2. Into the Woods

I spent the night at Impa's, and left after a leisurely breakfast to check on Link's progress. I was sure he'd been in Kakariko already, I'd heard the Ocarina come into town and made sure I stayed out of sight until he stopped for the night, but I didn't know how far he'd come. According to Dampé's ghost Link had already stopped by and won the Hookshot. That was good, but Dampé said Link had seemed upset about something, Dampé wasn't sure what. That worried me, if Link was upset he might not be able to make it out of the Forest Temple unharmed.

Mara, a woman who raised cuccos, said that he'd helped her with her pocket cucco and taken the one that belonged to her brother to cheer it up. Mara's mother said that he'd stopped by and woken up Talon, the one-time owner of the Lon Lon Ranch. An old refugee from Castle Town said that he'd spent the night in that tree at the entrance of town.

Link had been busy.

It was now fairly late in the day, so I used the Minuet of Forest to get to the Temple, then climbed up a tree and jumped to the entrance. Perhaps I was underestimating Link, after all, if I could get into the Forest Temple without the Hookshot, he should be able to figure it out too.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't overestimate his intelligence. I'd been living in Ganon's world for seven years, Link had been in it for just under a day. Maybe I should just, as he'd said, "throw him a bone."

Plus, he was really hot.

There was a Moblin yell from the hedge maze in front of the Temple, and I could hear the Ocarina drawing closer. Link was here.

It took him about fifteen minutes to make it through the maze of Moblins and to the sacred meadow where the Temple stood. I had climbed back into the trees just moments before he arrived, so I could make a cool entrance.

Link walked cautiously into the meadow and approached the Forest Temple, staring up at it.

"Waugh!" he exclaimed as I jumped down from the trees.

"Yo," I greeted him calmly. The look on his face was priceless.

"Sheik?" He stared at me. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping," I answered, just to tick him off. I took my harp off and spoke. "The flow of time is always cruel, its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it. A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days. In order to return here play the Minuet of the Forest." That was a ridiculously sappy speech, and I'd put just a bit more of my real self into it than I'd meant to

I played the Minuet of Forest. He took out the Ocarina and followed along.

As the music of the harp and Ocarina mingled in the air between us I felt the magic rise up all around. I don't think he knew the song was magic, and when he stopped playing he blinked, looked as me, and asked, "What…was that?"

I smiled, he was so cute when he was confused. "The Minuet of Forest will transport you back to this clearing whenever you play it."

"Cool," he looked down at the Ocarina. "It's amazing what music can do isn't it?"

I started laughing. Long and loud. It was unbelievable.

"What?" he asked, frowning. He was so cute, I just laughed harder. "What?"

Finally I wiped my eyes and sighed. "You're still a child on the inside aren't you?" I asked.

"Well, yeah, I guess. Why?"

I grinned. "I said almost the exact same thing when I first learned that song and what it could do."

He blinked again. "Really?"

I nodded. "Link…I'll see you again."

"What? Hey!" I threw a Deku nut on the ground and escaped. I wanted to stick around and see the look on his face, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of the escape.

Reappearing on the other side of the hedge maze, I laughed happily and headed out into the Lost Woods. I knew my way around there, I know my way around everywhere, but was startled when I ran into a Kokiri kid not far in.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Who are you? I didn't let you through!"

"No," I agreed mildly. "You didn't."

"How did you get in there?"

I ignored the tiny belligerent and went on through the forest. I was just walking aimlessly, but realized after a couple of yards that I was grinning like an idiot. I couldn't stop, this enormous grin was spread from ear to ear and I couldn't stop it.

A few more steps and I felt a giggle bubbling up inside me. I clapped my hand across my mouth and started running, only stopping when I got to a clearing with a dead tree in the middle. Then I threw my head back and giggled like a schoolgirl.

What was wrong with me? I felt like a bottle of champagne, or maybe like I had just drunk a bottle of champagne. I couldn't stop grinning, I wastee-hee-ing insanely, and thinking of Link had me all…hot and bothered. It wasn't exactly a feeling I wanted to keep, so I took several deep breaths and crouched into my fighting stance.

Time for training.

For hours I put myself through my paces. Stretches, lunges, jabs and kicks, all my usual training exercises, but I drove myself even harder than usual. I could feel the Ocarina nearby for most of it, but it moved out of the forest and farther away near evening. About the same time Saria awoke as a Sage. With the extra power I got from that, I threw myself even harder into the training.

Some time after the sun had set, I finally stopped training, peeled off my shirt, and climbed up the dead tree to stare at the moon and dream of Link.

