Legal blurb – And here we are again, back to this uninteresting, unread, completely unneeded legal thing. I'd love to say Zelda was mine, truly I would. But I can't. Love too. But Can't. Do we have this clear? Does everyone understand? Excellent. On with the important stuff.
Chapter three, here we go. I'm getting excited about this story again, I cant wait to keep writing, those of you who read Lady Rose's "The Return" will undoubtedly see some parallels between these two stories. Including characters and cameos, for those of you haven't read 'The Return' and don't want to because of it's length, don't worry about it, this isn't a 'You have to read that story to understand' kind of thing, just a collaboration of two Zelda loving writers.
Enough babble, on with the story. That is what you're here for after all. Enjoy.
--------------------------------Chapter three
Depend
on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the
rabbit. R.E. Shay
--------------------------------
For
a second I don't do anything, I can't, I don't react, I don't move,
I don't even breath. I'm afraid, afraid that if I do anything, it'll
all disappear, I'll wake up and the dream will end.
He regards
me curiously, bemused even, as I stare back at him in open and
unguarded shock. "Zelda?" He asks, getting a little
nervous.
I blink, gathering my scattered wits back to me as
best I can.
"You alright?"
As if those two
little words were the trigger I take one staggering step forward, my
first feelings of happiness and joy at seeing him, replaced almost
instantly with grief and guilt at what I got him into.
My legs
give out beneath, feeling suddenly like putty, and I fall to my
knees.
I'm crying.
I don't want to cry, I don't want to
look so weak, not to him, but I can't help it. It's my fault he was
sealed, it's my fault he'll lose seven years of his life.
Goddess
I'm so happy to see him again. . .
"Link, I'm so
sorry," I choke, noticing for the first time that he's cleared
the space between us and his hands are somewhat awkwardly holding my
shoulders.
"For what?" he asks, his voice taking a
hint of panic.
I can't blame him really, he's probably had
very little experience in dealing with situations like this, if any
experience at all that is.
"For everything!" I blurt
out. "I'm the one that got you involved in this! I'm the one
that let Ganondorf into the sacred realm! It's because of me you were
sealed in the sacred realm and the people of Hyrule are suffering!
It's all my fault!"
"Hey now," he says calmly,
trying to comfort me as best he can, "You didn't get me involved
in anything, I chose to go to the palace, and go get the stones, and
open the realm. The Great Deku tree told me to go see you and to stop
Ganondorf, I would have gotten the stones anyway, but without you I
wouldn't have known what to do with them,"
"Exactly!"
I cry, "If not for me you wouldn't have known, you wouldn't have
been able too! And everyone would still be safe!"
"No,"
he states flatly, causing me to look at him. "If not for you I
would have wandered around Hyrule without a clue what to do, until
Ganondorf found me, killed me, and took the stones. Sure I'm stuck in
the sacred realm for now, but I'm not dead, and Ganondorf will pay
for all this when I get out," He gives me an encouraging look.
"It's not your fault."
He doesn't understand.
No
one understands.
It is my fault.
But seeing him, even
if it is only a dream, lightens my heart a little.
"I'm
so sorry," I begin again.
"Stop saying that,"
Link says, releasing my shoulders and sitting down in front of me.
"It's making me nervous."
I just look at him, I
can't help it, I've had other dreams about since that day, dreams
and nightmares, but none of them were this real. I'm tempted to
reach out and touch him.
"So how is Hyrule?" he
asks casually, but I can see longing in his eyes. He wants to be
back.
I don't say anything for a long moment.
How can
I tell him?
How can I explain that a lot of people are dead,
and that everyone is feeling the burn of Ganondorf's fire. Darunia,
Ruto, the Kokari, they're all his friends, and they get the worst of
it.
How can I tell him that everything he fought and risked
himself to protect is being slowly torn apart and killed.
Tears
well in my eyes again, I can't stop them.
It's funny
really.
That day four years ago...
When Impa and I ran
from the castle.
I swore I'd never cry again, that I'd never
be so weak, not in front of anyone not to myself...
And here I
am.
I take a shattered breath, and between tears I tell him
everything, the words spilling from my mouth before I have a chance
to think about them.
I tell him about everything.
Except
about the Sheikah...
Except about Sheik. . .
--------------------------------
"Sheik!"I stir restlessly, I don't want to wake up, and I don't want to leave the strange temple, to leave Link.
"Sheik!"
Someone is shaking my shoulders.
I fight against it, but it's too late, Link fades in my eyes, the temple bleeds away, he waves and smiles at me and says something but I can't hear him anymore.
