Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Zelda Franchise... I wish I did.
Chapter 6 - Visiting Camp
"Careful… the ground is uneven here." Dutifully assisting the wounded swordsman at his side, Sheik is holding the hero's side with a gentle touch, supporting his slow and wobbling steps.
It's far past noon since they walked out of the small cave the Sheikah found to shelter the unconscious blond. At first, Link insisted that he was strong enough to walk on his own, but the first cracked stairs leading down to the green maze proved too much for him to stand on his own.
As the Hero wobbled forward ready to topple harshly with his face on the ground, Sheik stepped on and grabbed his arm on instinct, taking a sharp breath out of the green-clad warrior.
"Your clothes…" Sheik said in an apologetic whisper.
"Huh?" Big blue eyes glanced at him, making the Sheikah stifle ever so slightly. "S-Something wrong with them?" Link frowned a bit, always aware of the looks he got from people because of his clothing.
"With them? No. The problem is more on them." Noticing the small glint of confusion in his companion's eyes, Sheik had a hard time to hold in a giggle. "They are covered in blood, most of your attire anyway. Everything happened so fast, I hadn't time to clean them up."
Still quirking one eyebrow up, Link just shook his head and smiled; and in his innocence failing to see how much damage this 'weapon' causes on the flustered Sheikah.
"I don't mind." Said the Hero. "Sure, it feels sticky and I have this weird metallic smell on me now, but it doesn't bother me too much. You had to see the time I got stuck inside Lord Jabu Jabu… Navy complained about the smell for hours, she only stopped yelling at me when I jumped back into the lake."
At the mention of his long-lost companion, Link's expression cooled down into forlorn neutrality.
Sheik felt a tug in his chest again, this one caused by the opposite feeling as when he sees the other blond smiling at him so cheerfully.
Their Hero is such a strange person, not in a bad way, just such at odds with how Hyrule is now. A genuine person, who wears his feelings on his face, willing to share that sparkling smile with anyone.
Seeing the blond boy hurting, not from his wounds but also because of the darkness in the world trying to swallow his goodness. Normally the Sheikah couldn't place the blame for this chaos and calamity on anyone but Ganondorf. Yet the evil tyrant had no hand in harming his hero in all of this.
Clenching his free hand, Sheik frowned deeply.
A scum with darkened heart allured the naïve warrior, tricking him, betraying his so easy given trust.
'At least he got out alive…' Link's words floating in his mind, making the Sheikah click his tongue in small irritation.
"Why?" Sheik didn't even register the words escaping his lips until those beautiful cerulean eyes turned to him. "I remember guiding you to Kakariko, for there I hoped you would find the tool necessary to enter the Temple. Why would you trust a stranger so easily?"
Sheik felt the Hero shudder at his side, making the Sheikah chastise himself for letting the question come out harsher than what he intended.
"I… told you what happened?" Link replied quietly, averting his gaze to the side in shame of his naiveness.
"Yes, hero. You told me who you came to know that low-life scum." Again, he felt the blond at his side shudder, but now he got a slight frown too. "What I want to understand is why trust a complete stranger like him? You ought to know that the world is not the same."
"How would I?" Link said back in a firmer tone. "He sounded like a good person. We talked, we laughed… he told me of his sister with such grief and guilt in his eyes. I had to help him, anyone in my place would."
Taken back by these words, Sheik came to a halt, in a way forcing Link to stop with him. "No hero…" He said calmly in response, his ruby eyes staring directly onto Link's blue ones. "No one would."
This made Link frown deepen, his blue eyes casting down to the side in resignation but also in child-like anger; no real ire just stubbornness.
Sheik watched his charge sulk at his side, the shade of a small smile pressing against his mask. 'How could I've been so blind… For the first moment when I found him in the Temple of Time, I doubted his worth. How could I've missed how special he is?'
"Hero…" Sheik called out to the pouting blond.
The response is an annoyed grunt.
"I admire the goodness in your heart. Putting yourself in a frail for someone else with such willingness… I admire that." Sheik noticed the hero's expression brighten up, a glint of happiness in his eyes. "However, we have to work this stupid naivety out of you. We wouldn't want anyone else tricking you into a situation such as this again."
