Flames of Change - Chapter 4

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A Legend of Zelda Fanfiction

Flames of Change

Chapter 4: Golden Light

By: knowlee

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Lin was excited when her eyes caught the first glimpse of her house. It certainly was a sight for sore eyes. Even though she was only gone for a few days, it still felt wonderful to see it even after a short time. She dismounted from Epona and while still holding her reins she began to lead her towards the small shed that was attached to the wooden house.

Epona stood in place while Lin moved to push open the large door attached to the shed in order to allow her horse to come inside. Once it was open, she flipped a switch found inside that allowed the electric currents that were flowing from the reserves located near the outskirts of the village to continue to move into the circuits that had been built into her home. These reserves provided lights, heat and warm water to the people of Kokiri and were powered by the ore that came from deep within the mines that were found in Gerudo Tribe. The mechanics that hailed from Oocca helped build the technology that allowed this to exist.

Although Lin found the mechanics behind this to be fascinating, she knew her brain wasn't built to handle projects such as those. She did like to solve puzzles and help figure things out but she knew that even though she liked tackling things like that, she also knew that she couldn't be trusted to take on a big project such as that. She knew her limitations.

Once they both had entered the shed far enough, Lin turned around to close the door behind them. After that was done, she continued to lead her horse over to her stall where she let her enter. Lin removed the saddle from Epona's back and took the reins off of her head. She grabbed a brush that was located in a basket next to the horse's stall and used it to brush the dirt off of her trusted friend. She made a mental note to try and see if she could give the horse a bath tomorrow sometime as she was continuing to brush the dirt off while also making sure to keep her other hand that wasn't currently occupied with something touching Epona to keep her from getting spooked and accidentally hurt her.

As she brushed her horse, she found herself humming the song that her friend Malon had taught her. The redhead had said that Epona was fond of the song and when Lin was attempting to try to see if she could ride her the first time, Malon offered to teach it to her. Lin laughed as she remembered the look on her friend's face when she saw Epona come straight to her after singing it the first time. And now that Lin was singing the song again, Epona heard her and neighed in happiness.

After all the dirt was brushed off she placed the brush back in its original place. She ensured that her horse had enough feed in her trough to eat as well as enough water and patted her horse on the nose while closing the door to her stall. As Epona began eating the food, Lin started to head for the door that was next to the stall. She flipped the switch off located next to the door to turn off the lights in the shed and opened the door to allow herself into her home.

As she began walking into the main part of the building, she felt around on the wall next to the door to find the switch that turned on the lights there. Once her hand located it, she turned it to the on position. Now that the lights that were hanging overhead were activated, illuminating the room below, she was able to find where she needed to go.

She shut the door behind her and immediately began heading over to a small vanity that was to her left. On her way to that location, she pulled her bow off of her chest and detached the quiver from her belt. Once she reached the piece of furniture, she leaned the bow and quiver against it and then began working on removing the holster for her hunter's knife that was attached to her upper right thigh. With that done, she began removing the fingerless gloves she wore as well as the Gerudo bands of cloth that she had received during a trip to the Gerudo Tribe as a prize for winning their archery match a few years ago. She pulled off the blue top and white long-sleeved shirt she was wearing to reveal a white tank top underneath and a tattoo of the symbol of the Kokiri Tribe showing that she was a member of the hunters on her upper right arm near her shoulder.

After folding the two shirts neatly and placing them down onto the vanity next to the other items she removed, she began to use the mirror attached to it to examine her face. From what she could tell, Lin didn't see any cuts or scrapes that that she might have received from the metallic beast that attacked her. She was still curious as to why it attacked her in the first place though. At the same time, she knew she was also a little bit upset about the fact that the arrow that she had won as a prize during that match was gone before she could even examine it further. She didn't know what compelled her to use it during the confrontation, but nonetheless she was proud of the end result.

Lin continued to examine her face and upon turning her head to the right, she noticed the singed ends of her ponytail. At first she was a little confused as to what happened, but then she remembered the creature shooting a beam of blue light at her and feeling its heat nearly sear her as it shot by. She was a little bit annoyed by the sight as now this would require her to cut those hairs off, but she knew at the same time that she should also be thankful. That beam could've hit her directly and that would've been worse than just a few singed hairs. 'Kinda needed to trim my hair anyway…'

She looked back down at the vanity to see a cup that was filled with various pencils and other nick-knacks. Using the fingers on her left hand, she pushed the items inside it around until she found a pair of scissors. She grabbed them, moved herself into a position that allowed her to see that part of her head in the mirror and began to cut away the burnt hair.

Once all the singed hair was removed she took out the hair ties that were holding her hair back. She put the scissors back down onto the vanity and picked up a hairbrush that was sitting next to it and began to run it through her hair. After that was done, she sat down in a chair that sat next to it and removed her boots.

After setting her boots aside, she glanced over at the bathroom area that was across from her and then moved her eyes over to her bedroom that was over to her left. She debated for a few moments whether or not she should just head straight to bed now since she did have to get up in the morning or to take a bath first. Either option sounded great to her, but after the thought crossed through her mind about if she went to bed now she would have to sleep in the grime and filth she had gotten during her journey home, she decided that the bath was the best choice to take. 'I think I remembered to get some shampoo before I left… I hope anyway…'

~~

While wrapping a towel around her wet hair, Lin walked into her bedroom. She had shut off the lights to the other parts of her home already, so she made her way to her bed and switched on the lamp that was on her nightstand. The light coming from the lamp shone onto a book of Hylian legends that she had left sitting on the piece of furniture before she went to head to Oocca Town for the ceremony. The book told many different stories about the mythology and history surrounding Hyrule. Some of those stories in particular were about one of her favorite legends that she had loved since she was a child: the Hero of Time.

She didn't know exactly why he was her favorite, but for some reason she could relate to him more when compared to the other Heroes of legend. Like her, he grew up in a village named Kokiri, had a penchant for horses and held an affinity for archery. The other parts of his story she held no close connection to, but she always dreamed of going an adventure like his and experiencing different cultures.

