Sheik's POV
Link was desperately trying to keep his expression neutral, but it was obvious my question bothered him. That wasn't surprising. He did not have my same training in concealing emotions.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Of course not. It's easy to forget something that important, something that impacts your life that greatly. "You asked that I be honest with you. I would appreciate if you extended me the same courtesy."
He gave me a cool look, but it didn't affect me. I could out-glare this kid in my sleep. One of his companions spoke up. "Link, what's he talking about?"
"Yeah, Link, tell them. Tell them why someone as important as the Princess of Hyrule would include you in her plans. Why she would test you." His lips remained tightly pressed together. "You don't even have to say anything. Just take off your gloves and show them."
"I don't have anything to prove," he finally said.
A small grin spread across my face. "Oh, I think you have everything to prove. If you truly do not know what I am talking about, take off your gloves. Show us that you truly have nothing to hide."
He looked about ready to punch me. Let him try. If he couldn't touch me with his blade, he couldn't hope to land a hit with his fists. Instead, he yelled, "Fine!" and threw one of his gloves to the ground. I was surprised momentarily. I did not think he would give in that quickly. He held his hand in the air to be examined. "See, just a normal hand. Now can we stop this foolishness?"
The identical tag-alongs looked convinced, but I rolled my eyes. "Sure, after you remove the glove from your left hand. That is your dominant hand, no?"
He hesitated, unsure of how to respond. Tired of our back-and-forth, I swept one of his legs with my own, grabbed his left arm, and pinned him to a nearby tree. I held his arm awkwardly behind his back. He tried to fight his way out of my hold, but in this position, his superior strength was of little value.
I snatched the glove from his hand and smiled at the result. Up to this point, I was only 95 percent sure that I was right; it felt nice to have my suspicion fully confirmed. I held his arm further back to show the others the three connected triangles that marked the back of his hand, eliciting a hiss of pain from Link. I did not feel any sympathy. Had he cooperated originally, he would not be in this position.
Satisfied, I released him, and he stumbled away, clearly upset. His companions, meanwhile, looked as if they were contesting to see whose jaw could drop the furthest. "But, but. . . Link. . . what? how? I. . . you. . . hero?" one of them summarized astutely.
"I think it is your turn to offer an explanation," I said to Link.
He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, knocking off his green hat, too tired to care. "I've had this mark since before I can remember. Back in my Kokiri days, it was lighter, harder to see. None of us thought anything of it, other than it was some weird birthmark. We never learned the stories of the hero, or even the Triforce, you see.
"After I killed the creature in The Great Deku Tree, the mark grew darker, turning a slightly golden color. Then he told me about it, that it meant I was marked by the Goddesses. After that came the story of the hero throughout time, who was called on whenever a great evil manifest. I didn't understand all the implications at the time, though how could I?" he said with a humorless laugh. "I was only ten years old. Before he stopped to rest, he made me promise that I would keep my mark covered. He made me promise not to show anyone, at least for the time being."
He paused as if unsure how to continue, and I could not help but comment. "The Great Deku Tree gave you wise advice. Unlike the shortsighted king, who paraded his daughter around relentlessly when he discovered the Triforce on her own hand. The proud fool was basically begging for trouble," I finished bitterly.
"Careful," he warned, "I don't think Zelda would appreciate you talking about her father like that."
It was interesting to see how protective he was of a girl he had not seen since he was a child. I filed away that information to be used at a later date. "Princess Zelda," I said stressing the title he could not seem to remember, "is well aware of my feelings towards the late king."
"And she's okay with you insulting her father, the former king?" he asked with wide eyes.
I hesitated, trying to choose my words carefully. "While the princess will always hold onto the love she has for him, she fully understands the limitations he possessed. Therefore, she does not fault me for my views towards her father as, objectively, her opinions are the same. What is done is done though, so it matters little. Please continue your tale," I said to Link.
"Oh, yeah," he said unenthusiastically. "So I did as The Great Deku Tree advised, and wrapped some extra material from my tunic around my left hand until I could buy some gloves. Ever since I left the Kokiri Forest, I've pretty much just wandered from place to place, fighting when I could, doing odd jobs otherwise. I'm sorry I had to keep that from you guys," he said to his companions.
"Well, that's understandable," one of them replied, "but are there any other secrets about you we should know? Because I thought your Kokiri origin was incredible, then I thought your friendship with the princess was astonishing, but you bearing the mark of the goddesses? It's unbelievable. I can't even imagine how you can top that one."
Link laughed and started to deny that he was hiding anything else, but I interrupted him. "No, what's truly incredible," I said almost spitting the word. "What's truly unbelievable, is that the supposed hero of the land has been traveling around, taking in the sights for all these years. Why? What happened, hero?"
Link's POV
My eyes found the ground, and I offered Sheik no response. He shook his head and walked a few steps away, like he couldn't stand the sight of me.
