Before I carry on, I wanted to thank everyone that have reviewed and favourited and alerted this fic, because without them I wouldn't have the motivation to keep updating.

And this has been, really, really fun to write. I hope you all have just as much fun reading it.

Anyway, here it is!

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Other Perspectives - 4

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I kept forgetting people were exhausting.

Zelda was fine. Sheik, I mean, Tharlaigh was fine, with some breaks in between, though I was beginning to get addicted to him just… being there. Which was strange; I didn't know whether I wanted him close to or far from me. As soon as I'd told him go away I felt lonely, like walking out of the Kokiri Forest for the first time again. I should have asked him to be careful before he went, made him promise that he wouldn't get kidnapped. Especially in these swamps.

Looking at them every so often made me shudder. As soon as Shei-gah, he was still Sheik in my head, damnit, it was so hard to break a eight-year habit of calling someone one thing and trying to call them another after a few months of reintroduction. Even if he had only existed as a theory, or a standoffish person I'd admired from afar, for most of that time.

I wish I had Navi to think with. The problem with people was that you had to articulate, ball these thoughts and feelings into syllables that made sense before they understood you, but I had never had that problem with Navi because she just understood. Navi had known my thoughts the very moment she'd woken me up to take me to the Deku Tree.

I had no such luxury with people. It was exhausting.

Sighing, I checked the swamps and the riverbanks and the woods to our backs where the rest of the camp was. No She-Tharlaigh, no kidnappers, nothing. I checked on the kids and they seemed to be arguing but it hadn't devolved to violence so I let them be. It was probably none of my business, anyway.

I almost wished that we would be attacked already.

Not that any attack was guaranteed. Only one or two people had gone missing at a time over the last year; it was only suspicious because it concentrated on these borders, where two other countries met with Hyrule, both of which still allowed slavery through unprovoked capture. The thought of people forced to be property was absurd. People ripped from their homes and loved ones so they could be forced to be property just because they were there for the taking was ridiculous. Maybe I could understand, if they were prisoners of war, or abusers, criminals, but kids? A young boy or girl, just walking along, and suddenly taken away from everything they knew…

I was probably going to pay for half-hoping for an ambush, but I was just so tired of thinking-

Behind me.

I whirled round and prepared to shoot but it was Chatt and I jerked my aim off, barely keeping the arrow on the string. How had she snuck up on me?

"Sorry! Sorry, you surprised me."

She jerked to attention, nodding, frightened. Ah, hell. What was up with me and scaring kids, anyway? Though this time, she had scared me first. "Why, why are you up here?"

"U-uh, we're, we're nearly done. Our duties. So I…"

"Oh," I glanced down at the kids, and sure enough Hilda was already leaving. The others didn't seem all too prepared to go, but… better make sure nobody strayed into the wilderness without protection. Another glance back and I noticed Chatt's knife in her hand. Probably should keep my guard up against this girl, just in case, as well. "Thank you."

Not, that this girl was much younger than me. Which was really strange, since that meant this girl was not much younger than Zelda, and she was… well, Zelda. I'd always thought of the Princess as older, because she had that presence about her, the one I'd associate with Saria and Darunia and later Ruto and Nabooru, not because they were Sages but because they were leaders (admittedly Ruto got there a little later than the others, but point still stood) and Zelda felt like she was born a leader.

Well, no. She had seven years of experience paying for a childish mistake. It wasn't her fault, it was none of our faults that in another time things had spiraled so out of control that a relic of the Goddesses was unleashed on the world in the darkest ways unimagined. But if one who'd earned the Triforce of Wisdom made that kind of mistake, there was no such thing as a born leader. Or maybe you had to make that kind of catastrophic mistake to learn the kind of lesson that earned you the Triforce of Wisdom. Either way, no such thing as a born leader.

Which by extension meant that there was also absolutely no such thing as a born Hero; only dead ones. I was pretty confident about this, at least. Navi and I had spent nights upon nights arguing about it, and it was a conclusion that I was content with.

As long as I was alive, I was just Lin. Lin that fixed things. And occasionally guarded people. "Are you alright?"

