Story Title: Our Wind Will Shake the Earth and Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Author's Notes: As mentioned in the summary, this fic will contain an eventual slash pairing between Link and Shad. Like everything I write, this fic is planned to be long. There will also be a few slight not-in-canon changes here and there, one notably being Shad's minor special ability. I suppose that's all for now. Thanks for reading.

-o-

Chapter One: Many Meetings, Many Partings

-o-

Dashing out of Faron Woods and onto Hyrule Field, Link rushed Epona out onto the open plain, strangely without monsters since his defeat of Ganondorf many months ago. So it seemed with the death of the dark king, most of the monsters went into hiding and, evident of that, there were no reports from the townsfolk of Castle Town of villagers attacked or of trade routes raided. The Zora swam in iceless, free-flowing rivers and the Gorons wrestled and mined the hills of a quiet Death Mountain. Going the way of how all heroic tales ended, Hyrule was finally at peace.

Link slowed Epona to a light walk and gazed across the green field. He smelled the new grass crushed under her hooves and the scent of hay in her tawny mane. The warm early afternoon sun kissed his face and the day's gentle breeze ruffled his short sandy blonde hair in welcome. The day was clear, bright, and beautiful with nary a gray cloud in sight. It was the kind of day that would perk the stoniest of hearts to acts of kindness.

But Link knew better. His meeting and traveling with Midna had taught him better. Link supposed he always had an intuition for sensing trouble, but his time as a wolf had truly awakened his innate instincts. Even now, fully human, Link felt the wolf within him, heightening his senses.

Everything seems quiet, Link thought, gazing out across the empty plain. Let's see if it really is.

Link raised his head and sniffed the air as his blue eyes quickly surveyed his surroundings. There was no sign or yell of danger, as there hadn't been for months, but there still was an undercurrent in the air, a forbidding swell of caution that made Link bare his teeth and bristle like a snarling wolf in its presence. Ilia would call him battle-restless—in fact, since he confided to her his unease for Hyrule, she rarely called him anything else.

It was a point of tension between them now with Ilia constantly claiming he was battle-restless and Link strongly denying he wasn't. Since he was not a talkative fellow, Link had thought he had simply poorly explained his foreboding. Two days ago, he had tried clarifying to Ilia better how he truly sensed an unrest still in Hyrule. She scoffed at him then and cited the overwhelming goodwill and harmony in the world now. They had wound up fighting, louder and fiercer than they ever had before—mostly because this time Link actually participated and fought for his side (much to Ilia's surprise), instead of just letting Ilia yell at him until she was done like he had used to.

Their argument, which had remained mostly civil, loud but civil to a fine razor's point, came to an ugly turn when Ilia had shouted in front of everyone in the village that Link hoped for something horrendous to happen just so he could run off and fight.

Staring hard down at the reins in his tightly curled fingers, Link frowned. Even after a night and a day's long rest, Ilia's anger and insinuation still burned raw in his chest. Being around her now would only lead to their fighting again, and that wasn't helping repair their raveling friendship or saving Hyrule. Link needed answers and he wasn't getting any remaining in Ordon. Link had decided that morning he would ride out on Epona and prove one of them right or wrong. He had left the Mayor's house moments ago, informing Bo of his plans and knowing Ilia had overheard his every word. As he departed, the children came out to wish him luck and gave their farewells.

Ilia had not.

I'm not surprised, Link thought. We're both stubborn and too proud for our own good, but I wish she had come out. …I would've for her.

Epona turned her head and snorted in annoyance at Link. Simply lightly meandering here and there tried her patience and she had decided that Link had a long enough swim in his head and needed to get moving.

Link bent down and rubbed the side of her coppery neck. "Sorry, girl," he whispered close to her ear and took up the reins. With a swift crack and call, Link charged Epona forward.

If there really was any evil still remaining in Hyrule, there was only one place in the land to go to find out. If they did not know, no one else would.

-o-

"Link! Well, if this isn't a surprise… Been a long time since you've walked into my bar, honey," Telma flashed Link her usual smile, warm and fond with always a twist of playfulness to it, as she put away her account books. As soon as Link reached the bar, Telma grabbed and pulled him into a hug.

