Isa: Yus questions will be answered as story continues. Once again i do not own LOZ. But I wish i did that's why I'm stuck writing pointless fanfiction. --"
Chapter Four The Return of Sheik
Princess Zelda gasped and slammed her hand on the wooden table for support, the wave of pain and sorrow that had hit her was intense, but not as intense as the fast moving vision of Link falling off his horse. In that brief moment, everything seemed to freeze up, and Zelda felt as if all that she cherished most was lost. The female voices she heard, they sounded familiar.
"Gruedo?" she said out loud, her voice not her own, "oh-no, something terrible has happened to them...something terrible has happened to Link too..."
Zelda inhaled through her nose slowly and exhaled through her mouth at the same pace. She turned to her dresser and knelt beside it. She pulled out the last door and removed the thick white sheets. Blue armor, a white hat, and a white bandana lay beneath the blankets. A dagger on top of them, Zelda reached for the dagger and turned it over in her hands carefully.
"I have to protect Link" she whispered to herself, "like he protects me, it is now my turn to return the favor. I only hope, he doesn't remember"
She began to change into the blue armor that fitted tightly around her small body, using her magic to conceal herself as much as she could. She flexed her fingers in the blue gloves, her Triforce symbol glowing brightly on her left hand. Next, she tied up her hair and placed it under underneath the white hat and wove the bandana around her face. She sat on her bed and pulled the leather boots high up to her knees.
Link had once seen her like this before, but he didn't know it was his princess at the time, until she revealed herself to him, but in the transition of returning to the past from the future, she had lost some memories, like those of her mother, and Ganon being a servant to her father, she could only hope Link had forgotten some details as well.
For she was no longer the maiden Princess Zelda of Hyrule, but the young boy Sheik, of the Sheikah people.
A warm wind swept over the Desert and placed sand over the countless number of motionless bodies that littered the Greudo Fortress by the thousands. The only ones who made it were the mothers and children, who had escaped into the Spirit Temple that lay beyond the Haunted Wasteland. Sharazard leaned against a stone wall, her hand limply clutched the hilt of her Greudo long sword. Pain throbbed in her head, thighs, and ribs. Blood trickled down her arm and the side of her head, bruises inhabiting her body by the hundreds. Every muscle ached, and screamed with intense pain.
Sharazard blinked back sour tears and stared at the sky, the sun rose high above pouring heat on the broken bodied and spirited Gruedo. Her ears caught the faint sound of a sword being inserted back into it's sheath. A slim figure stood before her, dressed in a black tunic, staring at her with freezing blue eyes.
It was then that she realized, it wasn't the sound of a sword being inserted into a sheath that she herd, it was the sound of a sword being drawn out. The boy's weapon gleamed a bright blue, then darkened into a raging orange fire, and he was drawing closer.
Sharazard wanted to get away, but had her legs not been broken she would have fought back, but she was too weak and could only watch helplessly as her enemy prepared for the attack, the finishing blow. A strange feeling came over her. Sharazard had always thought that she would experience fear when facing her death, being the disgrace she was, but instead as she gazed into her enemies eyes, as he raised his sword above his head, she could only feel anger and regret.
Never trust a man she thought bitterly and her last word was only this,
"Traitor"
Link swayed his head from side to side, moaning and muttering to himself. His back hurt, as well as his head, and he winced as he felt a strong arm, prop against his back and help sit him up. Link opened his eyes slowly and soon his world came into focus. A boy with bright blond bangs and hazel eyes, with half of his face hidden by a bandana stared at him and held up a water canteen.
"Drink" he commanded simply, and Link did so. When he finished, he blinked and glared at his visitor. "Hey, I remember you" he gasped and the boy winced subtlety, "you were the kid who helped me a long time ago, and you were the one who kept popping up in various places and saving my butt. You're Sheik" Link remember very vaguely about this boy, the only thing he knew about him was that he was a Sheikah, a mysterious people almost as battle fierce as the Greudo, but they were said to be wiped out during Ganon's reign. Impa was one of them, as a child Link would ask her many things about her people and the mysterious Sheik, but Impa wouldn't tell him much about her past and claimed she never herd of the name.
"Are you all right?" Sheik asked, sitting on his hunches. Link nodded, rubbing the back of his head.
"I think so, but...ow...what happened?"
Sheik shrugged. "It's probably best if explanations are kept for later. An incredible an evil force has nearly wiped out the entire Greudo race, and there's no doubt the evil will come to Hyrule"
"Try returning to Hyrule, Nabooru was captured by a...wait" Link turned sharply towards the Sheikah, "did you say the entire Gruedo race has been wiped out?!"
"Only a few hundred of them, and the survivors claim it was done all by one man" Sheik replied, standing. Link stood as well.
