new short part 1

(sorry for the delay everyone, here part one,
i hope to have part 2 soon, I tend to add faster if I have something up, so here's hoping!)

The way to a man’s heart…

Toran glanced about, trying to take fully in the surroundings, but the heat was making concentration difficult. He was on foot, in the middle of a patchy dirt road about a mile east of Lon Lon Villa. The midday sun burned down, and Toran was sweltering. Wiping sweat from his forehead, the young noble fervently wished for some shade, but this particular portion of Hyrule Plain was as devoid of trees as the sands of Greudo desert. It was the height of summer, and the grass was taking a sickly, burned, brown hue. He had already run a hand along the dry grass once to test it and found it feeling as sharp as glass shards. The fighter was certainly not looking forward to rolling on it, and had spent a good half hour praying that would not become necessary.

Speaking of that half hour, where in the Dark Void was Zelda- no wait, Shiek- well, whichever name she was using it was still hot in the unforgiving sun, and he couldn’t move on until the heroine of Hyrule showed up. Sighing, Toran scuffed at the dirt at his feet, watching it rise in a cloud of brown that screamed about the lack of moisture. It was a good thing he loved Zel, or he’d really be forced to hate her…

(bo do do badaboop boop bo)

Shiek smiled at the massive woman next to her in the driver’s seat of the small covered wagon. The proprietor of a tavern in Lon Lon Villa, Lucinda was probably the largest Hylian woman Shiek had ever seen. Normally a lanky people, It was unusual to see such a swarthy pureblood, but Lucinda was a full child of Hyrule, and anything but lanky. Of course, age and excess occasionally led to heavier nobles, and even some of the landed gentry were known to have an extra chin or two, but the hard working rarely put so much on their figures. Shiek had guessed Lucinda’s heavy mass was due to her profession. A reasonably successful cook and bartender, she had hired several local girls to help with the actual running and cleaning. Even still, Lucinda seemed accustom to her weight, able to move with surprisingly spryness given the fact that she likely weighed twice as much as Shiek. While tubby, she in no way gave an impression of sloth, and Shiek was willing to bet it was more her duties as a cook than a tendency to laziness that gave Lucinda her extra pounds.

However, whatever the reason for Lucinda’s weight, Shiek was thankful that she was so thin as she sat in the sweltering heat. Bulk seemed like it would probably be a major endurance sap right about now. The sweat running freely down Lucinda’s forehead silently confirmed the theory, as did the way the woman kept fanning herself with a paper fan. The fan was a pretty ordeal, orange and purple, with designs in black across it. In Shiek’s estimation it probably had come from the island provinces and, thought not overly cheep was probably not overly expensive either. The older woman obvious had noticed Shiek appraising eye, and held out the fan to display it proudly.

“A traveler gave this to me several years ago,” she beamed, “it’s from the Gunthria, a island in the far south… but you probably already know about it, don’t you dear?”
Shiek smiled and gave a slight nod. She didn’t mention that far from just knowing about it, she had spent three hours last week discussing trade regulations with the province’s governors.
“It was raining hard and cold as the Dark Void, and he was short on rupees, so I let him have some hot rice wine on the house. He thanked me and told me several stories about his journeys. He was quite the charmer, so I gave him a full meal. He wanted to marry me after that, but I sent him on. He wouldn’t go without leaving this though, said it was prized by the nobles in Gunthria.”

Deciding not to comment on how the traveler in question had obviously stretched the value of the fan some, Shiek tried to think of question to relay a sense of interest.
“He wanted to marry you, eh?” Shiek regretted the question after it had left her mouth, the implications would have been easy enough for even Toran to figure out. However, Lucinda just laughed, returning to fanning herself with the paper.
“You think it odd a traveler would want me, eh?” she said, after composing herself a bit, “I guess a girl like you might find it odd that someone who had seen that many women might want me, but trust me in a few years you’ll see that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Over the years I’ve had to beat away the men with a stick I tell you…”
“Really?” Shiek inquired. To her knowledge, Lucinda was not married and, despite her protestations, it was hard to believe she had ever been swimming in suitors.
“Oh yes, but I was only ever gave myself to one of ‘em. My dear man Manipa,” Lucinda paused to wipe away a tear with a pudgy finger. Sniffing deeply, she took on a faraway look.