Then the frowning came back, together with the pouting.
'I swear… how adorable can he be?'
Resuming their slow march in silence, Sheik continued to help the brooding warrior in their hazy path inside the maze. Casually giving a couple looks to the side, the Sheikah gave in to the secret yearning in his chest, stealing more than a few glances to the handsome face of their hero.
'Goddesses… this is getting out of control.'
Conflicted words born of very sweet torture, an enticing aching which the Sheikah has no idea how worse it will get in his near future.
Still taking support in the Sheikah's shoulder, the young hero stepped into the clearing inside the green sea of trees that is the Kokiri Wilds. In here he found their destination, a hidden place that not even Ganondorf's minions could find.
Tents, wooden barracks, and make-shift stables for horses and cows. Where once stood only towering trees and unsuspecting wildlife, now stands a small bastion of civilization. Despite the lingering sobering mood permeating in the air, adults and children alike are living their lives in the most normality they can achieve.
Splitting their time between maintaining their new home and helping the soldiers in all they could, the refugees of Hyrule endure these harsh times with the comfort of their Princess' light.
This peaceful routine suddenly crashed and stopped, as curious eyes first landed on the pair of newcomers, a hush of whispers following right after.
For the time the young Link spent exploring the world and getting to know new people, he has never come to face with a situation as distressing and weird as he finds himself at this moment.
"Sheik…" Link called out quietly. Pushing himself close to his smaller companion, the Hero overshadowed the Sheikah with his form, not that the red-eyed boy minded the closeness. "W-What are they doing?" His question also came in a hushed way, his blue eyes never leaving the ever-increasing mass of people gathering in front of the Royal camp.
Wearing his stoic mannerism as he always does in front of people, Sheik observed as the gathering began to chant, pray and some even sob with knees in the ground. Truly an unnerving scene even for him.
"Hero… These people have survived this long mainly because of the Princess' efforts, but also because of their faith in you." Sheik explained calmly.
Link glanced to his blond companion, one eyebrow quirking up. "How do they know that their hero is me?"
"The Princess…" The Sheikah continued. "She told her subject your tale many, many times. The boy in Kokiri clothes raising to face the darkness." He pointed down to the Hero's bloodied clothes. "You're the first adult they have ever seen in Kokiri clothes."
Nodding back in response, Link glanced once more at the horde of people chanting his tittle, and by this point, they are starting to really creep him out. "Really, why are they doing that?" He chirped to his companion, getting a short chuckle from him.
"They probably want to run at you and touch the Hero of Time to see if you are truly real."
"And they are keeping so much distance for…?"
Sheik stared at the Hylians in front of him, his ruby eyes quickly noticing the other glint in those hopeful gazes. Fear, doubt, and disgust. Not of their Hero, not of their hope in the form of a handsome young man, no.
"Because they resent me," Sheik said drily, a frown marring his hard expression. "Fret not, they will not dare to charge at you if I am by your side."
"Resent…" Link repeated the words, his blue eyes traveling back to the Sheikah with a glow of concern on them.
But before the hero could ask yet again, or the Sheikah could expand in this dark side of their history, a stream of hurried steps came from behind the group of people.
"Clear the way people, please clear the way." Boomed a firm and strong voice, carrying a tone of discipline but also a tingle of trepidation. "Master Sheikah, I received word of your return… we didn't expect that you would bring company."
A young man with messy and fuzzy black hair stepped out from within the masses. Dressed in full silver and dark-blue of the Royal Army attire, save for the helmet, he carries a short sword in his belt and a curious look in his hazel-colored eyes.
"Captain Briar." Sheik greeted the soldier with a short nod, receiving a full salute in response. "Given a few stray circumstances, I've decided to return to camp earlier than expected."
The captain shifted his gaze to the Sheikah's side, his face turning slightly pale at the appearance of the stranger man. "I-Is this… him?"
Sheik nodded again. "Link this is Captain Briar, he is one of the pillars holding the army together and helping the Princess keep the people here safe. Captain Briar, this one at my side is Link… The Hero of Time."
Briar's look of trepidation vanished as if it was washed away by a calm river. Taking three eager steps forward, he moved towards the green-clad blond and raised one hand. "Mister Hero, i-it's a great honor to meet you, sir."