"One man? Impossible, even with all my experience and magic I could barely defeat one Greudo in combat, never three, and fat chance at a 'few hundred'''
Sheik shrugged again. "I only know what I have been told, and my sources don't lie"
"Sometimes I wonder how you get all your info" Link muttered stretching his aching back, "and weather or not they're entirely true"
Sheik eyes widened at this, then he narrowed them to small slits.
"As I said before, my sources don't lie, and they are entirely trustworthy"
Link held up his hands in self-defense.
"Chill dude, I'm not about to do a Lens of Truth test on you"
Sheik snorted and mounted a pale white horse; Link slid his hand along Epona's saddle and did the same. The two boys rode off at a steady trot. Epona shook her short white mane and snorted but Sheik's stead was silent, like his owner.
Link moved uncomfortable in his saddle, he hated silence.
"So uh...Sheik, what brings you to Death Mountain trail?" he questioned.
"I was in the neighborhood" was the brief reply.
"Ah-hu" Link turned forward and stared at the open space between Epona's ears, and that was that. The two boys wouldn't converse with each other for about another ten miles. Suddenly, Sheik sat up right in his saddle and spoke.
"Why are you travailing to the Mountain of Death?"
Link sighed. "It's kind've a long story"
"I believe we have time" Sheik droned, waving his hand about the landscape.
"Well, it all started when Nabooru came up to the palace-"
"The Spirit Sage?"
"Yes, anyway she came up and started talking to some dude, then I herd a scream and I came running. She was being attacked by some...guy wearing dark clothing"
Sheik's eyes widened. "Wait" he said, yanking on the reins and bringing his horse to a complete stop, "you said he was wearing black? and only black?"
Link shrugged, also stopping Epona. "Yeah, I guess you could say that"
Sheik glared down at the floor and closed his eyes. "Goddesses, I thought it was only..."
Link narrowed his eyes, the sun was rising high and the air was growing uncomfortably moist, "Only what?" the young hero asked, "Sheik, your keeping something back from me"
"Never mind" Sheik replied, a little too quickly, and clicked the reins of his steed and prepared to move on. Link outstretched a firm hand and grabbed the reins and Sheik's arm. The shorter lad gazed up at the Hylain, the sun reflecting off his shield.
"No 'never mind', your holding back, and I don't like it when people hold back. Come on, it can't be any worse then what I've already herd" "You would be surprised" Sheik muttered, then exhaled slowly, "all right I'll tell you, but you may not like what you're about to hear"
Link, shifted in his saddle and glared at Sheik, his eyes readless.
"I'm listening"
"When I was riding, practicing my archery at the Gruedo Fortress, a strange man walked through the gates. Two Guards went to inspect him, he was draped in black. But he was familiar, very familiar so the guards let him in. The appointed leader in Nabooru's absence stepped forward to greet the new comer, I followed to do the same, but then....he pulled out his sword, and it glowed a bright blue, then changed to a deep red. He sliced upward and before I knew what was happening, the Greudo female was on the ground. Bleeding dangerously. I pulled out bow and arrows, since they had taken my sword from me as their custom, and I turned it on the....stranger. I was not permitted to fight of course, but I knew if they had let me, they would have at least been saved a few lives. I knew how he worked. But they didn't in fact I was forced to leave, and all I herd were screams and battle cries, and some of the younger women fled with their children." Sheik hung his head, "so many lives lost, unnecessary deaths, the dark warrior was good with the sword, extremely good, he knocked out ten Gruedo warriors with one Spin Attack" Link eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but the Sheikah continued, "I fear that the evil will spread to Hyrule, if" he swallowed, "if it hasn't already"
Link almost slid off his horse again, but he hung on the reins and saddle tight. He opened his mouth once again, but only air came out.
"You.....you think this...is....my...fault?"
"I didn't say that" Sheik mummer. Link laughed uncomfortably.
"Oh, but you did. You think that I went crazy and just started killing a whole bunch of people for no reason at all! I'm the only one who could use a Spin Attack, but it wasn't me, because the Kokiri elves only make green tunics, therefor I only wear green" he laughed again, "next thing you'll be telling me is that he had the Triforce symbol on his hand! ha!"
"That's what the Greudo have told me'' Sheik whispered. "I don't believe this" Link gasped, "you...you..."
"Calm down Link" Sheik ordered sternly, "I do not know who or what this man is, but I am certain it isn't you. It didn't feel like you. No, this is some trick by the Dark Forces, but a little advice....don't go within twenty miles of the Gruedo Fortress, or you'll be shot on sight" Link choked, "Great, one of Hyrule's strongest allies...gone"
Sheik whacked Link over the head with his hand. "That is the least of our problems! We have a dangerous force here at work! And your reputation to save!"
Link rubbed the back of his head and winced. "Ow, okay but we don't even know where to start looking"
Sheik stared into the sky and thrusted his finger at the tall pillar of smoke rising from Death Mountain.
"My sources tell me we will find some answers, there" he replied.
Link rolled his eyes. "Again with the sources!! Sheesh! Don't I ever catch a break?"