**All Standard Disclaimers Apply**

Book One in the Doppelganger Trilogy
 !
The Hero of Wolves
by The Wolfess

!

Chapter Twenty-Five: Violence and Demands

The sun inched closer to the western horizon, spreading a swath of liquid gold across the mountain range. It trickled through the window of the infirmary, laying gently across the quiet forms of Princess Zelda and General Link. The Princess and the Hero were talking in hushed voices from their respective beds with grim expressions. A knock on their door hushed them, and the Doctor entered with his clipboard in hand and his glasses dangling on the tip of his nose.

"Well, I see no reason to keep either of you," he said. "You both seem to be looking well enough. You, young Duke, I would like to see again tomorrow to check your bandages. Don't do anything to agitate your wound please."

Link nodded as he stood and strapped his sword belts on. He had a soldier retrieve his green tunic for him earlier that day and changed into them privately. Zelda, likewise properly dressed, also stood and folded her hands in front of her.

"Thank you Doctor," she said. "I will send your salary soon."

The Doctor bowed. "If you will excuse me Your Highness, Duke Randulfr." With that he backed out of the room.

Link and Zelda made their way out of the infirmary in silence, turning the stone corner at the end of the hall and making their way to Zelda's private chambers. Link's hands were folded behind him, his face impassive.

"What are you thinking about, Link?" Zelda asked after a while, her voice hushed in the echo of the castle hallways.

Link raised his eyes from the floor but did not look at the Princess. "I'm thinking about Count Durtain, to tell you the truth. Thinking about all you have told me about him. He seems like a contradiction…worried about the people and saving my life, and yet bringing back these evil apples and treating us with such subtle disrespect earlier. I don't understand his true nature."

Zelda was wearing an elegant violet evening dress that complimented the varied tones in her auburn hair, and some simple golden jewelry with her customary tiara. She fingered the material of her dress and furrowed her brow. "You are the wolf...what do your instincts tell you?"

Link turned his blue eyes on her, confusion glittering in their depths. "You would trust the reasonless impulses of an animal?" he said, his voice lined with bitterness.

The Princess met his confused eyes with a steady gaze. "In times of danger, no matter what that danger may be? Yes. Absolutely." When her words did not seem to assuage his self-deprecation, Zelda continued. "Link, when the Twilight King began invading Hyrule there were mass reports of lost animals or accidents caused by violent animals. The wildlife was restless and encroaching on cities and farms more than usual, causing enough damage to be reported. When Zant and his soldiers invaded the city, the rats, the cats, and the dogs all fled or attacked. Animals do not have logic to impede them. When danger is coming or around, they either fight or flee. It is as simple as that. Watching the actions of the animals is a great way to recognize danger before it approaches."

The tension in Link's back eased, and he sighed. "If it is an animal's opinion you would like, then you've come to the right man I guess." The hero paused, dropping his eyes and then raising them again, his feral gaze boring into the Princess. "When I saw him today, such evil emanated from him that it was all I could do to appear calm and not to rip his throat out."

Zelda swallowed, shifting her eyes away from the animalistic fire that burned in Link's intense gaze. She wondered again about the brutality she had seen in her Hero since the incident after the Land of Death.

This time it was Link's turn to ask what Zelda was thinking. In response, the Princess stopped and touched Link's elbow, causing him to halt mid-step and back up a pace. "Yes?" he asked.

"Link," Zelda began, her voice a mere whisper, "I worry about you. I worry about our incident this morning. I worry about that statue in the square. Do you not see yourself, Hero? Where is the farm boy who approached my table with such fright and innocence? Innocence against all odds, after all you had been through. Somehow, despite all the death and pain you went through in the war, your eyes still held a boyish laughter."

Link crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Zelda, his jaw locked and tensed, mouth pressed to a thin line.

