Chapter Ten—Struggles

Certainly Link was confused. He didn't know who I was, only that I could come and go at will and give him advice. I, however, had questions of my own.

I wondered about Saria: if she was safe, and if so, where she was; if she was in danger, and if so, what had happened to her.

I wondered about Link: why he didn't know he was a Hylian, why he had come to live as a Kokiri, why he didn't know that the Kokiri remained children forever, why he could survive both in and out of the forest.

Between the two of them, there was a constant knot of worry in my stomach, like that of a mother who doesn't know where her children are late at night. When I told Impa this, she laughed.

"You've always been surprisingly sensitive for a boy, Sheik," she told me. "No… empathetic is a better word. Now you know how I feel when you disappear for days on end and don't tell me where you're going."

I smiled guiltily when she gave me a sharp look; I wasn't sure if her comment was meant as a joke or a warning.

Around midday, I spontaneously developed an unpleasant queasiness in my stomach. I also had a strange hunch, an inexplicable urge to go to the Temple of Time. Fearing the worst and knowing I couldn't ignore the call, I set off on Umikae at top speed. I found myself praying as I rode.

Please let Link be safe… Please don't let this be something bad…

Yet I knew this feeling had not come to warn me of something good.

Trusting Umikae to be able to steer, I concentrated and allowed my vision to become Link's. Complicated though it was to perceive one thing with my eyes and another with all my other senses as I rode, I managed to determine that Link was in the Lost Woods. I saw him weaving through the trees, navigating his way along an apparently random path, past Mido, past other landmarks—he was leaving the forest. But did that mean he had conquered the Forest Temple?

Somehow I doubted I would feel sick with worry if that were the case… No, Link was leaving the task unfinished, and he was going to the Temple of Time…and that meant he was going to return to the days of his childhood. But his business was here—no, it was now. Whatever it was, I had to stop him from abandoning it.

Bringing my vision back to myself, I found that we were nearly at Hyrule Castle Town. I jumped off Umikae's back before he even came to a stop, and ran through the town. Redeads lifted their rotting, masked faces towards me as I passed, but I resisted their paralyzing power by weaving between them at a safe distance. One managed to freeze me in my tracks when I was tantalizingly close to the Temple.

"No—" I forced out through gritted teeth. It was a minor setback. I wouldn't let this shrieking demon stop me.

Summoning my Sheikah powers, I teleported myself the short distance to the Temple's doors. I flung them open, slammed them shut behind me, and slumped against them, my heart pounding from the brief close call.

The usual unearthly silence filled this place. The Spiritual Stones hummed over their resting places. The Pedestal of Time stood empty in a ray of golden sunlight full of drifting dust motes. Everything was as it had been when last I had seen this place, and I had to guard it.

Walking across the Temple of Time was always hard; I felt like I was very conspicuous, under the gaze of the goddesses. I couldn't help looking around uneasily and wishing that my footsteps weren't so loud, though they were already so quiet that even I could barely hear them.

I stood by the Pedestal, waiting. With a horse like Epona, I imagined Link would get to the Temple fairly quickly. I wasn't wrong.

The doors to the Temple opened heavily, and there stood Link, framed by them, backlit by the dull sun, the Master Sword in his left hand and the Hylian Shield on his right arm. He sure knew how to make an impressive entrance, like a true hero.

"Sheik," he said, not sounding surprised. Though he spoke at normal volume, his voice carried easily through the silence. I didn't answer him.

"Do you have something to say?" he pressed, crossing the threshold towards me.

"You can't do this," I said shortly. "You can't give up."

He stopped where he was, halfway across the Temple. "What?" There was an unusual edge in his voice, but I brushed aside the part of me that noticed it.

"You heard me."

"I'm not giving up," he told me scornfully. "I just need to go back and do something."

"Something more important than saving Saria?" I blurted. "More important than being her friend? This is about loyalty, Link."

I instantly wished I hadn't spoken; he went white with rage and strode towards me furiously.

"You take that back," he snarled. "Don't you dare accuse me of that! Don't you dare ever say that to me! You don't know what you're talking about!"

He drew level with me, dropped his sword and shield to the floor in a clatter of metal on stone, and grabbed me by the neck of my clothes. I struggled to keep my face covered, but he didn't notice.

"Do you understand me?" he growled threateningly.

"I… You can't go back…"

"Fine. Don't let me. But don't you ever say that I'm not a loyal friend! Do you understand me?" he demanded, shaking me roughly by the collar.

"I'm…"

"I said, do you understand me?!"

"Yes… I'm sorry."

