Tenth chapter for this story!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 10: The Lanayru Province

The seven heroes reformed right in front of Eldin's spring. Just like with Faron, Eldin began to speak to the heroes:

"Heroic Link, Sonic, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi and Rosalina… North of here, across the plain and past the great stone bridge, in the lands guarded by the spirit Lanayru… You shall find one who you seek…"

As Eldin's voice faded and the location of Ilia was possibly given, the heroes looked back at the sanctuary's entrance, where Renado and the children has gathered.

"Link…" Colin spoke, approaching the seven.

He eventually collapses at the edge of the spring, in which Link had to rush to him for aid.

"Ilia… You've got to save Ilia!" Colin looked back at Link. "Those monsters left me with the other kids, but they must have taken her somewhere else!" Link had an astonished look on his face as Colin continues: "Whenever I thought I couldn't go on, I would think of you and Ilia and hold on, Link…"

Colin then stood up by himself. "See? I… I'm fine now." A smile showed up on Link and his friends' faces, recognizing the boy's inner strength. Link stood up and looked down at Colin. "Remember what I told you back in Ordon, Link?"

Flashback:

"When I grow up, I'm going to be just like you, Link!" Colin spoke.

End of Flashback

"…So you don't have to worry about me anymore! Go help Ilia!"

"Leave the children to me. I will watch over them, I swear it." Renado interfered. "Do not let their fates trouble you. Go to those who need you."

The seven heroes nodded. Renado then tells them something interesting: "In Hyrule, countless tales are told of the New Hero of Time and his Swift Hedgehog…and your and Sonic's deeds bring them all to mind. May the graces of the great goddesses who shaped Hyrule bear you on your way." He and the children bowed.

The heroes thanked the shaman for the blessing and left the village, but before that, Link went to Barnes' Bomb Shop and bought 30 Bombs. When they reached East Hyrule Field, the heroes were thinking about the recent events they've just received.

"Is it true that Renado told about an ancient legend where this New Hero of Time and a hedgehog who looked like Sonic went into an adventure?" Peach asked.

"It's true. Remember what Faron said back then? He said that I and Sonic had the blood of the New Hero of Time and that hedgehog in our veins respectively. So that'll make us their descendants." Link answered.

"Wow…" Luigi was astonished.

"So I and Link are both destined to become great heroes just like our ancestors… That's amazing…" Sonic pondered.

"But we were sent here for another reason probably, since we weren't in that other adventure with your ancestors. We know that the gods had been watching us the whole time just like Faron said. But what I don't get it was: for what reason they brought us here?" Mario questioned.

"Maybe it has something to do with that golden key we've found back at the Goron Mines?" Yoshi guessed.

Hearing Yoshi, Mario pulled out the key he had picked up in the previous dungeon and looked at it. "It could be, Yoshi, but we still don't know what this key actually does. But I do remember Eldin saying that this key plus six more, I think, are capable of shattering walls of darkness. And Faron said that I and my crew are one of the main keys for doing that too. What did he meant by that?" he puzzled.

"Maybe Princess Zelda would know." Sonic said.

"Speaking of which, we now have only one more area of Hyrule to restore light within. And it looks like the area is where Hyrule Castle is located." Link pointed at the castle engulfed in clouds of dusk.

"And Eldin said that we must head north to reach the last province. So we should hurry, before the twilight spreads even further." Mario said, putting the key back in his pocket.

With that said, Link called Epona and he, Luigi and Peach mounted on her, with Mario mounting Yoshi, Rosalina levitating and Sonic ready to run. They all sprinted towards the north, passing by the Bridge of Eldin. At the end of the bridge, there was a wall of rocks blocking the path. Link made a combo with his Hero's Bow and Bombs to make Bomb Arrows and shot the explosive arrow at the rock barrage, exploding them.

But then, upon the barrage's explosion, a Twilight Portal showed up above the bridge and a black spark was casted at a portion of the bridge's center. Before the heroes' very eyes, they watched the portion of the bridge disintegrate into twilight shards and into the portal! And to make things worse, three Twilit Messengers dropped at the north side of the bridge. With this event, fury and anger came to our heroes as they glared at the Twilit Messengers.