Zelda paused, but continued anyway, her gloved hand sliding up his arm to cup his chin. "Now I see burden. Now I see anger and murder. Now I see in your gaze a bloodlust I never knew. Has it always been there and I just did not know to see it? Are the duties I have put on you causing you to lose control over the animal inside?"

Link took a step backward and turned his back on Zelda. He cast a furtive glance down the empty hallway and rushed to a nearby alcove in the wall. "You speak too informally in public," he growled.

Zelda swallowed. "It is sunset. The servants are in their chambers and the guards are at their posts. My maids await me in my room. None will walk this obscure hall for another hour until the guard's patrols begin in the outer hallways, which only happens during the thieving hours of night."

"Fine," he snapped, averting his eyes. Their silence was tense, and emotions swirled within the quiet hero. His voice no longer angry, Link said, "I became an animal the day the war invaded my home village. What you have seen is a ghost of the innocence I once boasted."

Zelda recognized his wary movements and strategic placement, and therefore she kept her distance. "I do not believe that," she said.

"Then you are just as fooled as the rest," Link snapped. "If Durtain brings danger on us again then you need a wolf, not a country boy. That's why you brought me here in the first place."

Zelda frowned, a hurt expression flashing onto her face and then waning away. "Perhaps," she said, voice stern. "Or perhaps I selfishly longed for someone who would understand and help me. Goodnight General. I beg you, get some rest and take care of yourself. The debriefing can wait a few days while you recover." She turned on her heal and clacked down the hallway.

The Wolf Man did not follow her. He took a turn to a hidden passage he knew led outside and escaped into the solace of the night. The Bulblin Campaign had taken the rest of fall, and while the Desert was still in the grasp of summer heat, Hyrule was feeling the first frosty bites of winter. Already Link could feel the forming frost on the foliage, and an arctic chill in the air. He shivered with the memory of another arctic land, and the hundreds of dying Zora trapped in their own unnaturally frozen home. If it had not been for the wolf's keen senses he would not have seen the Zora below the ice to free them, and yet the horror of that sight haunted the Wolf Man's memories to this day. How many of them had died because he was too late? How many died on the steps of their home shortly after being freed? How many had been hit by the giant flaming rock he and Midna threw into the ice?

The farther Link walked from Zelda's presence, the more agitated he became. Memories of violence and horror flooded him as he exited the castle gate and walked down the cobblestone way of Castle Town's north quarter. He began to notice that the town seemed grimy and dirty, much more so than was customary for the age, and citizens with sallow cheeks and half-rotten apples in their hands lined the silent street with their sunken eyes on the Castle Gate. As he walked by them, they reached out their hands toward him and mouthed "Apples?"

Link shook his head and stalked on, exiting into the main square where the grand statue stood in all of its glory. Link circled it, standing at its base with his face turned upward. The stone hero looked down from on high, grand, proud, and fierce. He wielded his sword as if ready to strike anyone who dared to come near. By his side stood an equally stern Princess, seeming to lean into the hero and take up his angry cause.

Fury welled in Link's breast. This image portrayed him as a violent tyrant in the making. Zelda looked to be swayed into his violence and power. There was no compassion in these faces. No laughter or joy. No understanding. No kindness or love. Link's hands shook, anger vibrating through his form like an earthquake. If the boy-hero was able to see himself in that moment he would seen the statue's fury mirrored on his own face and understand that he was becoming the key to his own destruction.

At it were, he did not see himself, and in a flash moment of decision he slipped on the Wolf Stone and set out on quite a different hunt—a hunt to discover the truth behind the apples, the statue, and Count Durtain.

!

The black and grime of the alleyways and side streets hid Link's dark body. As he slipped through the shadows, his blue predator's eyes saw the transformed city with silent grief and anger. There were apple cores and apple peels everywhere. The stones were sticky under his paws with the black juice. He could sense people inside their houses and hear their frantic slurping and biting. Every house was the same—outside the door were the occupants' apple trees, and inside were ravenous animals masquerading as noble Hylians, bent over in their consumption of the evil fruit.

