A/N. hi again, here's chapter 4. I hope the people who have been reading this are enjoying it.
I don't own Zelda or any Zelda characters. What else is new?
Remedy In the Shadows- Chapter 4-
''A friendship grows over time, even if they pair aren't always together.''
The words of an old friend echoed in Links mind. The past was coming back to him, it was as if he was reliving his life.
'Just remember me, here take this.' He remembered when Saria had given him his first ocarina, it was the day he first left Kokiri Forest. That was when everything started, no one saw it coming.
Trees…Mountains…Water…The places that had held the three spiritual stones, that Link had been told to retrieve. He was asked be Hyrule's beloved Princess. Zelda.
Darkness, it came like the wind, invisible, yet he felt it. Their plans, the stones, the Ocarina of Time…the legendary song…It had been a trick. They had thought that they were fighting the darkness…when the darkness was the one fooling them. And they had paid…
Time…time had passed in the blink of an eye. When his eyes opened, a new objective evolved.
Forest…Fire…Water…Shadow…Spirit…shrines that held new treasure that would benefit in the fight against the darkness.
A fight to decide it all…good vs. evil…life vs. death…light vs. darkness…In the end…the darkness was thrown into the cage where it could not escape.
Cold…water…the pair flowed into his mind slowly…it broke everything…the past left him…his lost mind began to return to the present…'
A soft material padded over his forehead, it was damp causing cool beads of water to flow down his skin. Link's eyes fluttered open, he was laying on his back, staring at the wooden ceiling above him. He felt the soft curves of a mattress underneath his back, his head rest on a similar soft pillow.
The only feeling Link felt was emptiness. His mind tried to go back, to make sense of the current situation…
'I was outside…the fight!…but where am I now?'
"I see you're awake now dear child." A woman's voice came from beside him. He turned to look, but the hand that had held the moist cloth to his forehead held him in place, "No, no boy, just relax. You've been through enough for one day."
"Wha--?" The word rose from his throat painfully, barely making it past his lips. Pain arose in his throat causing him to cringe, it felt as if the muscles in his throat had turned to sand, and with each breath they were eroding away.
The hand that held down his head moved to the back of his skull, it was then that he realized that his cap was off. Her hand lifted his head, while the other brought a tin cup to his dry lips. She tipped it, letting the cold water enter his mouth. He swallowed quickly, it may have hurt, but the cool sensation he felt when the liquid hit his throat was worth the small pain.
"Drink, then go back to rest. You'll need to." She was about to take the cup away, but Link took it from her grasp lifting his torso slightly so he wouldn't choke. When dehydration was about to leave him, the tin cup became empty. The tin left his lips as he gasped, trying to savor every last drop that slid down his throat.
A familiar voice spoke, it was full of laughter "You wouldn't be wanting more if you just took my advice!"
'Navi!'
Link's head snapped to his to his left, an open window was on the room's wall. Atop the windowsill lay his cap, and within his cap lay his friend. She floated up slowly…than fluttered right up to Link, who's face showed nothing but relief. One of the last things he saw before he blacked out was her delicate body get tossed to stone, to see her alive made his pain a little easier to go through.
He was speechless, mostly because his head began to throb, making it hard to think. He said nothing, all he did was put his hands to his temples, the women took the cup from his hands and spoke, "Your friend said your name's Link?"
He nodded and removed the hands, allowing himself to see. It felt good to be able to see without haziness that he had seen all day. The women's pale skin seemed to glow in the dark room. Slight wrinkles curved upwards, showing that she had lived a good amount of years. Her pale blue eyes looked weary, even depressed, yet she continued to tend to him.
The women stood up, she had been sitting on a small wooden chair beside his bed. It was at that moment that he realized that he had no clue where he was. However, with the hospitality that he was receiving, he didn't really care. The room was small, definitely recommended for one person. As he lay on the soft bed he saw a small table to his right, on it were some candles, the only light source in the room other than the light that flowed from the window. A single door was within the pale walls on the far side of the room. Near the only exit was a quite expensive looking dresser, dark, enigmatic shapes engraved within the pale wood. The rest of the room was bland, the corners were empty, shelves that hung on the walls held nothing. It seemed that not many people had been there before him, or that people cleaned it very often.
