Aargh, sorry this is so late. I've been... quite busy, to put it mildly. However, I'm also leaving for a week to a place with no internet starting on Saturday, so I figured that I had to at least get this chapter out before then. Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me!

HUGE THANKS to grandshadowseal, Unknown user, and SkyTheShadowWolf for reviewing!

To Unknown user: Um, no, actually, I didn't. I'd never even heard of the game before you mentioned it.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own LoZ. Enjoy!


Prey hidden in the brush. An ambush, a chase, the hunt-song thrumming in joyous exhilaration through our blood. Hearts pounding, muscles coiling and releasing in powerful lunges as we dashed through the wood. Dark fur melding with the shadows, a snap of wind lending speed to our paws. Jaws snap, red splash paints white snow. Twin howls of victory, a single roar of triumph.

Things were so much simpler as a beast. I could let myself go when I had four paws and fur, let the wolf instincts rule as I let my hylian mind take a rest. I could revel in the sheer togetherness of our pack, three wolves and one panther and all. Well, only two wolves at the moment, but Link had other business he still needed to take care of. He would join us when he could.

Vaati flicked his tail and suddenly there was a blazing fire on the rock, our kill rotating slowly above it. "I don't know about you," he told Dark and I as he did so, "but I don't care if our stomachs can digest raw meat. I prefer my food cooked, thank you."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "If you say so." I, personally, had no problem with raw meat when I was in wolf form. It tasted fine to me, but if Vaati wanted it cooked then it would be cooked. I didn't care either way. Instead, I padded a little ways away and began to clean the blood off of my muzzle, dyeing the snow a washed out pinkish-red.

Dark flopped down beside me and started to do the same thing, white flakes stark and pale against his black fur. A feral grin stretched across his muzzle, the wild rush of excitement from a successful hunt having not yet faded. "Well, that was fun," he commented as he shook a clump of snow off of his head.

I wagged my tail in agreement, studiously not thinking about the newly-found fathers we were all trying to avoid. After the councilwoman, who was apparently our grandmother (what the f***), our fathers had tried to confront us about it. Upon being cornered, we reacted instinctively to… remove ourselves from the situation.

In other words, we sort of panicked, and, well… we bolted.

That was almost three hours ago. We had already passed the boundaries of the wards, but still stuck relatively close so we didn't get lost. A few Sheikah had been watching us roughly an hour ago from the trees, but we ignored them. They had left about an hour previous, leaving my brothers and I alone in the woods.

Good. That was good. We still got kind of twitchy around strangers, especially when they could see us but we couldn't see them. A product of our lifestyles, most likely.

We would have to go back to the village soon, though, if only to make sure that our initial goal was still completed. Besides, Link was still there. Our fathers, too, couldn't be avoided forever. We would probably have to talk at some point. The only question was when.

As the smell of cooking meat drifted over and made my mouth water and my ears perk up, though, I decided that the surreality that had become our lives could wait. There was food to be eaten, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

Like I said. Things were simpler as a beast.


They were following us.

I could see them perched up in the trees, silently observing with oddly inscrutable expressions on their faces. They hadn't been up there for long, just for the past few minutes or so. I knew that my brothers (and I stubbornly quashed the little voice in my head that showed me an image of Vaati labeled cousin) had seen them as well. They weren't exactly trying to hide.

After a minute, Dark paused underneath the tree that our fathers were crouched in and sat down. We had long since finished eating our kill and were simply wandering around the forest, exploring the area outside the Valley's wards. "Alright, we've run away for long enough," he announced to Vaati and I. "We've got to talk to them eventually."

I mimicked my brother and sat down, the snow cold beneath my paws. "But what are we supposed to say? I don't foresee any other tone for this conversation besides incredibly, seriously, awkward," I pointed out.

Vaati nodded in agreement as he wrapped his tail around his paws. "Seconded. We may have spoken with them before any of us knew that we were related, but… that was before. Things are different now. There are many ways this could go wrong."

"Then if they go wrong, they go wrong. We don't really need them," Dark huffed as he reassuringly nudged the Wind Mage's shoulder. "We've survived our entire lives so far without anyone but ourselves. We can do it for the rest of our lives, too. Don't worry. No matter what, we'll always stick together."