Outside a bar, Link watched two men fighting over a bag of apple seeds, and growled when one of them produced a hidden knife and slit the other's throat. When the crowd cheered his ingenuity, Link moved on. Outside another house, this one in the eastern quarter, Link saw a man throw his wife through the front window and take the apples from her dinner plate. At yet another house, he saw a couple consuming a pile of apples on the grimy floor while their sallow-cheeked children fought each other in the corner over one.

A soft, powdery snow began to fall; the first flakes of winter. They melted the moment they approached his thick, hot fur, and did not stick to the ground. Link could take no more of this city's agonizing sights. Steeling his heart against the fury and the sorrow welling within it, the wolf sniffed the ground and set a path for Durtain's mansion.

Was it just his limited vision, or was it darker around the Rashak Estate somehow? Link sniffed around the edges of the mansion, his fur standing on end. The wolf searched for a long while trying to find an open window or a way in, but Count Durtain was very thorough in his protection. All outside openings were boarded or cemented up, and the walls were too thick to burrow underneath.

Just when Link was about to give up, an orange cat caught his eye. He tilted his head, remembering its scent, and trotted over. The cat turned when he approached, sensing him more than hearing his silent paws.

"Good evening Dog," said Gengle the Cat.

Link nodded his furred head. "Hi Gengle. How are you?"

The cat sat and began licking its front paw. "My master and I are fine. We live here now you know."

Link's ears perked, his tail thumping the ground a few times. "That's great! What's it like in there?"

The cat started grooming its other paw. "My master thinks it's great, but Durtain is evil. Well, not Durtain. He's just confused. But I think he's into something…something evil in his study. He keeps it boarded up, with no light at all. I don't know how he stands the darkness. He doesn't have cat eyes."

Link curled his tail around his paws, trying to keep his toes warm as the snow kept falling. "Do you ever hear anything strange in there?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

The cat looked at Link suspiciously. "Yes. Do you want to know what I hear, Dog?"

Link nodded his furry head. "Please."

"Well," Gengle started, curling himself up into a ball for warmth with just the tip of his pink nose showing. "He talks to someone sometimes, and the voice is different than his own, though no one sees anyone but him go in or out. And he hates the General, that Link boy you smell like. My master and I think the Link boy is nice, but Durtain thinks he's a liar who's corrupting the Princess. I don't know about that. I do know that Durtain meets with these four men at the pub and they plan ways to bring down the Princess and the General to save Hyrule from them."

Link suppressed a growl, his fur standing on end. "What's their plan?"

"How should I know?" Gengle replied. "They shooed me out of the pub before I could hear."

Link huffed a canine sigh and stood. "Thank you Gengle. You've been helpful."

The cat stood as well, stretching its back. "Of course, Dog. One more thing: I recognized one of the men in the pub. He was the former General, before the Link boy."

Link's eyes narrowed, and this time he did growl. "Thank you, again. I will see you another time." Before Gengle could reply, Link turned and ran full speed to his own mansion, where Gorkenheim was supposed to have been since his departure. He would chew that backstabbing excuse for a human a few new holes.

As Link neared his house, however, he skidded to a halt and whimpered. What was he going to say? A cat told him? Link had no evidence with which to back up his claim, and if the Count of Rashak was behind this then Gorkenheim's tracks were probably well covered and he could just say it wasn't true.

What do I do now? Link thought, bursting with the new information. It was well past midnight by now, and the Princess was surely sleeping. She did tell me to rest, he thought. Maybe I should go home and tell her tomorrow. Deciding that this was a good plan, Link continued to his empty, cold mansion home as the snow steadily fell in the dark night.

!

