Nine
Midna dropped us right at the edge of Eldin's pool; the spirit was waiting to give us more information.
~Next you must go north, to the lands protected by Lanayru~ it said gravely. ~Past the plains and the great stone bridge, you will find the last of whom you seek.~
"We're still missing someone?" I asked, giving Link a curious glance.
"...Ilia," He said quietly. "We've been friends for... forever."
"Ah. I see."
I did see, too. It wasn't uncommon for a Hero to have someone he loved,well before I came into the picture. It hurt, it always does, but I am not so selfish as to say that he, or the princess, could ever love only me. It was clear enough in his subdued tone that she was dreadfully important to him, and I could not, would not, interfere with that.
"Well then; let's check on Colin, and head north."
He smiled at me then, a shyly pleased smile, and I couldn't quite help but smile back. Then he blinked, and his gaze shifted beyond me, making me turn in curiosity. Colin stood there, not far from us, surrounded by his village friends, and Luda, Renado standing protectively at his back.
"Link," Colin said, staggering forward with a smile.
The boy almost made it to the spring before his strength failed him. Link rushed forward to help; I followed more slowly, wondering what it was the boy was going to say.
"Ilia," Colin gasped out, wincing a little. Link went so still that I wondered if he was breathing. "You've got to save her! They left us on the plains, but they kept her, and took her somewhere else!"
Link breathed in sharply, and I rested a hand lightly on his shoulder. He was tense, but after a moment, he breathed out again as Colin looked away.
"Whenever I thought it was too tough, or scary, I thought of you guys," the boy admitted, "and I was able to go on." With a pained grunt, he got to his feet all on his own, no support from anyone else. I had to smile just slightly at the bravery in the move; this child would go far in the world one day... just like the Hero he so looked up to. "I-I'm fine now, see?"
After a stunned moment, Link smiled, his pride clear to see. Colin smiled back, a little bashfully.
"Remember what I told you back in Ordon?" he asked.
"That you wanted to be like me someday," Link replied, nodding a little.
"Well, I think I can do it now. So you don't have to worry about us anymore; go find Ilia!"
"I will watch over the children," Renado said, coming up behind Colin with a gentle smile of his own. "They will be safe here, I swear it. You must go to the ones who need you now."
Link nodded again, and Renado glanced at me, and when I nodded slightly, back to Link.
"Here in Hyrule, there are countless stories of the legendary hero. Your great deeds bring them all to mind. May the graces of the great goddesses who shaped this land of Hyrule bear you safely along your journey."
He and Luda bowed,with Beth and Talo swiftly following suit. Link flushed a little, and looked to me. Lightly, I patted him on the shoulder; I knew how it felt to be so publicly acknowledge for grand deeds. Embarrassing was putting it mildly.
"You heard the boy. Let's go find your missing friend. The horses will make the journey swifter."
"We have provisioned them for you," Luda said. "Food and water to see you on your way!"
"And with the return of the Gorons, our village will be well protected," Renado added.
"Oh good. I'm glad they're behaving again," I sighed a little in exasperated relief. "That's that then. Come on Link."
He hesitated a moment, then nodded, and went to fetch the horses.
I admit, I was surprised to see that Windchaser had not only elected to stay, but had allowed herself to be saddled, with packs attached to the back; wild horses are not usually so docile after the magic of summoning left them. But I was glad of it too; riding double with Link would have put a strain on Epona that we couldn't really afford.
We made one stop on our way out, getting Link a bag to hold bombs in from Barnes The things are too curst noisy for my liking, but the come in handy, and with the return of Goron sensibility, Barnes had gotten his shipment of bomb-making supplies.
Plus, it was kind of amusing to watch Link squirm a little as Barnes lamented the loss of his storehouse.
We emerged onto the plains in the brilliant light of noon, and for a moment just stared across at the remaining piece of twilight. Lanayru province, which held the Zora as well as the castle. Unease curled in my stomach, and memories of long ago whispered to me about the Zora fate; surely, surely that could not happen again...