He let go of me brusquely, and I dropped on my feet onto the stone floor, which I hadn't realized he had lifted me off of, almost losing my balance. Link didn't notice or care; he was already picking up his sword and shield and storming away. I watched him go, thinking…

He's fearless enough to be a True Hero.

After giving Link a few minutes' head start, I slipped silently out of the Temple, crept past the Redeads, and mounted Umikae where he had been waiting outside the gates. Link's words were still in my ears.

"Don't you ever say that I'm not a loyal friend!"

Loyalty. I had no doubts about his loyalty, although I knew my rash comments suggested otherwise. Why was he so concerned about being seen as a person who put his friends first? He must have dealt with accusations like those before…

What I didn't realize then, and wouldn't realize for many years, was that Link had been living with accusations of disloyalty since he had left Kokiri Forest. The rumours Mido had started about him never did stop haunting him, even years after he had established a new life as an adult in Hyrule and had reconciled his feud with his old enemy.

His supposed killing of the Great Deku Tree was what started everything else; it was something that he never could or would completely put behind him. While I had blown off the tales I had heard about it as ridiculous, they were not so easy to forget for someone to whom the Deku Tree was the centre of the universe. To him and to all Kokiri, it was more than just a heartless murder—it was the act of ultimate betrayal.

That night, I had a dream that I knew was clairvoyant. It was fragmented, rather than a smooth sequence. I saw brief flashes of what was happening, followed by periods of dark silence. It was also much more blunt than my usual prophetic dreams, which typically got their point across using symbols, and it unnerved me.

A circular room hung with paintings, like an art gallery, except that each painting showed the same image of a forest path at night leading towards a dark and sinister-looking castle off in the distance—

In the room were two figures; the first one I noticed was suspended in mid-air in a pale rose crystal— It was a young girl, and I knew, though I had never seen her before, that it had to be Saria—

She was dressed all in green, her shorts, sweater and boots, even her short, light green hair, and I'm sure her eyes, too, would have been green if they were open, but she hung limply in the crystal, unconscious—

A fairy sparkled on her shoulder, but since she wasn't moving, neither was it; its wings drooped, and its glimmer was throbbing dully— Ganondorf had her, she was trapped—

Electric fear seized me, even in my sleep, when I noticed the other figure— There, sitting on his midnight black steed, a large and deadly sceptre in his hand, grinning demonically up at his prisoner, was Ganondorf himself— I could hear his laughter booming out, echoing around the room as though there were dozens of him—

Saria's eyes fluttered— She twitched as though dreaming— She was starting to move, regaining consciousness—

She was wide awake again, having apparently remembered where she was. She was pounding furiously against the crystal, shouting in rage, but I couldn't hear any more than muted, indistinct cries— She reminded me of Link now; there was no fear in her eyes, though they shone with tears, only fire and grim determination—

Ganondorf only laughed at her, and she kicked the crystal wall in frustration—

A strange noise outside that sounded like something large and heavy was rolling across the floor— Saria and Ganondorf both looked towards it, with identical expressions of surprise and fear—

The crystal containing Saria disappeared— Ganondorf and his horse jumped into one of the paintings in a violent purple swirl—

Link was coming.

He entered the gallery—

Ganondorf took off his mask— Underneath was no face, just a monstrosity— He was a Phantom—

Link drew a bow—

There was some sort of light—

Link swiped his sword at a flying, glowing ball of energy— He hit it—

It flew away— Back— He swiped—

Missed—

Electricity consumed Link's body, blinding pain, uncontrollable screaming, he flew backwards off his feet—

I woke up, my whole body tingling and my blood racing through my veins just as I knew the energy was racing through Link's. It didn't hurt, but it was a force difficult to contain. It was like the blast I had felt the day I had received the Triforce of Wisdom. I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out as my body surged.

Nayru had told me I would have to help Link, to fight this battle with him. I hadn't realized until now what that meant.

All of my attempts to sleep that night were fruitless. When I closed my eyes, I received sharp visions of Link fighting, and every time Phantom Ganon struck a blow against him, I felt it. I would have sworn it went on for days, or at least hours.

Finally, a different sensation. It was a rushing of adrenaline not unlike that when Link was wounded, but it didn't make me feel sick and agonized. It felt satisfying. In a vision flash, I saw Link standing over Phantom Ganon; the former was sweating, gritting his teeth and clutching the Master Sword that he had driven with all of his strength into the chest of the latter, who was evaporating into dark smoke and flames. When the last of Phantom Ganon disappeared, I felt Link's relaxation, so intense that he staggered and nearly fell over. The vision cut out, this time, I knew, for good.

Looking at the moon in the sky, I barely had time to register in surprise that the battle had not taken as long as I had thought, then I dropped to sleep.

I felt I had just closed my eyes when a telepathic voice entered my mind and awakened me.

