Omigosh, I have no idea why this took so long. This chapter gave me the hardest time. I'm so sorry for it taking this long... but at least you know I haven't given up on you guys! Thank you all for not sending me hatemail. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And now, without further ado, I give you chapter 5!

Chapter 5

Shea put his hands on his hips. "Well?" He turned his head to look at Yasl expectantly. "Well?" He asked again.

The yellow fairy did a three-sixty turn to view his surroundings. "I… I don't know."

"So, you have no idea where we are?" Shea started in a malicious tone, "Nothing looks familiar?"

The fairy jingled nervously. "No." He squeaked.

Before the blonde could take the little creature in his hand, Emri flicked him on the back of his head. "Temper, Shea. Temper." She gently reminded him as she walked by. "How long do you need, Yasl, until you can remember where the fairy's fountain is?"

"Umm… a day?" Yasl responded uncertainly.

Shea let out a mixture of a scoff and moan.

Emri ignored it, and helped Claire get up. The latter muttered something like, "I hate teleporting…" but Emri went on-

"Well, we'll just have to sit tight until you do. Okay, Shea?" she eyed the mentioned.

Shea waved it off. "Right."

There was a tingle from Yasl, and all three of their heads turned to look at him; all three faces hopeful. "This area is notorious for flash-sandstorms!"

"Well then," Emri started, "we should find-"

She was cut off by a sudden onslaught of sand and wind. Yasl leaped down Shea's collar, as the other three buried their heads in their arms. Shea growled, "Because heaven forbid anything we do should go right!" Unfortunately, he wasn't heard due to the howling wind.

Claire started to trudge forward, "I saw an overhang over this way!" She hollered over the sandstorm. The other two didn't bother to answer; the wind was too loud.

The trek gave Shea the time to think. He wondered how long it'll be before he had to face this new threat. It was inevitable. Just like everything else he had to go through… But, he wondered, if this new threat had anything to do with the Exelians. There was the possibility that it was, or someone had waited until the hard part (and most dangerous) was done, and was now trying to claim the heaven's powers.

Shea growled. He knew this new protectiveness of the Powers came from Rhairu. But he would protect them if it cost him his life.

No matter what it takes.

Which brought him to his next worry. He opened one eye, and stared at the back of Emri. He couldn't help but worry... Her fate is tied to Hyrule's. The warning that Rhairu gave him in his dream echoed in his mind. The possibilities ran through his mind. And all terrified him to the core... if he lost Emri, he didn't know what he would do. She was, more or less, his backbone; his reasoning.

"I see it! I see the overhang!" Emri exclaimed before she started to, or attempted to, run. With a new sense of urgency, the other two rushed to follow her. The sand continued to pelt their skin, sting their eyes, and fill their mouths every time they tried to communicate. The overhang, albiet a blur in the distance, seemed to get further and further away with each, struggled step through the sand. Vaguely, Shea wondered if, by some mischance, they were walking right over the fairy's domain? He had heard once, that fairies liked to place their domains in possibly the most inconvenient places. And underneath them certainly would be inconvenient.

Then, as if by some miracle, the three dove beneath the rock that the sand had failed to cover in its violent storms. Immediately, they all took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. And then they looked at each other, and laughed. "Well, our journey couldn't start out easy." Emri scratched her head.

"Heaven forbid." Shea agreed, before jumping when Yasl suddenly moved. The fairy seemed to be having trouble in finding the shirt collar. "Hey! That tickles! Stop!" The boy ordered as he pulled up his tunic, and grabbed the claustrophobic fairy. There were pathetic squeaks that Shea passed off as coughs as he released Yasl into the air.

"Is the sandstorm over? Because you, my incarnated friend, need to take a bath." Yasl taunted, clearly not happy at the way he had been handled.

Claire didn't pay attention to Shea's reaction. But she knew that it invovled yelling. She was tired... lying down in the sand, she watched as Shea tried to snatch the little fairy in his hands, letting her eyes droop until they were closed, and sleep overwhelmed her like a blanket.

--

Something had burrowed underneath her. And it was moving.

...moving?!

Claire shot up with a scream. "Emri! How big are desert spiders!?"

"Not very big." The other girl's answer came, somewhat far off in the distance.