"Uh." Chatt was looking over the edge, all embarrassed. "I can't…"

Ah. Admittedly, I'd done this before; climbed something so high that going down just seemed like an impossible idea. Usually I didn't have a choice since I either had something chasing me over the edge or needed something at the bottom of the abyss, but that made the concept of climbing down as opposed to dropping great. Especially since falling involved twisted, sprained, or broken bits of me.

I put my bow and arrow away. "I'll go down first?"

My feet and hands found the grooves just fine, aided by years of practice. I must have found heights like this scary too, once upon a time. On getting down to the ground, though, I had to wonder that, even if I didn't find heights as terrifying anymore, or I didn't find monsters as scary as before, did that still make me brave? Or just a desensitized exterminator?

Chatt touched down, and I looked around. The laundry had been abandoned. Strange.

I looked beyond Chatt at the forests that Hilda had headed to and saw a glint of metal.

I swept Chatt's legs from under her and got punched in the chest by an arrow. I stumbled back, but managed not to fall.

Yup. Knew I was going to pay for my wish.

More arrows. Jumping over Chatt and shielding us both, I checked my weapons. Bow was broken from sweeping Chatt. Damn. Arrow itself was away from the heart, more to my shoulder and arm but it was going to hurt, really hurt, once my body woke up to the fact that there was a freaking arrow in my chest. And of course it was to my left side.

There was screaming, quickly silenced. Fi!

What were these things called again, in Sheikah? Oh, right. "Ambush," and Farore the arrow was really beginning to hurt, "Can you run?"

"I, I-I,"

No time for coddling her; I shoved the shield into Chatt's hands and forced her up. "Run!"

I ran towards the enemy, dodging arrows, snapping the shaft of the one buried in me. Plain sharp pain, so no poison, or none that I could feel yet, which was a relief. Did the others hear the screaming? Or were we on our own?

"Din's Wrath," I snarled, raising my hands to the sky.

Black lightning crackle-snapped into the vast blue and boomed its presence, making it impossible not to notice us. It was just a matter of how quickly they could get here.

And already my left arm was out of commission. It hurt hurt hurt!

Unsheathing the sword clumsily in my right hand I faced the two men wearing scarves and helms to hide their faces. Scarves had the bow and arrow, so clearly he wanted to be prioritized.

Ducking low I surged forward, lunging left and right to avoid the projectiles before striking up, snapping the bow and slicing his arm open. I kicked him down, moved to Helmet, striking against his blade in the hope of slapping it wide, tackle him down, break his arm or leg. I was still hopeless when it came to duelling, so the quicker the better.

Pain rip-punched into my back and I lost my balance, Helmet getting a lucky slice into my thigh and I couldn't help screaming, stumbling away, reaching for the source of agony around my shoulder-blades.

More arrows. Scarves had turned into a pile of ash. Eh?

Don't think! I turned my stumble into a spin, blade lashing out and catching Helmet's calf, and he screamed and dropped to a knee, blood seeping his trouser leg. I kicked him down for good measure, searching for the other archer.

Another arrow, lower in my chest, closer to my centre sprouted with a sick svtch. Clearly, they found me first. Breathing equated to swallowing fire. I choked on it, coughing blood.

Another Scarves, the real one, not the magic-made double, burst out from the bushes on an amphibious monster, an aquatic dodongo maybe, and Helmet clambered on. It sped away and dove into the water, and my knees gave out on me. I didn't see any of the kids on the monster, so maybe they were safe. Maybe the clan arrived.

I collapsed on my side, unable to roll on my back because arrows. If they weren't so useful I would be cursing them up and down to Hell and Death Mountain and wow dying like this was agony.

Breathing was awful. My insides felt like collapsing. I groped for the arrows in my back, held my breath and pulled one out.

Gaaargh Hylia's buckets in dead cats.

Oh, good, I was making no sense.

The arrow dropped on the soft mud and I wheezed, gargling red spit and choking on my own breath. One more. No, three, if I could get the ones in my front. But the back first.

Muddy pigs and darknuts, this was going to be miserable, and I was bleeding out already. I reached up and over my shoulder, gasping, held my breath and pulled.

