Thank You for your reviews! :
darkyami1214 (Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! :) There will probably be more such references, but most likely not more full-length stories like that. For one, it's exhausting trying to come up with a way to make the story new, fresh and exciting. Two, it just makes this epically-long story even longer..O'o Anyway, hope you enjoy this SUPER long chapter. It was exhausting as well, but, the way I see it, every chapter finished is one more closer to where Link first sees Ralis! :),
The Great Imaginer Zuzume (Sorry about the boo-boos, and I'll look for them now. But, I hope you enjoy this chapter. No "Deku" trees or "Ocarinas" mentioned. :),
~Sweet-Hearted SilverEars~
Chapter 10 Back To Beast or Finding The Children or Within Kakariko Village
Link and Midna set out for Eldin as soon as he was finished tending to his wounds, heading east as the spirit of Faron Woods had instructed them.
He exited the wooden gate-posts to the far left of Coro's clearing, after purchasing a bottle of oil, killing two goblins before they reached the open field.
He took the obvious path, coming to a three-way splitting of ways and taking out two more goblins, choosing the path to the right, ignoring the wooden bridge in front of him.
He jumped when a yell sounded, smoothing his countenance quickly as a strange-looking man approached him, not wanting to look unnerved by the sudden storm, the loud thunder in the immediate vicinity making him uneasy as he stood there in the pouring rain getting soaked through to his skin.
"HEEEEEEY! Go no further! There is a black wall ahead that blocks the way! I thought I would deliver a few letters, but it seems impossible… I am the honorable and dependable letter carrier, known to some as… the postman. Now that I have introduced myself, please! Take this letter and read it at your leisure! Well, my business is concluded! Onward to mail!"
The strange mail carrier ran off back in the direction of the black wall, and Link just shook his head, opening the letter to read it's contents, which basically said that anyone who wanted to send him a letter, the mailman would deliver it, scoffing softly as he wondered who would ever bother to take the time to write to him.
He put the letter away in his endless pouch, and then kept going forward, dispatching another goblin quickly.
He entered between two medium height rocky-walls, approaching the black wall ahead reluctantly.
Midna popped up when he got closer, hovering in her shadow-form in front of him to look into his face as she spoke.
"Hey, it was much closer then I thought… You remember, right? You know what this is? If you set foot in there, you might be a wolf again for quite some time… For at least as long as it takes for you to save the light of Eldin from the twilight, anyway… So, shall we try to go see the light spirit of Eldin? Eee hee!"
Midna laughed playfully before disappearing, and he walked the rest of the way to the black curtain of twilight before she appeared again.
"Want me to let you into the twilight?"
He nodded in reply, a determined glint shining in his blue eyes.
"Yes."
She floated through the wall, pulling him through after her, barely pushing himself up from where he lay on the twilight-cold ground on his belly before gasping in pain as his body became that of the blue-eyed wolf again.
The transformation was a little easier this time, not as painful, but it still hurt like cold-fire as the change traveled up his spinal column piercingly, and he let out a small whimper, panting heavily as he slowly recovered.
"That's a good boy!" Midna teased him to take his mind off the pain where she now sat astride him.
"Now, you need to listen to what I say form now on! Ahh, look! How lovely! The black clouds of twilight are so fetching today… I feel so much more at ease here…-" She yawned and stretched, and Link thought that she might be being sarcastic. "-And you look so much better like this than in those dusty old clothes, anyway. Eee hee! So, let's get going!"
He sighed, but ran forward along the path, stopping when he came to the wooden sword that he had given Talo, sniffing at it curiously as the scent was still fresh and true.
"See, isn't being a wolf more convenient?" Midna said when he had finished committing the scent of the children to his memory.
"Use your senses! You've begun to reawaken as a wolf, I think. Eee hee!"
He strained his senses, alert for danger as he began to follow the trail, soon coming across a group of three shadow beings, dispatching one, then the last two together, with Midna's help, before approaching a wide, deep chasm.
"What's this?" Midna gasped in dismay. "That's strange… The bridge is gone… I wonder if this is the work of those shadow creatures… Ugh… What a pain! Ah well, let's look for it… You! Get your map out!"
Link called his map from his endless pouch with his mind, laying it out over the ground with some difficulty because of his paws, trying to decipher it, recalling that the yellow arrow marked magically where he was.
