Chapter 6

If looks could kill there would be one less hero in the world, as the stare Telma leveled Link as he burst through the door would have made Ganondorf himself take a step back.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" he gasped out, making a real showing that he had run the whole way through castle town hoping that would earn some pity points.

No such luck, Telma just raised an eyebrow and continued to stare him down.

"Not to worry lad, I'm sure you have a good reason." Auru said coming to his rescue. "Come have a seat and tell us what happened."

Link was happy to accept and move out of Telma's direct gaze.

"So what happened? Get lost?" Ashei teased.

"No my horse got stolen." He sighed.

This earned a couple of curious looks from the group.

"Bandits?" Auru asked

"Not that simple unfortunately." Link rolled his eyes. "There's this girl in my village who has this habit of taking Epona without asking."

"This has happened before?" Shad asked

"More times than I can count," Link shook his head. "But I can't stay mad at her, I've known her since we were toddlers and she doesn't mean anything malicious by it, it's just a bit annoying."

"So the famous Hero of Twilight was outsmarted by a lovestruck childhood friend," Ashie smirked. "Quite the story."

"Who said anything about lovestruck?" Shad asked confused

"It's pretty obvious, besides look how he's blushing now, that just confirms it." Ashei said triumphantly laughing at Link's face. "Does that mean the feeling are mutual?"

"No, she's just a friend." Link was quick to respond

The three of them continued to smirk and made a show of pretending to believe him.

"Man, you guys are just as bad as Rusl." Link said with a laugh.

Ashei grinned and punched him the shoulder "Where do think he got his sense of humor?" she asked.

Telma wandered over to the table and looked Link straight in the eye.

"Now listen up kid I forgive you for being late but that doesn't mean you're out of trouble." Telma said as she stared down at him.

Link bowed his head to show that he understood.

"Now I believe you've got some explaining to do." she said pointedly Link looked up in confusion. He went over what he had already said in his mind and didn't find anything that he had left out. He looked back up at Telma and hoped that she would explain.

"I had an unusual visitor yesterday at the bar, I'm pretty sure that you know her Hon." Telma said with a smirk.

Now Link was really confused. He looked at Telma with a look of almost begging her to tell him what was going on

"Princess Zelda paid me a visit and informed me that you had accepted to do a job for her." she said with an eyebrow raised.

Link looked up at her in surprise; he started to say something but no word would come out of his mouth. He quickly glanced around at the other three to see their reactions. Ashei's previous teasing look had disappeared to be one of irritation.

"And we heard you weren't going to bring us!" Ashei said with her face two inches from Link's. He tried desperately to get away from Ashei but only ended up bumping into Auru.

"You really should know better," he said with a chuckle. "The moment they'd find out you where you'd gone they would have rushed right after you... myself included." he finished with a crooked smile. Link smiled back at him then turned back to face Ashei.

"I thought you guys would be busy" he said lamely.

"Busy?!" she asked "We've been bored out of our skulls! Ever since you came waltzing in here and killed off Zant or whatever his name is, all our jobs have disappeared."

"It's true," Telma put in. "The group of them have been moping around here like lost puppies for weeks" she said with a wink.

"Oh now, that's a bit harsh don't you think Telma?" Auru asked with a slightly hurt expression.

"No I don't think so, besides it's not fair that Link is the only one getting teased." Telma said with a wide smile.

Link glanced at Telma and wonder if she actually thought that this qualified as teasing. He shrugged it off and looked sympathetically at Auru.

"So now that that's all out of the way we should get down to plans such as what routes we should take, or what food to bring." Shad suggested with an ever-present practicality. The rest of the group nodded but Link continued to stare at them stunned

"Wait you mean you're actually serious? You guys are coming?" he asked in disbelief they all looked at him in confusion.

"Wow you really are dense yeah?" Ashei said as she shook her head. "Of course we're coming... And don't you dare try to leave without us got it?"

Link looked at each face in turn. Each one of them looked back at him with expressions mirroring Ashei's.

"Come on Link." Auru said. "You have to know when your beat." he said with a chuckle.

Link smiled back at him and quickly tried to readjust his plans to accommodate the extra people.

Telma then spoke up. "Now wait a minute, we're not quite ready to start the planning yet." she said as the others looked at her in confusion. "I have someone I want to introduce to you dears."

They all waited expectantly and Shad even looked toward the door to see if someone was going to come in. Telma noticed him looking and laughed.

"Oh no, Hon he's already in the room… look behind you."

The three turned looked where Telma was pointing. Hidden by the shadows they could just make out a basic shape of a person. Ashei immediately jumped to her feet and put her hands on her daggers.

"How on earth did he get in here?" she hissed.

Telma just continued to smile. "He's been here the whole time, ... I guess you just didn't notice him." she said as she smirked at Ashei's unease.

Ashei glanced back and forth between the figure (who by this time still hadn't moved) and Telma before boldly walking up to the person. She bent down and looked the person up and down. After getting no reaction from them she waved her hand in front of their face.

"Hey! Aren't ya gonna introduce yourself or anything?" she asked him sarcastically.

Before any of them could react the mysterious person grabbed Ashei's outstretched hand, twisted it behind her back and pushed her to the floor, while in the process making her drop her dagger.

"Ow! Hey! Let me go!" Ashei yelled

Link could barely hear the response of the person but it was something to the effect of "Actions like that could get you hurt... You should be more careful."