::Queen Zelda!::

I froze in fear; this unfamiliar voice knew my identity!

::Don't worry! I'm in the Sacred Realm. My telepathic messages are safe from Ganondorf.:: I thought I heard the voice laugh, a cute and childish giggle.

::You're Saria,:: I thought back, almost without noticing.

::Yep, I am. Link just saved me and awakened me. Is he the best or what?:: She laughed again. ::Anyway, I just thought I'd contact you to introduce myself. So, hi!::

She was contagiously friendly, yet there was a wisdom behind her youthful innocence. I liked her. ::Hi.::

She became serious. ::He's on his way to the next temple now. Said he'd heard it was on top of a mountain. Is that right?::

::Yes. I'm glad he was listening.::

::Oh, did you tell him that?:: She sounded surprised.

::Sort of. I can't really explain.::

::Okay. So I guess you probably have something important to do now?::

::Yes. Well, no. Well…::

Her laugh was like music. No wonder Link treasured her friendship so much.

::I'll let you go, then,:: she told me. ::Bye!::

She left my mind cheerfully, and I noticed I was smiling.

"What a sweet girl," I said to myself as I went to sleep again.

"Nightmares last night?"

Before even saying good morning, this was Impa's greeting to me. I looked up to see if she was giving me a motherly smile; she wasn't.

"Sort of," I said, giving her a meaningful look. "Just one all night. It seemed really real."

Impa caught my meaning. She sat down next to where I was washing my face and hands in the river near Gerudo Valley and said, "Let me help you wash your hair. No, I'm not going to make you cut it, Sheik, although I can't understand why a boy like you would want hair so long…"

I smirked, since she was the one who has decided all those years ago that I should keep it long, and lay on my stomach on the river's edge with my head hanging out over the water for Impa to begin soaking my hair. It weighed so much when wet that I couldn't support it with my neck.

"So tell me about your dream," Impa said conversationally.

Speaking to the delicate silver fish that flashed through the river, I explained, "I had a nightmare that Link—you know, that boy I had to meet and talk to yesterday—that he was fighting some horrible…monster."

Impa made a politely curious noise, as though she was simply being indulgent by listening to my babble, but I knew she really did want all the information I could give her.

"He got hurt a couple of times, I think, but he's okay—Ah! This water is freezing!" I yelped abruptly as a trickle of it rolled down the sensitive skin of my neck.

"Oh, shush," Impa scolded, lightly swatting the back of my head. "It's just because you haven't had water anywhere near you in far too long. Honestly, why boys feel they should be as dirty as possible…" She sighed. "But go on, if you're done complaining."

I made a face I knew she couldn't see, but I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd added, "…and don't you make that face at me."

"Anyway," I continued, "I think Link won."

"Well, that's good," Impa said. She was doing a very good impression of not caring. "What did you have to talk to him about, anyway, the second time you visited him?"

"Oh…just…some people who hadn't seen him in awhile and wanted to know he's okay. Same as before."

"You're just telling who he needs to meet, then, are you?"

"Pretty much."

Impa made an indistinct noise in reply. When she finished washing my hair, she wrung it out and patted me on the back. "All done."

"Thanks, Impa."

"So are you meeting this Link friend of yours again soon?"

"M-hm. I really should."

"Is he your age?"

The question surprised me, because she knew exactly how old Link was, until I remembered that, of course, Impa was pretending she had never met him.

"Yes, about."

"Oh, that's good. You don't have enough friends, Sheik."

I knew her comment was simply part of our cover, but it stung all the same, because it was true.

"There aren't many Sheikah left," I told her defensively. "And it's hard for me to get along with Hylians. Link's just different because he has connections with every race."

Each of these statements, independently, was true. The way I fit them together, however, was misleading. I'm sure Impa noticed; she nodded approvingly.

"I'll eat some quick breakfast, then go to meet Link," I said after a moment's pause. "What's to eat?"

"I'm not your slave. You'll help me cook if you want to eat. We're out of fish, and you were supposed to catch some more yesterday, but you were out running around all day—"

"Didn't you just say I should have friends?"

"When did I say you should neglect your responsibilities for your friends?"

She glared at me bossily; I glared at her sulkily. Then she and I both burst out laughing. She pushed me casually and laughed, "Oh, just go put your hair up and then go fishing. You'll be the death of me, Sheik, I swear."

I forced a smile, though her comment reminded me of my duty to the Sages.

With any luck, I'll save your life instead.

"Hurry, now," Impa nagged, crouching by the river to wash her own hair.

"Yes, mo—"

I stopped myself from joking, "Yes, mother." Somehow, I thought it wouldn't have been funny.

"Yes, Impa."