Oh, man, this is late. Um... I have no excuse. I was on break for ages, but time just kinda flew and then the holidays ended and my life got busy again. Argh. So, yeah. Sorry.

HUGE THANKS to ultima-owner, grandshadowseal (three times!), HyruleHearts1123, alemery, and Nightfrightpony for reviewing! Okay, this is kind of sad... I actually put way more effort into this story than my Harry Pride one. I like it more, too. Yet, it has only a little over half the amount of reviews. And twice the number of chapters, too. What am I doing wrong?

Anyway, status update for the pokemon OC fic I mentioned earlier: it's now at over 100 pages and not even halfway done. Great Arceus, what have I done? -_-' If there's anyone interested, please let me know!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda games. I wish I did, though. They're awesome.

Apparently, the Sheikah were a very much "attack first, ask questions later" type of people. There was a split second of complete and utter stillness as both groups took each other in, then-

The shortest Sheikah suddenly leapt forward and swept his (her?) hand out in a wide arc. A spray of thin but deadly-sharp throwing needles fanned out towards us, streaks of brown and grey (wood or stone?) in the bright sunlight. The other two seemed content to hang back for the moment, as the four of us immediately leapt back and spread out in a defensive formation.

"Oh, great, they're hostile," Link muttered. Louder, he barked, "Everyone, try not to hurt them! We want them to help us, not hate us!"

"Easier said than done!" I yelped as I barely dodged another needle. As another spray zipped towards me, I allowed myself to fall, sinking into the snow as they flew over my head. Snarling, I prepared to summon a bomb- but remembered just in time that I was supposed to avoid hurting them. And also that another avalanche probably wouldn't have been good for any of us.

Dark growled, eyes narrowed as he leapt for the Sheikah with fangs bared. The heavy powder wasn't a problem as he simply phased through it, rewarded by a surprised widening of our attacker's eyes as he body-tackled the Sheikah to the ground. After being hit by over a hundred and fifty pounds of solid wolf, the white-clad figure went down with a grunt of pain and a splash of white snow.

Dark kept him pinned, right up until the Sheikah's arm jerked- steel flashed- and my oldest brother stumbled back with a yelp of pain, drops of bright crimson staining his foreleg and spattering onto the formerly pristine snow. Almost instantly the Sheikah was back on their feet, then-

Vaati chose that moment to pounce, leaping from whatever high surface he'd climbed onto with aim of pinning the Sheikah from behind. But the other two, who had simply been watching before, chose that moment to act. One leapt for Vaati, intercepting him midair with a flying kick to the side, as the other jumped to stand protectively in front of the first Sheikah.

Vaati yowled in pain as he was sent sprawling down towards the snow. He recovered to land on his feet, though, hovering just above the powder's surface.

Link growled, climbing up into a relatively flat boulder where he wouldn't sink. Then his shadow darkened, though Midna didn't appear, and one ear tilted to listen. Whatever she said must've made something click, though, because almost immediately after he spun towards us with eyes wide.

"Guys!" he barked urgently. "I realized why they're so hostile. They don't know we're hylians!"

For the moment, things seemed to come to a stalemate, as my brothers and I processed his words and the Sheikah realized that they clearly weren't fighting normal animals. If I had hands, I would've facepalmed. Wow, we were smart.

Link sighed, and Midna shifted him back to his two-legged form in a burst of twilit squares. "Okay, now I feel like an idiot," he muttered before hopping down- and promptly sinking almost up to his waist.

I smothered a laugh before shifting back as well, but made sure to hover above the snow as I grinned mischievously and crossed my legs like I was sitting on an invisible bench. "And now you even look like an idiot," I teased.

Link rolled his eyes, and muttered, "Shut up."

Vaati was the next to transform, suddenly looking quite a bit smaller as he changed from lithe panther to somewhat feminine hylian. Glaring haughtily as he tried to cover up his embarrassment and look like he wasn't freezing his toes off, he stalked over to stand beside me and attempted not to shiver.

Dark only sighed, transformed without further dramatics, and helped Link up out of the snow at the expense of sinking down himself. It wasn't much of a problem, though, as he simply turned intangible and floated right back up again anyway. However, I noticed that a thin line of blood was still tracing its way down his arm, even as he grimaced and pressed a bit of snow to it to numb the wound.