Sure, she had done some of that since becoming a Kokiri Hunter, but at the same time it wasn't exactly like his story was told. None of the original creatures or cultures that the Hero of Time met existed anymore. They were wiped out during the Great War that occurred about 200 years ago. The only things that were left to remind people that they once existed were the ruins that lay where they once lived as well the names and traditions held by the current tribes in Hyrule that shared their namesakes.

Some examples she could think of that her own tribe of Kokiri possessed that could be linked back to the original one was the fact that both of their civilizations lived in a forest, the symbol that represented them and the Kokiri Hunters were the same, and the fact that the 'guardian' aka leader of their tribe was symbolized by a fairy. There were also a few ceremonies and traditions they celebrated during certain parts of the year that could be directly linked to them as well. And although she wasn't entirely sure about the other tribes of Hyrule, she knew from visiting them occasionally and from her friend Malon that they too had close similarities with their namesakes.

Lin smiled at a memory that came to her mind. Even though she found it sad as a child to hear from her parents that those people she had grown fond of in her stories were no longer around, when she would play pretend and act as the Hero of Time (and occasionally as a Zora), she would imagine encountering those people.

The smile on Lin's face disappeared as another thought came to her. There was another reason why she would pretend to be her idol. She lifted her left hand to waist level and looked down at it.

They shared the same birthmark.

She took her right hand and held her left one while rubbing her thumb over the symbol that looked like three triangles that came together to form a bigger one. She had bore this birthmark ever since she was born and was told by her parents to always hide it and to never tell anyone that it was there.

At first she was confused at this and then one day when she was reading one of the stories that was found in the same book sitting on her nightstand, she found a passage that she had not seen before that told that the Hero of Time was also the Juror of Courage. That title meant that he was a wielder of one of the pieces of the Triforce, more specifically the Courage piece.

The same passage also mentioned two others that bore the titles of the Keeper of Knowledge and the Forger of Strength. Those individuals possessed the Triforce pieces of Wisdom and Power respectively. Those pieces connected the three individuals together and to show that they bore the pieces of the powerful relic, they each had a birthmark resembling the Triforce that could be found on the back of their dominant hands.

It was after that revelation that her parents simply told her that her destiny was a great one and to keep it hidden. As a child, she never bothered to question her parents further on what they meant by 'her destiny was a great one' and now that she was older and her parents were no longer with her, she regretted that she never pressed them more on the issue. The only hint she had to what they were referring to was the story found in the book and even then she was more confused.

How would she have gained a piece of the Triforce in the first place? She obviously wasn't the Hero, as all of his incarnations including her favorite one was a male. And as far as she knew, the Wisdom piece, according to the stories, was in the hands of the Royal Family and she knew for a fact that she had no relation or connection to them. The only one left was Power, and according to what she heard about a later incarnation of the Hero was that Ganondorf, the man who previously wielded the piece, had died in a battle with him.

But there couldn't be a reason why she would be wielding that piece (if it was even that). She definitely knew that she was far from being a powerful person and the pieces the wielders held were supposed to represent them.

She sighed as she lowered her hands and moved to climb into her bed to go to sleep. She was hoping to probably come across some answers while in Oocca since she going to actually see the Royal Family, but that never came to fruition. She pulled the towel off of her hair and threw it towards the clothes hamper found near her bed. She frowned when it missed, but she shrugged since she didn't feel like getting back up out of her bed to grab it and put it in its proper place. She'd get it in the morning.

After that, she went to turn off the light on her nightstand and pull the covers over her while simultaneously moving to lay down in her bed. 'Maybe one day I will figure out what the symbol means and what my destiny is supposed to be.'

And with that thought drifting through her mind, Lin closed her eyes and with the combination of her feeling tired out from her journey and the comfortableness of her mattress she soon fell asleep.

~~

The sound of a cucco crowing in the distance reached Lin's ears as she laid in her bed. She groaned in irritation as she really didn't want to get out of her warm bed. Unfortunately though she knew she had to. Lin really wished that Navi had went ahead and let her take her vacation now instead of later. She was looking forward to having it when she was headed home yesterday.

But nothing could be done about it now so Lin decided to drag herself out of her bed otherwise she'd just end up falling asleep again and be late for her job. And even though Navi would probably be a bit understanding, seeing as she just got back from traveling, there was a small chance that she wouldn't. Navi did try to be fair and understanding to people, but when she told someone that a job needed to be done, she expected it to happen. A line had to be drawn somewhere.

As Lin pulled herself out of bed, she stretched to fully wake herself up and threw the blankets off of her. She moved to the edge of her bed and put her feet on the ground, hissing slightly at the cool floor touching her feet suddenly. She rubbed her eyes with her hands in an attempt to get the sleep out of them. While stretching one more time to help wake herself up more, she stood up off her bed and began to walk to her dresser than to grab a fresh set of clothes to wear.

Once there, she first grabbed some bindings that she had setting on top of her dresser. She wrapped them around her chest and after ensuring that it was secured properly, went to put on the fresh clothes that she had retrieved from the dresser drawers. After all of those were on, she exited her room and headed to the vanity to grab the hair ties that were left there and used them to pull her hair back. Then she grabbed her boots and sat down to put them on her feet. With that done, she moved on to the weapons she needed for the day and began to strap them to their usual positions on her body.

Once she was adequately dressed for a day of hunting, she headed to her small kitchen to grab some breakfast to eat before she headed to where the rest of the hunters would be meeting up before today's hunt would begin.

~~

When Lin arrived near the building where the Kokiri Hunters' brought the game they had hunted and subsequently stored the meat from them, the first thing she saw was Talo who was attempting to get the hunters grouped properly into teams that would take different areas of the forest to hunt. Even though she was a good distance away, she could tell that he was having difficulties doing this task and from what she could see, she could understand why Navi believed that he wasn't quite cut out for leadership just yet.

