-Chapter 3-
Sheik knocked on the door. Link's mother answered.
"Ah!" she said "just the person I wanted to see" and she dragged him inside.
"Where's Link?" Sheik asked
"Still asleep" his mother replied "and I would like to know why."
"Um, night training" Sheik said, taking the cup of tea he was offered. He sipped it slowly.
"That would explain a lot" Link's mother said, pouring herself a cup of tea. She leaned against the kitchen counter.
Sheik, who was slightly confused, asked "How much do you know about Link's training?"
Link's mother smiled "a lot, considering I was the one who asked the Queen if she could do anything about Link's memory problems."
Swallowing hard, to avoid spewing tea everywhere in shock, Sheik coughed "Oh"
"But it worries me that all of this is coming so easy to him," she sighed
"Yeah, memories could come back suddenly" Sheik said "just at the swing of a sword, or a mention of who knows what."
Link's mother nodded "It's hard. It really is"
"I'll say, training's getting bad enough without all the random question asking. He wants to know a lot, and I'm afraid anything I might say will trigger a random memory. I might be a bit paranoid about it but…"
Link's mother only smiled "I totally get it. So how are you solving the whole Master Sword issue?"
Sheik looked at his nearly empty tea cup and said "the Princess is working on it."
Link's mother laughed "if anyone's going to find anything it will be her. Curiosity runs through those veins."
"I sure hope she doesn't get distracted by it though" Sheik laughed, draining the rest of his tea.
"How did stealth training go anyways?" Link's mother asked
"Not bad, Link got caught, but…" Sheik's smile faded "I hate lying" he muttered. Link's mother must have seen the sudden uncomfortable look on his face, for she asked:
"How much lying did you have to do?"
"A lot, all of it to Link" Sheik turned away "if Master Hiru hadn't been there things would have been easier. But I had to tell him, in private, so Link didn't hear anything that might trigger something. And Link got confused so I had to lie and say that I was lying to Master Hiru when I wasn't…" he trailed off.
"Aww… I feel sorry for you" Link's mother said "and I'd offer you a hug, but then things would get a bit awkward. Why don't you go yell at Link to wake him up, maybe that will make you feel better."
Sheik allowed himself a small smile and headed to Link's room to do so.
"HEY! GET UP!!!" was the first thing Link heard that morning. "I DON'T CARE IF WE WERE UP AT WHO KNOWS WHAT TIME LAST NIGHT BUT YOU NEED TO WAKE UP NOW!!"
Link blinked wearily, and looked at who was screaming in his ear. It was Sheik.
"What are you doing here so early?" he asked groggily
"Early?" Sheik asked "EARLY!? IT'S PAST NOON!!!"
That got Link up. "What?!" he asked.
"YES YOU IDIOT!! IT'S PAST NOON!! YOU'VE SLEPT THE DAY AWAY!!"
"Well that's just great" Link said "now that I'm up, you can go wait outside or something" Link waved him out of the room. Once Sheik was gone Link contemplated the idea of just going back to sleep, but decided against it. He got up and shoved his boots back on, for he had fallen asleep in his clothes the night before, and went to grab something to eat.
"Finally woke up" his mother said, handing him a piece of toast. Link took it without mentioning the fact it was indeed past noon and he would probably want something more substantial. That was when he noticed the eggs sitting on a plate off to the side.
Glad to have something to go with his toast, Link ate quickly.
"See ya mom!" he said, running outside.
"Bye!" was all she managed before he was gone.
Sheik looked at him oddly.
"What?" Link asked, stuffing the last piece of toast in his mouth "Everyone has to eat eventually."
Sheik frowned, for it was indeed the truth. They headed off to the Castle. Having the routine of the guards pretty much down by now, Link didn't really need much of Sheik's help getting in. And that was a good thing, because Sheik had just gotten himself thrown out. Trying not to laugh as the guard dragged Sheik out, he took the opportunity to run past and through the door that led to the training grounds. Link sighed and waited for Sheik to find his way back in.