"Whenever you destroy those creatures from the darkness, a portal opens that looks like this on a map," Midna continued, showing him a mental-picture of the swirly blue symbol.
"You hear me? It's called a portal. You'd better remember that! And…in those woods we came through… Yes! It's got to be around there… I'll use my power to take you to the location of the open portal… Pick where you want to go."
He selected North Faron Woods on the map, pointing to it with his snout, and they both vanished, his map being sucked back into his pouch before they vanished, reappearing in the clearing before the clearing that led to the Forest Temple.
"See! I told you. We're here! You know, most people can't leave the twilight that easily. You'd better be grateful! It's your job to look for the bridge! Look hard!"
Link turned to the left, walking straight up to the bridge, which was exactly where he remembered it being.
Midna floated up next to it, giggling as she did so.
"Wow! It's perfect, don't you think? What do you think? Should we take it?"
He nodded.
"Good little obedient wolf!" she teased him, pulling up the map to let him select where to go. "Want to travel to Kakariko Gorge?"
He nodded, and she used her power, obviously straining to lift the heavy wooden bridge, vanishing it and them, placing the bridge back where it belonged, and them on top of it in the exact middle of the structure with astonishing precision.
"See! Just as I thought… Eee hee! So, isn't the power of twilight amazing? Call me if you need the power again. It should help you find what we're looking for, don't you think? All right! Let's keep going!"
He set off over the bridge, encountering two twilight monsters, dispatching them before moving on quickly.
Soon, they came to a strong, iron bridge blocking the path, and they could see two twilight monster guards on the other side, the noises that they made both disturbing and gruesome.
"Huh…" Midna said quietly, watching them. "What are they doing there? This is a pretty elaborate gate… What are they trying to keep in? …Or out? I bet it'll be worth our while to dig in…"
Link nodded his furry head, doing as she said with ease, shaking the dirt from his body before dealing with the guards presence efficiently.
Then he ran down the path ahead, feeling strangely wary of what they would find there.
But, he always trusted his instincts, his feelings, and they had never led him wrong before, so he proceeded cautiously.
He blinked, surprised when he realized this was Kakariko Village. He had heard about it in stories and legends of old.
It appeared to be deserted, except for the presence of various types of shadow creatures.
A barrier came up as he kept going, and he killed all three monsters within quickly, forming another twilight portal in the sky.
Then, the spirit spoke to him, calling him to the spring.
"To the hero…who was transformed into a blue-eyed beast…in the realm of shadows… In twilight… …This way…"
Link carefully waded into the pool with Midna still on his back, nodding his head respectfully to the spirit for it to continue.
"…I am…a spirit…of light… Hero… Chosen by the gods… Look for…my light… Gather the light stolen by the shadows…into this…"
The spirit gave him another vessel of light to collect the tears within.
"…The insects of darkness… They are the form taken…by the evil that attached itself…to my scattered light… In this shadowy twilight…the shadow insects are invisible, much as the people from your light world are… With the last of my power…let me mark your map…with the locations…of the tears that have turned into…shadow insects… But…be careful… The darkness…now hunts you…"
Link smiled at the warning, revealing white, razor sharp teeth as he growled contentedly.
'Good,' he thought to himself. 'Surely he was getting somewhere, doing some good for the world, if he had hit a nerve already.'
He nodded again to the spirit, turning away and heading back to where he had entered the village.
He then headed toward where the first dots on the map were, marking the locations of the insects, circling around behind the building he assumed they were within, the Sanctuary, according to the sign that he had read at the beginning of the valley.
He climbed up onto what was apparently a broken wagon, asking Midna for her help with a quick bark.
"Hey, you can climb up here!" she said brightly, giggling and laughing as she helped him to the top easily.
He ran around the outer-edge of the roof in a circle, sensing for the insects, but there was nothing, so he walked to the middle, gasping in shock when the roof gave out beneath his paws and he fell through into the building's center.
Once he had regained his balance, mental and physical, he looked around, puzzled by all the floating blue lights.
Then he remembered. The soldiers in Hyrule Castle! These were people here!
He used his senses quickly, almost wishing that he had not, horrified by what he saw happening before his wide blue eyes.
"Cripes! I don't see those black brutes anywhere…" a man that he didn't know spoke nervously over by the window as he peered out cautiously.