An unintended smile crossed Link's lips at the captain's eager presentation. "Nice to meet you too, Captain. But please, just call me Link. No mister or mister hero, just Link. It's so weird to have adults calling me sir."
"O-Of course sir, I-I mean, Link." Briar's cheeks grew slightly pink at the mistake in words. Taking a long breath in and then letting it out, the captain regained some of his composure, standing straighter in his stance. "Master Sheikah, the Princess has requested your presence in her quarters."
Sheik nodded silently in response, but as he tried to step forward and help Link along the way, he noticed that the young Captain still stood in their way. "Anything more to say, Captain?" His strict way of speaking making the man jolt in place slightly.
"She asked for your presence alone, sir. I don't know if the Princess anticipated that the Hero would be in your company, but those are her orders." Seeing the slight look of irritation on the Sheikah's only visible eye, Briar raised his hand and continued to speak. "If I may suggest, the Hero looks in need of medical assistance. I would gladly accompany him to the medical ward, while you attend to the Princess' summon."
Pressing his hand in a tighter hold around the Hero's arm, Sheik hesitated for a moment. But sensing this hesitation, Link cleared his throat to get his attention.
"It's okay, Sheik." The hero said calmly; his blue eyes so penetrating, so entrancing. "I will try to stay out of trouble while you speak with her."
Surprising the young captain, whose eyes widened like sparkling globes, Sheik let slip a genuine giggle. "Why do I find that so hard to believe?"
"Hey!" Link protested very loudly in his childish way, a stark contrast to the perfect image of Hero that people imagined him to be. "Totally unnecessary backhanded comment." Awkwardly detaching himself from his blond companion, Link wobbled his way forward, leaving a very entertained Sheikah behind him.
"Link," Sheik called out, making the Hero pause and give a side glance at him. "I will come to find you after this."
Then his chest began to burn at the image of that beautiful and bright smile that only the youthful hero possesses.
"Sure." Link replied cheerfully, turning back to follow the raven-haired captain into the opposite side of the camp.
Folding both arms against his chest, tapping one finger impatiently at the opposite limb, Sheik is currently watching as his liege and surrogated sister is restlessly passing from one side to the other of the main room of her huge personal quarters.
"He's here… I can't believe it. After so long, he is really here." Said the distressed princess, her erratic pacing getting worse by the minute.
"Zel… you're being silly." He said with a long sigh.
"It's has been so long... What do I say to him?" She stopped suddenly, giving a serious look to her little brother. "What if we make a wrong impression on him?"
Sheik snorted unintentionally at those words, earning him a serious glare from Zelda. "Look, I don't think you can give a wrong impression on Link." He said thinking of the pool of youthful cheerfulness that is the other blond, and he can't imagine Link having bad thoughts about anyone. "Just try to be a little less overwhelming than you usually are to people. I doubt he will follow any complicated conversation you throw at him."
Zelda looked a lot less troubled after the Sheikah's reassurance. Letting out a long sigh, she placed both hands at her waist and looked at her brother with a playful little grin.
"Link, huh…" Her tone clearly conveying what she means by that.
"Please don't start with that." Sheik growled, his right hand going to his face in annoyance.
She giggled at his reaction. Doing a small spin with her regal long dress, she moved closer to Sheik just to press a poking finger at his arm. "First you called the hero, HIM, then you so begrudgingly passed to mention the hero by his title and nothing else… now it's Link all of a sudden."
"Completely out of annoyance by the insistence of the previously mentioned HERO." Sheik spat angrily, his ruby eyes shifting irritably to the large silky curtains that make the walls on his left.
"Uhum…" Replied the totally not convinced princess. "A cute boy dressed in Kokiri clothes, so silly and brave that stunned a certain someone out of his normal thoughts." She recited a small part of a very old conversation they had shared, one that Sheik described the young boy clad in green sneaking past the garden of the Royal Castle.
"Bah! Can we speak about something more pertinent to the events of today?" Rebuked the irked Sheikah. "I don't know, how about the reason you called for my presence alone?"