The next morning Link set out with urgency to speak with Zelda, but found himself unable to due to a series of meetings she was engaged in through dinner. He had woken up just as agitated and fidgety as he had been the night before, but this roadblock seemed to increase it. The air felt very cold that morning as Link made his way to the Army Compound in hopes of meeting with his Captains, but Link didn't seem to feel it. He walked through the cold as if his wolf fur was still covering his body even without the stone, and others could feel heat rising from his skin if they passed near him in the square.

The Army Compound was quiet and covered in frost, though only a little of the snow from the night before stuck. Where Link's boots pressed into the grass as he walked, the remaining snow melted under his feet, and his exhale sent cold puffs into the air. A few soldiers were already on the training grounds, and the General smiled at their dedication.

The stone halls that housed his office and quarters were as cold, if not colder, than the area outside. In the stillness of the morning the littlest sounds were magnified, like the chirping of the lingering birds, or the hushed voices that Link now heard in the Captains' quarters down the corridor. Link glanced around, then slipped on his wolf stone again and padded silently down the hall, the sounds almost immediately louder to his sharp canine hearing.

"Are you sure he is not around?" came the voice of one of his Captains.

"Yes," said another, "I checked with the Castle Guard. The General is to rest for a few days to allow his wound to heal. All of the men are at home, so this is one of a few safe places in Castle Town to speak."

"Very well," said a third that Link vaguely recognized as the Captain he demoted on his first day. He never had gotten them straight—Doker, Refflan, and Morg. He still called them by the wrong names. "How have your tasks gone? Successful?"

"Mine is," said a fourth voice, Gorkenheim, which caused Link's fur to stand on end. "He came home last night and went straight to bed without even checkin on me. I've been talking to the other servants in other houses and slaves like meself due to crimes, and raisin hell about the injustice of what they did to me."

"And how are people responding?" said the third voice again.

"Not well at first, but they are more and more every day. The Count's done a great job o' turnin this apple thing into a rebellion."

"It's not quite there yet," said the second voice. "Not rebellion…but the people are restless and hungry. They are going to want more fruit, and soon."

"They already do," said the first voice. "I've spoken to my soldiers, who have all partaken of the black apples by the way. They are all scared of him, and tell me what they have heard their families say. The people are tired of apples. Durtain said there was more variety, and they already want it."

"Yes," said the second voice. "I hear the same from my soldiers. They want black grain to make bread, and black corn to feed their goats to make black milk. Apples are hard on the animals. The Counsel of Advisors is more eager than anyone. They are already pushing the bill to the Princess. They rounded up the last of the people's signatures this morning."

There was a moment of silence, and then the third voice spoke. "The Count is a genius. However he discovered that black valley, the fruits have already done their job. I was not expecting this so soon. Ready yourself, gentlemen, for the moment the document is signed by the Princess. Stock up on your private stores of regular food, and ready yourselves for a quick move out. I can feel it in my bones as much as I can feel the winter chill—it is going to happen quickly." The silence following his speech rang with agreement.

Link backpedaled, turned around, and slinked away from the officer's quarters, from the backstabbing Captains, childish soldiers, and petty nobleman boasting their power like a child's special candy. He tore off the Wolf Stone, slipped it in his pocket, and walked toward the southern gate. He was nearly running in the morning daylight, eyes wide and touched by something furious and not exactly human. Several people spoke to him as he pushed through the morning market crowd, but all he could hear was the thumping of his own heart and the rush of blood in his ears. Responsibility, political intrigue, scandal, and rebellion…he couldn't stand one more moment in this human's skin. He could not take one more show of civil conversation, or petty political argument. Who was trustworthy? Who was not in on this grand conspiracy? How had he not seen it coming? Link needed the seamless fur stretched over a body created to kill, to survive. He needed bleeding flesh clenched in his jaws, the coppery hot blood sliding down his throat, and he needed it now.

"General Randulfr, just the man I was looking for!" A hand slammed into Link's chest, causing him to stumble backwards in his forward momentum. The Wolf Man blinked at the nobleman, barely recognizing the black hair and strange eyes of Count Durtain through the haze of hunt-lust clouding his mind. "Where are you going in such a hurry, Duke?" the Count asked.

