'Midna…it's been a full year.' A young boy, only about eighteen (not sure how old he was when he set out.) sat along the edge of a small spring. He was gazing up into the colors of twilight. His faithful mare, Epona, was nearby, nibbling on some fresh green grass.
"It's been a whole year, can you believe it girl?" Link looked over at his horse. She lifted her head and looked up at the sky with her owner.
Link reached toward his neck and pulled a strange black stone from the folds of his green tunic. It was attached to a thick cord and cloth covered the stone. Link lifted the cloth away and stared at the oddly shaped stone. It had spiraling orange markings around it and it seemed to give off strange energy.
It had become a tradition that every night at twilight, Link would use the stone and become the great blue-eyed beast. He would roam around the forest, hunting bokoblins and whatnot. He did this as a reminder of what it used to be like when his Twili friend was perched on his back. Thanks to his nightly excursions, Ordon had been faced with less raids and attacks from the many monsters living in the forest.
The villagers had wondered why the attacks were reduced from nearly every night to maybe once a week. Link had given an excuse that the monsters usually got away from the Hero of Time and would live elsewhere.
"This would be way better with you, Midna." Link stated sadly before he touched the stone. Dark greenish fur grew over his skin, his jaws growing sharp canines. Before he knew it, Link had become a fearsome wolf.
-I'll be back later Epona.- The wolf yipped to the placid mare.
-Don't get hurt again, Rusl was getting suspicious when you came into town with a broken arm.- The mare warned.
Link grinned wolfishly and bounded out toward the woods. He came to a stop when he reached a familiar clearing. 'This is where Midna and I fought some of those shadow beasts.
Link sniffed around until he came across a familiar scent. 'Keese.' (Those are the bat things right? It's been a while since I played Zelda.)
Link bounded forward until he came to a large tree. The trunk had a large tunnel through the middle of it and five keese were perched at the top. Link growled and launched himself into the air, grabbing a wing in his powerful jaws. The keese shrieked in surprise and attempted to fight back, but Link just snapped its neck.
The four other keese screeched in rage and launched themselves at the wolf. Link jumped at the nearest one scratched it's wing, causing the bat-like creature to fall to the ground. Link pounced and bit down on its neck.
The remaining three attacked together. Link bit one, crushing its small body. He released the limp form with a yowl of pain as the other two keese bit onto his side and hind leg. He spun around quickly, sending the two flying into trees and they both disappeared in a poof of black smoke.
'Guess I'm done for tonight.' Link thought as he winced in pain from the two bite wounds. Both were dripping blood onto the forest floor. 'Dang, those keese had really sharp teeth.'
The blue-eyed beast began to slowly limp away, toward his home. When Link finally made it to Ordon spring he looked up at the sky and swore. 'It's almost morning, dammit! The kids are going to be up soon and I can't change back without the light arrow.'
When Midna gave Link the stone, so he could transform, they found that they needed a way to change Link back without Midna's help. Luckily Zelda had found out that light magic would change him back so she gave Link a special arrow that she enforced with some of her light magic. All Link had to do was touch the arrow and he would change back.
Unfortunetly, the arrow was in a buried chest, under the tree next to his house.
'Well, I atleast have to try.' Link broke into a awkward lope as he rushed toward his house.
Link cautiously entered the clearing where his house was and sighed in relief. 'The kids aren't here yet.'
Quickly, Link began digging up his chest. When the chest was uncovered, Link nudged it open with his snout and touched his nose to the arrow. Light enveloped his body as he changed to his human form once more. Link replaced the arrow into the chest and buried it.
Right as Link stood, four excited children ran into the clearing.
"Hey Link! Can I try out your chain and ball today?" Talo looked up at him pleadingly.
"Can you even wield that thing, it's as big as you are." Link replied.
"I don't know, that's why I want to try."
Link turned as he heard Colin and Beth gasp in surprise.
"Link…you're bleeding!" Colin said in concern.
Link looked down at his heavily bleeding side and leg. 'What should I tell them?!' Link asked himself. 'I know! I got attacked by a rabid squirrel…no, I killed the last one years ago. Hmm…I…got attacked by a group of keese when I took a walk through the woods…oh wait, that is what happened…sort of.'
"Link?"
Link was jolted out of his thoughts when a concerned Beth asked what happened.
"Oh, it's nothing, I just took a walk through the woods and got attacked by a flock of keese." Unfortunetly, this just caused Colin and Beth to become even more concerned.
"Link! Keese are poisonous!" Beth exclaimed.
"You should know that!" Colin added.
Link rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh yeah…I forgot." This caused Colin and Beth to sweatdrop anime style.
"Come on!" Colin grabbed Link's hand and started running toward the village.
"Colin! Really I'm fine, I've had worse!" Colin just kept pulling him toward Rusl's house.
The two slowed down as they reached the house. Rusl was sitting on the porch, he was fixing a broken fishing rod. He looked up when he saw the two boys running toward him, in Link's cause, being dragged toward him.
"Hey boy's what's the problem?"
"Dad, Link's hurt, he was bit by keese!" Colin pointed to Link's wounds.
Rusl jumped up and started walking into the house to grab bandages and medical supplies.
A few minutes later Rusl returned and set down a few rolls of bandage and a small bottle with a green liquid inside.
"Okay Link, sit down an-" Rusl was cut off as a large roar was heard.
"What was that?" Colin asked nervously, looking toward Link's house, where the roar was heard from.
Link took a step forward and pulled out his sword from its sheath.
Before anyone could blink, a large black shape hurled itself from the entrance of the pathway from Link's house and charged toward the waiting hero.
