Hey all! It's been a good three-four months since my last chappie-poo, but I hope no one gave up on me! I've actually been working on this at least twice a month since July. Whee! So, this may feel like a disjointed kinda sorta chappie-poo. I'll try to update this thinger whenever I can- just be patient. Even many months of patience can pay off eventually.
An Actual History Lesson #4
"Mara, tell me about Kakariko. Wasn't that where Impa was born?" Sheik asked, bored as they trudged across the Hyrule Fields.
"Ooh, yes. Lovely village. Known for the excellent wine! Why, just a few weeks ago, me and a lovely local man had a marvelous…" Mara began, but was cut short by Sheik's red-eyed glare. She sighed. "Well, what other information do you need to know?"
"Tell me why a Sheikah would be born there!" Sheik snapped.
"Oh, why, yes. Sheikahs. That town was founded by Sheikahs, you know. It was originally the Kakariko Tribe, but eventually became Kakariko Village," Mara said grudgingly, unable to believe the boy wanted to know this boring information. "Then those idiots Hylians – no offense, of course – decided that Kakariko would be the perfect place to take shelter during the Long War. They figured that the Kakarikans would protect them. Well, they were wrong!" At that, Mara chuckled.
"That's not a nice thing to laugh about," Sheik told her, sounding bored and indifferent.
"So?"
Sheik sighed. "I think I should just stop asking you questions." Mara smirked.
"Finally catching on, are ya?" she asked smugly. Sheik sighed with exasperation.
Chapter 14
"Are you all right?" Saria repeated, kneeling down to Sheik. Her hair was strange green color, and deep blue eyes were filled with concern.
"I'm fine!" Sheik replied, letting Saria help pull him up. "Thanks." His red eyes watched her, and he noticed a small ocarina in her hands. "You're Saria… aren't you?"
Saria nodded, but didn't seem too surprised that he knew her name. "Are you… a friend of Link's?" she asked him. Sheik nodded. She smiled. "Follow me, then. If he wants you to find me, I might as well show you some courtesy and take you to my secret place. It's safer there."
She grabbed on of Sheik's bandaged hands, and led him up some steps into a large clearing. He looked around, seeing a gray symbol on the ground very similar to the one in the Temple of Time, and, looking up, he saw what appeared to be broken stairs. Turning back to Saria, he noticed she sat on a small stump, watching him.
"What's your name?" she asked politely. Sheik paused. His true disguise might as well get started now.
"I am Sheik of the Sheikahs," he said, inclining his head a little. Once again, Saria didn't appear startled, merely curious. "Do you know where Link has been?"
Saria looked up, thoughtfully. "No, I do not. But this is not what you're here to tell me, is it?"
Sheik was surprised. This girl seemed to read his mind. Was this a Sage thing? Or was Saria just extra creepy?
"It isn't," Sheik admitted. How was he going to tell her that she was a Sage? Thinking for a moment, he asked, "Do you know where we are?"
"This is the Sacred Forest Meadow," she replied, gesturing with her free hand. "It is also the home of the Forest Temple."
"Do you know what the Forest Temple is?" he pressed. Saria shook her head. "The Forest Temple is the place the Sage of Forest prays to move on to the Sacred Realm… often they come here or have a close connection with the Temple before being awakened, at which they go into the Chamber of Sages." Sheik said all of this very fast, and not even sure Saria understood everything he told her. She regarded him with those blue eyes for a long moment.
"Am I this Sage?" she asked quietly. Sheik hesitated, then nodded. She pursed her lips, and her green eyebrows contracted slightly. "Who told you this?"
"A Sheikah," he replied, not sure how much he should tell her. She gave him another long look, as though wondering whether she should believe this.
"Why… why do I need to know this?" she asked, not sounding completely convinced.
"You want to help Link or not?" Sheik replied with frustration. He was tired and sore and didn't want to deal with all these questions! Saria blinked her large blue eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "You can answer my questions at some other time- I forgot it took a long time to come here, and my scrubs aren't very nice."
Sheik forced a laugh. That was an understatement if he ever heard one. Saria smiled faintly, and gestured for him to sit on the ground, which he happily obliged. Saria's eyes flickered over to Sheik's satchel. She pointed to it with a long arm. "Have an ocarina?"
"No," Sheik replied, looking back. "I gave it to Link," he told her truthfully. "He's on a big adventure, you know."
"He was always destined to leave us," she said calmly and knowingly. "He wasn't like the others."
Sheik contracted his blond eyebrows and frowned. Not like the Kokiri? What was so different about Link? The confusion must have shown itself on Sheik's fair face, because Saria nodded.