I barked a laugh, even though I wholeheartedly agreed. "Sap. I think someone's been reading too many dramas," I joked in an attempt to ease the mood.

Dark leaned over and gently nipped my ear. "Shut up," he ordered, but there was no heat behind his words. A grin was hiding behind his lips, I could tell, even though his face was no longer remotely humanoid. That action was entirely hylian, and it comforted me perhaps more than it should have to see that familiar expression on his other form's muzzle. "C'mon, guys. Let's suck it up and have a nice, long, fathers-sons chat."

Vaati heaved a sigh, swept his tail around him, and flattened his ears. "Oh, great Farore," he muttered. "Please let this not be a disaster."


Footsteps crunched gently through the snow, deliberately broadcasted rather than involuntary. Neither Dark or I moved as Guard Captain Duske settled himself on the log in front of us, uncertainty masked behind his calm expression. Wardmaster Eklipse moved to sit beside his brother, situating himself directly across from Vaati.

Dark twitched, the tapping of his fingers on his thigh the only sign that betrayed his nervousness. An awkward silence fell between my brothers and our fathers, heavy and filled with tension that neither side wanted to break. I wanted to do something- crack a joke, throw a small bomb, anything -to ease the strain, but the words seemed to catch in my throat and refuse to leave.

At long last, after what felt like forever and a day, Captain Duske spoke up. "So," he began, lips twisting wryly, "it seems you've already met your grandmother."

I let out a dry, bordering on sarcastic snort despite myself. "Yeah, that was fun."

Vaati rolled his eyes and added, "She's definitely not a typical old woman."

Both adults chuckled. "No, that she is not. As you can probably imagine, our childhoods were quite… interesting, to say the least," Captain Duske replied.

"No kidding," Wardmaster Eklipse murmured under his breath.

A pause. More silence. I shifted in my seat, fingers itching for something to do.

"Well," the Wardmaster started after a moment, "I'll admit, this is not what I expected to be doing today." He clasped his hands together in front of him, leaning forwards to rest his elbows on his thighs. "So.. you all were raised by your mothers, then?"

Dark shook his head. "No, not after we became old enough to survive on our own. At this point, we're not entirely sure who our mothers were, actually."

At the older mens' widened as, I added in, "We've been on our own for nearly as long as we can remember." I shrugged, not really seeing what the big deal was. "Its not unusual for street kids, really."

...Huh. They appeared… oddly bothered by that. Strange.

The Captain took a deep breath. "I see. All three of you essentially raised yourselves?"

We nodded. "For the most part, yes," Vaati threw in. "I actually didn't meet up with these two until, ah…" he trailed off, eyes growing distant as he searched his memories. "Around a few years ago, I think? Something like that." He blinked, looking a bit surprised. "Huh. Weird, feels like longer."

The Wind Mage's father twitched, a grimace flickering so fast across his face nearly missed it. Pasting on a wan smile, he asked, "Alright. Um, why don't you all tell us about yourselves?"

The three of us exchanged looks. Was the fact that we were reincarnated former villains public knowledge or not? How much, exactly, were we supposed to say? What were we allowed to divulge?

"Well," Dark began carefully, "what do you already know?"


As Vaati concluded our tale, which did include a brief overview of our past lives, I watched our fathers with a wary eye. They had stayed more or less silent as we essentially told them our life stories, only interrupting very occasionally with questions or requests for clarification. Their blank expressions made it virtually impossible to tell what they thought about it, and I found myself waiting with bated breath for their reactions when we had finished.

"Well," Captain Duske said after a long moment of silence, "it sounds like your lives have been eventful, at the very least. Both past and present."

I scoffed. "Ain't that the understatement of the century."

Wardmaster Eklipse turned to look at Dark, gaze a mix of wondering and something else I couldn't identify. "The infamous Dark Link. My nephew," he mused under his breath. "It's like that old saying," he added, louder this time. "From Sheikah blood you came, to Sheikah blood you will return."

My father turned to my uncle (and wasn't that I phrase I never thought I'd say) with a raised brow. "Really?" he laughed, jokingly teasing the other man. "You're going to quote old proverbs at us now? Really?"

