First off I would like to apologize for how long it's taken for me to post this, things have been a bit... hectic around my house for the past couple weeks. That paired with the fact that I've been concentrating on finishing up school, well let's just say it's been a bit hard.

Second I would like to thank those who are actually reading this, I understand it's not the best story out there but I do my best. And now with that said, let us continue with the story.

Chapter 4: An Unlikely Acquaintance

The first thing Hunter felt as he gained consciousness was the pain, an intense burning that ran throughout his body. He could faintly feel a heavy attaching his right leg to the ground, yet something about it seemed to be wrong. He struggled as he slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurred as he tried to look around the cell he was in. It wasn't until a minute later, when his vision had fully cleared, that he froze with a mixture of shock and fear. He was staring down at his hands but it wasn't a pair of human hands that he was seeing, they were paws.

'That can't be possible,' he thought to himself. He slowly shuffled his way to the water trough in the back corner of his new residence. Yet as he saw his reflection his fears were confirmed. Staring back at him was the face of a great black and grey wolf, the same insignia that rested on his armor now imprinted on his forehead. His eyes were still the same deep, crimson red the only familiar thing about his new form.

"This can't be happening to me right now," he growled looking around the cell. The cell itself was a seven by seven foot square built entirely out of rough cut bricks, a small water trough opposite the front gate, a small pile of what looked like hay on the left, and a small wooden bow on the right corner up against the gate.

'Damnit,' he thought yanking the chain on his leg.

"You'll never get it off like that," he heard a voice say tauntingly.

Turning towards the back of the cell, Hunter saw an impish figure form out of the shadows. The creature wore only a strange black headpiece that covered its left eye, the other being a dark purple. Her hair, as he assumed it was a her, was a bright burning red that seemed to pulse as it ran down her neck and back.

"Who are you?" Hunter said as he dropped into a low crouch, his hind legs tensed.

"Oh by quite, I can't understand all that growling of yours anyways. And besides," the imp said with a sly smile, "You shouldn't be mean to me. After all, I was planning on helping you out of here." Hunter rose slowly, his muscles still tensed in anticipation of trickery. Despite the idea of a promised freedom, he didn't quite trust the figure floating before him.

"Well than let's see what we can do about that chain of yours shall we?"She closed her eyes, slowly moving her hands until they were sitting about two inches apart, palms facing each other. As she concentrated, a small ball of black energy began to form in the open space. After a few more seconds the imp shot the blast at the chain, severing it at the fifth link from his leg.

Hunter flexed his leg, taking a few hesitant steps around his cell to get accommodated to his new form. After a minute of working out the kinks he looked up at the figure above him, an unasked question burning in his eyes.

"Yes I'll help you out of here, just like I promised," she said to him, easily floating between the cell bars. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to make it easy, you'll have to find your own way out.

'Damnit,' Hunter thought to himself as he looked around his cell. Near the left side of the gate he spotted what appeared to be fresh dirt, poorly hidden beneath a small wooden box. 'Well isn't that interesting,' he thought to himself with a wolfish smile. With a quick swipe of his paw he easily smashed through the box, dug his way under his imprisonment, and appeared on the other side shaking loose clumps of dirt from his fur.

"Not bad," the imp said landing on Hunters back, "but our communications still a bit 's see if we can fix that shall we."Placing her pale hands on the wolfs head, the small girl's palms began to glow a deep purple. Hunter shuddered as a strange awareness slowly sunk its way into his head and began to spread throughout his body.

"There we are," she said happily, "and now for the test run, speak boy! Go on, speak!"Hunter remained silent, but instead turned back towards her and growled. "Alright, alright," she said playfully tugging on his ear," I'll start off then. My name is Midna, and you are?"

"My name is Hunter," he replied. Despite the fact that his voice was still the same deep growling, Midna seemed to have no problem understanding him.

"See, that wasn't so hard," Midna laughed patting him on the head. "Though I've got to admit, your names a bit strange, what's the story with that?"

"It's just one of the many I've gone by over the years." His answer was simple, but it seemed to quell her curiosity for the moment. "Now, we still need to get out of this place."

"Oh, I guess. Why don't we try the next cell over, there should be a path that leads down to the sewers. We should be able to get up to the roofs from there."

"Great," he said dryly. Making his way to the next cell, he noticed it was nearly the same as the one he had just left, except for a long chain hanging from the roof. 'I take it that would be my way in,' he thought. Leaping up at the chain he took the ring at the end in his teeth, using his own weight to trigger the mechanism on the other end.

"Not bad," Midna said to her partner as he dropped to the ground. "Let's get going, there's someone that we need to be meeting soon and we don't want to keep them waiting."

Hunter smiled, an odd wolfish grin as he leapt into the shadows. 'Time for some fun.'

Another short chapter unfortunately, but I promise the next one's going to be longer. Honestly though, I was fairly happy with how this one came out in the end. The whole communication thing between Midna and Hunter might be further explained later but basically it's like telepathy, just slightly different.

Once more I bid you, Good Day and Good Hunting.