And it didn't take long apparently, because next thing Link knew there was the sound of feet hitting the ground behind him, and he turned around to find Sheik.
"Whoa!" Link said "how'd you get in from over there?" It wasn't a very good question, considering that Link knew that Sheik knew the Castle all too well and probably quite a few ways to sneak in. But since when could anyone get in on that side? It was all stone wall, Link had seen it himself.
"Climbed the wall" Sheik said
That would explain it. "Why can't we do that all the time though?" Link asked.
"Trust me" Sheik said, looking at his fingertips. Link noticed that they were bleeding "You do not want to climb that wall, especially on a regular basis."
"Oh" Link said
"Come on, we have training to do" Sheik said, just as Link pulled out his sword.
"One step ahead of you" he smiled.
Sheik returned the smile.
Zelda was up early that morning, already in the secret library and reading her way through the journals. If she were to find anything about the Master Sword she was almost positive she would find it here. And if she didn't, then at least she learned something about her ancestors.
She had to stop eventually though, because her eyes started hurting so much that she couldn't make out words anymore. She had only gotten through about five or six journals. Zelda's stomach grumbled and she decide she should probably get some food, considering she hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch.
None of the cooks really seemed to care that she came in seemingly randomly to get food, and thankfully none asked where she had been all morning. Zelda ate quickly, for she was starving, and tried not to make a pig of herself.
Zelda trudged back up to her room, deciding that her eyes still hurt too much to do any more reading. She ran over what she had already read in her mind. Hyrule had had a lot of issues in the past apparently, ranging from kidnapped princesses to wars, and that was only in the first five journals. She almost dreaded what would come next.
Zelda sighed, and lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Her eyes hurt so badly, and she could feel a headache coming on. She laughed remembering her mother telling her just a few weeks ago when Zelda had gotten her first major headache.
"Get used to them now" the Queen had laughed "they only get worse the longer you're queen."
Zelda stopped laughing though, because it hurt her head worse. She moaned at the pain. Stupid headaches! She thought, rubbing her eyes. Maybe I should try and get some sleep… she thought as she yawned. But the sudden sound of metal clashing against metal caught her attention.
"What the heck?" she muttered, wondering what the noise could be. She got up and stumbled over to her window and then she remembered. Her window had perfect view of the training grounds. Looking down below, she noticed two figures fighting. One of them she recognized instantly, it was Sheik. The other boy took her a minute to recognize but she soon figured out it was that one boy, Link. She had only seen him before, never talked to him.
She watched them duel for a while, and then realized something quite suddenly.
Since when does Sheik have a sword!? She thought, utterly shocked.
Zelda watched them for a while, surprised at how graceful Sheik was when he fought. And then Link, who was lacking grace in general, did seem to be good with a sword.
Memories leaking, maybe? Zelda thought or is it just plain instinct? She hoped it was the second.
Not before long the two stopped, and even from the distance she could see Link breathing heavily while Sheik seemed unfazed.
"If only he were the one supposed to save Hyrule, then we'd have no worry" Zelda said, then scorned herself for thinking such a thing. There was a reason Link was supposed to save Hyrule, even if the reason was unclear.
The two parted, Link heading out of the Castle and Sheik heading farther into it. Zelda smiled and ran out of her room to go meet him.
They ran into one another on the third floor, literally actually. Sheik caught himself and the princess and stopped them from falling.
"Whoa!" Sheik said, and then laughed "I'm beginning to sound like Link!!"
Zelda laughed also, even though she didn't quite get the joke. "What's new?"
"Link's getting better at sword fighting" Sheik said "pretty soon he'll have done just about every training exercise there is. How's research going?"
"Great!" Zelda said "I haven't found anything, but I did find," she paused, then decided that maybe she shouldn't tell Sheik about the journals "something. I'm going to have to look into it more before I can say anything. Don't want to raise any false hopes."
"Alright" Sheik said "Well, I guess I'll be off then. Bye Zelda!" and he ran off.
"Bye Sheik" she called, then headed off to read some more journals.
