Chapter 14

Confessions

The day after Shadow had received the dark vision, Link was hunting for breakfast while Sonic and Shadow cleared the campsite. As he was equipping his sword and shield, Sonic noticed something odd about Shadow.

"Hey, Shadow. Why so pale? You look like you'd saw a ghost."

Shadow, who was playing the image over and over in his head, paid no heed to the man's questions. Something about that vision continued to egg him on. And it was always those eyes. Whose eyes were they? Why was he, Shadow: The Ultimate Life Form, afraid of them and who might their owner be?

"Shadow?" Sonic asked, getting concerned for his dark doppelganger.

The dark haired man shook his head back to reality as Sonic kept asking his name. He turned his attention to Sonic and kept his cynical remarks to himself for once.

"You say something?" He asked.

Sonic folded his arms as he raised an eyebrow at Shadow.

"I said 'Are you ok?"

"Never better. Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you look white as snow?"

Shadow fell silent as he equipped his weapons. He felt that it was too early to tell anyone about his visions, especially since he had no clue to who the menacing eyes belonged to.

"It's nothing."

Sonic was about to persist when Link returned with a large, freshly dead boar over her shoulders.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

Deciding to drop the matter, Sonic shook his head.

"It's nothing." He then pointed to the boar. "That's breakfast?"

Link nodded trying to figure out what were those two talking about. Shrugging her shoulders, Link set the boar down and began to skin and gut it.

After a hearty meal of boar stew with a side of bacon, the heroes began to debate on where to go to find the Mirror of Twilight.

"I've looked all over Hyrule when I was looking for the Chaos Emeralds and I saw no sign of any mirror. And there no chance that it's in Hyrule Castle, otherwise, the princess would have told us right away." Sonic spoke.

That brought up a subject that Link had been trying to get an answer for since the mines. Folding her arms and narrowing her eyes, she gave a stern look at the men.

"Before we continue, there's a few questions I've wanted answered for a while. What are these Chaos Emeralds? Are they those gems that we saw Zant take away? Why do they possess such a threat now that they are in Zant's hands? And what exactly are you hiding from me?"

The two boys cringed at Link's questions. They were hoping that with what happened to Midna and the search for the Master Sword, she would've forgotten about her suspicions. As Sonic tried to find an excuse, Shadow decided to come clean.

"Might as well tell you, since you and Hyrule are involved now."

Sonic looked at him with a 'You're-not-really-going-to-tell-her-the-truth?' look, mentally pleading the dark-haired man to stop. But Shadow knew that if they were going to get the Chaos Emeralds back, Link and Midna had to learn the truth.

Shadow spent the next hour explaining their world, the Chaos Emeralds, and what events led them to Hyrule. He decided to leave out the part explaining that he and Sonic were anthropomorphic hedgehogs, since it would seem to be a little weird if Link ever found out if one of them was attracted to her.

By the time he was finished, Link had learned almost everything. Her eyes narrowed further at the two men. She was not happy. In a word: she was furious.

"And you two have decided not to tell me right away instead? That I wasn't worthy of your trust?"

Sonic held up his hands, trying to get the situation under control.

"It's not like that! I've trusted you 100% from the beginning!"

"And yet you lied to me!"

Sonic struggled to think of an excuse when Shadow intervened.

"It's nothing like that. We didn't know about the Chaos Emeralds being here until Eldin gave us that clue nor if you would've believed us."

Link glared at Shadow.

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that you two have been lying to me the whole time about where you came from!"

Deciding to break up the fight, Midna came out of Link's shadow and got between the three.

"Hold it! In case you three have forgotten, Princess Zelda had put her trust in ALL of us. I could tell that she knew that you boys were not from this world. I did to. But we still trusted you with the tasks at hand. Speaking of which, we need to find out where the Mirror of Twilight is or all THREE worlds are doomed!"

The trio could see that the imp had a point. The argument was wasting their time and there was too little time to spare. Deciding to move on, Link spoke.

"You're right, Midna. And the first place to look is Telma's Bar."

"Why there?" Sonic asked.

Ignoring both Sonic and Shadow, Link spoke to Midna.

"Telma said that she's a member of an underground force and that the bar is their base. There may be someone there who may know about Hylian history. Or even knowledge known only to those of the royal family."

After Midna nodded in agreement, Link began to walk away as Midna turned to the men.

"She is going to need time to calm down. This was a load of secrets you kept from her. Go ahead before she and I teleport to the Castle Town gates and we'll meet you at Telma's."

The duo nodded as they ran out of the forest, leaving a wrathful Link behind.

Sonic and Shadow got to Telma's seconds before Link began to calm down and waved to Telma, who was back from Kakariko and running her bar. She saw them and greeted them happily.