The maternal embrace surprised Link. He didn't think until now how long his last visit to Castle Town and Telma's Bar had been. It also hadn't occurred to Link until her tight hug that Telma might have missed him or would've wanted to know if he was well. The least he could have done was send the Postman with a letter to her once in a while. Or well, at least once. The idea had never occurred to him to do so.

Link eventually slipped out of her thick arms and stood in front of the bar. "Sorry, ma'am," Link canted his eyes away from Telma's smiling face, "I've been home, back in Ordon, for a while now."

Louise rubbed and arched against his boots. Link picked her up and stroked her back as she lay against his chest and rested her front paws on his left shoulder. The proud Persian nuzzled her flat, furry face against his neck and purred. She had missed him too, so it seemed.

Link was truly sorry for not visiting as much as he should have, especially when they were both used to him frequenting the place. Telma was a friend and she was happy to see him, no doubt because his being there answered all her concerns about him. Link's long absence had worried her, and Link had difficulty meeting her eyes out of guilt, so he focused on Louise and let holding her be his excuse for not raising up to match Telma's sight.

Telma saw through his show. It would take Hylians much older and more inclined to subterfuge than Link to fool the buxom bar mistress, he knew that. She pursed her painted lips and looked at him in her clever, off-to-the-side manner and scrutinized him. She knew something bothered him, that he could recognize. Link wondered if her gaze was simply an innate ability of hers or a refined skill crafted over years of serving the public. In truth, he would never know.

"How's Ilia?" she asked. "Everything all right between you two?"

Link winced. He hadn't meant to. He simply had. Like plunging a pin into his side, Telma's words had struck him with a fine precision and painful recent memories of their arguing.

Realizing she had made a mistake in mentioning Ilia, Telma stared back at him, her eyes open and her eyebrows raised in mild surprise. She had an apology on her barely parted lips but just had yet to find the appropriate words to say. Link didn't need her apology. He had already forgiven her. Telma hadn't known Ilia was a sore subject for him right now and Link couldn't bear her bitterness for merely making conversation and showing concern.

Louise growled low and wriggled in Link's arms. She leapt onto the countertop, swept her ears back, and narrowed her eyes at Link in a show of defense. Link realized then how fiercely tense he was. Since their fighting, thinking of Ilia drew a sour anger from the depths of his many feelings for her that polluted all the other emotions he felt and exposed itself subtly on his face. Having once had an animal's senses himself, he knew that Louise could pick up on his underlining emotions. To calm her and himself, Link closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and relaxed.

When ready, Link reopened his eyes and forced a smile. "She's fine. Things are a bit different between us…" Link said as he looked down and smoothed his hand across the side of his floppy green hat. He winced again, this time at himself for not presenting the most confident picture, and hastily added, "…But we'll patch up."

"Of course, honey," Telma said and smiled, offering neither a comfort nor a discouragement to Link. He wished she had said something reassuring in response—he could have used the strength of her kindness.

Link only had a moment to dwell on Ilia before Telma diverted his attention. She practically tipped herself over the counter leaning in to meet his face as she brightened and broadened her smile. "Been to Kakariko Village of lately? The shaman ever asks of me?"

Link stared wide-eyed back at Telma's close face. "No, ma'am," he said, shaking his head. "As I said, I've been in Ordon, so as far as I know, he hasn't."

"Well!" Telma huffed and brusquely straightened to standing, her hands on each of her wide hips and her eyes sharp. "The man's hands can work miracles, but heaven forbid they scratch out a single letter!"

The bar mistress sighed loudly, turned to the side and muttered angrily to herself. Once she at last calmed down, Telma laid one hand over and massaged her furrowed brow and crossed her free arm under her bosom. "…And Link, call me Telma. You're a stubborn horse that refuses to break on that, y'know, honey?"

Link nodded, "I suppose I am and I will, ma'—Telma."

At that, Telma smiled. "Our Group is meeting today, as you can probably tell. Why don't you pull up a seat and stay awhile?" She asked, winking.

Link nodded and raised his hand in a short farewell to her and proceeded past the pulled-aside curtain to the warmly lighted room adjacent to the public bar. Rusl, Auru, and Ashei were already present with Rusl and Auru sitting in their usual chairs while Ashei preferred to stand.