Nearly blacked out. Nearly.

Flopping on my back and the ever softening mud I rested there, warmth clamming down my side with oozing fingers, leaving me cold and dizzy. Right. Right. Two more arrows. Then I would have nothing in me, and I would die clean.

If I didn't come back after this I was going to haunt the sanity right out of those kidnappers, I swore it.

I gripped the first one in my right hand, grip slipping on the broken shaft, and the second with my left. I gathered my breath in short fiery gasps and yanked them out, and blood flowed out and in with an oily rhythm that matched my darkening vision and my collapsing lungs. Shouting in the distance dimmed to silence as I drowned on my blood.

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I woke with a headache and dry mouth that tasted of foreign coins, immeasurably glad that I was alive again despite suffering the vicious twin to Baron Hangover.

That was always a risk. The not coming back to life part. Pink fairies just sometimes didn't get out of the jar to do their healing thing, especially if you weren't around to help along. I didn't have the chance this time; my hands had been slick with my juice. Speaking of juice, I could really use-

I was not where I was before.

I lurched up, tossing aside the sheets over my legs, groping for a weapon in the tent. But no weapon, and there was nothing attacking me, which was better than I expected, but was I with the kidnappers or the clan? By the angry words being tossed around outside it could have been either.

Then the tent-flap moved, and Chatt sidled in with a tray of something that smelt amazing.

Our eyes met. Relief flooded through me as she spoke first. "Lin."

"Chatt. Uh…" I had no idea how to ask anyone if they were alright in Sheikah, so I had to switch to Common. "Are you alright? Were you hurt?"

She sat down beside me, handed me a bowl of soup (herbs and onions in rabbit bone stock oh it was just what I needed) and said she was fine.

Finishing the broth and washing away the taste of old blood in my mouth I left the chunky food bits to savour and asked about the others, fumbling for a fork or spoon.

She was disturbingly quiet about that.

Suddenly the broth was no longer amazing, especially in my stomach. "...All of them?"

"Hilda managed to escape too. But Ciela, Fi and… a-and Torail…"

Fi. Fi. I stared at the herbs and meat in the shaking bowl. My right hand was still crusted with dry blood, and I could almost see my pulse under the brown film, running faster than-

Calm down. And act.

I was no longer wearing that stupid green and silver hooded thing, just my chest bandages that'd come mostly undone because of the arrows, and my trousers. I set the bowl aside and went about redoing them, never mind that they stank of metal. The blessing of having very small womanly parts was that it made them easier to secure. "Is there a trail."

She kind of flinched. "Trail?"

"Do we know where they were taken? Where they went? Where did they go? Where?"

"We don't know, just… to the Swamps Gaponga. Used monsters that swim very quickly."

The Swamps. Had to be the Swamps, didn't it. I stood up slowly, bowl of food in hand, Chatt saying something about scouts and rest but I was very, very good at ignoring people given the chance. Navi gave me good practice on that.

I left the medical tent, searched for mine and Sheik's. I ate as I walked, pushing aside people who tried to stop me, found the tent, slipped in, placed the bowl aside and wore an undershirt and brown tunic over the trousers, which were fine, so were the boots, I hunted down the gauntlets that had metal-capped knuckles and damnit I didn't have a bow. I could probably make one if the worst came to worst but would it be worth packing a quiver of arrows?

Yes. It was time for payback. Time to get Fi back.

Oh, Farore. I let Fi get captured under my watch. The thought of admitting that to Sheik… no cave or pit would be deep and dark enough to hide me from that shame. I had to find her, before he found out, before he could scream at me for it. Bring her back, safe and sound (please be safe, please don't be hurt, please don't be dead) and beg him to forgive me.

I slapped my face twice. Panic was not wanted, thoughts were not needed. Heroes don't think. Act!

I gathered my things, barely breathing. Shield, sword, quiver of arrows, handful of bombs, knife, coil of rope, bunny mask, bottle of red potion (I chugged down half; I was stupidly low on blood and already my head was swimming) and maybe I can snag some more soup in another one, and Ocarina of Time.

