The New Hyrule ? Chaos of the Deserted

"Paya, your destiny is straight, a path never changing," Impa had said, guiding her granddaughter with her wise words. "You will not be a child much longer, my dear. Eve though Calamity Ganon is defeated, the Yiga Clan still holds their ground to oppose us."

Paya looked down at her feet, recalling her childhood and now her near future. Impa lay in her bed of cushions before the tapestry of the war of the hero 10,000 years ago. She bit her lip, memories of Master Link still seeping back through her like water to a sponge. She could never escape the fact Zelda was his destiny, and all she could do was to be happy for him. "Grandmother, I am not prepared," she murmured.

Impa held the golden breastplate of the Sheikah leader in her lap, her eyes intent on Paya with a fury. "You will not bring honor to the family heirloom? To our family name?"

Paya blushed, embarrassed that she had even come back home. Too bad Cado had caught her sneak away. He had asked her where she planned to go, and she lied. Lied to the cuccoo raiser she'd looked up to since birth. She told him she was sneaking away to the Fairy Fountain, as to see it for herself, but she knew she was leaving to escape Impa's begging for Paya to bring her honor in death.

Master Link had changed her. She had abandoned her training, and instead prayed to Hylia that he may return to aid her. Paya had been young in that memory, and foolish to believe she could just leave a life of responsibility.

"Who am I?" she often asked herself. Sitting here on the creaking floorboards, the dawn set upon Kakariko Village, staring up at the golden breastplate, she knew she was truly no child. Yet who was she?

The windows were her only partition from them, as in her people. The Sheikah looked up to Paya to aid them, but some like Dorian and maybe even Cado thought of her as too jovial...too childish.

Children do not belong in a mature place. Children like Paya.

Still, she contemplated whether it was her time yet. Yes, Impa had told her it was time to stand up against the Yiga Clan. Yes, Cado had informed her that that was the truth. Yes, Paya was still babying herself...

The same happened to Zelda, the one hundred years princess of Hyrule. Her power to save the world was unrefined, and it was absent for the time Calamity Ganon ruled. She prayed every day for guidance, yet no power came. Maybe the same was for Paya. Master Link was out of the picture; love inconsistent in these times of great servitude to the Sheikah.

The breastplate, heirloom of her family, was mounted upon wood. Paya took the cold golden chestpiece, and brought it over her head.

"Who am I?" she whispered, the sun glowing up the twinkling gold. Gently, Paya slid the breastplate over her own breasts, and then that was it.

Paya of the Sheikah was no longer a child. Paya was the leader of them all.