Lightning fast, Link pulled his sword up, just as a large paw collided with the metal. The creature howled in pain and stepped back, blood dripping from it's front paw.
The creature was a large fox-like creature. It stood about as tall as Rusl and was covered in black fur. Bright red was mixed into the fur and a large patch on his back formed a strange swirling design. It's eyes were blood-red. A large black and red tail waved behind it.
'It's a twili beast!' Link thought in surprise as he felt the dark magic pouring off the creature.
"Rusl, make sure no one gets hurt!" Link commanded. All the villagers had run out of their homes and were staring in shock at the beast. Rusl quickly nodded and ran over to gather the villagers and children together.
As soon as Rusl left, Link lunged toward the beast. He jumped into the air and raised his sword above his head. Unfortunetly, the beast raised it's uninjured paw and slashed Link away.
Link crashed into the ground hard. He slowly stood up and noticed he had a huge cut running from chest down to his left hip. Blood was seeping out of the wound, but that wasn't what caught Link's attention. The wound was pulsing with strange dark magic.
Link fell to the ground on all fours as incredible pain shot through the wound and into his body. Black fur erupted from his skin, a long, muzzle grew from his face. Claws and fangs sprouted. When the transformation was complete, Link slowly picked himself off the ground. 'What did that thing do-…I…I'm in my wolf form! Crap I just changed in front of the whole village!'
Link didn't get much time to panic though, because the large fox beast was advancing toward him. Link snarled and leapt onto the creature's back and bit down hard in anger for exposing his secret. Link seemed to attack with renewed energy as he viciously bit and clawed at the beast until it finally dropped to the ground, dead.
Link looked up from his kill to see Rusl with a look of surprise on his face.
"L…Link…is that you?" Rusl asked cautiously. Colin and the rest of the villagers came up behind Rusl and stared at the black wolf.
"Link hesitantly nodded his head but then gasped as pain ripped through his chest. His wound was still bleeding heavily and his sight was getting blurry. Darkness started to come over Link and he collapsed on the ground.
"LINK!" Rusl and Colin yelled, running toward the fallen beast.
…………………………..
'W…What happened…my beast form!!' Link opened his eyes and shot up. He stifled a yowl of pain as he fell to the ground again.
"Link! It's okay, everyone is safe." Colin came over and knelt by the wolf.
Link looked up in surprise as Colin checked the bandages around his torso.
Catching this look, Colin said, "Don't worry Link. Just because you're a wolf now doesn't change anything. Sure everyone in the village is a bit shocked, but its not your fault that you were changed by that beast. You're still the same Link."
Link whimpered in guilt when he realized that Colin still didn't know that he did chose to become a wolf. Well, obviously not in front of everyone, but every night.
'When they find out, everyone will probably think I've turned into a monster.'
"Link, no matter what form you're in, you're still my friend." Colin stated. Link smiled at his young friends words.
'Thank you.'
…………………
Link trotted happily outside. It had taken two long months, but he was finally out of that little house. His wound was completely healed and he was restless. Colin smiled at his friend's antics as Link galloped across the village.
Link stopped abruptly as a familiar scent came to him. 'Ilia!' He barked happily and raced over to his friend who was petting Epona as she drank from the creek.
"Link! You're all better." Ilia bent down and ruffled his fur.
Link grumbled as she messed with his ear.
"Sorry Link, but you're just so cute in this form, with your wagging tail."
Ilia giggled as Link growled.
'I know! I'll go change back with my light arrow and then I'll push Ilia into the creek.'
Link grinned wolfishly and jumped away toward his home. Colin and Rusl looked up in surprise as Link raced past. They looked at each other, nodded, and then followed the wolf up to his house.
When they reached the clearing, they found Link digging furiously under a large tree.
"Link, what are you doing?" Rusl asked in confusion.
Link ignored them as he pulled a small chest up from the hole. Nudging the chest open, Link grabbed the arrow in his jaws and waited. Nothing happened. Confused, Link dropped the arrow and touched it with his nose. Nothing. 'What's going on, I can feel the light magic in it.'
Link repeatedly touched, lifted or grabbed the arrow, much to the confusion of Colin and Rusl.
"Link, what are you trying to do?" Colin asked as Link grabbed the arrow in his teeth and shook his head in frustration.
Disgusted, Link threw the arrow to the ground and walked toward the entrance of Faron woods.
"Wait Link, where are you going?" Rusl called out. The wolf stopped and walked toward the pair. He barked and yipped a few times.
Rusl looked at him confused. Link sighed in frustration and thought for a few moments.
Link's ears perked up as he came up with an idea. Link walked over to a patch of dirt and started clawing.
'Darn this is really hard.' Link tried, for the third time to scratch the words Princess Zelda into the ground. It looked more like On)/sm \o.
Link gave up and looked up at his house. 'I wonder if I could climb up the ladder, I have a picture of her upstairs.'
Link walked over toward the ladder and placed his front paws onto the third rung.
Seeing what he was trying to do, Rusl ran over in alarm and grabbed his scruff. Link turned around and growled at him.
"No, you'll fall and hurt yourself." Rusl replied sternly. "We'll find another way to get you up there."
Rusl thought for a moment then started running toward his house. "Colin wait here and make sure Link doesn't try to climb the ladder again." Rusl called over his shoulder.
Colin walked over to the sulking Link and petted his head.
'Hmpf, stupid petting.'
……………………
Okay everyone, please read and review, this is my very first attempt at a Zelda fic, I'm used to doing Naruto.