"They've gotta be hidin' somewhere, waitin' for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they'll FEAST!"
Another man that he didn't know talked to Talo then, his soft voice gentle and soothing as he spoke.
"We are safe as long as we remain in here, child. Be at ease."
"Oh yeah?" the other man spoke up again loudly.
"I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you… They sure didn't seem impressed by my bombs! How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh? Once they attack, it's OVER!"
Talo cringed into the other man's side with a soft whimper of fear.
"Remember the lady from the General Store?" the dense man by the window continued speaking darkly, not seeming to see the children's frightened faces.
Beth, Colin, Talo, Malo.. And the other. One that Link didn't know.
"Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened? She was already gone, and there were TWO monsters waitin'! … You connectin' the dots? That means that if we get attacked by them, then we'll be…"
"BARNES!" the other man, the normally soft-spoken one, chastised him harshly.
But it was too late, as Beth started sobbing into her hands.
Barnes looked properly shamed as he was glared at coldly, covering his face with the welding mask that he wore, going down onto his hands and knees to crawl closer to the others so that he wouldn't be seen through the window.
"Look, Renado… All I mean to say is that it's risky here, too! Ain't you got someplace we can hide?"
"There is…a cellar," he said hesitantly in answer.
Barnes ran over closer quickly, flipping his mask up again so that he could see better.
"WHAAT? You've got a CELLAR? Where's the entrance, man?"
"The entrance to the cellar is designed to open when all the candles have been lit…"
Barnes scrambled over to one of the oil lamps in the room and lit it with a burning stick before falling flat on his face clumsily.
"…I… Would not do that," the only child that Link did not know speaking up patiently.
"When father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw insects like the beasts outside…"
Barnes squealed like a stuck pig, his arms windmilling crazily as he scuttled back over to the window like a crab running from the nearing surf.
Beth was still sobbing loudly.
"Don't cry, Beth! It'll be okay!" Colin tried to comfort her where he now sat by her feet, but she pulled away from his touch and kept sobbing raggedly.
"Link is coming to save us all!"
That got her to look at him, and the three who did not know him looked puzzled, Barnes, Renado, and the unknown child.
"I can feel it!" Colin said firmly, his blue eyes burning with his belief, warming Link's heart with his faith in him.
Talo grunted in disbelief, as though he doubted it, making Link growl softly in displeasure and hurt at his reaction.
After that no one spoke. Except Midna.
"These kids knew you'd come save them!" she teased, but Link just thought she was being unknowingly cruel with her words.
"What a hero! How sad, to be right in front of someone and not be noticed at all… Eee hee hee! You are chosen by the gods, and only that keeps you from turning into a spirit, or worse, into a dark monster, when you enter twilight. And no one knows what you have done… You may be doomed to toil in obscurity forever… You're the type to worry about everything, I can tell…but don't fret over Princess Zelda! She chose this state of affairs, after all… Anyway, what's with having to light candles to get to the basement? Not very subtle, is it… So, what are you going to do now? My lonely little hero… Eee hee!"
Link shifted his body forward onto his front paws, catching her by surprise so that she fell onto her back beneath his head, lowering his face down close to hers, his muzzle almost touching her nose, revealing his fangs as he growled low from deep in his chest, letting her know that she had crossed a line that he wasn't willing to allow be crossed, his piercing blue eyes clearly stating that she mocked his pain at her own risk, and that he would only put up with so much of it before he snapped. Literally.
Midna just stared in shock, wondering at how fast his easy-going nature had vanished.
Link turned away then, leaving her there on the carpet beside the oil-lamp while he grabbed a stick and lit it, using it to light the candles to open the cellar, only then letting her return to his back, jumping down what he guessed to be an old mine shaft without looking at her, not worried about injury since he could clearly see the bottom with his keen wolf eyes.
He walked forward into a small underground chamber, seeing several balls of buzzing, pinkish electricity.
He used his senses, killing the insects and collecting the three tears quickly, digging up two green rupees as well.
"If you don't help the spirit," Midna spoke up softly from where she sat on his back.
"We won't have a chance of finding that fused shadow. Hey, don't think for a second that I care about your world of light… I don't! I'm helping you because I have to! You remember that! But… I am sorry that what I said earlier hurt you.. I have a sharp tongue, and sometimes I don't think before I speak.. I'll try to do better from now on, okay? Forgive me?"