Zelda's childish grin slowly disappeared; in its shadow, a serious frown took over her expression. "We agreed that this meeting would take place days before we could march against Ganondorf. But you decided to bring the Hero to us so much earlier…" She walked over to the clean wooden table at the side of the room, taking a seat on the cushioned chair at the helm. "I know my little brother. You wouldn't deviate from our plains without a good reason."
"A group of bandits ambushed the Hero inside the Forest Temple," Sheik explained with a grim look to his otherwise stoic face. "They wounded him badly, at least I would consider a serious wound. He just grunted and said that everything was fine."
Zelda grew silent, a look of contemplation to her. "This sounds… concerning." She said quietly. "I find it hard to imagine how a few bandits can manage to give so much trouble to The Hero of Time himself."
Sheik understood the meaning of her words, to which he shook his head very firmly. "They tricked him. One of the crooks meet with him on Kakariko… this… filth deceived the hero with a sob story about a kidnapped sister. The hero agreed to help this person to save their sister, but when they arrived at the Temple…"
"There was no sister…" Zelda finished with an irritated frown. "How low have Hyrule fallen… Ganondorf's influence has transformed so much of those who were good people into this type of…"
"Trash." Sheik said coldly.
"Sheik…"
"Zel, don't ask me to show compassion to this type of people." He argued with a sizzling glow in his ruby eyes. "They tricked someone with such a good heart. They were planning to sell him to the ring of slavers that are Ganondorf's lieutenants… They wounded him!"
"I understand, Sheik… better than anyone else, I understand. If only we can banish his evil before it corrupts Hyrule beyond recognition." The princess sighed heavily, both hands going to her face.
"We will. I believe in it now." The Sheikah declared boldly, his eyes betraying no hint of doubts on them. "After so long, after so much loss and hurt. I've finally found hope, we found hope again."
A caring and sweet smile crossed her lips. Her blue eyes so tired after many years of war, finally shining with a gentle glow of happiness. "Our hero came back to us."
"Right here, sir, I-I mean, Link!" The stuttering soldier stepped aside and pointed at the open large tent in front of them. "We built this place to take in as much injured as possible, both soldiers and civilians. But we have been hiding in here for years, and in the last few we have barely seen any major battles."
"That's good, right?" Link said back.
Briar stared dumbfounded at the blond. It was a consensus between the soldiers that this lack of battles just showed how bad in shape they are, how powerless they truly are to change their fate and retake Hyrule from the invaders. Yet, listening to the way the young blond said it, so full of innocent optimism, it was hard for the young captain to not nod and smile.
"Yes, it's good," Briar replied with a friendly tone. "Just don't regret saying that when you get our chief medic's sole attention on yourself. There's a reason that even without battles, this tent is always empty."
"That's a bit spooky… a Poe is haunting the place or something?" Link took a cautious step towards the open tent, his blue gaze peering inside the gloomy and dark medical center.
Taking the hero by surprise, Briar exploded in a fit of laughter. The blond jolted back from his spot at the entrance of the tent, staring at the raven-haired soldier with wide-open eyes.
"P-Poe?! Hahahah." Pressing both hands against his abdomen to try and stop the laugh-inducing sensation in his insides, Briar bent forward in heavy chuckles. "Oh Goddesses, this was hilarious."
"What's so funny about that?" Link rebutted with a lukewarm frown. "Poe can be dangerous if you're not careful."
"Oh, I don't doubt that," Briar replied wiping a few stray tears from the corner of his eyes. "But the spooky thing inside this place is way more dangerous than any Poe."
Link quirked an eyebrow at the captain. Even wreaking his brain to think about it, he doesn't understand why the soldier, or anyone, in this case, would be so easygoing when there is something like this so dangerously close to the people living here.
"Ho… that's a funny story." A cool and collect voice came from within the tent, its tone calm but carrying a chilling edge to it.
Captain Briar, who was laughing seconds ago, turned completely pale. As if someone had cast a freezing spell onto him, the soldier stared into the barely lit medical center, his mouth hanging open and every member of his body stiff.
From within the open entrance came a red-haired woman of small stature, dressed with long and heavy white robes. Her face has a beautiful outline to it but also carries the marks of time as a few wrinkles dim her otherwise pretty features.
