Heart of a Heroine Ch. 25

Ilia slowly awoke from her deep sleep, rolling around, and trying to get back to sleep, and tried to wipe away some of the snow falling on her head. Then she realized that it was cold, and she was moving. She opened her eyes to see that she was back in a cage, on the back of a cart that was rolling along a dirt road past a grey and frozen landscape.

"Oh you're awake!" The Mask Salesman said. "Good, good. I got one more shot at helping you today. But I should worn you, it's a bit of a doozy."

Ilia got up, and immediately began several futile attempts to escape from her iron bar cage.

For the better part of the day, the Mask Salesman trekked across the countryside, passing through a few more towns, the atmosphere was the same as her previous trek, again they seemed to know the Mask Salesman, told him to stay, and he politely refused.

The journey soon enough brought them to snowy slopes, and then rocky mountains, a place the Mask Salesman called the Snowhead Mountains. He ran the cart along the snowbanks for a few miles until a blizzard began to set in, and the snowbanks became too thick for the cart to trek through.

"Oh well Ms. Wolf. It looks like we'll have to go on foot here." With that the Mask salesman got off, and opened the cage for Ilia, who immediately jumped out. "Oh well, follow me, and we'll get to our destination soon enough."

Ilia was in bad mood, and would have ran off in the opposite direction, however the snow was so thick, that it was impossible for her to tell which direction was which. "Come on then!" The Mask Salesman called, dissapearing into the snow. Ilia trotted over to him.

'Does this guy make any sense to you?' Ilia asked the mule.

'Don't look at me, I'm just the mule.'

"So what was it like?" Ilia asked, as she sat on the fence, and watched the thick summer clouds rolled by.

"Cold." Link said.

"And?"

"I don't know. There was a lake of ice, and this big incline, and there was snow everywhere. A few trees everynow and again, but they were also covered. I just... ran, and ran, and ran. Trying to follow this scent. It stank something awful, but it was so faint it wasn't that bad. I mostly just smelled snow an pine trees. Being a wolf helped I guess. I had more stamina, and my, you know, fur, kept me warm. It was just different, because I could hold it close to me like a coat. And sometimes these wolves made of ice would try to attack me. But there were times... times where the snow had cleared, and I could see the entire country... it was peaceful. And all the snow made me think of the holidays."

"Sounds nice." Ilia said.

"Yeah. It was an adventure."

"I wish I could go on an adventure."

The Mask Salesman stopped outside of an ice covered cave, which had an eye symbol on the rock, with his hands covering his face in a thoughtful manner.

"It appears that I am unable to enter." The Mask Salesman said. "This is a problem."

Ilia sat, and glared at him, trying to ignore the light coating of snow her fur had now. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure about this one. If this doesn't work, I promise to take you back. Just try getting into the cave please? Scoochy-scooch."

Ilia growled as she crawled into an ice covered opening. She emerged into a a large man-made hall made of large slabs of grey stone.

"Uh-oh." The mask salesman commented. "It appears that some snow has fallen over the entrance. I'll go look for another way in."

Ilia sighed, and decided to explore the area. It was a large square room, bare of any features, save for a few remnants of broken pottery, and frost lining cracks in the walls and floor. She trotted down the long hall until she came into a wide circular room, the size of a royal ballroom she guessed. Actually, she didn't need to guess, she had been in a royal ballroom. However the room was several floors tall, with different walkways crisscrossing, keeping the bottom of the chamber dark save for a few brief glances of light above. The wind was still blowing even inside, giving her the feeling that this stone building was breathing.

Ilia breifly wondered on the history of this place, guessing that it must have been a castle or fortress long ago, and seemed in relatively good condition, despite the weathering and it's long age.

Ilia walked across shallow snowbanks, and piles of rubbles that covered the floor until she came to the next door that led to a spiral staircase that surrounded the ballroom. When she reached the top of the staircase, she came across a walkway that came to the other side, which led to another spiral staircase, identical to the last one she was on. When she came to the top of that staircase however, she saw that the walkway had collapsed.

She saw a ledge that jutted our along the circular wall that lead to another door that faced the way she came in. Figuring that it was the only way forward for the moment, she precariously balanced on the ledge, until she came the balcony that led to a long hallway with a bright light shining at the end and a chilled snowy gust blowing through. She follwed it, and saw that the hallway was missing a wall, it took her a while for her eyes to adjust to the bright light, but saw that the room was overhanging the cliffside of the mountain.

