It was still dark when Sheik moved, and Link whined, waking up. Sheik shushed him softly, and Link rolled closer to the wall, huffing and dragging the blankets with him—if Sheik was going to wake him up while he was sleeping, then Sheik would have to deal with the consequences.

A really long moment passed, and Link drifted back to sleep, or almost back to sleep, because suddenly Sheik's weight on the bed vanished and the spirits murmured, and Link was wide awake right away.

Sheik was as quiet as the spirits as he moved around the room, but the sound of his blade scraping across the floor was unmistakable, and the spirits sparked a little bit when the lanterns moved.

And then Sheik slipped out of the room, closing the door silently behind him.

All of his anxiety from the night before hit him hard, and he bolted upright, gasping.

She'd asked Sheik if he was going to leave him with other Hylians and he'd left so early in the morning—

Link threw himself at the window. Though it was still dark out, the stars and the moon were bright enough to show him blurry shapes through the warped glass—it was weird, Hylian glass. Ikana just had open windows with wooden shutters, if the wood hadn't rotted away by then, and that worked much better.

But all he could see was part of a cliff and a not-very-well-hidden path that led up it. And part of a road, just a thin sliver. He shifted, moving around on the bed pressed right up beneath it and craning his head to see through it better, but—

And there he was, just the briefest flash of his sword and his cloak before Sheik moved out of his view.

Link glanced back at the door anxiously, but the spirits were already giggling at him, telling him there was no way he was going to be able to move it. So he looked at the window again, harder, because the lady had said that this was Sheik's room and Sheik would never have just one entrance in his room. They'd had a bunch in Ikana, which had been fun when he'd played tag with the dead, even if he always lost anyway.

He pressed against the glass, throwing all of his weight into it, and something rattled gently. He sucked in a sharp breath, but he found the latch hidden between the bed and the wall after a few minutes.

The window swung out silently, and Link gasped, shoving his head out to see where Sheik was—just in time to see him disappear up over a hill.

He ducked inside long enough to put on his shoes before climbing out.

There were vines clinging to the side of the building, and he used those to climb down, the spirits following him, invisible but warning him where the plant was too weak to hold him up or where the stone beneath was crumbling.

And as soon as he hit the ground, he snuck after Sheik.

And then he stopped, pressed flat to the stone path at the top of the hill, because wow. There was a castle, except it was different from the Duke's because it was white with blue roofs and really really tall and not crumbling or anything at all, and it had a big gate in front of it, and mountains behind it—

—And he could see Sheik, striding towards the castle farther down the path, passing over another hill.

Link waited until he had crested it before scrambling after him, careful to be quiet. Sheik had always won their games of sneak-attack, and hide-and-seek, and tag, but this time he wasn't expecting Link to follow.

Sheik walked right up to the castle, completely ignoring the guards that surrounded the gate, and Link had to stop following him there—Sheik had told him not to talk to anybody he didn't know. And they were guards.

Living guards.

Link's heart stopped because they all grabbed their weapons, and pointed them at Sheik.

The lanterns swinging from Sheik's blade lit up so sharply and so brilliantly that it almost blinded Link. But the spirits didn't move, didn't break free. Even from where he was hiding, Link could feel Sheik's power snap down on them like iron.

He didn't see what Sheik did, but the guards put their weapons away quickly and shuffled out of Sheik's way like they were on fire, and Link was in absolute awe.

Angry at them, yes, but…Sheik had dealt with them like they were nothing.

And then he realized that Sheik was gone—vanished, through the gate of the castle, behind the guards and their weapons.

"How do I get in?" He whispered, shrinking in on himself. He swallowed back the surge of terror that accompanied the question, the thought.

Sheik couldn't leave him. He wouldn't.

…right?

The spirits hummed, the sort of heart-deep song that warmed his bones, and Link shivered as he turned his attention to them.

They wanted to lead him somewhere, he realized.

He wormed his way back down the crest of the hill and followed after them.

Their humming was different than it usually was. Anxious. Kind of like how Link was feeling, except they wouldn't be worried about Sheik leaving them behind because Sheik always came back for them, even if it took a long time.

He wondered if they were upset because of the castle. Or what was in it.

They led him off of the road to the biggest, longest row of bushes he had ever seen in his life. And then they waited for him to ask the bushes to let them through, please, before going on.

The bushes pulled their lowest branches up and made a tunnel for him, and Link promised to tell Saria how helpful and nice they were when Sheik took him back to see her.

That made them happy. It made the spirits happy too, and their humming calmed a little bit.

