The Meeting

Sheik sighed as he scratched the top of his head, which was free and flying loosely in the wind. His red eyes looked at the entrance to the Lost woods and groaned, shaking his head. The last time he had been ordered to enter there was a month ago, and he had been lost there half the time -- hence the name, 'Lost Woods' -- just barely surviving against Stalfos. Sheik regretted not checking up on those before he had entered; turned out the lost became walking skeletons as soon as the forest's curse came into action.

Sheik took a calming breath and stepped in; making sure that his harp was still strapped to his back. The Prelude of Light was to bring him back if he ever got himself caught in trouble, and he was to go back into the forest again if he failed to find the Princess. Life sucked with being bound to the Royal Family you didn't even like.

War had been brewing since the Queen had gotten sick. The King had promised to return Sheikah grounds to the Shadow People as soon as the war from seven years ago had been finished. With the promise in mind the Sheikah had fought with the Hylians, experiencing great loss in number in the process. But the King had kept back the lands, and the Shadow People had become impatient. They had started to break their bonds to the Royal family and returned to the places where their families lived, preparing for a fight of their lives.

Four years ago the Queen had gotten sick; it was also the year when she had confessed that Zelda had a sister. A year later Sheik had been appointed as a spy for the Royal Family. In the next year the Sheikah had decided that they didn't want to wait anymore; it was full on war. Thankfully no real fighting had started, but the tension between the races was high. The villages that were full Sheikah had cut off trading. Half bloods were welcome as long as they hated the monarchy, and they weren't bound to them.

And that was the problem. Sheik didn't like Zelda and her family, yet he had to work for them. But at least, Impa was sympathetic. She had even given hints to Sheik on where to go if he wanted to run away. But the young male had other ideas.

The forests became dense as Sheik continued to muse about the conflict between the two peoples, and the several missions he was on.

He was ordered by the King, Jerold Harkinian, to look for the Princess that had been missing for sixteen years. Despite his resolute decision on not finding the Princess, Sheik had asked the Queen where to look, and the circumstances behind the Princess's disappearance.

Sheik had sneered at the King's fickle heart.

The second mission was to find the Hero of Time. He was needed in the fighting, and by the prophecies he was bound to the Royal Family, or so the King had said. Sheik had sneered again at the way the King spoke of people almost as property. Were the Sheikah and their lands mere property to him? The sacred burials and the tribal grounds only soil where he could build new villages in the name of his blood? It was sickening.

The third mission—the one that he was most intent on succeeding—was the one that involved him crossing the King and giving the Princess to a Sheikah tribe he would belong to, if only he wasn't bound. Everybody had agreed that the Lost Princess would make a good bargaining chip; for the war, the lands, everything.

The male sat down and leaned against a tree, his knee high boots scuffing dirt as he did so. He wasn't wearing the scarf that usually hid his face, nor the blue suit that was emblazoned with the symbol of his people. The King wanted to make it clear that Sheik worked for him and him alone; Hylians tended to stone 'the traitors' to death on the streets, leaving them to die in their own pools of blood. A purple tunic with a Triforce carried by the Phoenix was dyed onto the left hand side of the shirt, one of the wings going over his shoulder and the Triforce placed at his heart. The trousers tucked into his boots were beige and well weaved, all in all showing the world that he was considered high in the eyes of the Royals.

And thanks to the change in clothing, the features of his face that had been hidden for so long, the features that had caused several young heads to go wild with horrific imaginations, visible. His jaw seemed as if it was chiselled out of stone, its strong outline and the sharp and stoic look it gave the Sheikah a menacing appearance. His red eyes shone brightly with intelligence and grim determination, but not without the hint of sardonic amusement. He didn't enjoy the lack of his face wraps.

The eighteen year old yawned and opened the piece of paper he had been working on. It was a vague map of where he had gone through from the exertions before. Sheik decided he wanted to go through to the Goron city's warp and start investigating from there. He wondered whether who he should be looking for, Hero or Princess, and then decided that he didn't care. He should be more worried on where he was.

Sheik looked onto his piece of paper again and decided that he'd go south; he hadn't done much research on that side.

Lynda walked around the place nervously, the bulge at her usually flat chest affecting her self esteem. Her hair was now past her shoulder blades, a little tangled but still soft thanks to the wax from a certain plant she used to clean her hair in. Her skin was golden thanks to the extensive hours in the sun, and her hands were calloused. Her blue tunic she used to swim in was big in her female form, going just over her knee caps. She held her green hat tightly in her fists, looking around the insides of the temple as if someone might jump at her. "Saria…?"

