Disclaimer: I don't think I own anyone in this story. Zelda, Link, Hyrule, Ganondorf, etc, are all un-mine, and the "gang" belongs to various and sundry people. If I come across anybody I actually do own, I'll be sure to tell you.

*

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Sitting

            Here

                        Wondering

                                    Watching

                                                Waiting

                                    Wanting

                        To

            Know

How

            The

                        Final

                                    Move

                                                Is

                                                            Yours.

*

Some time shortly after lunch, Link had left Zelda to go hit things with his sword. Or, as he liked to put it, 'practice.' Zelda had contented herself to going to a hillside and lying back on the grass, staring at the clouds. Her thoughts were disorganized and random, varying from the solemn to the absurd. Zelda liked it that way. She shouldn't have to be burdened by the past and the future all the time.

            The sky was a perfect blue that is always written about and never seen; the clouds were big and fat and fluffy. The grass all around smelled of the rich earth; the trees were rich in their browns and greens, swaying softly with a breeze that only they seemed to know. And Rhia D'nalz's eyes, suddenly right above Zelda's face, twinkled.

            "Yeep!" Zelda sat up suddenly, as a reflex, and hit her head on Rhia's head. Zelda fell right back down and Rhia toppled over backwards. The other four, standing nearby, laughed. Zelda sighed sharply. "I do not like you people."

            "Which is probably why we keep coming on back," said Rowrun. He went over and stuck out a hand to help Rhia up.

            "What's this? A party without me?"

            "'Ello, Link," André called as the green-clad hero made his way over. "We were just about to tell Zelda how the world was about to end."

            Zelda sat up. "Again?"

            The five regulars at the Tourney looked at each other. None of them really wanted to be the one to tell the news, even though that was why they had all come to Hyrule. "Well, somebody tell me, or I'm going back to my cloud-watching," Zelda said.

            Lindsay decided to tell Zelda. "The Tourney is closed," she said softly.

            Zelda jumped up. She and Link exchanged glances. "What?" Zelda said. "What do you mean, the Tourney's closed?"

            "Exactly what I said," Lindsay said sadly. "By order of the King of Odnetnin, the Tourney building has been set off-limits to everyone. The Tourney's not happening this year—maybe never again."

            "Why?" Link said.

            The five looked around at each other again. "No one knows, exactly," Zyuiu said. "Not even Frick and Frack here." She tossed her head towards André and Rowrun.

            Rowrun and André looked at each other. "That's not entirely true," Rowrun said. "Those of us in a certain order may have overhead…something…"

            Zyuiu stared at them in disbelief. "You've known something all this time?"

            "By the goddesses, tell us!" Lindsay demanded.

            "All we know is, 'the shadow' has overtaken the Tourney," said André.

            "'The shadow?'" Link said unhappily. "Like the demon shadow from Kakariko?" Rowrun and André could only shrug.

            "After Ymota U died, I looked through some of her things," Zyuiu offered suddenly. "She had a few books. I burned most of them; they were nothing but evil. But there was one that just seemed to be a reference to evils in the world. Everything was there—everything you fought to become to the Hero of Time, Link. But other things, too. The very last reference was hastily scrawled, and I think Ymota U might've written it."

            "We're all just full of surprises today," Rhia muttered.

            Zyuiu smiled. "It was business between Ymota U and myself," she said. "I had no reason to say any of it—until now, anyway." Zyuiu looked up into the clouds, as if seeking guidance, then continued. "What am I saying, of course it was written by Ymota U. There were little sketches, notes alongside the entry. It was simpled titled 'The Shadow.' The sketches were of several mirrors, like…like the one beneath the Tourney. I don't recall exactly what the entry said, but it had something to do with insanity, another plane, and…things like that."

            "That sounds like whatever closed the Tourney," André said. "Remember, guys, we were holding an early Tourney this year by request. Everyone had shown up to practice when the sun didn't rise one day. It rose everywhere else, but there was a dark blanket over the Tourney. Everyone packed up and left for the castle, and my father sent in a few soldiers to investigate."

            "They came out physically unharmed," Rowrun said. "But they're stark raving mad, now."

            "Hm," Zyuiu said. "I wonder what happened to the gatekeeper."

            Everyone turned to stare at Zyuiu. "That was the absolute most random thing I've heard all day," Zelda said.

            Zyuiu looked around, suddenly aware of everyone staring at her. "Hm? Oh. Not really," she said. She seemed about to say something when a little candle lit above her head—or so it seemed, anyway. "Oh, right. None of you know that."

            "Know…what?" Link asked.

            "The gatekeep is also Master Tourney," Zyuiu said with a shrug. "Don't ask me why. He's got several appearances, as far as I can tell. He became a bit of a father figure to me, over the years, so that's why I—and Ymota U—know."

            "Proceed with the thought," Rhia said.

            "That day when the sun didn't rise," Zyuiu said. "I saw everyone but Master Tourney leaving, or arriving the the castle. I asked around. No one saw Master Tourney leave, and he hasn't been seen since then." Zyuiu shrugged. "It's probably nothing. He probably went home. It was just a thought that I sort of said out loud."

            There was a short silence, then Zelda said, "So the Tourney is closed." She took a deep breath. "Why did you come here?"

            "That wasn't actually our original thought," Lindsay said. "Once the lot of us figured out that something unnatural was going on, Rhia thought she might have something on it, in a book of hers. The books, incidentally, are all in her house here in the Proper."