I nudged Windchaser into a trot, and Link followed suit. We rode silently for a while, making for the Great Bridge of Eldin, and keeping a sharp eye out for an ambush of bulbin... but the creatures seemed to have vanished, along with their leader, and we were not challenged, nor even really acknowledged until we reached the other side of the bridge.
"That's not good," Link observed as we halted before a rockslide.
"No, no it's not," I sighed. "Right in the path too... Hn..."
It looked, admittedly, less like a slide and more like someone had deliberately put these three large boulders in the way.
"I suppose we could climb over them, but this is part of the major trade route through to Eldin." After a moment, I sighed. "I suppose we'll just have to blow them up. Link?"
He grinned a little, clearly eager, and climbed down from Epona. I just shook my head, and backed the horses off to a safe distance; Link, after laying the bombs, came running back to us almost comically fast.
The explosion rang through the canyon, spraying shards of rock high into the air... and from behind us, I felt the shadow magic rip at the fabric of the world. Swearing, I popped up onto my saddle to get a better look at what was happening just in time to see a large chunk of the bridge—much too large to jump—simply dissolve away into shadow. To top it off, from the portal fell three shadow beasts, directly onto the bridge.
It had been a booby trap, and we had fallen for it completely.
"When I get my hands on him," I muttered leaping lightly down to the ground.
"H-hey!" Link protested, jumping down from his own horse. "Wait!"
I was in no mood to wait.
Anger is occasionally a useful thing. At least, it is when you can keep control over it, instead of letting it control you. For me, when I am riding the anger, ruling it, my fear of heights becomes almost negligible.
But I was not engaging the creatures at swordpoint, oh no. Link was prepared to do that precise thing, but that would have been merciful, and they had just broken one of the most ancient bridges in Hyrule, that had survived for centuries. They had cut us off from the potential for any help from the Gorons, and had made the trade route even longer for the people in my province.
I take my duty very seriously, yes.
They were in my world, on, essentially, my bridge. The sunlight didn't seem to bother them, but the magic I wield is much more than sunlight. It is light in all spectrums, all forms, and for that, they had no defense.
Link didn't even get to draw his sword before they fell, dissipating into nothing more than inky splotches before vanishing entirely. It didn't bring the missing bridge piece back, but it did make me feel a little better.
"...what... was that?" he asked cautiously.
I gave him a razor thin smile.
"That was my express displeasure. And if we don't find that bridge piece in one piece, I'll be glad to repeat it on Zant."
Proud, boastful words. It had been too long since I'd faced Ganondorf's power.
Link didn't seem afraid of me, at least. We camped there for the night, and if his movements during practice were a bit more cautious, well, there wasn't much I could do about that except be sort of darkly amused.
I am not, for the record, a very good person. Long life does not grant one immunity to being... well... a person. I can be petty, I can hold grudges, I can make mistakes with the best of them. I just have to live with those mistakes for far longer than anyone else. Ever.
I digress.
Ironically, we reached the last band of twilight as genuine twilight fell two days later, after passing through a canyon practically full of bulbin archers. I had hoped we might rest in the Hidden Village that night, but a quick glance into the cavern that would take us there showed me that it was impossible; the cavern appeared to have collapsed.
In my defense, I didn't realize that there was still one old woman left in the village. There had always been a few Sheikah left, but after Impa had opened Kakariko, their numbers had dwindled. Even the founding of a new village, just for them, had done nothing to save them from the devastation that war after war after war had caused.
Had I known about Impaz then, I would have done everything in my power to reach her.
The horses we left reluctantly before the twilight wall, removing and hiding tack, and spreading grass and grain for them to eat. A small, nearby spring provided water, and with any luck, the bulbin wouldn't get up the courage to come this far in an attempt to steal them.
Link looked up at the golden-black wall, not with trepidation, but determination.