"Well if it isn't the two princes who escorted us to Kakariko. Where's your green friend?"

Sonic spoke, making sure Shadow didn't say too much again.

"She's mad at us and is blowing off some steam before she joins us here."

Telma shook her head.

"Mercy. And I was just talking about the three of you."

She then pointed to a table at the far end of the empty bar. There sat two men, one helmeted and one that had the look of a scholar, and a woman in unusual armor. They were gathered around a map on the table as they drank. Telma called out to them.

"Hey, everyone! Introduce yourselves! These handsome lads are the infamous Sonic and Shadow!"

The pair approached the table where the three members introduced themselves. The scholar was the first to introduce himself to the pair.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both. I'm Shad. Wonderful to meet you."

Sonic gave a grin as Shadow leaned on the wall, anti-social as ever.

"Nice to meet you, Shad. I'm Sonic. The sourpuss behind me is Shadow."

Shadow gave Sonic a warning look as he kept silent.

Shad continued to speak with Sonic regardless.

"Yes. Telma told me all you two and this Link character have been up to. You're rather formidable."

He then rubbed the back of his head, sheepish.

"I'm rather NOT, I'm afraid. Well, I'm formidable at book reading, but lack, shall we say, physical skills. That said, if the history and legends of Hyrule are your cup of tea, I'm your fellow! If you're curious, just ask away."

The pair wanted to ask about the Mirror of Twilight, but decided to keep quiet and see what the other members were like. As they looked at the woman, she spoke.

"I'm Ashei. I grew up in the mountains with my father, who was a knight in his own right. He taught me the arts of war as though I was his son. Of course, lessons in common courtesy were not part of the regimen, so forgive me if I come off as rude, yeah?"

Sonic grinned at her.

"No problem, Ashei. Compared to Shadow, there's no way you can come off rude."

As Shadow glared at Sonic again, the latter chuckled.

"See what I mean?"

Ashei held off a snicker as she became serious again.

"Well, before I blab your ears off, I want to tell you something. Snowpeak, the mountain to the north of Hyrule… It's unlike any mountain I've ever known. I don't know much yet, but things happen there that no other mountain I know of."

"Such as?" Shadow asked, curious.

"Evil things…" Ashei spoke as she tried to control her rising fears.

Shaking her head, Ashei continued to speak.

"Well, as soon as I know something more, I'll tell you. Until then, you two should stay away, yeah?"

After they agreed, even though the topic of Snowpeak was still in interest, the two men walked over to the helmeted man, who recognized Sonic.

"It's been a long time, Sonic."

The man then removed his helmet to reveal the face of Rusl, the man who helped Link get Sonic to Ordon Village the day he became human. This surprised Sonic.

"Rusl? What are you doing here?"

Rusl chuckled at the blue-haired man.

"I'm a part of this group. But anyway. My wife, Uli, sent word to me about the children in Kakariko and your adventures with Link. I must thank you for your help with Colin. I barely recognized him… In any case, I'm troubled by my own inaction. I want to help the cause."

"And this gang is helping you be more active right? I know how you feel." Sonic happily told him.

Rusl chuckled before he became serious and pointed to a part of the map on the table. In the Lake Hylia area. There was an X at the lower left part of the section.

"There's another member in this group, but he's at Lake Hylia studying the neighboring desert. He goes by the name of Auru. He knows several things from his time as a member of the royal court. He even tutored Princess Zelda when she was young."

Upon hearing the last member's description, both Sonic and Shadow knew that they have found who to look for and where. Shad may have plenty of knowledge, but whom better to ask about the Mirror of Twilight than Princess Zelda's old teacher?

Marking the area on their own map, the two heroes headed out the door, after bidding Telma farewell, and ran back to Lake Hylia.

Once there, the pair looked down over the lake and saw a hooded man looking through a spyglass toward a closed off region of the area. By then, it was night. And from their vantage point, they could tell that it was a desert. Shadow got out a spyglass he bought in Castle Town when they were visiting Telma and peered at a section of towers that the hooded man was looking at.

"I see something. A desert. There's also a structure. All I can see are six towers in a circle."

"You think the Mirror of Twilight could be there?" Sonic asked.

Removing his spyglass, Shadow spoke.

"I am not sure. But it's our only lead, by far."

He then looked at the ridge that separated the desert from the lake.

"If we're quick, we can run on those cliffs and enter the desert from there."

But as Shadow decided to take off, Sonic realized that there was the matter of Link to deal with. As he ran after the dark-haired man, Sonic spoke.

"What about Link? Midna's with her and they're both a part of this!"

"Link's a smart girl! Once she calms down, she'll look for us."

