Sorry this is so late! I've just been really busy lately... yeah, lame excuse. Please let me know what you think, and if I got their beast forms right! Especially Vaati's, because I wasn't really sure what would fit him. I also tried to keep Midna and Zant in character, but the last time I wrote Midna it was in Through the Looking Glass (which can be found on my profile, by the way- yes, shameless self-promotion) and she literally had, like, two lines. And this is the first time I've ever written Zant.

HUGE THANKS to SwordspiritFi9 for reviewing!

EDIT: Reposted to add a detail to Vaati that I forgot earlier.

EDIT 2014: Reposted with more edits and general touching up. Also, the title has been changed. And just for the heck of it, I retyped the original Author's Note as well. Dunno why, just did.

Disclaimer: See previous chapter.


The first thing that registered was the cold.

A shiver ran through my body, a result of the freezing cold cobblestone beneath my side.

Wait… cobblestone? Did I get drunk again and pass out or something or… Oh, s***.

The recollection of my transformation hit me full on and I snapped open my eyes.

My first thought upon observing my surroundings was oh no, not again, which refers to the Three's first wonderful trip to a nice, comfy prison cell. (Note the sarcasm). It was... an interesting adventure, to say the least.

However, now is not the time for storytelling. The much more immediate problem at hand was that I was now facing with three very pressing concerns, which were as follows:

1) I had transformed into a wolf and didn't know how to turn back

2) I was in a prison cell with a chain around my leg

3) I had no idea where the others were and was starting to panic slightly

4) I didn't know if my abilities worked in this new form

(Wait, that was four problems... eh, whatever.)

Numbers two, three and four were easily solved when I managed to collapse into one of the numerous shadows clinging the edges of the walls, thus neatly slipping out of the chain. I then slipped through the bars in shadow form (A.K.A. Shadow the black puddle, as Vaati had dubbed it) and exited the cell.

From there, I found myself in a long, narrow corridor with flickering torches placed in rusty metal brackets on the walls every couple yards or so. The cells were placed along the wall across from the torches, and I could see Dark and Vaati farther down. Vaati's lavender colored fur stood out in sharp contrast against the darkened room, but Dark blended with the shadows and was nearly impossible to see.

My older brother was a wolf as well, with jet-black fur and grey markings on his flank and a grey, tree-like design on his forehead, right between his eyes. As he stirred and sat up I saw that his eyes were the same piercing red they'd always been, almost exactly as they'd been when he was hylian.

"Shadow? Where are we?" He asked, looking around in confusion. I yipped and wagged my tail happily, gaining comfort from the fact that I wasn't alone now.

"Um, I think we're in the dungeons. Again. Only this time we're wolves, as far as I can tell," I replied. He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow, sitting up and fully taking in his surroundings. Then the full implications of my words stuck me.

"Oh, Goddesses, we're wolves. How in the name of Farore are we going to change back? We'll be stuck like this forever!" I howled dramatically, struggling to prevent a full-blown panic attack. Dark just sighed and rolled his eyes, already used to my overly dramatic antics.

"And you just realized this now? Gee, great timing. Shadow, you are just such an idiot sometimes..." he muttered, turning ghostly and floating out of the cell. I huffed in indignation and trotted over to Vaati, marveling to myself at how I just instinctively knew how to move along on four paws without tripping. Wolf instincts were awesome.

The former hylian was now a panther with lavender colored fur that transitioned to dark purple on the legs so that the fur gradually darkened as you went further down, as well as the same t-shaped markings under his red eyes as in hylian form. He also had a dark purple tipped tail that gradually lightened to lavender at the base, not unlike the time between night and day when dawn is breaking just over the horizon. That phrase would also describe the way his fur darkened at the paws. Finally, he sported a dark purple upside down crescent shape on his forehead, like a wide bowl.

At the moment, Vaati was attempting to figure out a method of escape from the steel manacle, with little success. He looked up when we approached, yowling happily and bounding forwards as far as the chain allowed.

"Shadow! Dark! Where are we? And how in the name of Farore are we animals?!" He mewled, sounding slightly hysterical. Dark sighed and answered with "Castle dungeons, I don't know. Now stand back so Shadow can blast the chain."