"I'm right here." A voice whispered from the wall of the Temple, carrying towards Lynda's pierced ears,

"Why do I have to do this? Taking my hat off and walking around, I mean."

"You'll turn eighteen in a few weeks. You have to choose by then if you want to be a boy or girl. And since you know what it's like to be a boy, you should experiment being a girl."

"But I don't want to be a girl!" Lynda suddenly burst, slamming the hat back on. Her hair shrunk into his skull until they were a good length for a boy, his fringe shortening to cover his brows. He grew taller and his jaw became harder and more defined. The only thing that didn't change was the bitter sadness that dominated his otherwise bright blue eyes. "A man is respected more than a woman. I'm stronger this way. And when I confront enemies like Stalfos, they cower when they know they're fighting a man. They would think differently when they see a woman wielding a sword."

Navi flew in and butted into his face, with more arguments in her glowing mind. "A woman is underestimated in both respect and in fighting. That's why it's handier to be one. If you do something tricky a man will be blamed first. Not a woman. You may become stronger, but it slows you down. You're faster than a dragonfly when you're a girl!"

Link growled, saying the argument that always won. "How can I act like a woman when I don't even know how?"

Navi fell silent as Link turned away, going through one of the side doors that led to the back gardens. The fairy sighed and remembered her nearly forgotten errand, bobbing up and down in the air in a frenzy.

"Saria! Saria, Saria! Quick, where are you, I've got something to tell you!"

After a second a door on the second floor opened and the forest sage appeared, hanging on the bone white rails. She brushed her green hair behind her ear and looked down at the light blue fairy with her own blue eyes, which resembled the dark depths of an ancient pool of knowledge. Her green fairy, Aloe, flitted around her shoulders and waved down at Navi. "What is it, Navi?"

"It's Zelda! It's the Princess Zelda!"

There was a silence as Saria just stood there, wide eyed, the baby blue fairy waiting for some sort of response.

The Forest Sage burst out laughing.

"But it's true!" Navi protested desperately, flying up to where the Kokiri girl was rolling, still laughing. "I saw her go into the village!"

Saria laughed a little more before sitting up, holding her stomach to stop the laughter and help to breathe. "Navi . . . what exactly did you see?"

Navi bobbed up and down in the air again, finally pleased in her own little way that she had Saria's attention. "I saw her disguised! As . . . as the guy she was disguised in the lost seven years! As Sheik . . . ? Yes. That was the name."

Saria chuckled again and asked, "Navi, have you ever thought of the possibility that this Sheik could be a person of his own?"

Link's guardian faltered. She buzzed with an embarrassed note in her wings. "Um… I…"

"And besides," Saria continued patiently and kindly, "If Zelda had really come, I would've noticed. She's the Seventh Sage and we sages sense each others' presence."

"Oh. Um… okay." Navi looked crestfallen, the fact that she had been mistaken dulling her glow. But then she brightened up, showing her excitement by doing summersaults in front of the amused Forest Sage. "Then there's an intruder in the forest! An alert! An alert!"

Saria chuckled. "You're right Navi. I'll just go see what he's doing."

Then the Kokiri girl left through the door she had come through, although both of them knew that wasn't the way out. But Navi didn't object to the sage's exit, since there was hardly any point in the gesture with how Saria was gone.

The minuet of Forest sounded across the Temple like a bell.

Sheik furrowed his eyes as he thought about what the Kokiri children had told him, confused. According to them, there had been only one Hylian amongst them. It had been a boy named Link, the Hero of Time. There had been no Hylian girl for as long as they remembered.

He'd asked to meet with their guardian, the Deku Tree to confirm the fact, but they were very protective of their protector, (Sheik had rolled his eyes at the irony) so he had had to back away. Deku tree was still a scrub, and Sheik was a visitor that came once every two thousand blue moons. Sheik had had no option but to follow a particularly nasty Kokiri's order to 'get lost' in Lost woods, 'you'll find your Hylian in there'.

Sheik had sighed as he trudged through the enchanted woods, frustrated. He didn't really care about the Hero of Time! The King only wanted him because he'd be useful in the brewing war. And Sheik was determined not to give the King the liberty of having the upper hand in the fight.