“That was so many years ago, but he worked for the Villa’s guard you know. He got himself hit in the head while chasing some drunks out of the town and never really recovered. The poor soul passed that winter.”
“A Villa guard?” Shiek asked, more out of politeness than actual interest.
“The last good one we’ve had in years,” Lucinda nearly yelled, increasing the whirring pace of her fan, “it took three of those drunks to step to him, and he still shooed them off! All the guard nowadays are lazy, cowardly, and soft as bread dough. Some of ‘em are even fatter than me I tell yea… Din knows we be in trouble if’n the Moblins came down off the hill with an eye to sack the town. I don’t trust the guard anymore than I’d trust a man in Greudo Fortress, let me tell you.”
“I know the local noble house, if you wish I could speak with them about the issue when we return,” Shiek offered. Lucinda just snorted in response, snapping the reigns to give the horse an extra spring.
“Oh, I’ve told ol’ Barron Marca about it more times than I got fingers, but he doesn’t want ta be spending his money on the villa guard… no. He’s got more important things going on…”
“Oh?” Shiek was beginning to take some real interest at this. There were only so many things a Noble Family could spend rupees on that didn’t at least boarder on shady, and the Pritolate House had more than enough to beef up the towns in its lands. It was possible something bigger was afoot than just shoddy bookkeeping.
“That’s why when I had to move cargo this important tried to write the Royal Family,” Lucinda continued, lowering her voice despite the fact they were alone on the empty road, “of course, I didn’t expect them to answer… I’ve heard that Queen Zelda and Lord Toran do a great deal to help our people, but it no doubt keeps them busy. I’m sure my letter was just a drop in a bucket full of drops, and there was no way for them to know the full importance of this trip. But then you showed up, so I hoping we’ll be fine!”

Shiek smiled, not mentioning that the reason she had “just happened to show up” was that she had read the letter from Lucinda a few days before as the Queen in question. The woman had requested guards from the Royal House to shepherd her to and from the alchemic labs on the shores of Lake Hylia. Apparently, a strange sickness had been starting to break out in the lower sections of Lon Lon Villa, one that the alchemists in the Comvarda House’s lands could cure. She had requested aid from the local house, but Barron Marca Pritolate had been reluctant to show a dependence on a rival family’s assets. He was more of a mind to block off the Villa’s lower quarter and wait for the sickness to run its course. Lucinda’s tavern was outside the quarantine, but the thought of the helpless victims had been too much for her. Shiek had gathered some more facts upon arriving in Lon Lon, and found Lucinda’s take on the situation to be fairly accurate. She had dispatched Toran to secure the first leg of the path and helped Lucinda gather a cart, supplies, and ride with her to Toran’s position.

The journey out of the town was uneventful, which did not really surprise Shiek much. She was fairly certain the worst of things they would encounter would be a few skultoids out on the fields after nightfall, hardly anything to be worried about. Travelers had not been reporting any extra Moblin activity recently, and while bandits were always about they rarely ventured too close to the lands of Comvarda. That noble house had claimed the former Lord Fiate among its members, and when Mistress Impa had become his wife the Far Rock and Shadow Clans had moved to live on the Comvarda lands. An abundance of Shiekah tended to discourage outlaws from acting too openly, and so the section of Hyrule Plains around Lake Hylia was mercifully free of Hylian, Greudo, and Moblin raiders.

Lucinda had obviously decided that their original line of conversation was more enjoyable, and had moved back to talking about her guests, meals, and various marriage proposals. Shiek listened as the cart creaked along, interested in the first topic, feigning acknowledgment at the seconded, and still trying to hide her skepticism at the third. If Lucinda wasn’t stretching the truth, then nearly ever male from Lon Lon Villa had asked for her hand, and at least half had done so twice. In an effort to keep the way she doubted Lucinda’s marital exploits out of sight, Shiek steered the conversation back the travelers who stopped at the woman’s tavern. Despite the fact that she ruled the land as Queen Zelda, Shiek was not as wide traveled as one might think. When she had originally taken her Sheik alias, Gannondorf’s harsh reign of terror had kept her hiding in remote corners of Hyrule proper. It wasn’t until she was nineteen that Shiek had first seen the southlands of Turmina and the far island provinces. That had been on the good-will peace tour her father had arranged that would have ended in disaster had it not been for Link and Malon. The first part of the trip had been merely visiting smaller variations of Hyrule Palace, Noble estates in Hyrule proper and Turmina. Most of the second leg had been spent pretending to be Malon’s servant, just trying to stay alive as pirates dragged them from one hideout to another. While it HAD been intense, and even exciting to a degree, Shiek still felt she lacked a true pulse of the lands outside of Hyrule proper. For this reason she adored hearing about travelers and their stories. With a bit of a smirk Shiek recalled that the only way she and her friend Link could go for longer than five minuets without fighting was if he were relating the details of a distant land.

