Chapter 12: The Prey of Wolves

The evening air was warm. Summer nights on Lon Lon Ranch were lazy and fat. The animals had been left to graze until twilight and, on evenings like this when the air was hot, the only one who could be relied upon to put the livestock back into the barn was Malon. The ranch was built on a hill with a sheer cliff protecting it on three sides. The only way in was the entrance but in spite of this it was hardly difficult to get in. This is what the wolf found.

The wolf had ranged far from her grounds in the Lost Wood and slunk across the fields of Hyrule following the familiar scent. It was food she was following but food of a sort, unlike any she had trailed before, as though she were hunting her own child.

Malon laid her night gown on her bed and stretched. It had been a long day and her muscles ached with exhaustion. From her earliest years, she had been used to manual labour and supporting her lazy father meant she had grown hardier than a lot of Hylian girls her age. She reflected that the summer heat must really have taken it's toll on her. The bed looked so inviting with its plush cushions and downy blankets but Malon knew she couldn't go to sleep quite yet. Outside, the clucking of the hens caught her attention. "Father!" she said to herself with a chuckle. "Could you not stay awake long enough to put the chickens to bed?" Leaving her night clothes and grabbing her light leather coat, she lit a lantern and wandered downstairs.

With sundown now so late in the evening, there had been little call for lighting the candles indoors and the kitchen and living room were swathed in half dark. With only three workers, the ranch was often a lonely place and Malon was used to wandering empty rooms. She had no fear of the dark, no fear of being by herself.

Stepping out into the yard, Malon thought she could hear the faint sound of snoring from the barn. She'd rouse Father when she brought the chickens in: no sense disturbing him now. What did confuse her was not seeing Ingo, the ranch hand, anywhere about. Ingo was a quiet sort and stern in his own way but he was dedicated to his work. It was unusual not to see him tending to some chore or another. At this time in the evening, he'd normally be taking a stroll around the ranch to check that none of the animals had been left out alone.

The sun still provided a little light for girl but she kept her lantern close as she tramped up the yard. The chickens began to gaggle and squawk as they retreated from her boot. They knew what time it was and made their way to the coops, albeit reluctantly. Malon counted them in and frowned. "Hmm, nineteen. where's Barley?" Malon shut up the others and held out her lantern. It had darkened quickly and she could not see far ahead of her. "Okay Barley, let's play hide and seek before bed."

As she moved out into the darkness, Malon wanted to sing her song. It was a song that all the animals on the ranch responded to in some degree, but for some reason she just couldn't remember the notes. She walked forward humming various tunes, none of which seemed to be the one she wanted. The far storage bins were a likely place for the missing chicken to be hiding; it was more than likely that Ingo would be there too.

A dark form in the near distance was moving bags of grain into the store house and Malon let out a sigh of relief, at least that was one missing rancher found. It only took a few more paces for her to find the other.

Barley, one of the ranches finest egg producers, lay in a bed of grain just a few steps away. Malon shined her light in his direction and screamed as her candle illuminated the puddle of blood gently pooling out from the creatures severed head. She didn't go near the grotesque sight and began to run straight toward the store house and Ingo.

Nothing even remotely like this had ever happened on the ranch before. Even though the animals were brought in every night for safety there had barely been any need. No fox, poacher or monster had ever entered the ranch and made off with the livestock. Talon had always said, the ranch had been blessed by Farore that way.

The store house door was very slightly ajar. Malon trembled as she gripped the handle. A sound, like a low growl, came from the darkness outside and she hurried through, closing the latch fast behind her. Malon's heart was racing in her chest and she took several deep breaths as she checked the door would not come open again by itself.

Rustling caught her attention and she turned to see Ingo knelt down in the corner. He seemed to scoffing something into his mouth and hadn't heard her come in. "Ingo," she said surprised, "Are you stealing from the mushroom crop, shame on you!" She would have scolded him further but something in his manner put her on guard. He didn't immediately respond to her chiding, almost like he didn't hear her. "Ingo?" She said again, taking a step back towards the door.

This time Ingo heard her but it wasn't the man as she knew him. His ears pricked up at the sound of her voice, ears long and pointed and covered in dark black fur. His face snapped round to Malon who let out a scream as his features caught her lamp light.

