"regular speaking"

'thoughts'

Flashback

Link felt the twilight energy dissipate but he did not turn back from his wolf form. 'Well that did not restore me.' Link thought as he moved to leave this area.

Epona was waiting patiently for her master and friend to come back while eying the dangerous fog. It had been a while since Epona had been on the other side of this area. Suddenly there was a 'wuff' sound.

Turning her head sharply she watched as the fog slowly began to disperse. The cloud cover giving way in this section of the forest for the first time in a while. Epona knew from listing to Link talk that this had been the purpose of them coming to this section of the woods and was excited that Link had been able to do a complete job again. Waiting a while longer for the fog to completely disperse she began to gallop across the now clear ground towards where Link would be.

Epona followed the path and stopped in front of the bridge that lead up towards the forest temple. She knew that soon link would be walking down it with a smile on his face. It was not a long wait until she saw a group of the temple monkeys moving out and around the top areas of the walkways. She looked anxiously for any sign of her green garbed companion. Finally, she saw the door again open.

What stepped out was most definitely not what she was expecting to see again. She had seen Link change from his human form into the form of the Divine Beast many times during their travels. She had also learned the reason why his changes happened the way they did. What did not make any sense to her was why he was again in that form now! Giving off a whinny towards her friend she begins to slowly walk towards the wolf.

Link looked up at the unexpected sound and saw Epona waiting for him at the bottom of the walk way. After getting back out of the new section of the forest temple he had giving the Leaf to Ook for safe keeping and for him to use since he had the Gale Boomerang still. Moving forward towards his old friend Link tries to prepare what to say to Epona.

"What happened to you this time!?" Epona said, beating him to the punch. "How were you able to make the change without Midna or whatever or something?"

"Well you see I was attacked in the fog, and my lantern broke. When I woke up i was in this form. I was kind of hoping that dispelling the fog would change me back like removing the twilight from an area, but that did not happen." Link responds then at Epona's prompting told the story in full. Mea filling in her part of the story as well. Ook listened along with Epona.

"Well, if you want my advice then you could talk to the Old One and see what he has to say." Ook offered once everyone had settled down a little. "Who is this Old One?" Link asked, turning his attention to the local leader. "The Old One is a bear that has great wisdom, he is considered one of the wisest animals in these woods."

Epona slowly looks over at Ook and slowly says, "We will do that if the light spirit of Faron is not able to help us." "Thank you Epona for remembering them." Link says gratefully looking at Epona with a smile. "I won't way I'm not to excited for you being in that form again, but it is nice to be able to talk to you and have you understand me." She replied. "Plus, looking down at you is always an interesting experience."

Link just shook his head at that and they began to head back the way Epona had come. It was an easy pace for both. Getting to the springs Link slowly moved into the water. At first, he only felt the calm influence of the water healing some of the small wounds he had picked up. Then a presence washed over him, and a voice was heard.

"Hero, chosen by the goddess, you are now in not your form." As the voice was heard a light was seen floating above the water but the light spirit did not make a full appearance. "I understand that you have come to me to be restored, but that can not be done. I and the other spirits of light are still weakened from the fight against Ganon."

Link looked down at the ground at that statement. It would seem that he was trapped in this form for the foreseeable future. Epona also felt sorrow for her friend. The spirit of light faded away and soon the presence brought was gone. Epona entered the water and nuzzled link a little to cheer him up. "Come on, we can still talk to this Old One. If nothing else, you will always have me by your side." She said.

Link looked up at Epona with gratitude and nodded his head. "Thank you, Epona. There is no one else I would rather have at my side." Link said. Link looked up again at the friend that had been with him throughout his entire journey. Thinking back, it was a shame that they had never gotten a chance to really talk until now. Well he had tried but Epona seemed insistent that he return to his true form.

"Okay, let's head back to Ook and get directions to this Old One. Nothing much just standing around here." With that said Link and Epona headed back towards the temple. Link was walking a little slower then when they had arrived. "Epona, do you mind that I am not a human at the moment?" He asked.

Epona was caught by surprise from this question. Pausing for a second, she began moving again. "Not really. It's just that when I first saw you like this it surprised me a lot. At first, I had thought you had gotten eaten. It's only that your scent is so yours that I did not try and hurt you. After that you always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere or do something. Why did you bring this up?"