"Whuh- where am I?" He cleared his throat to speak again-- but let it go. Keeping talking to a minimum would be the only way to help his voice.
"At the Inn…In Kakariko Village….Do you remember what happened?" The women's words stayed in his ears for a while, allowing the thoughts to come back to him. Slaine's dark eyes appeared, filled with rage and other unexplainable emotions. He pushed the memories away, just seeing those eyes again was enough to make him cringe. He didn't want to relive the pain that he received from the man's actions, and words.
Not waiting for a reply, the woman continued, "The fight, they're a gang of misfits. My, with the tempers they have you'd figure they…" She trailed off, leaving the sentence incomplete. "Anyway, I'm Miss Leland, Adara Leland, the keeper of this Inn. Well…since we have already allowed you to occupied a room without you giving us any real permission…you will be allowed to stay a night here for no cost."
'…Free?' He leaned back, returning his head to the soft pillow. The previous events passing through his mind, than retreating, but they would be remembered.
"Ya' hear that Link? Since you got beat up, we get to stay for free!" Even though Navi's words were meant to be a joke, no one laughed. The mood within the room was full of relief, washing over Link, pushing all of the fears, all of the sorrows away. However something wasn't right, something in his mind, something in his heart told him that he was doing something wrong.
'Relax! Sleep will help you!
…help……a promise…
…The forest!!'
"Wait!" The effort to sit back up was a waist, Adara lightly pushed him backwards. If he had any hope that would allow him to leave, it was quickly vanishing.
"No! Lay down! You've had a terrible day, the right thing to do is just rest…" If Adara had said something else, he hadn't heard. Without protest, he let his body relax on the soft mattress. As he lay there, his eyes slowly closed. He took the rare opportunity to sleep, thinking only about the ones he wished were alright.
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A soft hooting could be heard from the outside, all else was silent. The sun had set several hours before, the once bright sky was now a place of darkness, occasionally holding a bright star. But all the stars in the sky could not overtake its dark holder, even if they had the help of the bright moon that shone without hesitation. A major amount of light that the Inn's window allowed in was from the moon, a valuable part of life that most took advantage of.
However the amount of light that shown through the window was almost overpowering, considering the fact that Thea's pillow rested near the window. She almost saw light with her dark eyes snapped shut.
'Damn…when I actually feel like sleeping, I never receive it!…damn!'
Giving in to the fact that sleep wouldn't overtake her mind anytime soon, Thea sat up. Her hair was a mess from tossing and turning in the covers. The moonlight made her brown hair look lighter than it actually was. Each strain of hair shone in the light, tangled within themselves. Since they were in front of her, her vision was blocked. Frustrated she blew a light breath upward, lightly pushing the strains off to the side.
The room was silent other than the occasional sounds of Chloe's light breathing. She had fallen asleep a while ago, but not before she humored Thea with adoring words about the young boy who was right down the hall. She had laughed herself right to sleep, leaving Thea alone with her own thoughts.
She thought nothing much of the boy. How could she? All she saw was his unconscious body being cared for.
'All that shows is that he probably can't carry his own weight.'
Sighing she turned her head towards the window, the moon looked down at her. She gazed out at the sky, some would think she was searching for something, alas, she was just letting herself think about things that she sometimes didn't have times to think about.
Her independence was one of her best qualities. Some saw it as being a setback, she put it to good use. Whenever she was troubled, she would learn to teach something to herself, without anyone's help. She may need the basic understanding of something, Anita was the source of that, but once she understood something she would grow ideas off of what she knew. She hated working with someone who was stubborn…because she was somewhat stubborn, and when those two get together, the result may not be lovely.
Knock, Knock, Knock
Thea's head snapped to the direction of the sudden sound, it was soft, barely auditable…
'…It couldn't have been from in here.'
For a while all she did was sit there, eyes glued to the door. A part of her wanted to run right up to the door and see which girl was sneaking around so late at night, but then again, she didn't want to get into other's problems…unless it would get her a good laugh. As she waited, she heard nothing, no footsteps, no talking, not even Chloe's breathing.