The three Sheikah stilled, red eyes wide behind their wrappings of cloth and furs. "Who are you?" one of them demanded, voice low and sharp.

Link stepped forwards, or tried to. Instead, he promptly sank up to his waist (again) in thick white powder, and sighed in exasperation. "Goddesses d***it, now I remember why we hated being two-legged in this snow," he muttered to himself. He tried to trudge through it, but realized that it would be fruitless and gave up.

Addressing the Sheikah, he replied, "I'm Link," he pointed to himself, "that's Dark," he pointed to my oldest brother, "that's Shadow," he pointed to me, "and that's Vaati." He pointed to my other brother. "We're hylians, come to ask your help. We were sent by Impaz- from the Hidden Village, in the foothills near Kakariko."

The Sheikah paused, then turned to confer amongst each other.

"Old grandmother Impaz?" the shortest one asked. "Wow, she's still alive?"

Now that I really listened, I realized that he (yes, I could discern gender now) was young; about my age. Huh. No wonder the other two, who were likely adults, seemed so protective of him. He was good, though. Those needles had been launched with pinpoint accuracy. I was impressed.

"Hush! Respect your elders! Lady Impaz was very brave when she volunteered to live in the old Hidden Village, although she was already well on her way to old age," one of the taller Sheikah scolded him.

He ducked his head, looking chastised. "Sorry."

"Well, what should we do about them?" another asked. I don't think they realized we could hear them. "Are they even hylians? I've never heard of hylians who could shapeshift before."

"Well, they certainly look hylian," the first adult commented. "Besides, look! The one in green, with blue eyes and blond hair- do you not recognize him? He's the Hero of Twilight! The Blue-Eyed Beast!"

There was a sharp intake of breath from the youngest Sheikah. "Really? Then... the rumors are true? The Twilight Realm has fallen, but the next Hero has risen?" he whispered excitedly.

"Yes. We should take them to the Elders, if they came all this way and were sent by Lady Impaz, then they must have a good reason."

"But what of the other three? They are unknowns."

"They are his companions. We cannot simply leave them out in the snow to freeze."

"But, look! Two have red eyes, and two look almost exactly like the Hero. You don't think...?"

"Perhaps. Either way, the Elders will know what to do."

"Do you think they know that we can hear them?" I whispered sidelong to Vaati, who shrugged.

"Who knows," he replied just as quietly. Then he shivered. "Goddesses, I hope they decide soon, though."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, hopefully."

Link grimaced as Dark pulled him out of the snow again. "I think there might be snow in my boots," he muttered with a hint of annoyance. "And now I can't move in this form. For once, I would actually rather be a wolf."

Dark grinned cheekily, floating a bare few inches above the ground as the wind and snow blew right through his intangible body. "Well, doesn't matter either way for me, really," he smirked playfully.

Just then, the Sheikah turned to us. "We will bring you to our tribe," one of them announced imperiously. "Follow us." Then, turning, they began to walk through the snow.

Link moved as if to step forward, but then thought better of it. "I- oh, y'know what? Screw this," he growled before becoming enveloped in a flurry of black twilit squares and shifting into wolf form. Once his weight was more evenly distributed among all four paws, he spread out his pads in a way that we'd discovered made it easiest to move across the snow and began to follow the Sheikah.

I laughed as I lifted off the ground and flew above him, dodging the occasionally tree branch or flock of ice keese. "Well, I suppose that's all you can do, isn't it, since you're the only one who can't fly," I teased as I swooped low to skim the ground.

Link barked, snapping playfully at my cloak. Dark laughed as well as he walked through a tree trunk, hands tucked into his pockets and looking for all the world like he was taking a lazy stroll through the gardens.

An hour or so passed. My brothers and I chatted quietly amongst each other, as our guides remained utterly silent. Indeed, since they'd started walking, the Sheikah hadn't yet said another word. Besides their conversational debate, and then their order for us to follow them, they hadn't opened their mouths once.

"Hm. They don't talk much, do they," Vaati observed as he studied our guides intently. His red-eyed gaze was sharp and calculating, like he was deciding on what the best way to hide the bodies would be if he had to eliminate them.

I shrugged, ducking a low-hanging tree branch. "They're the shadow folk. Like those, um, whaddaya call 'em… ninjas, from the East. I don't think they're supposed to talk that much."