Perhaps it would've been best to just have stabbed the son of a bitch in the chest right when he'd been given the order, but Zelda would've been the one to send the soldiers upon his comrades. It wouldn't have solved the problem. Such a shame…

The Sheikah shook his head and moved forward, his resolve now harder than before. He needed the lost Princess. He didn't really care why the King wanted to please the Queen so suddenly, since he hadn't really tried these past years he'd spent with his wife, but it was a card the Sheikah could play as a resort.

But where exactly was the Princess? As far as the Queen had told him, she'd given her to the Deku tree to raise, telling it to treat the child like Royalty, raise her to know of her bloodline, and send her back on the day everything would be safe.

Obviously, that had never happened.

Perhaps she had been taken somewhere else when the Hero of Time had been brought to the Kokiri as well, to prevent confusion? If that was the case, the only place that was relatively safe in the forest was…

Sheik mulled it over, weighing his options before bringing out his lyre. His fingers plucked the strings with a sense of respect as the Forest Minuet rang through the trees as he got lost in green light.

As soon as Navi had heard the Forest Minuet, she had panicked. Link was in the back gardens, tending to the fruits and vegetables while Saria was in the Kokiri village, asking around about Sheik. There was no need for either of them to use the song, since Link didn't have the Ocarina of Time to make the songs work, and Saria was the Forest sage. That left the Kokiri people, and they'd never use the Minuet unless it was some sort of emergency. She had flown out the gate like some crazed bee, muttering gibberish in her panic.

So, it wouldn't have been a surprise for anyone when she had freaked by laying eyes on Sheik. With so many negative and panicky thoughts running though her mind, it was only fair for her to assume the worst. She'd whizzed back to the Temple, horrible questions running through her mind.

If Sheik wasn't Zelda, who was he? How did he know the supposedly secret melody? Did he force it out of the Kokiri? Where was Saria? Why hadn't she stopped him from coming here? Had she been hurt by the Sheikah? Was that why he knew the melody? Wouldn't that mean the Temple was in trouble?

But not just the Temple. The forest, the Deku Tree, Lynda! How did Navi know that Sheik wasn't Ganondorf's underling? How did she know that he wasn't out searching for the Hero of Time for some sort of sacrifice? And if he found out that 'Link' was actually a girl . . .

Pure, untainted PANIC.

"Liiiiinnnk!" Navi shrieked as she zoomed through one of the windows to the back gardens, "Liiiinnk! Trouble, it's trouble! Aaaahh!"

Link groaned as he stood, cracking his spine to relieve the suffering of crouching for so long. Finally, Navi's freaking out moods had come. For a second he'd been worried she'd turned normal. In the first year or two the Temple had been a shelter for monsters and he'd had to kick them out, and since then his fairy had become over-worried when she saw anything unusual.

Stalfos? Freak out.

Wolfos? Freak out.

Stray baby Ghomas? Freak out.

Stalchild? Freak out.

Deku scrub? Freak out.

Heck, she had freaked out when a Kokiri had come along to pick a herb that had run out in his pantry.

So it was of no great concern when Navi flew into his face obviously loosing several years of her natural lifespan as she panicked her life-force away.

"What is it Navi?" Link asked in a bored manner, trying to stop himself of yawning, "Keese this time?"

"No! No, much worse!"

Link refrained from rolling his eyes. "What then."

"It's Sheik! The Guy Zelda disguised as!"

The name brought fire into his eyes. "What."

But before Navi could answer Link was in the Temple, charging through the front door and out the front gate. He guessed why Zelda would want him, and he didn't like the reason either. There was no way he was going to 'work for her' again.

The first thing he saw was the grappling hook that was wrapped onto the overhanging branch. Without thinking he grabbed the dagger that he kept in his boot and slashed at the rope, cutting the intruder's safety line. At the same time he leaned over to see his unexpected visitor's fall to the ground, a horrible thud emanating across the clearing.

Link couldn't help but sneer.

Link also noted Sheik wasn't wearing his Sheikah war clothes. Instead a tunic with the Royal crest emblazoned on it took its place, convincing Link more on the reason why 'Sheik' had come. Link disdainfully unravelled the hook off of the branch and let it drop, its teeth digging into the soft soil below. It didn't matter the Sheikah knew that he was there. All that mattered was that 'he' couldn't get in.

