How are you supposed to react when someone randomly appears in your house while your cooking dinner?
Malon reacted by screaming and throwing a fork at Sheik when she appeared in Lon Lon Ranch's dining room unexpectedly.
Ducking automatically, Sheik narrowly avoided getting a fork through her eye.
"Sorry," she muttered tiredly. Sheik's head was spinning and she had misjudged her reappearance and accidentally warped into Malon's dining room.
"Sheik?" Malon gasped in surprise. What happened to you? Your all bloody!" Rushing over to her, Malon began examining Sheik frantically in search of injuries.
"Come and sit down and I'll see to your wounds." Malon ran off into a side room to retrieve her first aid equipment. As soon as she disappeared around the corner, Talon walked into the room carrying a heavy looking metal bar.
"WHAT'RE YOU DOIN' IN MY HOUSE?!" he yelled. Sheik winced and covered her sensitive ears.
"It's me," Sheik said, holding her hands up to show she meant no harm. Talon rubbed sleep out of his eyes and blinked at her.
"Oh. Sorry, fer scarin' ya." Sheik nodded and sat down in one of the chairs and waited silently for Malon to return, which she did a moment later.
"Daddy didn't scare you did he?" Malon asked, noticing her father and the metal bar in his hand. Placing her box on the table next to Sheik, she turned to glare at her father. Talon rubbed his head shamefully.
"No, he didn't," Sheik assured her.
"Good!" Malon clapped and opened the box. "Daddy, go eat your dinner upstairs, I'll tend to Sheik and then we'll join you." Talon obediently picked up his plate and left. Once he was gone Malon interrogated Sheik about her injuries, which thanks to Ruto were mostly healed, and then began work on the wound on her head.
Half an hour later, Malon had finished. Sheik's head was now wrapped in an excessive amount of bandages, and Malon had said it would take a long time to heal, and she would have to sit still for at least two weeks so that it didn't open up again, but both knew that was highly unlikely to happen.
Handing Sheik a plate of food, Malon sat down next to her father at their long oak table and said a prayer to the goddesses thanking them for their meal before she and her father began to eat. Sheik refused to remove her scarf, so she ate by slipping bits of food through the gaps in the cloth, and art which she had perfected in the past few weeks.
Malon raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't comment.
Sheik stayed the night at Lon Lon Ranch, knowing it would be better to remain here until her injuries needed no more care since Impa and everyone back in Kakariko were very busy and didn't have time to take care of her. Plus, Malon was a really good cook.
-0-0-0-
The morning came much too quickly for Sheik's liking. Warm rays of sun were beginning to appear above the horizon, painting it a brilliant array of pink and orange.
Rolling over Sheik pulled the blankets over her head in an attempt to block out the light. Today was one of those days where she just didn't want to get out of bed. She wasn't much of a morning person anyway.
Not five minutes later she heard footsteps on the wood floor outside her room and someone knocked on her door.
"Sheik? Wake up," Malon called through the door. Sighing, Sheik sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"I'm up," she called back. Malon seemed satisfied with that and left calling back that breakfast would be in thirty minutes.
Stretching, Sheik began her morning routine, stretches, brushing teeth, getting dressed, etcetera.
After making sure her scarf was securely in place, Sheik silently entered the kitchen, startling Malon into dropping her spatula.
"Don't do that!" she snapped, picking it up and continuing with her job pf cooking eggs. Sheik leaned back against the wall and watched silently, sure that Malon would ask if she wanted help.
"Go wake up Daddy please," Malon said after a while. Sheik grinned beneath her scarf and went to the rack of herbs that were drying and picked out a jalapeño pepper. Talon was notorious for not waking up, so extreme measures were necessary. Malon laughed as Sheik exited the room and walked up the stairs that led to Talon's room.
"Talon." Sheik poked him in the ribs. No reaction. Grinning evilly under her scarf, Sheik stuck the chili pepper in his mouth and waited while he reflexively chewed and swallowed. Three seconds later, Talon shot up from bed and screamed.
Sheik leapt backwards to avoid his flailing arms, retreating to the relative safety of the door way.
"HOT! HOT! HOT! HELP! I NEED WATER!" Talon ran out of the room, crashing into the walls and doors as he struggled to reach the bathroom.
Malon stepped out of the stairway and collapsed to the floor laughing.
"That, that was great..." she dissolved back into laughter, rolling around on her back. Sheik allowed herself a grin and leaned back against the wall, watching the girl rolling on the floor in front of her.
Emerging from the bathroom with his face and shirt soaking wet, Talon stomped over and glared at the two other occupants of the house as best as he could with tears at the edge of his eyes.
Malon looked up briefly and promptly started laughing again.
Talon's glare focused on Malon.
"Which one of you did it?" Sheik raised her hand and Talon turned his gaze to her. Taking an intimidating step forward, Talon began to growl.
