A/N

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My recommendation: Go reread that last chapter before you do this one. It'll help jog your memory. I know, it's been a while.

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Starlll: You know what? I'm not doing an author's notes this time.

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To: Sean, who's annoying constant pestering led me to finally begin writing this chapter.

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Disclaimer: I own Mudd and Will Spider. Hero belongs to a friend. Everything else belongs to Nintendo.

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Hey, here's a fun fact you you:

You know the Water Temple, from Ocarina of Time? Yes, the bad memories are probably flooding back to you as we speak. Well, did you know that the game's creator, Shengru Miyamoto, admits that he regrets the design of the Water Temple? I don't blame him, but still!

And you know what else?:

The final boss in Ocarina of Time, Gannon, was originally designed so that you would have to climb up his giant body in order to attack his weak point, similar to that of Megaleg from Super Mario Galaxy [Megaleg was actually taken from that game's original plan]. Miyamoto scrapped this idea, saying that if Gannon was that huge, then the player wouldn't be able to see him very well. But hey, the lightning in the final product sucks, so I can hardly see him as it is... just saying...

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Mudd woke up in an inn. He still hadn't left Oradon, even though it had been nearly 3 days since he first came, and he was supposed to be in and out in an hour. Yet, he kept making some excuse as to why he had to stay at least ONE more minute. Midna, who had very little say in this, just played along.

Mudd, or 'Will Spider', as he was becoming known as, got out of his rented bed, and hobbled down the stairs to the bottom of the 3-story-inn, and sat down at the table. The first floor which Mudd was now seated in was filled with furniture, mostly wooden chairs and tables. A small vase with one or two lone flowers inside nicely decorated the tables, usually only two chairs per table to be seated in. Most of the wooden furniture had a chipping green paint coated onto it, with at least five years worth of wear and tear on it.

But, the furniture was study enough, so Mudd sat down at one, Clukko flapping to his shoulder like he had every morning. It had been a nice touch to the exotic appearance that Will liked to put on. He would sit down at any random table, and out of seemingly nowhere came his pet chicken, who simply seemed to hop right onto his master's arm.

"What'll you have today, Will?" Asked the inn's owner, Telma. She was a nice lady, who offered Will a discount after hearing how he was 'robbed' on his way to Oradon, so he had very little to pay for. She took pity on him, believing everything he made up, even allowing him free toast to go with his breakfast.

"Fried eggs, my good lady." Will said, bowing his head slightly and putting his hand to his head as if he was tipping a hat. Telma smiled and headed to the kitchen.

"Are you planning on getting out of here any time soon, or are you just going to keep freeloading?" Asked Midna, suddenly appearing in the chair in front of him. "Because I'm sure you haven't lied to the banker yet."

Mudd was slightly surprised by her sudden appearance. More often than not, he had forgotten that she was even in his shadow. She had a habit of suddenly popping up when you least expected it. After some time, one would think that this would make it less startling, but it didn't. She always managed to find some way to scare you.

"Don't worry, Midna, I'll be out of here before you know it." Mudd promised. "It's just... for the first time in a while, I'm having... fun."

It was true. Ever since Mudd enlisted in the army, his life had always been lacking. It never was complete. Even when Rutabaga was alive, Mudd never had what he needed. Now, his face hardened by battle, his hair cut too short, and his build completely changed, nobody recognized him. He had a fresh, new slate to carve however he wanted.

"Fun?" Midna repeated. "Fun? Every day you spend in here having FUN, is another day when some town gets invaded by enemy troops. Every day you spend having fun, some prisoners of war are getting tortured. And, believe it or not, its your fault for not acting sooner."

They stared at each other. Midna's hard red imp eyes. Mudd's brown eyes. Midna stared at them for a while. Somehow, it slowly grew difficult for her, like she had to blink, look away. But she didn't. They just sat there, staring, until Mudd finally broke the silence.

"Fine. You're right. I'll get out of this town as soon as I finish my breakfast. Okay?"

"You better." Midna went back into his shadow as Telma walked back in.

Telma probably assumed that he was talking to Clukko. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary. He dined with the bird, he slept with it, he walked with it, so talking to him wouldn't be too far of a stretch. She gave him his plate. Two fried eggs with three slices of bacon and a piece on toast. All for the price of the eggs.

"Thank you." Will said modestly, smiling. Telma nodded and went back to working behind the counter. Will dug into the eggs first, laughing as Clukko clucked disapprovingly. The bacon had a familiar crunch to it, a smell Mudd knew all too well. He leaned to the side of the flowers so that he could see Telma. "Telma? Please excuse me for bothering you, but I just needed to know, from where did you get this bacon?"

"From where did you get this bacon?" Midna repeated in her mind several times. She would have called Mudd out on this had there not been another person in the room. It just sounded too... pretentious.

"The ranch right up the road." Said Telma smiling and nodding.