I hoped Zelda hadn't noticed it'd gone missing but I couldn't care except be stupidly glad that I'd brought it. I'd cursed each slow minute that had passed when Sheik had been taken by his cousin. Not this time.

Outside, Sheik's voice. "Lin? Lin!"

Oh no no no no. I pressed the Ocarina to my lips and played the song of time inversion, a surge of power blossoming out, turning the world into a sluggish echo of itself.

The tent flap was opening.

Did I have everything? Probably not, but I had the bare essentials, and I could snag some more soup and if I got hungry there was plenty to eat out there, it was a swamp.

I wore the bunnyhood, and my heartbeat quickened like hunted prey, and I dashed out.

I skittered to a stop because I remembered I'd cut Helmet's leg open which meant there was a thin but possibly traceable blood-trail which meant I should take the pig-shaped Sniffer Mask as well. And where was the Stone Mask? I'd thought I'd left it… never mind, no time.

I grabbed it and Sheik was already halfway through the door so I had to slip past him really close and I wondered if he saw a blur of brown as I zipped by, wondered if he understood me when I told him I would be back with his sister. I was a coward, for avoiding him like this. But I could not face his accusations, I could not bear his condemnation, so I won't.

I prayed to Farore that I would find her in time, I prayed to Nayru that Fi would have her protection, and I prayed to Din, even if she may hate me, to light my heart with determination.

And I prayed to Navi for guidance.

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They were all tied up to a stake in the middle of camp, Torail's left eye swollen shut. Fi's estimation of him had risen by a solid twenty five percent, especially with his defense of Ciela. But beyond that, her estimations were in dire, dire straits. They'd managed to get Hilda free, but being captured themselves was… humiliating. They'd been blindfolded, knocked out, and when they came to they'd been strapped to a monster that could run ridiculously fast, judging by the air that had ruffled their hair, and through the swamps, judging by the smell of lichen and dark mud.

They were now truly in Kanalet, probably. They'd crossed the swamps, now on dry land, and other prisoners had joined them. The party of four that had attacked them were now a party of ten, and though they were with more prisoners, that was all they were; prisoners. Three from her group, two from the other. They'd introduced themselves as Arn and Medilia, of the Grimdust Clan based mostly in Calatia.

Five against ten. Perhaps up to a hundred miles from Tharlaigh and the Redspears, over a dozen acres of swamp and who knew how many leagues of forest. Fi didn't want to calculate just how low the probability of being found was, and held back tears.

Numbers were not creatures of optimism. And worst of all…

A young handsome man stood before them and crouched in the firelight, revealing eyes the colour of open wounds.

"They all have relatively useful Sights," he concluded, standing and returning to his comrades, "No culling necessary this time. We'll deliver them in the morning. Scervo, you're on first watch."

"Aye, sir."

"Bard, how's the leg."

"Would've been better if Tubert did his bloody job!" the grizzled man grouched loudly, "Couldn't kill the brat fast enough."

"It ain't my fault that tyke got ya, I put three arrows in 'im by the time he got you. Was good luck on'is part, dead on his feet an' still fightin'. Shame about the coat though," Tubert added, "Trimmed in silver. Would've fetched a fine price, just for the hems."

Fi's blood chilled. Lin, they were talking about Lin. Lin was dead?

"Lin's dead?"

The scrawny man with a poking-rod of a sword turned round, crooked teeth smiling wide. "That the lookout's name? Green coat with silver trimmings, was practically a shining target, that one. Led us right to ye'z. If Tubert says he's dead, he's dead. Bastard never misses."

"If he didn't miss I wouldn't have this bloody cut on my bloody leg, Scervo!"

"Shut up, Bard," Tubert scoffed, eyeing the fletching of his arrows, "He was crazy. You saw it, too, runnin' straight for us both, and that lightnin', caw, didn't want that shootin' at us. Couldn't be helped."

"Lin can't be dead. She can't be dead!"

"Hush, child," the handsome man said with steel in his voice, "Or we'll make you."

