The Heroes' Rebirth - REVISITED | BOTW Sequel/Zelink (The Legend of Zelda)

Chapter 17: Who Are You

"My spot is so good!" Sheik thought to himself. He heard even more footsteps fly by on the path that led down to the village.

It was here when the 5 year-old Sheik began to get nervous. There was no way Shayla would walk past this flower and not investigate. Or at least call out his name.

He hid there for a few minutes. Then half an hour.

Then two hours.

"Shayla?" he yelled out. He popped his head above the snow. "Do you give up?"

He got up from under the snow. Brushing off the powder, he said goodbye to the enormous unbloomed flower and started to walk—

He stopped.

When he had first walked up, the trail had been full of snow. Now, it looked like an entire army had marched down the path. It appeared almost as if it had been plowed.

Sheik cautiously walked down the path to the village. The closer he got to it, the more he saw. The smooth snow that was once there was now pushed to the side and had tracks all the way down to the village. And in the middle of the village...

Was a red Yiga eye painted outside the Elder's home. His parents had taught him that these people were the bad guys. Sheik saw bodies laying face down in the snow next to houses and on porches. Some were face up with their lifeless, snowflake-covered faces pointed towards the sky.

Sheik stopped. His little 5 year-old mind tried to piece everything together. Had the bad guys come to the village and killed—

Sheik looked to his house and saw his mother, father, and older sister lying in the freezing, red snow.

Sheik may have been just a child, but he knew what this meant.

He knew exactly what this meant.

"Sheik!"

He saw the little girl he had thrown snowballs at earlier. Tears hung on her eyes. She began to walk towards him.

He turned his weeping body around, and ran.

"Sheik!" The girl called once more.

He ran as far as he could. When the tiredness came, he still ran. He ran until he couldn't run anymore. Finally, the small Sheik collapsed onto the ground, not knowing where he was, or what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~

Link stared at Sheik with astonished eyes. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and looked down. Sheik stared forward, obviously trying to keep his emotions from spilling out. He swallowed hard as his red eyes stared at the grass in front of him.

Link cleared his throat, trying to hold his emotions back as well. Sheik continued to stare forward. He breathed loudly through his nose, and a single tear fell from his eye.

Link knew he wasn't good with words, especially in a situation like this, so he simply placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

At this, Sheik buried his face in between his knees and sobbed like a child. His whole body shook with emotion.

Link let him have his moment. He looked behind at Paya's house and, to his surprise, saw her leaning against the railing, wiping her own tears away. She had been listening the entire time, and he never knew. Link softly smiled and turned back to Sheik.

Sheik cleared his throat. "This is one of the reasons why I didn't want to tell you."

"Because you'd cry?"

"No," he sniffed. "Because of the memory."

"I'm so sorry."

Sheik took his sleeve and wiped it across his face.