            "So we came over," Rhia said, smiling. "And my books had nothing! So then I said, hey, Zelda knows a lot about this kind of random evil occurrence, probably Link does too. Why don't we go ask them?"

            "So we did," Rowrun said.

            "I'm really sorry, guys," Zelda said. "But neither Link nor I know anything about any—shadows."

            "That's not actually what we were going to ask you," Zyuiu said. Link and Zelda glanced at one another: there was something ominous in Zyuiu's words. "We were hoping you would both come back with us to Odnetnin and help us fight the shadow."

*

"No."

            "You don't understand, Father, I must g—"

            "No."

            The seven that had stood in this room three years ago as the ones from the Tourney, Zelda, Link, Lindsay, Rhia, Zyuiu, André, and Rowrun, stood there now, pleading before the King and Queen of Hyrule. Or rather, Zelda was doing the pleading. The other six stood there looking pitiful and hopeful and the like.

            The King and Queen, understandably, didn't want Zelda and Link going off to another country to a fight a shadow that had yet to become a problem in Hyrule. And Zelda, understandably, didn't understand why they weren't letting her.

            "Mother, Father, you don't understand!" Zelda protested. "If the shadow—whatever it is—is allowed to flourish in the Tourney, it could take over all of Odnetnin. And if it does that, it could come to Hyrule. By then, it could be too powerful to stop!"

            "Odentnin can handle it," the King said. "They have a formidable army. Each and every soldier has survived the Tourney at least once—surely you, Zelda, know that they must be acceptable fighters, most of them fierce and loyal?"

            "But what if it's him from the Sacred Realm?" Zelda said. "What if he's getting out? Without the Tourney, he would have gotten out the last time he tried!"

            "All the more reason to keep you and Link away from there," the Queen said. "He'll be weak—defeatable without the Master Sword. How much more danger do you think we're willing to put you in, Princess?"

            Zelda was silent for a moment, left without an argument. The King and Queen were about to dismiss these children—young men and women, really—when Zelda said, her voice low and tight, "You owe me."

            It was not just the King and Queen who stared at Zelda after that. Everyone stared. Most stared in simple curiousity, but Link, the King, and the Queen all stared with a mixture of wonder—had they misheard Zelda?—and an emotion too weak to be called anger.

            "What did you say?" the King wanted to know.

            "You owe me this," Zelda said. "For forgetting Shiek."

            "Zelda, everyone forgot Shiek," the Queen said. "And not one of us could have prevented it. We were under Damion's spell! Even Impa and Link forgot who you were."

            Zelda shook her head. "I don't care," she said. "Of course, everyone forgot. But I know magic, Mother. Magic just doesn't cause people to spontaneously forget a person. No—you wanted to forget. Everyone who forgot wanted to. It doesn't matter why. I'm sure you wanted just to put that entire episode in the past, forget it, and move on. You wanted to forget everything about that time—and Damion just conveniently showed up to help. You wanted to forget and he let me. And someday, when I need it, I will pull this favor from everyone else. But you owe me this now."

            "We owe you nothing," the King said. "We're trying to protect you, Zelda!"

            Zelda again looked as though she had no argument, but then she said, "If I were to turn into Shiek and run away, would you forget me again?"

            "Why are you antagonizing us this way?" the Queen demanded.

            "Answer the question," Zelda said.

            "Zelda!" snapped the King. "Don't speak to us that way!"

            "Answer the question," Zelda said again, harder this time. "It can be arranged. If you want so badly to forget Shiek, I can turn into her and be gone. Rhia here is an archseer—if she doesn't turn you into chickens, you won't remember who Shiek is at all."

            "Zelda," the Queen pleaded.

            "Either answer the question," Zelda said, her voice hard as stone. "Or allow me to go."

            The Queen slumped back in her throne. "What choice do we have? Either way we lose you."

            "If you let me go," Zelda said, her voice suddenly soft. "Then at least I stand a chance of coming back." Zelda bowed curtly to her parents, turned, and swept out of the throne room. Hesitantly, her friends followed.

            "Zelda," Link said softly, coming up next to her. "Was all that really necessary? If we had tried to talk, for a little while longer—"

            "Father was right," Zelda said, almost apologetically. "I turned that into more than Odnetnin. It was selfish, but it accomplished two things. We're going to Odnetnin, and I feel better."

            "You feel better after making your parents feel like villains?" Rhia wanted to know. Rhia, though eighteen, had a bit of a hard time being anything but innocent. Even when her questions and comments seemed rude, they weren't—they were pure, unabated curiousity.

            "Rhia, love, they wanted me to die because I'd killed myself," Zelda said. "And I know the spell Damion used. I know it very, very well. You can use it on such a grand scale—I never have. You have to want to forget before it will work…" With that, Zelda quickened her pace and was soon gone.

            "Well," Zyuiu said. "You all get to come and fight evil shadows, now."

            Link rolled his eyes. "Excellent."

*
The next day, Link and Zelda had packed for the journey through the scrubs and into Odnetnin. The King and Queen formally saw the seven off, but Zelda and her parents didn't even say goodbye—and neither side seemed to regret it.

            The other six saw the strain this suddenly put on Zelda, but she forced it back, and they didn't comment. They got through all of Hyrule Field that night, and stopped and made camp before they got to the scrubs.

*

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a/n: Oh my…Zelda's feeling a bit angsty…I actually don't really have much to say in this one. But it gets better. And by better, I mean "better if you're the reader." When you're part of the 'gang' 'better' only means 'worse.'