"How unexpected to see you, Master Link, but good to see you well nonetheless," Auru said and tipped his head down and back up grimly.

Though his greeting was amiable and Auru was a kind man, there was always a gruff and severe quality to his appearance and deep voice that always seemed to edge out no matter what he said. Link had always thought of Auru as like some of the old male goats back in Ordon—the ones that looked too old to charge but, when provoked, chased and rammed Fado around the ranch until Link could save him. Actually, Auru was more approachable than the goats, but Link never wanted to push his luck and always remained very respectful.

Link returned Auru's reception with a short bow and a polite, acknowledging nod.

"Well, we were missing Shad and here comes Link. He's good enough or better, so let's get this meeting started, yeah?" Ashei said.

It was hard to tell with her deadpan expression if the partially-armored young woman was joking or not in her light jab at her fellow Group member. She always appeared at first meet rather dour and hard of heart, though in truth, her tough image contrasted with her kindness and good intentions to protect Hyrule.

"Shad's missing?" Link asked the Group.

"Not missing. Simply late," Rusl said, removing his helmet and smiling at Link. He had been the first and only one to smile, though with Link practically like a younger brother to him, it wasn't surprising that he would greet the young Hylian so warmly. All that amazed Link about Rusl's appearance was that, in these few months of peace, his son Colin had become much more like his father, in appearance and more so in courage.

"Typically, Shad is the first here," Rusl explained, giving a nod to Shad's customary but vacant seat across from him, "but when I arrived, he said something about quickly investigating a nearby Owl Statue and took off and has yet to return."

He's probably at the Owl Statue just outside the western gate, Link noted. It's the only statue close enough to walk to from Castle Town.

Ashei snorted, breaking Link from his thoughts, and cracked a small smirk, "I can see that happening from him with his up-in-the-clouds mind." She laid her right hand on her same hip and gestured with her left. "Link, if he's on the hunt for his sky beings, he'll never get back here on his own, so go fetch him for us so we can start the meeting already, yeah?"

Link nodded, and with little wait, he turned and hurried out the door.

-o-

Taking from a pocket of his light rose-colored waistcoat a folded monogrammed handkerchief, Shad dabbed the sweat from his forehead and hastily returned his late father's present back to the safety of his waistcoat's pocket, all while remaining crouched on the flat top of a high pillar that no longer held an Owl Statue, despite Shad's previous and verified knowledge that said it once had.

Oh the Owl Statue was still there… It had simply moved. It was behind him now, standing between the high pillar and the high stone stairs like a convenient stepping stone to the top of the pillar. Whoever had moved it, and Shad had no doubt that someone had since statues did not move by themselves, the scholar was certain the person (or persons) had used some form of magic to do so. Shad, still crouched, pressed his hand level on the stone's carved surface, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

Most Hylians were inclined to magic and its use, though few Hylians possessed any magical abilities whatsoever, at least not among its commoners. The royal family was another sort, of course. Not that Shad was by any means related to the royal family—his blood was as common as could be and the strength of his magical ability reflected his ancestry appropriately.

Shad had inherited his gift from his father, who quite shockingly had a considerable amount of magic for a man of his modest standing. His father once told Shad that he could cast a veil of invisibility on anything he touched and cast doubt in a person's thoughts, generally on the whereabouts of the items he held. Though Shad's father served as a butler for the royal family, his father's passions lay in the scholarly pursuit of the research and life-long study of Hyrule's historical artifacts and ancient ruins, and his father's powers came in handy if the butler ever wished to procure said artifacts for his own collection. That was how—much to Shad's embarrassment and anxiety over his much-revered father's shadier practices—Shad's father secretly came to own many of Hyrule's greatest ancient treasures.

Only the royal family's assembly rivaled his father's, and even it was not exclusive. He never stole from the royal family—Shad's father merely 'borrowed' objects for study and research purposes. He always eventually returned the relics, albeit with the greatest reluctance and not without a nervous Shad constantly reminding (in other words, begging) his father to do so once his study was complete.

Shad's power, however, was feeble in comparison and bore no impact on his day-to-day life. It was most helpful as a minor aid to his studies and even then had its limits. All Shad could do was sense the presence of magic or the magic's residual vibrations in an object by touch and nothing else. Generally, he could recognize if the magic was innate of the item or had been cast upon by an outsider but nothing else. More often than not, the use of his power frustrated him more than helped him. Like now, for instance.

