Hey everyone! I'm going to try to update this weekly, so please be patient with me! Thanks to those who added this story to their favorite and alert lists! (I wouldn't mind a review, though. ;D)

Okay, so I lied about something. But just a bit. In this chapter, we have Link, Maeva and Midna enlist the help of a smurfette monkey to enter the Forest Temple. First, I'm going to be honest-I've got an insane aversion to writing about dungeons, because people have a tendency to expect the dungeon to be written to the letter. dmc87 told me that she did as much when she wrote her chapter about the Forest Temple so that it practically came out as a walkthrough, and the lie part is that while I know I should've completely revised this, I took some of her dialogue and moved things around enough so that it's not a walkthrough anymore, but if you notice similarities in dialogue, that would be the cause.

However, though you may not notice it much if you don't look too closely, Maeva from My Way is still, in ways, different from Maeva from Twilight Child. I'm working on Death Mountain right now (and gracious I'm gagging left and right. that's how much I hate dungeons) and if you played Twilight Princess, you will note that I took recognizable elements from the Goron Mines, but I did not write the dungeon as it was played. LoZ dungeons are way too long for that, I think. You'll see what I mean in this chapter.

Anyway, I hope you read all that... It's important to me so I hope it's kinda a little just a teeny bit important to you too. :)

Please enjoy!


My Way

Chapter 2: Barking, never quite biting

I've only ever felt this way once before – trapped like a beast, cornered on all sides, nowhere to run to but where they expect. Link advances, still smiling in that ridiculously approachable manner that would earn him all the hearts of the world, the way a hero should be adulated. I want to leave, burrow deep into the ground like his wolf form somewhere and go far away, where he is not, where I won't be trapped in a shadow like his. I almost prefer the fear of the villagers, but I presume they would only summon Link and then he'll be there again, smiling like that—

To my relief, he halts when Midna flies out of his shadow, giggling. "Well, well," she says, and for the first time in very long, her loud personality is welcome and I am grateful for it. "You're the chosen hero and all that, huh? So that's why you turned into that beast! What a shame…" Midna clicks her tongue. "I mean, maybe you'd rather just wander as a spirit like the rest of them, totally unaware of what was happening for all eternity, right?"

Link's eyebrows furrow as he shakes his head.

"Eee hee hee!" Midna floats over to me. "Just the answer we expected, right, Maeva?"

"I suppose," I surprise even myself by grumbling.

"What did you say?" asks Midna, pretending she didn't hear me.

"Yes," I answer, hoping she'll stop this foolishness soon. I know she only does it to taunt me, knowing I can do nothing. "Just the answer."

"Great! So what do you want to do?" Midna asks Link, but hardly waits for a reply. "Do you want to head to that temple? Well, isn't that convenient? Maeva and I were about to head there ourselves! Hey, look – you want to help your friends, right? The way I see it, maybe they're in the temple, waiting for you to rescue them…"

I've always admired this about Midna – the way she manages to put words together in a way that will force whoever is listening to bend to her will – but then they were both skilled at that. I highly doubt the rest of the children (though Link is hardly a child – he seems older than me, in fact) are in that forest temple, however. Bulblin's raids travel from village to village, taking their prisoners along for each ride out. They wouldn't deposit them somewhere like a temple.

"Well," Midna shrugs, pretending to leave the decision to him, but when it comes to Midna, it only ever feels that way. She is so cunning. "Good luck, Mr. Important Hero!"

Link glances down at his shadow before staring out at the gate in contemplation. Perhaps he does, being the hero chosen by the gods, but I don't have the time to waste.

"Well?" I ask. "What's your decision? You'll have plenty of time to alert the villagers of your return when we finish exploring the temple."

Link opens his mouth to speak, only to shut it again. "I…" he nods to himself. "I will go to the Temple."

"Wonderful," I mutter, dragging my wet person away from the spring. Now that the light spirit is gone and I am left with Link, all I can feel are my waterlogged sandals and cold trousers. I must look terrible. When I hear only myself trudging through the water, I realize he isn't following me. Just what is he waiting for? I ask him this. "Unless you plan to stand there all morning, follow."

When he catches up, I hand him the sword and shield he and Midna earlier acquired. "These will be your weapons. Do you know how to use them?"

"I do," he says, voice louder and clearer than before. It is deep, heady, and truly a man's, but there is a lightness to it that betrays…I don't know. I don't know people here well enough to be able to tell. "Thank you," he adds. "It's a pleasure to finally speak to you in person."

"Isn't it?" I give him a patronizing smile.

He doesn't react. He only smiles, wielding the poor shield and the sword properly. Is he that dull or just naïve? I begin to dislike him. How can anybody keep their composure with the smirk that I presented him?

Now he walks ahead of me. "Come on," he says. "I know the way to the temple."

It would be foolish if you didn't, given that this is your home… but I keep that to myself as we cross the road narrowed by tall hills into a grassy area I recognize – the gate that leads to Faron woods, near the hut and the cauldron. The gate is still locked, so I move to jump over it again, but Link swerves left and approaches a man sitting on a log next to the cauldron – a different sort of human. He has caramel skin and thick, curly hair which – to my surprise, Link doesn't seem amazed by at all – houses a nest of multicolored birds, chirping peacefully.

"Coro," Link greets him. "That gate to the Faron Woods – you wouldn't happen to know where the key is, would you?" It's just like a human to unnecessarily ask help from another – then again, this seems to be the way of the princess, as well.

Coro falls off his log as he sees us, scattering the birds off by accident. He squints his eyes at Link, tilting his head slightly, before replying with a relief-filled laugh. "It's the Ordonian!" he says. "You seemed familiar, but then your clothes seemed kinda different, so I got thrown off for a second!" He leans in, motioning for Link to emulate him. Of course, I can still hear him perfectly well. "Listen. Things have been a little rough around here lately, so you should watch your step, okay, guy?"

"Sure, Coro," Link answers. "But do you know how to—"

"Yeah," Coro shakes his head. Another thing about humans – they send such mixed messages. "I have the key. I got kinda scared of all the monsters so I closed it, but…you really wanna go back there, huh, guy? You sure do look geared up for it. Here!" He tosses a small key to Link and sits back, staring at us as if we're a painting to be beheld. He finally notices me. "Oh, hey, guy, who's that girl?"

"This is Maeva," he tells Coro. I don't like it when he says my name – it makes me feel queasy. It must be my growing irritation for him. "Maeva," he says again as he turns to me, motioning to his friend, "this is Coro."

"Nice to meet you, girl!" Coro says with a wave. I have a name, and if he isn't going to acknowledge that, I won't acknowledge his, either. I only incline my head in return for his recognition.

"We have the key, so let us leave. The quicker we achieve our goals in the temple, the sooner we can go our separate ways," I tell Link.

I am unable to see his reaction, as Coro speaks and takes our attention. "Ooh," he laughs. "Bittersweet, isn't she guy?"

I can't help but glare at Coro. "Enough time has already been wasted. Give me the key if—"

"No, it's all right," says Link, and I waves goodbye to Coro. He opens the gate and we enter the tunnel. "I'm sorry about what Coro said," he tells me, the fire lighting up his eyes when he holds up a lantern to light the path. "He doesn't really think before he says things."

"So I've noticed. You call him a friend? He cannot even remember your name."

Link chuckles slightly as we exit the tunnel and come out into the woods. What does he find so amusing? "I think it's just a habit of his to call people guy or girl."

Yes, you think. What a surprise. I survey our surroundings with a frown, closing my peripheral vision of Link by scratching beside my right eye. Even without the Twilight, the miasma still persists. What could be the cause of this? And why is there a monkey on that bridge before the miasma, swinging around a lantern that looks exactly like Link's?

The realization comes to me with the shrill sound of Midna's yelling. "You idiot! While you were staring off into dreamland, your lantern got stolen!"

"Midna…" I turn with a finger to my lips and see only her silhouette, her arms crossed at Link. That's right; she can't appear properly in the untainted realm of light. I almost feel pity for the human – I cannot stand it when Midna reprimands me, either – but Link ignores Midna, choosing instead to watch the monkey.

The monkey wears a flower on its right ear. But that is irrelevant (though I am curious about it) and what I should notice is that when it – or she? – swings the lantern around the way it does, the miasma dissipates.

"Maeva." I return to reality as Link calls me, now beside the monkey. Do they know each other? "Are you coming?"

"…Of course," I mutter. Is he implying that I was slowing us down, the way he delayed our departure from the spring earlier? Ugh.

"I helped this monkey earlier, in the twilight," Link says. "I wonder if she recognizes me."

"Midna says beasts possess heightened senses," I reply. "You should know."

Link seems to be content with this answer and says nothing more. How can a human simply accept a barrage like that? This is why it was so easy for that tainted twilight to take over this realm; because they don't know how to fight! This—

"Maeva, look out!"