Vaati's father huffed and crossed his arms, the lingering tension in the air well and truly broken as I saw the wily smirk playing about his lips. "I told you one day they were going to come in handy. I told you!"

"Do not dismiss the natterings of the birds when it is only they who escape the first frost," Vaati intoned faux-seriously. "In other words, don't just dismiss things because they sound stupid. It was something Master Ezlo used to say to me all the time."

"Wait a minute," I realized, "So all those sayings you used to quote at us when we were kids were actually, what, Minish proverbs?"

"Essentially, yes," the Wind Mage admitted with a grin. "Would explain why I never quite figured out where I'd heard them from."

Wardmaster Eklipse blinked, an inquisitive expression falling across his face. "Oh, yes. I'm actually very curious about that. Picori have always been a subject of fascination for me, to tell the truth, right after runes. You were… of the Forest species, right? I know that the Minish Woods have long since disappeared, but there's a theory that they were actually assimilated into the Faron and Ordon regions of the kingdom. Do you know if they are still there, or have they migrated to some other forest? For that matter, what of the Mountain and Town Picori?" he questioned, firing off his words like he was in a speed-shooting contest. He was leaning forwards and waiting avidly for his son's response, eyes alight with inquisitive interest.

Vaati didn't miss a beat, and replied with, "Don't know but it's possible for any of them. I haven't been back to my native lands in centuries, after all. What with the quest, and all this, and such, I haven't had the time. I'm going to see if I can find any of the Picori after everything is done and settled, though. Might find some descendants of people I knew. Right now, however, all my knowledge is likely way out of date, so I can't really help you much. Sorry."

"Wait a minute, though," I interrupted as I realized something. "Picori can only be seen by kids, right? So, even if you do find them, none of the rest of us would be able to see them."

"Oh, right," Vaati mused, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "And it's not the turn of the century, either, so the gate wouldn't be open... eh, whatever," he shrugged. "I'll work something out. Got plenty of time, after all."

"Yeah, we still have to take care of our dragon and evil pig problems," Dark quipped.

Captain Duske exhaled long and low, brow furrowing slightly. "Ah, yes. The dragon. How did you even find one? The species is all but extinct."

I answered that one, memories of Argorok in his prime flashing through my mind's eye. "Vaati decided that my old friend from my first life would make a good guardian for his flying castle and accidentally-created species. Turns out he's still alive after all these years, except that Ganondorf turned him insane. As you've probably heard, that's why we need help to turn him back to normal."

The two Sheikah nodded. "Makes sense," Wardmaster Eklipse agreed. Then he leaned forwards, eyes glittering with curious anticipation. "On an unrelated note, however, there's something I've been dying to ask- how in the name of all the Goddesses did you become shapeshifters?"


"After your quest is done, would you, ah… like to come back? I know this is not your home, but you are all of our blood. It would be… nice, I think, if we could spend some time together." Both our fathers looked vaguely nervous, but hopeful at the same time.

Dark tilted his head, glancing briefly at Vaati and I before turning back to them with a small but genuine smile. "Yeah," he told them, blood-red eyes meeting theirs. "I think we'd like that."


Link grinned when he saw us, almost the moment we stepped back in through the door. "So?" he questioned eagerly. "How'd your little fathers-sons chat go?"

Vaati shrugged. "Well enough, I suppose," he answered as he pulled off his cloak. "I take it you're the one who pointed them our way?"

"Yeah, after you guys took off. They were pretty freaked out about it," the hylian confirmed. "Completely panicked- as much as Sheikah can panic, anyway- and kept worrying that you hated them or something. Didn't really calm down until I told them that you guys were probably just surprised and trying to figure out how to deal with it in private."

"Heh. You know us too well," I laughed.

Midna who had acquired an apple from who knew where, giggled. "So? Don't avoid the subject; how was the talk?"

At that, we all paused. "It was… informative," Dark told her.

Midna pouted exaggeratedly. "That tells me nothing! C'mon, I want details!"

"What kind? All we really did was talk," he replied. "Told them a bit about ourselves, answered their questions, and agreed to come back after this whole quest is done to spend some more time with them."

"So you are coming back afterwards," Link mused. "I figured you would."