Shad stood, careful not to scuff the stone's carving with his boots, and sighed in disappointment. He knew now that someone had used magic on the Owl Statue and that there had been magic inherent in the carving, but it vexed him that he had not been present to see what ritual had occurred here or learned what knowledge had been obtained.

The magic is gone and so are its secrets, Shad frowned and furrowed his brow in a manner his mother—if she ever left her family's meager estate and were present beside him—would have reprimanded him for because it was an ugly look for a gentleman to wear as he looked out inattentively on the view of the Great Bridge of Hylia.

Dear Father, I feel your chagrin from beyond the grave, and you are correct in being disappointed in me. Shad bowed his head in disgrace. What sort of researcher am I if I cannot gather information? No doubt the information I lost was imperative to the study of the sky beings. …But, I say, who else but I would search and have need of its use?

He clenched his hands into firm fists and tightened his jaw, as his concentrated thoughts on the mystery grew more grating and inflammatory. I do not like this situation at all! Someone is going around manipulating the Owl Statues and stealing precious information crucial to my life's work without at all permitting me a chance to observe what laid hidden for myself. Boy, if I ever came across and met the irksome scoundrel who was responsible for all this, I would give him a stern lecture!

"Shad!"

The sudden call startled the unaware scholar. Shad nearly pitched over the edge of the high pillar, but he managed to catch himself, sort of, on the rim of the pillar. He ungainly tottered on one leg and flailed his arms about in a desperate grasp for the rest of his balance.

Just as he was certain he was about to fall, Shad felt a firm hand grip the center of his back and a strong tug wrenched him reverse. Both his feet landed in the pillar's center and the scholar rediscovered his missing equilibrium. His left hand steadied against his beating heart, Shad stood and caught his quickened breath.

"Are you all right?" said a familiar voice, the voice Shad's memory placed as Link's.

Shad turned and found his memory verified. Link stood atop the Owl Statue watching Shad and appearing to be at the ready for if the scholar needed him to catch him again. A kind gesture but an unnecessary one, Shad noted, for I am, at the moment, stationary.

"Q-Quite all right. Thank you, Link." Shad, still slightly shaken and embarrassed, sunk his gaze. "I'm…" he paused, as he ran a hand through his mousy red hair, "…I'm terribly sorry you had to observe such a graceless display of my athletics, or lack thereof."

"Well, I did scare you," Link said. "…Didn't mean to, though."

Shad brought himself to look Link in the eyes. Of course, Link hadn't meant to scare him, if Link's evident shame at accidentally doing so wasn't enough of an indication. But even without that, Shad had never figured Link would be the sort of person who would do anything out of mean spirit.

"I say, very well then," Shad smiled amiably. "What, pray tell, brings you to my side?"

"I was asked to bring you back to Telma's Bar."

Shad's eyebrows leapt up. The meeting! Oh how I forgot! Time, what is the time? Panicking, Shad searched for a tall shadow among the ruins, and quickly finding one, did the calculations swiftly in his head.

"Oh my…" Shad gasped. "I've been absent longer than I intended." He leaned toward Link and asked in a near-whisper voice, despite their lack of additional company, "…Is everyone really already accounted for?"

Link nodded yes.

"Then we must go! Hurry now, old boy!"

Link easily bounded from the Owl Statue to the ruins steps and waited while Shad, being not as physically limber or inclined as the swordsman, inched himself to the closest distance possible between himself and the top of the Owl Statue. It wasn't so much the difficulty of the leap that concerned Shad but the height at which he had to leap.

The scholar took some time readying his nerves, and eventually, gingerly hopped from the pillar to the statue. Shad barely landed on the statue on one knee—kept safe by the sworn protection of kneepads—and drew himself up to standing and repeated the whole nervous process all over again for the jump to the steps.

Shad leapt for the second time and immediately realized his miscalculation in his haste. His foot did reach the stone step, however it landed awkwardly on the edge. Shad fell backwards. Or he started to, that is. If it were not for Link grabbing his wrist and pulling him forward, he definitely would have.