That shut him up pretty quick, and our adoptive brother quickly moved back into a far corner.

Now, one of my other abilities is that I can summon an unlimited amount of bombs from nowhere. Don't ask how, 'cause I don't know. I just can, end of story.

However, due to the lack of opposable thumbs, when I summoned one in appeared in my mouth. I quickly spit it out (they always appear with the fuse already lit, for some reason) and rolled it through the bars, watching as it came to a stop against the chain. The fuse burned down to a centimeter, and I counted down inside my head.

3...

2...

1...

BOOM! A small explosion blasted apart the metal links and Vaati grinned, now free. The manacle, unfortunately, was still attached, but there was only a short length (about three or four inches) of chain trailing along. Eh, it worked. Sort of. Good enough.

Using another bomb to blow apart the bars, Vaati exited through the newly created hole in the door and joined us, looking around the corridor and taking in what we'd already observed.

However, just as Dark opened his mouth to say something now that we were all together, a wolf that looked almost exactly like Dark came running towards us. He looked like a carbon copy of our oldest brother, except for the fringe of brown fur around his cheeks and the green stripe that ran down his spine.

The top of his tail was green, as was his large mane, the bridge of his nose, and his forehead. The fur around his cheeks was grey and brown, but otherwise he and our brother were almost identical. I saw that he had a manacle around his leg as well, showing that he, too, had at one point been imprisoned as we had.

The next thing I saw was the odd, imp-like creature riding on his back. It had a weird helmet that covered one yellow and orange eye, with glowing orange hair that looked almost like a hand sticking out of the back. The imp-thing was also covered in swirling black and white patterns with strange blueish-greenish markings on its arms. I saw a single fang sticking out from a mischievous smile, and a smirk that instantly put me on my guard.

Vaati and I automatically flanked Dark on either side, taking up defensive positions. Unconsciously we growled and felt the fur on our backs rise up, and our hackles raised in preparation for an attack. Off-handedly I marveled at how natural it felt to be growling like this. If I was still in hylian form I would have felt pretty silly. Guess it's all in the fangs.

Dark's double crouched down and did the same, with the imp's hair suddenly flaring up so that it arched forwards over its head. I jerked back, startled at this new development. Was the imp's hair... alive?! What in the name of the Goddesses-?!

The imp broke into peals of laughter at my reaction, clutching its sides as if it was going to fall off the unfamiliar wolf's back. Then it startle giggling crazily, sounding insanely creepy and slightly sadistic. I snorted and backed away warily. Dark and Vaati had the same reaction. Even the green wolf looked slightly freaked out by the actions of his passenger.

An awkward silence fell once the imp quieted, the five of us at an impasse. Finally, Vaati made the first move after several minutes of just standing there and staring at each other.

"Uhh, did you guys happen to have any long-lost relatives you never told me about? 'Cause he looks just like you, Dark."

"Nope, not as far as I know. Unless somebody tried to clone me and royally screwed up, 'cause I'm not green."

I had to suppress a snort at that one. Picturing Dark with green hair and blue eyes... my mental image looked like some sort of weird prank gone wrong. Actually, that wasn't a bad prank idea... the blue eyes might be a problem, though...

I felt a shiver run down my spine as the imp cackled again, sounding even more maniacal than before. It was actually fell off the green wolf's back from laughter, but just hovered in the air instead of falling. Our eyes bugged out, and I was strongly reminded of myself and my habit of reclining in the air as if relaxing on the ground. Did this imp have similar abilities?

The other wolf growled at his companion, though he did look decidedly less hostile than before. It seemed as if he thought that if the imp was laughing instead of being nervous, than we weren't going to be a threat. He was still wary, though, and his eyes never left us as he flicked the imp with his tail. Well, at least he wasn't stupid.

Finally, the imp ceased giggling and floated back onto its feet, twirling and letting out a decidedly girlish laugh.

"Ehehe! Well, well, well, what do we have here? More beasts, eh? Transformed by the twilight, I suppose. Hmmm... this is interesting... well, come along, then! What are you all doing just standing there?"

"..."

"What?"

The three of us stared, dumbfounded, at the sudden shift in demeanor from the imp, who was now seated on the green wolf's back and gesturing impatiently for us to follow. Well, that was sudden. I wondered if that thing was completely right in the head. Probably not, considering its actions.