Link shoves me out of the way with his arm guard and slices at something behind me with his sword. I shake my head in surprise and turn to my left at the sound of something hissing and then dying – a bleeding Deku Baba, its tongue still lashing. Disgusting!

Link offers me a hand. "Are you all right?"

I ignore him and rise on my own. I'm not a helpless human. "I'm fine," I answer stiffly, and direct attention back to the monkey, jumping around and waving at us with the lantern. "Hurry."

It was only by chance that he was looking – but I must remember to watch out for my surroundings, too. It has been too long since I've been out in the wilderness. In any case, what kind of swordsman uses his left hand to wield his blade? This Link is such an oddity. The monkey takes us through the miasma, crawling with Deku Baba that are no longer able to surprise us, for now. When we are safely out of the woods, she drops the lantern and makes a little bit of noise before running off.

"That was bizarre," I comment, and pick up the lantern before Link can. When he looks at me questioningly, I answer, "Should you lose it again."

He says nothing except, "here," when he directs us north of the woods. We pass by a tall length of planks, like a bridge, leaning against a hill, but take no notice of it and pursue the path towards the clearing before the temple. There, a small shop that I'm certain wasn't present before stands. A blue toucan mans it, two cauldrons filled with a red and yellow green mixture, a box in between them where one might drop money.

"Welcome! Hey!" the bird squawks, its voice crackling and extremely unpleasant to the ears. Worse than Midna's shouting. "Buy something! Anything!"

Link curiously approaches the shop, which has nothing to stop thieves from taking its wares, really, and retrieves an empty bottle from his pouch. "A refill of red potion, please," he says pleasantly to the bird.

"No problem!" the birds croaks, takes Link's bottle, and fills the bottle to the brim. We could run now, never return without wasting any money, but that isn't the way of a hero.

"Thank you," says Link, dropping rupees in the box.

I don't see the amount, but the bird seems happy enough about it. "Hey! What a generous young man!"

"Can I have the lantern first?" Link asks me all of a sudden. I start, but give the lantern. He asks for an oil refill and the toucan joyfully obliges.

"Hey! Thank you!" the toucan yells after Link as he gives me the lantern and returns the potion bottle to his pouch. "Come back sometime! Hey!" Link glances back and waves at the bird, agreeing to do just that.

"Sorry about the delay," he says when we leave the shop. "But this potion is useful and the lantern needed refilling."

"Why do you explain yourself to me?" I ask, smirking, but I cut him off as soon as he opens his mouth. "Can you see that?"

Before the way to the temple sits a white, almost golden wolf, just…staring. Its fur billows to an absent breeze, as though it belongs elsewhere and we see only an image part of a greater picture. I walk closer – its one eye is crimson, the other closed and scarred, and it doesn't appear to intend to move at all.

"It blocks our way," I say to Link when he catches up with me, sliding my staff from its sheathe. "I won't stand for obstacles."

The wolf growls at me. Perhaps it understands my intention – but it can't be a being like Link, because this place is no longer under the influence of the twilight. I certainly hope it isn't anything like Link. One hero chosen by the gods vexes me enough. In any case, I'm not afraid of a wolf…

"Maeva, no," Link whispers, pulling my arm back.

I growl at him in turn. "Don't touch—!"

The wolf barks and leaps in our direction – at Link, in particular. Even when I bare a weapon at it, it still attacks him?

I turn, preparing an attack in case the wolf has mauled Link to shreds, but – there isn't anyone there.

"Link…?" I call out unsurely. "Midna?"

Nobody answers, not even the golden wolf, which has disappeared along with them.

"Hey! What happened?" I hear the toucan's wings flap towards me. It descends on my shoulder – who gave it permission? – and looks around. "Where did the nice guy and the wolf go? That wolf's been eyeing you two since a while ago, hey!"

"I don't know where they might have gone," I answer, confused.

"Say…What's your name? Hey!"

I gnaw on my lower lip, in reaction to his – it's male, I think – shrill voice in my ear. "Maeva," I reply, since he was curious enough to ask. "The man was Link. And yours?"

"It's Trill, hey!"

"Trill…"

"Yes?"

"Stop screaming."

"Okay, hey," Trill whispers. Much better. "Well, I better get back to my shop, hey…good luck with that Link!"

"And you, with your shop," I say as he takes leave of my shoulder. "Although I wouldn't say this is the best place to market your wares."

"Oh, it's my boss, hey," Trill sighs, flying in place. "He doesn't—"

I sense he is about to tell me more about his life, which would interest me, really, if my companions weren't missing and I didn't need to explore a forest temple on my own. "I apologize. I must go," I say. Trill takes it graciously and bids me goodbye.

I walk through fallen hollow trunks leading to the temple slowly. What should I do? I know what Midna wants, but where am I to find it in this temple, and how? I sit down on a log before the temple entrance and see torches lit inside, through a straight path and something brown at the end of it. A chest, maybe, containing…? Can it really be so easy?

I enter the temple and am sufficiently attacked by two Deku Baba. The trick is to dodge their heads and the saliva dripping through their sharp teeth and go straight to cutting them off their stems. It kills them almost immediately, and I wipe my staff with the leaves in the area. I arrive at what I only thought to be the end of the temple – how foolish I am to think that such a large thing could only have a tiny interior like this. And the brown thing wasn't Midna's treasure at all. It is a cage holding that monkey – the girl Link says he aided and the same one who led us through the miasma. She makes noise as she sees me, shaking the bars of the cage she has suddenly been trapped in.

"What in the world are you doing in there?" I ask, but she only continues shouting in her language.

I have no choice but to destroy the cage with my staff. It's much more wieldy than a sword and its crystal was originally intended to augment the magic we possess, but it cannot be gainsaid that the shaft, too, is strong, almost as though it possesses a power of its own.

The monkey cowers as I beat my staff against her cage bars, but soon she is freed. She makes noise – chitters, there you go – and then jumps me in an embrace. I'm unable to stop my nose from wrinkling – she smells filthy, truly an animal. She releases me and disappears into the leaves above, only to return with something in hand. She attempts to crawl up my back – I grunt and try to shake her off, but she slaps me on the shoulder as though telling me to stay still – and tucks something behind my ear.

"What is that? What was that?" I ask, touching something soft and foreign on me as she jumps off, clapping and jumping and chittering.

"Maeva, you're okay," Link's surprised voice interrupts.

I turn around and swiftly brush away my relief with a frown. "You! Where have you been?"

Link stares at me with an odd expression on his face, but he brushes that away, too, and explains himself now that I require it.

"You were in a snowy training ground with an undead swordsman?" I repeat with a disbelieving cross of my arms.

"It's true!" Midna insists, appearing beside Link. Her arms are akimbo, but not a second passes when she bursts into laughter, pointing at me. "Oh, how cute!" she says with a mocking tone, flying over and motioning to what the monkey placed on my ear. I almost forgot it. "I didn't know you were that type, Maeva!"

"What…?" I remove the object from myself and see that it's a flower – one identical to the red one on the monkey, only white. Does that not symbolize purity and goodness? I glance at the monkey, who points at her own flower and claps at me. I must have looked ridiculous, but it is delicate and pleasing to the eye, and I do feel honored that she would give me one to match hers – not that anyone may ever know.

"She must have given it as a gift to you," Link speaks, out of turn as always. "Did you – was that cage hers?" He interrupts himself and motions to the ruined splints of wood.

"How did you know it was a cage?"

"Before…before all this happened, I saved her and a friend from bokoblins. They used something like that until I destroyed it, too," Link explains, turning to the monkey. "Did bokoblins do this to you again?"

The monkey makes noise and appears to remember something. She climbs the vines behind her broken cage and knocks at a stone at the very top, blocking an archway that should lead into the rest of the temple.

"Did you understand her?" I ask Link.

"Not a word," he says with a lopsided grin, and then climbs the vines after the monkey.

Right. Not a word, and we still follow the monkey. I keep the flower she gave me in my pouch, though I know it'll die soon, and dig my fingers into leaves crawling with ants.

Of course, no temple is simple, and no treasure is ever easily acquired. We come upon many rooms, the first of which contains bridges to the doors for the rest of the temple, but the bridges have been cut off and I doubt even I can jump that far like this.

Link has never entered this place, either, if the look of wonder he wears informs me right, which means the burden of leading does not fall to him. I gladly take it up and step forward, approaching the steps towards the center platform. An enormous spider, strikes of black on its white back like lightning and red spots dotting its spindly legs, drops down from the ceiling before I can reach the top.

I jump back in surprise, but stab at its pedipalps – this seems to anger it enough to take a bite at me, but I trip on a step and fall back – I catch myself at the last minute and succeed in a high jump backward. In the brief moment that I am upside-down in the air, I see Link below me, his arms outstretched. Was he going to catch me?