Link growled at the man and clenched his fists. "Nowhere," he snapped, trying to side step Durtain. The Count merely stepped with him.

"Then surely you can stop and talk!" he said. "I have important things to discuss with you."

Link shook his head, stepping to the right, and again found Durtain blocking his way forward. Link could see the entrance from where he stood, mere yards away. "No, can't. Please let me pass."

Durtain's mouth turned up on one side, almost a grin but not quite. "What's wrong, Link? You look like you've seen a ghost, man."

Link's brow started to perspire, his hands to shake, and his voice came out in a gravely, animalistic growl. It was a bad idea to confront this backstabbing Count now. It would only cause more trouble. It would feed Durtain's lies. The Wolf Stone pulsed in Link's pocket. The Triforce pulsed on his hand. His mind felt cloudy. "No, no ghosts. I killed them all. Jovani…let me pass!"

"So you killed all the ghosts for Jovani?" Durtain chuckled. "No wonder he gave you his fortune, greedy coward that he is."

Link balled his hands into fists, pushing at Durtain in the subtlest way he could, trembling with the effort it took to restrain himself, but the Count pushed back.

"Jovani's not involved. I don't know what you're talking about…" Link said.

"Ha ha, I think you do Link. Good hero taking payment for his services…I wonder what the starving people would think?" Durtain pushed Link's chest again, a mocking frown on his face. "I'm shocked at you, hero."

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Link bellowed, raising his left fist and slamming it into Durtain's jaw. The Count stumbled backwards and fell on his back. It was long enough for Link to break into a run and disappear out the gate. A crowd of shocked onlookers stared, at least twenty of them. They had heard and seen the whole exchange as they bought their morning allotment of Black Apples. Count Durtain rubbed his jaw, pretending to look wounded and honorable while something inside of him laughed.

It took an hour for news of Link's assault to reach Zelda. A servant slipped her a note from Ikal while she was in another heated meeting with the Counsel of Advisors. Their increasing arguments for a campaign to retrieve more black fruit from the Southern Mountains to rescue their economy was tiring Zelda, but thus far she had been able to find many holes in their arguments and stave off what she feared was coming.

The first question in her mind was why he didn't turn into a wolf—she felt her hand flashing like before, but no pain surged through her marks, leading her to the conclusion that Link had not transformed. Her second question was what had happened to draw such an extreme reaction from him, if indeed the violent transformations were due to his emotions rather than the act of transforming itself.

Whatever the case, Princess Zelda kept her face carefully unaffected as she faced the Counsel of Advisors seated in front of her around their traditional large table. The chill of snow outside the castle made the inside of it rather cold as well, and so all around the chamber candles were lit, and a fire had been started in the hearth. All were dressed in warmer clothes, with their winter coats hanging in a nearby closet and a servant ready to hand them out. The Crown Princess wore an elaborate green gown with gold embroidered Triforces and a shawl draped over her shoulders, arms, and hands. With the finger foods and warm Romany Milk, specially requested from her own private stores by Zelda instead of the evil fruit, it would have been a pleasant gathering had it not been for the tension buzzing in the air between the Princess and her advisors.

"You cannot deny the demands of the common populace, Princess. They are united in their desire, and we of the Counsel quite agree with them."

"I have already told you, Rauru," Zelda said, "I will not send our army on another campaign so soon after their return. It would be madness, especially with winter upon us."

"Winter upon us? Yes, winter upon us! Winter upon us and few families have enough food to make it through, even with the apples. They need more, and your beloved General is quite capable of running a quick Campaign."

Zelda pursed her lips in irritation at the less-than-subtle slur on Link, but didn't respond to the prod. It would only confirm the rumors of their relationship, and ruin what sway she and Link currently held over the people's hearts. Instead she tapped her fingertips together on the table, long nails clicking rhythmically. Her expression was kind but unrelenting as she moved her intense cerulean gaze over each person gathered.