Dark narrowed his eyes in suspicion, wary of this sudden mood swing. Was it trying to trick us, or lead us into a trap? If so, then we definitely weren't going to follow it. But if it could actually help us, then that's a whole different story...

"Come along, I said! Don't worry, I won't bite! Though he might... hmmm... well, how about this: if I help you escape, then you'll have to do exactly as I say! Got it?" She (I had decided that it was female from the voice) said smugly, sounding confident that we would accept.

Well, since she wasn't going to do anything we couldn't do ourselves, then we didn't need her help. Never mind.

The three of us exchanged glances, silently coming to a unanimous agreement.

"Sorry, but we'll find our own way. Thanks for the offer, though. Maybe we'll see you around once we figure out how we're beasts. See ya." Dark replied, turning and trotting towards what I'm pretty sure was the general direction of the exit. Vaati and I followed, resisting the urge to look back.

We hadn't gotten more than a few yards when the other wolf spoke up for the first time.

"Wait! Uh, what are your names? I'm Link." He called out, sounding slightly desperate. I wondered why, then figured it was the stress from shapeshifting into an unfamiliar form judging by the very much human intelligence I saw in his blue eyes. Dark stopped and looked over his shoulder, answers short and concise.

"I'm Dark, the smaller wolf is Shadow, and the panther is Vaati. Bye."

With that, he walked up to the wall and began prodding at the base, uncovering a small tunnel. Gesturing to the two of us with his tail, Dark then proceeded to crawl in. Vaati and I followed without hesitation, having taken this way the last time we were in here. As I slipped under the wall I heard the Link and the imp arguing about whether or not to follow us, but all sound was cut off as we exited at the other side.

Dark nodded as I shook the dirt from my fur and continued on, the three of us falling into our familiar positions in formation with Dark at point, Vaati flanking him on the left and me flanking him on the right.

It took us a little over fifteen minutes of work our way out of the maze that was Hyrule Castle's dungeons, but it did take less than half the time it took us to escape the first time. Finally, after traveling through the seemingly endless labyrinth of tunnels and water-filled sewers, fighting off twisted rat-things every step of the way, we emerged through a hidden tunnel that opened up into a giant hole in the ground behind the castle in North Hyrule Field.

From there, we could either drop into Zora's River and hope that we didn't drown before being washed into Lake Hylia or just fly up and out of the hole. Naturally, what with the odd... uh, that did she call it...? Oh yeah, "twilight". And here I was thinking that twilight was just a time of the day. Anyway, what with all the weird twilight and black square things floating around, we decided to go check out the town and see what was going on with the residents.

Unfortunately, the moment we emerged from the hole and floated down onto solid ground (Dark in ghost form, I was flying, and Vaati riding a tornado) we were surrounded by what looked like huge black spires of rock with strange markings on them. Impenetrable barriers then jumped between them, trapping us. Then a swirling black and red portal appeared in the sky and dropped down three black monsters.

They looked almost like deformed monkeys, but with stone slabs instead of heads and black dreadlocks. They also moved in a strange lunging motion and tried to slash at us with their spindly claws, and were covered in the same strange markings as the barrier.

Springing into action, we quickly took down two of them after taking a moment to get used to fighting in these forms. Unfortunately, after they slumped to the ground, the remaining third let out a horrible screech, so bad that we were temporarily paralyzed. Then, to our horror, it resurrected the two dead creatures! What the f***!?

"Guys! We have to kill them all at the same time! Otherwise they'll just bring each other back to life again!" Dark howled after we'd accidentally left one alive again. Vaati and I nodded and the three of us each sprang at a different monster, biting and clawing but refraining from delivering the killing blow until Dark gave the signal.

Then all three of us attacked at the same time, viciously ripping out their necks. The creatures all slumped to the ground at the same time, exploding into tiny squares and vanishing back into the portal. The barriers disappeared and portal turned blue-green, but to our relief, no more monsters fell through.

Dark, Vaati, and I collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. We were all covered into scratches and cuts, with Vaati sporting a particularly nasty one across his side where one of the things had gotten a lucky hit in. But nothing was life-threatening, so we took the time of regain our energy and lick our wounds.