After taking a few moments to take in the vista, she noticed a familiar thin figure carefully perched on pillar high above the ground, standing still despite the high winds.

"Oh, hi there Ms. Wolf! I think I might have gotten stuck here. You go on and don't worry about me, I'll keep looking for a way in." The Mask salesman said.

Ilia no longer caring about the man continued her exploration of the fortress, sparing only a moment to wonder how the Mask Salesman got on that pillar with no discernable way to get on or off.

The next room was another grand ballroom, built into the side of the castle. This room must have once been quite elegant. Ancient murals, now eroded by time, lined one wall, while a row of mirrors lined the other wall, causing the room to look twice it's size, and above that was another row of windows let in white light into the room. Ilia wandered up to the mirrors to take a look at herself in her new form.

It was sad to see she was not in human form any longer, but being a wolf didn't seem that bad. Though she still could have done without the lack of indoor amenities, such as tableware, and plumbing. Color was still lost to Ilia in this shadow-controlled world, but she imagined she was also a noble 'blue-eyed beast', though she imagined herself as having a golden coat to match her hair. She also noticed sadly that a chunk of her ear was missing from when that villager attacked her when she first entered this country.

She continued on to the other end of the room until she found herself infront of another spiral staircase that that led to the central chamber, this one having windows with icicles lining the bottom, and bare empty torches. At the top of the spiral staircase was a stone walkway leading across the way, she looked up and noticed that the light was getting brighter as she moved up the building. In the next room, she was on elevated walkway that overlooked a mirrored ballroom that, ironically, mirrored the room she had just exited, and wandering around the floor was the Mask salesman once more.

"Oh hello there. Don't mind me, I'll find a way, you keep going." He said, with his fake smile.

Ilia ignored him, and kept going into the next room, which was another long hallway, this one inhabited by several bats that did not take kindly to her intrusion. They swarmed over her, and their bite was surprisingly strong. She lunged at one, and caught one in her mouth, squeezing her jaw, and hearing, and feeling, it's bones snapping. She spat it out, and repeated the process until the bats left through the windows, and Ilia tried to resist the strong urge to gag, and was left with only the strong sounds of the winds flowing through the fortress.

Ilia lay flat on her back, staring at the sky, Link lying next to her.

"What was it like being a wolf?" Ilia asked.

"Different. I had to walk on all fours, though that wasn't too hard. My senses were all better, but it was... kinda something I had to... turn on. I-it's like if I wasn't paying attention to it, I didn't notice it. Though, the biggest change was in the fighting."

"How did you fight then?"

"I had to use my mouth." Link said.

"Huh?" Ilia said after a pause.

"Think about it, how does a wolf fight?"

"So, what was it like? Fighting as a wolf."

"Well... Rusl always taught me that the sword is meant to be an extension of the arm. Midna-

"The Shadow Spirit"

"Yeah, her, she said that fighting as a human, and as a wolf shouldn't be that different, but I'm pretty sure she didn't really know what she was talking about. It's hard to explain though... what it's like trying to bite at an enemies throat... there was this sense of... savagery... I think. Like I never felt like I lost control... but there were times when I just wanted to attack something."

"So you were a savage beast then." Ilia said.

"Well no, it only happened when I was in a fight."

"But there was a sense of savagery."

"Yes."

"So, you were a savage beast."

"Yes. Yes, I guess I was." Link said, giving in.

Once more into the central chamber, the current walkway was collapsed in the middle, but Ilia believed she could jump the distance, so she backed up to get a running start, and jumped the short distance onto the other side.

This next room large and wide, appearing to have several ruins of old wooden furniture, all of which held deep shadows cast by several perfectly round windows that let in the white light and swift mountain winds. She carefully walked through the room, startled by a few rats that skirted past her. She gave thought to chasing them, but decided that while using her bite for combat may be necessary, she would draw the line on what to put in her mouth at rats. She continued on to the next spiral staircase, back into the central chamber once more, and then into the next adjacent room.

This one was large, but that was all that she could tell, as the place was impossibly dark. Even with her better eyes, she couldn't see anything. Then suddenly a light came on. She turned and saw the mask salesman standing on a balcony, holding a kind of latern that shines it's light in one direction, which still served well enough to illuminate him.

