This chapter gets some important stuff out of the way. Yes, nearly everything here will have relevance to the overall plot (except for the quote at the end. That's was a tribute to one of my favorite Let's Players.) And it's starting to look like this story will average a little over a thousand words each chapter... Not too long or too short, I hope ^^;


Shadow turned slowly, surprised to find himself somewhere besides the Dark World. Every day his dreams sent him home, yet this time he found himself underground. The room was carved from flame-colored rock, and besides the one door was completely barren. Figuring this was what the dream wanted him to do, Shadow opened the door and stepped out of the tiny room.

The next room was…more of a cavern, really. It was larger and, even with the stage at one end, appeared completely natural. A loud voice was screaming in a language he didn't understand, and mournful sobs echoed off the walls. Slowly, he approached the dais. Rounding the corner, he froze, struck by the scene before him.

Two girls stood in glass cylinders, each with a thick book in front of it. They were very similar in height, build, even features, but they were different. The one on the right's brown hair was a mess, her skin was extremely pale for a Hylian…was she Hylian? Her ears weren't visible under the mass of curls. Freckles splattered her face, and her book was open to the middle, maybe a bit closer to the end. The girl on the left was the Twili who'd just appeared in the middle of everything, with that eternal Twili neat-and-prim-ness hovering around her like an aura. Her book was turned to the third, or maybe fourth page, and looked in danger of flipping closed. In between the two was a small spirit, glowing a soft white. She was the one crying, clutching a pen between her fingers, brought to her knees by the strength of her sobs. After a second evaluation of the scene, Shadow climbed the steps. The spirit girl stared as her gently took the pen and jammed it, point out, in the spine of the Twili's book to keep it open. Then he came back and knelt down to take a better look at her. Big golden eyes stared up at him as he attempted to puzzle this out.

Finally, Shadow sighed and asked "Who are you?"


My eyes snapped open, and I found myself staring at the stairs above my head. That…that was my dream! But what was Shadow Link doing there? I grimaced, remembering that voice yelling "Choose! Choose!" I wish I knew why I'd been crying about making a choice…and what the choice was. I sighed and sat up.

A tiny squeak drew my attention down again. One of Vaati's little eye-friends had burrowed into my sleeping bag sometime in the night. And, forgive me, but I've always found them unbearably cute. It stared up at me with that big red eye, and shivered.

"Are you cold, little one?" I cooed, gently reaching out and taking it into my hand. "Were you hiding in there because it was warm?" It-no, I decided, he- hugged his wings against his little body and shivered some more. Awww… "Don't worry, I won't hurt you…" One of the wings, I noticed, was bent at an awkward angle. "Unless…Are you already hurt? Lemme see…"

He squeaked in protest as I, as gently as I could, unfurled the tiny wing. The base certainly looked like it might be swelling up a bit… Oh dear, I'm no doctor! "What do we do with you, little fella? You can't fly on that." As I released the wing, it snapped back to his side.

I smiled as an idea came to me. "I know! You can ride on my shoulder!" He let off another chirp of protest when I said it, and again when I deposited him on said shoulder. "You can ride with me until we find a fairy. And it should be nice and warm up there!"

He curled up next to my neck as I rolled up my sleeping bag, and I'm fairly sure the little guy fell asleep there. He didn't make another sound for at least half an hour. When the end of the stairs came into sight, I let off a cry of happiness that I'm sure woke him up. Forget individual muscles, my entire body's one giant ache!

I let myself sing for the first time since entering the stupid tube. "I linger in the doorway, Of alarm clocks screaming Monsters calling my name… Let me stay! Where the wind will whisper too me…Where the raindrops, as they're falling, Tell a story…" Around the second chorus, I realized my passenger was humming along.


I stared at the contains of the chest. A lousy pair of gloves? That's what I get for climbing all those stairs? Suddenly I felt a deep sympathy for the Link of Ocarina of Time, fighting his way through deadly temples for sucky prizes. Sigh.

The gloves were, admittedly, pretty cool. They seemed to be an exact replica of the ones Ur wore in Avalon Code. But…still kinda useless. Except for cosplay, maybe. I sighed again and put them on. If they don't do something cool, I'm gonna be pissed.

Continuing through the next door, I grinned as I found myself in a twisting corridor much like the one in the forest temple from Ocarina. " 'Oh cool!'" I laughed, quoting tenjinmoop, " 'We're on drugs!'"


If you didn't get to see any of tenjinmoop's Legend of Zelda Let's Plays before they took them offline, I feel very sorry for you. Yes, he had a short temper and swore a lot, but he had a great sense of humor (and randomness) and sometimes I think he looked things up just so he could make the viewers laugh ("I've been rewatching the last few videos and realized that there's a lot of rage in them. And...this made me sad. So this episode, we'll be very calm, very zen and very...not angry. So let's go through this next door, and see what's on the other side in this lovely game, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time." *door opens* "HOLY F***, AN IRON KNUCKLE!") I'm going to miss his Majora's Mask walkthrough, which is actuall what that line is from. The whole line was: "Oh cool! We're on drugs! I've always wanted to be on drugs! ...I've always wanted to be upide down! ...Oh, now you're just ruining my fun, game!" Yeah...good times.

Reviews:

freakyvampirecatgirl: Yay, I made someone squee! n.n Yeah, I can actually get comfortable on almost any surface, except stairs. They cut into my back...

TheBrick: *sweatdrop*

Amaya Night Rain of the Dragon: Thanks!

Latias Hylian Wolf: Running...and...mountains... They are almost worse than ReDeads sometimes...

Please Read and Review!