I run past Link, advancing on the spider, which recognizes me as its enemy and strikes at me instead. I jump over it – the limitations of my body are encumbering, but it is still a greater height than Link would ever be able to reach even as he is taller than me – and swing my staff from above like a pendulum, its crystal fine enough to cut it into half.

I don't land as gracefully as I hope, rolling off the platform and falling off into the grass below. Ouch… Now I know how Hanch felt, though this platform's height is certainly taller than his. My elbows would be in worse condition were they not wrapped in bandages, but my tailbone aches and I struggle to rise.

I hear footsteps towards me – Link and the monkey – they can't see me like this! I am not a weakling. I pull myself up on my staff and lean against it, brushing my hair away from my face before going out to meet them near the stairs before they reach me.

"Maeva, are you all right?" Link asks, his eyes wide as he looks me over. "You fell right off."

I ignore him and look at the spider, its body cut in half. "I defeated it, didn't I? Let's move on."

"Wait," Link says, staring. "You have…" He reaches for something in his pouch – a handkerchief? Where did he get that? – and approaches me, coming closer and closer and before I can slap his hand away, wipes the handkerchief on my forehead. He shows it to me afterwards – slime? I shudder involuntarily.

Oh. I wasn't able to wipe the crystal of the spider's viscous blood, which ended up dripping all over my right hand.

"You're welcome," Link grins, stuffing the handkerchief back in his pouch, and walks past the dead spider. I follow him speechlessly, watching him light four torches at each edge of the platform. The ground shakes – the path bridging the platform to the door north of the room rises from the ground.

"Wait," I speak, finally. How could I have remained silent for so long? "How did you take the lantern from me?"

"It fell off your pouch when you fell down the stairs," he explains, handing it back to me. "Sorry."

Taking it, I ignore his apology and return the lantern to my waist, but he's already too busy to notice. Next to the door is a chest –

"A map of the temple?" He shows me the unfurled piece of parchment. I recognize the few areas we passed, but everywhere else looks like indistinguishable twists and turns…

Temples are troublesome.

We move on through the door. I try to keep my short hair from going wild as soon as we enter, because it's an open area that leads into an extension of the forest. My hair is entering my eyes! I sheathe my staff, concentrating on pulling my hair back against my head through my fingers and try to focus on the area. A hanging bridge, almost as long as the Ordon bridge separating Ordon and Faron, sways to the tempest.

Link approaches the bridge – what? Not only is his hair in place; so is his hat! He doesn't even need to try to stop it from flying away!

He stops at the female monkey's noise. She pulls at his leg, jumping, and points across the bridge. I can barely see past the hair loosened by the wind from my fingers, but a bigger creature, gray, like a monkey, but he carries something in his hand that he hurls in our direction – a cyclone that cuts off the bridge cords and essentially, our passage.

How does one hurl a cyclone? In particular, how does a monkey – no, a baboon – come to possess a weapon that throws cyclones?

The baboon beats on his chest, turns his back on us, slapping his red buttocks (how rude!), and runs deeper into the temple.

The monkey runs back into the temple and Link rolls the boulder shut behind us, the last of the tempest disappearing with a wheeze. I slink back against the vine-covered wall, relieved of the calm air within the temple.

"What happened?" I ask the monkey, though I know full well that I won't understand anything she says. "That was…"

"Maybe they had a monkey fight," Midna suggests, still clothed in darkness. "In this state, we can't go any further. We might as well go back and look for another way there!"

"There is no other way."

"Then make one," Midna orders; she is about to fall back into Link's shadow when she stops at the sight of me and covers her mouth with a chortle. "Nice hair, human."

Link glances at me, but I hastily run my hands through my hair. "It was the wind," I groan, still attempting to fix my hair. "And that monkey with the cyclones…"

Link only smiles. "You don't have to explain yourself to me."

Did he just—? He offers to help me up, but I brush past him and return to the center platform. We must find a way to the other doors, but there are no more torches to light and the only way east or west is a rope high above where the bridges should be.

The female monkey climbs the rope upside-down, her feet hanging like hooks against the hemp. Perhaps if we climb that rope and inch towards the other platforms as she has done, why is Link running towards the edge of the platform like a lunatic and jumping—

"You fool, what—!" I gasp, running after him, but I stop myself right over the edge and crouch down, reassuring myself of my own safety. I glance ahead and see that Link has made it across – our friend caught him and swung him to the other side. He waves at me, motioning for me to follow.

"Jump across!" he shouts, "she'll catch you and swing you over. It's safe! Trust me."

Highly unlikely.

I've never jumped without the certainty of landing safely – and never with the help of another. What if the monkey drops me by accident? But Link is heavier than me, I suppose, and the female monkey gives me an encouraging smile, clapping as it swings.

"Jump when she swings towards you," Link continues. That is only logical, of course I know this…!

The monkey chitters and starts swinging towards me. I want to close my eyes, but that would be foolish, and I jump—she catches me after what feels like forever falling into an abyss, and throws me onto Link, who deftly catches me and sets me down. As though I needed it! I dust myself off and stop shaking only when I catch Link's grateful expression towards the monkey.

"I told you it was safe," he says to me.

"I…I knew it was," I grumble as he rolls the boulder door past.

We step into the darkness of a caved fork. I choose the right when faced with a choice, always, and we come upon a dead end with many pots. Many pots available for looting – who knows what ancient treasures reside here? I have never been one for greed – if I were, I wouldn't be in this position – but it is up to me to find us food, and if we are to find decent food and lodgings, we will need realm of light currency. They call them rupees; how fanciful.

There are five pots of varying sizes, and Link helps me shake the pots of rupees. He has a larger pouch, so he keeps them, but rest assured, I'll be the one handling our purchases in the future. When we are down to the last pot, I reach my hand in and find that I can't. There is something inside, feathery.

I turn the pot over and shake it when it starts moving on its own all of a sudden and breaks. I back off wearily, as does Link. So he isn't all-fearless.

"Phew! Out at last!" this…thing speaks. It possesses the body of a cucco but a human face, only with pink eyes and no hair or eyebrows, just a bulbous shape as the back of its head. It is so…ugly. And I know ugly very well. "Gracious," it continues – it seems female. The voice is high and chirpy, and the way she wipes her forehead with a wing… "Once I got in there, I couldn't squeeze back out!" The object turns to me. "You were a big help – thanks!"

I glance at Link for his reaction: to stare at it with morbid curiosity, golden eyebrow tightly furrowed. Even the monkey, who seems to know this place well, hides behind Link with a disgusted look on her face. Seeing no hope in them, I speak. "You're…welcome?"

"Yes, yes…" The object seems to have forgotten all about her previous predicament and looks around. "I've been looking for something in here, you see. Gracious, yes! You must need something here, too. Shall we try working together for a while, fellow adventurer?" Fellow adventurer? I didn't think adventurers ever tried entering pots, only to get stuck in them. But I wonder what she would be looking for in a pot, of all places.

"You may not think I look like much," says she, "but I can be quite helpful!"

"I see, how—"

"I can even warp you out of here if you want to leave!"

"No thank—"

"So don't think of me as a burden!" Of course not. "Now let's get started – my name is Ooccoo!" She flaps her wings and somehow manages to fly high enough to land on my shoulder, her claws gripping it tightly. I glance at Link, repressing my horror, but he only bites his lip, repressing his own emotions – is that amusement? Amusement! How dare—

"I'm Link," he says, smiling as always. That infuriating smile…! "This is Maeva. We should get going."

I am not amused.

The western path leads to a greater cavern, filled with water and more fallen planks, but these platforms are more closely connected and even Link can jump past them easily. There are two doors, but the monkey leads us to the one farther from the entrance into another room, where natural stairs spiral down into a single totem pole carrying another caged monkey. Who puts them into these things?

I would jump from the wooden railings and tackle the cage off the totem pole, but Ooccoo has managed to claw her way onto my hair, turning it into a makeshift nest – not unlike that Coro, I realize. And my hair isn't even half as thick as his! My scalp hurts. We run down the stairs and Link attempts to shake the totem pole, but it's lodged too firmly into the ground and the cage remains safely atop it.

The sound the monkeys make upon seeing each other has become customary to my ears; it's when Ooccoo joins them that noise becomes a problem.

"Please be quiet, both of you!" she shouts, flapping her arms and bouncing on my head in a panic. "The noise is attracting bokoblins!"

To her credit, the light from the window above has been shaded enough to attract my attention, and I see she's right – bokoblins have somehow found their way here, or perhaps they were always lying in wait. Could they be the ones who imprisoned the monkeys?

The bokoblins jump down, shaking their clubs. "I will take care of them," I say, drawing my staff and standing between the totem pole and the savages. "Free the monkey – try using your sword, perhaps?"

"Right," says Link, and runs as far away from the totem pole as he can within the room. What is that…?

I have no time to watch him, running instead towards a bokoblin and deflecting its club.