"He was the only Kokiri without a fairy," she told him. "The Deku Tree never paid much attention to him either, until…" She frowned. "Until the day he died. A fairy suddenly came to Link, and told him the Deku Tree wanted to see him. Then the Deku Tree died, and Link left us."
Sheik said nothing. He knew it was after the death of the Tree that Link had come to Hyrule Castle. However, Saria didn't seem curious as to why. "Tell me, Sheik, if I pray and move into this Chamber you mentioned, will it help Link?"
The boy blinked. This girl really knew how to cut to the chase. "Yes," he replied softly. Saria's face broke out into a smile.
"I will do what I can to help him," she said serenely. She paused. "Link will always be my friend," she added in haunting voice that echoed the sadness that Sheik guessed she felt whenever she remembered the day when Link left the forest. Pausing, she lifted her ocarina, and played a simpler version of the song Sheik had followed to be led here. Saria's song?
"Mido? Can you hear me?" the green girl spoke clearly to the mouthpiece of the ocarina. "It's me, Saria. I have one last favor to ask of you. I want you to stand guard in the Lost Woods. Please do not let anyone pass unless they know my song. Thank you, Mido." Sheik watched this one-sided conversation with interest. Jesy had told him that Mido was the bossy child who had told him to leave. Could he hear what Saria had just said?
Not bothering to explain herself, Saria looked up at the broken steps that didn't reach the ground. She closed her blue eyes. "The Spirits are calling my name," she said softly, almost to herself. "They know that I will return to them and join them beyond the physical limits of Hyrule, and help protect-"
Suddenly, her eyelids sprang apart, the deep blue turning quickly from calm to fearful. "Sheik, something is wrong… The Spirits of the Forest is in danger!" she wailed, her gentle voice filled with panic and dread.
"What are you saying?" Sheik asked, unable to understand this panic. Was Ganondorf here?
"The Spirits need my help!" Saria put a small hand over her mouth, her blue eyes streaming with tears. "Goodbye, Sheik. I must… help the forest…"
An ethereal glow shone on Saria's skin, and she put the small ocarina to her lips. Sheik could only stare as she played her song and vanished in a burst of green dust.
For a long moment, he could only stare at the spot where she disappeared. What magic was this? A long list of possibilities filled his young mind, and they all pointed to Ganondorf as the culprit. Numb to anything else, his hand reached shakily for a Nut. He closed his fingers around it. What if Ganondorf had lured Saria into a trap and would kill her? Did he know about the Sages?
This whole quest was a mistake- this could kill Saria, and it was his fault. Sheik pushed his short blond hair away from his face and brought the Nut into contact with the moist earth. All of this was his fault… He had made Link gather the stones and play the Song of Time, he had made Link open the Door of Time, he had made the pathway to the Triforce clear for Ganondorf.
The weightlessness was brief relief for the Sheikah boy, but was brought back to harsh reality as his body hit the ground, knees first. Now everything was his fault again- Kiro probably was a traitor, a traitor who had probably told Ganondorf about the Sages. Now Saria was probably dying alone in the Forest Temple right now because of he trusted the old guard too easily.
Sheik grabbed a clump of grass in his bandaged fist. Was he destroying everything he tried to make right?
"Hey, Sheik, how'd it go?" It was Mara. She sounded exhausted, sounding like she was forcing every word to leave her throat. He looked up at her with his monstrous red eyes, taking in her pale form. The cuts on her arms were bleeding freely and vibrantly on ebony arms. However, the Sheikah was wearing a ghost of a smile, which soon faded at seeing the expression on Sheik's face. "Is the Sage alive?"
"I doubt for much longer!" he managed to choke out. "She said something about the Spirits in the forest needing her help, and she… disappeared!"
The last few words were a sob, another reminder that he was not Sheik, a boy of the Sheikahs, nor anyone who was capable of doing good. It was just a reminder that he was not one of the ever-wise Sheikahs, but only a silly princess, attempting to hastily bandage a fatal wound she had made on the world and crying tears of self-pity about it.
"No, no, I'd know if she was dead," she said, shaking her head as if it took a lot of effort. "Sheikahs know if something like this happens with magic." The woman paused, and knelt down to Sheik, placing an arm on his shoulder awkwardly. "As long as you told the Sage what to do, then it'll be all right."
"But what if it isn't?" Sheik asked desperately, looking up at Mara's tired face.
"Don't even think of it," she growled, then managed to give Sheik a smile that was full of encouragement with a slight hint of determination. "Remember, Ganon only has one piece of the Triforce. The good guys, who happen to be us, have two pieces. That means we have more hope than he knows. Got it?"