'Whatever…must not be that important…'
She thought it was time to give sleep another chance. Her body may not be tired, but her mind was, and eventually the tiredness would spread. Slowly she lowered her body back onto the bed…
'Knock, Knock, Knock!' This time it was more urgent, whoever was out in the hall obviously didn't care about waking any of the adults.
'Son of a…'
"What is that?" Now Chloe was awake, yawning slightly and lifting her tired form from her bed. Thea was standing now, carefully walking towards the door, she hadn't picked her belongings off of the floor yet, so she made sure not to trip.
She reached for the doorknob, clumsily turning it, than she slowly opened the door with a yawn, "Do you know what time it is? What do you want?" Isabel's smiling face was staring right back at her, accompanied with a few other girls holding similar smiles, "What the hell?"
Without answering Isabel and her crew gracefully strolled into Thea's room. Isabel greeted the still sitting Chloe with a nod, she didn't seem to mind the fact that the gesture was not returned, "I do know what time it is, and I have to talk to you Thea." She sat down on Thea's bed, but not before she carefully picked the blanket up and tossed it aside. The rest of the girls leaned against the walls, smiling, making the mood within the room uncomfortable.
Thea closed the door and leaned against it. Whatever Isabel had to say she didn't want to hear it. It would probably be some comment that would keep her up all night sorting out her anger. Letting out a sigh she eyed the other girls in the room. They all stared at her, some were actually laughing.
"Isabel, I'm sure it can wait. So… could ya' get your giggly girls outta our room?" She paused and glared at one of the girls, "I'm sure that they wouldn't find anything interesting in here." The one who she continued to look at was Evian, one of Isabel's closest friends. The moonlight made her blond hair glow with a silver tint, her light eyes sparkled. Her garments were a deep blue, they were enhanced with gems that shone within the light. Luckily, the fact that the shining gems allowed her to be easily spotted didn't matter. Evian was a good thief, she had mastered the way of walking completely quite when on a mission. It was a shame she couldn't use the silence skill on her mouth.
"Good evening to you too Thea! It's been a while since we've…talked." Evian smiled again, knowing that it would annoy Thea, who just continued to glare at her.
'Oh what a shame.'
"Enough small talk, this cannot wait. I'm sure you'll be interested in this Thea." Isabel's words took Thea's attention away from Evian. The other girl had stood now, and walking towards young Thea, but before she got too close, she looked over at Chloe who sat on her bed, quilt still draped over her body, "You! You don't need to hear this! Just go back to sleep!"
Chloe tightened her grip on her blanket and turned towards her friend. When she saw that Thea was not returning her gaze she looked back to Isabel, "Me go to sleep? With all of you in the room? No way! I want to know what's going on!" Her voice was strong, it would have to be in order to face up to Isabel. Thea smiled when hearing her friend stand up against the girl who always barked orders
"Fine, enjoy the show." Isabel snapped, "But don't get in the way!"
"Get in the way of what?" Thea was tired of not knowing what was going on inside the mind of the other Gerudo, yet she didn't really want to find out either. "Explain why you're here, or get the hell out!"
Her words allowed Isabel's eyebrows to rise slightly, "Hmmm that temper never seems to leave you does it?" Again a smile formed across her lips, at that moment nothing would please Thea more than to wipe that smile off of her face. She continued, "Well, you know that young boy that was brought into the room down the hall right? …Well?"
Realizing that an answer was being waited for, Thea spoke, "…Well, what?" Laughter arose form the girls, only Chloe and Thea were silent.
"Oh come on!" Evian walked forward to stand beside her friend, her words grew a little softer, "Besides the fact that he's quite handsome, you saw that he seemed to have some stuff with him! A sword, shield, I saw that he had a satchel! I bet your dieing to know what's inside that!"
"So what! He seems to be from a different place! Of course I'm interested in what he has! Who wouldn't be!" Thea's voice grew frustrated, she had an idea where the conversation was going, and she didn't like it.
As Isabel moved forward the whole room grew quite. The owl could be heard once again outside. She moved so silently that the floorboards did not creak, now she was only inches away from Thea. They were even in height, allowing the pair to easily look into each other's eyes, "Than why don't you go find out?" Her voice was a soft whisper, it floated in the air, causing the hairs on the back on Thea's neck to stand on end.
'What's she getting at? Don't listen to her!'