"Maeva, behind you!" I feel as if bunches of hair have been torn off my head. "Behind youuu!"

I turn around too late, having cringed at Ooccoo's bending over and screeching in my ear, and a club bashes me on the shoulder.

"Ow-!" I stab at it, and see Link somersaulting over to the totem pole. I suppose the sword didn't work? Or he never tried it at all! I return to my battle just in time to block a club and swing my staff at a bokoblin's feet, causing it to tumble over and stay down long enough for me to cleave the crystal down into its chest.

"Oh, yes! Right in the heart!" Ooccoo cheers.

The bokoblin cries out, which wakes the other one, who runs at me and jumps higher than I expect. I retreat, hoping to thrust the crystal right into its head before it lands on me, but I'm backed into the totem pole right as Link rolls into it like a lunatic and Ooccoo is screaming like a—

The cage falls, missing Ooccoo by an inch, and crushes the bokoblin. The monkeys are reunited with joyful chittering.

"Heh, that was close, wasn't it?" Ooccoo laughs nervously, once more resting calmly on my head. As though my hair isn't unruly enough already, and as if I do not look cursed enough as it is. ..

"If you hadn't screamed my eardrums off, it wouldn't have gone that far," I say.

"Oh, well, better late than getting crushed by a wooden cage, I always say!" Ooccoo chuckles. We've only met and I know she doesn't always say that.

We return to the cavern with the platforms over the water. The monkeys want us to move back towards the area where I first defeated that spider, but Ooccoo jumps off my head before I can follow.

"Can you smell that?" she asks.

I comb my hair over with my fingers and frown at her disapprovingly. "What? If you mean the monkeys, I've grown accustomed to them. Although I wouldn't say you haven't acquired a certain clay smell from staying inside that pot for so long…"

Amusement dances on Link's face. What? It certainly wasn't that funny. Ooccoo narrows her eerie eyes at me but says, "No, no. That! Treasure!"

"Treasure?" My shoulders straighten. "Where?"

"Follow me!" Ooccoo says, and jumps off the platform into the water.

'"I'm not going to follow you," I announce, peering over the platform edge.

"Oh! The water is lukewarm!" Ooccoo giggles, splashing her wings around as she paddles about. "Jump in, Link! Maeva! The treasure is nearby!"

"This is not the time to be frolicking—Link!" I gasp indignantly. Link actually obeys Ooccoo – which is characteristic of him, I suppose, obeying everybody – but is it really necessary to jump where the impact will cause water to splash me?

Ooccoo starts kicking and swimming somewhere behind the platform I stand on and Link swims quickly after, motioning for me to follow. Oh, he can just do everything, can't he? Fight, become chosen as the hero of the gods, and swim fast?

I don't like him.

They disappear from sight and I am about to start worrying when I hear Ooccoo's already familiar yelling. "Here! Open this chest, Link!"

Did they really—could it be?

"Hey, you're right!" Link exclaims, his voice echoing from somewhere below me along with Ooccoo's cackling. "A purple rupee!"

Oh.

More laughter, and then those two swim back up the platform. Link shows me the rupee, worth 50 green ones, and does a high-five with Ooccoo's wing. "Great job, Ooccoo!" he says, and then finally we jump towards the monkeys, who cheer and make noise at the sight of such a shiny gem before leading us to the western door from the main platform of the first area, via another swing care of the newly freed monkey.

The next events are still a blur to me. There were insects, rough in form but with narrow, spindly legs like a spider's, only they possessed just two, and when we attempted to strike them, they glowed red, emitted smoke, and then exploded after a few seconds, like bombs.

The first one exploded in my face, admittedly. I was about to inspect one after Link stabbed it and it curled into itself, glowing, and the next time I was fully sensible, my face was covered in soot and there was only ash where the insect used to stand.

Ooccoo and Midna burst into laughter, of course, while I'm certain Link snickered somewhere behind me before asking me if I was all right. But I'm not so angry about that – he received his comeuppance when he attempted to jump across a platform and was almost eaten by a hostile plant—

"Whoa!" His eyes widened when it happened, and before I knew it he was hanging on to the platform for dear life. I peered over the platform and saw that the shrub was already halfway through his leg, slurping towards his knee. His right arm caught a tighter grip on the last plank as he reached his left hand out to me. "Maeva—!"

"O-Of course," I nodded, taking his left hand and pulling when I snapped my head away from the morbid sight. Where were the eyes on that plant? After much grunting and screaming from Ooccoo, forming several more tangles in my hair, Link managed to shake the plant off and landed on me, his chest on mine and his cheeks red and his leg—

"How dare—off me!" was all I managed to yelp before I shoved him away, almost pushing him off the edge again, but reflex caused my arm to reach out and his to chance another grip on my hand, and he lived. That fool, causing me to…

In any case, the insect-bombs were useful enough, helping us destroy any more shrubs that possessed the acquired taste of hero chosen by the gods and power through boulders unmovable.

One particular boulder hid the way into another room fill with water, but only after running down a flight of stairs surrounded by grass. Only one bridge cuts through the water, and only one bridge leads the way to another set of platforms, leading up to a monkey crying out for help.

"Come," I say, stepping onto the bridge, and then I'm thrown off to the side. The first thought that comes to me is water, and by the gods, please, no, but I only land waist deep into it, with my arms hanging tightly to the grassy area after the stairs. The water seems like an abyss – my feet can prop themselves up against nothing, and I depend on my arms to push me up and help me crawl back onto the safety of land.

Link, as well as Ooccoo, who has transferred to Link's hat (she says it's much more comfortable – I apologize that even my head is inferior to his), arrives a little too late, hovering over me as I lie on my back, panting. "The bridge—" he says, "It just…it threw you off."

"I noticed," I snap, forcing myself up and dismissing another offer from Link. "It must be magic."

Link crouches near the bridge and spots something – he later tells me it was a snake-like monster of sorts, hiding under the bridge tiles. "I'll swim over to the other side instead," he tells me. "Stay here, okay?"

I frown. "You idiot—"

But he has already jumped in, swimming across, and I cannot follow. My legs still feel like jelly…

Ooccoo, who stayed with me, sits on my lap as I lean against the stairs and glare across the room at the divine hero. "You know, he's only trying to be a gentleman."

I scoff. "I don't need a gentleman. I need him to get out of my way."

Ooccoo frowns, her eye ridges creasing in place of eyebrows. "I can't understand why Link irks you so," she says. "He's so—"

The monkey noises interrupt her as they cheer for Link, defeating a spider with a somersault in the air and a deft stab downward with his sword, looking something like a true warrior. Ugh. I assume he frees the monkey and allows it to climb him until he swims back, but I don't remain long enough to see it.

"Where are you going?" Ooccoo paused her showering Link of adulation to ask when I gathered enough strength to move my lower limbs again.

"Away from you two," I muttered, removing her from my lap and setting her down.

"What?" she asked incredulously. "But we—"

"Stay here, if you're so fond of him," I told her, climbing the stairs against the wooden railing. This temple would be beautiful if we weren't in such a hurry – it's as if it raised and carved itself into being. "I will return shortly."

"How rude!" Ooccoo pouted, but her opinion is of no consequence to me. I don't even know what she is, and she might say the same of me, so we might as well keep our distance.

I exited the room soon after that, and now catch sight of another door I might reach by climbing more vines. The ants I don't mind so much, but the spiders try to web around me and trap me, much like their larger counterparts, so I stop and manage a shadow around my hand with the little I can do. It's black, like a glove, only thicker and yet less visible. With it, I crush the spiders on my way up, and shake off the slime and the shadow when I am finished.

I strain my neck to gaze into an enormous Deku Baba at the center of the room that snarls at me as soon as I enter. Must everything be oversized here? It reaches over and snaps its jaws at me, tongue swishing about behind its jagged teeth. I'm a little too far from its reach. I don't see eyes, but it can certainly smell me, as I tiptoe around it, still unreachable. Its form follows me across the room, straining its neck to bite me like a dog chained to the shrub beside it.

A monkey cowers behind another cage, pointing fiercely at the large Baba and shaking his head, refusing to join me even as I break his cage open.

"You can stay here if you want," I tell him, but he shakes his head even more vigorously. Stubborn little… I grab his monkey wrist and pull. "I'm going to walk around it and see your friends and you're coming—with me—ow!"

He bites at me! That little animal almost bit me when I'm only trying to help!

"Fine!" The monster is still sniffing in our direction, salivating and biting. I suppose the way of the hero would entail destroying every obstacle. But how…? A ticking in close proximity comes as my answer. A bombling, an exploding insect! Of course – I've never tried one on a Baba, but it should work the same, shouldn't it?