"That makes twice," Shad said, red in the face and stood hunched over with his hands on his knees while he caught his breath. "Thank you, again, Link."

"Probably shouldn't keep count of that," Link said, offering Shad a weak, cringing sort of smile before he turned and made his way up the ruin's steps.

Shad's pointed ears flushed hot as he straightened and stood at the bottom and watched a blurring Link rise to the top of the stairs. The scholar dropped his gaze down and angled it to the side. He pushed his slipped spectacles back up to his wide blue eyes.

"Yes, I suppose not…" Shad murmured and then took follow.

-o-

Link kept his head low and his eyes curtained by his sandy fringe as he excused himself out of the Group members' meeting room. No one asked him why and Link was grateful for that. He was just as thankful that Telma, standing in the doorframe in the threshold between the two adjacent rooms, did not try to stop him though she watched him, as he walked past.

Link walked to the back of the public bar where he had seen the Postman contemplating what to order and pressed his back against the cool, shadowed wall and slid down to a seat on the stone floor. Though without seeing her do so, he knew that Telma had shot a glance his way but, to his relief, did not come over.

There's nothing out there, Link thought, reminding himself again of what each member of the Group had told him. None of them had heard of any distress or great threat to or in Hyrule, and that in fact, because of the blanketing peace in Hyrule, their meeting today was to disband their small party and go their separate ways.

I was so certain there was something wrong, Link snatched off his floppy green cap and tossed it into his lap. But the only thing wrong was me.

Ilia was right... Link closed his eyes and tilted his head back, resting it against the cool wall. Maybe I am battle-restless.

But Link's instincts told him otherwise. The unrest was in the air, and now in his bones, but it was not fake or simply imagined. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Link could not believe there was no sort of danger looming. It had to be a darkness that not even the Group was aware of yet, it had to be.

I'm sorry, Ilia. You can't be right. I know and feel this to be true. Yes, I can't explain it and you can't understand why I'm so persistent about this danger you can't sense, but this is what it is. Link frowned. I would rather end up wrong thinking I'm right than be right and make the wrong choice. I have to go by what I feel and believe. I can't ignore the evil that is out there. So I have to stay gone, at least until this feeling passes and I know Hyrule is safe.

…I'm sorry.

Link heard chairs scooting across the floor and footsteps from in the other room. The meeting was over, so it seemed. That didn't take long, Link thought, though saying your goodbyes never does, I guess. He rose from his seat, quickly brushing the dirt from his backside, as the Group members began entering the bar.

"Link," Ashei called as she approached him. "I'm going on another scouting trip to Snowpeak soon. I'm thinking of pushing up to the summit. Want to come? There may be no great evil but plenty of fighting, and more than just the elements, there for you to handle, yeah?"

Snowpeak? Link searched his senses but felt no particular foreboding draw to the storming, icy mountain. He shook his head from side to side, "Thanks for offering, but no." Ashei thinks I'm battle-restless too, Link thought. She wouldn't have said that last bit if she didn't.

Ashei nodded in understanding as she flipped back one of her twin raven pigtails and smirked, "If you need me, don't be a stranger, yeah?" She punctuated her goodbye with an affectionate hard punch to Link's shoulder. She could've removed the metal gauntlet, Link thought, wincing and rubbing the bruising skin.

The armored young woman only appeared amused. "Gave you something to remember me by, didn't I, yeah?" Ashei said, giving him a genuine full smile before she left.

Link was not alone for long, however.

"Master Link, may we speak?" Auru asked as he walked up and stood beside the younger Hylian.

Link nodded. "Of course, sir."

"The duty of the protector is to guard what it holds dear or defend what it has been ordered to protect," Auru began, "It is a rare sort of person who makes a perfect protector and few are born, though Hyrule has had many protectors in its history."

"Heroes, sir?" Link said, uncertain of whether interrupting Auru was the right call or not. It seemed okay with the older Hylian, at least he did not appeared offended.

Auru gave an agreeing but tired sigh, "As others have called them, yes." Auru paused. He gave Link a long, searching gaze and then said, "Rusl has explained to me…certain instances of your behavior in your hometown and I see the marks of a protector in you. For someone of your young age and the great trials you have gone through, I fear that your experiences may have imbued you with the belief that you need to constantly be on the defense, so to speak. Am I making sense, Master Link?"