"What are you talking about?" Thea mirrored the tone of Isabel's voice with her own, but adding a slight mocking tone, allowing herself to smile a bit.
In a blink of an eye Isabel's face changed, her emerald eyes narrowed, they looked darker in the nightlight. Her full lips curved into a sneer, "Look, we're all leaving soon! Now lets make the rest of the time here enjoyable shall we? The boy obviously got injured, how could he not be in a deep sleep now? And if he's hurt than he must not be feeling one hundred percent to wield his sword and shield. Are you starting to understand what I'm saying? I know it might be hard for you to understand things--…"
"You want me to sneak into his room?" Thea almost yelled out.
Now Evian walked forward to once again join Isabel, "Why not? Oh god…are you afraid?!"
"No, please what's to be afraid of?" Thea smiled taking a step back. She glanced at Chloe who was starting to rise from her bed.
Chloe spoke softly, but seriously to prove a point, "Thea, don't do anything you will regret--…"
"Isn't Thea's motto 'Don't ever regret, things happen for a reason?'" Isabel silenced Chloe with her words. Isabel was almost fully satisfied with that. Now everyone was silent, all eyes stared upon Thea, the girls all wanted to know what her response was going to be.
"…What do you want me to do?" The words just barely escaped her lips. She knew that she was doing just what Isabel and Evian had wanted her to do, but she wanted to make their trip worthwhile. Thea glanced around at the ones who occupied the room, Chloe stared at the floor, she seemed to want to say something, but her mouth stayed shut. Evian folded her arms and smiled, along with Isabel. The other girls started to whisper, Thea occasionally heard her name, but that was all she could hear from the whispers.
"Well…" Again Isabel was taking on the role of explaining the situation, "…Just sneak into his room, find out what kind of treasures he has, and bring some back. It's quite easy- well, that is as long as you're a true thief." Thea understood the situation perfectly, even though risks were involved, the fact that the boy was injured and alone could actually make the situation easy for her to accomplish. The only thing left to decide was… if or if not, the boy truly deserved it.
As a young girl, Nabooru had told her a story about the differences between a bad thief and a good thief. The memory of being told the story played through her mind quickly;
'Young Thea sat on the plush seat at the dining table. She had just finished her supper, Nabooru sat across from her, telling her a story.
"So why didn't the Good Thief take more of the man's treasure?" Young Thea asked her superior.
"It's quite simple…" Nabooru sipped her glass of wine as she explained, "She knew what the consequences would be if she took too much from the man. You see kid, the Good Thief knew that the man needed money too, and that his life would be ruined if he were to lose everything."
Being a child, Thea had to ask many questions, "But she's a thief, why didn't she just take everything?"
Nabooru took another sip, "Well, if she were to take everything from that one poor man, what's stopping her from taking everything from her other victims? The powers of greed would take over her body, who knows how far she would end up going just to steal. She would end up being a BAD thief. While The Good Thief thought out her plans, The Bad Thief carelessly took everything from her victims! And I believe I have already taught you about karma."
"But, but…How does she get all of her treasures if she only takes a small amount from the poor man?"
Thea's questions caused her superior to laugh. Nabooru set her glass down, stood up and smiled at the young girl, "Dear child, what's the point of being a thief if you don't get the excitement of stealing from various people? Besides, if you take everything from one person, they won't be able to earn anything else for you to take in the future!" She laughed again, than walked over to the child. She kneeled down so that they were at even height, "Listen to my words kid, take what you want from others, but make sure you always keep in mind how much you actually need, have want always before need…but not by much."
Nabooru's words left Thea's mind almost as fast as they had arrived. Reality came back, she was back in the Inn, facing her rivals. They looked at her with puzzled looks, Thea realized that she never fully answered their question.
'If the boy was foolish enough to get into a fight, than he deserves it!'
After another second of thinking, Thea finally gave the much-awaited answer, "Alright, I'll do it… Just get off my back!"
The only thing that could be heard in the room was the girlish laughter.
A/N. Hay, I thought I'd add that little story in just for the heck of it, I'm enjoying writing past events as they pass through the character's minds. So that stuff shouldn't be dieing down anytime soon. I'm writing the next chapter, so look around for it!
-CB