I punch a bombling in the head as soon as it crawls out of its hole, its new glow brightening every second. I come close enough to the oversized Baba for it to reach me, but it snaps at my legs before I can throw the bombling inside its mouth and I am forced to jump upward, therefore landing on its head. Oh, how disgusting! Even as I sit atop it, it attempts to catch me with its prehensile tongue, lashing upward while it oh I wish it wouldn't move so much this way while it throws its head back and forth, with me struggling to stay on it and somehow throw the now more swiftly ticking bombling in its mouth—

My own gasp is cut off by what seems to be the Baba's huff, which I realize too late is one of triumph, as my legs are loosened from it and I'm thrown straight into the shrub beside it.

I know now what Link's leg felt, except now my entire body is sticky and it smells awful, like a sort of natural garbage I can't explain. I want to cry; this type of darkness isn't comforting at all, and I feel as though I'm being digested! But it isn't the way of the hero to cry; even I was taught not to, and just as I force a determination to survive in my mind, I realize it isn't all darkness – there is a light, bright red, and by the goddesses the bombling is near explosion I must protect myself I cannot yet return to dust—

boom

The blast sounds far away, but I open my eyes and see the fire crawling up the Baba's stem into its bulb behind the black of my shadow. This ruins my concentration, causing my shadows to release me just in time for the exploded slime to splatter all over my head.

I can't help but cry out in frustration. I'm actually able to extend a shadow over a shape so irregular as my body again, thick enough to protect me from an explosion that would have otherwise painted the rest of the room with my innards – the first time in I can no longer remember – and what do I receive for it? A slime bath?

Even the monkey is repulsed! He leaps over to me, clapping and cheering and chittering, only to back away and wave his hands over his nose in disgust. I completely understand.

"Maeva! There you are! We were beginning to worry!" Ooccoo's annoying shout greets me as the monkey and I exit the room.

"You insult me by worrying," I say, jumping off the ledge with the monkey and returning to their level. I present our newfound friend to the female, who joins the others in a hug. "I found one."

"We found another, too," Link says, motioning to another I can't exactly tell apart from the rest as they come closer. I can only take his word for it and the fact that there do seem to be more of them, now.

"Look at these monkeys," Ooccoo coos from Link's shoulder, "so happy to be together again! You two should learn something from them."

I open my arms, ignoring the urge to neaten my hair. "Would you like to join me in a tearful embrace, Ooccoo?"

Link and Ooccoo come close enough to realize there is something odd about me – though I've wiped most of the slime off with the help of the monkey I only recently rescued, my hair is still wet. One might think I was interrupted in the middle of a human bath with one of the most expensive shampoos many merchants are selling these days (or what they would sell, if there remain any outside the twilight's influence) if not for the fact that I am fully-clothed, we are nowhere near a bath, and I smell like dead plant saliva and slime.

"Do you want to wash off in the water?" Link asks, jerking his head in the direction of the room where he and Ooccoo found that purple rupee. "It's clean."

I huff. "Do you think me some girlish thing who can't work with a little dirt?"

"Gracious, you smell terrible, Maeva!" Ooccoo laughs before Link might say anything, covering her little nose with a wing. "What happened?"

"There was an enormous Deku Baba," I explain, though I shouldn't have to to them. "I destroyed it, naturally."

"What a nice parting gift, then," says Ooccoo, still chortling, and I'm about to go and strangle her when I see Link's smile from my peripheral vision.

"And you?" I snap. "What else might you have to say?"

Link shakes his head calmly, only smiling in what I know(!) is the highest possible level of amusement, and says, "…Only that we should probably get going. I have a plan."

"You're insane," I say to Link, keeping my eyes straight ahead at the line of monkeys hanging on the new 'bridge'-like tightrope. We returned to the area where that larger monkey once destroyed a long bridge right before our eyes, and Link's plan is to have them toss us forward to each other until we reach the other side. Despite the great abyss that lies before us. "Or you wish to die. I can think of better ways to help you without having to endanger me."

Link only peers closer over the edge, as though calculating something. The exact speed we shall possess before our bones break into a tiny million pieces, perhaps? I can't tell what lies in a fool's mind. "It's safe," he insists, smiling at the monkeys and giving them a thumbs-up. " Trust me, we won't die. Let me show you."

And he jumps to his untimely doom.

Or not so untimely, and not so much a doom at all. In fact, the monkeys manage to toss him all the way – the second to the last one almost let him go, I think, I can't see so far from here, with the wind blowing hair in my eyes – and he is safe across the gap.

"Come on, Maeva!" he waves again, Ooccoo cheering on his shoulder. How did—? I didn't see her on his shoulder when—oh, never mind…

I don't want to. I don't. My hair is everywhere, what if the monkeys grab it instead of my hands and tear off half my head? Not only will I be dead, I shall also be bald. Or worse – develop bald spots. I shudder at the thought. But I see Link waving and realize only one thing – if I don't go, he will, and then he will save the princess instead of me!

I can't let that happen.

My heart is caught in my throat and I find myself slack-jawed after the monkeys toss me across, one by one, grabbing my hands and then feet and then hands until finally I land on Link, who was setting Ooccoo down when I arrived. I land on his shield on him, actually, but pull myself up quickly and dust myself off. Who knows where that shield has been?

In any case, I glance at the monkeys. The first creatures of light I've come to trust just now, besides Zelda. I didn't believe I would survive in their hands, but…depending on others may not be so foolish.

"Thank you," I tell them. They chitter and clap, but refuse to remove themselves from the rope and usher us inside where the bigger monkey should reside. I lower my eyes to Link, still groaning from my weight. "What are you waiting for? Come!"

Link rolls the stone shut behind us once we enter to keep the wind outside. This temple is its own world, the trees and leaves as clouds and cavern walls as the sky, but this area is broken and there is a gaping cavity in the sky near the clouds where viny walls should be, providing the room with a natural light. The particles float towards a singular cylindrical pillar far into the room, surrounded by many more like it. If I should venture a guess, I might say the baboon might sit in the middle and the rest, around him, but can beasts form something so closely sentient to a council?

"Where's Ook?" says Link. "He should be here."

"Ook?" I repeat. "Are you going mad, now?"

"No," Link says with a heavy breath, like the start of a laugh. Why he finds everything so funny is beyond me. "When I was a wolf, that monkey – she said something about their boss. Ook, she called him, and said he was acting strange…"

"I'll say," I mutter. "It isn't polite, slapping one's shiny red posterior at total strangers."

A deep chittering cuts off whoever might speak more and Ook – if that really is his name – swings into the room through the cavity then lands on the center pillar.

He raises something in the air – I can see it now – a boomerang under the twilight's influence. It's very easy to tell, given that it's surrounded by twilight. Ook throws the boomerang high in the air – while he is distracted and I wonder why he would aim so far, I hurl my staff straight at his forehead. But the boomerang returns to him before the staff and he is able to dodge it just barely, and then performs a ridiculous looking dance on the pillars. Is he mocking me? He slaps his buttocks and chitters again. He is.

"You missed, too," I taunt in return. Would he understand me? The monkeys are smart enough – so should he be. I present Link with an empty palm. "Slingshot."

Link takes the slingshot from his pocket – it seems able to carry a lot of things – and I aim it at the baboon once I take a rock from the pebble satchel.

Before I can fire, I hear a sword connect with something that slurps and then a hiss behind me. I turn too late to see a Baba Serpent, wriggling on the floor right at me. I reach for my staff, but oh, I threw it at Ook! I back away, firing pebbles into its mouth, but they aren't bomblings and it only gobbles them up, its serpentine slithering forming fear I have no time for.

I was always told my body was my greatest weapon.

Or my greatest folly – I kick at the Baba Serpent, but it jumps just in time to avoid my foot and aim for my leg. I fall on my posterior, unable to decide if I should feel fear or anger. The Baba Serpent leverages itself on my calf, tearing through my trousers and leaving bite marks and blood seeping out, and as I watch its blue tongue lash out at the blood I realize I choose anger.

"Urgh!" I reach over and feel my leg muscles stretch as I wrestle the Baba Serpent, my thumbs digging into the sides of its lips. I'm unsure as to what I want to do – push it away, tear its face open? – and I don't notice that we roll on the ground, one fighting to stay away and the other fighting to stay.

"Maeva, get back!"

I look up in surprise, releasing the serpent long enough to give Link a chance to cleave his sword down at its head, narrowly avoiding my leg.

"Are you all right?" he asks.

I feel every bite mark on my leg, but why would I say that? "Just go!" I point at Ook, hurling the boomerang at the ceiling again. I glance up and realize he wasn't being a foolish baboon at all – he aims the Baba Serpents hanging from the ceiling and expects them to cause a distraction for him!

When I return to my senses, Link has already gone to fight Ook, rolling into the pillars he stands on and knocking him off. Baba Serpents crawl past me towards him, as though knowing they must protect Ook.

"Those Baba are a danger to Link! Help him, Maeva!" Ooccoo shrieks from beside me. When did she even—?