Claire watched nervously as Emri stayed sitting on the stone, pondering how the girl coudl stand the heat radiating off the inanimate object. "Um..."

Emri then looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Claire, are you scared of spiders?"

Claire sputtered, "Pfff. No! i just don't want one to jump out at me..."

Emri smiled lightly at this before closing her eyes again. "Hey! Are you almost done cleaning your sword, Shea?"

A grunt responded to her call from inside a large tent off to the side of the area they were resting in, the large flap moving with the slight breeze.

"Yeah..." they heard Shea's voice, gruff and grouchy, along with the rough stand moving underneath him as he probably stood up. "But seriously, the heat is killing me! How are you guys even outside?"

"We of the female race are more adaptive. And we don't care to go sit in a hardly shaded, cramped tent, simmer and sweat with the other bodies that are also stuffed inside." Emri said this all with such sexterity, Claire wondered how the girl didn't even twitch while talking.

Shea made another grunt sound. Claire giggled.

"Coming, coming," he grumbled, holding open the flap of the tent as he climbed out, standing up to adjust his shirt atop his head, which seemingly provided a small amount of shade for his red face.

Claire's own face became red for an entirely different reason...

Shea sighed, and threw his shirt down on the sand as Emri jumped off the rock, unclipping her bo-staff from her belt. She twirled it once, "Ready to get started?"

The blonde swung the sword around, and nodded, before attacking Emri. The girl blocked easily. "Too slow."

Claire had to take many deep breaths to get her rapidly beating heart to slow. Since when did Shea having his shirt off bother her? She didn't understand... she raised her eyes slightly from under her hand.

She never realized how skinny he was. That was one thing. The other thing, was that all the sword-fighting had really toned him up. Claire blushed again.

The sand moved again under her hand. Yelping, Claire watched as the lump moved slowly. Tilting her head, she scooped the sand away from the lump. Yasl zoomed out, shaking. "About time! I didn't know which way was up, or down, or left, or right... I was so confused!"

Smiling, the girl let the fairy land on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. Hey, do you remember where the fairy fountain is, now?"

The fairy tingled, "No..."

"That's okay." Claire pat him on the top of his sphere lightly.

"... that's it! It's too hot, I have sand in my eyes, and I'm tired. I'm done!"

Claire looked over at Shea and Emri. The latter was sighing and clipping her bo-staff back onto her belt. "We'll practice later, when it's cooler."

"Fine with me." Shea snapped, throwing his sword down and sitting down by Claire. Claire had to hide her face again, seeing as Shea forgot his shirt out where he and Emri had been practicing. After a short while, she opened one eye, and gasped. "Shea! Where'd all these scars-"

"-come from?" Shea's voice took on a harsh tone that made Claire wince. "The Exelians," was all he said before looking at Yasl, "You remember anything?"

Yasl seemed to hum for a second, before squeaking, "Oh! Yes, I remember something!"

Shea's eyes lit up, "Really? Finally, we can get moving now."

Claire stood up as Emri walked over, "What happened?"

"Yasl remembered where to go." Shea informed as he stood as well. "We should break camp right now before he forgets. Claire, get a stick, and have Yasl scratch directions in the sand while Emri and I take this tent down."

Emri nodded approvingly, following Shea over to the small tent.

--

Two hours later, the three were huddled over a small map that Yasl had drawn out -with Claire's help, of course. "So, we're here." Shea pointed to a triangle that was in circle.

The fairy jingled. "Yeah. And then the fairy's fountain is marked by that triforce, there!"

"Uh huh. So it's not that far from here." Emri peered at the map, memorizing it before the sand blew it away. "We just have to look for three rocks in a straight row that look like the three goddesses.

"Hah!" Shea scoffed, "in the middle of no where."

"Just because I kicked your butt doesn't mean you have to get sour." Emri taunted.

"You didn't kick my butt. I got tired, and quit." Shea shot back before looking at Yasl. "So, how far away is this domain?"

"Maybe two to three leagues away." The fairy squeaked.

Shea nodded, "Then lets get going." He stood, taking the pack over one shoulder.

Claire blinked before turning red once more.