Dark made a small noise of agreement. "Mm, true. Hey, do you think they're like those guards in front of the Castle, the ones who literally ignore everything? I swear, they're like statues."

I grinned mischievously. "Dunno. Let's try!"

Flying over to the shortest and youngest Sheikah, I grinned before tapping him on the head. "Hey."

Ruby eyes flickered sideways. No response. I grinned wider. Ooh, a challenge!

"Oh, hey, come on! Are you mute?"

Poke. Poke. Poke.

Twitch.

"Well, that's something," Dark commented amusedly. Then he bared his teeth in a wolfish smile. "Hey, lemme try!"

Sinking into the ground, my older brother disappeared into the earth. Then, a moment later, he popped out just in front of the young Sheikah with eyes gleaming like fresh blood and fangs bared, having shifted to his wolf form underground.

The Sheikah couldn't help but yelp and stumble back, probably remembering the last time Dark had done that. The two older ones turned sharply, knives and needles glinting between their fingers, but Dark had already passed right through him (a chilly sensation that I knew to be a very unsettling sensation) and landed on his paws behind the Sheikah. A second later he had shifted back to his hylian form, grinning like a loon as we laughed at his antics.

"Okay, that was fun," Dark admitted as the three Sheikah glared at us.

Link let out a barking sort of canine laugh, and bumped the Sheikah with his shoulder reassuringly- as if to say, Don't worry, he's just playing around.

The two adults glowered, eyes narrowed under the wrappings, but otherwise didn't say anything. I could see them observing, though, calculating our every move and storing it away for… something. I didn't know what. To be honest, it was a little creepy, and killed the mood pretty quick.

We traversed the next few miles in relative silence, broken only by the occasional shrieks of ice keese. The wolfos, being distinctly smarter, had made the wise decision to stay away. I was quickly getting bored, so Vaati and I made a game of sniping the ice keese from increasingly large distances- I with tiny, miniaturized bombs, and he with his magic spells.

"Score! Wait- never mind, that was an icicle," I sighed as I squinted at a distant explosion. Vaati snickered, and a second later an entire flock fell at once as he literally stole the air right out from their lungs.

"Oops," he smirked, completely unapologetically, as one of the keese's bodies landed right on the shortest Sheikah's head.

Crimson-red eyes narrowed beneath white wrappings. Similarly-colored scarlet orbs narrowed right back, the dark markings beneath them only accenting pale skin. But the youth still didn't say a word, and Vaati huffed in annoyance.

I chuckled as the body exploded into black dust, which drifted down to settle on the teen's head in a gentle cloud. He brushed it off, but flecks and patches still clung on with a stubborn tenacity. Dark fought down a humorous grin, and deliberately swung his hand through the Sheikah's head just to see him shiver.

Link barked, lifting his paws high to clear the thick layers of powder. The snow had been drifting down for a good half hour, by now, and seemed to be quickly thickening. Dustings of white flakes had settled on the Hero's dark fur, enough to make it look like he'd just escaped the baker's shop after hiding in a sack of flour.

A cold breeze swirled through the frozen forest, and I glanced sidelong at Vaati on instinct. He shook his head, the corner of his mouth tugging downwards in a faint frown, and I saw his eyes flick upwards at the sky. I looked up myself, and saw that dark grey clouds were gathering overhead. The temperature seemed to be dropping, too, now that I thought about it. And the snow was still falling increasingly harder, slowly but steadily.

Then, one of the adult Sheikah spoke.

"Storm's coming. We should find shelter," she stated blandly. The other adult nodded, and turned as he picked a new route through the trees.

"Oh, she speaks!" I announced dramatically, tiny fangs glinting in the light as I grinned. Then a large snowflake landed on my nose, and I sneezed.

Link snorted, then leapt to clamp his jaws down on an ice keese that had been diving at his head. It shrieked once before his fangs crunched and it went limp, and the Hero spat it out onto the snow before it turned to dust inside his mouth.

Dark chuckled. "Hey, Vaati. Any chance you could delay the storm?"

Vaati shook his head. "No. It would mess up the weather patterns too much. We're better off just waiting it out, otherwise it'll come back later anyway- but worse."

Dark winced, steps quickening as he walked through an icicle. "Ah. Then I suppose we'd better hurry."

"Yes, we should," the Wind Mage agreed. "We should definitely hurry."