It isn't that I obey Ooccoo; I have been planning to do this all along. I take the slingshot and fire every pebble I can at the serpents – this is much more effective. With a stronger hit from behind, they actually die. The thought that that is his way – defeating his obstacles from behind – crosses my mind, but they're only serpents, not a kingdom! I'm nothing like him!

I will return the princess to her rightful place no matter the cost. I hear Ooccoo shrieking somewhere at the back of my mind, but only until she nips me do I hiss back at her.

"Why in the name of Nayru would you do that?"

"You're out of bullets, Maeva! Gracious, stop firing!"

I don't drop my irritated expression, but I do peek into the pebble satchel – empty. Was I really firing nothing?

"I knew that," I say to Ooccoo, shaking her off my ankle. "I was – practicing my aim! Not that you would understand."

And then I remember the human. Link slams his sword hilt against Ook's head. Ook remains conscious, but stops and glances around, almost as if he doesn't remember a thing. The expression on his face is no longer one of derangement but confusion, and he drops his boomerang before scuttling off and swinging out of the cavern through its cavity.

That was odd, to say the least.

Link turns around, grinning triumphantly until he catches sight of me.

Nearing me, he asks, "Can you walk?"

"I can barely move an inch. Yes, I can walk."

Link laughs nervously. "Sorry."

I roll my eyes inwardly. He takes my arm and pulls it over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll help you up."

If I could beat him off, I would, but what choice do I have? The back of his neck is sweaty and I smell work off him, but I inhale something worse – me. How can anybody stand it? "Why?" I ask.

"Because…" his eyes shift side to side as though they'll find the answers there. "…you can't walk?"

"Hmph." I accept his help – reluctantly. I shouldn't need it. I take a step forward and land on my left foot perfectly, but once I lift my right and attempt to support my weight with it, I hiss and lean involuntarily on Link. (This needn't be said. I would never lean against him of my own volition.) I remove my arm from him and step forward left, step forward right…I nearly fall, but Link catches my arm.

"It's okay, Maeva," he says. "I don't mind."

Well, I do.

He forces me, I would say, to lean on his arm, but the contact is short lived – I step on something.

"Ow!" it cries. I step back in surprise and let out a whine as I give too much weight to my right leg. This is pointless. I must heal.

"It's that boomerang!" says Ooccoo.

I sit down, resting my leg beside it, and attempt to pick it up, but Link takes it before I do, only to hand it to me. I don't need help with everything. Before I can touch it, the boomerang spins away from his grasp, and then I notice that the shadow has been lifted from it. It floats in the air with the help of a small cyclone it must have created – by itself?

"I'm the Fairy of Winds who resides in this boomerang," it says, decidedly female. I have never heard of male fairies, in any case. "You freed me from evil, and now I have my true power back. Please, take me with you. I can unleash the power of the wind, aiding you in unforeseen ways."

"That sounds wonderful!" says Ooccoo.

"All right," I shrug, and take her from her cyclone. The boomerang – or should I call her the fairy? – yelps. Where would its mouth be? I am sufficiently disturbed (what if her mouth is the entire boomerang itself? Or worse) and hand her to Link.

"You don't want it – her?" asks Link, seeming doubtful.

"You need her more than I do," I smirk.

It is thoroughly wiped off when the boomerang speaks, her voice small and high-pitched, but still older than a child's. "It's better this way. She smells awful!"

"I said that, too," says Ooccoo, nodding sagely.

I roll my eyes and ignore them, opting to look around instead. "Now, my staff—"

"Here it is!" says a tiny voice, and I whip my head in its direction to find the staff floating before me. Wh-what sort of magic is this…?

The staff falls into my open palm and then there is something on my shoulder. I look and cannot help the widening of my eyes. It's a head! With wings! And familiar pink eyes—

"Hello!" it smiles at me. "I'm Ooccoo Junior!"

I glance at Ooccoo and notice the similarities, only Ooccoo Junior has no body to speak of. How does it grow out, I wonder? "You are Ooccoo's daughter?"

The child giggles and shakes his head (as well as his entire body, I suppose). "No, I'm her son!"

Oh. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised – young boys are supposed to break into their voices. But I haven't known many children since I was one myself.

"Of course," I say later on.

Suddenly, Midna appears from Link's shadow with a sigh. "Now that we know what everybody's gender is, can we please move on? The monkeys should be satisfied now – let's continue combing the place. Right, Maeva?"

"Right."

"Maeva," says Midna, with a tone meant to scold, eyeing my right leg. "Trying to tear that vulnerable little body of yours apart?"

I frown. "No," I answer sharply. "It isn't my way to impede our progress for anybody's wish."

Midna floats backward a little, perhaps in shock that I would say such a thing to her, but only harrumphs and swoops back into the shadows. I ignore her and sit down, reaching for what should be my stomach bandages in my pouch because I can't lick my wounds before any of my current companions, but the human himself stops me.

"What is it now?" I mutter. "I can take care of myself…"

"Before you put those on—" Link reaches deep into his pocket, further than what should be physically possible, and pulls out that glass bottle he asked Trill to refill. He twists the lid open and pours some of the red potion on it. "You can drink this for faster healing, but this is also effective," he tells me, taking the sticky goo from the lid into his bare hand (when did he remove his glove?) and spreading it over the wounds on my leg.

His hands are rough, as is to be expected from a rancher. Why is he helping me? This is so foolish. If he were wounded, I…I look up from my leg to see his features as he takes the bandages that have rolled away from my hand and wraps them around my calf.

"Okay, done. Maeva?"

Ugh. No one should be allowed to be so—

"Maeva?"

"What?" I hiss when I return to my senses. "I was—not looking at you! Why would I look at you?" I scoff, backing away and standing up. I – I can stand!

"Um, okay," is all Link says, wiping his hand on his tunic and returning the closed bottle in his impossible pouch. "Can you walk?"

"Walk? I can run!" I laugh, throwing my staff towards the door and running forward to catch it before it reaches. I glance back when I hear no one following and stand akimbo. "Must you always take so long?"

We head back across the monkey-makeshift bridge, which Ooccoo Junior thoroughly enjoys. I ask him where he was hiding all this time; under his mother's wing, apparently, asleep. He awoke as soon as he sensed the darkness surrounding the boomerang, claiming it smelled like rare treasure.

We find a room with a bridge leading towards a monkey, but as soon as we cross it, bokoblins appear from seemingly out of nowhere and attack us. I dispose of them easily this time, using my staff's long reach to stab them while Link distracts them just by attempting to free the monkey. It is soon freed, but when we turn around to cross the bridge back, it has rotated, stripping us of a way back.

"What…?" I can't help but express my surprise.

"I have an idea." Link throws the boomerang at the small boards atop the bridge pole. The boomerang sends a wind flying and causes the bridge to rotate back to help us across. Grinning gratefully at the boomerang, Link says, "It worked!"

Oh, I hardly noticed. I shouldn't have given him the boomerang – Ooccoo and her son were right. It is a useful treasure; but then the Fairy did give me cause for offense.

When we cross the bridge, Midna reappears from Link's shadow and sees a monkey in our company once more. "I guess there are still some monkeys you haven't freed yet. At this point," she grins, her teeth the only white part of her visible beneath the shadows, "you should just save them all and see what you can get for it!"

"An honorable cause," I say, quirking an eyebrow.

"I'm sure you think so," Midna giggles before disappearing again.

"Well, let's move forward," says Link, taking his eyes off his shadow. I wonder how it must feel, having someone else in your shadow. I've only ever been in them myself.

"Ow!" Ooccoo Junior cries. I gasp and see that I have clenched my fist into part of his wing, as he was flying close to my hand, saying he felt a treasure inside it. (I'm uncertain as to what he might sense in there, but I allow him to stay there. Although I dislike Ooccoo, Ooccoo Junior is agreeable and grows on one quite easily. )

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ooccoo Junior," I say, taking his small body into my hand. I still feel somewhat queasy holding somebody's head in my fist, but I like the child. Although he doesn't dislike Link as I do, neither does he shower the hero with the adulation the human's position entails, and I appreciate him for this.

"Oh! Heere!" Ooccoo Junior says, flying overhead. Directly above me, a treasure chest hangs from the ceiling on a thick latch of spiderweb. My eyes widen and I step aside.

"Can you bite it?" I ask the child.

"He doesn't have teeth!" cries Ooccoo. She should take no part in this. She didn't sense the treasure.

"Yes, he does. I saw them. And look," I raise my knuckles for her to see – tiny bite marks. He tried to bite me out of instinct, earlier, when I nearly tore his wing off. Another reason why I like him: his survival instincts are sharp.

Ooccoo frowns worriedly. "Well, he's only a few months old. Don't make him use them yet."

"All right, all right," I mutter. He'll have to learn to fight and be useful some day. Why delay the process? "Ooccoo Junior, return to me."