"You know, even though the hero of legend is a crucial part in Princess Zelda's plan, even though the very fate of Hyrule might very well rest with him, a part of me hoped I would not find him. That part of me wished him dead, or too injured to function, or something. Because the other possibility was that somewhere, a fully capable man was shirking his goddess-given duty and making this whole land pay for it. The thought that Hyrule's fate rested in the hands of a man who could watch the suffering around him, knowing he alone had the ability to end it, yet still he did nothing, caused me to despair of almost all hope."
His voice, while impassioned, was low in volume, causing me to almost strain to hear each cutting remark. I think I would have preferred yelling. He looked me up and down, seeming unimpressed. "Yet here you are, wandering around, fighting low-level monsters for scraps. Where is your honor? Where is your pride? Surely, this is not the best you can do. The goddesses chose you to be their hero."
"Then the goddesses chose wrong," I said defiantly, unable to take anymore.
He scoffed at that. "So now you know better than the very beings who created you, who gave you reason? Here I thought you bore the Triforce of Courage, but it looks as if Princess Zelda has some competition for the Triforce of Wisdom," he said caustically. "No, that's just a poor excuse. I guess relieving yourself of your duty is easier than trying, huh?"
"I did try," I yelled. Sheik did not look satisfied, but he finally shut his mouth. I wrung my hands together, on the verge of a complete breakdown. "I tried and I failed time and time again. On that horrid day, I truly believed that Zelda died. That broke me, a little bit, but I vowed revenge on Ganondorf. The problem was, I was twelve freaking years old. How could I possibly compete with the man whose power demolished a whole kingdom?
"So I started small. I thought maybe, if I could work my way up to more and more difficult monsters, that I would achieve the skill to defeat him. But at my strongest moment, I couldn't even kill a Stalfos." I tried to push away the memory of my pathetic fight with the armored skeleton. "Some hero I turned out to be. No, I'm nothing more than a failure. I failed Zelda. I failed Saria. I failed. . . Navi." My voice cracked on the last name, and I barely got it out, my throat closing over with emotion.
I thought I saw a flash of sympathy in Sheik's eyes, but when I blinked it was gone. "Let me get this straight; because you were not invincible when you were merely a child, you pardoned yourself from your calling? Well, I refuse to accept that. You may have gotten rusty over the years, but it is not yet too late to start what you should have been doing for the last decade"
"Rusty? How am I rusty?" I probably should have replied to the other part of his statement, but I couldn't let that one go.
He raised an eyebrow and looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Would you like me to count? First, there's the way I beat you handily in a fight where you were given every advantage. Second, there's the fact that you discovered how to defeat the Poes only by accident. Third, is that the accident that caused you to make said discovery happened because you managed to miss the entire body of the Poe you were aiming for. Would you like me to continue?"
"How were we supposed to know how to kill spirits we had never even heard of?" Trenton asked.
Sheik looked extremely annoyed that one of the twins had spoken, but he answered anyway. "One of the first things you discovered about them was that they could shoot fire from their lanterns, correct? Well, fire can't just come from nothing."
"Yeah it can. It's called magic," Landon said.
His comment elicited an eye-roll from Sheik. "Magic needs an energy source just like everything else. That energy source could not be coming from the spirit itself. In fact, to become corporeal, the spirit would also need to be drawing energy from elsewhere. That left only the lantern, which means destroying it would render the Poe harmless. Had any of you thought for more than two seconds, the solution should have been obvious. Unfortunately for me, it was your courage being tested, not your common sense."
"I'm sorry, unfortunately for you?"
"Zelda did not just send me to find the hero marked by the goddesses, but to train him as well. This seems as if it will be harder than I originally expected. Do not worry, I still have the ability to carve you into what you need to become; I just did not expect my materials to be quite so. . . shoddy," he said as he examined me.
Landon and Trenton howled at that shot. I glared at Sheik, but I could feel his smirk even though I couldn't see it. This guy was really starting to get under my skin. "And you think insulting me is the best way to get me to agree to let you train me?"
"Perhaps not, but do not act as if my criticism is unwarranted. It is time to step up and become what you were meant to be. It is time to become a hero. Will you join our efforts?"
I was so confused. There was so much new information, and my past kept cropping up to kick me in the gut. I didn't know how to process everything. "I don't know. I don't think..."
"You said you felt as if you failed the princess," Sheik interrupted. "Does knowing she did not fall that day change your mind?"
Where was he going with this? "No," I said softly.
"Then join her crusade. What better way to relieve your debt?"
I felt so unworthy. It wasn't that I didn't want to help, but I wasn't sure I could. And as much as I disliked the guy, it was obvious that Sheik was extremely skilled in many ways. He was too valuable a resource to waste on me. But. . . Zelda.
"Fine. I still think you've got the wrong guy, but I'm your man now. Or rather, I'm the princess' loyal subject, willing to do whatever she commands."
He gave a quick nod. "Good, I'm glad to hear it."
I reached down to grab my hat and walked back towards Epona.
"And Link," he called. I turned my head back. "Right now you may be pathetic. But give me time; I'll convince everyone of who you really are. Even you."
_
A/N: So this was my first time using Sheik's point of view. I'm still debating how much to switch to his point of view, so let me know whether or not you liked it and want more or less of it.