I was sweaty, tired, topless, and I stunk, all very masculine things, but I had never felt more like a woman in my life.

"I don't know who I am anymore," I said aloud.

"Don't worry," a voice that sounded well-used to cackling said behind me, "in a few moments the point will be moot."

I turned slowly and glared at the person behind me. "Do you mind, this was a private conversation."

The witch (Koume or Kotake, I wasn't sure which) cackled. "You're crazier than you claim the great Ganon is."

"Your so-called 'great' Ganon is a madman bent on world domination. I've got teenage angst. There's a difference."

"The great Ganon never had teenage angst," the witch said smugly.

"Ganon is a frickin' lunatic, I thought we'd established that."

"You are a fool for resisting him."

I looked closely at the witch, decided she was Koume, and kicked things up a notch. "I'm the fool? You're a million-year-old, umm, thingie and you've raised yourself a madman. Congratulations Koume."

Koume's hair was starting to smolder. "First of all, you are a fool. Second, I'm only four- uh, three hundred. And third," her hair burst into flame, "Ganon is destined to rule the world!"

I looked at her quite calmly. "If that's true, I might as well just end it all now."

"Good idea." Koume hurled a ball of fire at me and I leapt out of the tree and to the ground. The fireball hit the spot where I'd been sitting and within seconds the dead tree was engulfed in flames.

"Hey now," I grinned. "Only you can prevent forest fires."

"You little-"

I scooped my shirt up off the ground, took a deku nut out of my pocket, and threw it down before she could finish. I made it to Hyrule Field with that jump, and took off for Lake Hylia. At least she couldn't burn that down.

Unfortunately, not even halfway there I ran into her sister.

"Hey!" she exclaimed to the passenger on her broom. "It's that Sheikah kid! The annoying one. You know."

Her passenger did not respond, but then, hypnotized zombie slaves never do.

Koume rushed up, hair still ablaze. "He called the Great Ganon a frickin' lunatic!" she exclaimed, pointing a gnarled finger at me.

"What?!" Kotake's hair suddenly froze. "Well we can't let him get away with that! Nabooru, kill!"

The hypnotized zombie slave that had once been unofficial leader of the Gerudo tribe jumped down from Kotake's broomstick and drew a massive sword.

I swore. This was going to be a long night.

After hours of battling I finally managed to hide in the Temple of Time. Despite Ganon's desecration of it, the Temple was still a bit too holy for Twinrova to enter, and it was one of the few places I could sleep without fear of capture or destruction. I lay down on the floor near the door to the Chamber and fell asleep instantly.

It seemed like I'd only been asleep for a few minutes when a sudden pain in my ankle woke me.

"Ow!"

"What the-!"

"Sheik?"

"Link?"

I blinked sleepily up at Link, then pulled myself up into a sitting position. "You should watch where you're going," I mumbled.

"You shouldn't be sleeping in the Temple of Time." He peered at me. "Were you sleeping in the Temple of Time?" I just blinked again. "Why were you sleeping in the Temple of Time?"

I yawned. "I have nowhere else to go," I answered simply.

This time he blinked at me. "You're kidding."

"Nope." I got up and walked over to the Pedestal, where I sat on one of the steps. I patted the spot next to me, inviting him to sit down. He did. "You look awful by the way," I said. He did too, really tired and an absolute mess.

"I don't doubt it," he scratched at his cheek, and got a haunted look in his eyes. "I just found out I'm an orphan."

I shrugged. "So am I. Deal with it."

He stared at me. "You are?"

I nodded. "Ganon killed my parents, along with most of the other Sheikahs." The Ganon killing my parents thing was true, but not that they were Sheikahs, obviously. I looked at him. "I told you when we met I was the last."

"Wow…" he looked upset. "You're worse off than I am. I'm just a regular Hylian."

I laughed. "Of all the things you are, a regular Hylian is not among them." He was way too gorgeous and way too nice to ever be called regular.

He laughed too. "Maybe not." For awhile we laughed together, and it seemed to relieve him. Eventually though, we stopped. And there was nothing to talk about.

After a few moments, I broke the awkward silence. "So… How'd things go in the Temple?"

I thought it was an innocent question, but he groaned and slumped forward, putting his head between his knees.

"Oh, come on," I patted his shoulder awkwardly. "It can't have been that bad."

"It's not just that," he said, voice muffled.

"Then what is it?"

He sighed. "You want the whole list?"

"Sock it to me," I smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

"Okay," he took a deep breath. "I just found out everything I thought about myself was a lie, I've lost one of my best friends to sagehood, Ganondorf's puppet nearly finished me off and Ganondorf got away from me, I failed miserably at saving the world, I'm missing seven years of my life, I'm worrying myself sick over Zelda, and, oh yeah, I'm so horny I can barely think."