"Okay, Maeva!" Ooccoo Junior flies back to my shoulder.

"That's all right," Link says, revealing the boomerang once more, and hurls it at webs connecting the chest to the ceiling. Surprisingly, he catches the chest with both hands, and the boomerang returns instead to me.

"Oh, please, bathe!" the boomerang cries, sending wind in my direction. How rude!

I clench my fist on her handle, my eyes cold from the harsh breeze. "Be quiet or I will break you in half."

"You wouldn't!"

"Do you—"

"M-Maeva…" Link grunts. I return my attention to him and almost laugh – the chest is so heavy that his knees are about to buckle! He gives me a pleading look that might melt the hearts of a thousand other girls.

I only roll my eyes. "Did we say you would catch it? Set it down!"

Link lets out a sigh of relief as he allows the chest to tumble forward on the floor. It is a compass – apparently, the chest gave itself all the weight. We follow the compass – because it does not point North, and Ooccoo and Junior insist they would know if a piece of treasure were faulty – and find more monkeys and hidden treasure. Ooccoo doesn't appreciate what might be a replacement for her abilities (whether or not the compass is more efficient isn't as important to me as the fact that the compass does not shriek, in all actuality), but admits that it is a useful tool for finding the monkeys.

We search for the remaining monkeys, vanquishing spiders and Deku Baba on the way. The Baba Serpents in particular are persistent – but my staff cuts through them easily, at least through their heads, and I give them no more opportunities to paint any more of me with wounds. Midna leaves us to our collecting, staying quiet during the process, but it should surprise no one that the same cannot be said of Ooccoo, who shrieks and yells out every time she sees a monster. Ooccoo Junior is much more useful, retrieving my staff for me whenever I hurl it at an opponent, but it still boggles the mind, how he manages to pick up my staff at all. Link remains blissfully irritating (or is it the other way around?) and smiles determinedly almost all throughout.

When we finish, the rest of the monkeys we left on the rope bridge – including the female – join their friends, as though sensing the completion of the task they themselves could not accomplish. Like small children, they beckon us to another cavern we haven't yet seen. Natural platforms of rock mounds stick close to the sides, where the monkeys swing toward immediately. How interesting – they possess one platform each. Only one remains empty – for Ook, perhaps? He has yet to reveal himself again.

Across our own rock mound, connected to the entrance, spans a great, black abyss. What a dilemma that stands before me – were I free, I might be able to jump past, and Midna would have no trouble following. But the human is here and I am limited by this humanity I possess. Would I give it up so soon, for one piece of the treasure?

"How do they expect us to get across?" I frown, standing over the edge of the platform. "There is no rope bridge, this time."

I glance back at Link, who only gapes at something ahead, jaw hanging, until he shuts it himself and opts for another smile. "Look!"

I turn and see – oh, no. One monkey hangs off a branch high above the space between our platform and the next, where the other door is situated, and the rest follow his example, crawling below him, hands and feet connecting until the last monkey – the female – might reach us if we jumped, and swing us across.

"No." The word comes out of my mouth before I can think.

"Hey, they made a huge swing for us to get you humans across!" Midna laughs, clapping her hands with the female monkey before swinging back into the shadows.

Must she always force me into these things?

"They're the only way we can take across," Link tells me after waving at the monkeys, giving me a compassionate or pitiful expression. I don't care for either. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can do it!" I snap, stepping forward past him, but I don't jump off the platform. "I can do it."

"Maeva!"

Link's hand grabs mine in a bone-crushing grip, and I get that feeling as though I'm about to fall to my doom. I hear something in the distance, a loud scream – how annoying – until I realize it's me. I force my mouth shut and glance down. That abyss gapes at me, almost welcoming. I wonder what is beneath that darkness and feel my thoughts slipping, only to realize they aren't my thoughts but my hand, in Link's! The sweat from my palms is causing my grip to loosen—

Instinctively, my free hand reaches out for something above, anything. "Don't worry, I've got you!" Link says, taking it with the same tight clench as the other. He pulls me up to sit on the edge and collects my limp legs as well, preventing them from dangling. I am overcome with relief and the sudden desire to embrace the human, but as soon as I realize it, so am I overwhelmed with disgust for myself. Why should I feel gratitude for the human for helping me? I did the same for him when that shrub nearly gobbled him up! His debt is repaid; I'm certain he understands that.

"Let's go together," Link suddenly says, helping me to my feet.

I frown, steadying myself on him. Repaying his debt. "You mean—?"

I'm about to say I need none of his help when he nods scoops me up by the knees, placing me over his shoulder. "Let's cross this bridge together!"

"I never said you could—"

He jumps over the edge. I lose all control of my fall, my heart threatening to burst at any moment—

"—!" I scream airlessly as the monkeys swing us over to the other side. Ooccoo and her son quietly follow suit. Link sets me down, and the small piece of shard of dust of respect I might have for him is ground into nothing. I glare up at him as I reassure myself that I'm actually still alive. He smiles at me comfortingly now, but…

Take a deep breath, Maeva. You mustn't kill the human yet.

The insufferable human who nearly had me fall into the dark abyss rolls the door open. I find my legs and walk through, Ooccoo on his shoulder and Junior on mine, but Link stops me as I enter.

"Stick to the wall," he says, following his own advice. He actually sounds serious, for once, not that it should matter.

I realize why he is so stern when Ooccoo Junior gives a tiny gasp. Two oversized Deku Baba, not unlike the one I faced earlier, sink their roots deep into the water before us. Were the room not a cavern it might have looked like an enclosed portion of a waterfall pond, the waterfalls flowing from the walls and a giant tree in the middle behind the monsters. The Deku Baba are clothed in shadows – particularly, I assume, the twilight. Something turned this into a Twilit Parasite Diababa. The heads snap at us lashing their tongues. Must everything be hostile here? Even the water is infected with twilight, violet like the miasma. Ooccoo Junior shakes and hides under my shirt, but against the wall they cannot reach us anyway.

"No use leaving now," Midna says from Link's shadow. "That Diababa has what we need."

"Okay," says Link, drawing his sword. He glances at me with a grin. "Shall we?"

"I will," I reply, setting Ooccoo Junior down by the wall and running forward, tossing my spear at the eastern head. Ha! I jump in triumph as it spears on through. The head lets out a shriek before falling forward on the edge of the water.

"Maeva, get out of the way!" Link yells, the first I've ever heard of him raising his voice, save for the moments when he grunts and lets out unintelligible war cries when he attacks things. I glance behind me and somersault out of the way just in time for the second head to slam right where I stood. It, too, is dead, cut off from its stem.

"We did it!" Link cheers, holding a slimy boomerang in his hands, but he stares at it still like a piece of art. "Not bad."

"Not bad? That was disgusting!" the boomerang wails. "You've never cared for an enchanted item before, have you? You're terrible at it!"

"Sorry," Link says, smiling sheepishly, wiping the boomerang on his tunic before returning it to his pouch. He glances at me, still excited about that triumph (half of which is owed to me, and it would have been mine completely had he not interfered), and my irritation for him grows when his expression turns into one of alarm. "Maeva, move!"

I follow his eyes and feel a vibration in the ground. The Diababa heads are slinking back into the water – and so is my staff! No! I reach out to grab it, but it is dragged into the water too quickly and I cannot dive in to retrieve it. The murky violet liquid that fills the lake bubbles.

"It isn't over!" Link declares, but I glance at him only to ensure that he is too busy waiting for whatever else is in the water to watch me. I focus on where I last saw the Diababa head. A shadow slips through into the water, and as it does I snap back as though seared. That twilight – it clenched down on my own, forced it back! The magic is more powerful than I imagined.

I back away, getting to my feet, but another roar throws me off. I catch myself before I fall and run towards the others, diving to Ooccoo Junior's side as a great splash signals the rise of another monster.

It looks nothing like a Diababa head, its stems thicker than the rest, almost thick like a tree trunk but not as solid. Or perhaps it would, if one peeled an even bigger Diababa bulb's petals back and found a smaller bud inside, a smaller bud that opened to reveal a great yellow eye! Acid saliva pouring from its orifices, it roars at Link, who only stands back.

And I might have forgotten to mention that the two Diababa heads we destroyed earlier are very much alive – or perhaps it's that the new, more grotesque Diababa head was able to create more of its ilk. Still snapping and biting. Link uses the boomerang to cut through the side-heads, which respawn over and over again, eliciting more complaints from the fairy, but the center head's thick trunk is too hard.

"Stop it! Stop it!" the boomerang yells after more than four repetitions. The center head seems undefeatable. And I can do nothing to defeat it, what with my staff being lost in the water! "I can't slice through such a thick object!"

Link apologizes as Ooccoo and Ooccoo Junior cheer. What are we to do? We haven't even yet acquired the first treasure and I already find myself at a loss.

