Welcome. This is a series of short stories based on Twilight Princess. Other games may be referenced in the future. The story title is lame, but I had to use one for the full anthology (or whatever you want to call it). Disclaimer: I own nothing; Nintendo owns everything. Hope you enjoy.

Slowly, Link returned to consciousness. He felt strange. He tried to remember what had happened, but he was still dazed and confused. I was at the spring talking to Ilia. Ilia! He remembered now. Ilia, Colin, the marauders. He bolted upright, only to find himself restrained by a chain cuffed to his right foreleg. A moment before, he'd been so shocked that he hadn't even noticed that he was now a quadruped. He tried to break free, but the chain held.

"Now, don't do that, little wolf. You'll hurt yourself."

Link looked around, but found no one. Then the chain that had kept him from trying to escape broke, and a strange being appeared outside a set of iron bars.

"If you can get out of there, maybe I'll help you," she said. He looked around the small, dimly lit prison cell. Things looked different from a wolf's perspective. His canine senses revealed a hole in the ground where he could dig himself out. Once he was free, the creature hopped on his back.

"There's someone I want you to meet," she said. She led him through the sewers and up a spiral staircase leading to the roof. Outside, the sky was tinged an odd dingy yellow, like the sunset Link had watched back in Ordon Village a few days before. But Link sensed that there was something different about this atmosphere. Something unnatural.

From the roof, they headed into the castle's highest tower through an open window. When they arrived at their destination behind a large double door, Link found a mysterious figure staring out the window into the shadowy twilight. The person was wearing a full-length, hooded black cloak, making Link unable to tell who or what it was.

"Midna?!" the person gasped. "Where have you been? The guards have been looking everywhere for you."

"So, this is the one you wanted," Link's companion answered, apparently dismissing the figure's concerns. "Somehow he's not what I expected."

Before Link could silently wonder what the creature, Midna, meant by that, the woman wearing the cloak turned to face them, though the hood and a muffler still hid her face. She knelt before Link and touched his paw.

"You were imprisoned?" she asked. Link nodded his lupine head, knowing he could not speak. The woman stood and returned to the window, staring forlornly past the lightly fogged glass.

"So, you should tell him what's going on. Don't you think... Twilight Princess?" The impish grin on Midna's dark face made her weighted words more concerning to Link, who was beginning to understand that there was a very important connection between what happened to him at the spring and this conversation.

After a moment's consideration, the woman spoke. She told Link of how creatures from the Twilight Realm had invaded the kingdom. Her kingdom. The once-beautiful land of Hyrule.

"The world is shrouded in Twilight. But I remain its Princess." She turned once again and removed her hood. "I am Zelda. Link, you must leave quickly. The guard will be here soon. I wish you luck."

With Midna still seated on his back, Link turned and left. As the pair made their way back out, Link's acute animal hearing alerted him to slow, heavy footsteps moving up the stairway of the tower. Knowing he could do nothing else, the wolf leaped to his freedom without looking back.

Zelda watched her only ally make his way across the castle's roof until he was out of view. Good luck, my Hero. She lowered her eyes to the floor, fighting back the cold feeling of despair that enveloped her just as tightly as the cloak she wore.

"Enjoying the view, Princess? King Zant asked. "Twilight has never looked so beautiful." She offered no response. "You made a wise decision by surrendering your kingdom to me. You should be happy to be alive."

"How can I be happy when my people are living as soleless spirits, completely unaware of what's happening around them?"

The King of Twilight turned and left her to her solitude.