"Oh hello there." He said. "I'll be honest... I have no idea how I got here." He said shrugging. "Awfully dark in here huh? Here, I'll use this lantern to light the way for you." He swung around briefly illuminating the cavern and showing a crisscrossing of old ropes that lead to the other side. The Mask Salesman then turned his light towards Ilia to light the way. Ilia cautiously tested the rope, which surprisingly seemed to be held firmly. She carefully balanced herself on the rope, and slowly followed the Mask mans light. She found her self on top of pole which the rope wrapped around, and went off into two seperate directions. She took a right, and saw that there was another pole that branched off into two other directions. Again she went to the right, and found herself in an alclove, with several bats roosted above her. The bats, infernal creatures of the night, proceeded to do the exact same thing that the last bats did. Ilia snapped at the air until they were either dead or gone.

"Oh, yes, you may want to be careful about running into bats. They're quite tenacious here." The Mask salesman said unhelpfully.

Ilia simply growled, and got back on to the tight rope, and tried to navigate the maze she was presented, slipping only a few times until she reached the exit, an the accompanying spiral staircase. Back into the central chamber, the walkway extended out only into the middle before the next section collapsed, however the walkway branched into another room on the right.

In this next room was what appeared to be an old armory, swords, shields, spears, and other such things lay in piles to the side of the room, glinting slightly in the shallow sunlight tht peered out of a single round window.

Scattered here and there were the bones of a few unfortunates, left long ago, a few scraps of cloth loosesly wrapped around them, and rusty peices of armor leaning against them.

Ilia simply headed to the next doorway when she heard a rattling and a scraping, and she turned to see the bones, scattered for so long, now coming together, bound together by dark shadows and becoming gaunt skeletons, grabbing weapons from the floor, and slowly limping towards her.

Ilia growled, and lunged at the closest skeleton, who had yet to pick up a weapon. She soon leaped at it, and bit into it's arm, easily ripping it off, causing an unearthly moan. She lunged again, aiming for the neck, and kept biting until the shadows left, and the bone collapsed.

Ilia coughed, as she set her sights on the next skeleton. Her enemy had tasted of dust, flesh long gone, and deathly shadows. Her next closest enemy had picked up a metal shield, and a swords with several chips in it. She leapt at this one again, but the skeleton caught her with it's shield, and shoved her back. On the ground, the skeleton swung at her, but she rolled to dodge, the sword clanging against the stone floor. She snapped at his ankle, and ripped it's foot from under it, the thing fell to the floor, leaning upon it's arm, when Ilia bit into it's skull, and easily crushed the aged bone to bits, the shadows binding it dissapearing.

The last one had shambled it's way over to her with an old spear. It lunged at her, but missed giving Ilia an opening to jump on to it, and grinding it's neck to dust in her mouth, banishing the shadows the surrounded it.

Ilia did her best to rid herself of the dust and bone fragments on her toungue, as she came into the next spiral staircase. Wherever she was, the darkness that had invaded her country lay here. As if to prove her right, when she came back to the central chamber, she saw another of the Shadow Riders on the other side of the broken walkway, glaring at her with his eyes, before pulling it's cloak made of darkness closer, and heading into the next room. With the walkway collapsed, Ilia walked across the ledge that lined the wall to the next balcony, and walked into the room that it connected to.

In this room the ceiling and part of the wall had collapsed, letting in more snow, and howling winds wipping around her fur coat. Outside she could see a gray outline where the mountains were, and varying shades of gray and white in the sky. Inside, the floor was completely iced over, heavy banks of snow lining the walls. Ilia struggled to stay balanced on it, but remained wary. She knew this was the part where things go from bad to worse. Soon enough, another shadow-wrapped skeleton emerged from the snowbank.

Illia bit into it's chilled arm, and ripped it off. The thing kept getting up, and clumsily swung it's club at her, while she attack it's foot, trying to break it's iced over bone with her jaw, but was having difficulty. During her efforts, the skeleton swung it's club at her, making a hit on her, pushing Ilia back. She then leapt, and kept biting at the joint between the neck and skull until it popped off, and the skeleton collapsed.