She sighed. No wonder Navi held off on her vacation.

As she got closer to the group, a few of the hunters saw her and began to give her their greetings; a few of them even showed looks of relief on their faces. Apparently those individuals had noticed the same things that the Cheiftess had too.

“Ah, Captain Lin, you're back!”

Once those words were spoken, everyone who was assembled turned to look at her as she approached.  Nearly the entire group of hunters immediately swarmed her, most of whom were asking her questions regarding Oocca Town and the castle. She tried to quickly answer their inquiries, but at the same time she tried to get their attention back onto the task at hand. After she succeeded at that, she managed to detangle herself from the crowd and went to stand by Talo who bore a disgruntled look on his face. At her arrival though, he quickly wiped the expression from his face and replaced it with a look of happiness.

“Nice to see you again, Captain!”

Lin nodded at him in response. “Hello, Talo!” Immediately afterward, she began to do damage control to help get everything in order, but she wanted to do it in a way where the man before her wouldn't feel like he was inadequate at the job he had temporarily taken. “Thanks for your help, Talo. I do appreciate it. I'll take it from here though. You can take a break from the leadership role now.”

Although she knew she had worded what needed to be said in the nicest way possible, she could tell that he was still a bit irritated. To his credit though, he didn't show it. “Your welcome, Captain. Nice to see you back.” He then went to move to stand with the other Kokiri Hunters who were now looking at her for guidance for today's hunt.

Lin took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. Bringing her right hand up to chin in a thinking pose, she looked at the crowd of hunters standing before her and used them as a visual reference in order to form groups that would work efficiently together. It took her a few minutes to properly figure out how the groups should work, but eventually she was able to work out a proper solution. She smiled at her success. Yes, this would work.

With a look of authority shown on her face, she brought her right hand back down to rest against her side. She began to give her orders. “Talo,” He looked up at her with a look of questioning. “I want you to take Bo and Hanch with you to hunt in the south western portion of the forest.”

She watched as Talo nodded at her words and quickly gathered the two hunters she had mentioned in order to be ready to move out when she gave the word. Lin turned her attention to the next group leader. “Eagus! You, Parrow and Stritch will be grouped together in this hunt and I want you guys to head to the direct south portion of the forest.”

“Yes, Captain!” Although Eagus was not that high up in the rankings, he did show promise for being able to move up in the ranks. His skills, natural leadership and attention to detail were good examples of this and it was one of the reasons why Lin chose him to lead one of the groups. She smiled at his eagerness for the task ahead and as he moved to join with his group.

Now it was time for the last group. She would be the leader of this one and the two she chose to join her were two hunters that she found that she worked better with in terms of speed and efficiency. The same could be said about the previous two groups as well. With how she grouped them all together, it was practically guaranteeing that each group would bring back enough game to prepare and store for the winter season.

“The last group for today's hunt will consist of me, Beth and Gully. We will take the southeastern part of the forest.” The two hunters she had mentioned nodded their consent and waited for her to continue speaking. “Everyone stick close to your group and watch each others' backs! You all know how dangerous the forest can be and I would hate to find out that one of you were hurt out there. And lastly, regardless of how much hunting you've done or attempting to do, head back to the village when the sun is nearing the line of trees towards the north. The forest gets especially dangerous at night and we all need to be home before then. All of you guys hear me?”

Lin saw all of the hunters nod at her in understanding. “Yes, Captain!” She nodded in response. “All right then, now that everyone knows their orders, move out!”

The groups she had mentioned began forming together and after discussing a few things, they hurriedly moved on to do the duties that were designated for them. Beth and Gully, the two she had said would come with her, started to head towards her direction in order to get ready to set off for the southeastern portion of the woods.

Before they could get that far though, a voice suddenly cut in, giving them all a start as none of them were expecting it. “HEY! WAIT UP!”

Lin grimaced instantly as she recognized the owner of said voice. Hopefully he wasn't there to flirt this morning. It was way too early to deal with that…

As she turned her head, she saw none other than Mido standing next to her, leaned over trying to catch his breath. Did he run all the way here from his night watch post? “Mido, what are you doing here? Your shift ended this morning.”

Holding up one finger to tell her to 'hold on a minute', Mido slowly breathed the air back into his lungs. Once he finally managed to get his body back in a relaxed state, he leaned back up into a standing position to look at Lin. “Hey, Captain! I was wondering if you needed an extra hunter today. I just got off of my regular duties so I'm available to help.”

Lin was honestly surprised to hear those words pass through his lips instead of his usual flirting routine with her, but at the same time she knew she couldn't be entirely surprised. Although the regular conversations with her tended to be geared towards those kinds of interactions, she did know based on conversations she had with him and other hunters was that he was very dedicated to his job and wanted to do nothing less than the best at it. That was something she could appreciate.

However, she looked at the bags underneath his eyes, she knew that he had to be dead tired. Especially since he did just say that he got off of a night shift, not to mention she knew this for a fact herself since she did run into him on her way back in. He would be better off at his home getting well rested up for his next shift which was tonight if her memory served her correctly. As much as she appreciated his volunteering effort, she knew where he needed to be most.

“I do appreciate the offer though, Mido, but honestly you look like your exhausted and knowing that you're supposed to be doing another night shift tonight it would be best for you to hold off on hunting today.” She frowned to help give emphasis on why she thought this would be a bad idea for him.

Unfortunately he was still stubborn about the idea. “I know I've got another night shift tonight, but I know Kokiri still needs to store up some more meat for the winter for ourselves and for other tribes and I want to help in any way I can.”

Lin sighed. She could see she would have be direct with him. “Mido. I do understand why you want to help. I get it, but for today the best way for you to help would be to go home and get some rest for tonight's shift.” She smiled then at the next sentence she spoke to show the sincerity in her words. “I'll be sure though to put in for you to get some hunting time in next week though, I promise. We need to do some rotation anyway and get some of our nightwatchmen in here to help out with the hunting effort.”