Prudence and fear made her shut her mouth, but still she reeled at the possibility of Lin being… dead? The woman that her brother loved so much, with all her dangerous power and her magic, snuffed out by a few arrows? It seemed impossible. And Tharlaigh, oh he, he would be devastated.

It just, it couldn't be true. She would believe it only when she saw it.

When the man left Fi leaned in, whispering to her friends. "We have to escape."

"How?" Ciela sniffled, a tear rolling down her cheek, "My Sight's useless for escaping, unless we're on a boat."

Fi had known that, since she Saw Ciela's sight was about reading currents at sea, but she'd been hoping for ideas. "Torail?"

"None of them are interested in freeing me or us in general," he muttered around his split lip, "I can tell you that much."

Well, so much for that. Fi eyed the adults, captured with them. Grimdust clan-members were not known for their fighting prowess, and their Sights seemed much the same.

"Sorry," Arn whispered, confirming her fears, "Our Sight has to do with plants, and the earth. If you're interested in growing potatoes in a barren land, we're your people, but for anything else…"

So the only Sight she could rely on was mostly her own. Fi glared at their surroundings, full of bandits and tame monsters, seeing them for what they were. Uneducated louts, cruel men with shallow desires, except for their leader, who was whole different league of his own. But there was nothing that she could glean that could be useful, except the pile of things that they were going through, the loot that had been taken with Fi and her friends, their weapons, their laundry, and their spare change.

And something that didn't belong to any of them.

Fi frowned sharply at that, and her friends seemed to notice. They too, peered at the looting of their belongings, but their Sight didn't show them what hers showed Fi, so didn't know quite what they were looking for.

So she told them. "That… that greyish thing. Do you know what it is?"

They were all looking now.

"What greyish thing?" Torail muttered, squinting in the sparse firelight of the camp.

"The man with the beard is holding it up now. It looks, a little like a… toy?"

Ciela peered around them both, and groaned. "It's just a mask. It was mixed in the laundry. How is that useful?"

"Because…" Fi glared at it, the men laughing at it, passing it around and wondering whether it might be worth anything. It wasn't a weapon, it wasn't Sheikah, but it didn't belong to them and it was mixed in the laundry so… "Because it's Lin's."

"How would you, oh of course, never mind. So?" Ciela wiped her eyes and sat up a little straighter, setting her misery aside. "How is it useful?"

"I don't know what I can't see," and partly to get a better look, partly to just be a nuisance, Fi stood up and hollered as loud as she could: "Be careful with that!"

They all spun round, and Fi got a good look at the mask, and Saw that whoever wore it became as plain as stone, blending into the surroundings. In other words, her heart fluttering with the realisation and the sheer luck of it all, it was her method of escape.

If she could just wear it…

"What did we tell you, girl?" a sweet voice said, even as a blade slid breathtakingly close to her neck, "Hush, or we'll make you hush."

Fi froze and didn't dare to even swallow, raw fear knifing up her spine. The dark-haired man behind her seemed to grin at her silence, and peered over her head at his band of criminals. "So what were you handling, boys?"

They peered at the mask, suddenly nervous. The man chuckled and left Fi standing there shaking as he checked the situation for himself, taking the mask in hand. He flipped it over, felt its surface, but to Fi's relief, didn't wear it. Instead he approached her with another man, big and burly, bringing it with him.

The apparent leader, young and handsome, was a confident, prideful man, said her Sight, more vain than her brother, self-assured. When it came to this business, his Sight made him the best. He Saw what his colleagues did not, and that made him powerful, useful, superior. She would play up to that.

"Looks interesting, this." he said, eyeing her still standing, disdain in his smile.

"I…" she swallowed, heart racing, and lied. "I wouldn't know."

"Of course you would, you can See it, can't you. Tell me."

"I, how would you know? About my Sight?"

"Because that is my Sight," he snarled, pressing the point of his blade right where her ribs parted, "Your brave boy Sees another's regard, the one behind you Sees the ocean currents, and these two See the needs or diseases of plants. You, sweet girl, See the nature of things. So you See what this does. Now tell me."

Would he stab her? No, no he wouldn't, he needed the answer, because he couldn't See it, but she could. "Why… why don't you try it yourself, then?"