Link let out a slow breath before wiggling his way through the tunnel the bushes had made. The dirt beneath their branches was soft, but still damp and frigid, and by the time he'd crawled through all of them he was shivering and dirt was matted onto his clothes.

He did his best to brush it off, but the spirits started to get restless and—well, Link didn't want Sheik to get too far ahead. He didn't know the castle and if he lost Sheik, or the spirits lost Sheik, then he'd be lost too and that terrified him.

Behind the bushes was a river, except it was sunken low in the ground. Like a miniature canyon, sort of. On the other side, right up against the edge of the earth, was a huge white wall—the castle.

He stared at it in awe for a moment, and then froze when it dawned on him.

"…How am I gonna get across?" He whispered, looking towards the spirits sharply. Their humming changed momentarily, became something closer to laughter than a song.

They led him further down the river, away from the entrance Sheik had gone through, until the edge of the ground stopped being so cliff-like and sloped down into the water. There were some rocks, just barely hidden beneath the surface of the water, and he followed the spirits across them to the edge of the river's bank on the other side. He was just barely tall enough to grab the lip of the edge and pull himself up against the castle's walls, thankfully.

The spirits couldn't really do much for him if he needed physical help, after all. Besides maybe going to get Sheik, but…he didn't want that. But maybe if there were other dead around here? That was unlikely, though, with so many living people around. They liked quiet.

The spirits had him inch back towards where he'd come from. It was slow going, because Link didn't want to slip, and there wasn't much walking room—he had to press his back as tightly against the castle wall as he could just to move.

And then the spirits told him to stop, and he did, and then they told him to kick the wall behind him. And he did.

The stone behind him shivered and terror leapt into his throat because if he fell forward into the water—

He landed on his back, dust puffing up around him like a cloud. It took him a moment to get his bearings, another to crawl onto his feet.

The spirits had shown him a passage, just big enough for him to walk through. It was too dark for him to see anything, but the spirits urged him on and he followed, shuffling forward slowly with his hands outstretched.

After a while he touched something hard, and after a few seconds exploring it discovered it was a door.

The handle didn't turn very easily, but the spirits urged him on and eventually he got it to open just enough to crawl through.

He found himself behind a huge row of bushes. He'd never seen bushes like them before, though—they were tall, and straight, and their branches were woven so thickly together he couldn't see out of them. And they didn't have much magic in them—they barely acknowledged his presence, and they were slow, sluggish.

He made a face, pulling away from them and following the path that led up to the door. The Lost Woods was always alive—even in the Canyon, the few plants there had been alive too. These weren't. Not in the same sense, anyway, because even the dead felt livelier.

Maybe Sheik would know?

The spirits hummed again, told him excitedly that they were close, and he broke into a run as he followed them through a maze of the not-dead plants. He had to crawl through some of them, and their branches scratched as his face and his arms. He couldn't ask the plants to move for him—they didn't respond to him and he suspected that they only got meaner the more he asked—so he suffered quietly. Only a few scratches were deep enough to draw blood, and they stung more than anything else so it wasn't too bad.

The spirits got quiet, suddenly, and Link crawled out into a large, grassy space. A circular courtyard, ringed with skinny trees and rows of pink flowers, with a white stone platform at the far end and a stained-glass window.

Link stumbled out of the bushes rubbing at his clothes and the dirt and grass stains that covered them. Sheik would be furious he'd gotten so dirty, but—

"Who are you?"

Link froze, and slowly looked around for the speaker.

He found her standing beside the window, her white dress blending in with the pearly stone behind her so well he almost missed her. Again.

The spirits took note of her, which was strange. They usually didn't even acknowledge the living. Though they didn't pay her any mind after seeing her it was more than he'd ever seen them give anyone besides himself and Sheik.

"I asked you a question." She said, and she marched up to him with her hands on his hips.

"L—Link." He stepped back, leaning as far away from her as he could. He didn't know her, and Sheik wasn't around, and even if the spirits didn't seem too bothered by her presence, Link was still unsure.

"Link? What kind of name is that?" She leaned forward as she asked, prompting Link to lean farther away—and he fell, landing on his back with a thump.

He didn't know where she was going with that. The Captain and the Duke had never made fun of his name. And neither had Sheik.

"Saria gave it to me."

She frowned at him.

"I'm Zelda."

"…Can you m—move please?" She blinked at him, not moving. Link slowly started to push himself up anyway, and she skipped back as he stood.

"What are you doing here?"

"…Looking for somebody." He remembered the looks the living had given Sheik, given him the past night, and…it didn't feel safe, to say he was looking for Sheik. She might not help him, if she knew.

But she didn't ask about who he was looking for.

"How'd you get in here? Did you sneak past the guards?"

