"Yow, this wind is cold!" Issun exclaimed as they finally exited the long tunnel and stepped onto the snows of Kamui. "Ammy, you mind if I burrow down into your fur a little? I know this place is never exactly tropical, but it's worse than I remember!"
"Worse than you remember?" Midna turned to him. "You've been here before?"
"Yeah…long story…it's been a while. If I knew a place where we could get out of this wind I'd take you there, but I don't…"
"We know a place. We met somebody here when we first came to Nippon." She patted Link, who trotted off in the direction of Oki's hut. The little home was dark, the ashes cold in the fire pit. "Looks like he hasn't been here in a while," she commented.
"Well, at least it's out of the wind," Issun said. "Hey, Link, since you've got hands and maybe a flint, would you mind lighting up some fire for us?"
"I can do it," Midna said as Link shifted form. She concentrated a bit of magic onto the charred logs, and a hearty fire flared up from the pit. They all crouched around the fire for a while, not saying anything, letting it warm them.
"I'm not looking forward to going back out there," Link said as he watched the storm rage outside the door. "Issun, do you have any idea where we should be heading?"
"Nope. There's a village a fair distance from here though, maybe we can ask the people there if they've seen anything out of the ordinary. They can change shape, like you." He looked around the shelter. "In fact, I think some of the stuff in here belongs to Oki."
"You know him?" Midna asked. "He's the first person we met when we came here."
"Yeah, kind of. What can I say, I play well with others…but we'll never reach the village in this storm without freezing. I'm pretty sure I saw a cursed zone up ahead on the path, too."
"A what?" Link asked.
"A cursed zone. Ammy and I have been cleaning up Nippon since long before you guys came here. That Orochi messed up the place when he woke up, and Ammy and I have been restoring everything as we go. Though, really, I guess that proves we're moving in the right direction."
Link nodded toward the door. "The storm seems to be dying down a bit. Maybe if we wait a bit longer, we can break out during a lull and try to make it to that village you mentioned." He squinted through the doorway. "Hey, there's somebody out there!" He ran out the door, Midna behind him.
"Link, get back here! You don't want to touch that cursed zone!" Issun and Amaterasu rushed after him.
As Link ran out, the storm seemed to hem him in, but he could see the outline of someone nearby. He called out to the person, trying to follow.
Issun watched as Link stumbled into the cursed zone. He heard Link's yell of pain, watched as a strange glow appeared on one hand. Link changed to wolf form – unconsciously it seemed – and backed out of the cursed zone.
"Be careful!" Midna scolded him. "This is different from the dark magic back home." She pulled him back toward Amaterasu, who had picked up the scent of the mystery individual and followed it to another small shelter.
Midna changed Link back into human form and he shouted at the door. "Anybody home?"
A voice bade them enter, and they saw a man wearing the garb of the Emperor's guards. "Hey, I know you! The apple guy!" Issun exclaimed.
The man smiled. "Oh, hello again. I was just about to leave, and continue my adventures as a wandering archer. You can stay here if you like."
"Thanks!" Issun and Link said in unison as he departed.
"Hey, what's with the mark on your hand?" Issun demanded of Link after Midna had started another fire.
"Oh?" Link examined it. "I've always had that…though it hadn't started glowing till recently, just before I met Midna. It's the royal seal of Hyrule, the Triforce."
"I know what it is; you told us. I didn't think you were related to the royal family. Why didn't you tell us about this when we were in Kamiki?"
"I'm not related…"
"Then what's it doing on your hand?"
"Didn't I mention that? I don't remember much of that night in Kamiki…"
Midna giggled. "Link's just modest. He's the bearer of the Triforce of Courage."
"What! Why didn't you say this before? We might've taken you more seriously!"
"Wuff," said Amaterasu.
"Yeah, what Ammy said," Issun sat back on her head and thought. "If you've got a piece, then it must have been broken and is being held by two others."
"Zelda must have the Triforce of Wisdom," Link said. "I know she has a piece. The last one is being held by Zant…or someone acting through him."
Issun bounced out the door. "Well, Mr. Chosen Hero, mind helping us clear out this cursed zone?" He motioned toward the black undulating mass surrounding a huge boulder. "We're getting some thundersnow…that give you any ideas, Ammy?"