As we lay there, I reflected over all that had happened that day. First, we'd woken up in the dungeons as beasts. Then, we'd been attacked by black monster-things. Finally, before we were in the dungeons we'd seen a blanket of this unnatural "twilight" burst from the Castle and cover the entire town. If it kept spreading at the rate it was going, it was probably at the Ordon Province my now.

Unfortunately, at that moment the fish-headed man appeared. He was dressed in long black robes with green-blue designs on them and long fringes on the sleeves, plus grey armor on his shoulders and blocky brown shoes that looked painful to walk in. He also had a long, reddish tapestry-thing hanging down his chest. And, of course, who could miss the giant helmet shaped like the head of a fish.

My first thought when he showed up was Is that guy sticking his tongue out at us? This was because on the helmet it looked as if the tongue curled inwards, but to me it looked like he was sticking it out. Of course, as I would soon find out, the tongue was curved outwards that way for a reason...

My next impression was one of danger. Now, I've heard that animals can use a "sixth sense" to tell good people from bad people and so on. So according to my wolfish instincts, this guy was seriously bad news. As in, he's-either-going-to-kill-me-horribly-and-painfully-or-he's-going-to-torture-me-like-a-cat-with-a-mouse bad news.

Then the tongue of his helmet slid upwards with a shingshingshing sound, like sliding metal. It somehow managed to sound as creepy as metal plates could sound, and revealed pale white lips that looked like they had diagonal cuts on each corner. I shuddered and felt the hair on my back stand straight up, pulling back my lips and growling aggressively.

"Ahhh, more light-dweller beasts," he said, spitting out the words light-dweller like they were something disgusting. "It seems that the Goddesses had more than one pet. No matter, the power from my god will crush you all. But I suppose that would be no fun... well then, go join your little friend. I believe he's just figured out where he is..."

With that, he waved his overly long sleeve and warped away, then somehow managed to teleport us to the air far above the Castle. To do so, we dissolved into the little black squares that were floating around from the top down, then just appeared in thin air. The sensation was... disorienting, to say the least.

Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to dwell on it, as I was more concerned with the rapid rate at which I was approaching the very sharp and pointy tower that would no doubt skewer me like a vendor's meat stick. Since I would prefer to keep my skin intact, I stopped my fall and hovered above it.

Vaat, who had appeared to my left, was riding on a small purple tornado that was his preferred method of travel. Dark was in ghost form below me, half in and half out of the tower wall. He winced every time the strong wind buffeted him, though, and had to fight to keep from being blown away. The driving rain probably didn't help much either. Vaati's tornado was bucking like a wild pony, the winds uncooperative as they fought to join the storm around them. I was attempting to simply hover and to not get blown away by the wind.

The three of us alighted on the rooftop, wondering how this mysterious storm had sprung up out of nowhere and was somehow managing to hit only the Castle and North Castle Town, a very localized area. Looking back, I can't believe I didn't recognize the signs after living with a wind sorcerer, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a natural storm.

"Hey! Is that Link over there?" Vaati shouted over the wind, digging in his claws and narrowing his slitted eyes. I looked over to where he was indicating and felt a tremor of shock run through my paws as I recognized the blurry shape of a wolf and an imp standing on the roof by the northern tower. It didn't seem as if they saw us.

Dark nodded and began moving forward, working to find purchase on the slippery roof shingles. Luckily there was a break in the wind, which made it easier.

We got to them just as the imp looked like she'd finished a speech of some sort, and she looked over at us as if to say You again?

"Well, the little doggies and kitty decided that they wanted to tag along after all," she sneered. "How nice."

"Hey guys." Link said, pointedly ignoring the imp's rudeness. "Midna says that if I go back to the place that I entered to twilight from, I might be able to turn back into a hylian. Do you guys want to see if it'll work for you?"

The three of us exchanged glances. Goddesses, this guy trusted easily. That was going to get him into trouble someday... but still, never look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Sure, but technically we turned into animals over by the Plaza. But since we don't have any other leads, why not?" Dark replied. Midna looked a little miffed that we were tagging along, but twirled around and seemed to disappear as she rotated. Then the feeling of dissolving from the top down again, and I would have groaned if I still had a mouth to groan with. Ugh, I hated warping...