The Forest Temple. Link had been here tons of times, just by himself, and once with Saria. But as he climbed up to the entryway, Sheik, he saw, was there, standing on a stone platform that Link had not noticed before. He looked relaxed, calm, relatively refreshed. How had he beaten him here? How did he always know where to come before Link did?

"What's that?" the Kokiri asked, pointing at the object he had in his hands.

"A harp," Sheik replied.

"You play?"

"Yes," he said curtly. "Get your ocarina out. I've got something to show you."

"You knew… about the Ocarina of Time?" Link asked, surprised. He had thought Zelda wouldn't have shared that with anyone but a member of the Royal family… and Impa… who was this young man? Why did he know such things?

"I've spent half my life training to assist you, Link," Sheik said liquidly, stretching. "I know plenty of things about you. Don't look so surprised."

"Such as?"

Silence.

"Follow along with me," Sheik said, not answering his question, and instead playing out the tune. Link picked out the notes after a few tries, and looked at his own ocarina in bewilderment as it glowed a greenish color, lights swirling and enveloping his gloved hands. Gloves – when had he gotten those? Who had given them to him? Rauru, perhaps, when his body had been in stasis, but he sure didn't remember putting them on…

He had never liked wearing gloves. They were a bit awkward. Once when he was younger, Saria had given him a pair for his birthday, as a gift. She'd been so proud of them. He'd worn them just to make her happy, but he'd never actually liked…

…never actually liked them…

He cleared his throat shakily. "What's happened to my friends, if you know so much?"

He looked upset. Shiek folded his arms, calm as ever on the surface, though on the inside he sympathized. Just a little bit. Link would have quite a bit to learn about Hyrule's state of affairs at the moment, and how different it was from seven years ago. But now was not the time. He replied in a cold, clear voice, devoid of thought.

"I cannot say. The Dark Lord has gotten to them, most likely."

Link opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. His eyes had become watery. He bit his tongue to keep himself from saying something stupid. "What does that mean?" he finally asked.

"You must be ready to face the possibility that they are dead," Sheik replied.

"I can't," Link said, defeated. "They can't be dead… Zelda…Saria… Malon… Ruto? Even Darunia?" he said each name slowly, as if it were an evocation, and as if he were thinking out loud.

When he looked up, Sheik was gone.

Link put the palm of one hand to his eye and wiped his feelings away. He would not cry. There was a job to be done. Even if they all were dead, he had to be stronger than anyone. He had screwed this up, he had let Ganon into the Chamber of Time and now he would suffer anything for penance. If he could only make things right, he would do anything.

No time for tears.

I must be ready to give my life for him. I must be ready for anything, thought Sheik, as he made his way out of the forest.

And to do that, he had to keep himself away. There was no place for sympathy

"So," Sheik said to the red-haired girl. "You've no idea where Impa is?"

"No," Anju, the cuckoo-girl, said with a frown. "Last I saw 'er, she was goin' into the graveyard, an' she's been missin' since then, misser' Sheik."

Sheik pushed his nose down with one hand, a quick gesture, and then looked over to the graveyard entrance. "And she said she was going to pacify the demon there, is that it?"

"Aye," the girl returned solemnly. "She said it was bound t'kill us all if she didn't. Since th'Dark King's been about, all kinds o' things been happenin' in this town. Kakariko en't safe, not anymore. Time's been we thought it was, but even here…" she paused. "Guess ye can never be too sure o' where ye stand. Things have a funny way o' workin' out differently." Both of them glanced up to Death Mountain subconsciously, where a cloud of fiery haze stood. It hadn't always been a volcano. Not before He took the throne, killed off all the Royal family, left Impa to run away with the princess.

"I.. see," Sheik said, trying not to let his disappointment show. He needed to talk to Impa, badly. And now he wouldn't get the chance. "I'll just leave you to…"

He walked around the corner and looked up towards the windmill, blades turning idly in the calm noon wind, his breath catching. Kakariko was peaceful, quiet, serene. The sky was azure and cobalt, a perfect sunny afternoon, and he was miserable.

"I can't do this," he whispered to himself. "Impa, where the hell are you?"

He began to walk without knowing where he was going. Maybe Darunia would know; the king of the Gorons seemed well enough informed. Or at the least he might have a contact the Sheikah could use. Besides, he had to get to the Fire Temple. Link would be there soon, and he would need the Bolero of Fire to gain entry.

The walk – or run, if you didn't want to die – up Death Mountain was a fifty percent chance of incineration. Today, though, something new was wrong. As Sheik entered the cave that led to the Goron city, he was met with stark silence. Not a thing lived in that cavern; everything was gone.

He hopped down a few levels to the bottom. "Hello?" he called out tentatively, but received no reply. Right, as if that would help, he said to himself angrily. The bastards love to hide anyways.

The door was all wrong to Darunia's chamber. It had been torn apart by something, broken into rubble and thrown aside. Sheik followed the path well into another tunnel behind the room's back wall. When had that been there?

He'd have to figure out where all the gorons had gone later. So this is why the mountain's been acting up, he told himself in a quiet voice. Impa said that something was rising. But surely not Volvagia? Not so soon? Nobody had heard of the dragon itself for years and years. If Volvagia had come back to life then there would be hell to pay.

Right now he had to concentrate.

It suddenly became hot. Far too hot. He began to swelter in the heat, but his Sheikah clothing was impervious to fire and so he did not burn as he found out he was inside a volcano. Goddesses above, he thought silently. The back of Darunia's chamber lead straight into the volcano called Death Mountain.

"You again," Link said as he walked up to the pedestal where Sheik was staring off. Surprised, the Sheikah looked over, then looked away quickly, cheeks flaming. And not from the volcano's heat, either.

"Yes," he replied. "Now get out your ocarina. I've got something to show you."

The Kokiri laughed; "Must be easy getting round if you know all the teleportation songs," he said almost enviously. "And here I've been walking everywhere."

"Not particularly," Sheik replied. "I am not of Royal descent. I cannot use the songs." He strummed out a few notes, and the boy copied obligingly, eventually getting the hang of the Bolero of Fire. It was Sheik's favorite, and with good reason… it was strong, but haunting.

"Then why'd you learn them?" Link asked, obviously surprised as he stepped forward.

"To teach you."

There was a silent moment.

"Sheik. Who are you? I…" Link put out a hand as if to grab for the Sheikah's shoulder, and the blonde let him. "I feel like I can trust you. So tell me. What's going on – outside, I mean? Why does everyone know who I am?"

A single red eye scrutinized the boy before him. "Because the Dark Lord is after you, Link. And if he finds you…" he paused. "He takes prisoners, sometimes. I don't know what he does to them. But he has made you famous; notorious, even. People are afraid of you, because you may cause Hyrule's death or salvation. The choice is yours."

The Sheikah slowly removed Link's hands from his shoulders and stepped back a couple paces. "Don't trust anyone," he said. "That's all the advice I can offer."

"I trust you, Sheik."

Sheik felt like he might be sick if he stayed there any longer. He disappeared in a flash, leaving a rather shocked Link staying behind, and was gone – out of the mountain faster than the eye could see. He was going to throw up, he could feel it.

But when he finally made the last leap from the craggy spires of the volcano and down to the plateau, he realized. It wasn't nausea. It was the beginnings of something else.

It was love. He didn't know why. But that's what it was.