He laughed. He laughed, and gestured at Torail, and the big burly man grabbed the small skinny boy's arm so he could angle the mask onto her friend's face. "Try it we shall, then."

"No!" Fi raised her hands, her plea raw and real. "No wait please, it's, it's cursed. It's cursed and it, it belonged to Lin..."

"Ah, I see. What does it do?" the mask inched closer to Torail, and his fear was very real, his struggles frantic.

"I don't, I don't know, I just know that, that it is, it doesn't do what it's meant to do unless someone wears it. The nature of it is that it's cursed, that's all I know. P-please, I swear that's all I know."

"Hm," he said, tentatively drawing the mask away, "Now how did this, Lin, come by it?"

"She, she was…" could she really be dead? The thought of Tharlaigh's potential grief brought tears to her eyes. Fi made them come, she had to be convincing, she had to make herself seem small, he big, make him utterly self-assured. "She w-was going to marry my b-brother."

"Ah, what a shame," he drawled, "Still doesn't answer my question, does it."

"She's, she was, she's an adventurer, she travelled a lot a-and, she, she just liked to collect things, she, she g-gave me pink fairies to keep me safe,"

"Oh yes, we saw those. Very much obliged to your would've-been-sister, then," he chuckled, finally pulling away. "Those fairies go at a very hefty price."

Fi wept, thinking of her brother, wanting to go home. "Please…"

"Drop him," he sighed, and finally the big man let Torail go, and he crumpled to the ground, shaking. "Well. Rather disappointing. I suppose we may be able to sell it to a collector, but not being able to tell them what it does may lower its price significantly."

"Did you… did you really kill her?"

"If Tubert says she's dead she's dead."

Fi gave a loud sob, hastily covering her mouth, trying to stem the flow of tears.

"Well then, thank you for your information, we'll see you in the morning. It'll be a long trip, so get your rest."

Panic surged through Fi, as the man turned away, still holding the Mask.

"Give it back!"

He stopped, and turned around, slowly. "...What?"

"G-give it back. It was Lin's. It's not, it's not any use to you, it's, it…"

"Didn't I just say that I could sell it, girl?" he hissed, lowly, menace shining bright in his dark red eyes.

"And you just said that it would be worthless. Lin thought it was worthless and she's an expert!"

"Fi, what are you doing?" Ciela hissed, tugging at her trousers. Fi shook her off, outrage fueling her limbs.

"I want, I want it back. I told you what it is, it's no use to you, so why… why must you keep it?"

"Idiot child, let it go."

"No! You've taken me from my brother, you killed his heart-mate, and I might not ever see the rest of my family again, the least you could do is give me back her mask!"

"No, the least I could do is keep you alive," he snarled, turning on her with mask raised, "And even then, that's beginning to seem like a tiresome chore."

Fi stepped back, gasping short breaths, her eyes flicking from his face to the mask. "Y-you said we were useful, that you wouldn't need to, need to cull us,"

"You've worn my patience thin," he said simply, grabbed her hair, and shoved the mask firmly on her face.

Fi froze, not sure what to do now. Already the Mask's power seemed to be taking effect, making them not care, confusing them as a result because she was right in front of them, she had to give them a reason not to care…

She made a choking noise. She grabbed her throat, clawed at her chest, Ciela was screaming and Torail tried to pry the mask off Fi's face but she held on, held on tight and finally she collapsed back, and the men lost interest.

They walked away as Ciela kept screaming, and Torail burst into tears.

Fi ached. She didn't want to do this, but she had to wait until Ciela and Torail calmed down, till she could tap them and let them know she was alright, but first, but first, she had to make absolutely sure that the magic of the mask had worked…

She lay there, as Torail and Ciela were comforted by Arn and Medilia, and they slowly forgot that she was even there, just sure in the knowledge that Fi had died.

Fi is resourceful, and very sorry. :P

Also Sheik is not happy with Lin at all, and really beginning to appreciate Zelda's constant frustration with the Hero's behaviour.

Heheheheh.

Hope you liked it, and see you in the next chapter!