Chapter 1
Dark flopped down on a rather cushy couch "What do you want?"
"Lord Ganondorf wants to see you"
Dark glared at Ene "Well tell him I'm not in the mood for another job" she snapped "And if he's not happy with that, then to bad."
Ene rolled her eyes "He wants you for another reason" she lied.
"Then he can come up here" Dark muttered, rolling over.
Ene growled "What? And I'm supposed to tell him this?"
"That's an order" Dark replied lazily.
Fuming, Ene stormed out Dark's room and down the long maze like passages of the remade castle. After waking up one day to find it in horrible shape, Ganondorf had had it remade in a way that made it confusing to get around should it ever fall under attack again. The location of all the private rooms hadn't changed, but the hallways around them had, making the walk to deliver Dark's message at least twice as long as it ought to be.
Ene was hesitant to open the door to her lord's room. Though if he were upset most of his anger would be taken out on Dark, by virtue of the fact that she was closest she may be hurt too. Then she'd be missing teeth like Mie was.
"What is it?" Ganondorf asked the second Ene gathered the courage to open the door.
"Um… Dark…"
"What about Dark? Is he coming or not?"
"He wants you to come to him, my lord." Ene mumbled.
"Does he now?" Ganondorf stood up "He is sick, isn't he? Well, I'd hate to ruin the health of one of my few competent and actually skilled men. Very well."
Ene felt her insides burn with jealousy. If anyone else had said to make Ganondorf come to then rather than the other way around they'd have been thrown in the dungeon. Hopeful that may yet happen, she followed Ganondorf to see how his conversation with the increasingly moody shadow went.
Unlike everyone else in the palace, Ganondorf did not wait for permission before entering Dark's room. The shadow rolled back over on the couch as her lord entered "Yes?"
"I have an assignment for you"
"Of course" there was a note of bitterness in Dark's voice.
"You are aware of the fact that Shadow Link, the one you insisted I not kill, has not yet returned. You are to find him-and bring him to me for imprisonment."
"My lord, have you not considered the possibility that you gave him a task and he's simply still completing it?" Dark asked. It was a well known fact that imprisonment was the equivalent of torture when applied to one of Ganondorf's minions.
"Why would I have sent him off without you to supervise?"
"He may have proven himself. Or maybe he already died and we buried him somewhere" Dark yawned, doing her best to seem bored with the subject. "Besides, I really don't want to work right now"
"Six months is enough time for most men to prove there worth. But I doubt Shadow could have done so in that time, he was a little bellow average" Dark examined the decoration on the ceiling as Ganondorf spoke "Though, I must admit, several things I wouldn't have expected seem to have changed mysteriously during that time period. Your voice, for one. I'd like to remember what caused that"
"I-I probably just got hit in the wrong spot by Link or something" Dark said a little too quickly. She had no wish to face the humiliation of reveling to Ganondorf's entire army that she had become a girl with no idea how.
Not that anyone knew what had happened in the previous six months. Something Ganondrof had been quick to blame on Vaati, saying something about 'the little runt looking for revenge'. Why he'd want revenge Dark had no idea. Dark had never even seen him before.
"Mm-hm. Very well. I'll give Shadow one more week to return. If not, you're to go out and look for him. Feel free to take a horse, if walking is too much of a strain"
"I'm touched that you care"
"Of course I do" Ganondorf smirked "We don't have the supplies to create another shadow with Link's strength any time in the near future"
Dark snorted "Whatever. Go make you own shadow next time, why don't-cha?"
At hearing this idea Ganondorf looked like he'd just found gold. Ene looked like the world was about to end. How could Dark be so rude to their lord and not be punished at all for it?
Dark continued to glare at Ganondorf and Ene with blood red eyes until they left the room "Ugh…" she sighed and placed a hand on her stomach "I wish he'd leave me alone until I really did feel better. Shadow, you no good little runt, if I have to get up and find you while I'm still sick I don't care what Ganondorf wants, I'll beat the living daylight out of you!" She grabbed a pillow and chucked it across the room before rolling back over again so that her face was buried in the back of the couch.
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Vaati groaned and collapsed onto his bed. He yawned, rolled over, and begin to wrap himself up in the covers when a ear piercing cry filled the house. "I'm getting up" he called, exhausted. Sighing, he got up and stumbled out of the room and into the one next to it, where a small lavender haired baby was crying.