For some reason, there was a treasure chest containing twenty arrows and five bombs in the back of the cave we took shelter in. The bombs were crudely made, though, and rather small. I snorted derisively when I saw them.

"Well, these won't be good for much more than a loud noise and a distraction," I remarked as I looked at one. "They're completely iced over. And they're tiny."

"In the mountains, less is better," Dark reminded me with a roll of his eyes. "Unless you want a repeat of that avalanche?"

I had to concede that point.

"Oh, hey. Look at this," Vaati called from somewhere near the back of the cave. "There's a small river."

"Really? I would've thought it would be too cold," I called back as I made my way over. The Sheikah, meanwhile, were starting a fire a little ways away, using wood and twigs from who-knows-where. The storm had just begun to hit outside, and as I glanced out at the cave's mouth I saw that it was getting bad fast.

"Well, the water's running fast enough that it doesn't seem to matter," Vaati replied as he peered down at the rushing white waters. I could hear them, now, like a much quieter version of the river that ran from the Zora's Domain to Lake Hylia.

Dark walked over to join us. "I wonder if it's safe to drink directly," he wondered. "I mean, it's not like there's any dirt or anything in there. It's all ice. And it looks pretty clear."

I shrugged. "Probably best to boil it first."

Link, now back to hylian form, winced as he rubbed his hands together for warmth. "Well, they've got the fire going over there," he nodded towards the trio of Sheikah, "so it probably is going to get boiled first. We should probably refill our supplies, too."

"That is a good idea," I agreed.

Link grinned, shivering almost imperceptibly. "Hey, Vaati," he said, looking at the shorter teen, "any chance you could use some sort of warming spell or something in here?"

"No," the Wind Mage replied with a shake of his head. "My control still isn't fine-tuned, so chances are I'd end up either not doing anything or melting the entire cavern. Most of my warming spells generate some sort of fire, and they're meant for offensive attacks. Keep in mind, I taught myself most of my magic, and I focused most on combat."

"Darn," Link sighed. "Oh well. I'm going to go wolf and sit by the fire, then."

"Also a good idea," I agreed again. "I might do the same thing."

"Then I'll copy you," Dark interjected as he crossed his arms, his breath puffing out in misty white clouds.

"And so will I," Vaati joined in.

All four of us exchanged looks, then shifted forms in almost complete unison. There was a brief moment of disorientation as my vision was obscured by a flurry of black, but then I blinked and suddenly my field of vision was much lower than it had been. I had four paws, a tail, and fur everywhere now, which made for excellent insulation against the cold.

"Y'know, these forms would've been really useful to have when we were still living in Castle Town," Vaati mused as we gathered around the fire. The Sheikah edged away warily, but we ignored them. "Just imagine how much easier the winters would have been."

"Oh, yeah," Dark agreed. "No more freezing nights-"

"-No more fingers and toes and lips turning blue-"

"-No more almost turning into icicles-"

"-And think of how much easier it would've been to steal food!"

Link glanced at us and frowned- or, well, as close to it as he could get when he was a wolf. "Were the winters really that hard?" he asked, sounding concerned.

Dark snorted, and stretched out on the ground with his paws tucked underneath his chest for warmth. "Well, they definitely weren't easy. Competition for food got twice as bad, and the only reason we survived some of the harsher ones was the fact that Telma pretty much locked us inside the bar some nights. It wasn't uncommon to see people freeze to death on the streets."

"Yeah, it was tough," Vaati remembered. "A lot of people didn't have shelter and froze, or they couldn't find enough food and starved. Some of the stronger ones braved the monsters in the fields and would go south, where it was warmer, but there weren't a lot of those. Most of the ones who went never came back, but whether it was because they found a better life or because they got killed is unknown.

"Others, like us, might have been lucky enough to find someone who would help them or take them in. There were a lot who didn't, though. A lot of people lived hand-to-mouth, so it was really important that you dug out a little stash somewhere and hoarded food during the other parts of the year." Vaati sighed hollowly, eyes dim with past memories.

Link, for some reason, looked almost… guilty. "Oh. I'm sorry."

I tilted my head to the side, looking at him curiously. "Why? None of it's your fault."

The dark-furred wolf gazed into the fire, and his sapphire-blue eyes reflected the dancing flames. "I know that, but- well, compared to you guys, I've always had things so much easier. Rusl took me into his family and treated me like his own son, and I've always had the rest of village to help. My winters weren't easy either, but nobody ever froze or starved."

