A.N. Here is chapter four, which originally was going to be one long chapter. I decided to break it up into parts however so that I could update faster. Here is part one. I will admit that the beginning is not in correspondence to the game's time-line. Having the cucco scene here sounded more fun then just having a wolf jump across platforms, however. I hope you enjoy! Also a quick note: my use of a tilde (~) means that the word is dragged out. Ergo, "No~" should be read as "Noooooooo..." and so on. Just making that clear.

Things had surely been strange lately. There was the blank letter, that crazy man in purple that seemingly haunted their presence, the statue from last night, the demonic moon, and that mask; but this—this was just absurd!

"To cross the gorge, just use my partner here." Rusl, a man from Link's hometown had told him before whistling. The pitter-patter of tiny feet had been heard. Something had been scampering towards them, and it hadn't been long before it was in front of them. It had jumped into the air and landed on the man's perched arm.

The look on the warrior's face had been one of bafflement. Had it been because this "partner" was gold and sparkling, or had it been because of what this "partner" was? Perhaps it was both.

Now he was clinging for dear life to this golden cucco that couldn't be more than a twentieth of his size, yet it was somehow managing to fly him across the gorges, however much of a struggle the cucco seemed to be having with its clucking and molting of feathers.

Fly?

It just clicked inside his mind that he was flying with the aid of a cucco, and while it was doing a fantastically fascinating job, he couldn't help but hear his mind screaming at him in a fit of rage as his understanding of reality was falling apart: cuccos cannot fly like this!

His feet made contact with the small platform that was conveniently placed in the middle of the gorge. His feet shuffled and scrambled in attempt to brake, but the cucco he held onto had other plans. For such a small creature it had quite a torque, and it pulled him off of the platform almost as quickly as he had landed on it.

The course he was on was not a good one. At this rate he would crash into the large tree and miss the next conveniently placed platform.

"No!" he hollered "To the right, cucco! To the right!" He sure was glad that nobody was around; talking to a cucco like this was absurd. Heck, then again, this whole situation was absurd.

The cucco didn't seem to be listening to his commands. After all, it was silly to think that a cucco could understand him. Taking a more forceful approach, he shifted his hands to slant the cucco's body.

He let out a sigh of relief as he began to veer to the right and his course was adjusted just enough to make the landing safely.

His feet made contact…

"No~!"

And then he was airborne again.

His course took him through swinging pendulums of death (which, had the cucco not been pulling him against his will, he would have been killed by) and turning bridges. Now that he was at the end of the gorge, he was ready to murder this crazy beast. Before he could smash the beast into the ground, it broke from his grip and landed in front of him. His hand was about to go to the hilt of his sword, but then his imp companion slid out from his shadow.

"What fascinating creatures!" She turned from him to the cucco, "I must know what they are called!"

The warrior just sighed in frustration and disgust before pushing forward.

The forestry was thick in this part of the Faron Woods, like a cavernous forest. It was very moist here too, and the way the sunlight just vaguely pierced the ceiling of leaves created a glaring haze in the atmosphere. His imp companion floated close to him in her flesh form while admiring the mask, but her attention of admiration had soon switched to the scenery as she spun slowly.

"It's..." she paused for a moment, "beautiful here."

The warrior was mildly surprised at her choice of words. "Beautiful" was a word he hadn't heard her use in reference to the world of light.

"Do you hear something?" The warrior asked in a whisper as he froze. His eyes darted from side-to-side searching the terrain in front of him for anything threatening.

"No I don't hear any—"

Interrupting her was the sound of breaking branches as a large group of wooden mannequins surrounded them and proceeded to attack the off-guard duo by launching themselves at the two. They collided, an action that sent both the warrior and his imp companion to the ground. The mask slid from her grasp and out of her reach during the collision. The sudden sound of a horn caused the mannequins to shift and press forcefully against their captives.

"Link!"

He could hear her shouting but he couldn't see her through the mass of mannequins. He tried to force himself up but there were too many holding him down for him to force his way out of the hold. Through the clattering of the wooden mannequins, footsteps could be heard, along with a sneering laugh.

"You guys did great! I wonder if they have anything good on them…" The footsteps became louder as whoever it was approached the duo, and now within their view was an odd, human-like creature. There was a pause as the warrior and this creature's eyes met. "Huh?" The creature then murmured, "This guy…" It examined the warrior momentarily before turning its attention to the imp, in which upon doing so it caught sight of the mask. It made its way over to it cautiously and picked it up, saying "What have we here?" It stared into the eyes promptly; it broke the connected gaze, turned it around, and placed the mask on its face.

Everything seemed to fall silent at the moment and all movement ceased.

The opportunity couldn't have been more perfect. In this moment, the warrior pushed forth with all his might in a last-ditch effort to once again force his way out of the hold, although it apparently wasn't needed as the mannequins fell off of him lifelessly. He rose, quickly drew his sword, and charged the odd creature.

He couldn't have been closer when the thing instantly turned around and let out a shriek. Before his blade could pull the life from the creature, some sort of purple aura burst from the mask upon its face and pushed the warrior back. He stumbled into his imp companion who was rising, and they both quickly met with the ground again. The creature danced away from them, twirling and chanting a haunting melody.

