Sheik and Paya headcanon

These two actually stumped me before I came up with headcanon for them. It got, uh... a teeny tiny bit long. >.>

 So read at your own peril!

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 -Though not by blood, Sheik and Paya are sisters in this timeline. Sheik was an orphan girl stealing to survive before she happens upon Impa’s household one stormy night. She breaks in for warmth and shelter from the rain, only to be discovered by the young Paya. This fated meeting is what eventually results in Sheik being adopted into their family. This part of the headcanon got pretty long so, if you wanna read the entire thing it'll be sectioned off below!

-Sheik was taken under the wing of Impa while Paya was trained by Impa’s sister, Purah. Sheik’s one of the most versatile and skilled warriors there is in Hyrule thanks to her grandmother’s mentorship, and what she lacks in magical prowess she more than makes up for in purely physical combat. Meanwhile, Paya isn’t a very physically strong young woman but she is a highly skilled magic user and versed in a variety of Alchemy science.

-Sheik’s often mistaken for a guy due to her deeper voice and somewhat androgynous features, but she doesn’t mind.

-The Sheikah tribe use significant markings often in their culture. Typically these markings are done with very durable facepaint, but members of the tribe with significant stature often get their marks tattooed onto them. All three above have tattoos, with Impa’s and Sheik’s representing their station as a warrior while Paya has the mark that represents her role as a Seer.

-Sheik and Impa’s markings are different from the typical warrior marking: theirs show their status as the personal bodyguard to an incarnation of Zelda. Meanwhile, Paya’s job as an esteemed Seer is to protect and maintain the intricate history of Hyrule and important artifacts that are linked with it. This includes the likes of the Master Sword and Majora’s Mask, as well as great walls and tomes depicting and detailing nearly the entirety of Hyule’s history, specifically the re-occurrence of Hylia, Demise, and the Chosen Hero throughout said history. Paya’s an especially talented young lady and is probably the youngest Seer the tribe appointed.

-The Sheikah Clan in general is an ancient clan who’s responsibilities revolve around maintaining the safety and peace of Hyrule. The founder of the Sheikah Clan is the original incarnation of Impa herself, the Shield of Hylia. Every Sheikah shares this Impa as a common ancestor: one of the most telling traits of this ancestry is their unusual red eyes and very light hair: usually comes in shades of platinum blonde, silver, grey, or shocking white.

-The Sheikah are able to keep such accurate records of the entirety of Hyrule history is because, of all of the beings that are reincarnated, the Sheikah are unique in that they always remember their past lives. Not every Sheikah is reincarnated, but those who are, are entirely aware that they’ve lived in the past. Seers are especially unique in that they exhibit the ability to relive moments of not only their own past lives, but others as well in perfect detail in the form of memories. While they don’t need aid to relive important moments of their own past lives, they do need a conduit to experience another person’s memories: this is often done in a unique ability called Soul Sight.

-That means that Paya and Impa are both entirely aware that they’ve lived past lives. Paya’s only lived once before the current timeline: she notes that her last life saw her as being more reserved and prone to stuttering, and while she’s more outgoing in the current timeline she never loses her shy demeanor or a slight stutter when nervous.

-The Shield of Hylia (The Guardian or The Shield for short) is the title given to the Sheikah warrior chosen to become the personal bodyguard to Zelda. The Guardian isn’t hand-picked in the traditional sense: Zelda herself must choose her bodyguard. The Choosing is a highly important ceremony, in which the best of the best Sheikah Warriors are lined up before Zelda on her 15th birthday and are prompted to kneel before her. Zelda then approaches each warrior and places her right hand upon them (typically on their head) and reaches to their aura with hers. If an instinctive connection is felt between the two, Zelda will choose that warrior to be her Shield.

-When Zelda chooses her bodyguard they will undergo a ritual in which they are instilled with the Spirit of the Shield. This ritual grants the Guardian the knowledge previous Guardians had, improving and sharpening their skills moreso than what they were before. They are sworn under an oath to protect Zelda to the bitter end, with their lives if need be, and the conclusion of the ritual is obtaining the unique eye tattoo as a physical symbol of their status as The Shield.

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How Sheik and Paya met headcanon:

-Sheik was an orphan for a good portion of her life. Kinda thinking her folks die in a bandit attack and she was the only survivor, and has been kinda wandering around ever since.