Link nodded. "Yes, sir, but I do not feel that I need to defend myself."

"Or be on the attack, then."

Link shook his head, "No, sir, not that either."

Auru softly groaned and stroked the hairs of his short gray beard contemplatively. Apparently, neither answer was to the old, tanned-skinned Hylian's expectation or patience, but Link did not know what answer he was looking for. If only he asked the right question, Link could give him the reply he wanted.

After a meditative silence, Auru asked, "Do you feel like there is something you must protect? That there is a great danger present? To Hyrule, for instance."

Link's eyes brightened and he nodded readily, "Yes, sir! " And then, he looked down and said,"Er…well, I don't know if it is to Hyrule or something else I must protect, but I do sense danger."

Link dipped his head downward and hooded his eyes, looking and sounding defeated as he spoke, "I've been trying to learn if there is a threat out there but no one seems to know anything, but I feel the warnings all the same. And if Hyrule is in danger, I want to help." The last he said with true confidence, not like Link the Ordon farm boy, but Link, the Hero of Light.

Briefly, Auru frowned as if something Link had said displeased him but that appeared to not be the case as Auru stepped closer and laid a gentle hand on Link's shoulder. "You are too young to be a protector. Go and stay in your hometown. Live your life as you once did before all the chaos."

"But—" Link tried to reason with him, but Auru cut his words with a fine glare.

"Warriors must learn to put their weapons aside in times of peace, " Auru said firmly but without any real anger. "You must learn to readjust. Do not go seeking for what is not there. You will never find happiness or peace that way. You will not like what awaits you if you choose that dark path. Am I understood, Master Link?"

"…Yes, sir," Link agreed reluctantly. "Thank you for your advice." Link gave a short polite bow.

"It is the least I could have done," Auru said, a quiet sadness etching through his austere features and voice as he turned to leave, "…For having played my own hand in turning you into a protector too young and before your time."

He left Link, leaving him curious and uncertain to exactly what he meant, but Link did not have much time to consider Auru's words as his mentor stepped up smiling and rested a hand on Link's shoulder.

"Link, shall we head home?" Rusl asked, as he drew back a stubborn light blonde hair from his eyes, a light green color that always reminded Link of new spring leaves in sunlight and were just as welcoming.

"Actually, sir, " Link said, " I wasn't planning to. Not yet."

The swordsmaster's brotherly smile fell to a disappointed frown. He removed his hand from Link's shoulder and laid it on his hip. "Link, you listened to Auru, didn't you? You should be home—"

"Three days, " Link said quickly and steadfast, meeting Rusl's eyes and speaking to him not as a student to his teacher, or as Rusl's younger brother-figure, but as his equal. "Give me three days. If I find nothing, I will return home and say no more of coming danger. I will follow Auru's advice and your wishes wholeheartedly and live a normal life. I promise." Link offered his hand.

Rusl, quirking a brow, studied Link through his deep pause as he considered Link's words. If Link was correct, his mentor was seeing him as a man for the first time and wasn't certain whether to be proud or frustrated by Link's newfound status.

In the end, the Hylian boy had him beat.

"Very well, Link. Three days." Rusl took Link's offered hand and gave it a single firm shake. Link smiled brightly as Rusl gave a cheerless smile and parted to speak with Telma at the bar before he left. No doubt his mentor was concerned for him, but he gave Link his three days anyway and for sure offered his safe wishes for his journey and return.

Link was preparing to leave himself—three days was not a long time to search across all of Hyrule—when he heard a soft cough and light steps moving toward him.

"Link, if you are not busy, I was…I was wondering if you had a moment to spare to speak," Shad asked, his head tilted low as so to hide his apparent embarrassment to approaching Link.

"Uh, sure." Odd…Link thought, watching Shad tremble as he shuffled closer to where Link stood. He's never had major difficulty speaking to me before… Must be something serious.