"We can tackle twilight in the morning, after we've rested and eaten," I told him firmly, pulling him a little ways away. "Come on, boy, you know the drill."
He did too, and even if he was anxious to keep moving, following my lead had started to become second nature. We practiced. We ate. We slept near a magical fire since there was no wood around, and I had the energy to spare. Morning dawned gray and dreary, but quiet. After warming up, and breakfast, we were ready to enter the twilight.
"About time," Midna huffed a little. "This is the last Fused Shadow, so we're going to see the last of this lovely twilight. Of course, whether or not you two survive this final task is up to your skills~"
I rolled my eyes, and handed Link a leather bag, which he looped over his shoulders.
"What's that for?"
"If we're in the twilight longer than a couple of days, it's food," I replied. "And water. You know, things we mortals need to survive."
"And you want him to carry it while he transforms?"
"It's worth a shot," I shrugged a little. "I mean, unless you're volunteering to carry this stuff for us, we kind of have to do it this way."
Midna made a faint 'tch'ing sound, but couldn't exactly argue. As a shadow, her grasp was limited only to things that resonated with her ability to reach them. In the world of light, as ours was, that was only the Fused Shadows at the moment. This was an attempt at a workaround; since neither of us could stay human in the smothering weight of the twilight, we couldn't access our food or water.
So we needed to get the bags into the twilight, without losing them.
We were lucky that it actually worked; it had mostly been a gamble on my part. And Midna, to my surprise, did indeed take charge of the bags, vanishing them to wherever she stored the sword and shield Link had first gotten her.
The press of twilight was softer now, with this being the last piece of it. I had the sense that if I truly wanted to, I could have retrained human form... but I would have been battling the pressure, and that took magic. I did not want to tie up my magic with holding off the twilight, so I simply allowed the transformation; after this third time,I was reasonably assured that I could change myself whenever I wanted, at least, to this feline form.
"Well then, now I'll help you," Midna said grandly. "Still, it's a shame. I liked seeing all this twilight cover your lands. Ah well... maybe it's not the last you'll see."
"She really is not good at this 'attempting comfort' thing," I said after a moment as we started down the path.
"Nope."
Other than a few shadow keese, the first two or so hours of our walk was uneventful. The canyon was wide enough to easily run down, but Link seemed to have learned that when I set a pace, that was the pace. Eager though he was to find his Ilia, he kept himself to the smooth lope that I didn't have to struggle to follow.
Again, our help for finding her was directly on the path. It was so obvious that it felt like a trap, really; who doesn't notice a leg-pouch falling to the ground, I ask you?
In the end though, it didn't matter. Link saw it and stuck his nose to it.
I have to admit, Ilia's scent is not a terrible one; flowers and grass, the smell of ink and paper. It was tainted some with the reek of fear, a sour tang overlaying the rest, but I could feel that—once I met the girl—I would probably like her.
"You smell the girl, huh?" Midna said with a smirk. Link twisted around to stare at her. "It's all over your face. I suppose that's good, it's another clue, anyways. Though, it could be quite old, you know. Who knows if she's still really all right?~"
"Offer to bite her still stands," I said as he growled a little.
He snorted slightly and shook himself all over, then stuck his nose to the ground and began tracking. He slowed to a stop at the end of the canyon both from weariness and from awe; I could hardly blame him. The rock seemed almost to fall away, opening to the northern plains and granted us our first glimpse of the backside of Hyrule Castle. Unnatural twilight or not, it provided an ethereal backing for the castle that was always lovely.
"Well, we've seen this castle before," Midna said with a giggle. "It sure took us a while to get back here, didn't it? Not that this will make things any easier, oh no. This close to the castle, there's bound to be plenty of opposition, so you two had better be ready!"
Link glanced at me, and I gave a feline shrug.
"It looks closer than it is," I said after a moment. "There's still at least three days to make it to the Market. There's no entrance back here."