It was just another reason the young queen had been loathed to let the legend of Shiek grow old and fade. Sure, it had worked wonders for her morale, as well as helped her and Toran keep a tight hold on their relationship, but it also let her get down in the dirt with her people. The Hylian people were an old race, and dedicated to their empire, faith, and land. Shiek didn’t doubt them, she knew she didn’t need to find a way to win a love that was already there, but she wanted to truly know how to serve them. She wanted to know the very soul of the land that she both owned and was owned by. In actuality, it was this rational that caused Impa to allow Shiek to keep going on these adventures. It was something that had made sense to the Shiekah Elder in a way that Shiek knew she would probably never fully understand.

In between such musings and Lucinda’s constant stream of verbiage, it wasn’t long before the cart creaked into view of Toran. Shiek first noticed him as the cart crested the gentle rise not far out from the city. He was sitting on his heals looking out over the plain, arms hanging limply at his sides. Lucinda must have noticed Toran a second later, for she fell silent, and her right hand moved to grasp the heavy crossbow she had lain on the baseboard between them. Shiek laid a hand over Lucinda’s pudgy fingers and flashed a quick smile.
“Hold on, that’s just my partner Fiate.”
“Named after ol’ Lord Fiate, the queen’s father?” Lucinda queried, hand relaxing a bit.
“The same,” Shiek replied brightly, removing her hand and stretching to wave to Toran.
“Well, if he’s half the man of Lord Fiate, rest his soul, then we’ll have little to no trouble,” Lucinda clucked, moving to take the reigns in both hands again. Shiek smiled at this. If she had learned one thing while tramping over the countryside in disguise, it was that the common Hylian had loved her farther. Even the pirates that had stormed her boat and mistakenly kidnapped Malon had respected the regent as a just, honorable, and formidable, man. It was stratifying to know a member of her family had held such sway over the loyalty of the people. Especially given that dark tales of her grandfather’s reign were still used to scare children at bedtime.

Toran had spotted them, and turned to walk toward the approaching cart. He was wearing common Hylian travel gear (dark brown pants of a sturdy cloth, plain cotton shirt under a brown leather vest, with boots and bracers on his wrists and feet) and a brown headband kept his hair at bye. Shiek had used the appearance modifying spells she had perfected during her exile to turn Toran’s dirty blond hair a marvelous shade of black, and had also moved his eyes to a browner tint than his normal hazel. It was a fairly common Hylian eye hair combination, though sapphire would have been a more logical eye choice. However, Shiek had been reluctant to give Toran a feature that she had always found so attractive on Link. Her flame for the Hero of Time might have died out years ago, but she preferred that Toran not be reminded of the old love.

While Shiek had left Toran’s race obviously Hylain, she had retained her Shiekah eyes and clothing. However, she no longer felt the need to disguise her gender and, given that Shiek was a unisex name, the young woman had elected to adventure in a more feminine form. It reduced the amount of power she had to put into her alteration spells, and made for less questioning looks when she and her male companion rented single bed rooms or snuck off together. Besides, these adventures were meant to be a bit romantic anyway, and that was hard to do if you were lying about your sex all the time.

Lucinda noticed the mixed gender of the two adventures right away. Before Toran was close enough to even distinguish his features, the tavern keeper was whispering out the corner of her mouth to Shiek.
“A handsome one… about yer age, no?”
“I was born in the spring, he the following winter,” Shiek allowed, smirking slightly, “and I think he’d look better as a blond.”
“Nay, Black hair betokens strength lass,” Lucinda argued, “and if he looks as good close up as he dose a quarter mile off then I might need a bigger fan!”
“You will probably be a bit disappointed then,” Shiek chuckled.
“Young ones these days are so particular,” Lucinda cried, Shiek assumed to the horse, “he has a strong name, and if the lad possesses a decent heart to go with it, appearances be damned! Ask me again by the end of this trip, and I’ll tell yea whether or not you be a fool, girl.”

Smiling to herself, Shiek watched her husband jog towards them.

(Boo do do badda boop boo boo)

It was way too hot to be running, but Toran was hoping Shiek and the woman from Lon Lon might have something to drink in their cart. He had finished off his water a good thirty minuets ago, and the wait in the burning sun had become torturous. The grass was making an odd crunching sound under his feet, and the dirt of the path greeted his steps with massive puffs as dust. Shiek was waving at him, and Toran raised a hand to reciprocate when he noticed the riders coming over the rise behind the cart.