Link countered Sheik's glare with his very own.

"Might I enquire why you did that?" Sheik growled angrily, making Link snort.

"You know pretty darn well, don't you think?"

The sarcasm in the Hylian's voice made the Sheikah's blood boil. "Enlighten me."

Link scoffed disdainfully. "I don't see the need for that, Zelda."

Sheik blinked, wondering if he had heard right.

But before he could object on the fault of his identity, laughs of an innocent child rang in the trees and a young voice echoed in the air, easing the tension. Sheik noted how Link's head snapped up at the laughter, and then his expression snarled in anger. "Saria! Why didn't you tell me she was coming?"

The laughter rang out a again and said, "Because there was no need to, silly. This isn't Zelda!"

Link stood in shock before gathering himself and glared at the Sheikah. He may not have been Zelda, but he had still disrupted Link's home. Link jumped down from the platform and stomped over to the Sheikah to glare into his face and snarled again, "How do we know she hasn't covered up her scent? She could reverse time if she wanted to; disguising herself as well as getting rid of her 'aura' should be easy. I know this kind of magic." He added, stopping the urge of placing his hat more firmly on his head.

Red eyes iced over with irritation. "Then ask the Forest Sage to test me. They detect lies, don't they? Ask me anything and I'll reply truthfully; I suspect I'm right to assume you trust her enough not to make anything up about my honesty?"

Link growled, insulted. "There's no other person that's more honest that her."

"Thanks Link." Her voice echoed through the leaves, humble and sheepish.

"Now get down here!" Link scoffed, rolling his eyes and fighting a grin with his frown. Sheik raised his eyebrows.

Green light shimmered around the old stump of a tree, slowly turning into a ghostly figure of a ten-year-old green haired girl. A fairy – also green – flitted around her shoulder like the light blue one was doing with Link. Sheik wondered again why that little bugger was there, and when it had slipped into the whole scene. The fairy noticed his gaze and flashed a menacing yellow for a second, and Sheik decided that the blue orb with wings didn't like him either.

Link's grumble broke through his thoughts. "You're going to be tired out tomorrow. You do realise that's going to leave me doing the cleaning."

Saria smiled warmly and said, "Then I don't have to worry. You're such a great housekeeper."

Link rolled his eyes with scorn. "Just get on with the questioning, will you?"

Saria chuckled as if she'd won the argument and put her eyes on Sheik, asking, "What are you doing here?"

Sheik shrugged and said, "I'm looking for someone."

Link's eyes narrowed. "Me."

Sheik shrugged again. "Not really. Yes and no."

Link glared, sparks flying in his eyes. "I don't share your sense of humour, princess."

The Sheikah laughed. He shook his head wistfully, putting a bored but amused gaze onto the Hero of Time. "First, I'm male. Second, I'm not royal. Third, I wasn't joking, and fourth, I can see we have a different sense of humour, since, I find this whole business rather funny."

Link's expression turned from scorn to anger. "Why you…!"

"Link, calm down?" Saria pleaded in a worried tone, "Everything he said was true. He was asked to look for you, but he decided he didn't want to."

"It was for the war, wasn't it." Link spat angrily, and Sheik blinked in surprised.

"I'm surprised you knew." He admitted, deciding that he won't add a further comment on Link's life as hermit, in case it might end up in several long hours of bloodshed.

Saria giggled. "Yeah. He has his sources. Anyway…"

"I want to ask something." Link interjected, making the sage pout, "In the lost seven years, was it you or Zelda that did all the riddles and the guiding?"

Sheik waited a second before replying, thinking over his answer. "It was me until the Shadow Temple when Bongo-bongo attacked the village. I had more injuries than I liked, so Zelda took over. And Ganondorf was becoming suspicious of me by then."

Link twitched at the name of his old enemy. "Ganondorf got suspicious of you, because…?"

Sheik shrugged. "I worked for him."

Blind rage enveloped the Hylian like dark thunder clouds, obscuring all sense except the fury that ran though his blood. He grabbed the knife at his belt and charged, roaring with a rage he hadn't felt since what seemed like forever.

A hand grabbed at his elbow and yanked, making him fall back. The thunder clouds left his head, unclogging his mind, but the anger was still there. He struggled like a mad lion under Saria's firm grip, the sight of the unfazed Sheikah infuriating him more.