She could see the disappointment on his face, but she could also see that her words finally got to him. “Alright then. I'll see to it that I'll do well in next week's hunt. You can count on it!”

The two nodded to each other and Mido began to walk towards the direction his home was found in. Lin then turned to head towards the two that were in her group. But before she could get too far though, she heard Mido yell back to her. “Good luck, beautiful!”

Lin flinched and felt her face grow hot at his words. There was no telling what her face looked like but she could only guess that it looked red especially when she saw Gully and Beth trying to stifle their laughs from what just happened. She growled lowly as she quickly got control of herself and began heading towards the forest with her two teammates in tow who managed to get their laughter under control too.

He just had to get the last word in, didn't he?

~~

Lin, Gully, and Beth quietly made their way through the trees. They had been on the trail of a group of deer for a little while now and they were hoping that they would soon make contact with them. The three lithely made their way towards to the direction they had seen the tracks heading.

They had only traveled a little bit further when Beth suddenly pointed and whispered, “Look!”

Sure enough when Beth's two companions looked in the direction she was gesturing to, they saw the deer they had been searching for some time now. Lin smiled in triumph at the sight. She quickly motioned to Gully and Beth to silently move into positions that would allow for them to gain a good vantage point on their prey.

She watched the two hunters spread out and hide within the tall grasses growing from the ground. After looking at them for a few more moments to see them bringing out their bows and readying them for releasing arrows, she began to do the same for her own bow.

As quietly as she could she drew an arrow from the quiver attached to her waist and knocked it into the string of her bow. Taking a slow, deep breath she drew the arrow back and aimed for the deer that was closest to her. She stayed quiet for a few moments more in order to ensure that none of the deer had heard either her or her companions. Once she felt that she had a good hit, she was about to release her arrow when suddenly all of the deer looked up in alarm and bolted away from them.

Confused, Lin lowered her bow and let the string grow slack in her hands. What just happened? She looked over in the direction where Beth and Gully were to see them looking at her with the same bewildering expressions. Now she was even more confused. If none of them had made a sound, then what had -?

Her question was soon answered though for suddenly a loud noise boomed before them, catching the attention of all three of them. They all looked in the direction where the noise emanated from, and as soon as the creature that made the noise appeared in their line of sight, Lin's eyes widened.

'You've got to be kidding me…!'

Sure enough, it was another one of those creatures that had attacked her yesterday when she was in Hyrule Field. She had thought that one was the only one, but apparently that wasn't the case seeing as there was now another one standing before them.

Lin saw its head quickly spin around like it was searching the forest for something. She felt her stomach turn to lead. It wasn't her it was trying to find, was it? She was thinking about the theory she had about the previous one that attacked her. She prayed that wasn't the case.

“What is that thing?” Lin heard Beth whisper in shock. Apparently this was her first time seeing one of these things which also helped confirm Lin's suspicions that none of these had been seen before.

Suddenly she heard the creature's head spin violently towards the direction where Beth was hiding. Both Lin and Beth's eyes widened in fear. It had heard her. Lin's eyes widened even more when she saw its central eye began glowing blue.

She gasped as she quickly returned her arrow to her quiver and began bolting towards Beth. There was no time for hesitation especially if it was about to do what she thought it was. Once she drew closer to the hunter she launched her body at her using the momentum her body had gained during her run to knock her out of the way. Lin felt the familiar feeling of the beam's heat as it passed by them.

The two hunters tumbled to the ground and once they regained their bearings, Beth turned to her. “What was that for?” But before Lin could respond, she heard Beth gasp as the girl looked to where she was just sitting at. Lin turned to follow her gaze and her eyes widened again.

Sitting in the place Beth was just at was a scorch mark. Lin suddenly felt nauseous. If she hadn't gotten to her in time…

Suddenly her attention was drawn away from the scorched ground to Gully as she heard him yell out, “RUN!”

Lin looked away from the other hunter to glance back at the creature and saw that it was now heading straight in their direction. Lin quickly jumped to her feet and grabbed Beth's hand to pick her up off the ground to get her moving. The three hunters began running as fast as they could from the creature. Every so often she could hear the beams being shot from the monster in an effort to stop them.

As they continued to run, a thought suddenly occurred to her. They couldn't lead the creature to the village. She hated to imagine what would happen if they led it there. That only left one option then. She glanced back at the creature to see it continue to barrel after them. It was getting closer.

As she was running, she quickly grabbed an arrow out of her quiver and placed into the hand that was holding her bow. After that she went to grab into the small bag she had brought with her to grasp the small bombs that she usually carried with her. While quickly coming up with an idea in her head she yelled to the other hunters to take shelter which the quickly complied with by hiding behind a couple of nearby trees.

With the monster swiftly gaining ground, she stopped running and quickly grabbed a small bit of rope from the same bag that held the bombs and used it to tie the arrow and bomb together. Then just as she finished tying them, she turned to see the robot nearly upon her. Then as if in slow motion, she pulled the string attached to the bomb, lighting it, and drew the bomb arrow into her bow to launch it.

She could vaguely hear Beth and Gully's cries of fear for her safety as she saw the creature draw even closer. She knew that since she didn't have Epona with her, she couldn't gain the vantage point she needed to ensure that she would get a direct it, so she had to make it count. She waited until the last possible moment and when she saw a good opening, she released the arrow.

An explosion rang out upon the bomb's contact with the creature and Lin used the monster's brief lull in attacking to quickly roll under it to allow her to move behind it. She quickly prepared another bomb arrow and before it had a chance to turn around to confront her, she released it to the back of it's head. That explosion caused the being to fall to the ground.