Link peered around Shad to see if he could get a better look at this stranger. From where he was he couldn't tell the facial expression but he could see that he had turned his head to look down at Ashei. Their eyes locked for a couple seconds more before he let her go. Ashei jumped up and stepped back then waited until he was standing. She walked back to the table but refused to sit down; instead she opted for standing with her back against the wall.

Link watched this while trying to conceal a grin. 'She must really hate it when someone catches her off guard." he thought. He looked curiously at the person as he came in to light, revealing his features to them. Link was taken aback by his odd appearance. His face was completely covered except for one of his eyes by a cowl and hat made of bandages. His eyes were a deep scarlet red that darted around taking everything in immediately. His body was covered in a thick skin-tight suit of fabric. The front of his torso had a symbol painted into of an eye with one tear falling from it. The sleeves ran all the way down his arms and at the end his hands were covered in bandages that only showed the tips of his fingers. Both parties absorbed information about each other like a sponge, each comparing the similarities and differences. They assessed each other's fighting styles by their physique or by the weapons they carried. Link carefully looked to see if he could gain any knowledge of where this strange person came from, but with no success.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Sheik, of the remaining Sheikah tribe." Telma said breaking the silence.

The group uneasily nodded their greetings before lapsing back into an awkward silence. Sheik glanced from one to another without the slightest change in expression. Link looked back at him and smiled once Sheik reached him. He stared at him for a second or two longer than the others but then turned his attention back to Telma. Telma was walking back toward the table with a chair she had taken from one of the other tables. She brought it over and set it next to Link.

"Come make yourself comfortable." she said in a sweet but firm voice. Sheik looked slightly tense but then calmly walked over and sat beside Link.

Link turned and held his hand out to Sheik saying, "Happy to have you along with us." he smiled and waited to see what the reaction of the Sheikah would be.

Sheik stared at Link's hand for a couple of seconds before warily nodding and shaking it. Auru then put out his hand from across the table.

"The names Auru, but guess you would already know that after sitting in that corner for so long." he said with a laugh

Sheik shook Auru's hand. Link noticed from the side that the corner of Sheik's eyes lifted slightly giving the impression that he was smiling, though it was hard to tell with the scarf covering the bottom half of his face. Shad was next to stand up and shake Sheik's hand.

"My name is Shad, I likely won't be able to help you with anything combat related but if its history or myths, I'm your guy." Shad beamed with delight as he said this. Ashei on the other hand still had a sharp glint in her eye as she watched the rest of the group.

"It's Ashei." she snapped obviously still shaken from her earlier encounter with Sheik. Sheik nodded in response. Shad glanced uneasily between the two for a second more before clearing his throat and speaking.

"Well now that we have all the introductions out of the way shall we proceed?" he asked cautiously

"That sounds like a good idea dear," Telma said "but just so you all are aware, I won't be going along with ya." she said with a very matter-a-fact tone.

"What? Why not?" Auru asked in surprise

"Because I need to keep an eye on things around here, that way I can keep you up to date with the goings on." she answered with a small wink.

"And besides," she continued "You can think of Sheik here as my replacement... Even if that's not the real reason he's here." She finished

"And why is he here?" Ashei asked more out of curiosity then spite.

"He's-" Telma began

"I'm here as princess Zelda's representative." Sheik answered. They all jumped slightly to hear this stranger speak even though it wasn't the first time. The words were slightly muffled by the scarf but they held no uncertainty, they just rang out with a clear confidence. Link smirk at the thought of Princess Zelda wishing to accompany them. Though Link was sure the princess was more than capable in handling herself it was definitely for the best that she wasn't coming.

"Well that was very kind of the Princess to send someone so qualified to accompany us isn't it?" Shad asked Ashei with a tight smile. Ashei snorted but didn't reply.

"Epona is coming ... even if just to carry supplies" Link interjected.

Shad nodded and made a few notes in his book. "Alright so that's one horse that can at least help to lighten the load."

"Sheik has also informed me that Princess Zelda is happy to lend a few of her horses to help us along, if they would be of assistance." Telma informed them

"Wonderful," Shad responded as he wrote plans in his book. "If we can all have horses for the travel that will speed things up tremendously."

"There is also the issue of the route we will take." Link added

"Very true, I suggest that we go through Kakariko village, past Death Mountain and continue heading east that way we can collect most of our supplies at Kakariko so it will last us longer."

Everyone seemed to agree with this plan and decided that that was the way they were going to go.

"Before you all begin your big adventure," Telma said playfully, "I think you should know that you've been summoned by Prince Ralis, I received his letter earlier today and he wished that all of you would come to see him as soon as possible."

Link frowned slightly, "Did he say why?"

"No, but it didn't seem like it was because of danger or anything." she replied after a moment.

"But how do we get there?" Shad asked "I've never heard of a safe way to traverse the tide of the river."

"We don't have to take the river." Link murmured.

"What?"

"I said we don't have to take the river; there is a small pathway that leads from Hyrule field directly to the throne room." Link repeated

"Really?! That's fascinating I've never heard of that before; you will have to tell me how you came across it." Shad answered excitedly.

"Maybe a bit later, we have a few more things we need to discuss first." Auru pointed out,

"Oh yes of course, my apologies," he said, blushing.

"Alright so we'll collect together whatever we'll need for the trip then we'll head off?" Auru asked

Everyone nodded and began to discuss what provisions they would bring. The conversation lasted long into the late afternoon before they were finally ready to depart.