"Go on, Captain." She said with a venomous look. "Please don't stop such a fascinating story just because of me."
"I-I-I am needed somewhere else. Y-Yes, my unit has a very important training schedule for this precise moment." He blurted out in a hurry, his hazel eyes going everywhere but back to the woman's judging green eyes. "H-Hero!" He turned to Link, who jump startled a bit at the sudden loud call. "I leave you on doctor Rose's capable hands! I wish you a fast recovery and may the Goddesses watch over your steps."
Fleeing away faster than dust in the wind, Captain Briar found the quickest route away from this part of the camp, quickly disappearing behind a wall of tents in the back.
Awkwardly standing in place, Link was left alone with the stoic-looking woman and her judging green eyes threatening to pierce a hole right through him.
"Then, what about you?" She asked in a disinterested voice. "Some dumb new recruit who nicked himself with a spear while sparring with a wild animal or something?" One of her fingers pointed at the ridiculous amount of blood staining his green tunic.
"Stabbed in the back actually." Link replied with a playful grin, which failed to impress the doctor in any shape.
Rolling her eyes at the boy's comment, the red-haired woman turned around and waved a hand for him to follow after her.
They proceeded to walk in silence past a few neatly made beds, who by the looks of it had barely any visitors the couple few days. As they reached a more secluded bed at the right corner of the improvised hospital, she tapped the hard mattress and glanced at the blond.
"Take your clothes out and sit on the bed." She commanded him nonchalantly.
Glancing left and right, Link stared at the woman a bit flustered. "H-Here?"
"Yeah, here." She growled back at him. "Are you a cuddled princess or something? Take your damn clothes out, there is nothing in there that I haven't seen many times over."
Burning red in the face, the young Hero hesitated to bring his hand to the lower end of his tunic. However, as the grumpy doctor growled yet again at him, he began to quickly dispose himself of everything but his intimate clothing.
"Hm…" She pressed one hand against his shoulder, pushing him further into the bed. "Initial treatment. Rude, clumsy, and full of mistakes." The doctor huffed at the bloody bandages pressing against the hero's wounds. "That Sheikah boy did this, did he not?" She glanced upwards to look at Link.
"I think so—GAAAHHHH!" His pain-filled scream echoed inside the empty medical tent, his voice vibrating against the clothed ceiling. "What are you doing?!" He tried to pull away from the woman pulling at the bandages and poking at his wounds.
"Stand still and quit whining," Rose yelled at him, pushing the hero's back against the bed as she worked on him. "The more you wiggle and whine, the longer it will take for me to undo this piss-poor excuse of stitches."
"Wait, this is- AAAARRRHHHHH!" Link screeched again, this time he swears the woman is tearing his abdomen apart in the cruelest of manners. 'Captain Briar, what in the spirits' name have you put me into?'
From each of the places Sheik manages to avoid whenever possible, this is one right in front of him tops all others.
Being on the receiving end of chastising glares, ill-intended gossips, and even full open hostility; felt a lot better than facing one of the few people that had no fear of him or what he is. Standing one step away from the eerie medical tent, he sighs deeply in defeat, wishing that he could face a horde of bigot Hylians than the red-haired demon herself.
Gathering his resolve and clinging on the need of retrieving their hero, the young Sheikah steeled his screaming senses and wandered bravely into her 'lair'.
"Well, well. If isn't the sneaky little ninja. I thought you wouldn't come back here, what happened?"
It's not easy to surprise the heavily trained Sheikah, let alone scare him, but the sound of doctor Rose's infuriating voice coming from the left sent a few chills down his spine.
Twirling in place with a spin of his feet, Sheik turned to face the low desk sitting next to the entrance, a piercing jade gaze fixated at him from behind a pile of papers.
"Doctor…" He did his best to hold the other name he wanted to call her as he nodded in greeting to the red-haired woman.
"You're here to get your baby back, I suppose?" She said in a sarcastic tone, the glint of light coming from a glass cup, half full of liquor, sitting in her right hand.
"Baby?"
She snorted and pointed the cup-holding hand to the backside of her tent. "Blond, tall, blue eyes, whining and annoying. That's yours, right?"