And then a familiar shrieking, a beating of the chest, and something glowing in his hand – Ook and a bombling! I only notice now that there are entrances to the cavern from the top sides, like a window of sorts. Ook makes noises at Link – not chittering, I can't describe it, but it sounds something like ooh ooh ahh ahh –and motions to himself. Ah. I think I might understand…

"You must—"

"I know," Link takes a breath before throwing the boomerang at Ook. How dare he interrupt me! He's fortunate he did what I was about to instruct…

Ook catches the boomerang and sets the bombling atop it. Somehow, it stays on the boomerang and enters the Diababa's orifice – I cannot honestly call it a mouth – which slobbers all over the fairy before returning to Ook, who swings towards us just in time for the monster to thrash about. I don't see it, turning my body to the wall and covering Ooccoo Junior and Ooccoo from the oncoming blast.

It doesn't come, shriveling up instead and falling to ash, only the ash stays suspended in the air – magic. The darkness in the cavern lifts when part of the ceiling breaks, shedding light into the room. The miasma from the waters lift, too. Where has Link gone?

I don't care, of course. I stand and look to Ook, who has suddenly approached and thumps me on the shoulder, stuffing the boomerang in my hands and giving me more oohs and ahhs before swinging away again. All that is left of the monster is its jaundiced eye, which twitches, rolls a little – I step back, only to stop at the sound of laughter.

"Midna?" She stands beside me. "Where did…?"

Midna doesn't answer me, in favor of watching the eye emit an orange light. Instead of exploding, it turns into a heart-shaped glass. This isn't the treasure…

And then the ashes move – in one swift, sweeping motion – and converge in the air before us, emanating an age old darkness that elicits a smile from Midna. Link is still missing.

Perhaps not, as the sound of a human gasping for breath reaches my ears. Far into the now clear, blue lake, Link rises, waving a hand at us as he breathes heavily. What in the world was that fool doing in the water? And why wasn't he affected by the darkness? …I suppose the answer should come easily. But that only angers me more.

And the hat is still planted firmly on his head.

"There's your human," Midna laughs merrily, tracing the symbols on the treasure that resembles her helmet with her little fingers. "Well done!" she tells Link, who has swum over to the edge. Is that…?

"My staff!" I can't help but exclaim, rushing to it. I glance at Link momentarily. "You…you…"

"It's difficult to get used to another weapon all over again," he says, squeezing the water from his hat, which dries instantly. Only then does it come off his head. Really? "I've never heard of people crafting staffs like these…and it seemed to mean a lot to you."

I…

"Oh, how sweet!" Ooccoo coos, wobbling over to us. "Maeva, you should thank Link! How kind of him to think so selflessly."

Ugh. Thank the goddesses we're about to part soon. I shall miss Ooccoo Junior's company, but Ooccoo's preachiness, not at all. I would have thanked him less begrudgingly had Ooccoo shut her mouth.

"Thank you," I say, but I don't look at Link, pretending to smooth my fingers against the crystal of the staff instead. Unmarred by the water that would have harmed me. It really was godly.

"And here I was, about to say good riddance," says Midna, glaring at the staff. But I sheathe it again, the lesser of two evils, and I understand that she can sense nothing will stop me from using this to my advantage, not even her own anger.

"You're welcome," Link replies, smiling, but is easily distracted by the treasure. "What's that?"

"What we've been looking for," says Midna, embracing the thing into herself. "A Fused Shadow. It's what that light spirit called dark power… Do you remember what it said? About how you had to match the power of the king of shadows?"

Link nods. Midna pretends to put some thought into the matter by tapping her chin before giggling. "Could it really be so easy? Is this all there is to it? Eee hee hee!" This is no laughing matter – but that is Midna's way. "There's a total of three Fused Shadows – I think the other light spirits have the rest."

"How do you use them?" asks Link. I realize it's the first time I have ever seen him speak with Midna as a human.

"Maybe I'll tell you if you find the other two," she giggles. I sigh. "I guess you'd better do your best to find them, huh? Eee hee hee!"

Link looks away, but says nothing. Midna accepts this and tells me, "Let's not waste any more time here when we could be looking for the other two. I'll get us out of here with my own power – get the heart container, and let's go."

She points to a spot on the ground. A black portal with clover green etchings shimmers into existence, and then Midna disappears.

"The heart container," Ooccoo repeats, and wobbles over to that encased heart from earlier. "This is what she meant. This is very important, rare, treasure!"

"You don't say," Link replies, approaching it slowly. I have never heard of this – I never thought Midna would learn so much in her travels. If she only let me accompany her…

Link picks it up and crouches before Ooccoo. I am curious and have no choice but to follow. "How do we use it?" asks the human.

"Reach into the glass and your energy will be restored, your stamina increased! I found one of these once. Oh, what an adventure!" Ooccoo reminisces. So she actually has traveled farther than a bunch of pots… "All together, now, so we might share the spoils of our travels!"

"You too, Ooccoo Junior," Link tells the small, winged creature on my shoulder.

"What about me?" asks the Fairy of Winds in my free hand. Oh, yes. I forgot about her.

"Of course, dear!" Ooccoo declares. Who gave her the power of decision? I can't say I defeated the Diababa, unfortunately, but I did contribute to this moment. Ooccoo Junior and the boomerang, too, but all I remember Ooccoo doing was shriek. If anything, the monkeys deserve this more than she… But the human only agrees.

"One–two–three–!"

The heart container's glass appears like glass, but it is softer and permeable – I learn later that this sensation is the same as touching snow – and all at once, our eyes widen. (Save for the boomerang, who gives a small gasp of elation.) Ooccoo may be noisy, but she is correct. I no longer feel exhausted. My back straightens, and somehow I am simply – I know I am simply more powerful than I was seconds ago.

We step into Midna's portal moments later, and the darkness whisks us away from the temple. It seems we spent most of the day there – dusk is about to set in. Faron finds us before his spring again and tells Link – hero chosen by the gods, heroic young man – that he must now go west to the Eldin province, where those he seeks, clearly the rest who were taken by his raid, might be found. Midna appears only when the light spirit is gone, of course, and surprisingly agrees with Faron.

When she disappears, too, I see Link rubbing his right arm over the other. I ask, only out of curiosity, of course, "What ails you?"

"Nothing, really," Link replies, an uneasily smile on his lips. "Just – didn't you think it was cold, in that portal? It didn't feel like this – when I was a wolf. Didn't you…?"

"It was freezing!" Ooccoo gasps, shivering in her feathers behind us. "I agree! Junior, where are you?"

"Here, mama!" Ooccoo Junior says, flitting out from under my shirt. "Maeva was warm!"

"N-No, I wasn't," I insist. "Naturally, he would feel my body heat, I suppose, but – it was cold."

Link shakes his head as though that will shake away the shiver of the darkness. I suppose it's only fair that those of the twilight would possess an aversion to the light, while creatures from the realm of light might feel something when exposed to the twilight. I hadn't expected cold, however.

"Before we go, I…I'd like to see Bo and the others," says Link.

"Oh." I look in the direction of where his village should be and remember my bracelet. I can't go back there – not without the children, who should be in Eldin, if Faron is to be trusted. And a light spirit has no reason to lie, unlike one of the darkness. I should go ahead, but I grow hungry… "If you must. I shall go ahead and search for food."

"No—" Link gets in my way before I can leave the springs. He has that habit, being a hindrance. "My house is on a hill above the village. Do you remember passing by there, when I was a wolf? I have food there. The journey to Eldin province takes a little less than a day, so we should probably set out at sunrise tomorrow. If you don't want to see the villagers again, you can stay there first. I'll light you a fire while I speak with them. Oh, and I'll heat some bath water for everyone."

I cross my arms. He makes a point that we should rest first, and a warm bath sounds exceedingly tempting, but… "What makes you think I am afraid to face your villagers? They couldn't even—"

"It's just a thought," says Link, smiling – is that pity? I don't need pity! If anyone should deserve pity, it's the humans! "We did just escape death by giant plant, and it's tiring to have to get introduced to so many people at once – I understand."

No, he doesn't. He knows nothing about me or Midna. And how can he utter death by giant plant as though it is a normal occurrence? Wasn't he only a ranch hand before this, or does being named hero chosen by the gods instill a bravery into one from out of nowhere?

"I think it's a kind offer," says Ooccoo. "Very thoughtful, Link, thank you. Might we accompany Maeva, Junior?"

"Yes!" says Ooccoo Junior, rolling side to side on my shoulder. "Yes, please, Link!"

Link laughs. "Sure thing, Junior."


REVIEW!

Hope you guys liked this chapter. Character background for Midna and Maeva in the next chapter! Although dmc87's forest temple chapter is what made me fall in love with Maeva's character - her general whininess (is that a word? it is now) - and hoping as a reader that she becomes a better character or else I'll stop reading. HAHA! We'll see. Till next time!