Seven Years, part Ten

Here is the long awaited part ten. Long awaited because it should clear up some of the last questions that those who haven't played the games might still be having. It's getting to that time where you might want to start by going back to the very begining and reading all the way through this entry. Have fun, enjoy, and I getting disipointed that Sarah and Leeann are the only one's who comment about my story... (hint hint to all you pakistanies)

Shiek weaved in and out of consciousness. She had no idea how long she had been out before Toran had found her, and was actually wondering if this was just another hallucination. She’d already seen her father, Impa, Cloue the palace gardener, the Captain of the Palace Guard, Alfo the palace cook, and even a quick flash of Link, his blond hair hanging in his eyes as he laughed, extending a hand to her. She was reasonably sure Toran was real though, because he was the only one that had actually touched her. Besides, Shiek thought, bobbing up and down on Toran’s back as they raced across Hyrule Plain, if I were imagining this, you’d think I’d make it less painful…

She was slowly regaining some strength in her limbs, but her grip around Toran’s shoulders still felt weak and uncontrolled. Her legs dangled like jelly, swinging down at Toran’s sides.

Thank Narue that Toran is so strong for his size, she thought through the hazy shades of pain. I bet it would feel wonderful to be held by him… Shiek had spent the last seven years trying to be strong, to depend only on herself, and it had been very hard on her. Now Toran was taking care of her, and protecting her. It made her feel safe, like she could sleep and not have to worry about anything. It made her feel lots of other things too, but she was too tired and hurt to sort through them all.

“Toran?” she breathed, barely above a whisper, “you’ll take care of me, right?”

“Yeah, now save your strength… you need to get back on your feet ASAP.”

“Ok…” resting her head on Toran’s shoulders, Shiek closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain.

When Shiek woke up, she found herself staring up at the ceiling of Lon Lon Ranch’s hayloft. At first, she hoped that the whole thing had been a horrible dream, but the throbbing pain that began in her head quickly proved that the iron rails part had been real and therefore everything else. Moaning slightly, Shiek pushed herself onto her elbows, and looked over to see Toran sitting cross-legged next to her. He smiled a wide, boyish grin, relief written plainly across his face.

“You sleep too much, Shiek,” he laughed, visibly relaxing a bit.

“Go to hell, Toran,” she groaned, falling back down and rubbing her temples, a wry grin tugging at her mouth.

“What happened?”

Shiek shivered, eyes squeezed tightly closed.

“It was awful Toran, just plain awful! Draq is dead, and Scela might be too by now!” She cried, sitting up cross-legged a cross from him.

She spilled out the story, feeling the pain and anguish of the temple courtyard flood her again. She managed to choke through the story. For some odd reason it seemed harder to tell it to Toran then Scela. The emotions she had felt came bubbling back up for some reason. It was as though she felt like she needed Toran to understand what she been through in a way that she had not felt with Scela.

“Scela wanted to go after the Phantom Gannondorf. I pleaded with him not to, and was even standing in his way of the door, so he threw one of his spikes at me, and-”

“HE WHAT?”

“Not like that, Toran… he aimed for my shoulder. He wasn’t trying to kill me, or even do permanent damage to me. He just needed me out of the way…”

“I don’t care what he needed! He threw a bladed weapon at you Shiek! What about that isn’t getting through to you?”

Shiek’s red eyes brimmed yet again with tears.

“But… I had just killed his brother…”

“You did not! Gannondorf did. You just happened to be there when it all went to hell. That’s not your fault at all.”

Shiek bit down hard on her lower lip, tears trickling out of the corners of eyes squeezed tightly shut. She shook her head slowly, trembling violently with the force of raging emotions. She felt Toran’s hand gently rest on her knee, and opened her eyes. She saw a blurry picture of Toran’s face looking worriedly at her. He was always pretty easy to read, and even in her state she could see that he wanted to comfort her, but wasn’t sure of how she would react.

“Please, Toran…” she whispered, swallowing hard, “could you just hug me for a little bit?”

The young swordsman needed no second bidding. Shiek felt his arm pull her in, and she snuggled into his grasp. Burying her head into Toran’s right shoulder, Shiek drew her knees up and grasped them to her chest, content just to let Toran’s strong arms encircle her. It felt as safe and warm as she had always dreamed it would. Then the thought that it had always been Link with her when she dreamed of this forced its way into her mind. Shiek felt her heart sink into her boots. She couldn’t do this with Toran; it would be like giving up on Link before he even got there.