Unfortunately, Shea saw. Fortunately for her, he had a selective mind-set. "Claire, are you sunburnt?"

The poor girl nodded furiously, pushing a stray lock of red hair away behind her ear, picking up her own pack.

Yasl perched himself on Shea's shoulder as the three started to walk. Within the hour, their hair was plastered to their foreheads with sweat, and they were breathing hard. Constantly, they were reminding each other to drink water sparingly. Despite the needy feeling their parched mouths sent their minds, they forced themselves to take small amounts of water over the course of the two hours it took to find the markers. They were starting to lose hope, and Shea was starting to lose his patience with Yasl.

"If you didn't give us the right directions, I am going to throttle you-"

"Shea! The statues are right over there!" Emri whacked the blonde over the head. "Now, be nice and try to find the domain."

Shea muttered a 'yeah yeah,' as he jogged over to examine the statues. The wind, over time, had eroded the faces off of the goddesses, rounding each fine detail so it was obscured with the rest of the red rock. Putting a hand on the rock, Shea could feel a throbbing power -weak- coming off of the rock. "I think we have to do something with these." He called over to the two girls. He looked at the fairy on his shoulder, "Well?"

Yasl was shaking as he racked his brains. "Umm... something about an order..." his small voice was lost in a sudden wind that came up, starting weak, but growing in strength, and quickly at that. The three had to duck, hiding their eyes as the sand whipped about them, flying away.

Emri was the first to open her eyes. "Oh, my Goddesses..."

Shea and Claire followed, and they found themselves looking at a large, flat, sheet of rock. Claire took a step onto the red clay, kneeling down. "There are runes on here... I can't read it." Shea came over to kneel by her, shaking his head.

"I can't read it either. They seem familiar, though, like I've seen them before..."

Emri tilted her head as she read the runes, starting at one end of the platform, and working her way across as she read. "It's Ancient Hylian. To reach the Daughter of Balance, put the Triforce in its proper place. At least, that's the gist of it."

"Put in the proper place..." Shea looked down, eyes scanning over the clay. Lines... "Yasl, fly up to get an aerial view of the platform." The fairy hovered above Shea's shoulder before flying upwards towards the desert sky.

"Hey! There's an outline of a Triforce on here!" Yasl called down, sounding very weak as his voice was carried away by the wind.

Shea looked at Claire. Claire looked at him. Claire looked at Emri. Emri looked at her. "Statues." They said in unison. The three bolted over to the statues, but faltered when the truth dawned on them: the statues were pure rock.

Claire put her hands on her hips. "Well, whoever got here first must be pretty strong to move them to their original place, and them move them back."

Emri nodded in agreement. "Well, Din is power, and power's on top... Wisdom is Nayru, who's on the bottom right, and Farore -yes, Claire, you- is courage, who's on the bottom left."

"But the question is," Shea crossed his arms, staring up at the statue, "how do we move them?"

"Power of Rhairu!" Yasl landed on Shea's shoulder, exclaiming. "This is Rhairu's ancient shrine. Only the power of Rhairu can work here."

Shea was intrigued now, "Then, how did the first person get in here in the first place?"

"Shea, we'll worry about that later. Now, we need to get these statues moved." Emri reminded. "One step at a time."

"Right." Shea rubbed his hands together, and then held them out, then saying in a -what he thought- regal voice, "I, Rhairu's Incarnate, command thee statues to move!" When nothing happened, Shea frowned. "Move. Now. As in... scootch. Bust a move. Slide... over there." He moved his hands in the direction that he wanted to the statues -still inanimate- to go. "Why won't you move!"

Meanwhile, Claire and Emri were rolling on the ground in huge fits of laughter. They couldn't even draw in a breath to tell Shea that he looked like an idiot. Giving them looks, Shea put his hand on his waist. "Oh, yeah? Like you could do better?"

Simmering down to insane snickers, Emri stood up... with difficulty. "No. But that was funny."

Claire was still cackling.

Emri took a deep breath, and exhaled with a sigh. She shooed at Shea, smiling. "Get back on the Rhairu power thing."

"I don't know what to do!" Shea admitted, "You have any suggestions?"

Emri came to stand by him in front of the statue, shaking her head. "For once... I don't know."

"Great."