Sheik was more interested in the sudden tangibility and the vice-like grip the Sage had on the Hero of Time. She had been fairly transparent and mist-like since the very second she had appeared. But now she was solid as his own limbs (possibly more so), and by the look of things, strong and stiff as a tree several hundred years old. Her small, delicate-looking hand restrained the Hylian like a vine would to a wall, and with her free hand she tilted his jaw her way, her voice now firm and commanding as she spoke to him.

"Link, Sheik is good. He helped you seal the King of Evil. Now relax, let it go. Breathe."

Link struggled a little more before relenting, powerless under the influence of a sage. But then his eyes widened, and he seemed to realise something that horrified him to no end. He snatched himself away and staggered back, looking frightened out of his mind. How and why, Sheik didn't know. The Hero of Time trembled with fear, and he continued backing away.

"Don't touch me." He said, shaking violently, "Don't touch me, get away from me! Just stay away from me! Leave me alone!"

Magic gathered in his hands and crashed into the ground before Link disappeared to goddesses knew where. Saria sighed and sat back on the stump, looking exhausted as she swung her legs. The blue fairy that had hovered around Link's shoulder drooped her wings and perched herself near the Forest Sage, sniffing slightly. Sheik shuffled his feet, saying, "I was hoping he'd assume that I worked as a double-agent."

Saria shook her head, waving a hand in dismissal. "It's okay. I just didn't want Link doing anything he'd regret."

"Why did he run away?" Sheik asked, gesturing towards where the holder of the Triforce of courage had stood in fear, "That is, if it's alright for me to ask."

The Kokiri sighed solemnly, looking upset. "Two years ago, when he was fifteen, he went to go pick berries. He came back near death and holding that knife he tried to attack you with. I tried to heal him, but he didn't want to be touched. That was the first physical contact I had with him since."

Remorse had no time to fill Saria's heart, as Sheik had spoken again. "So you broke a trust. I'm sorry."

Saria smiled sincerely at Sheik's honest tone. "Like I said before; he would've killed you if I hadn't and I didn't want him to do something he'd regret."

Sheik nodded and asked, "Am I right to assume that no one else lives here?"

Saria returned Sheik's nod. "Yeah. Just him and me, with the occasional guest."

So there was no princess here. He better report that to the King as well as his people about that. "Well," Sheik continued, "I still have to look for someone, so I should go. Sorry I made such a mess of things, but I should get going. Sorry."

Sheik turned to go, but the Forest Sage stood in front of him as if she had been behind him all along. Sheik jumped slightly at that, and stopped the urge of looking back at the stump.

"You can't do that." She said with innocence, her hands clasped behind together behind her back, "You're not allowed to."

" . . . Why?"

"You're going to report to the King, aren't you." She prompted, a scowl on her face, "Zelda would know you met Link here. She'd tell the King, even if you didn't."

" . . . So?"

"The King attacked the forest once, you know. We had to fight them with Stalfos and Poes and wolfos and . . . lots of other things."

". . . So . . . ?"

"How do I know he won't do it again? Link and I don't like mass murder. And you just might kick-start it if you went back with the news that Link won't help in the war."

Sheik backed away slowly, beginning to understand what the sage was getting at. Saria giggled into her hands as if Sheik had been caught in one of her pranks. She continued again, a happy grin on her face. "Yep. You're staying."

"You can't make me."

"Of course I can!" she said, clearly happy with herself, "You'll have some freedom, but just not too much, that's all! You walk around the forest, and you get too close to the border, you just come back. You can try any of the Temple songs if you like, but the forest will neutralize it, so there won't be much point. Anyway, you won't be able to leave the forest. I'll hand you over to Zelda if she calls, but until then, enjoy your stay, okay?"

And then the image of the Kokiri girl disappeared, leaving a feeling of dread in the Sheikah's heart. He hastily grabbed his lyre and played, but the yellow sparks that usually followed the Prelude of Light didn't come to him. Panic rose in his stomach and he threw his instrument to the grass, dashing out to the meadow. He ran past the Deku shrubs, ignored the stinging they inflicted with their nuts. He ran as fast as he could as if he was racing against some sort of time limit, feeling the trees mock him for his futile struggling. He ran through the Sacred meadow and went back the way he had come through the forests.

He ended up in front of the labyrinth once more.

So did you like it? Hate it? Tell me, won't you?

Thank you!

He who have reviewed, I will praise till the end of time.

S.S.