"Oh, those Twilit Messengers are SO gonna get it!" Sonic growled.

They immediately went to the Messengers and took them down, creating a new available portal. With that taken care of, they proceeded to the north, and when they were getting closer to the end of Eldin and the beginning of Lanayru, the sky turns into dusk again. Link, Luigi and Peach had to dismount from Epona.

"Ah, we're finally here." Midna came out. "There's only one Fused Shadow left… So this is the last of the twilight you'll see, I guess. Whether or not you accomplish your final task and survive is up to you… Eee hee! So what will you do?"

They wasted no time and stepped closer to the wall of twilight. Then, Midna once again grabbed them and pulled them into the darkness.

At the other side, the Lanayru Province covered in twilight was even more sinister and vaster than the other provinces, since this one was very big. Just like last time, the heroes went back into their beast forms.

"To think this might be the last time we'd be in these forms, at least." Sonic said.

The six wolves nodded in agreement. Midna reappeared on Link's back.

"All right then, I guess I'll have to help you! But what a shame that this is the last of the twilight… I had become so fond of seeing it covering this world… Or…is it really the last you'll see? Eee hee! So, shall we get going?"

They went down the path, killing some Twilit Keese in the way. A bit more ahead, the beasts caught a glimpse of something on the ground releasing a faint pink cloud of smoke.

"We have another thing for us to sniff again." Link said. But when they approached the object, Link suddenly recognizes it: "Hey! This is Ilia's purse!"

"That means we'll be able to track her around here!" Yoshi exclaimed.

The six wolves used their senses and sniffed the purse, with Link having a vision of Ilia. They forget the Youths' Scent and instead learned the Scent of Ilia. With that, an invisible pink trail appeared up ahead and the wolves began to follow it. Sonic had watched them doing all this, so he understands this time and followed them.

The beasts ran past the rocky grove, and at the end, they could see Hyrule Castle much closer now, located beneath the clouds of dusk.

"That's… Hyrule Castle…" Peach murmured.

"The same place where we were first imprisoned…" Luigi added. "And where we met Princess Zelda…"

"Now it's covered in this awful twilight…" Rosalina finished.

"Hey, haven't we seen this castle before? Eee hee hee!" Midna teased. "So, we finally made it back here! Well, only a little farther, so hang in there! Or so I'd like to say, but… The going's a lot harder from here on out… Eee hee hee! All right, then… Let's get started."

Trying to ignore Midna's teasing, the beasts continued down the path, defeating some Twilit Kargaroks and Twilit Bulblin Archers, crossing a stone bridge to reach the western area of Hyrule Field.

However, they were attacked by more Twilit Messengers at the western entrance to Castle Town. The seven fought and defeated the Messengers, creating another available portal. They went inside Castle Town.

There, they caught sight at the mass of spirits that roamed the city.

"This almost reminds me of a horror movie I once saw…" Luigi stuttered.

"I know what you mean, Bro. It's a little unnerving seeing the people that live here like this. I say we are the lucky ones with our enhanced sights." Mario replied.

"Yeah, you're right. If it wasn't for that, imagine how freaked out I would be…"

"Hey, but you can still try to face your fear of ghosts, right?"

"I think so... Still not sure about that…"

The wolves continued to follow the trail at the southern part of the city, with Sonic following them. They eventually came upon a bar, with its door open. They went inside, and there was a trio of spirits at the same spot. With the senses on, the three spirits showed Ilia and a middle-aged woman looking after a Zora kid. Knowing that they can't see them, the beasts listened to their conversation:

"This boy… Can you save him?!" Ilia asked the woman.

"All right, little lady, try to settle down, OK?! I just now sent for the doctor!" the woman responded. "But this is strange… A child of the Zoras… I wonder if this is at all related to the incident the soldiers were talking about in back…"

"Aw, what an emotional reunion! Yes, a girl and her wolf! Eee hee!" Midna giggled, which made Link narrow his eyes. "Sorry, but you know how it goes! These folks can't see you, either… Eee hee hee!"

Once again, deciding to ignore Midna, Link went to the back part of the bar, where he noticed spirits of soldiers surrounding a map that was identical to the minimap the heroes were carrying. Link and the others looked at the map on the table while hearing the soldiers' speech:

"I've received orders from above to investigate why we can't go to the spirit's spring in Lake Hylia! Got that?!"

