to the floor and stare at her own lap.
And stare.
And stare.
And, just for a change of pace, stare for a bit.
The memory skipped and sped up randomly as the uneventful parts of the day transpired. Sometimes she'd start crying. She lay down and dozed fitfully for a few hours. Boring.
After a bit, the memory skipped on to the middle of the night, when, at the height of Zelda's despair, who should come slinking through the entrance but that loveable masked minstrel: Sheik. Zelda was so dazed she hadn't noticed him right away, but her relief at seeing a familiar figure was nearly overwhelming.
Good ol' Sheik. Her bonded soul, her best buddy, her homie, her brotha', and so on and so forth. With an enthusiastic yelp of joy, she leapt at him as the deadly jungle cat leaps upon the helpless and doomed fawn. His panicked scream was pleasantly comforting as she tackled him to the ground, a huge smile stretching her face.
Sheik slowly felt his own limbs again as the vision wavered and faded. He and Zelda lowered their arms, and Zelda sighed, snuggling deeper into the folds of Impa's blanket. She looked worn-out and fatigued. Fragile.
"..........................." Sheik looked thoughtful for a moment, then, "Does my voice really sound like that?" He leaned his head against his hand, disappointment and wonder etched on his features.
In spite of herself, Zelda giggled. One really never knew what he'd say at times, not even if one was bonded with him. "It does tend to catch people unawares, a sheikan warrior who sounds like a choirboy tenor. One would think puberty had completely forgotten you. You can look so menacing at times, but then you speak!" She winked, baiting.
Sheik stuck out his tongue and pulled a face. Zelda reciprocated. Then Sheik looked pensive again.
"Zelda, I take it you were in there all day..."
"Yes...I was."
She shot a reproachful glare her way as he stood and felt her forehead with the back of his hand. "Why?! Do you have a death wish? You might get sick! It's cold and wet in there and you haven't eaten or drunk anything and-"
"And you're as bad as Impa!" She softly slapped his hand away. "I swear, you two must be related!" A sigh. "But I am wearied. You may fetch me some food and drink now, I have a bit of an appetite; after that, I am going to bed. I'm so very tired." She waved him off, sighed again, and looked into the fireplace
Sheik would have balked at her imperious manner, but she looked so pitiable, huddled up in the chair and nearly disappearing in a mass of blanket. And she HAD been through a lot today, and she HADN'T had anything, after all...and it was a bad time of year for colds...
"I can't believe I'm such a pushover..." Sheik grumbled as he stalked off to procure sustenance for his princess.
A chunk of bread and butter and a mug of nearly-expired-but-still-safe-hopefully goats' milk later....
Zelda sat curled in the chair like a contented cat, staring with drooping eyelids into the sputtering fire Sheik had lit for her. Sheik had made her eat the small meal slowly, so as not to upset her stomach, and she had sipped the goats' milk tentatively, since it was a little old, and milk is notorious for encouraging nausea. She had taken around half an hour to eat, the memory had taken two hours, and now it was only one or two hours before dawn. She watched as Sheik, red-eyed from lack of sleep, strode out of sight, presumably into her and Impa's room, from the sound of it.
Ten minutes later, he reappeared, gamely smiling as he stifled a yawn.
"Tired? Good, so am I." Not waiting for an answer, he helped Zelda from the chair, and gave her an arm to lean on as she walked, a bit unsteadily, towards her room. In the ten minutes in which he was there, Sheik had cleaned up after the small tornado of a patrol that had been there earlier, putting mattresses back on their frames, putting clothes back in drawers back in dressers, and straightening out the sheets and pillows. He hadn't told Zelda about the search; she seemed stressed out enough as it was, and he hadn't let her see any of the mayhem the officers had left in their wake. Best that she find out when she was coherent and not likely to have any sort of mental breakdown.
Zelda fell into her unmade bed, unaware that it wasn't unmade as she had left it that morning, pulled the covers over her, and grinned up at Sheik.
"Thank you."
Sheik shrugged, muttered "No problem." and turned to leave.
"Sheik?" Zelda propped herself up on her elbow. Sheik stopped and looked back at her through messy blond hair. Zelda continued, unleashing the dreaded cute puppy eyes, "Could you.........could you stay here......please?" Her independent side was revolted, but she really didn't want to be alone just no, she had clung to Sheik's presence like a lifeline for the past several hours, keeping her from despairing again.
Sheik was just plain bushed. His eyes were sore and his limbs were dead weights. Without hesitation, he turned on his heel, and walked back into the room.
"Well, if you insist." He then promptly collapsed on Impa's bed, and was sound asleep within seconds. [Finally, some rest...]
Zelda felt herself nodding off, lulled by Sheik's steady breathing. {If only he snored...}