"Thank you." Will tipped his imaginary hat again, and went back to eating. Mudd knew that ranch. He used to work there back when he lived with Rusl. It was a blaring reminder that he WASN'T in fact Will Spider, just Mudd, the zora soldier.

He couldn't even finish his breakfast when he had that revelation. He lied to Telma, saying that the food was fine, just that he couldn't finish it because Clukko was feeling very disapproval of him eating a product which his species made. Telma laughed kindly, letting him leave. He paid the little money which he owed (food wasn't the only thing he got a discount on for the fake story about being mugged), and left.

He took the long route out of town, much to Midna's disapproval. He walked past his old house, where Rusl raised him. The paint was peeling right off of it, and most of the windows were cracking. Mudd looked at it, smiling, remembering it for how it was when he was just a child. The lawn was nice and green, the paint was a fresh new coat, and every detail, every shingle was in place.

Mudd took another few steps forward, walking down his street, thinking about how Rusl raised him. He kept walking, the sound of children playing in the background. He walked past his old girlfriend's back yard. He couldn't help but laugh. He had finally had the courage to admit that he liked her when he was 16. Mudd had a crush on her for over a year before they started dating. Then he learned that she was a relationship-obsessed, stalkerish girl who rarely left him an hour of time to himself. He had a crush on her from afar for over a year, and his relationship with her hadn't lasted more than two weeks.

Mudd continued down the street, cutting across an old playground. It had been shut down for almost a year, because kids had taken to playing on the roads, where they were closer to town, and their parents could watch them from the house. Oradon was a farm village, so it was rare that the roads were even used to the degree in which they would have to move their games elsewhere.

The playground was covered with ghosts and memories. A chalk outline of hopscotch, a rusting old set of monkey bars. There once was a time when Mudd had to jump in order to grab hold of the bars. Now he had to duck so that he could get under them. A broken swing set was next to the exit. This brought a small grin to his face when he saw it. He would never admit to it to anyone but Rusl, but he was the one who broke it. He had tried to get high enough to go over the top, but he accidentally fell off, the rope getting caught on his leg and snapping. Mudd was okay, but the swing-set was never fixed.

He always said that someday, he would go back there and fix the rope, that it could still be used. He, of course, never had a chance to, and the very thought had slipped his mind. It fluttered right back in when he saw it, playing the memory over in his mind. Mudd walked to the swing-set, taking one end of the broken rope and tying it to the other with one strong knot. He slowly sat down on it, making sure that the old wooden seat could still support him. It did, but he had to be careful, because he didn't want it to snap unexpectedly.

Mudd knew that it wouldn't do much good, now, as the playground was barren of children, but at least he finally got around to it. The next time he went back to Oradon, after the war blew over, he would fix up that playground, let the neighborhood kids play somewhere fun again, instead of the streets.

The next time. The next time. Mudd stopped rocking in the swing. The next time. The next time. He would never be able to come back home. The next time. The next time. He didn't belong there anymore. They thought he was dead, and he might as well be. The army had changed him, had reshaped him until he couldn't fit back into his own home anymore. Until the very thing he craved, he yearned for since day one was gone. Oradon was a part of his past, now. It would never be his future. Never again. He was a stranger to the town. The people he knew all his life hadn't even recognized him after three entire days of contact. He could never go back home.

Mudd fell backwards off the swing, letting the ground catch him without effort. He wanted to curl into a ball and stay there for the rest of his life, until he would shrivel up and die. This wasn't what he wanted.

Midna floated out of his shadow, watching him for a while. He looked like the definition of weak, like he couldn't walk two steps if he was being held up by another person. A stream of salty tears rolled down his face, yet he didn't make a sound. Gradually, she nudged him with her foot, floating above him.

"Get up." She said, unsure if he would snap at her. "Now."

He didn't.

"Mudd, I swear to Din, get up."

He didn't move.

Midna slowly got down to his level, in front of his face. Looks like she'd have to do something she rarely every did: show sympathy.

"Why are you crying?" She asked.

"I can't go home..." Mudd whispered, his voice quiet and damaged, but not broken.

"You can just go back after the war..." Midna said. Even she knew that was a lie. She hesitated. Maybe she could give another pep talk. "Okay, you lost your home. You can't go back to your family. But you know what?" She stopped. This was generally where the good side came in. Then she remembered: there was none. Midna still had one last trick up her sleeve, though. "Neither can I." She used her imp-hand to lift his chin towards her, forcing him to look her in the eye. "I can't go home. I live in a place... far away, from here. The Twilight Realm. It's a place an entire dimension away from here, and now I can't go back. But you know what I have to do? I have to keep standing, and put one foot in front of the other."

Mudd finally began to get up. He used the fixed swing to support him. He needed something to hold onto. Midna noticed this. Gradually, she floated to his level, and reluctantly held out her hand. Mudd took it.

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A/N

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Starlll: And we have a new chapter! Yeah, you probably already know that... I mean, you just read the entire chapter. Hopefully. I mean, that would be kind of annoying, if you just skipped right to the end and faked a review.