It was still Ingo: the thick bushy eyebrows were his, and the face was still his but it was also not him. The red eyes and fang like teeth were not his own, but they were not the worst thing. The worst of the horror in the glare of Malon's lamp light was the cold dead eyes of a chicken, it's head flopping uselessly out from Ingo's engorged mouth.

Malon didn't dare tear her eyes off of the strange Ingo-creature as it turned fully to face her. Her spare hand was working blindly on the door, trying to work off the latch to get back outside.

The Ingo beast let the chicken's head drop from it's mouth and grinned at the young girl. He had been tall and lanky as a man, but he seemed taller and more sinewy than ever as he stood to his full height. His arms had grown hairier and thick black claws, stained with the blood of his meal, protruded from his fingers. A deep growl rumbled out from his throat, carrying with it the stench of death.

Malon stopped looking at that moment. Dropping her lantern she put both her hands to the door and pulled away the latch. She could feel the beast behind her springing into action and she could only pray that she could make it through the door before his form came crashing down on her.

Somehow, she made it. Spirited through the door; she slammed it tight behind her. She had a key for the store house in her pockets. Trying to grab for it while also resisting the pull of the beast on the other side was too much though. In moments she was fleeing across the ranch, leaving the door wide open, letting whatever horror was in there come after her.

She was running for the barn. Though she didn't know what he could do, she was running to her father.

"Is it working?" Ruto asked clinging to the unconscious wolf in her lap.

Obero flickered nearby, flying as near to the creature as he dared. "It's hard to say, the medicine is in there, seeking her out, trying to guide her back to herself, but whether she can latch onto it and let it rescue her is up to her."

Kaepora Gaebora leaned down from his perch in the trees. "She has a strong spirit, sage of water."

"Don't call me that!" Ruto snapped. "That was another lifetime!"

Kaepora's feathers ruffled a little and he looked back towards the Happy Mask Man. "You didn't feel it necessary to tell these folk what was going to befall this poor girl?"

"I assumed they had already gotten all of that covered?" The Mask Man had been standing still but had now teleported a few inches closer with his arms out in a shrug.

"Do not give me that. You know I can see through your deceptions even if the others can not."

"And yet you are not permitted to tell anyone either. There are rules which even we must abide by...or have you tried to leave the Chamber of the Sages lately?" The Happy Man gave a winning grin to the stern owl.

Ruto looked blankly to Darunia and Nabooru, "What language are those two speaking?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Nabooru confessed. "There is far too much magic in this place, how can this forest even stand to be saturated by this much power and madness."

Darunia grunted in agreement. "It truly is terrifying. We've only been with Link here for little more than a day and already we have been assailed by so much."

"And beaten through it," The Happy Man commented, suddenly returning to Hylian speak. "Sometimes, adversity is a good sign you're on the right path: especially when you're following a boy such as your little Link."

"But what are we supposed to do for Malon?" Ruto asked again, trying to bring the conversation back to her unanswered question.

The Mask Man continued to smile that same unknowable smile. "Pray to a God, a Goddess maybe? There are plenty of both in this world."

Ruto gritted her teeth and went back to humming Malon's favourite tune into her inattentive wolfen ear.

The creature was gaining, it's long body loping with wicked speed, closing the gap to it's prey. Malon didn't bother to turn around; she could tell how close it was by it's slopping panting which rang louder as it's mouth frothed with hunger.

Malon almost made it to the barn. She could see the door ahead but stopped just a few metres short. Something was banging against the barn door, tearing at it and splintering it. Her eyes widened and her lip quivered in fear and heartbreak as a fatter shorter beast, but still every bit the monster Ingo was broke through the barn door letting out a dreadful howl to the night wind.

"Father?"

The question was meaningless: whatever else this creature was, it was most definitely not her father.

Taking the only free path available, Malon ran to the horse pen. The bars were made from thick steel and would, she hoped, be strong enough to withstand the muscle and claws of the two beasts. Even as she began to run though she knew that she wasn't going to make it. The Ingo creature with it's long wild bounds was practically on her. The fatter hulking Talon-beast was barely any slower.

Something else was running toward her. Was it a third creature? The new beast was smaller by far than the other two and looked nothing like the others. There was no one else on the ranch to be possessed. Though it held the body of a wolf, this creature looked far more natural than the other two and it had fur the colour of fire. Regardless, her only remaining pathway was blocked: Malon crumpled into a fetal ball on the floor. It didn't matter much to her which of the three creatures claimed her: she had resigned herself to the end.

