I'll update that last chapter when I get the chance- I'm still trying to get back into the flow of the story, but it's starting to get exciting for me again! Yay! This chapter was a bit challenging to write though- hope it was worth it!
Sheikora looked around the room, unsure of what to do. Where was Impa? She wasn't sure if she could tell Malon what had just happened. She wasn't even sure herself. In a daze, she looked back down at the scar on her hand. This should not be happening.
No one should see this. Sheikora opened all of the drawers, pleased that one contained a long roll of bandages. She wrapped it around the scarred hand quickly, looping the bandage around her fingers to make sure it stayed on, nice and tight. Hearing footsteps, Sheikora quickly shoved the rest of the bandages into the drawer.
"Hee! I got 'im t'wake up!" Malon said with a grin. Sheikora forced herself to laugh along, keeping her hands behind her back.
"Do you know where Iora is?" she asked casually.
"Mmm… no idea. I think I saw 'er walkin' toward the horse pen when we were walkin' up here," the redhead replied. "Why?"
"I want to ask her what she thinks of my hair," she lied smoothly. She felt a twinge of guilt for lying to her friend, but this was too important.
"All righty, let's go look," Malon said cheerfully. She hummed a pretty little song as Sheikora followed her downstairs.
"What are you singing?" Sheikora asked.
"Oh, just a song my Ma taught me before she died," Malon shrugged. "It's called 'Epona's Song.' It's the only song that'll calm the horsey Epona down, so that's why we called her 'Epona.'"
"It's a beautiful song," Sheikora replied absent-mindedly as she watched Malon's father snore.
"Wake up!" Malon yelled.
"What in tarnation?" Talon shot up from where he lay, surrounded by Cuccos. "Aw, I'm sor-"
"What've I told ya 'bout sleepin'!" Malon yelled while her father- and Sheikora- watched the redhead let it loose on her father. "I just now woke ya up, ya lazy man! There's work t'be done, horses t'feed…"
"Now, Malon…" Talon said helplessly, glancing to Sheikora for help.
"C'mon, Sheik! You get back to work!" She gave her father a death glare before leading Sheikora out.
"I've never seen you like that!" she said in amazement. What had happened to shy, kind Malon back there?
"He needs a bit of a push to get going," she shrugged. She started humming again as Sheikora stared at her in wonder.
"Iora!" Malon yelled. Sheikora followed Malon's lead, wondering where her attendant had run off to.
"I'm here," Impa said, waving at them through the open cowshed. She nodded at Malon and rose an eyebrow at Sheikora.
"Sheikora? What have you done to your hair?"
"Cut it off," Sheikora shrugged, keeping her hands behind her back.
"Obviously," Impa muttered. "Never mind. It looks fine…" she added distantly. Sheikora frowned. What was up with Impa?
"Can I ask you something?" Sheikora asked. Impa, alert once again, nodded. Taking the hint, Malon quietly left.
She quickly explained about the vision, and undid the bandage to reveal the scar on the back of her hand. Frowning, Impa looked at it.
"What does it mean?" Sheikora asked anxiously. Impa just stared at it.
"Cover it back up," the Sheikah replied in a harsh tone. "Never take that bandage off."
"What!" Sheikora wrapped the bandage around her hand. "I'm sorry, did I do something?"
"What- oh, no, of course not!" Impa replied reassuringly, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You have not done a single thing wrong."
The red-eyed princess looked down, still feeling guilty. "What's wrong with me, Impa?"
"Nothing is wrong with you," Impa said gently. "There is magic altering the color of your eyes, magic on the back of your hand! None of it is your doing."
"Well, what is doing it?"
"I have a hunch on what might have happened, but I need to get it cleared up by a wiser Sheikah who is well versed in the legends of the Triforce. But all that you need to know now is that Ganondorf remains in power, and we must remain hidden," Impa replied. Sheikora's eyes widened.
"No!" she yelled. "Link was supposed to have stopped him!"