Link nodded in answer before he left the chamber through a passage to the left of a strangely-shaped statue that looked partially like a bird of some sort, possibly an owl.
The small, cramped chamber that it led to had high scaffolding on three sides, and a hole at the top.
"…How about that?" Midna said, tilting her small head as she looked up. "Looks like you can climb the scaffolding…"
He barked for her help, and she flew half-way up, assisting him to the top easily with her impressive magic.
He looked around them, realizing that they had exited a well and were now in a graveyard.
He was immediately attacked by a twilight-crow, which he killed swiftly before climbing up a small incline to stand amidst the gravestones.
He heard a scratching noise that sounded like it came from beneath the ground, noticing a small dust-cloud that moved.
He dug the insect up, chasing it around the graveyard for a few moments, essentially taunting it, almost letting it escape below the ground again before he killed it, smiling at Midna's quiet, tinkling laughter of amusement at his actions.
He found the exit, or entrance as it were, to the graveyard, coming out behind the Sanctuary.
He had Midna check the map for the location of the next insect, trotting across the road toward the building she pointed to, gasping as a positively huge twilight bird descended on them to attack viciously.
He pulled back before snapping at the creature with his powerful jaws, destroying it before walking beneath a small gateway near the building, entering a small tunnel to slip inside.
He climbed up out of the rectangular-shaped hole, looking around before climbing up onto a wooden ledge, breaking apart various pots and boxes to collect a blue rupee.
Then he used his senses to locate the insect, dispatching it and collecting the tear.
He went back out the same way that he had come in, heading back across the street to climb onto the roof of a building, jumping across a gap to the next building, then to the next where he killed two more twilight-crows before the roof fell out from under his paws as the Sanctuary's roof had, sending him falling into the building onto the broken ruins of what he assumed had once been a bed.
He broke open two crates and collected two green rupees, using his senses to locate the creature, pushing aside the crate it hid beneath before destroying it and collecting the tear, exiting the same way that he had entered by climbing up onto the dresser and then the wardrobe before barking for Midna.
He then jumped down from the roof, heading back to the tall dirt incline, climbing it before jumping across to the roof of the Inn and going inside the dark doorway in front of them, climbing down the wooden platforms and collecting a green rupee from a pot.
He searched around for the insect, finally determining that it was hiding from him in the chimney of the fireplace.
So he lit the fire with one of a nearby pair of sticks which he lit using a wall-candle, driving the creature out with the heat before killing it and collecting the tear.
He left that room through a doorway to the left of the wall-candle, seeing two of the monsters like the ones that had been guarding the gate to the village.
He clambered up over the rectangular counter that blocked his way, killing them before destroying all the small crates sitting around the room, collecting two green rupees and a blue one, opening a small gold chest in the corner and collecting a red rupee before going upstairs, finding a third monster and dispatching it quickly, knocking the two wardrobes to the left of the doorway down and finding a blue rupee, going into the next room, destroying the crates there and collecting a green rupee.
He then knocked over two more wardrobes, finding a yellow rupee behind one, an insect behind the other.
He killed it quickly and took the tear back, leaving the building the same way that he'd come into it.
He jumped down into the road, going to stand in front of a building with a bomb on the sign over the door, climbing up the garbage bins to the left of it and onto the roof of a little shed, jumping through the broken window on that side, shattering it completely to break into the larger building quickly.
He ran up the metal stairs that were just ahead, knocking down the wardrobe in that room to kill the insect and take it's stolen tear.
Then he climbed up onto it and two wooden platforms to exit the brightly-lit doorway there, emerging on top of the building's roof.
He went up a small incline, his paws slipping somewhat on the shiny blue roof tiles, killing the large twilight bird that descended to attack them before climbing up the steps there, seeing another staticky pink ball of electricity to the right, chasing after it and seeing it go into a pathetic-looking building to try to get away, crawling in behind it through a small tunnel quickly.
He destroyed two pots, collecting a green rupee before he found the insect hiding in the chimney, lighting it up with a stick and a small pot of fire in one corner.
At least two of the insects burst out of it, but the house also lit on fire.
"Huh?" Midna yelped out in shock from where she sat on his back.