"Farore Sheik!"
"What!" I snap irritably, opening my eyes and yawning. "What do you -"
The words die before I can finish them, I had expected to see Rin, not Impa. Why is she here?
"Honestly child, you're more difficult to wake up then a Goron," Impa scolds lightly, "and what are you doing sleeping up here?"
Sleeping up here?
I look around, I'm still on the tower, it's still night though, I couldn't have been sleeping that long.
"I was tired, I fell asleep." I answer smoothly. "That's usually the way it goes,"
Impa frowns at me, but doesn't start on one of her lectures, which tells me that either something's wrong, or she's about to tell me something I don't want to hear.
"Listen Sheik, you're not going to like this,"
I hate it when I'm right..
"I'm leaving in a little while, before dawn anyway,"
"Why?" I ask incredulously "You just got here!".
"I think it would be best, but Aria isn't going to be your caretaker anymore,"
Oh for the love of Din!
"Then who will be?"
"Khaz," Impa states, the sharp tone of her voice daring me to protest.
If she thinks I won't she's got another thing coming!
"Khaz!" I exclaim, "KHAZ! Why him! You can't expect me to actually allow this do you! If you think that just because you throw me at him I'm going to suddenly change and -"
"You will allow me to do this Sheik, because you have no say in the matter and it's already been decided. And I expect you to show him the proper obedience and respect that all young Sheikahs should show their superiors!"
I scowl at her but don't trust myself to say anything in response, not just yet anyway.
"I'll be leaving soon and came up here to say goodbye, it could be a while before I get back."
Surprise, surprise.
"And I'm leaving Sha'doe here under your care."
What did she just say?
She's
leaving Sha'doe? As in her mare, as in the war horse, the white and
grey Sha'doe?
"What?" I ask still trying to wrap my
head around it.
"I'm leaving Sha'doe, I wont' be needing
her anymore. I'm going to travel on foot through the mountains, and
over terrains unsuitable for horses. I expect you to take care of
her."
Well now, this is unexpected.
"Impa,"
I say slowly, evenly, as though she'd lost her mind. "You love
that horse. That horse may as well be your sister. Why are you really
leaving her behind?"
Call me paranoid, but this is these
are the days of cloak and dagger, and the Sheikah are its
people.
She regards me almost warily. "Sheik, I don't
have time to get into another argument like that. No matter how hard
you look I have no ulterior motives on this. I can't take Sha'doe,
and I expect you to take of her for me."
Yeah right, like
I'll buy that.
"Impa you know as well as I do that
Sha'doe more or less takes care of herself. Why don't you just put
her in the fields at Summer-fell? Or have someone else take her?"
I
can see Impa's mood deteriorating, her expression doesn't change, and
neither does her voice, but her eyes are sparking, and that means
that's she's getting pretty pissed. It also means, I'm hitting
closer to home.
"Sheik, I don't need this now, I'll see
you when I see you, but I'm leaving in less then an hour and I expect
you to both listen and obey Khaz, and take care of Sha'doe. Is this
understood?"
She's using her
'I'm-pulling-rank-and-will-see-you-obey-me-
if-I-have-to-tie-you-to-a-bed-and-have-you-spoon-fed-for-the-rest-of-your-
life' voice.
Common sense, in this situation, would clearly
call on me to nod my head and comply, even if I don't mean it and
fully intend the opposite.
What a shame, I'm pretty low on
that right now.
Personally . . .
I blame her for
that.
"It's understood, unnecessary and more then a
little insulting, but understood alright," I say coolly. "I
can't promise anything, but I'm gonna give Khaz, at the very least,
exactly what he gives me."
Impa knows exactly what I'm
talking about.
If he gives me trouble, I'll give it back to
him.
Her expression darkens and she throws her hands to the
sky as she turns to the ladder and begins her decent, muttering
curses and prayers to the Goddesses.
Probably asking them to
take me off her hands.
Not that it's her hands I'm ever in.
I
push those thoughts away, they'd keep until I have time to brood over
them later. Right now I'd better go and see the new 'nanny' about
whatever impossible amount of chores and labour Impa has,
undoubtedly, instructed him to throw at me.
Sometimes these
Sheikah are very
predictable.
--------------------------------
Impa
made her way quickly to the graveyard, and then down through the
caverns. Making her way silently through the maze to the protected
hidden valley the Sheikah used for training, and as a field for their
needed horses. Currently the only horse there was Sha'doe, the rest
were at Summer- fell.