Lin smiled as she heard her two companions' cheers. Looks like she got it. Her smile quickly turned into a frown though when she saw the monster get back up again and turn its head to look back at her. She could tell that based on its actions that now its attention was fully focused on her. Well that's just great…

She moved to prepare another bomb arrow, but before she got another chance, the creature began firing beams at her forcing her to move and not giving her enough time to finish preparing. With every attack it gave, it was forcing her to back away and she was losing ground quickly. It was then that she realized that it was trying to draw her away from her comrades.

Speaking of them, she could hear them calling out her name and she could see that they were readying their own bows to attack said creature and help get the attention off of her. But apparently the monster had realized this and quickly used its beams to cut the two off from her completely by utilizing them to create flames that blocked their access.

Once the creature had done this, it turned its attention back on Lin and began charging towards her while firing more beams. Her eyes widened in fear and she did the only thing she could do at that point.

She ran.

~~

Sheik opened his eyes to see the sunlight filtering through the tree's branches above him. He grimaced as he began to rub the sleep out of his eyes. How long had he been asleep for? Was he that tired? Well, considering that he had been traveling most of the day yesterday, it was understandable for him to be exhausted.

He sighed. Regardless of that though, he knew he needed to get up. He still had a charge to find. He stretched his arms up high above his head to work the kinks out of his muscles that had formed overnight and after that he moved to stand up on the thick branch he had fallen asleep on. Once he was standing, he went to adjust the scarf that hung around his neck to cover his mouth, but found himself drawn away from finishing the action when he suddenly heard a shrill noise come from behind him.

He quickly jerked his head towards the direction the noise came from to see a blue beam, not unlike the one he saw come from that strange creature that had attacked that woman yesterday, heading straight for him. His eyes widened when he saw it, but luckily thanks to the instincts he had drilled into him by his aunt, he quickly jumped off of the branch he was standing onto another one just as the beam made contact with it.

Well, if I was tired before, that certainly woke me up… He found himself thinking as he landed lithely onto a branch that was connected to a different tree located near the other one.

Sheik turned his red eyes over towards the direction the beam had emanated from. Was another one of those creatures in the forest? Soon enough he got his answer for he saw one of them appear through the den of trees and from what it looked like, it seemed as if it were chasing something. He looked down before it to see that it was the same woman he saw yesterday being chased by the metallic monster.

His eyes widened in surprise as he took in the sight. Were these things chasing her? Why? He had to admit it was suspicious since he had already seen one of them barreling after her the day before and now there was another one doing the same. What did they want from her?

He didn't have long to think on this for he saw the woman turn around to face the creature and try desperately in an attempt to fend it off and while she was doing well for being on foot, she obviously wasn't having the same luck as last time. He grimaced in empathy with her pain as he watched the monster block the attacks she made and then when it saw an opening in her defenses, it threw one of its arms at her and knocked her violently into a tree. After that she didn't make a move as the being began heading towards her again.

He knew then he had to make a move. His aunt's words whispered in his mind about not interfering, but just like yesterday when he nearly jumped in to help her that time, he knew that it would not sit well with him if he just sat there and watched her die when he could have very well prevented it.

After quickly putting on scarf over his mouth, he utilized his speed and agility and leapt from the branch he was standing on to begin running towards her. Then using his magical prowess, he began gathering the shadows found all around the forest to come to him. He had only one shot to make this work.

~~

Lin felt pain radiate throughout her body when she made contact with the tree trunk. She was quite tempted to stay lying there on the ground, but her mind was screaming at her to get up otherwise she'd be killed by the metallic beast.

Slowly but surely, she began to force herself up off the ground, but apparently she wasn't moving fast enough. When she moved her head to look up at the creature that was now practically standing over her, she saw one of its claws reaching for her, getting ready to grab her. Her eyes widened in fear as she tried to force her legs to move and dart out of the way, but the pain was still coursing through her. The adrenaline pumping through her veins was helping to ebb out some of it, but it hadn't gotten rid of it all.

The claw grew closer to her even more until it was nearly touching her. But before it got too close, suddenly Lin saw a strange man move in front of her and conjure up a dark shield that protected them both from the metallic appendage. She gasped in a mixture of both fear and surprise at the sight, but at the same time she was relieved that she was safe for the moment.

Sheik held the shield that he formed out of shadows against the claw that was reaching for the woman. He knew it couldn't hold it back for long so he quickly began making the shield bigger by drawing in more shadows into it. He didn't see the woman's face to see that she was surprised and fascinated by the action, he was too focused on the task at hand.

Once the shadows had gathered enough, with one fluid motion, he sent the shadows flying towards the metallic creature causing it to be sent back by a few feet which made it lose its footing and fall to the ground. Lin's eyes widened as she watched the feat being performed before her. Was what he was doing magic? Just who was this guy?

Lin's breath hitched as she saw him suddenly turn his stare to look back at her. She was momentarily stunned by the color of it. She had never seen red as an eye color before. Then she heard him speak. “You alright?”

It took a few seconds for Lin to register that he was talking to her, but once she got over that she nodded in response. “Yeah.” She shifted her body weight onto her knees and began to slowly pick herself up off  the ground. The pain was beginning to go away now, but she knew once the adrenaline wore off, she wouldn't be able to move for a while.

Sheik watched as she moved to stand up on her feet. Good, at least she wasn't hurt too badly. He turned his attention back to the creature that was now forcing itself back onto its legs. He was sure that if it could show emotion, it would probably be cursing him right now.

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding and turned to glance back at the woman. “Do you know why this thing is attacking you?”

Lin shook her head. His guess was as good as hers. “Honestly, I have no idea.” She frowned in irritation as she thought about the one that attacked her on her way home. “I was hoping the one from yesterday would be the last I'd ever see of these things.”

Sheik narrowed his eyes as he thought of the incident she was referring to. He turned back to the creature, who was now fully back on his legs, and mentally went over what he remembered from the last encounter she had with the creature. He grabbed a few kunai from one of his pouches attached to his legs and moved into a fighting position. “The weak point is the eye, correct?”