He sighed, and drooped a little, then moved off to one side of the path, clearly electing to take a break and a nap.
I couldn't help but feel sorry for him; he wanted to find Ilia so bad, and not just for his village, but because he cared for her. He wanted to run, and run, and run until he found her, just to make absolutely sure that she was all right.
But instead he was listening to me.
Honestly, I'm still a bit shocked that he didn't just leave me behind some days. Grateful that he didn't, but shocked.
It did take us the advertised three days and some, give or take a few hours; midna fed us when we needed food, and let us have water when we discovered that the river was not just low, it was practically dried up.
If there had been a safe way to split up then, I would have taken it; Link could have gone to find Ilia without my help, and I could have discovered what happened with the Zora that much sooner.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
It seemed to be midday by the time we made it into the Market; the number of spirits rushing around tending to their day-to-day effects confirmed this if nothing else. Even as spirits, they were still... well, solid enough to impede us, and since they couldn't see us, we were also nearly stepped on, kicked, or tripped over a great deal of the time.
Ilia's trail first led us through the heart of the town, where the fountain lay dry, and knots of people huddled in fear.
"What's with them?" Link asked, slowing uncertainly as we tried to pick a path through that wouldn't get us run over.
"The fountain is fed by the river, which flows from Zora's domain," I replied, tucking my tail close to my body in an effort to avoid it getting flattened. "If there's no water in the fountain, there's no water in the river. All the underground wells and springs here are fed from the same source, and if something's wrong in Zora's Domain, these people all stand a very good chance of dying of thirst."
He whined a little, and glanced at me with flat ears.
"Yeah. It's bad. If we can, once we find your girl, we have to see what's wrong in Zora's Domain."
Next, we found ourselves on the east side of town, in the district that had taken the place where the Temple of Time had once stood. A doctor's office, doors tightly barred, prevented us from entering, but after casting about for a moment, a fresher scent trail was found, and we wove our way through legs and feet to the south end of town.
As we passed a knot of children, I heard the word 'zora' and stopped to listen. Link kept going for a few steps, before Midna realized I'd stopped; it was she who made him come back.
"I can't believe we saw a real zora!" the girl was saying.
"Yeah, but he was mostly dead," said one boy, with a grimace.
"Well, maybe he'll get better now that Miss Telma's got him. She can make that nasty old doctor do anything."
"Aww, it wasn't really that impressive anyways," said the second boy with a grimace. "I've seen Zora loads of times!"
"No you haven't!"
"Yeah huh!"
I shook my head as they fell to bickering, laying my ears flat in worried annoyance. The only Zora child around at the moment was Prince Ralis. If Rutella had sent Ralis to the Market, that meant things were even worse than they looked on the surface.
"You okay?"
I blinked and looked up to see Link sitting there, his concern overt. Midna too, though she didn't let it show on her face, seem worried.
"...no. But we'll burn that bridge when we get there. Did you find your girl?"
"No, Midna made me come back and wait for you."
"...sorry. Let's keep going."
We didn't have to go far, at least; the trail led us straight to Telma's bar, and the door was ajar just enough that we were able to push ourselves in.
Link's ears immediately perked up, and he half-charged across the room to sit at Ilia's side. Telma hovered over her like a worried matron, and the both were focused on the Zora child. Ralis lay there, still and breathing so shallowly that at first I was afraid he was dead.
"Can... can you save him?" Ilia asked timidly.
"I've sent for the doctor, little lady, so try to calm down," Telma replied, low voice almost honey-smooth. She was worried too, I could tell. "I wonder what brought a Zora child here, of all place, though?"
"Awww, isn't this such a touching reunion?" Midna said mockingly. "A girl and her wolf, oh yes. Oh, but wait, she can't even see you!"
Link shook himself so abruptly that she almost fell off, and I snickered a little at her expense.