"I really, really wish you and your sister could wake up at the same time" he muttered, digging around in a cabinet near Ruo's crib in search of milk "It would make my life so much easier. And I don't even have anyone else to pass this work off on. Makes me wish I hadn't made Dark leave. I bet she'd give me a break from you two every now and then…"
Vaati paused as he grabbed a bottle of milk "…I wonder… what spell she tried to use on me…?" he shook his head "Don't think about it! Dark's safer under Ganondorf's protection. The less I think about her, the better… though sooner of later I'll have to go back and make her a guy again…"
He pulled the bottle out, warmed it quickly with magic and held it out so that Ruo could get his mouth around the tip.
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"You know…" Aure tilted her head slightly so that her crimson bangs fell in front of her face "I think you're faking. No one can really have a stomach flu for three weeks and look so healthy throughout it"
"Keep your hair like that, Aure" Dark replied scathingly as she poked around at her food "It hides that ugly mug of yours"
"Why you stuck up little-" Mie held Aure back when she tried to charge "You wouldn't be so bold if you weren't some carbon copy of Link! You freak! Your just something sown together with magic" Dark dropped her fork "who do you think you are to talk to an actual person like that you dumb shadow-?"
Aure's voice suddenly failed her, as most peoples did when they had a sword at there neck "Don't you dare speak to me that way" Dark hissed "Try that again, and it'll be the last thing you do."
"Settle down, Dark" Ganondorf ordered. Dark flinched and dropped her sword "I'd prefer not to lose any of my Gerudo to my own men."
"Y…yes my lord" Dark mumbled, bending over and retrieving her blade.
Aure snickered "Well, I guess a dog like you need to bow to his-" the last word never came out. Dark had cut off her arm.
"She's not dead" Dark said simply as he sheathed his sword "So you didn't 'lose her'. I'm going to bed."
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On Vaati's left Ruo had snuggled up against his leg. On his right Aki lay by herself on the ground. A spell book was open on Vaati's lap, but Vaati himself had fallen asleep.
Ruo yawned and stared up at his mother with blood red eyes. He wasn't hungry, and as it was he was satisfied with leaning against his mother, so he saw no reason to cry. He reached out and grabbed a page of the book, though it wasn't the one Vaati had turned to before falling asleep.
Fascinated with his ability to latch on to things, Ruo noticed only a little too late that he was falling over. The page came out as he fell. Yet another fascinating discovery.
Ruo rolled on top of the page. It felt different from most of the things is mother had let him on top of in the whole 23 days of his life. He giggled and startled flopping around on the paper, having no real control over his motions. The paper suddenly caught on fire.
It was at this point that Vaati woke up.
He hastily snatched Ruo away, upsetting the little boy, and extinguished the flames with a quick spell. Looking around, he couldn't see anything that would have set the now ruined paper on fire "Did you do that?" he asked Ruo. The baby just giggled "Great. This is just what I needed. A baby who's already trying to use magic."
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"There we go. All fixed up"
"This isn't fixed" Aure mumbled dejectedly. The bandages around her shoulder stopped the bleeding, but they didn't make her arm come back.
"Well what are you looking for? A miracle? Come on, move" the doctor ordered "I have other patients" It was a lie. No one else was waiting. The doctor just wanted Aure gone. He didn't really want to treat any Gerudo, but trapped in Ganondorf's castle under the threat of his life, he didn't have much of a choice.
Aure muttered something incoherent and stepped out into the hall where Ene was waiting "I'd like to get Dark for this" she told her sister "That no good shadow. Who does he think he is? Crippling you. Talking back to lord Ganondorf. Ignoring orders. His authority has gone to his head. It's high time someone put him in his place."
"He doesn't have a temperature" Aure muttered
"Huh?"
"Dark isn't sick. He doesn't have a temperature. I felt it the other night when I had to go deliver something to him. If you could prove to Ganondorf that he's faking-you know how he treats people who skimp off jobs…"
"Right"
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Rune Caster: Well? Waddaya think? Is it good? Is it bad? Does it totally not satisfy you after that not quite happy ending end to Child of Darkness? Answer me!!