A surprised look formed on Lin's face. How did he know that? “Yeah… it can be hit in the eye and be destroyed, but… how did you know that?”

Sheik knew he probably shouldn't make it seem as if he were stalking her (which technically he was, in that he was using her to try and find his charge, but that was besides the point), but he also knew that he needed to be honest about the fact that he did come across the battle she had the previous day. “Let's just say that I happened to come across your encounter with the same creature the other day when I was journeying. I saw that you attacked it directly in its eye so naturally I assume this one will fall the same way.”

She didn't hear him hesitate in his answer so it seemed to her like he was telling the truth, but at the same time she knew she needed to be careful. She didn't know him well enough to trust him, but…

She looked at the creature to see it now charging straight towards them. ...Currently it looked like she had no choice but to do just that.

“We need to move, now!”

Lin pulled herself out of her thoughts when she heard the man's words and allowed her instincts to guide her. Both her and the mysterious guy narrowly leapt out of the way of the oncoming monster in opposite directions and then began focusing on making attacks that would hit what they both believed was its weak point. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver to set it in her bow and kept it at the ready just in case an opening came about.

Sheik was doing the same with his kunai. He held a small assortment of them in the grasp of his fingers in his right hand ready to fly when the opportunity presented itself. At the same time though, he was using his left hand to move his hair out of the way of his left eye to allow him to see if the lens of truth could see any other potential weaknesses the creature might have (while simultaneously making sure the woman didn't catch sight of the marking on his eye).

The creature reeled back from its charge to turn back around to attack the targets it had missed. Using his magical eye, he attempted to search the monster only to see nothing that looked like a vital weakness to him. He cursed in the ancient Sheikah language at his misfortune at finding anything. He let go of his hair and grabbed some more kunai with his free hand out of another pouch. Looks like they'd have to work on what information they already had.

A beam shot out from eye of the monster towards Sheik and as quickly as it headed for him, he flipped out of its path. In retaliation, while he was still in the air from the flip, he threw the weapons he held in his right hand towards it's eye and watched as they hit the intended target. He smirked under his scarf as he could see that he got a direct hit. But soon after his feet hit the ground after landing from his acrobatic feat, he frowned as he realized that even though they hit the target dead on, it caused no effect on the creature. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Lin saw his attack and was glad to see it hit the creature's eye, but just like he realized, she saw that it didn't faze the being. But he hit it… so why didn't it do anything? She didn't have time to ponder this long for the creature began to retaliate against the attack Sheik had made against it.

It swung its arms towards the man in an attempt to do what it had done to Lin earlier, but he was able to use his natural agility to easily dodge the maneuvers. However the swift attacks that were being directed towards him wasn't giving him an open shot at attacking the weak point. Lin knew it was her turn to try something now.

Pulling the arrow back that she had already knocked into her bow moments before, she looked for an opening. While running towards one of the creature's presumed blind spots, she waited for one to appear and when it did, she aimed and let the arrow fly. Once again she saw it hit the target as intended, but unfortunately like before it didn't do anything.

She frowned and quickly pulled another arrow out of her quiver to prepare another attack before the creature could respond since now its attention was on her. Sheik, seeing an opening, gathered as many shadows as he could in his hand and like he did before when he was protecting her, threw his hand out to send them towards the metallic beast's legs in an effort to once more knock it off of its feet.

It worked just as he had planned and once the creature was down, Sheik quickly ran towards the creature and launched himself on top of it, moving towards the part where the eye was located. He unsheathed his tanto sword from the scabbard located on the back of his waist and with one smooth motion went to drive it into the creature's eye...only for it to bounce back from being unable to break through its metallic armor.

Sheik glared at the creature in irritation. Now what?

He didn't have long to debate what to do next, for the eye began glowing and he quickly leapt off of the creature and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he began running towards the woman. Lin was surprised to see him headed her direction, but she soon understood why as the creature had turned its head and was aiming right at her.

Eyes widening, she went to move her feet, but the man was much faster at reacting than she was for once he reached her, he grabbed the wrist portion of the hand that wasn't holding her bow and pulled her into the den of trees located behind her. She heard the loud shrill of the beam sound as it seared past them.

The two were hiding behind a large tree trunk trying to catch their breaths at what nearly occurred back there. Lin was confused at what was happening with the monster. Why wasn't anything working? They both directly hit their marks, even the man next to her stabbed the thing in its eye, but nothing made the creature stop. Was it invincible?

No, it couldn't be. She thought back to the day before when she fought against the other one that attacked her. She was able to destroy it, however she used something else different from what they both were using. It was that arrow. She didn't know exactly what the arrow did to make it explode, but it worked against it. But, she groaned out loud, she didn't have another one. The one she used yesterday was the only one in her possession. Now she really wished she had it back again…

“Why isn't anything working? This is ridiculous!” Lin turned to look at the man standing next to her. She could tell by both the look on his face and the tone of his statement that he was feeling just as mad as her about the situation. And from what foreign words he kept muttering under his breath also helped emphasize that he was not happy. She saw him turn his eye on her with a questioning look. “What did you yesterday that was different? How did you destroy it?”

“Don't you remember since you saw it happen too?” She was still a little annoyed about the fact that he had been apparently following her, but at the same time she knew that she had to let that go. He hadn't done anything to prove that he was out to get her yet. She revealed what she remembered. “The only thing I can think of is the arrow that I used against it. You know the one that glowed?”

She saw his eye narrow in thought. “That one? Was that a type of magic that made it do that?”

She shook her head. “No, its a type of technology that one of the tribes here have built. Anyway, regardless of that, when I used that against it, it destroyed it instantly. Somehow that object worked against it and it may be the only thing that can since none of our weapons seem to work.”

Sheik nodded at this. He looked back at her. “Do you have another one of those things?”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, no. The one I had I got in a place far away from here. They're too expensive to buy in bulk.”

He sighed and closed his eyes in irritation. “So basically you're saying we're screwed.”