"Wow." I took a deep breath and laughed a little. It was the first time ever someone had confided anything like that to me. "Okay, that sucks, but at least that last one is normal."

"Somehow I doubt that," he muttered.

"No, I'm serious. All guys our age feel like that." This was true, at least as far as I knew. I did however, know for a fact that girls our age were fairly horny as well.

"Not as bad as I feel it."

"Okay," I took another deep breath and tried to think of how to approach this, "look at me." He didn't move. "Sit up and look at me." He sighed and did so. "It. Is. Completely. Normal. I have those kinds of thoughts all the time." True, especially about him (Damn he was fine).

"I refuse to believe that every teenage male thinks about this stuff as often as I do," Link said stubbornly.

"Fine, be that way." I paused, this topic of conversation was a little weird, so I tried to think of something else. "You know, this is a good opportunity to teach you the Prelude of Light."

"The who now?"

I stood up and stretched. After sleeping on the floor of the Temple I had a lot of kinks in my back, and I had to stretch them out. When I turned to Link he was looking at me oddly, then quickly looked away, blushing slightly.

"Stand up and get out the Ocarina," I ordered. He did, smart considering I wasn't giving him a choice. "There will be times you will need to return here quickly," I said in my formal voice. "You will need this song to be brought to this place… The Prelude of Light."

I began to play, and Link played along. Like with the Minuet of Forest, the magic of the song made itself felt, and pulled more light into the Temple. As the light came in, it fell on the Pedestal, and reminded me of something that he probably didn't know. Something that I wasn't entirely sure I wanted him to know. Selfish as it was, I wanted to keep this gorgeous hunk of man-flesh right where I could get to him at all times. But I knew I had to tell him.

"One more thing," I said when I finished. I couldn't look at Link, so I looked at the Pedestal instead. "Just so you know. If you put the Master Sword back in the Pedestal of Time…" I took a breath, saying this was an effort, "you'll go back."

"'Back?'" He looked at me with wide hopeful eyes. "What do you mean 'back?'"

"I mean back," I frowned at the Pedestal. "Back to your proper time."

"You mean it?" He rushed over and grabbed me by the shoulders, staring into my eyes. "I can really go back to being a kid?"

"Uh-huh," I couldn't help but grin, he looked so happy. "You're still mentally a kid, aren't you?"

"Maybe." He released me and turned away, blushing. "What's it to you?"

"Ohh…nothing…" I kept on grinning. "It's just, kids think differently about certain things, react differently to certain situations," I looked at him, grinning as infuriatingly as I could, "blush easier…"

He gulped and turned away, blushing even more.

"Tell me what you're thinking right now," I said

He didn'tmake a soundfor a moment or two, then simply said, "No."

"Come on…" I pleaded, still grinning.

"No."

"I won't tell anyone else."

"I said no."

"Fine," I got to my feet and dusted myself off. "Then I won't tell you what I know about Zelda."

"What?!" Instantly he was on his feet and had me tight by the collar. "You tell me what you know now, or I'll tear it from your head myself."

"Geez, calm down." He was actually scaring me, and holding my collar the way he was was cutting off my air supply. The anger in his eyes faded as he realized what he was doing.

Abruptly he released me. "Sorry," he said bluntly.

"No big deal." I casually sat back down on the step. "Take a few deep breaths and get that testosterone under control, and I'll tell you all you need to know."

"I said tell me now," he loomed over me. "I'm not afraid to hurt you."

I looked at him with narrowed eyes. Who did he think he was challenging? "You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

"Oh no?"

"No."

We stared each other down, neither one of us blinking, moving, or doing anything but glaring and breathing. Suddenly, at the same moment Link's anger drained from his eyes, I realized something that I probably should have realized before. I wasn't just hot for him, I loved him. With all my heart and soul I loved him, and he thought I was a guy. Dammit.

"What?" He sat down on the steps and leaned towards me. I couldn't meet his eyes, if he saw what I was feeling he would never talk to me again. "What's the matter, scared?" Link teased me.

I stood up and stepped away from him. He was so hot, I just couldn't stay close to him without doing something. "Not exactly," I said, avoiding his gaze. "I just remembered something I have to do." Oh yeah, he'll buy that.

"Wait!" he leapt to his feet. "What about Zelda?"

I looked at him, startled, then smiled. "She's fine, completely safe, and she's even more worried about you than you are about her."

Then, before he could say another word, I threw a nut on the ground and got away.

As soon as I was safely away, I buried my face in my hands and sobbed.