Learning how to fly proved to be simpler than it sounded. That isn't to say it was easy to do, just easier to understand.
Flying was like teleporting, it used wind magic to hold you in the sky and move you as you pleased.
The key was imagining perfectly what you wanted, down to the last detail. That meant knowing how you wanted it to affect you, how long you wanted it to last, and what exactly you wanted it to do.
You would think that was easy, but it wasn't. And so, Impa and the other two tutors demonstrated multiple times their own methods of flying.
Izzati used wings, Haytham had the mixture of wind and magic wind around his boots and help him float, and Impa wrapped herself in the wind, having an effect similar to swimming, or walking without the ground.
"Cool!" Amur and Anis chorused. Zelda nodded enthusiastically in agreement. They spent the remainder if they day practicing with wings, which seemed to be the easiest for the young Sheikah and Hylian to create.
Their training lasted for two weeks, by which time they were all capable of lifting of the ground, flying a few circles then they usually ran out of magic or lost focus and fell to the ground. Now they were working on magical dexterity and control.
Somehow in the long days of practicing Zelda managed to attend five war meetings, help organize the construction of a hospital, they were sure they were going to need one, and still attend all of the practices.
The day came to check on Link again, and Sheik prepared to leave.
"We have another escort mission soon, so we might not be here when you get back." Amur had said. Sheik had been kind of unhappy about that, but it was for the greater good, and they would be back soon.
So Sheik left, arriving at the Temple of Time just after sunrise on the first day of the new month. Walking quietly inside the temple, Sheik contemplated the odds of getting back to Kakariko without Ganondorf noticing her.
Apparently they were very low, since as soon as Sheik left the temple and went to check on the town she came face to face with Nabooru.
"Hey kid." Nabooru greeted. She was covered in bandages and the greeting lacked it's usual energy.
"What do I have to do?" Sheik asked. Ganondorf was not one to easily forgive or let someone get away without punishment, so it made sense to assume Nabooru was not here just to visit.
"We have been given the honor of leading a small army to a little trading town that Ganondorf wants us to conquer." Sheik nodded, this was better than expected. Motioning for Nabooru to lead, they made their way to Ganondorf's stables to get some horses.
They met their army at the halfway point between Ganondorf's castle and the town, and made the rest of the trip across Hyrule field in one day since it was a fairly short trip.
Once there, Sheik was appointed commander of the cavalry, Nabooru decided to lead the infantry and the mob of monsters.
Yelling orders to the other cavalry units, Sheik rode toward the village, twenty mounted Gerudo following her lead, naginatas waving threateningly.
Uncertainty washed over Sheik as she rode, questioning the necessity of a full assault. The Gerudo who had been in charge of the army had assured them that diplomacy had already been tried, but this still went against all of Shiek's morals. Also the fact that Gerudo diplomacy often was done at saber point.
The town's little militia rushed out to meet them, swords and spears bared and waving. Mounted on the walls Sheik could see archers, who would no doubt start shooting any moment.
She heard the tell-tale thrum of bowstrings and called a warning to her troops. As expected, each of the archers had picked a separate target so dodging was made much easier than if they had shot as a whole at the group. The Gerudo scattered then rode back into a spearhead formation without breaking stride. Their horsemanship was at an expert level.
Another volley came, but now the Gerudo were ready, and they scattered and returned without being asked. Sheik heard the screams of some unfortunate Gerudo who had been shot, and the frightened braying of their horses, but she ignored them. The horses slammed into the militia men, knocking them to the sides and trampling them under hoof. Sheik swung her naginata at one man who had avoided the horses and took of his head. Sheik felt sick, but didn't have time to stop for fear of death. So she kept riding, killing anyone who stood in her way. Eventually she stopped looking at those she killed, thinking of them as objects made it easier to kill them, it made it seem less like she was a murderer.
The ranks of the militia men broke and scattered, trying desperately to get away from the bloodthirsty Gerudo.
"Advance!" With a battle cry, Nabooru and her force of monsters began to advance. The archers started to fire flaming arrows now, and the horses reared and shied away from the flames. Sheik calmed her mount quickly and steered it through the town's gates with her knees, she could hear her unit rally and following behind her.
Ganondorf's army marched into the town, a terrifying mix of mounted Gerudo and monsters born of dark magic, tamed only by Nabooru's immense willpower.
More arrows rained down, taking out nearly one third of the cavalry. If this kept up, Sheik would loose a lot of her people.
In a moment of loyalty to her army, which she would later regret, Sheik ordered her second in command to lead the cavalry and leapt off of her horse as they galloped past the ladder leading to the top of the wall. Sheik climbed quickly, dropping her naginata as she did so that she had use of both hands.
The archers didn't even stand a chance. The few who survived would later tell stories of a shadow that rose up behind them and struck them down before they even got a chance to scream.
Cursing her very existence, Sheik launched herself off of the wall, bloody knives glinting in the afternoon sun. She really was a murderer now, to save the Gerudo who rode with her she had killed twenty innocent people, probably farmers who were just trying to defend their homes and families.
The exact same thing Sheik was trying to do by serving Ganondorf.
Hitting the ground and rolling to break her fall, Sheik sprinted to the battle up ahead. The militia had reformed in the center of the town to defend their flag. Cutting down a monster who mistook her as an enemy, Sheik ran to Nabooru's side, dodging under the horizontal slash that came towards her neck as soon as she noticed Sheik's presence.