She had to chuckle at that statement. “In a way, yes. Unless we can find another way to stop it.”

He opened his eyes. “I'm not sure what we can use against it. As you saw we've done tried everything.” He turned his head quickly when he heard the creature nearing their location. “And we're running out of time to find out a proper solution.”

Lin turned her head to look around the tree trunk to get a better view of the creature that was currently desperately searching for them. She turned her head back around and groaned. What could they do? Just as he said they'd done tried everything in their arsenal. Besides making a beeline for Oocca Town, which was definitely not going to happen, to get one of those arrows, there was nothing they could do. She tried to come up with an idea that they could use, but she was drawing a blank.

“MOVE!”

She immediately jumped when she heard his voice cry out suddenly. She was about to ask him why he said that, when she heard the sound of metallic arms moving. As fast as she could she rolled away from the tree (he did the same in opposite direction) just as one of the arms made contact with the tree trunk, causing it to splinter into pieces from the blow.

She quickly moved to stand up on her feet and ran to seek shelter behind another tree. She grabbed another arrow from her quiver (she lost the last one after he had grabbed her earlier to make her move) to knock into her bow and glanced into her bag to see if there was anything she could use. When she saw one more bomb leftover in there from her earlier assault on the beast, she momentarily thought to use those, but then she remembered on both occasions that those didn't work. Cursing in anger, she turned her head to see where the creature was in order to try and make another shot. When she finally turned around though, her eyes widened at what she saw.

The creature had the man cornered and was attempting to attack him, but he had put a shield up to protect him from the assault. That shield wasn't going to hold up for long though, she knew. She moved out of her hiding spot.

Sheik silently cursed his luck. Just moments after he had called out a warning to the woman, he barely dodged the attack the metallic beast had made at them both. He was trying to make an attempt to hide like the woman who was with him to try and see if he could find an opening and attack. Although he knew that any attempt he would make would fail, he also knew that he had to do something. During his attempt though, the creature caught up to him and began to try and assault him with its arms. He managed to dodge most of the attacks, but they were coming so fast that he ultimately had no choice but to form a shield over him. Then as he expected, it began to bash its claws against the shield in an attempt to break it and it took everything he had to try and keep his focus on keeping it in one piece.

He knew that wasn't going to work for long though. He could feel the strain of keeping it up slowly get to him and with the creature bashing against it definitely wasn't helping any. He could feel it slowly begin to crack and it was only a matter of time before it either broke or he passed out from keeping it up too long under the pressure. But he had to keep holding it together.

Even though Lin knew the bomb wasn't going to work, she went ahead and attached it to the end of her arrow. She had to gets its attention off of the man in order to give him a chance to break away from it. She pulled the string at the end of the bomb, lighting it, and shot it at the back of the creature's head.

While it did get is attention, how it did wasn't what Lin was hoping. Instead of turning away from him and giving him a moment to collect himself, the beast simply turned its head back around at her and fired another beam. She barely had time to dodge it and the flames that formed from it hitting the ground before her kept her from getting any closer to either it or the man.

She watched as the creature turned its head back towards the man and continued its barrage on the shield which she could see was very close to its breaking point. She quickly grabbed her bag to see if there was anything left in there to use, but she already knew there wasn't. That bomb she just used was the last one. Now what was she going to do?

Suddenly she heard the sound of a loud cracking noise and jerked her head up towards the direction it came from. She gasped as she saw the creature had successfully breached the man's shield and now he was lying on the ground, not moving. She feared the worst.

Instinctively she made to grab for another arrow and even though she knew it wasn't going to have an effect on the creature, she had to do something to prevent it from killing the man. Regardless of who he was or the fact that he had apparently been following her, he had saved her life. She had to do her best to not let him lose his.

She watched as the beast moved to bring is claw down onto the incapacitated man in an attempt to finish him off. Lin pulled the arrow back and aimed in a last desperate attempt to catch the creature's attention. Just as she was about to release the weapon, she felt a strange warm feeling grow on the back of her left hand. She was confused at why she was feeling that and her confusion only grew more when she suddenly saw a bright, golden light appear at the pointed end of the arrow. Her eyes widened. What was going on?

Apparently it wasn't just her who noticed this occurrence. When she managed to break her attention away from the glowing arrow, she saw that the creature had stopped short of assaulting the man and was now staring right at her. Although she wasn't sure what was going on, at least it succeeded at getting the beast's attention away from him.

Sheik slowly opened up his eyes and winced as he felt his head ache suddenly. He was momentarily confused as to why he was lying on the ground when he remembered seeing his shield break before him and the sudden shattering of it caused him to lose consciousness. At the thought of the shield though, he suddenly realized where he was and was about to get up to move when he noticed the creature standing before him. He was expecting it to attack him, but he was confused to see that its attention was not on him, but on something behind him.

He followed its line of sight and his eyes widened as he took in the spectacle before him. There was the woman holding her bow up with an arrow drawn back ready to fire. But the part that surprised and interested him the most was the fact that the arrow was glowing a bright golden color. His heart dropped suddenly as a thought came to him. It couldn't be…

He moved his hand to lift up the hair covering his left eye and his mouth dropped open at the amount of magic his eye was picking up. And the magic was a golden color, a golden color that was the same as what he had read about in his lessons about the legends of Hyrule. He silently gasped as he began to realize who this woman might be.

He didn't get a chance to further his thoughts because he felt the ground shake beneath him when the monster began to charge at the woman. He let go of his hair and tried to get back up on his feet in order to try and stop it especially since now he had a hunch of who she was, although his mind was still reeling from the notion, but he couldn't get up in time. Instead he watched as she released the arrow towards the weak point of the creature and just as he saw last time, once the arrow made contact, it began to shake and sputter before finally exploding in front of them.