The rest of them soon came out of their hiding places too, one with a shield was right upon her, and bashed her with it, giving her a headache. She shook her head, and grabbed it's leg, trying to rip the bone away, but succeeding in only tripping it. She got on top of it, and proceeded to rip out it's bones until the darkness binding it dissappeared.

Her next opponent was another iced over skeleton, just popping out from another snowbank holding an unruly and bent greatsword. It swung at her wildly, forcing Ilia to keep jumping back until she was forced into another skeleton holding a shortsword. She nimbly ran behind it, and kept gnawing on the neck bones until the first skeleton swung at her, and cleaved the things head off, giving Ilia an oppurtunity leap at it grab it's skull in her mouth, applying pressure to the point she felt her jaw may break when finally the skull crumbled, and it's bones fell like a poorly made house of cards.

She quickly left into the next spiral staircase, and away from the frozen room. She was harrassed by a few more bats as she quickly scaled the stairs, but she simply leapt into the air snapping at them until she felt their bones snap in her mouth. She raced up the stairs until she once more reached the central chamber.

Here the chamber was no longer dark and gloomy, but bright as day. Here four large round windows let in vast amounts of light. Ilia figured she must be ten floors up now. She continued on to the next spiral staircase, and when she reached the top, she was in a new room.

This room was just as wide as the central chamber, it held a high ceiling that just made you want to crane your neck to gaze at it. High windows letting in vast amounts of light on all sides, small flecks of snow easily seen outside, the sound of the breating buidling faint now.

And standing in the center of the room, was the Shadow Rider, his red eyes looking at her contemptiously. He was a tall thin man, but his thick jacket gave him a bulky appearance, with a high collar that covered his mouth, and the bottom of the jacket coming bellow his knees, and a series of buckles and clasps keeping it secure.

"Greetings then." He said, drawing his weapon, a black mace, in his hand. "The gods power is... complicated, no? The symbol on thine hand smites my fellows in holy light, yet when our 'evil magic' touches it, it in turn, turns thou into a mangy beast."

Ilia growled at him.

"Well, I see at least one disadvantage. A distinct lack of witty banter. Oh well, I guess we should just move on to the fighting."

Ilia fully understood what link meant when he said there was a sense of savagery, as right now all she wanted to do was rip his throat out.

"Excuse me." The Mask Salesman said, appearing out of nowhere. "That can't be it. You're the bad guy, you're supposed to go on, and on about your endgame, and explain what you're doing here, and what your plans are."

"What?" The Shadow Man asked, startled by the Mask Man's prescence.

"I mean, I'm sure somebody in the audience is the least bit confused about what's happening, and why you're here."

"You!" The Shadow Man said in recognition. "Snake! Traitor! Betrayor! Deciever!"

"Ah, it appears someone recognizes me." The Mask Salesman said. He then turned to Ilia with his fake smile still on his face. "By the way, I figured the only way to turn you back was to banish the darkness in the land that these men have caused. But just killing him won't do it. Or maybe it will, I don't know."

"You are meant to be nought but a legend! Why dost thou appear before me?" The Shadow Man asked, keeping his mace at arms length.

"Excuse me, I'm trying to have a conversation with a wolf here." He said.

"I will not play a part in your games Deciever." He said, raising his free arm, and forming a ball darkness in it.

"Oh, that's never a good thing that, when they do the whole 'energy ball thing' have you noticed that?"

"Bestill your toungue! I will not suffer to hear you any longer Defiler of the Triumvirate!" He yelled casting the ball onto the floor, the ball morphed and crackled, and grew until it resembled a giant, armored and bloodthirsty bear, covered in darkness, and red eyes sank deep into it's skull.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry Ms., I'm not much good in a fight, so..." He ran to the other side of the hall. "I'LL SUPPORT YOU FROM WAAAAAY OVER HERE, HMMKAY?"

"A dillemna appeareth before me, carry out a goal beset upon me to grab the power of the gods? Or deal once and for all with an ancient foe?" The shadow man wondered alloud.

"TAKE CARE OF THE WOLF GIRL FIRST, I'M JUST GONNA SIT HERE, AND PLAY MY MUSIC!" The Mask Salesman said, sitting down near a giant organ that definately wasn't in the room to begin with. He cracked his fingers audibly, and began to play furiously on it as the Shadow Man and his beast set his on Ilia.