I rolled my eyes and nudged him with one paw. "Hey, don't go feeling guilty now. We survived, we're stronger for it, end of story."

"Besides," Vaati added, "don't worry about it. We'll never have to spend another winter like that again, now that I have the Palace of Winds back."

Several hours later, the storm was still going strong. Vaati had switched to hylian form so that he could work on some control exercises for his magic, which were much easier to do when one actually had opposable thumbs.

The three Sheikah had mostly kept to themselves, though the youngest one threw frequent subtle glances in Vaati's direction. He seemed quite interested by the palm-sized whirlwinds that Vaati was controlling at his feet, three miniature zephyrs that spun and danced in increasingly complicated patterns on the icy ground.

"Okay. I'm gonna give it another ten minutes, tops, before the kid breaks and starts asking questions," Dark chuckled as he watched the teen's curiosity-filled gaze. He didn't hold any sort of grudge over his previous injury by the young Sheikah, and instead seemed to respect him a little bit more for it. Like Link and I, he was still in his wolf form.

"Mm, nah. I think it's only gonna take another five," I judged after scrutinizing the teen carefully. "He's been holding in his questions for hours now. His self-control isn't as good as the other two."

"True," my oldest brother chuckled.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the Sheikah- after looking once at the adults for permission, which they gave -shuffled closer to my other brother and asked, "What are you doing?"

Vaati looked up, a quiet smirk curling about his mouth. "Practicing."

"What… fine control?"

"Exactly."

And thus, the two of them delved into a conversation on different types of magic, debates on the merits of different types, and the practical applications of what they had discussed. The young Sheikah, whose name turned out to be Shaide, was surprisingly knowledgeable. I could tell Vaati was enjoying himself, as he had fun talking about a subject that he loved with someone who shared a similar passion.

"So, what's the outside world like?" Shaide asked curiously, almost half an hour in. He had dropped all pretenses of aloofness and was talking eagerly, suddenly acting his own age for the first time since we had met him. Wistfully, he added, "I've never left the mountains my entire life. I've always wanted to, though. I hear that there's a place in the east called a 'desert'. It's supposed to be really hot, without any snow or cold anywhere! I can't even imagine what that would be like. How do the Gerudo live with it?"

"With difficulty, I'd imagine," Vaati replied dryly. "I've never met a Gerudo myself, since their tribes moved even farther east after the huge mess with Ganondorf and the Hero of Time, but I have been to the desert. It's…" he paused, deliberating. "Hot. Very, very hot. The only time there's cold is at night, but even then, it's nowhere near as cold as here. There's sand everywhere, too. It's a pain to walk around in, because the footing is uneven and the moldorms that randomly jump out are quite the annoyance."

"Moldorms?" Shaide questioned, looking puzzled.

Vaati frowned as he tried to describe them. "Uh… they're monsters, a bit over a foot or so long and shaped kind of like weird… ach, I don't know how to describe them. Um… really ugly finless fish? Sorry, it's kind of hard to explain. Actually, wait, hold on…"

The Wind Mage concentrated for a second, then began to trace a rough picture on the ground with his finger. Glowing lines formed an image of a moldorm, crude and lopsided but still somewhat recognizable. "Here," he pointed out to Shaide. "This is sort of a rough idea. It's not completely accurate, since I'm a terrible artist, but…"

Shaide leaned over and examined it carefully. "That does look ugly," he commented. "I've never seen anything like it."

Vaati nodded. "Yeah, they're a pain. You have to really watch where you step in the desert, otherwise you might get bitten. I hated it there. There's no shelter from the sun, the heat is almost unbearable, and the monsters. Ugh," he shuddered slightly, "that's where the bulblins live. We had to fight our way through their fortress, and then take down their leader. When we won, though, they set fire to their own fort and almost burned us alive. And don't even get me started on Arbiter's Grounds."

"Arbiter's Grounds?"

"It was an old abandoned prison that we had to fight through. Full of reanimated skeletons, flying skulls, vengeful ghosts, undead mummies, mass-swarming beetles, ghostly rats, and a f***ing creepy atmosphere. I'd rather forget that it ever happened."

"Sounds bad."

"It was."

"I don't think I'd like the desert."

"I don't think many people would."