He moved his arm to shield his eyes from the brightness of the explosion and when he put it back down  he saw the woman kneeling on the ground trying to catch her breath. He saw the pieces that the creature left behind scattered on the forest ground before them and was shocked to see that what she had done had worked as well as that arrow she had mentioned. His eyes narrowed though. He began to move to pick himself up off the ground. He needed answers.

Lin could feel her head spinning. She was sitting on her knees, hands holding her up off the ground, as she attempted to catch her breath and try not to throw up. What did she just do? She had never done anything like that before…

Although her head was spinning, she managed to glance over at the back of her left hand to where the symbol would be located at if it weren't covered up by her arm guard. Was what she did proof that she did indeed possess a piece of the Triforce? And if that was proof that she was a wielder that still left her with more questions.

She closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to stop the dizziness from making her pass out. Whatever she had done had certainly taken a lot out of her. If this was how it felt for her to draw on what she presumed to be the power of the Triforce, she didn't want to do that anymore.

“What was that?”

Careful not to move her head too suddenly and make her head spin even more, she slowly looked up where she saw the man standing over her. It was then at that moment that she finally took a chance to give him a look over. The battle between them and the creature didn't give her chance to really see what her savior looked like.

The first thing she noticed, other than his ruby-colored eye, was the blonde hair he had sticking out from underneath the weird looking hat he was wearing on his head. Part of his hair was hiding his left eye and he wore a scarf that covered his mouth and part of his nose. And the clothing he had covering his body looked like that of body armor which she found kind of strange. The last thing though that caught her eye was that of a red eye-shaped symbol with a teardrop attached to it that he bore on his chest. It looked familiar to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she had seen it.

It took her a few moments to rack her brain for an answer, but she when she realized what it was, her eyes widened. It couldn't be, they were supposed to be extinct right? But here was one standing right in front of her… “You're… you're a Sheikah!”

His one eye seemed to narrow at her statement, but instead of saying anything mean towards her, he instead leaned down onto one knee in order to be at her eye level. “You're avoiding my question: What did you do?”

She felt her head spin slightly again and moved her left hand up to her forehead to try and steady it and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. “Honestly, I have no clue, but whatever it was knocked the mess out of me!”

Sheik studied the woman closely as his mind began to try and figure out she could be who he was looking for. His eyes then moved to the hand that she had currently touching her forehead. There was one way to find out if she was who he suspected. “I know that this may seem like a strange request, but,” He saw her open her eyes, which he now noticed were blue, to look at him. “may I see your left hand?”

He saw her tense at his question which made him wonder if she knew what he may be asking. His brow furrowed together at the thought of perhaps she was lying about her earlier statement of knowing what she did to the creature, but at the same time, he could also tell that by how her body was reacting to using that powerful form of magic that it wasn't used to it. That helped quell that thought and made him realize that she was speaking the truth. Perhaps she knew about the symbol but didn't understand its significance? Either way, he needed to know what what behind her arm guard.

Lin couldn't lie, she was a little afraid of what he asked of her. It had been drilled into her by her parents before their deaths, that she shouldn't show her mark to anyone, especially strangers, since it could put her in danger. ...But, as she looked at him some more, she knew that he had saved her life and for some reason she didn't feel as if she should fear him. And, she glanced back at the symbol on his chest, if he was a Sheikah, maybe, just maybe, he could give her some answers regarding why she had it. They were said to be quite knowledgeable on Hylian lore.

Against her better judgment, she made her decision. She slowly moved her left hand away from her head, which now luckily stopped spinning so much, but it was still there somewhat, and moved to hold it before the man. She watched as he reached out with his own hands to grab it and slowly unlatch the cuffs that held the arm guard tightly to her arm. She held her breath as the guard was being pulled off of her hand. Even though she knew what lay underneath it, she was worried to see what his reaction might be to him seeing it.

Once the guard was fully removed from her hand, the symbol of the ancient relic of Hyrule was easily able to be seen by the both of them. She went to look at him to gauge his expression. If the situation weren't so serious she was sure that she would have laughed at his face for she saw his eyes widen and could tell (although his face was mostly covered) that he was gaping at what he saw before him. But what she heard him say next though surprised her as much as he was surprised to see the mark.

“You've got to be kidding me!”

~~

His blue orbs eyed the mug of booze before him. He growled in anger and quickly downed the alcohol until it was completely gone. He wiped his mouth with his forearm to get rid of some of the drink that had manged to dribble out of his mouth. The glass hit the table before him with a loud thud.

How dare that woman kick him out of his favorite bar! He had been a loyal patron for years and now he's no longer allowed to frequent it due to one lousy remark he made towards one of the people there. The nerve of that, that -! He cursed under his breath.

Now instead of being able to get his usual drink that was prepared for him special down there, he was forced to make it on his own. Although he knew he couldn't complain much on that end since he did have the money to obtain the means to get someone who was able to make good alcohol to drink, it was still the principle of the thing. He also knew that with his power and influence he could easily have the bar shut down, but he also knew that people who knew the owners of it would retaliate against him and that was something that wasn't worth the hassle.

He stood up from the table and stumbled over to the bed he had nearby. He could feel the effects of the alcohol hitting him, making him feel drowsy. But during the process of him maneuvering himself onto the mattress, he saw an object in his room begin to glow suddenly. Although the alcohol was dulling his senses, his eyes widened as he recognized the object. It was something that an employer of his had gifted to him to use for a project he had been hired for. Although the intricacies of the project eluded him, the money spoke to him greatly and plus his employer wasn't exactly someone he could turn down.

Seeing the object glow before him though symbolized that the object it was connected to had picked up something powerful. And that something powerful was what his employer was looking for. He turned his head to the right to look up at the clock hanging on the wall to see that he could probably make it in time to see his employer before their schedule got full. He frowned though, although it probably wasn't a good thing for him to show up to see the person since he full up on alcohol currently. At the same time though, he knew that if he didn't report his finding now, his employer would have his head. Literally.

He sighed and stumbled over to his closet to find some proper clothes. The things he did for money.