"Sheik." Sheik identified herself before Nabooru decided to attack again. Nabooru spun back around and killed a farmer who was about to stab her.
The battle was short, ending in only fort-five minutes. Sheik had lost count of the people she had killed. A few of Ganondorf's monsters had fallen to her blades as well, whether she had done it on purpose or not, Sheik was unsure. Nearly the entire battle had just been a bloody blur.
The end result was fifteen dead from Ganondorf's army, and fifty from the town militia. Ten townspeople dead, burned in the fires that had been lit by the flaming arrows or caught in the fighting.
"Hey kid, you alright?" Nabooru came to stand next to Sheik, looking over the destruction. Sheik felt something die inside of her, but she nodded. Nabooru wasn't buying it, but she didn't press. One of the other Gerudo came and said something to Nabooru in the Gerudo's language. Their language was similar to that of the Sheikah, since they had originally both lived in the desert, and Sheik understood the words "report" and "Ganondorf."
"We have to report to Ganondorf." Nabooru said, disgust clear in her voice. Sheik lifted a deku nut and slammed it into the ground, Nabooru following with her magic crystals.
-0-0-0-
Ganondorf's guttural laugh echoed around the chamber, bouncing off the walls and overlapping in a very frightening manner. He seemed genuinely amused.
Sheik and Nabooru stood unflinching before him.
"So you did as I asked?" Nabooru nodded affirmation. "Hmm... That's acceptable, although your complaints are that of a pathetic child, not befitting of one of my servants." he said to Sheik, who had complained about the massacre and his unnecessary use of force.
"Go back to your princess." Sheik took the dismissal and left the throne room. Ganondorf appeared to trust her enough to let her walk inside the castle without an escort now, so she had some time alone to think. Or dwell on the horrendous crimes she had just committed, which is what she did.
When she finally exited the castle, she teleported to the Lost Woods with the Minuet of Forest.
The forest did nothing to calm her this time, and she promptly threw up. Staggering over to the tree stump where Saria had been sitting when they first came, Sheik sat down and dropped her head into her hands. Narrow shoulders shook with silent cries, tears streamed down her face, drawing lines through the red blood spattered across it.
"Oh Goddesses..." her voice caught, and she closed her eyes, trying desperately to stop the images of the massacre, for that's what it had been, from flashing through her brain.
Trained to kill since age five, Sheik should have been prepared for this. But how could one be prepared to kill innocent people?
Choosing to focus instead on the tears that blurred her vision, Sheik slowly forced herself to breath deeply. Regaining clarity of the mind, Sheik wiped tears out of her eyes and checked herself over for injuries.
There were no serious injuries, the blood covering her was someone, or something, else's. Tears covered the outer cloth layer of her amour, but none had gone through the chain mail. Either way, she would be covered in bruises tomorrow for sure.
Standing, Sheik made her way through the maze until she found one of the clear pools of water that were scattered throughout the forest.
She knelt next to the hole and began the task of washing off the blood and dirt, staining the water red like the setting sun.
-0-0-0-
Sheik wasn't sure when, but somewhere along the line she had separated into two people.
One was Zelda's friend, a good person, and a apprentice Sheikah.
The other was a lying, murdering, heartless, minion of Ganondorf.
It was now five months since Ganondorf had ordered the capture of that small town, which was now a supply town for Ganondorf's army.
Zelda was beginning her counter attack. One of the Sheikah scouts had brought back news of Ganondorf's intent to capture Lon Lon Ranch, and Zelda was not happy.
In one week, a fraction of Zelda's army would arrive at the ranch, three days before Ganondorf's. Zelda was going to try a pincer maneuver, in which two of her cavalry unit would ride around one side, two more from the other, and attack from there, pushing Ganondorf's army into Zelda's main attack force. The land around Lon Lon Ranch was relatively flat, and you could see all the way to the castle from the ranch, so there was no terrain advantage.
Archers would be mounted along the walls surrounding the ranch, and there would be mounted archers shooting at both the front and back of Ganondorf's army.
With their smaller forces, it was a risky idea, but Zelda was hoping to confuse the unintelligent creatures that made up Ganondorf's army, have them split their attention, then destroy them.
Sheik, Amur, Anise, a girl called Raven, and a boy named Kahalil also had a special job to do. They were supposed to kill the commanders. Using shadow magic, they were to sneak behind Ganondorf's army and take out the commanders on the small knoll they were using as a command post, then go into the army unnoticed by the monsters who were fighting and kill the commanders of each unit.
It was a dangerous task, and Zelda had been very much opposed, but if the commanders were eliminated the battle would be heavily weighted.
Sheik thanked the Goddesses that Ganondorf hadn't asked her to fight for him. He probably knew she would be fighting for Zelda, but she hoped he didn't anticipate a backstab attack like the one they were going to commit.
The next week was spent crossing Hyrule Field to Lon Lon Ranch. Once there, the army prepared it's forces, setting spiked fences inside the gateway, and setting torches on top of the walls so archers could fire flaming arrows.
The inhabitance of the Ranch hid in the large house with a small group of six Sheikah to guard them.
Preparations were complete, now all that was left to do was wait.
A/N
Sorry if this isn't as good as it could have been. I am having trouble connecting events, but I think it will pick up again after this chapter. Please tell me if there are spelling errors or anything.
Thank you all who reveiwed, favorited, and followed.