The Legend of Zelda- Ocarina of Time

Epona

Chapter 27
Epona

The pattering rain pelted the small shelter. Link sat inside, keeping vigil beside Sheik as Rin tended to her injuries. There didn't seem to be a lot they could do except wait. Sheik lay on a bedroll, the bed that had once belonged to a Kokiri now serving as a makeshift table. The younger Sheikah's features were deathly pale, a fever now sapping her strength.

Will she be alright? Link wondered, careful not to voice the question aloud.

He felt Navi shift on his shoulder and then fly into the air.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Just..." Navi faltered, her voice hoarse with grief. "There's something I must do. I'll be back."

With that, Navi flew off out the door. Link considered going after her but decided that Navi would not appreciate him doing so. Instead, he turned his attention back to Sheik. He didn't think she could travel now; it had taken all her strength to harm Ganondorf, and he still had no idea what she had done.

He remembered the look in Ganondorf's eyes when the spell struck him. Fear. Whatever Sheik had done, it hurt Ganondorf. For the first time, Link realised that the Desert Man was vulnerable. He wasn't the near all-powerful figure Link had perceived him to be during their fateful encounter on the drawbridge of Castletown. How could they repeat Sheik's spell? The effort had almost killed her.

As if sensing his troubled thoughts and without looking up as she applied a wet compress to Sheik's brow, Rin asked him to recount what happened after Volvagia entered the Kokiri grove. Reluctantly, Link obliged. He drew a deep breath and told her everything, finishing with Sheik's attack on Ganondorf.

Rin did not interrupt Link once, for which he was grateful. As his story went on, her eyes seemed stone-like, almost unnerving him. Once Link finished, she gave the faintest hint of a frown and gazed in Sheik's direction.

"She will be alright, won't she?" he asked worriedly.

Much to Link's discomfort, Rin did not reply immediately. "I am certain she will be, but it may be many days until she can travel."

I guess that means I'm going to Death Mountain alone, Link thought, not relishing the prospect of traversing the mountain's treacherous slopes.

As a silence grew between them, Link found one question nagging at his mind. It was something that Sheik had uttered when Rin revived her. Not only that, but Rin knew Zelda had given him the ocarina, and neither he nor Navi had told her. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but Link wasn't so sure. Suspicion gnawed at him, refusing to be ignored. Unable to keep from asking, he blurted out, "I heard Sheik call you Impa."

That sharp, unflinching gaze. The way she held herself. Link recalled meeting her with perfect clarity. It was difficult to forget the ring of guards surrounding him when he first met Zelda. Nor did he forget Impa coming to his rescue as Ganondorf watched him with those burning eyes. Nor had he forgotten how she marched him out of the castle grounds before escorting him to Kakariko Village.

"You are Impa, aren't you?" he asked.

There was a long pause. With a twitch of a smile, Rin closed her eyes, and the air rippled around her. With a startled yelp, Link nearly fell over backward. The figure in front of him changed, Rin's features quickly aging. Impa gazed at him with her familiar red hawk-like eyes, her grey hair bound in a warrior's tail.

War, it seemed, had not agreed with her. There were lines across her brow and around her eyes that hadn't been there before, and her cheeks were gaunt.

"Sheikah have always been masters of illusion and disguise." She shook her head slightly in self-admonishment. "Normally, I am more careful not to slip back into old habits."