"What makes you think that she'll look for us in the desert?"

Shadow explained.

"Before we left, I asked Telma that if Link finds herself at the bar, she'll send her to Lake Hylia. And I'll have the next phase ready in 3…2…1!"

Shadow then tossed a piece of paper and he didn't need to watch as it floated down to the hooded man's hand.

Once they were over the cliffs, the two men gazed at the vast desert around them. Behind them, they could see the cliffs of Lake Hylia. And toward the north, they saw what looks like a coliseum with six towers circling. Taking out his spyglass again, Shadow pointed the small telescope toward some lights in the distance.

"I see two campsites. The one nearest to the towers belongs to some monsters."

"What about the other one?"

Shadow examined the other camp a mile or two away from the monster camp and to his suspicion, found no one.

"There's no one there. Either they're scouting or…"

But before he could finish, a set of hard blows knocked both him and Sonic out.

With Link the next day…

It was a whole night before Link was calm enough to go looking for the men. Midna hid in her shadow as Link decided to ride Epona to Castle Town, now that the Great Bridge of Hylia was accessible to the south. It was Mid-morning before Link reached the town gates. She then looked up at the imprisoned castle and, along with Midna, thought about Princess Zelda.

The imp convinced Link to forgive the Sonic and Shadow by reminding her about their promise to the princess and that she was counting on all of them to stop Zant and whatever forces were aligned with him.

Upon entering Castle Town, Link headed down the streets until she was at Telma's bar once again. But as she entered the bar, she was disappointed that the two weren't there. Instead, she found Telma and the trio of strangers at the back. Seeing Link, Telma smiled and waved at her.

"Why Link! Long time, no see. If you're looking for the boys, I'm afraid they've gone ahead of you yesterday afternoon. But hey! Let me introduce you to the others."

Once Telma introduced Link, each of the members introduced themselves. The young heroine was surprised that Rusl was not only in Castle Town, but in the Underground as well. She was glad that at least he was alright and that he learned that the kids were ok.

But that still didn't answer her questions about Sonic and Shadow.

That is, until Shad spoke up.

"If I remembered correctly, they've went to Lake Hylia to see Auru about his research about the western desert. Perhaps you can find them there?"

With that said, Link bid Telma and the others farewell and exited the tavern. Once she set Epona off to home, Link then called upon Midna to transport them to Lake Hylia.

Upon arrival, Midna noticed someone at a tall tower.

"There."

Since the Twilight Portal enabled them to land in front of the entrance of Lanayru's spring, Link walked to the far end of the land and examined the tower until she saw a ladder that led to the top. After climbing it, the hooded figure, who was still gazing at the desert, spoke.

"I thought it was about time for you to arrive…Miss Link, is it?"

The man turned around to face her and removed his hood. His face was withered with age, but was appeared wise.

"You do know Telma, don't you? I am Auru. I am part of the group that Telma kindly allows to meet at her bar. I have heard about the deeds of you and your two friends from her."

Link bowed in respect before asking him about her companions.

"It's nice to meet you, sir. But have you seen my companions? They're about my age; one with blue hair, one black with red stripes; and really fast runners."

Auru gave some thought before he answered.

"I have not met them personally, but I have seen blue and reddish-black blurs entering the desert along the wall here."

"That's them." Link reassured Auru. Auru then placed a hand in his pocket and pulled out a letter. "Then this must be for you. Those two blurs left it with me last night."

Link took the paper and read the letter from Shadow, telling her about their suspicians about the desert. But it didn't give any mention about the Mirror of Twilight, which was probobly a good idea.

"But what's in the desert that's so interesting?"

Auru spoke to her.

"I think I know why your friends entered the desert."

He then pointed to the towers that Shadow had looked at earlier.

"The Gerudo Desert once held a prison built to hold the worst criminals this Land has ever known. The criminals who were sentenced to death were sent directly to the underworld by a cursed mirror that was kept in the prison."

At the words 'cursed mirror', Link and Midna, who was hiding in the former's shadow, suspected that the Mirror of Twilight was kept at the prison. Auru continued.

"Now that the prison is condemned, and even the road leading to the desert is impassible, this desert at world's end… It still holds the cursed mirror and the malice of the doomed inmates. These old bones know that the evil currently plaguing Hyrule is related to that wicked place. So I have come to learn the truth."

He then looked toward Link, who was interested in the story of the old prison and the cursed mirror.

"Don't tell me you plan on entering the desert and confirming my suspicions!"

As much as Link wanted to say otherwise, she knew that the only way to find the Mirror of Twilight was to investigate every area of Hyrule, including the prison.

Not to mention she had to find Sonic and Shadow as well.