"Now look here!" came an unexpected bellow from the guard captain at the back of the bar. "You lot aren't heeding me at all! We're tasked to find out what's wrong with the spirit spring at Lake Hylia! You lot should know where that is!"
I snorted a little; the caliber of guard that had been turning out had been less than useful lately, but the guard was not my problem. I checked the map that was laid out on the table briefly, then nodded; it certainly marked a way to get down to the spring and the lake with the best possible speed...
"All right, we've fond the girl, so let's get moving to the spirit's spring already!"
Link hesiated, glancing at me. For my part, I jumped up next to the Zora prince and briefly rest a paw on Ralis, reaching for the magic I knew was there; in this form it was difficult, sort of like trying to run a sieve through mud, but I persisted and managed to weave a thread of healing into the boy. Then, for good measure, I found a cup of water, and knocked it over onto him; he was almost dangerously dry.
"Are you done yet?" Midna demanded.
Since it was the most I could do—and knocking the cup over had startled both Telma and Ilia—I jumped down, and we headed out the door.
It would have been much faster, much easier, if we'd been able to head directly out the south gate, but there was a long line at the stand that completely cut access to the gate off. Ironically, for Goron spring water, probably the only clean water left in the city at this point. I had to hope, even as I made an annoyed sound and we set off back to the west gate, that they had enough to help the city until we could find out what was wrong with Zora's Domain.
It took us another two and a half days to reach the Great Bridge of Hylia, and from the moment I saw it, I got a bad feeling. There was something spread along the surface that shone oily and black, and fear of heights or not, I didn't want anything to do with it. I chose instead to walk on the stone guardrail that had long since fallen from Eldin's bridge—something I had meant, for several decades, to fix, but never had—and glanced down to where the lake should have been.
What I saw was not just frightening in terms of height, but disheartening. The once vast, grand lake was little more than a glorified puddle at this point. The lake depth, that house the temple, was all that was left.
"Say," Midna finally said as we reached the middle of the bridge. "Doesn't it smell a little funny to you?"
Whether Link had been ignoring it or truly not noticed, I couldn't really say; the minute he realized they were standing in lantern oil, though, he began growling, and made a break for the end of the bridge.
But it was already too late; the shadow bulbin that had been hiding at the far end set fire to the oil directly in front of itself, and then launched a fire arrow to the far end of the bridge, trapping us in between.
"We're trapped!" Midna cried.
There was no time to decide if this was worth the waste of magic, I simply did it, forcing the change back to human as I jumped down onto the bridge.
"Here! Come this way!"
Whether by luck or fortune, where I stood, the parapet had crumbled just enough that a wolf-sized hole could be seen, if not reached without help. Link darted over to me, and I pulled Midna off, then shoved Link up that extra foot so that he could scramble through the hole. Then I swung up onto the guardrail, took a moment to breathe a prayer to the goddesses to not let us die, and jumped.
Midna, skilled as she was in the float and fall, was perfectly fine to do both of those thing. Link howled a little in fear as he jumped after me, and I reached out to the wolf, grabbing what I could of his fur, and wrapped us both in layer after layer of Nayru's love, hoping to ablate the worst of the shock that would come from hitting the water.
Water, from a great height, can kill one just as surely as the ground.
We hit with bone breaking force, but the shields broke the water before we did; even if they all shattered, they slowed us enough to only be middling stunned. With the water came a return to awareness, and we both swam rapidly up to the surface, where Minda floated, not bothering to hide her worry until we reached the surface.
"That was lucky!" she exclaimed. "How come you didn't do this before?"
"There wasn't a need for me to do this before," I retorted, spitting out the water I had inadvertently breathed. "And it's... hard... to maintain this form."
It was too; softer or not, the pressure of the twilight was an inexorable weight, and fighting it was taking all the magic I had that was mine; I didn't want to rely on the spirits just yet.
Link whined at me, then struck out for shore; since it was the sensible choice—and I had no idea if the cat form could swim—I followed, quickly cutting through the water to dry land.