"What did you do? Sorry, but as romantic as this is, I'm not going to stay here with you. I'm getting out!"
Midna flew out of the building, and Link raced over to the tunnel and escaped as well, the two of them watching the house become an inferno as she settled herself back onto his back, many small explosions occurring, followed by one massive one that completely obliterated the house.
"Hmm…" Midna commented to him.
"I don't suppose there's any nicer way to hunt these things, huh? Well, you had to sacrifice someone's house to find Tears of Light…but that's how the cookie crumbles, right?"
Link nodded in answer, though regretful about it, he entered the remains of the house carefully to collect three tears that hovered there as though waiting for him.
Then he climbed up a steep incline to the left of the house, killing two twilight-crows before crossing a bridge to go up to a small building, digging inside, destroying a cluster of pots in one corner to find two green rupees and an insect, killing it and collecting the tear quickly.
He left the same way that he had come in, going all the way back down to the road that cut through the village, taking a wide path on the same side of the canyon as the bomb shop, seeing a large, high wall covered in some kind of netting blocking the way.
"Looks like the path's impassible…" Midna stated. "But I can get you up it if you want to go."
He nodded, walking closer; climbing up onto a small dirt ledge and barking for her help, so she hovered up to another ledge and helped him get there before assisting him up to the highest one easily.
He continued up the path, stopping briefly to sense the spirit of a large, bulky rock-like creature that he assumed to be a Goron from the descriptions in the old tales and stories.
"Ugh…" the obviously male Goron groaned loudly.
"Why do I have to stand guard… The ladder is destroyed, so it is not like any humans will come up… And what is with the elders? If we have a problem the humans can help with, we should ask. It is better then suffering for the sake of pride."
Link blinked at his words, wondering what was wrong here as he rolled over a pile of rocks with his shoulder and collected a green rupee before continuing quickly up the path, not getting far before he was attacked by a swarm of twilight-creatures, killing them all without much fuss or problem.
After that he killed a pair of twilight-crows before climbing up two metal steps and collecting a green rupee from beneath some rocks, then a blue rupee a little further up the path, next encountering some dangerous, steamy geysers, which he avoided carefully in order to dig up another insect, kill it and collect the tear.
Then he stopped in front of a strange, singing stone, sitting back on his haunches as he howled to sing along with the haunting melody.
An image formed in his mind of the sunlight-wolf that he had encountered in front of the forest temple on a ledge across a great expanse from him, raising his head to howl the song again with him proudly.
"Let teachings of old pass to you…" the sunlight-wolf panted when they had finished the song, his blue eyes proud as he gazed back into Link's matching set.
"Take sword in hand and find me…"
Then the wolf leapt away, and Link awoke back in front of the now-silent stone, the mark of the sunlight-wolf on his map to tell him where to look for him.
He pondered the purpose of their meetings with part of his mind as he continued forward up the path, avoiding the hissing geysers cautiously.
Soon he came to a large clearing, seeing four twilight creatures below, leaping down the ledge to meet them fearlessly.
One of the four was separated from the others by a small barrier, obviously meant to make Link's job harder, but all he did was slip through the entrance and take him out before returning to the other three and ending them quickly, forming another portal in the sky above.
He found three rupees total hidden under various rocks in the clearing, then jumped up onto a metal ledge with Midna's help, after killing the insect that clung to it and collecting another tear, seeing another Goron spirit there.
"Why do I have to stand guard at a dead end at the bottom of a cliff like this…" he said, throwing up his large hands in frustration.
"…wait a second! Have they tucked me out of the way because they think I am useless?"
Link blinked at his words and kept going, killing another large twilight bird when it attacked them, climbing up another incline and barking for Midna to help him up to a high metal ledge, breaking two crates when he got to the top and collecting a green and blue rupee, continuing along a ledge and killing another large twilight bird before sensing yet another Goron spirit.
"Psssh! Hot! Another fumarole… And once again, it is in the worst possible place! I suppose this path is impassible now… If I were to go down that way… I would get knocked back in an instant. I am sure of it! If my legs were as strong as the elders' legs, I might be able to stomp my way down there…"
Link dug up a green rupee directly behind the Goron, then jumped down into the pit directly below, killing a small swarm of twilight creatures before finding the last insect and destroying it to collect the final tear.