Amaterasu wagged her tail, then pulled Link outside with her, nosing at his bow. He took it out, looking at her quizzically.
"I getcha," said Issun. "C'mon, Link, we'll show you what to do." Link followed Issun and Amaterasu out of the hut and into the freezing cold. "Okay, let one go!"
Link notched an arrow to his bow and drew it back, releasing the arrow through the dark mist toward the huge stone mass. Suddenly a flash of lightning enveloped the arrow and as it struck the boulder, it shattered the stone shell and revealed a gigantic barren tree.
"Okay, Ammy, do your stuff!" Issun shouted. Amaterasu whined eagerly, and out of the blue the tree exploded in bloom, a soft light extending out from the trunk and cleansing the land of the sinister shadow.
Link and Midna stood stunned.
Issun grinned. "And that, my friends, is one of the more impressive powers of the great god Amaterasu. Now c'mon, let's go find the village."
-&-
The first thing they noticed when they climbed the hill into Wep'keer was the distinct lack of people. Granted, the freezing cold had intensified to a point that none of the four could imagine anyone staying out for very long, but even the merchant's stand had been abandoned. "Where is everybody?" Issun demanded of no one in particular. "I know it's a bad night to be out, but the Oina have a much better tolerance to the cold than we do."
They ran from house to house, some of which had smoke rising from the chimneys; but despite Amaterasu's whines and scratchings, they saw no other sign of life.
"Shift back, Link," Issun told him as he started to turn blue. "Nobody's gonna answer us anyway."
Just then, the deer-hide door flap nudged open, and a brown wolf with a deer-antler mask peeked its head cautiously outside. "Oh, Issun!" a female voice exclaimed. "I never thought I'd see you here again! Invite your friends in, it's too cold to be wandering around. I'm Kai." She stepped inside and shifted into human form.
The four travelers gathered gratefully around the fire, and Issun explained briefly why he was in such strange company.
"Where is Oki, anyway?" Midna asked Kai. "We stopped by his place, but he wasn't there."
Kai's expression darkened. "We haven't seen him at all, ever since he left in pursuit of the demons that have plagued our village, and took Kutone with him."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Issun exclaimed. "He took Kutone with him?! The village elder gave me a hiding for just touching the sword!"
"Sword?" Link asked. "I remember Oki had a fine-looking sword with him. It's not his?"
"It's a sacred relic that belongs to our village," Kai explained. "He's not really supposed to have it…but given everything that's happened lately…"
"He decided to make an executive decision." Issun snorted. "Just what, exactly, prompted him to do that?"
"As you can see, we've been having the worst storms in even the elder's lifetime. He went up to the lake to pray for fire from the mountains, but he was attacked by demons. He's recovering in his home now, and told us not to open our doors to anyone. But I figured I could trust you, Issun."
"That's a problem. Isn't he the only one who knows the incantation to get the volcanoes to erupt?"
"Well…my little sister, Lika, knows it too. But she's been missing for the past week…" Kai's voice trembled behind her mask.
"Little Lika's missing?! That is bad. Maybe we can help look for her. Any clue to where she might be?"
"I followed her tracks for a while…they led into the forest."
"The forest?" Issun exclaimed. "I'm not going in that place?"
"What's wrong with the forest?" Link asked. "I grew up in the woods. I'm used to it."
"It is a dangerous place, even for us Oina," Kai explained. "The trees have a strange pollen with the power to confuse beasts. Few who go in ever come out. I was lost there once myself…isn't that right, Issun?"
Issun said nothing. Link, Midna, and Amaterasu looked at him quizzically.
Before they could say anything, Kai asked Amaterasu, "Will you look for Lika? I can bring you to the inner part of the forest…but I don't know my way around further than the most well-worn paths, and even those are hard to follow."
Amaterasu wagged her tail, and gave Kai a friendly "wuff".
"You can stay here if you like," Kai offered Link and Midna.
"Thank you, but we're in this quest together," Link explained.
"Yeah, besides, we have some hidden talents." Midna shifted Link into wolf form.
"Oh!" Kai exclaimed. "Just like the Oina! Can the other people of Hyrule do that?"
"Nope, it's not something he was born with, actually," Midna explained as she climbed onto his back. "But to explain it would take hours, and I don't think we have that kind of time."
"Of course." Kai shifted into wolf form herself and opened the door. "Let's go!"