“Toran,” she breathed, beginning to squirm in his grip. He didn’t appear to understand that she was trying to get away, and a bit of what almost sounded like panic flitted through her voice, “Toran, let go!”

His arms jerked back quickly, and both pushed themselves a few feet in opposite directions.

“Sorry, I just though you, I mean,”

Shiek shook her head.

“No, it wasn’t anything you did, Toran. It’s just…” her eyes fell away from his face, unable to take the worry, concern, and what she knew was the beginnings of love, in his hazel eyes, “…complicated.”

“What is?”

“Just everything.”

A frown tugged at his mouth.

“Shiek, this isn’t really a time for jokes.”

“I was serious,” she said, looking back into his face.

“This has something to do with the fact that you aren’t really a Shiekia, doesn’t it?”

Shiek started, surprise written plainly on her face.

“How- how did you know that?”

“You don’t look like one… particularly when I found out your eyes aren’t really red,” Toran replied, shrugging. Shiek had to hand it to him, he was an observant person, and smart too. She decided the time might have come for the truth. Toran was a good and trustworthy friend, she was tired of having so many secrets, and mostly he deserved to know the truth about her before he actually fell in love with her.

“Toran, you’re exactly right, I am not a Shiekia. I’m just a regular Hylian, like you. But unlike you, I needed everyone to think I was something entirely different from what I was. I needed a new race, a new name, and even a new gender, because Gannondorf was hunting me down…”

Toran seemed to understand everything so far, but he waved a questioning hand at her.

“Figured… but why did he want you so bad?”

Shiek swallowed hard. The first part was easily guessable. This was the moment of truth.

“You know the legend of the Hero of Time, right? Well in the story, the young princess gives the Hero of Time the powerful Ocarina of Time as she is fleeing Gannondorf’s takeover of the palace. Link used the Ocarina to open-”

“Link?”

“Oh, sorry, that’s the Hero’s name.”

“How could you know th…” Toran trailed off, realization dawning on his face. Shiek was not aware that someone’s mouth could hang open that far without it actually being broken.

“Oh, for the love of Narue… you’re saying you’re Princess What’s Her Name?”

“Zelda,” Shiek replied, a bit of a smile pulling at her mouth, “my name is Zelda.”

“You know,” Toran said shaking his head slightly, “if it all didn’t actually add up and make so many odd things make sense; I’d say the story was just you hitting your head.”

Shiek realized that this was very true. Toran could have easily chalked all this up to a concussion induced fantasy. The fact that he believed her made Shiek simultaneously feel wonderful and awful. It felt good to have someone trust her, but horrible because she was leaving out a very important part. She loved Link in a way she didn’t want to love him, and she always would.

“Well,” she said, trying to think of something to say next, “Impa could vouch for it anyway.” Suddenly she realized that Impa wouldn’t be able to vouch for it. Impa was either dead or dieing somewhere in the Shadow Temple; a place she had sworn never to approach. Toran must have noticed a quick change in Shiek’s general demeanor, because he quickly reached out to take her hand.

“Shiek? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just Impa… that night after we raided the Spirit Temple, she came and told me she going to the Shadow Temple, and would probably die… I am just afraid I will never see her again…”

“Oh,” said Toran, biting his lip, “well, she’s alive, so don’t worry… I saw her just last night, and she mentioned that she had returned from the Shadow Temple. In fact, she’s who sent me to find you. She was really banged up, but I helped her to Jethro Skultulia’s house, and he was going to take care of her.”

“What aren’t you telling me Toran?” it was easy to see he was trying to avoid part of the story.

“When I said she was really banged up, I mean she looked like she should have been dead already… I don’t know how much longer she’s got.”

“I have to go to her!” Shiek cried, rising to her feet. A wave of nausea swept her when she took her feet, and Toran hand to move quickly to catch her as she collapsed back to floor.

“You’re not ready yet Shiek! You still have some serious wounds of your own to worry about,” he chided, as he lowered her back into the hay bed. Shiek squirmed a bit, tried to protest, but even that exertion told her that Toran was right. She was not going anywhere tonight. Sighting, she glared level at Toran, as if her confinement was his fault. She was only able to hold the act for about three seconds before a smile broke her face. Things might be dark, but she had survived a close one, and sitting in the hayloft with Toran, listening to rain patter at the roof, and enjoying a rest made it easy to let the bad events slip from her mind for a second.

“So why’d you want to come here instead of the cave?” Toran asked, sitting down cross-legged again.