A strong tint of red crossed the blonde's face, enough for it to show past his mask and long fringe falling over his covered eye. "H-He is not mine!" He denied very firmly, despite the shaky tone of his voice.
Rose rolled her eyes and snarled at him. "Not like that, stupid boy." She then cracked a huge grin, paired together with a mocking gaze. "But good to know that even the Sheikah have flings."
"Preposterous!" Shriek the Sheikah boy, much to the doctor's grievance. "I do not harbor any impure feelings such as this towards the Hero."
"Boy, just shut the hell up before you give me a migraine." Taking one of the loose medical files in front of her, Rose crunched the paper into a tight ball and tossed it at him. "Go get your boyfriend and get out of my ward. With all his whining he already broke my limit of annoyance for the day."
Still seething at the insolent doctor's words, Sheik turned on his heel and marched further inside the medical tent, doing his best to not turn and throw a few very deserving curse words at the insufferable woman.
Collecting his thoughts and calming himself with a long-tired sigh, he continued pacing towards the only bed with the grey curtains closed.
"Hero…" He called the other blond, announcing his presence before pulling the curtain open slowly. "As promised, I am here to tak-" Sheik's words died on his throat before they could sing from his vocal cords fully.
Despite having treated the hero's wound, Sheik had barely any mind or thought to admire the other boy's physic, given the urgency of matters of the time. But now, having Link standing right in front of him with his shirt and tunic resting on the vacant bed, it is impossible not to.
His visible ruby-eye widening in shock as it slowly but very attentively glanced at every inch of Link's muscled and very defined naked upper body. Curves, size, and even the faint scars tracing a few parts of his arms… It is so mesmerizing, captivating… so dangerous.
"Sheik!" Link called out cheerfully, waving one hand to his new friend. "You don't know how glad I am of seeing you."
Registering the sound of words, Sheik could only grunt unintelligently as he failed hard to grasp anything about it.
"That doctor Rose is a crazy woman." Link cried out, shooting his hands in the air in his exasperation. "She tugged, pulled, and poked everywhere. At some point, I thought she was going to kill me with that little knife of hers. But I have to say, I feel a lot better now. My belly doesn't even hurt that much anymore, see." He pointed to the impeccable stitches tracing his skin.
Noticing the absent gaze coming from his red-eyed friend, Link frowned and tilted his head to the side.
"Are you feeling okay?" He asked innocently.
"Ah… yes. I am perfectly fine." The Sheikah cleared his throat a few times, his gaze quickly drifting away from the hero's form as another streak of red crossed his cheeks. "I am very glad that you're feeling more disposable. I-If you don't mind me asking, why are you still half-naked?"
"Doctors orders." Link replied promptly. "She said it would be best if I let the wound breath for a while." He then leaned over on the bed and pulled a white long open tunic made for patients. "Here, she gave me this. Told me to wear it until tomorrow morning at least."
Sheik watched in silent despair as his hero slid the robe down his head, covering most of those well-defined and alluring muscles.
"You know…" Link said clumsily as he straightens his new attire. "She looks and sounds scary as hell, but I got the impression that doctor Rose is a very good person… deep down at least."
"As much as I loathe that woman's crudeness, she is indeed a very good person." A playful frown tugged at his mask as Sheik shook his head. "Just don't tell her I said this."
Melting the red-eye blonde's heart yet again, Link let out his voice in his spirited and very charming laughter. "Your secret is safe with me." He then moved to the small furniture next to the head of his bed and took the Master Sword in his hands again. "Well then, should we go to meet the Princess?"
"Indeed… it's time. She is quite anxious to speak with you again."
"Me too, haha…" Letting out a chuckle, Link rubbed the back of his head, his green hat wiggling funnily at his touch. "Anyway, as Saria always said to me. There is no time as the present to face what you're scared of doing." Hoisting his weapon on his back, the blond warrior walked past his friend, giving the Sheikah a friendly pat on the shoulder as he walked away.
Watching the hero marching his way to the exit, Sheik stood behind only for a moment, musing to himself plenty of things.
'This feeling in my chest, I can't control it anymore... Zelda will never let this settle if she notices it. And there is him, he doesn't even know how much he affects people with so little…' He closed his eyes in mental exhaustion. 'This meeting will be dreadful.'