The grey warhorse trotted up to Impa,
whinnying a greeting. Impa stroked her forehead and pulled her lips
close to Sha'doe's ears. "Guard her Sha'doe, protect her."
The horse snorted in understanding, something Zelda hadn't learned,
and hopefully wouldn't catch onto, was that Sheikan horses were a
great deal more intelligent then normal horses. There were only two
in the world that didn't belong to the Sheikah, a handsome black
stallion with a red mane and tail that was stolen by Ganondorf as a
colt and then corrupted, and a newborn filly that was given to the
Lon Lon ranch people in exchange for using their ranch as a emergency
meeting ground, there was something about the location that allowed
all races easy access and adequate room.
Impa patted her horse
on the neck one more time, then moved to the rock cliff face that
served as a boundary all around the field, and slipped through a lost
door that only she knew of.
--------------------------------
"I
was expecting you long before this time," Khaz remarked when I
had finally stumbled through the door, exhausted and disheveled, a
while after Impa's departure.
I ignored him and looked
around his room. It was big, very big, and also very empty. He had
hardly anything in the room besides his bed a desk and a locked chest
in one corner. "Love what you've done with the place," I
mutter.
He grins, and for some reason it sends chills down my
spine.
"Enough with the pleasantry," he says moving
to the chest and unlocking it, pulling out a set of ten throwing
knives, and a chain whip. "Time to get to work. You're a
chosen Sheikah, and it's time you started acting like
one."
Farore.
This cannot be good for
me...
--------------------------------
I stumble into
my room, it's a little past midday, and I have never been this
exhausted in my life.
I was horrible at all three, and he made no secret of telling me this every other throw or clumsy block.
My
whole body hurts, not to mention my pride. At least got a few good
hits on him during sparring. Cheap shots, yes, but hey, use what's
available to you right? He never said I couldn't throw
candles.
"Heyla there Sheik,"
I can't help
but groan.
"Hello Rin," I grumble, sounding as
haggard as I feel.
"Wow, you look like you spent the
whole night fighting," she whistles as she takes in my appearance,
"and losing I might add."
I
want, desperately, for her to leave so I can go to sleep.
"Want
to go topside?"
I regard her curiously for a second. Rin?
Go topside? She hated Kakariko. "Why?"
"Not to
Kakariko or anything, but to the training field. I heard Impa left
her horse there and I've been dying to try and ride her since I first
laid eyes on her."
Sha'doe. I almost forgot.
Rin
must have known I was going to refuse, because in the next heartbeat
she grabbed my arm and dragged me along beside her.
"Don't
you have anyone else to bother!?" I yell, and she should, it's
not like we're the only non-status Sheikah here, there are other
trainees.
"Nope," she says cheerfully, "They're
all wusses, and I don't care much for their company. You on the other
hand, make things interesting."
Great.
She makes
my life difficult and I make hers interesting.
If I weren't so
damn tried I'd probably be able to stop her.
This would probably be pretty amusing if I wasn't losing sleep to see it.
I
watch as, once again, Sha'doe throws Rin to the ground with an
undignified thump.
But as always, true to her stubborn nature
Rin pushes herself up again, and doggedly mounts up, only to be
thrown again. This process has continued itself for about a half hour
and will probably continue on for as long as Rin's, already badly
beaten body, holds out.
Then it'll be up to me to drag us both
back to our rooms where, if my current luck continues, I will be
roughly pulled out of bed only moments after I actually crawl into it
by Khaz, who will probably fill the rest of my day with tedious and
pointless chores until tomorrow when I'm fully rested so he can beat
me some more with his fists and his sword.
Yeah, I think that
about sums it up real nice.
Rin stumbled over to me after
another two shots with the exact same results, and falls to the
ground at my side. "Ow," she says in a tortured voice.
"That's one horse with a bad attitude!"
I'd laugh
if I had the energy. "You know, they say the definition of
insanity is repeating the same action over and over expecting
different results."
"Sanity's overrated anyway." Is her glib response.
"You ready to head back now?"
She nods mutely, panting to catch her breath.Neither of us moves.
"One minute..." She pants after a long pause.
I lie down on the grass and close my eyes. It'll just be for a moment, and then I'll go back to my room.
That's a lie and I know it, I can already fell myself falling asleep.
Darkness closes around my mind and with a weary smile I welcome it.--------------------------------
A/N - Chapter three, down for the count. Boo yah. I'm on a bit of roll now, let's hope I can keep up the momentum. Please review! It makes me oh so very happy, and it feeds my rather large ego, which is constantly hungry by the way :P
And there we go kiddies, hope you enjoyed it
ciao