"You have no idea…" Link rolled his eyes.

Sonic looked at the map and marked the exact spot onto his.

"So, this is where we need to go?" he asked Link, who nodded in response.

"If what the soldier said is right, that means that the spirit's spring is at this Lake Hylia region!" Yoshi confirmed.

"Yes, we should head south from here." Mario said.

Having everything done for here, the seven beasts left the bar and the Town through the west again. They went south from there and reached the Great Bridge of Hylia. Right below it was Lake Hylia, but boy, was the drop that deep…

"Whoa… That's deep." Sonic muttered, looking down the bridge. "That valley down there is Lake Hylia?"

Link nodded in response. Sonic gulped a bit because of his fear of water; he knew that lakes have a lot of water. But something was quite off… "Is it me, or does that place looks really dried out to be a lake?" he pondered.

Just then, a strange smell caught the six wolves' attention.

"…Hey, do you smell anything funny?" Midna asked.

This made the wolves feel disgusted as they smelled the ground. Not just that; Sonic felt an odd liquid on his hands. He smelled them and said:

"That smells like—LIGHTNING OIL!"

Sonic let out a yell as a Twilit Bulblin Archer showed up on the other side of the bridge. The wolves began to snarl at the Twilit Archer, who shoots a flaming arrow at each side of the bridge and two huge flames from both sides had started and both began to follow the trail of oil towards the beast heroes!

"Holy crap! We're trapped!" Sonic stuttered.

"We must find a way to get out of here! And fast!" Luigi called out, noticing both flames heading towards them in a much faster pace.

Link noticed the creates on the bridge; the only way for them to escape was to jump off the bridge. He pushes one of them to the edge and climbed on. The rest of the gang noticed that.

"Link, what are you doing?!" Sonic questioned.

"Everyone, we have no choice but to jump off." Link told the others, making a head movement so that Sonic could understand him.

"Wait, you want us to jump off?!" Sonic asked. Link made a nod in response, which left everyone shocked.

"Are you crazy?! Why would we do that?!" Yoshi questioned while backing off a bit.

"Do you guys want to die in the flames or not?!" Link spoke in a serious tone, which came out as a snarl.

They had no choice but to agree. They all climbed up to the edge of the bridge, and after taking a deep breath, they all leapt off to a huge drop below.

"JEROONIIIMMOOOO!" Sonic screamed while falling.

They fell and fell, until they finally landed in the water of Lake Hylia. However, there was so little water that this place didn't even felt like a lake. They quickly went back to shore and shook the water off from their furs.

"*cough* *cough* you guys okay?" Sonic asked, coughing out some water since he almost drowned. The six wolves all nodded weakly. "Yeah, I'll take that as a 'sort off' which makes sense."

"Bleh… Good thing we landed on a pool of water…" Luigi coughed a bit.

"Not meant to change the subject, but is this Lake Hylia?" Yoshi questioned.

"But there's so little water… I wonder what happened to it?" Link puzzled.

"Well, sounds like the spirit's spring should be somewhere around here… We should take a look around." Mario suggested.

They then noticed some spirits standing by the small puddle. With the wolves' senses on, they noticed that these were Zoras, who looked quite worried at the puddle, fearing that all of Lake Hylia would dry out if it isn't fixed. So the heroes had to find a way to fill the entire lake to reach the spirit's spring.

They also learned from the Zoras' speech that the Zora's Domain, the biggest source of water of all Hyrule, might have a problem that explains why the water isn't flowing. Then, the heroes spotted a faraway spirit standing by an odd building in the distance. They went there, and with the wolves' senses, there stood an odd-looking man looking all lazy.

"Hurrrm… I'm too old for this… Fyer and Falbi's Watertop Land of Fantastication... It's our grand reopening at our new lake-bottom location… Whee." The man called Fyer sighed. "Hurrrm… Yeah, nice lake… Don't lakes have more…I don't know…water? Did the Zoras who live upriver do something? Or is it a curse from that spirit that floats around up there? Whatever. It's not like I can go up and complain… That's way too high."

Just then, Fyer made a sound of curiosity when he spotted a Twilit Bulblin in the distance.