Four horsemen, and even at the distance, Toran could tell they were a rough lot. He didn’t want to judge just from looks, but the riders didn’t just looked ragged or disheveled, it was some sort of intangible factor that seemed to scream ill-intent. Toran watched as the cart creaked a bit closer while the four men seemed to be scanning the field. After the briefest of seconds that seemed to last forever, the lead horseman pointed at the cart and seemed to be conferring with his companions. It took only a moment before the three pounded down the rise towards the cart. Cursing, Toran broke into a full run, trying to gain some ground.

Toran was about a hundred yards from the cart, and the horsemen were that far again, but they had horses and, while none of them seemed to actually be phenomenal equestrians, they would arrive at the cart well before he could. The way they swooped down on their target was slightly shaky, and far from organized, but it gave clear indication to their intent: four bandits hoping for a quick grab. Toran gave a sharp cry of warning, but wasn’t sure if Shiek had heard him. However, Shiek WAS Zelda, and Zelda WAS the Sage of Wisdom. Part of that was a surprisingly sharp, almost precognitive, intuition and danger sense. Sure enough, his wife was twisting in her seat to look back at the approaching raiders well before they were within any real range. Toran saw her snatch up a rugged looking crossbow from somewhere at her feet and level it back at the approaching men. At the same time the large woman driving gave the reigns a snap, urging the horse pulling the cart to a faster pace. Still, one horse pulling a cart would never outmatch its pursuers, and Toran tired feverously to come up with a plan of attack as he ran towards the ensuing melee.

Shiek let a bolt fly from the crossbow. It missed the galloping lead rider by a bit, but it had whizzed close the head of his horse. The mount was obviously unaccustomed to fights and panicked, rearing up and kicking with its front legs. The rider was thrown to the ground, where he lay, obviously winded. The other raiders road past him, obviously not overly concerned with the falling of their companion. The new lead rider spurred his mount to extra speed, obviously realizing he needed to close in on the wagon before Shiek had time to reload the bow. Toran could see Shiek position better than the attackers though, and knew she had realized there was not enough time for a second bolt from the crossbow. She had dropped it back to the floor and had brought out a few of her shuriken. Toran had always been impressed over Shiek’s ability with the throwing-spike, and had often marveled that she found the time to keep the skill polished during her busy life as a queen. With what he knew of her throwing range, Toran guessed the first shuriken would fly in ten seconds…

Obviously, Shiek had been spending some extra time practicing.

A good five yards further than Toran thought possible for anyone, Shiek’s arm whipped around. The lead rider let a screech that was audible even over the pounding hooves of the horses and fell backward off his mount, clutching at the shuriken in his shoulder. The last two riders closed in on the side opposite Shiek, obviously trying to keep the canvas portion of the cart between themselves and the Shiekah that was cutting them down at range. By this time the wagon and the attackers were converging on Toran’s position. While busy being impressed, and feeling slight pride, over his wife’s attacks, Toran had neglected to come up with a plan for engaging two mounted foes from foot. The skewedness of his priorities became quite clear to the swordsman as the wagon and horses barreled down towards him. Without thinking about it, Toran rolled to the Shiek side of the cart, narrowly missing becoming trampled by the horse’s hooves. His eyes flashed up just as Shiek’s face passed, her hand reaching down towards him.

Instinct kicked in before thought, and Toran grabbed the hand, not stopping to think about what would happen to Shiek if he pulled her out, or what might happen to him if he didn’t. There was a jarring tug at his arm, and Toran felt his feet yanked off the ground. Shiek had managed to pull him half way up to the cart seat, but was slipping. The front wheel was very close, and if he fell out of Shiek’s grasp it would be right into the path of the iron nubbed wheel. Grabbing wildly with his free hand, Toran felt his fingers grasp the edge of the wagon seat, and he gripped tightly. Pulling hard, and with help from Shiek, Toran clambered into the wagon, slipping up and sprawling onto the floor behind the seat. Toran gasped in air, realizing he had held his breath for the whole ordeal. In reality, his mount had only taken seconds, but Toran was fairly certain he had seen his life flash before his eyes at least twice. Shiek gave him a quick smirk before turning back to her large companion.
“Lucinda, Fiate… Fiate, Lucenda.”
“Charmed,” Toran gasped, sitting up.
“Well, he WOULD make a better blond,” Lucinda admitted, as she pointed to the riders alongside the wagon’s covered section, “but we still have unwelcome guests.”

The cart was still racing along, and the horsemen now pounding next to it were having difficulty as they tried to perform some sort of task at high speed. Toran couldn’t get a good look at the details from his position in the rear of the cart. He could see the shadows of the riders’ silhouettes on the canvas, but it was too distorted to make much out. Lucinda was obviously able to get a look from her vantage point though, and she called out the warning.
“Torches! The thugs are tryin’ ta light torches!”