Shad, wringing his hands first before he pushed his spectacles back, lifted his head to meet Link but kept his eyes held down to the floor, "Just to clarify things, I would not even trouble you to ask you this if I had not exhausted all other means and was not at my wit's end…"

Link nodded, "Okay, so what…"

Shad continued on without listening to Link. The Hylian scholar had composed his script and was determined to stick to it, even if he had to speak a mile a minute to do so, "After all, you were such an assistance to me in Kakariko Village, and without you, I would still be lost and have not nearly as many answers solved, though as a researcher I am frightfully ashamed at myself for relying on you so greatly and I know my father frowns upon me for adding not nearly as many notes of my own or even on my own, but as I have said, I have no other leads to follow, and…"

"Shad!" Link barked and Shad cringed and pressed his lips shut. Though Link's voice and expression contained no anger or even irritation at the scholar, Shad had reacted as though Link was. Link made sure to sound reassuring when he spoke. "It's all right. Just tell me."

"Ah yes, of c-course…" Shad nodded, a light quiver in his voice. "I was wondering if, in your later travels, if you discovered anything more about the sky beings…"

Of course he would ask about that, Link thought, gently chiding himself for not expecting that Shad would ask him about the Oocca from the beginning. It was only the young Hylian scholar's passion and life's work that he studied the mysterious sky beings.

Shad evidently was still speaking, "If you happened upon a clue, even a smattering of one, I would be ever so grateful…"

Well, I do owe him a debt for reviving the Dominion Rod and modifying the cellar statue, even if he did it accidentally, Link considered, looking at Shad staring at him with a mix of hope, admiration, and pleading in his big (slightly darker) blue eyes, flecked with the firelight of an oil lamp flickering from the Group's meeting room. He's always been kind to me and it's hard to say no to the guy, especially when he's like this.

And Shad really seemed lost and on his last ropes on the mystery of the Oocca, and here, Link had all the answers resting in his palm and was just dangling them above the scholar. It was enough shame to make Link drop his head and stare at the floor in discomfort.

I didn't treat him right at all… Link thought reproachfully. I owe him then. I owe it to him to show him the City in the Sky.

Link rubbed the back of his head and smiled through his guilt, "Well, I do know a few new things—"

Shad's eyes widened and his smile lit the back of the bar, "Over to the table then and let's hear what you got, old boy!" Shad rushed over to the illuminated table where the Group met, fumbling in one of the leather packs on his belt for a writing implement all along the way, and leaving Link standing where he stood, too slow to stop the enthusiastic scholar in his glee.

"Thank you, Link. I knew my asking you would bear fruit, I knew it would," Shad chatted on excitedly, peppering the rest of his talk with voluble praises of Link, as the scholar quickly took his seat and flipped open his father's worn journal, its once royal purple cover and backing faded to its drab cousin by all the dust embedded in its leather, to a blank page, though he was careful to keep the ornamental dagger in its place.

"Actually, Shad, " Link said, stepping and standing in the door frame between the two rooms, "it would be easier just to show you what I've learned. And I figured you would prefer it that way."

Shad gasped and stared frozen at Link in a manner that made the learned scholar appear anything but until he regained his capacity for speech and cognitive thinking. "Yes, yes, of course," Shad said softly, "When and where do we meet, old boy?"

"Tomorrow morning, Lake Hylia."

"Done and memorized," Shad stood, pushed his chair in, and angled toward Link. "You know, I will sleep little in anticipation for tomorrow's dawn. I wish it was morning already, my friend." Shad extended his hand and Link clasped it.

Two, no, three shots of liquid courage for the cannon wouldn't be a bad idea, Link considered advising Shad but kept his lips sealed in a tightly-closed smile and shook the scholar's hand. That ride's gonna be interesting…

"Expect to see you tomorrow then," Shad said, smiling.

Link simply nodded and returned the smile. Shad quickly gathered his things and left in a eager haste, though not without beaming and waving to Telma before he left.

"Honey, I don't know what you said to the boy, " Telma wiggled over to where Link stood and wrapped a thick arm around his shoulders, "but I've never seen him fit to burst like that in a long time. You must have said something pretty special to him." She winked and smiled playfully.

"No, ma'am," Link said, a little curious at her wink and smile, "Not really. Just that I agreed to show him what I've learned about the sky beings." Though, I guess to Shad, Link considered, that would be pretty special.

"Link, please…" the buxom bar mistress hung her head and breathed a drawn, futile sigh, "Call me Telma."