-To survive I think she’d take to stealing a lot: mostly just food and clothes, but every now and then she’d pickpocket a few rupees off of someone for herself to actually buy a few things instead. To keep from getting caught she’s gotten good at evading her pursuers and the art of sleight-of-hand, or at least good enough that she’s rarely ever noticed. Except the one time she is.

-The night she gets caught is the a wet one, a storm raging well into the night. She had been wandering around aimlessly in the rain for hours aimlessly, the downpour soaking her to the skin and chilling her to the core. She finally happens upon a village and decides to break into a house to at least get out of the chilly storm, and so she chooses the first one she sees. She basks in the warmth of the home when she makes it in and promises herself to leave the moment the storm ebbs away, but in the meantime she may as well (quietly) make herself more comfortable. She helps herself to some of the food the family has stored and sits near the gently crackling fire to warm up, but with her belly full and near the warmth of the fire she ends up being lulled to sleep. She awakens with a start when she hears a surprised squeak, and finds herself being stared at by the young, wide-eyed Paya, a blanket clutched tightly to her chest.

-The two start each other for a long time before Paya begins questioning Sheik: who are you? How’d you get in? Why are you here? In her youth Sheik wasn’t prone to speaking, and even if she could she’d probably too shocked and scared of getting in trouble to actually say anything. Paya figures that much out and after a tense round of 20 questions, eventually offers Sheik to stay for at least until the rain stops.

-Between their actual meeting and the rain stopping, Paya manages to figure out that Sheik doesn’t actually have anywhere to go, so when the rain finally slows to a light drizzle and Sheik moves to leave, Paya hastily makes an offer: “If you’re hungry, y-you can come back again? Just at night though, so Gran Gran won’t g-get you in trouble?” And thus starts the routine of Sheik sneaking to the house in the darkness of the night, and Paya bringing her some food to eat.

-This goes on for a couple of weeks, long enough for the girls to befriend one another, Paya staying up late to talk with her new quiet friend. It’s the beginning of week three when Impa finally takes notice: Paya dozing off in the middle of their lessons and her apparent lack of sleep and their food going at a faster rate is what tips her off. It isn’t long after that she catches them in the act: Paya hauling an arm full of food to her room while Sheik quietly climbs in through the open window. There’s initial panic (on the children’s part: Impa easily put two-and-two together) before Impa allows Sheik to just sleep in the house that ngiht. Come morning she gets the full story and after a little questioning and thinking, she ultimately decides to just allow Sheik to stay for a while, at least until they figure out where she can go.

-It’s about a few days Sheik begins staying with them that the child happens upon Impa in the midst of her morning training routine. The workout has the woman practicing on a dummy in the middle of a training field and Sheik watches as Impa rolls, kicks, flips, sprints, moving as if she were a snake striking at its prey. The child’s mesmerized. I’d imagine this is what kick-starts Sheik’s desire to be taught to be a soldier, and after seeing the child’s potential, Impa agrees to it.

-A week extends to two, then weeks turn into months, with no signs of Sheik being able to go anywhere else. Or more like, she’s already found her place: quiet as she is, Impa can still see just how at home the orphaned girl seems to be: she wakes up at the ungodly early morning hours that Impa does, joining her on her quiet morning runs before they return to begin the training anew. Sheik does it all without nary a complaint; Impa suspects its because it seems to give the child a sense of purpose. When she isn’t training, she’s with Paya, and despite her reserved nature Sheik is drawn to the child like a moth to a flame.

Paya is no different, dragging Sheik along anywhere and everywhere, insisting they play together, talking and talking for hours. Sheik’s beginning to become more sister than she is friend to Paya, and the feeling is very obviously mutual. And against her better judgement, Impa can’t help but admit that she’s grown fond of the slip of a girl, so Impa just sorta… stops looking. She tells herself if Sheik asks to leave, then she’ll help her find somewhere she can go again but until then, the child seemed content right where she was. And as we can see, with them is exactly was where Sheik wanted to be.

-It’s a few years later, when Sheik was turning 17 with young Paya turning 10, that Impa finally asked Sheik if she wanted to take on their name and officially be part of the family. There’s many happy tears to be had that day. :’)