"I am. My friends and I are searching for something and I am certain that they believe that the prison is where the item might be."

"And this item in particular?"

"I cannot say other than this: it is an essential item needed to save Hyrule."

Seeing the fire, concern, and stubbornness in the girl's eyes, Auru knew the youth before him was brave.

"Then let good old Auru help you out."

He then pointed to the shack that Link had seen earlier when the lake was dry. As he did, he handed Link another small piece of paper.

"Down in that shack is a man named Fyer, who has the contraptions to help you get to the desert. I had saved his live long ago, so he can't refuse a favor from me."

Auru then became very serious as he gave Link a warning.

"There is one more thing. It is said that in the desert lives a tribe of women known as the Gerudo. Apparently, it is an all-female tribe, with only one man being born every one hundred years. The reason for the warning is that the Gerudo, if they exist, are a dangerous tribe. They are thieves and are not fond of men outside their tribe. If you find that your friends are captured by them, best come up with a plan. Now, I wish you luck"

With everything all set, Link first headed to the lake and filled a couple of canteens she kept in her pouch before she headed to Fyer's place. After giving him Auru's note, Fyer spoke.

"Yep. That's Auru's handwriting. Just step inside and I'll have you at the desert in no time, Miss."

Link entered the strange shack and waited in darkness. She then heard what seemed to be carnival music as the shack began to move until she felt herself in some sort of confined space. Upon seen the only source of light, Link paled at the realization that she was in a cannon, aimed at the desert.

"Oh, no!"

It was then that the cannon fired and the next thing Link knew, she was flying over the wall and landed in a large dune of sand.

Even though the sand soften her fall, Link still rubbed her sore spots. She then set her gaze upon the desert with awe. She had never seen this much sand in one place, nor had she been anywhere so empty.

"Searching for the men has just gotten harder." She muttered.

But as she was about to begin her search, Midna came out of Link's shadow and spoke.

"Wait, Link."

Link slowly turned to face the imp, wondering what was wrong. Midna had turned away slightly and grasped her hands behind her back, looking down at the sand as if she was ashamed of something.

"Is everything alright, Midna?" She asked.

Midna spoke, still not looking at her.

"Before we go on, there's something I want you to hear."

Link stood still and listened as Midna spoke.

"Do you remember what the spirit said about the Fused Shadows? What do you think happened to the magic wielders who tried to rule the Sacred Realm?"

Link was surprised at the sudden question. She never thought about what had happened to the magicians after the goddesses stopped them. Remaining silent, she let Midna know that she was free to continue.

"They were banished. They were chased across the sacred lands of Hyrule and driven into another realm by the goddesses. It was another world entirely… The antithesis of Hyrule, where the sun shines bright. Its denizens became shadows that could not mingle with the light. Eventually, most came to call it the Twilight Realm, and from it, none could return to the world of light. They were forever doomed to live in the twilight, flitting in the half-light if dusk, mere shadows of Hyrule."

Link's eyes widened at what Midna was saying. If she was hearing the information correctly, she was listening to the origins of the Twilight Realm. But…how would Midna have known about it?

"Unless…"

Midna continued.

"This is the history of the Twili as it has been passed down form our ancestors…"

She then turned her head from Link.

"Do you now understand what I am?"

She then turned her head to face Link, shouting to the sand, unable to look into her eyes.

"I'm a descendent of the tribe that was banished to the Twilight Realm!"

Link was shocked at this confession. She knew Midna was from the Twilight Realm. But an actual descendent of the magician conquerors? Even with Sonic and Shadow's confession, this new information was still shocking. Looking away, Midna continued.

"It was a peaceful place…Until Zant took control of the Twilight Realm and transformed all of the Twili into shadow beasts. It's clear to me now that he somehow gained a great evil power previously unknown to our tribe. In any case, I was sent from there, and could no longer get into the Twilight Realm without his power. But there's another tale about my people. Though the goddesses forbade us to return to the world of light, they left one link between the light and the darkness."

Link answered her.

"The Mirror of Twilight?"

Midna nodded.

"It has been passed down to the protectors of Hyrule. It's our only path to the Twilight Realm…and we must get there!"

She then looked up at Link, unsure of what she would think.

"You, and the others when we find them, will come with me…won't you?"

To Midna's surprise, Link smiled as she spoke.

"Of course. Despite all that's happened, we're friends, right?"

She then look toward the desert.

"And I am certain that Sonic and Shadow will feel the same when they learn about what you've told me."

Midna sighed in relief as she returned to Link's shadow. But there was one question on both their minds.

Where were Sonic and Shadow?

Where are Sonic and Shadow?

Find out next time on "The Legend of Sonic: Twilight Princess"!

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