"Link has done his best; I want you to stay hidden in this ranch until I return, hear me?" Impa bent down to Sheikora's eye level, hands on both shoulders now.
The girl nodded, and Impa continued. "I want you to stay with Malon while I go ask one of my elders," Impa spat that word out with contempt, "what her thinking on this is." Impa muttered something about whomever she was thinking about, and Sheikora was startled with such language. "I should return soon. Stay safe!"
With that, Impa backed up, and threw a black nut on the ground, vanishing with a flash of light.
Sheikora stared out the bedroom window glumly, looking at the setting sun. She had bound her other hand as not to look too suspicious should Ganondorf's men appear, just for good measure. She told Malon that she had scraped her hands on the fence somehow. However terrible the story was, Malon bought it.
She was pleased that it didn't alter her harp-playing, though. She was actually getting quite good for a beginner, no longer throwing tantrums, or harps,whenever she made a wrong chord. She hadn't thrown a single tantrum since Ganondorf attacked, surprisingly.
She looked at one of the teleportation songs of Camor's, wondering if she would be able to play more than the melody one day. The piece was quite pretty, called the Prelude of Light. She smiled for the first time in the two days since Impa left as she played the melody correctly.
Excitement pulsed through her body, feeling like hot blood in her veins. She played it again, the hot blood getting hotter… again, hotter…
"Stop!" Impa threw herself at the princess, separating her from the harp. Stunned, Sheikora collapsed, weak from the hot blood that now cooled. "What are you doing!"
"Playing," she replied as Impa helped her up onto her chair.
"You were doing more than playing. You were trying to use magic!" the Sheikah accused. "If you had applied any more, you would have been off to the Temple of Time!"
"Really?" Sheikora asked weakly.
"Yeah, but knocking yourself out in the process! And who knows if Ganon is keeping an eye on that place?" Impa replied angrily. "He could have captured you!"
"You're worried," Sheikora replied, frowning.
"Something has happened with the Triforce, so says the wise Sheikah who never shut up about my coming to her this time!" Impa's worried sentence turned to irritation mutter. Sheikora frowned.
"What happened?" she asked, ignoring Impa's grievance.
"Ah! I mean, well, the Triforce? Yes, the Triforce…" Impa shook her head and got back on topic. "According to my people, the Sheikah, there was one last key behind the Door of Time."
Sheikora stood up, swearing. "There was? Why didn't I know? Why didn't you know? Oh Nayru, is Link all right?"
Impa held up a hand. "Yes, there was one last key. It is called the Master Sword. Link lifted it from the Pedestal of Time, and he and the sword vanished."
"So… Link and the Sword are… gone?" Sheikora said softly. Was he still alive?
"Yes, but the theory is that they are in a different realm, waiting to emerge someday as the Hero of Time, the one who bears the Sword of Time and will destroy evil. But we do not know how long we will wait until they return, if they do at all," she said. "But now that the last key is gone, nothing stopped Ganon from entering the Sacred Realm to touch the Triforce."
Sheikora buried her face in her bandaged hands. The evil-killing sword was gone, Link was gone, Ganon has the Triforce…
"Ganon, however, does not have the pure heart needed to control the Triforce. So, the three different pieces- Power, Wisdom, Courage- have traveled to different individuals throughout the land. One remains with the person who touched the Triforce, so Ganon has the Triforce of Power.
"No one knows what happened to the Triforce of Courage, but it is rumored that the Hero of Time obtained it, for no one knows who else in the land has courage like his. As for the last piece, the Triforce of Wisdom- it is you."
"What!" Sheikora stood up so fast that she felt dizzy from the attempted use of magic. "How do you know!"
"The one with the Triforce mark on the back of their hand…" Impa said. Red eyes widening, Sheikora looked at the back of her hand, knowing that under the bandages was a part of a holy artifact.
"What do I do?" she asked, as if in a dream.
"Nothing… there is nothing we can do but keep you hidden," the older woman said, looking out the window. "We can only wait and see if the Hero of Time rises in this lifetime."