“Intuition… you wouldn’t understand…” she replied, smirking at his look of frustration, “seriously though… I just had this feeling that we shouldn’t go near it last night,” suddenly a sobering thought crossed over her mind, “and, I really need to talk to Malon. But could you go check the cave for me? I would like to know if anything is wrong there.”

“Sure thing,” Toran said, standing and shouldering his katana, “I’ll be back as soon as possible… hurry and get well Shiek.”

She nodded, and watched him slip out the door. She saw his shadow fall through the doorframe, and noticed the smaller, unmistakable, silhouette of Malon approach him. Watching the two shadows on the ground, she heard Malon’s voice float through the door.

“Toran, right?”

“Yeah, Shiek’s inside. She’s banged up pretty bad, and shouldn’t move too much…”

“That’s a shame,” came Malon voice, and Shiek noticed the shapely shadow step aggressively closer to Toran’s.

“Uh, yeah… I mean, uh,”

“So, while Shiek’s out of commission, what are you going to be doing?” the question was loaded with suggestion, and Shiek felt her face burn.

Friend or not, when that little whore gets in here I’m gonna string her up by that long red hair and-

“Well, um,” Toran stuttered. The ranch girl’s shadow was displaying that she was well within Toran’s personal space by now, “actually I need to head out now… but, um, I’ll be back tonight, uh, to see Shiek that is, um,”

“Convenient,” the voice was barely over a whisper, her face inches from his. Shiek wasn’t sure from the shadows, but she could swear Malon’s hands on Toran’s chest, “be sure to say hi when you get in.”

Yup, she’s gonna die… I may be injured, but that little red haired-

Her mind ceased all rational thought as Malon’s face drew even closer to Toran’s. Shiek began to push herself up. Somebody had to stop this, and if had to be her, then Malon had better watch out. Still woozy, her hand slipped on some hay, and she came crashing back down, slamming her chin to the ground quite hard. Moaning she rolled up to sit on her knees, and was greeted by the sight of Malon breezing into the loft.

“Ohhh,” she sighed, hands clasping and head rolling back happily, “Toran is the best kisser I think I have ever done, and he is so strong!” Swooning she fell back into the hay not far from Shiek.

He KISSED her! He KISSED her! That’s it… he dies too… they’re both dead, her thoughts were interrupted as Malon enveloped her in a tight hug.

“Oh Shiek! So great to see you again! It’s so nice that you told me you don’t like Toran, because I think I’m getting a really wonderful crush!”

Oh yeah, I did tell her that, Shiek thought, wincing in Malon tight hug, and anyway, I DON’T like Toran… I was just getting carried away. She shouldn’t be treating Draq that way, that’s the problem… I just got a little upset because she’s flirting with somebody else.

“So, how you get so banged up in just half a day?” the blue eyes smiled at her, and Shiek felt her heart sink. The story didn’t come as hard as it had when she told Toran, but as she neared Draq’s death, she felt icy fingers pierce her.

“And so we knew the neither of us could defeat the Phantom Gannondorf. I-”

“Oh my goddess! Is Draq ok?” the obviously worry in Malon’s tone made Shiek blood run cold.

“I sorry, Malon, but he isn’t… he sacrificed himself so that I could get away.”

“What?” Malon’s face took on a number of emotions; it looked shocked, it looked unbelieving, but most of all it looked scared, “n-no, that can’t be!”

“He gave me a message to tell you,” Shiek went on, sorrow for Malon rising in her, “Draq said to tell you he was sorry for the pain he’d caused you, and that he loved you.”

“You’re lying! Draq is a warrior!” Panic was plain in the words, as well as written on her face.

“He was, and he died fighting valiantly, the way every warrior dreams. He saved me Malon, and-”

“You’re a warrior, why didn’t you help,” the tone was accusatory, and anger burned in the blue eyes of the ranch girl. Shiek started in surprise.

“W-what?”

“You could have helped him. He could have lived! But you were too afraid! You ran away while he fought for you, and you didn’t even help him! YOU KILLED HIM!”

“Malon, I-”

“Shut up Shiek!” Malon rose to her feet, rage twisting her features, “You’re a coward, a coward who killed the man I loved. I never want to see you again!”

“Malon!” Shiek looked pleadingly up at her.

“I said shut up!” Malon’s right hand lashed out, slapping Shiek in the face. The blow was harder then Shiek would have expected the thin ranch girl to be capable of, sending off her knees back into the hay. She looked up in time to see Malon’s back stalking out the door. Falling back into the hay, Shiek felt tears begin to form.

She had been right after all; Draq’s death was her fault, and it had just cost her two good friends.