"I was just thinking about how we never really took the chance to talk to each other. We have been together throughout that whole mess and well before that you and I were a team. I want to get your opinion on how this could work out. I might well not be able to change ba.." Link was suddenly stopped from speaking as Epona nudged him hard.

"Don't think that yet." Epona said. "Look I get your trying to be you and all positive, But I don't think you have really been comfortable will being a wolf." Link started to chuckle a little bit at that. For any humans it would have been an odd bark, but it was easily recognized by other animals. "Epona, yes I will admit that at first I did not enjoy being a wolf but near the end there I was really starting to enjoy this. I was missing it a little. I do wish I had more control but don't worry about me."

"What about all your friends? They tried to kill you last time they saw you!" Epona exclaimed. "I hope we get this fixed for them yes. But it's been a little hard to connect with them after everything. I'm not the farm herder I was when I left to deliver a sword. Besides, I have you with me." He answered. Epona felt a warm feeling when Link explained that. Looking forward she realized that they had arrived at the Forest temple.

Ook was still waiting for them. "I see that you are now going to see Old One. He lives deep in the forest to the east. He lives in a cave located next to a small lake. Mea will show you to a stream that leads from his lake." Mea looked excited for the chance to go on an adventure and showed it by hopping up and down.

Epona and Link nodded and had to start running a little to keep up with their eager guide. The start of the journey was easy enough for everyone. It got a little rougher as they really started to enter the forest but soon got a better handle of what they were doing. Link was excited for this new journey. He had never been through this part of the forest before and was looking forward to what could be here.

They soon came upon a stream and Mea stopped next to it. "This is the stream. Just follow it to lake. Old One stays near his home these days. Be kind and I don't think he will bother to attack you." She said. "Come back and visit!" With that she jumped up into the trees and was quickly gone from sight. Link and Epona shared a look and began to move onward.

Epona took this time to think about what Link had talked about. 'Is he really okay with being like this?' She thought as she tried to view Link without being noticed by him. She snorted when she noticed that she need not bother. He was obviously exploring the area around them. 'It's like he expects to find some chest just lying around on the ground. Still it was very nice of him to say that stuff about me. I promise Link, I will always be by your side, no matter what should happen.'

As Epona was making her inner promise, Link was indeed keeping an eye out for any possible chests. They just seemed to show up in the most random of places. This time there was no luck on the way to the lake. Upon arriving the two of them started to smell around. The smell of bear was present but Old One did not seem to be home at the moment.

They settled down near the side of the lake together. For Link it had been a bit of a long day already. Feeling Epona lay down beside him he started to take a short nap. Before this could happen however, the smell of bear grew stronger. Epona quickly got up on her feet again. Link followed her and soon they saw an obviously old bear come lumbering out of the forest towards them.

The bear paused as it caught sight of the two of them. In a deep voice that seemed to echo throughout it's whole body the bear asked "What brings two such unlikely creatures together? I have lived a long time and seen many things. Stories such as this is always of interest." Link then slowly started to explain his story. About how he was originally human, turned into the divine beast by the powers of twilight. When he had finished his explanation Old One stood and stared at him for a minute.

"I don't know of anyway for you to change back. When I said that I had seen many things, this has not been one of them. I feel almost that I should thank you for having me see something knew this late into my life." Old One rumbled out. Epona looked down casted on behalf of Link at hearing those words. "If I might be offer you some advice though" Old One continued, "It seems that what you are does not mean anything to who you are. Your heart is strong proven by the many battles you have fought. Continue to be yourself even if those you help do not recognize you for it." With that the bear slowly moved towards a cleft in a rock face.

Link seemed to pounder Old one's words for a while before looking up to Epona. "We should probably give him some space. Let's go find a place for us to stay for a while and find out what we should do." Epona nodded her head and the two of them headed away from Old One.

Sorry everyone for the delay. School has been murder and I also was not looking forward to trying and write Old One. Mainly because I feel to write wise, one must have a measure of wisdom. As all writers will tell you, please leave a message. Hope you are having a good time, for me it's finals at college. Also finally finding out how to work this site a little better!