Ilia ran and leapt at the beast, sinking her sharp teeth into the top of it's neck, biting at it, tasting something black akin to blood, when the beast shoved her off with it's enormous paw. Ilia hit the ground infront of the shadow man, who reared his mace, and slammed the ground with it where Ilia was before rolling to the side. She leapt at him, aim for his neck, but he pushed her off, firing a ball of dark magic at her, which shoved Ilia to the far side of the room.

When Ilia recoverd, she saw the Black Bear charging towards her like an angry goat. Ilia stayed still until the beast was almost upon her when Ilia leapt to the side, letting the thing crash into the wall, Ilia attacked at it's stomach, until it got up, and began to chase her once more. The Shadow Man continued to stand in the center, firing off balls of shadow at her. Ilia rounded the chamber, thinking of her next move, when she approached the Mask Salesman and his Organ, and the beast crashed into an invisible wall.

"HEY! DON'T BRING THAT THING OVER HERE!" He yelled, stopping his playing for a minute, and looking at her with his big angry eyes. Then the Bear began moving again. "Oh yeah." He said, then resumed his furious playing, while Ilia ran.

She honed in on the Shadow once more, he swung with his mace, but she sidestepped him, and bit at his leg, biting as hard as she could. Right as he was about bash her head in with his mace, the beast of his own making barreled into him, knocking him and his beast over. Ilia got on top of him, and almost made the move to rip his throat off, but he pushed her off with his feet. As soon as she got up, she made a feint towards him, but instead went to the beast, biting, and ripping at it's stomach until it swiped at her and got up, where she then jumped onto it, and ripped at it's neck as it bucked, trying to get off of her.

Getting closer to the Man clad in Shadow, he raised his mace and brought down on the Black Bear, dispelling it, and causing Ilia to fall onto the stone.

"Enough tricks, you and me now thy mangy beast. I shall vanquish thee, and then I shall deal with thyne master." The Shadow Man said, eyeing Iila.

Ilia had her shoulders haunched, ready to pounce, simply waiting for the Shadow Man to make his move. He did once he fired another shadow ball at her. Ilia jumped to the side, and lept at him nipping at his ankles before he jumped out of the way too, swinging his mace infront of him. She leapt again but was struck by his mace, and hit the ground, rolling to the side avoiding another Shadow Ball. She raced up to him once more, waiting until he used his mace to strike the ground, and then once more leaping onto him, pinning him to the ground. He used his mace in attempt to keep Ilia from biting his neck, which she was rabidly attempting to do. She kept at it, ripping the clasps and buckles that kept his high collar together, revealing his undershirt.

She did not relent, she did not even notice when she caught a small necklace in her mouth. She did take slight notice though when the small stone fragment it held cracked between her teeth.

"Oh crapeth."

At that, the world stopped, and slowed. The light in the chamber became unbearably bright, for a moment Ilia was blinded, and the Mask Salesman's music slowed to a near stop.

When her eyes cleared back up, the first thing she noticed was the color! She had no idea how much color simple stone had. The next was that the music had stopped. The third was that she was back in her old body, her fingers flat against the stone floor beneath her, the fourth she noticed was a wooden mask on the floor she grabbed it, and turning it around, she saw that it was a mask of a wolf. The last thing she noticed was the grey boots of the Shadow Man she had been fighting. She looked up in just in time to see his face before it was reclaimed by shadows.

"I do believe that this is where I shall take my leave." He said, slowly retreating backwards. When his body was once again covered in black darkness, he waived his hand, and he dissappeared, a few wisps of shadows left behind, retreating into the darkness. Ilia stood up, able only to hear the sounds of the howling winds outside, and sound of the breathing and moaning fortress beneath her. She looked around for the Mask Salesman, but he and his large musical instrument were nowhere to be found.

Placing her hand on her throat, she wondered aloud: "What do I do now?"

Authors Note:

Hello everybody, I'm pretty sure this update is pretty early for me, so I hope you enjoy it. I made sure to at least get an early start on it, but then I didn't get as many reviews as I was hoping on my last chapter, so hopefully I'll get more reviews in this one. Please give me your opinions etc.

Another reason for this early update was that I got a lot of inspiration for new story, but decided that before I start on that, I should finish the chapter I started on first.