Stupid water temple. Stupid Zoras. Stupid everything.

He feels like a child as he kicks a loose stone out of his path and huffs, but he's too irritated to care. Midna only giggles from his shadow.

Of course the Zoras had to build a gigantic maze of a temple at the very bottom of a deep lake. It had been created to torture him. Obviously.

He opens one door. Wrong room. Backtracks, opens another. Wrong room. Backtracks again, opens yet another.

Wrong room! Who would have guessed? he thinks to himself with a grunt of annoyance. And then immediately afterward, he thinks that maybe Midna's sarcasm has rubbed off on him a little too much.

Shaking his head to himself, he backtracks yet again.

"Hey, stupid wolf," Midna sighs. "As entertaining as it is to watch you stumble around like an idiot, don't you think you should actually... oh, I don't know, go somewhere useful?"

"I'm trying," comes his tired response, "but this place is... it's just really confusing."

She leaps up from his shadow, hands hanging loose and bored to her sides. "Try that door," she suggests, pointing.

He swears he's already tried that one before. But, not wanting to offend her, he gives an exhausted shrug and goes to follow her advice anyway.

It leads into a hallway he hasn't seen before.

"Oh, thank Farore," he breathes.

"I told you so!" Midna sings.

"Thanks," he mutters. And he can't help feeling like an idiot for never entering a door that was right in front of his face. Grumbling some kind of complaint to himself that even he can't quite make out, he trudges through the hallway and opens the door on the other side of it.

There's hardly a second to take in the fact that he's standing atop a gigantic gear before a lizalfos rushes at him.

Eyes wide, his fingers lunge to draw the sword from its sheath at his back, purely out of reflex and nothing more. The lizalfos cackles at him, a strange garbled noise, blade held tight in its right hand.

Then blades clash. Steel rings against steel. The bestial roar of the creature echoes across wet stone walls, and the grating of sword against sword as Link grits his teeth and pushes his enemy back.

The lizalfos bares its teeth. Tail lashing, it leaps to the side, nimble as a cat, easily dodging its enemy. Not expecting the sudden lack of resistance against his weapon, the Hylian stumbles forward, only barely managing to regain his balance before he falls flat on his face.

An opportunity.

The creature seizes it.

Giving a cry of victory, it lunges for the young man, sword poised to pierce through his ribs and to his heart.

Link watches from the corner of his frantic eyes. He tries to turn to run, but he isn't fast enough, Goddesses help him, heart hammering and terrified -

"Hey! You!"

A tiny shadow appears before the beast.

Shocked, the lizalfos stumbles back, silent. There it stays - only for a moment. Then it tries to slash its sword at Midna.

Of course the blade only passes through her incorporeal form. The imp laughs at the creature's petty attempt to harm her, and tauntingly folds her arms across her chest. "Come get me!" she calls, sing-song, floating as far away from Link as possible.

Palms sweating, eyes wide, throat dry, he watches as the pathetic lizalfos tries and fails to attack the shadow. And Midna's giggles only serve to enrage it all the more.

Now's my chance, he thinks as he watches the creature turn its back to him.

So he lunges.

But whether by instinct or something else - the lizalfos whirls, sword clashing with his a mere second before it had sliced through its neck. Teeth ground together, Link ignores his erratic heartbeat and sweating hands as he pushes against his foe's blade.

Somehow the monster wins.

Giving a taunting, garbled cry, it manages to push him back, feet sliding helplessly against the strange gear beneath him. His eyes narrow. Hand tightens round the hilt in a white-knuckle grip. But he can do nothing. Nothing to stop the monster.

"Hey!" Midna calls, voice tinged with panic. "Over here, brainless! Come get me!"

The monster ignores her.

It jerks its blade away from Link's, eyes gleaming with victory. Shimmering silver sword pierces the air.

And stabs into Link's side.

The blade cuts his mail like butter, parting tight-knit metal scales and driving into his flesh. For a moment he feels nothing. He can only stare, wide eyed, heart stopped, at the lizalfos, wishing he could have moved a little faster to block the attack...

A foot slams into his abdomen.

With a cry Link falls onto his back, crashing to the unmoving gear beneath.

Now he feels the wound.

Warm liquid leaks from his side, staining his Zora tunic red. It burns. Dear Nayru it burns. He squeezes his eyes shut and grits his teeth in a futile attempt to ignore the pain.

Keeping its bestial foot planted firmly onto his stomach, the creature gloats, lifting its head to the ceiling and allowing a terrible laugh to rumble in its throat.

"You - you piece of scum!" Midna snarls, hair forming a giant orange hand and slapping the beast right in the face.

Or, that's what it's supposed to do, but it just passes through the creature's head.

But at her sudden movement it stops. Stops and stares at the shadow in confusion for a moment.

Link seizes his chance.