The red wolf let out a call as it leaped over the frightened girl's head. It was an odd set of notes it sang, ones that Malon felt she had known all her life. They sang to the deepest recesses of her soul. Though she didn't want to, she found her eyes opening and her body uncurling.

The red wolf had lunged itself upon the Ingo beast. It was far smaller but it's claws had sunk deep into Ingo's chest and it's mouth even deeper into the monster's neck. The Ingo thing let out a maniacal howl that was partially drowned out by its own blood trapping within its windpipe. The Red Wolf held on as though its life depended on it. No amount of thrashing from the abomination would deter it from its grip. The girl was hers...the girl was her.

Something cracked in the Ingo beasts throat and all its whirling, thrashing and braying ceased. The Talon creature was growling fiercely at the Red Wolf but dared not attack it. Malon couldn't help herself. She ran. She ran towards the horse pen, hoping against hope that it would still be enough to stop her two pursuers. The Red Wolf and the Talon-creature both looked at each other before running full pelt toward the girl. The Ingo beast continued to spasm and writhe its last on the floor as the two different but similar creatures made their last dash to claim the prize.

Seeing an opportunity to trap the girl in its clutches, the Talon Creature lunged through the air, a jump way beyond what any sane creature should have been able to accomplish. It landed just in the way of the horse pen, it's mouth slathering with spittle as it prepared to feast on the helpless Hylian running toward it.

Malon kept running. There was no hope for her. She was running straight toward the beast her father had become, allowing herself to fall between his fangs. What other option was there?

The howl came out again, that same howl that echoed through Malon's soul and sounded so very familiar. Her feet stopped. The Talon beast let out a cry of frustration and annoyance. It stamped its paws into the dirt as though readying for a charge. The Red Wolf has stopped too and was now sat on its hind legs howling that familiar melody to the moon. Malon was directly between them. Whichever she came closer too would claim her.

For a moment the Talon Creature's face appeared more Hylian, the grinning, happy, jovial man she called father. The Wolf did not change one bit, merely stared with piercing eyes, howling its melody into her ears. Malon looked once again at her father. The eyes were still wrong.

She ran.

Ruto screamed as the whole of Malon's body began to convulse uncontrollably. Nabooru stepped in quickly and pulled the Zora off the shaking wolf, who seemed caught in some kind of terrible death throw. It were as though some creature were devouring it alive from the inside out.

"What is happening to her?" Ruto screamed as the wolf body began to glow in shades of black and white.

Nabooru didn't answer but handed the flailing child to Darunia and drew her swords. The brightness surrounding the wolf child intensified, sometimes as thick as night and then whiter than snow. Then came the explosion.

Ruto felt herself flying through the air. Darunia had let go of her and she had fallen hard on her leg. Her eyes were useless, dazzled by beams of brilliance and colors that danced unintelligibly around her. She scrambled forward, trying to correct her gaze, trying to recognize the familiar amongst the gibberish.

Her hands connected with something soft. She closed her eyes tight and opened them again. It felt like a hand, soft and small like hers, with fingers of flesh and blood. "Malon?" The Zora hauled herself onto the still body feeling its shape and contours, checking for a heartbeat. Her vision finally settled on something red. "Malon!" she said again as her eyes finally realized that they were looking at a Hylian's face enshrouded in red hair.

Malon's eyes were closed, but her face scrunched up as though trying to make sense of something. "The Red Wolf ate me...No! It claimed me?"

Malon's eyes flew open and she sat up to find Ruto staring at her. "Ruto? Ruto, what's happening?"

Ruto threw herself onto Malon squeezing her tightly. "You're okay is what, We...we didn't lose you."

Author's Notes

So that was a bit of a departure from the norm. This scene has been in the back of my mind for a while and I very nearly didn't add it as the focus really is meant to be on Link's dream world in Termina. I do promise however that this is a one off and we'll not be going into dream worlds for all the characters.

I really do hope this chapter makes sense to everyone. I went into some kind of creative frenzy with this one and churned out most of the chapter in only half an hour. I really loved writing this one, but I really do wonder if it's going to make sense to anyone but me. I sincerely hope it does.

As always, a massive thank you to everyone reading. Thanks to those of you who kindly take the time to leave comments and reviews and to those who are following and favouriting the story. Please keep all your comments and thoughts coming through as they are a great indicator of how I'm doing and how I can improve.

Thanks for reading.