"The who?"

Had there been guards? He didn't remember any. Besides the ones Sheik had scared.

She puffed her cheeks out at that, but then reached forward and grabbed his wrist.

"Well—since you're here, we might as well play a game."

"A—but—"

"C'mon!" She pulled him after her, into the center of the courtyard. She seemed excited, and the spirits didn't seem to think she was dangerous or anything…

"Do you want to play hide-and-seek?" She asked, once she'd stopped running and let go of him. Link brightened at that—it was his favorite game to play with the Duke—and nodded. She beamed.

"Alright, I'll count! You hide!"

He hesitated a minute, but…it sounded fun. He'd never played with another living kid before.

Sheik wouldn't be mad, would he? The spirits didn't seem bothered by her—and they weren't upset anymore, maybe because he was in the castle where Sheik was?

Just for a little bit. He'd only play with her for a few games, and then he'd go find Sheik.

"…Okay."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You're fast!" He flopped onto the grass beside her, gasping for breath, and she huffed out a laugh. They were laying amongst the flowers she'd said she'd planted, but Zelda didn't seem too concerned about crushing them so neither was Link.

"You're just slow."

"I haven't played tag in a long time." He admitted, shrugging.

"Then what do you play?"

The question actually made him think.

"Um…chase, mostly. Hide-and-seek. And the Captain and I play so—sold-soldier!" Sheik didn't really play games with him much. The spirits did, though.

"Isn't chase like tag, though?" She asked, face scrunching up. Link let out a breathless giggle and looked up at the sky, bright blue and clear.

"No. I'm not fast enough to chase them back."

"Chase who?" She asked. Link turned his head to look at her, and froze.

Sheik was standing in the entrance to the courtyard, blade resting against the stone wall, arms folded across his chest. His cowl hung around his throat, and though his expression was blank, his eyes were angrier than Link had ever seen them before.

"What are you doing?" Sheik asked softly.

Zelda let out a gasp, and clutched his arm, but Link wiggled free and stood up. Tears were stinging at the back of his eyes. He was scared, because Sheik was so upset, but he was also angry. Sheik had, after all, left him.

"I was looking for you." His voice shook, a little bit. But he kept walking towards Sheik, steady like the Captain had told him real men, real soldiers were.

"Were you now? And was the Princess helping you look for me?" Sheik's voice was scathing, ice-cold.

"You left!" Link shouted back, fists clenched at his sides and tears finally spilling free. He immediately ducked his head, pressing his fists to his eyes and swallowing back a sob. And another.

Bandaged fingers touched his cheek, slid around his head and pressed against the base of his skull. He fell into Sheik's chest, accepting the embraced as he wound his arms around Sheik's throat.

"You were to wait in the room. Telma was to wake you and keep you busy."

"You were leaving!"

Sheik sighed, softly, but lifted Link up into his arms.

And then Link felt Sheik go still against him, fingers tighten around him just a fraction. And Link felt the spirits hiss.

"What is that?" The voice was unfamiliar, sharp and cold. Not the kind of cold Sheik was, but dangerous, unfriendly.

"Not your concern." Sheik replied, voice just as cold. Link shifted, pulled back and twisted his head around to see the speaker.

She stood behind Zelda, hands on the girl's shoulders. She was tall, taller than Sheik, with white hair pulled back into a tight bun. She wore metal armor and a choker painted with the Eye of Truth, and the spirits shied away from her.

Her eyes were red, like Sheik's. Except hers were less bright, more brown.

"I highly doubt that, Sheik. The child snuck into the castle and has—"

"He's not a threat, Impa!" Zelda burst out, turning and tugging at a purple sash tied around the woman's waist. The woman responded by pushing the girl's hands away, murmuring a warning. Her gaze didn't leave Sheik, and him, though.

"I don't like you."

Zelda gasped, and Sheik tensed again, but the spirits hummed excitedly at his words.

"Boy—"

"Don't be mean to Zelda! And—the spirits don't hate good people!" Link added, squirming in Sheik's arms so he could scowl at her better. Her eyes flashed and she opened her mouth, but before she could say anything Sheik laughed.

"Good boy." Sheik murmured and though there as a bite to his words, he was still laughing. He shifted Link in his arms and turned. Link clutched at Sheik's cowl again, suddenly afraid Sheik was going to put him down.

"Sheik—"

"My business here is concluded. And the boy is my business, not yours."

Link waved at Zelda, over Sheik's shoulder. She lifted her hand in response, before the woman pushed it down and hissed something at her. And then they were gone, out of his view as Sheik left the garden.

Sheik waited until they were back at the inn before yelling at him.