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The battle is over and the dust is settled. Ganondorf is sealed away and Hyrule is saved—and so too is Princess Zelda saved. It is a relief to the Hero of Time, to know with finality that she is safe and out of the grasp of the evil king. Now she intends to send him back to his original time, to the ten year old boy he left behind, but she allotted them both some much needed time to rest and breathe before they attempted that. Link went off on his own for a while, wandering aimlessly and pondering all the trials he suffered. He tried to reconcile the imminent return to his child body and wondered how he'd ever cope with being stuck in a form he didn't feel suited him any longer. After all, there is a large gap between Link, a little boy who knows of nothing but the forest, and the Hero of Time, a little boy forced to grow up all at once to experience battle and war. Perhaps going back was for the best, but he could not think how.
Link shakes his head, treading onward back to where Zelda waits for him, trying all the while to bury the dread deep in his mind. As he closes in, he hears a sound he hasn't heard in a while, a sound that retrieves him from his somber musings: the soft strum of harp strings.
As Link turns the corner, instead of seeing Zelda, Sheik is standing there in her stead, playing a slow and dissonant melody on his harp that echoes across the vast ruin. Link takes a step closer and the melody abruptly ends, leaving the ruin feeling emptier than ever. Link meets the one eye he can see, bright red and fixed on him. Sheik tucks away his harp and stands tall. If he's bothered, he does a good job at hiding it, but Link can sense the change in him. He's hesitant to turn back time too.
“Are you ready, Link?” He asks plainly, but there's the slightest hint of restraint in his voice. Link approaches without answer, standing before him. Sheik takes that as his answer and is about to change back to Zelda before Link grabs his arm to stop him. Sheik’s visible eye widens slightly, but that's the only hint of shock he gives. Link lets go and smiles apologetically.
Sheik's eye softens, staring at the ground between them in favor of meeting Link’s gaze again. “You must be wondering why I have taken up my disguise when it is no longer necessary. I will tell you, if that is what you wish.”
Link nods, smiling gently. He can't get over how good it is to see Sheik again, even if he’d never really left when in the form of the princess. The Hero is glad to see the red of his eye and hear the song of his harp one more time. He waits patiently for the Sheikah to continue.
“I, as the princess, come from a long lineage of others who bear my name and, while this divine legacy in itself is extraordinary, I am but one of many who have and who one day will bear the name Zelda. In that way, Princess Zelda is only a title, a daughter to fulfil a destiny she did not ask to take part in—but Sheik is not that. There is only one Sheik, and I am that one. He is mine to be and mine alone, a son capable of whatever autonomy he can scrounge and hoard. Do not misunderstand me, I am not displeased being Zelda, but I am displeased whenever she is all I can be, so Sheik is my alternative. It is difficult, living in a body you feel does not suit your needs, both of the mind and flesh.”
Link listens intently, hanging onto every word. Sheik's last statement strikes him especially, as it sums up how he's feeling almost exactly: returning to a body that he feels doesn't fit him anymore, or has outgrown, in his case. It saddens him to know that Sheik too feels this way, and has for so long, but he's thankful to have someone he can finally relate to.
A firm line creases Sheik's brow as he speaks again, “I see in your eyes that you understand this plight, but I fear you are yet to recognize why I have decided Sheik over Zelda in the midst of this very precious moment. Link, when I send you back, Sheik will be no more. The princess that you return to will have no knowledge of him and no excuse or method to become him. I will be lost to time, kept alive only in your memory. That is why I take on his form now—as there will always be a Princess Zelda. He deserves to have this moment, as it is to be his last whether time passes normally or flows backward to what it once was. The princess will always have more moments ahead of her…”
All at once, the shared hesitance between them makes sense to Link. He isn't sure why it took so long to piece together, perhaps it was denial, but the realization that this is the final time he will see someone so dear to him is almost too much to bear. Or part of someone so dear to him, anyway. He wonders if the Zelda he returns to will feel something missing, an ache she doesn't know how to soothe, that feeling becoming ever more familiar to him…
“Link,” Sheik said softly, seeing the pitiful recognition in the Hero’s eyes. “Please, do not let this dissuade you from returning. I have come to terms with this fate and I am content. The princess you are to know will surely find her own way somehow, whether it is as Sheik or otherwise. I know you will help in her endeavors and keep some part of me alive, even if only in your memory. I do not wish to cause you more pain than is necessary, so please do not mourn for me.”
Link knows he can't possibly do that, but he does nothing if not preserve. While he may mourn, he will do all in his power to make the princess happy, and he can only hope that it somehow revives Sheik in the process. It must, as he can't fathom a world in which Zelda is only half themself. It would be an agony to witness, as he understands what it's like to experience it.
He nods, resigned to this fate yet determined to make the best of it. Sheik nods in return. Link expects him to become Zelda again, but he doesn't. Instead, he puts his hands to the cowl covering the lower half of his face and pulls the fabric down.
“Thank you.”
And he sees Sheik smile for the first, and last, time.
The ten year old hero returns to Princess Zelda and, eventually, he becomes welcome among the castle. He and Zelda speak under the supervision of Impa—to ensure the complete safety of the princess—but it's clear that Impa sees no threat in him. Zelda inquires often of his past (or rather, future) exploits.. He tells her of them, of his battles and the foes he faced, but one day she says something different.
“You tell me of so many enemies, Link, but what of your allies? You have mentioned the sages briefly, but were there no others?”
Link smiles.
“You are smiling! Certainly you have someone in mind then.”
He nods, beginning the tale of the Sheikah who would teach him songs to aid him on his journey.
Before Zelda could respond to any of it, Impa spoke, “I do not know of any Sheikah boy like that, one who would be your age now. What was his name?”
Link tells her.
“So Sheik was his name then. And you say you only met him after the seven years?”
He nods, glancing between her and Zelda, hoping she might put the pieces together. His hope is fulfilled when he sees a light of understanding in her eyes. He knows she understands that “after the seven years” also means after she and the princess would have escaped together and after the seven years in hiding.
“I see. I believe I am mistaken, perhaps I do know of such a person.”
Zelda did not pay much mind to the interaction, or she did not show it at least, as she was too focused on her interest in Sheik to proceed with anything different.
“Link,” she smiled, reminding him all too well of his final encounter with Sheik, “You must tell me more of him.”