"Good thing this puddle was here!" Midna said as she floated along above us. "That could have been really nasty."
I heard Link snort a little, and as my feet found purchase on the bank, I slanted him a look of agreement; it was plain that Midna had no experience with hitting the water at any great speed.
"So, this lake isn't anything impressive, but where's the spring?"
I turned, and pointed.
"What?" Midna looked at the platform, well above where any but her could reach. "But how're you supposed to get up there?"
"We have to... go to Zora's Domain. Something's wrong at the water source... we have to... fix it."
"And what's wrong with you?" she asked, somewhere between arrogant and worried.
"I'm going to change back," I informed her with some asperity. "This is exhausting."
I let go of my hold on the magic, and immediately shifted back to the sand cat, then flopped down where I was with a pained sound; fighting the twilight hurt. Link whined a little, and nudged at me with his nose as I panted for breath and trembled with the delayed reactions of adrenaline.
"Are you okay? What did you do? How'd you do that?!"
"In no particular order, it's part of what I am and can do, I'll be fine, I'm just tired, and what I did was obvious, why are you asking obvious questions?"
He whined a little, and flopped down next to me, clearly not intending to move until I did. Midna sighed, but after a moment got out the food.
We pretty much slept there in the open; Link's gray and black fur made him look like a rock when he held still, so we were about as safe as we could get without finding an actual cave. At the advent of awareness, my strength more or less returned, we continued on.
"Is there a way up the river from down here?" Midna asked, glancing at me.
I looked around for a moment, then jerked my head a little; above us flew a shadow kargarok. All we had to do was lure it down.
Admittedly, easier said than done, but Link's tail-tip wagged slightly as he spotted the shadow bulbin. The bulbin spotted us at the same moment, and snatched up a nearby piece of grass, playing a squealing, high-pitched song that summoned the kargarok down to a level where the bulbin could jump on its back and use him as a mount.
It didn't last long; Link lured the kargaok down and jumped on it, knocking the bird to the ground to stun it, and the bulbin went flying from the saddle. I could hear the bulbin's neck snap from where I was standing, and had to admit to being impressed; I would never have expected the Hero to do such a thing. Typically, unmerciful killings fall to me.
Midna, once the saddle was free, and before the bird could regain its wits, jumped at the chance to take the bird over. It didn't appreciate that in the slightest.
"Hey now, settle down!" she snapped, sparking magic before its face to startle it. "I'm your master now!"
It made a sound much like a horn, but slowly settled. Midna grinned down at us.
"Let's use this thing to get up-river! Come on!"
"This should be interesting..."
"That's not comforting."
If I could have, I would have grinned at Link's obvious discomfort.
"Well, we need to get up the river anyways, and this is probably the only way we'll make it. So we'll just have to put up with it."
He whined a little, then sighed in agreement. I leapt up into the saddle, finding purchase in the leather. Poor Link definitely got the short end of the stick on this one; he was held between the shadow kagarok's claws in a highly uncomfortable pose,
Shadow bulbin practically littered the dry riverbed, shooting at us with fire and bomb arrows alike, trying to knock us out of the sky. Scaffolding and stone fell around us even as the air grew colder, filled with an icy touch that made me remember another time, another place when Zora's domain had been forcefully frozen over.
Only this time, there was no Ruto to release the curse, nor any Sheik to save those trapped beneath the ice.
Ah, Sheik...
We made it, though it seemed just barely at the time, and the kargarok flew off once Midna was done with it.
"Well, that was nice and easy," she said. "But this clearly isn't the Zora village... we should hurry up and find it before it gets much colder!"
"Why is it so cold?" Link as as we picked our way down to the riverbed.
I just stayed silent, doing what I could to fight the memories back to silence; walking on the ice didn't much help, but the both of us had fur that defied the elements, so only our paw-pads had to suffer the ice.
Zora's Domain was a frozen wasteland, and the sight of it just about broke my heart.