"Whuzzat, a customer?!" but he realizes that it wasn't, and starts to panic. "YIKES! IT'S A MONSTER!"

Noticing the Twilit Bulblin in the distance, the heroes made their way to the monster. However, the Twilit Bulblin saw them and blew a Hawk reed, which caused a huge Twilit Kargarok to fly down.

"Summoning a Twilit Kargarok with a Hawk reed?! That's something new!" Link stuttered.

The Twilit Bulblin mounted on the Twilit Kargarok and began to attack the beasts by swooping down at them. They dodged in time and scattered.

What's worse is that Mario and Co cannot use their powers as wolf forms. Same goes with Sonic not having his speed in his Werehog form. So they all had to rely on claws and teeth. Sonic stretched his arms to knock down the Twilit Bulblin off from the Kargarok and while Link, Mario and Co attacked the Bulblin with their jaws, Sonic went straight for the bird and hold it on.

Then, once the Twilit Bulblin was done for, the Kargarok, who was being held by Sonic, remained. But before any of the beasts could attack it, Midna flew to it and mounted it. The Kargarok began to flail as Midna tried to dominate the bird.

"Hey! Stop it! I'm your new master now! Settle down!" Midna called out.

With that, the Kargarok did as she told and calmed down. The beasts were astonished at Midna for being able to dominate the twilight creature.

"Nice job, Midna!" Sonic said impressed.

The six wolves snorted in approval. It was then that Midna got an idea:

"Hey! Why don't we use this guy to get us all the way to the lake's source?"

"Hmm, that could work." Sonic said as the wolves nodded.

Midna then ordered the Kargarok to carry the six wolves while Sonic got on the bird's back. They all flew up the dried-up Zora's River, on the way to Zora's Domain to see the major problem with the water not flowing to the lake.

As they reached closer to their destination, the heroes realized that it was getting colder, which is quite unusual. The Kargarok dropped them at the Upper Zora's River before leaving.

"Ah… We're already here?! That bird turned out to be more useful than I expected." Midna spoke. "Well, then… Where's the village of the Zoras? Let's look for it."

They all nodded in agreement and jumped all the way down to reach Zora's Domain, and they seemed to find the source of the cold: the path up ahead was frozen!

"Whoa… Everything is frozen!" Yoshi was surprised. "I can see snow and icicles everywhere!"

"Hey! Maybe THAT'S why the water isn't flowing!" Mario confirmed.

"Of course! The waterfall from Zora's Domain had turned into ice, so no water is coming out!" Luigi concluded.

"If that's the case, we must head into the heart of the source: the Zora's throne room, all the way up there!" Link directed them to the very top of the waterfall.

"And how are we supposed to get up there?" Peach asked.

"Hmm… Those icicles in the iced waterfall could serve as platforms for us." Rosalina said.

"Sounds like a good idea. Let's try it out."

Sonic watched the wolves using Midna's help to climb on the icicles of the frozen waterfall to get to the top. He uses his long arms to catch up to them. Once at the top, they went inside the Zora's throne room to see what's going on.

Inside, they were 'greeted' by more Twilit Messengers.

"Oh joy; third time today…" Sonic rolled his eyes sarcastically.

Once they took care of the Messengers and creating another portal, Midna then caught a glimpse of something under the ice.

"Whoa! Hey! Down! Look below the ice!" she called out.

The heroes saw a mass of spirits all under the ice. The wolves turned on their senses and noticed that the spirits were all the missing Zoras!

"Those… Those are the Zoras!" Link was shocked.

"Really?! Oh no…" Peach whimpered, which came out as a saddened whine, in which was heard by Sonic.

"Were those spirits the Zoras?" he asked the wolves. They all nodded in response, which even made Sonic surprised. "Wow… This is really strange… What in the world happened?"

"So… How are we going to get rid of this mass of ice?" Luigi asked.

"If only I had my fire powers, then I could melt the ice…" Mario pondered. Just then, something came into his mind: "Wait…melt…? That's it! Heat!"

"Heat? But where we could find a huge amount of heat to unfreeze all this ice?" Yoshi asked.