"I have studied the apples," she said, bringing up an argument that was quickly becoming old. "Our Castle Alchemists say that they are entrenched in black magic that causes this strange addiction that has taken a hold of the people. They want the apples, but I swear that nothing good ever comes of black magic." Even as Zelda spoke the words, Link's image came up in her mind. Who was she to say nothing good came of it? The Wolf Crystal was black magic of the darkest kind, but plenty of good had come of it. What if Count Durtain's motives truly weren't evil and good really could come of this evil fruit? What if she was wrong to refuse the people what they asked?

"Magic has long been gone from Hyrule," said one of the oldest advisors on the Counsel. "How can the alchemists, many who are younger than myself, recognize something they have never truly encountered? I believe their diagnosis is wrong, and both the Counsel and the people stand behind me."

Zelda laced and unlaced her fingers again, her trademark sign that something was bothering her. The man was right. She fished around in her mind for something to counter with, something to sway her counsel against this decision she knew was wrong. How could she explain an instinct they would never understand or believe without extensive logic and concrete proof? And how could she get concrete proof of magic, when the man was right—it didn't really exist anymore, and few were left who even knew it had once thrived in their land.

When the Princess didn't respond immediately, Counsel Leader Rauru read her signs of indecision like a book and took her silence as an opportunity. "Your majesty," he said, rising to his feet and producing a large scroll from inside the huge, sweeping arms of his robe. "If you will look at this scroll you will see the names and signatures or personal marks of almost every person of every province and city of Hyrule. It is a clear majority, if not all. They are demanding royal action. You did not support them before, and they demand that you support them now."

Zelda took the scroll, unrolled it, and began looking at it closely. It was just as he had said. "The only province not to sign this is Ordona Province," she remarked.

"They are a small ranching village of little importance. If you look closely you will see the name of the shopkeeper and her husband, so our messengers from there told us, but no others would sign. They have rejected the black fruit claiming it upset their goats and milk production."

Zelda rolled up the scroll and set it on the table in front of her, glaring at it as if it were the sole cause of her predicament. "I do not personally sanction this decision," she said, voice stubbornly defiant.

The older Counsel member spoke again. "If you do not, Princess, then you are setting yourself in direct opposition to the people. Ultimately this country belongs to them, not you, and it is they who give you your power."

Zelda shook her head and raised her chin, firelight glittering off of the jewels in her tiara. "No," she said, "I am answerable to the Goddesses, and only they can choose to either sanction me or remove me." She sighed now and her shoulders drooped a little. "But you are right. I love the people of this land, and if this is what they want then I have no choice. I will support your campaign. Pass me the document."

Rauru passed her a large piece of parchment detailing the course of action that Hyrule and its army would now be embarking on. She had already read it over, and now she signed it with a gold quill and royal violet ink. She then placed the quill in its ink well and gently blew on the ink to help it dry.

"General Randulfr and I will personally approve and decide every detail of this Campaign. In that you will have no say. Do not make the announcement to your nobles and provinces until I give you permission. Do you understand? This is an order, not a request."

Murmurs of agreement passed through the room, and the meeting was dismissed. Feeling much older than she was, Zelda stood and rubbed her temples with her thumb and finger. Forrad made his way out of a corner where he had been waiting and bowed.

"Your Highness," he said.

The Princess touched his shoulder and then handed him the signed parchment. "You know what to do with this," she said, "and what needs to happen next."

"Indeed," said the old personal advisor. "And, if I may comment, you have done everything in your power to stop this. All we can do now is pray that the Goddesses will watch over us."

Zelda nodded, keeping her face carefully blank. "Thank you Forrad," she whispered, "but I feel that there must have been something more…I have done my people a great disservice today."