Sheik hadn't known that Talon could appear so frightening, but she wasn't about to let him intimidate her, so she turned away and walked calmly down the stairs, not acknowledging him in any way.
"You brat!" Talon chased after her, charging like a bull. Sheik stepped neatly out of the way, sending Talon tumbling down the remaining stairs.
Malon laughed harder as her farther got up and turned back to face Sheik.
"Let's take this outside." He growled, using the common code for "lets go outside and beat each other into the ground."
"Is that a challenge?" Sheik grinned, although nobody could tell. Talon nodded his large head and stomped out the door into the horses' paddock.
Malon, who had picked herself up, followed them out, fixing her hair and straightening her dress as she went.
The two fighters stood across from each other, Talon glaring, Sheik nonchalantly balancing on one foot. The horses looked curiously on.
Pulling herself up onto the fence Malon set the rules.
"Okay! So you lose if you either tap out, go out of the paddock, or can no longer move." Malon raised her arm and loudly announced, "Ready? Go!" she brought her arm down and giggled as talon bull-charged Sheik, who did a handstand on his shoulder, tapping his head as she flipped over to land back on her feet. Before Talon could turn around Sheik spun and slammed a foot into his back, causing him to stumble. But Talon was large and had a very low center of gravity, so he didn't fall as Sheik had intended.
She ducked and rolled to the side as Talon swung a right hook punch at her head. Coming up behind him, Sheik darted forward and caught the big man in a choke hold.
"Give up?" she hissed into his ear.
"...NO!" With a roar, Talon flung Sheik off and into the air. She flipped neatly and came down feet first towards Talon. Stepping back, Talon avoided the attack and tried to grab Sheik, finally realizing that his superior strength and size would give him a huge advantage if the caught her.
Sheik darted in again, starting a series of quick jabs to Talons ribs, then before Talon could retaliate, jumped backwards out of range and did a handstand to taunt Talon. This was the most fun she had had in... Well, a really long time. She felt guilty for a second, knowing that everyone else was working hard to save the country, but she was entitled to have some fun, right? She was only ten after all, a child in most societies.
The two continued to fight, Sheik landing a lot of blows on Talon, and Talon landing only two, but with his amount of strength, two was still pretty painful.
Sheik was flung toward the fence, Talon was now trying to knock her out of the ring. She flipped and kicked off the fence, already having made the mistake of not landing correctly and as a result had reopened her head wound. Thankfully Malon hadn't noticed yet. It wasn't that bad and Sheik didn't want to stop yet.
Twisting, Sheik slammed her foot into Talon's solar plexus, causing him to stumble and clutch his stomach. Following up on her advantage, Sheik dashed behind him and did a spinning kick, hitting Talon between his shoulders and knocking him to the ground. Sheik grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back painfully.
"Give?" Sheik panted. There was a slow nod, then Talon said; "Yeah. You win." Stepping off, Sheik brushed herself off, doing her best to hide the grin that insisted on coming onto her countenance. Both contestants were breathing hard and covered in sweat.
"Awesome job!" Malon congratulated, hoping off her fence and walking over. Talon stood up with a groan and massaged his shoulder.
"You didn't have to be so rough," he complained. Sheik shrugged.
"You asked for it," Malon pointed out. Sheik stretched and turned to Malon.
"I'm hungry." Malon's face paled suddenly.
"Oh, shoot! I forgot!" dashing back into the house, Malon ran to the stove and groaned. Her toast had been burned and the eggs were cold.
"Sorry..." she said to Sheik, who had followed her inside. Sheik shrugged and took the plate of eggs. She wasn't a picky eater, and anyway, cold eggs were better than the cold bread with jam she got back home. Well, the jam was pretty good, but that's besides the point.
~0~0~0~
Three days later, Malon deemed Sheik fit to leave. She had wound Sheik's head in an unnecessarily large amount of bandages after her fight against Talon, so much so that it looked like she was wearing a turban. Which was fine, it reminded her of the way the Shiekah in the desert dressed. They all wore turbans to keep the sand and sun from hurting them. Impa had once said that her father had originally come from the desert and moved to Kakariko to be with her mother.
The sun was just setting when Sheik had finished helping Malon and Talon round up the animals and feed and water them all.
Thanking them for their hospitality, Sheik backed up a few paces and Malon and Talon, knowing what was coming next, covered their eyes. When they looked back, Sheik was gone.
-0-0-0-
A/N
Yay! I wrote a useless filler chapter! With absolutely no storyline!
Sorry if it wasn't any fun to read, but I feel like it's got to be here, otherwise it would be one major event to the next, and poor Sheik needs a little break, I think.
Thank you all who read!
Please review!
Oh, and does anyone have suggestions for a better story title?