The vessel of light flared bright-white when it was filled, and the two of them were magically transported back to the spirit's fountain.
"The Vessel of Light is full of tears, and light has returned to this area!" the spirit said, yet invisible.
"Aw, I was just starting to have fun!" Midna teased as she hovered in the air in a reclining position with her hands behind her head, smiling briefly at Link, who was human once more.
"Don't forget that Fused Shadow! Eee hee hee! See you later!"
She vanished in her usual way quickly, and the spirit appeared now in the form of a large bird, most likely an owl, speaking to Link softly.
"My name is Eldin. I am one of the light spirits of Hyrule. I am the spirit that guards these lands. O great hero chosen by the gods… The dark power you seek lies in the sacred grounds of the proud mountain dwellers. But already those grounds have been defiled, draped in shadow and seeded with evil. You must go to those sacred grounds and cleanse them."
The spirit vanished, and Link walked back toward the Sanctuary, smiling briefly as the door opened and the children emerged, laughing happily.
Colin tried to run to him, but the other children knocked him onto his face in the dirt roughly as they ran to Link excitedly.
"Ha ha ha!" Colin laughed, brushing their treatment off, ignoring Malo's cold glance back his way as he pushed himself to his feet easily and ran to stand with the others in front of Link.
"See, Beth? I TOLD you Link would save us!"
"…You are the one from Ordon whom these children spoke of?" Renado asked in his soothing voice as he approached the group slowly.
"We are well met. I am Renado, shaman of this town. And this… This is my daughter, Luda."
The little girl smiled at him, and Barnes huffed from where he stood behind them and stomped away, clearly offended at not being introduced to him, and Link sensed that there could be complications with that man that he did not want to have to deal with at all.
"The beasts took us and left us to die…-" Colin spoke again now, smiling up at the man gratefully. "-but Mr. Renado found us."
"At first, I couldn't believe they had come from so distant a place as the Ordona Province…" Renado spoke again as he looked down at Colin.
"Yeah, I…" the fair-haired boy continued slowly.
"We don't remember much. All of the sudden everyone was captured, and then…until now…it's been like…"
"…A nightmare," Malo finished when Colin trailed off without doing so.
"Yeah!" Colin continued, looking up at Link. "It was like a terrible dream and we couldn't wake up…"
"Mmm…" Renado said in response. "Nightmares are everywhere these days, it seems. This village has certainly seen its share of recent hardships...-" he looked toward the high mountains as he spoke. "-The dark beasts attacked, but even worse was the sudden and inexplicable change in the mountain-dwelling Goron tribe. They had long been our friends, but suddenly treated us as foes. Even now they refuse to permit us entry into their mines. It strains the limit of belief…to think that such a gentle and proud tribe could change so suddenly… It makes me wonder if something in those mines is the cause of this change… In any case, you must take these children and flee this village before more nightmares descend. I, of course, cannot leave my village in such a time. There is no telling what may happen to us here… …But it is my job to try to coax the Gorons back from their recent change of heart."
"I don't wanna leave all these people just to save ourselves!" Talo said firmly.
"Come on, Link! Can't you do something?" Beth asked him almost pleadingly.
"Isn't there…some way to make up with the Gorons?" Colin asked him.
"You'd think someone could go to the mines and do something…" Malo stated with the innocence of a child.
But then, perhaps the advice of the innocence of the mind of a child was what was needed to help mend this situation and heal the ones who had been hurt by the spread of the twilight.
"I do not know what is in the Goron mines-," Renado stated calmly. "-but surely they will soon come to understand it, and right what is wrong. Do not concern yourself with me, my son. You must flee this place as quickly as you can."
"Link-," the girl, Luda, said to him. "-Trying to go near the mines is very dangerous. I will be very sad to be separated from Colin and the others…but I know they must go. Please return them safely to their parents."
Link turned, walking a few feet away from the group to look up at the mountain thoughtfully.
As much as he knew he should go and take the children back to Ordon and safety before returning here, every second that he delayed, the twilight was spreading, tainting everything it touched.
The Goddesses had named him their hero, the hero of the people.
And, as much as he didn't want this burden, it was his to bear.
He had to do something.
So, he set his feet on the path to the mountain once more, his blue eyes flashing with determination and his love for this land.
His land.
His home.