Forrad didn't comment. He touched her cheek with his shaky wrinkled hands, and then shuffled away to do as she asked. The Princess needed some time alone.

Zelda retrieved her heavy coat as she left the chamber and ambled her way toward the gardens with her eyes on her boot-clad feet. As she neared the outside world she could feel the cold already nipping at her nose and knew that this would be a very cold winter. They needed all the supplies they could get, but how the Princess longed for another way to get those supplies. She tried the neighboring tribes but they were hurting as well, and none of Hyrule's neighbor countries were close enough or well-off enough to really help. She had already tried those channels long before this horrible, fateful day.

Deep in thought, Zelda walked out a ground floor doorway and to the barren gardens. The snow of the night before had turned to slush, as the sun was already high in the winter sky, and the grass squished under her boots. A single bird sang. The wind moaned.

The quick squish-squashing of running boots jolted Zelda from her numb reverie. Ikal dropped out of a tree as if from nowhere, always by the Princess's side, and stepped in front of her monarch and friend with her Sheikah wakizashi ready.

Link rounded the corner at full speed, his eyes wide and bloodshot, and his hair scraggly and wild. He skidded to a halt in front of Ikal and growled at her, pacing back and forth in front of the two women with bent knees and hands balled into fists.

"I will not let you near her until you calm down, Link," Ikal said, watching his movements with her red eyes. "As you are, you are dangerous to her."

Link stopped himself and bent over, crouching on the ground and clutching his head. "I am not an animal. I am not an animal. I am not an animal…" He took some deep breaths and stayed like that, clutching his head and murmuring to himself.

Zelda touched Ikal's shoulder and nodded. "Watch for onlookers," she whispered, then crouched by Link's side. Without saying a word she touched his hands. Link twitched, a lupine growl ripping from his throat. Zelda paused and withdrew her hand, then took a deep breath. "Link," she whispered, taking his left hand again and drawing it toward her. "Link look at me."

He did look at her, and his eyes were wild and angry. He moved his right hand as if to hit the Princess, and she cringed away from him.

The blow never fell. Zelda opened her eyes and saw Link looking at her, his hands open-palmed and shaking in front of him. "I…I…."

"Shh…." Zelda placed her hand on his cheek, rubbing with her thumb. "I understand. I forgive you, it is okay. Just calm down. What happened?"

Link swallowed and took a couple deep breaths. Sanity began to return to his mind. "I…we are in big trouble," he said.

"What do you mean, Link?" Zelda asked, furrowing her brow. Link launched into a recollection of all that had happened and what he overheard. As each detail came to light, Zelda's eyes began to share the horror she had seen in Link's. Questions bombarded her, and fear as well.

"If they bring a request like that before you, don't sign it Princess! That's his plan all along!"

Zelda held a gloved hand over her mouth. She was shaking her head. When she finally she spoke, her words were a mere breath between them. "What have I done?" she said. "It is too late…I just signed it."

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Author's Note:

January 2015: REVISED CHAPTER UPLOADED.

Author's Comment from original upload: If you haven't been noticing, once again the pace has steadily been picking up. Sorry to leave you off on a cliff hanger but…well…okay I'm not sorry. Haha! This chapter was delayed because I just moved, but I took time out of unpacking to finish it and post it.

In other news, I did some important work on this story. Fixed all the breaks in every chapter (thanks ffnet…grr) and very important! I actually changed an entire scene in the "Temple of Shadows" chapter, where she leaves the land of death. Check it out if you want. It doesn't ultimately affect the story, but it's much better this way. Creepy and wonderful.

I have a request: I need some major help! I need someone to volunteer to read through all of The Hero of Wolves and fix typos, mistakes, etc. I've been trying because I know it's important, but I just can't do it and write new chapters. If you are interested, PM me or use the e-mail provided on my profile. I updated the profile with an e-mail specifically for your use.

Thanks for reading and please review!
Until next time,

~The Wolfess