Despite the pain, the throbbing and the burning in his side, he reaches up, grabs the monster's leg - and throws it to the ground.

The lizalfos screeches in shock, yellow eyes wide. But it recovers impossibly fast - and throws its scaly arms around Link's torso, keeping him pinned helplessly to the floor.

Link grits his teeth and thrashes. And then they're grappling, a confusing mess of twisting limbs and angry fists, and the poor Hylian can't ever tell what is up and what is down. The sticky blood pouring from his side makes him nauseous. And that doesn't help matters.

Suddenly -

Suddenly there's just nothing beneath him, and with a jolt of purest terror he realizes he's falling off the edge of the gear. He hadn't even noticed until now that there's a deep, black, empty pit of death below it.

A scream claws his throat and tears from tense lips. And with fingers shaking uncontrollably, he latches onto the edge of that gear for dear life.

Somewhere above him a sharp gasp reaches his long ears. And - "Link!"

Link...?

Only then does he notice the lizalfos beside him, stuck in much the same horrible predicament as he is. Its scaly hands clutch the edge of the gear, whimpers of fright drilling in its throat.

He stares at it. And it stares back.

His fingers white with panic scrabble at the edge, desperate for purchase. And through some divine miracle, he finds it. Heart thumping erratically within his chest, he manages - somehow - to pull himself up onto the safety of the gear's flat surface once again. Then he can only collapse, chest heaving and hands uncontrollable.

The poor lizalfos still hangs on the edge.

With a great deal of effort Link manages to stand. Clutching his wounded side with clenched teeth, he shuffles, exhausted, to his foe. A tiny shadow of pity dulls his gaze when he stares at the terrified creature hanging off the edge, yellow eyes pleading up at him. But then the shadow is gone. And he kicks the monster's fingers away from their only hope of survival.

The lizalfos falls, thrashing, screaming, into the darkness, until the abyss swallows it whole.

Link can only stand there. His sides shudder with labored breath. A shaking hand presses hard against his wound, but to no avail; hot blood still seeps through his fingers and dyes them red.

"Link," Midna breathes, floating to his side and reaching to him as if to help - but then she narrows her single visible eye, remembering her intangible form, and her lip curls in anger. "Ugh! You brainless fool, you could have gotten yourself killed!"

And though his side burns, and his throat is dry, and his breath sometimes hitches in his throat, he can't help smiling. He meets her gaze. She cocks a brow in response. "What's that stupid look for?" she grumbles. "You're hurt. You shouldn't be smiling..."

"You called me Link," he manages to say. "Twice."

It's the first time she's ever referred to him by name - except for when the spirit Faron had called him "Link", and Midna had uttered the name, mostly to herself, but that doesn't count. Not to him. It had always been "stupid wolf", "idiot", "doggie", "fool", or some other derogatory term...

But Link. Link! It makes him much happier than it should to hear his name on her lips.

She rolls her eyes. "Don't get used to it. And patch yourself up before you bleed to death, idiot!"

She emphasizes that last part. But it still doesn't sour his suddenly high spirits.

Why does he care so much?

Reaching into his satchel with a weak hand, he produces a bottle of sacred spring water and downs it in a single gulp. Then he stuffs the empty bottle back into his satchel and exchanges it for bandages. Peeling off his tunics is a chore - especially with his side the way it is - but he manages, somehow. And he also manages, somehow, to tie the bandages around his torso, red blood tainting the pure white fabric.

Midna only watches him the entire time. Watches the blood seep through the wrappings, and bites her lip.

Link peers at her through disheveled bangs. But upon seeing her expression, he quickly ducks his head again, trying to hide the pathetic smile that never really leaves his face, for whatever stupid reason.

"Are you actually concerned about me?" he dares to ask, a smirk in his voice, despite the situation.

And he's shocked when Midna doesn't respond right away. She's got a quick, sharp tongue, always lashing like a whip, always with a sarcastic or rude response at her disposal. He can't help looking up again to blink at her in surprise as the silence only stretches longer.

"That isn't any of your business," she finally snaps, narrowing her eyes at him.

Though he wants to, he elects not to respond. Instead he begins to don his tunics again, grinding his teeth together at the pain the simple action causes.

"What are you doing?"

"We have to keep going, don't we?" Link settles his hat - this one blue - atop his head once more and starts forward across the strange unmoving gear, toward a door on its other side.

"Not with your side like that!" Midna protests, floating along behind him with a huff.

He stops right in front of the door. Unable to resist, he turns his head a little, glancing at her over his shoulder. "You do care...!" And he grins.

She clenches tiny hands into tiny fists. "Shut up, stupid dog!" And with another huff of annoyance, she dives into his shadow. "Fine. Continue on. Overexert yourself and die. See if I care!"

His grin widens. Instead of replying, he crosses into the next room to obey her.


A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has read and reviewed so far - you guys are awesome, and you make my day! :D