And then everything was quiet again.

"Ugh, get off of me!"

The warrior quickly abided as he realized he was crushing his imp companion. She floated into the air gracefully while brushing herself off.

"That thing took our mask!" She spat out in a fit of rage. "Come-on Link, we have to get it back!" She began to float away from him. Sheathing his sword, he followed her.

The place was a maze. The passageways leading from area-to-area sometimes caused relapses in their route. Some parts made them climb—well, the warrior anyways. He almost lost his footing quite a few times. The atmosphere was changing, now becoming overrun by gloom. The imp had that feeling again—the same one from two nights ago. Something was watching her—watching them, she was sure of it.

"I can hear that stupid song of his." The imp stated in disgust. "It seems to be getting louder. I think we're going in—ahh!"

The second the sound of the leaves ruffling and branches snapping rang in his ears, he drew his sword and leaped forward, pushing his imp companion out of the way. Landing around him was another group of animated wood mannequins. He swung instantly and took one out.

Or so he thought.

As soon as the mannequin hit the ground, it shot straight up like a Deku Baba. Upon examination, the warrior noted that these mannequins were different. Their arms were thin and sharp and their faces were shaped and detailed like that mask.

He raised his shield and blocked its swift attack, then ducked under another's, retaliated against a third with a shield bash and then followed through with a quick slash. It didn't seem to do much, as the second the mannequin connected with the ground it shot straight up like the other.

'Link, behind you!"

Acknowledging his imp companion's words, he nimbly evaded the fatal lunge of the fourth mannequin; but he could do nothing to stop the following attack. His arm took the hit, severing the skin. He grunted, but did not lose his focus. Taking a quick summary of his surroundings, he decided upon the best course of attack and unleashed a vicious circular slash all around him. All four of his opponents were knocked flat onto the ground; not that it did much good, as they instantly rose. He raised his shield again.

"Any ideas?" He threw the question hastily at his imp companion before the mannequins engaged him once more. Before she could think of a reply an eerie laugh pierced their ears. She located the source and saw the creature with the mask sitting on a tree branch, its feet dangling and kicking in the air.

"Up there, in the trees! Link, shoot him!"

"Bit busy here!"

His leg took a minor hit, but he refused to flinch. The four mannequins were assaulting him from the front. He was having an extremely hard time keeping up with blocking the eight sharp arms trying to cleave the skin from his body. His back rammed against a tree and he could no longer back up. In a moment of desperation, the warrior let loose a powerful horizontal swing, once again knocking all the mannequins backwards. However, the attack beheaded one of the mannequins. When they hit the ground, only three of them rose—the one without a head stayed down. Now he knew out to beat them; yet he let out a sigh knowing that this process was going to be difficult.

Pushing forward, he performed two quick slashes to knock two of the remaining mannequins back. He did a quick spin to gain momentum before unleashing a strong enough swing to behead the third mannequin. Much to his dismay, however, the mannequin—as if by gaining intelligence—ducked underneath the path of his sword and slashed at the warrior's legs with both of its sharp arms. The injuries he sustained weren't too severe, although his legs were bleeding rather plentiful now from three open wounds. He couldn't prevent his body from collapsing to one knee, and as much as he would have liked to, doing so actually aided him as it put him on level with the mannequin in front of him. Drawing back his sword and in one swift and mighty swing, the mannequin's head flew from its body.

The other two adversaries were already on top of him by the time he could rise to full height. They pushed him to the ground, but before they could attempt to harm him, he managed to throw one off and bring his shield over his torso to stop the second's jab. In retaliation, the warrior bashed his shield into the mannequin, an action that overwhelmingly forced it off his body. He curled his legs and hastily launched himself upright.

His imp companion called out in his defense again, "Behind you!"

Knuckles cracked as his grip around the hilt of his sword tightened. Turning around he let loose another devastating slash that beheaded the third mannequin.

"Would you shoot him already?"

Rolling his eyes (and making sure the last mannequin was not close enough to harm him), the warrior pulled the bow off his back, readied an arrow as he aimed towards the odd creature, and let the string loose which was proceeded by a short whistling sound from the arrow.

It struck with immense precision—hitting the creature in the side of the head. Upon impact its head fell limp to one side. No motion could be seen within the creature's body; that is until it began leaning slowly backwards before falling off and being blotted out of sight by the branch. Its body never reappeared from behind the branch. It was as if its body evaporated without a trace.

"Where'd he go?" The imp questioned aloud.

Not forgetting the danger at hand, the warrior readied a second arrow and hastily raised his bow in front of him and almost as quickly lowered it: the fourth mannequin laid sprawled and motionless a few feet from him.

"Ugh!"

The warrior's attention turned to the source of the frustrated grunt which was his imp companion.

"Let's keep going." She said with almost no concern for the warrior and his wounds, "We have to find that dumb sword."

A.N. Sorry for the anti-climatic end of this chapter. It was the only decent part to split the document at. Chapter five will be up within five to ten days though! Hope you enjoyed!