"In hot places, obvious! And the only hot place in Hyrule is Death Mountain! Speaking of which, I think I remember something that is able to melt all of the ice in here! But, um… I think it's best for all of you to stay on that ledge over there." Mario directed to the ledge on the right.

"And… Why?" Link raised an eyebrow.

"You'll see when I return."

Mario led the other wolves to the right ledge, which confused Sonic. Mario turned to Sonic and gestured his head for him to come to the ledge as well. Once Sonic was on the ledge, Mario grabbed the map from Sonic's quills and unrolled it, pointing to the warp portal at Death Mountain. Midna noticed this and got off from Link's back.

"You want me to take you there? Let me guess; you have an idea, don't you?" Midna guessed. A nod from the gray-brownish wolf came to her. "You guys better stay here. Your Italian wolfish friend has an idea; a big one."

With that, Midna teleported herself and Mario to Death Mountain. There, Mario was already facing the same huge molten shard that had fallen into the ground during the eruption. He approached it and Midna came in.

"This thing has been here for a while now, but it's still pretty hot… Oh! NOW I know what you meant…!" she smirked. "All right, let's give a warm welcome to the Zoras!"

Midna casts an orange spark at the molten shard, and with great strength, she rips the shard from the ground and it disintegrates into twilight shards. The duo also gets teleported back.

Back at Zora's Domain, the remaining beasts watched astonished as the molten shard materializes from the portal and comes down crashing onto the ice and sinking into the pool. With the molten shard's intense heat, the ice begins to melt and all of the water entrapped in it came gushing all the way down to the River until it reached Lake Hylia.

As Mario and Midna reappeared into Zora's Domain, the beasts saw all of the Zoras quickly swimming back to shore, all panting, coughing and murmuring as they recover from their forced slumber.

"Who knew that something so dangerous would come in handy…" Midna spoke.

"Hold on… Mario, are you telling us that you used that huge molten rock back in Death Mountain to unfreeze all the ice?" Sonic questioned. Mario made a nod in response. "Dude… That's amazing…"

"Wow, my brother always knows when very odd things can come in handy later on!" Luigi exclaimed.

"You're right! First, that odd bridge, and now that molten shard!" Yoshi chirped.

"Well, now that the water is flowing again, we should be able to reach the spring. By just letting the current take us, we could reach Lake Hylia much faster!" Sonic said.

Just as they were about to leave, a mysterious voice called for them:

"Wait!"

The beasts turned around, and right above the pool of water, there was a ghostly regal Zora woman. She seemed lovely, and also a bit distressed.

"Please, you must allow me to thank you for revitalizing both my people and this spring, which is the water source for all the lands of Hyrule. In life, I was the elder of this Zora village and the queen of my people. I was called Rutela." The Zora queen named Rutela spoke.

"Not to be rude, but we didn't exactly do it for you guys…" Midna said.

Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance upon hearing her words. Rutela then continued:

"The dark ones… They raided this village and, as a message to my people, executed me before them."

"Zant has killed the Zora's queen? How rude…" Peach whimpered; she really hates when people suffer.

Looking down at the seven beasts, Rutela spoke to them:

"Young men, young women… You who take the forms of proud beasts… I have something to ask of you. When the dark ones descended upon our village, I sent my young one, Ralis, to Hyrule Castle to inform Princess Zelda of our fate." Her face then changes to worry. "But…I fear danger followed him from this doomed place. I feel it. His presence grows fainter to me over time… But my time in this world has passed, and though I would give it gladly, I no longer have a life to risk in his rescue. Please… Would you save my dearest, Prince Ralis? If you do this thing, I will bestow upon you the protection of water. This power will grant you the ability to swim and respire in very deep water as if you were a Zora. Please… Save my son…"

She then vanished. Link then remarked about the Zora boy he saw at the bar in Castle Town; could he be Prince Ralis?

"Well, first of all, restore light back to Lanayru ASAP, right?" Yoshi guessed.

"Yes, we cannot save Prince Ralis like this." Link replied. "Now, come on, let's go."

The six wolves and Sonic left Zora's Domain, and just by following the water current, they made it back to Lake Hylia.

To be continued…

The next chapter will show the last province being restored from twilight to light! I didn't put it in here because the chapter would get too long. Please review.