Toran reached up to the seat and snatched the fallen crossbow, glad he could finally aid his friends. Lucinda saw his actions and called out an answer to the question Toran was about to ask.
“Bolts in the bag behind my seat boy, and be quick!”
Toran obliged, grabbing the bag indicated and quickly shaking it contents out. Bolts, some quarrels, and a few arrows rattled to the ground, and Toran quickly snatched up a missile. Quickly fitting the shaft into its slot, Toran pulled hard at the loading leaver, pulling the string back into its hold position. He handed the weapon up to Lucinda’s outstretched hand and watched as her broad, rounded shoulders moved as she leaned around the side of the cart and let fly. One of the rider’s gave a startled cry, and Toran saw a horse pull back. Out of the back opening to the wagon, Toran glimpsed the man sitting on his now still horse, clutching at the quarrel that protruded from his thigh. The final rider must have realized he was now alone, and pulled off from the chase, stopping to watch as the cart raced away into the burning afternoon.

Giving a relived sigh, Toran turned back to the front seat. Lucinda continued to drive the cart at a breakneck speed for a bit, but Toran thought it unlikely the thugs would be chasing them. Still, it made sense to put some distance between themselves and raiders, so he didn’t say anything on the subject, just offered Shiek a lopsided grin.

“Thank for the hand, Shiek.”
“Not a problem, Fiate, but next time you’re supposed to scout a place, make sure you scout ALL of it,” she threw in wryly.
“I didn’t expect marauders from the Villa itself,” confessed Toran, “but maybe they just circled round. I’m not as mobile on foot.”
“Possible,” Shiek mused, “but I must admit I was surprised by an attacked that close to the Villa at all. There may be some poverty there, but it hardly looked bad enough to drive people to crime.”
“They were probably sent… take us out quickly before we had a chance to dust our tracks,” Lucinda offered, slowing the careening cart to a more languid speed.
“You gotta have a sender for them to be ‘sent’,” Toran comment, shacking his head, “and I don’t know who would do that.”
“Still,” Shiek said, glancing back around the cart as if the fallen tormentors might be coming for a second go, “they were lighting torches to burn the cart. Thieves wouldn’t do that, they’d be afraid of burning what they came to steal.”
“They weren’t no thieves,” Lucinda said, a grim tone to her voice, “I’ll bet rupees to stones Barron Marca sent them to burn the cart. Try and ‘dissuade’ us from continuing.”
“Marca Pritolate?” Toran felt more than a little skeptical. He had met the Barron twice before, and while the man had seemed pompous and slightly petty, he hardly came across as the type to try something like this.
“He warned me hard against going to Comvarda’s labs for aid. Barron Marca doesn’t much care for the half-bloods, silly of him I think,” she added pointedly, glancing from Toran to Shiek. Toran repressed a smile. Lucinda obviously thought he and Shiek weren’t officially together, and had apparently bought Shiek’s racial disguise. Wrong on both counts… even in the current circumstance, it was kind of funny.
“He’s never trusted the Comvarda Noble House…” the woman went on, returning to her musings on the attackers, “the ol’ Barron likes to act like his land is the most valuable in Hyrule, and he’s generally right in that opinion. We have some of the best farm land, the Villa is at the very crossroads of all Hyrule Plain, and no one would dare say we ain’t got the best ranches of livestock living here in Lon Lon Province. Still, there’s two things we don’t have, the lakes of Comvarda and the mines of Akinda. Barron Marca’s hated those two houses since time out o’ mind, and that’s been the root of it for just as long.”

Toran nodded. It made sense. The Noble Houses had only been united for a relatively short period of time, dating back to Zelda’s great, great grandfather. It might seem a long time to a young mind, but it reality it was only about two hundred years… grudges could run deep, and the time before the Hylian Empire had seen the Houses constantly pitted against one another over any number of petty quarrels. Shiek was looking very introspective about it though, as if she was betting there was more to it than the face value of jealousy and pride.
“I wonder…” she began, then gave her head a shake, “no, best to not even think it.”
“Think what?” Toran pressed, studying the worry lines forming on Shiek’s brow. He knew this was something that needed addressing. Shiek tended to obsess over a notion if it took hold of her, and he didn’t want her brooding, particularly while on an adventure.
“Well,” Shiek began hesitantly, casting a sidelong glance at Lucinda, “it’s nothing… maybe we should discuss it latter.”