I ran a quick hand through my hair, noting that it was starting to get annoyingly long. I'd have to get around to cutting it at some point, preferably sooner rather than later. "Oh, definitely," I assured him as I tugged my fingers through a particularly tangled knot. "Too curious to stay away now."

Link chuckled. "Yeah, I wouldn't either if it were me. On a different note, however, I've been working out the details with the Council about our dragon problem. They've agreed to send four mages to help us. I'm also pretty sure that one of them is going to be Shaide," he informed us happily.

Vaati perked up at that, looking extremely interested. "Really? I hadn't realized he was that accomplished."

"Apparently he is," Link answered with a shrug. "Though, according to this one old man who I'm pretty sure was his grandfather or something, he would've tried to sneak along anyway so they might as well make it official."

I let out a bark of laughter, flipping backwards to hover upside-down. "Ha! Sounds like something I would do!"

"It does, doesn't it?" Dark's lips were twitching in a way I knew meant that he was holding back a smile. "Think we rubbed off on him, or was he always like that?"

"Who knows. Maybe a bit of both?" I tilted my head back and twisted around, orienting myself so that I lay on my stomach. Reaching down, I snagged Dark's hat off his head and put it on the corner of the boxy lamp that hung from the ceiling. Watching in amusement as he scowled up at me before turning ghostly to grab it, I chuckled as he was forced to switch between his immaterial and solid forms in quick succession. As a ghost, he couldn't touch it, but as a hylian, gravity applied, which made it a rather comical sight to see.

"You," Dark huffed good-naturedly as he crammed his hat back onto his head, "are a brat."

Behind him, Vaati grinned, snapped his fingers, and turned the hat a truly horrifying shade of lurid orange. With swamp-green, cowhide-patterned splotches.

Midna choked on her apple. Dark squawked indignantly, yanked the hat back off his head, and whirled to drop on Vaati instead. "Little terrors, the both of you!"

Link tried very hard not to laugh. He did not succeed.


Shaide nervously shifted his weight slightly from foot to foot, a traveling pack hoisted over his shoulder as he joined the group. "Can you really teleport all eight of us, besides yourself, that far across the kingdom?" he asked Midna, eyes wide and curious as he looked up at her. "I mean, the power drain from just the distance alone is huge, much less adding in this many more people. You must have an insane amount of magic to pull it off."

Midna chuckled, crossing her arms as she hovered in place. "Oh, I have power, kid. No need to worry about that. I can pull this off even without my full strength. Besides, if anything goes wrong," she shrugged, "there's five fully-trained mages here. We'll be fine."

Link grinned and clapped him companionably on the back, still in hylian form even though the rest of us had already shifted. "Don't worry, this is nowhere near the riskiest thing we've ever done," he assured the younger male, "and we've always come out fine in the end."

Shaide blinked. "Right, now I'm curious. If this isn't it, what is the riskiest thing you've ever done?"

Link rocked back on his heels, pursing his lips as he pretended to think. He politely ignored the way the other Sheikah mages subtly edged closer to listen in, as well. "I dunno, really… to be honest, it's probably a tossup between the one where we had to dodge lava geysers and the flying city with questionable flooring. A single misstep would almost always lead to certain death in either of them."

Behind him, Vaati's father looked nearly faint at the thought. "Lava geysers?! When was this?!" he demanded, Dark and I's father close on his heels. They had approached to send us off, but apparently got sidetracked.

Blinking innocently at them, Link tilted his head to the side and asked, "Didn't they tell you? Death Mountain, the volcano. Second dungeon we ever went through."

I winced. Ah… we'd left some parts out of our retelling of our journey, but it seemed as if they were going to find out anyways. So much for attempting to be considerate and not making them freak out too much.

The Guard Captain drew himself up and crossed his arms, eyes narrowing. "They told us about Death Mountain, but I don't believe anything was mentioned about lava geysers."

Our fathers stared at us pointedly. Dark wagged his tail and let his tongue loll out in a canine grin. I attempted to look as innocent as possible, eyes wide and ears pricked. It… did not entirely work.

"I still find that very strange, knowing that my sons are somehow shapeshifters," Captain Duske muttered. Then he sighed, glanced over at his brother, and added, "It could be worse, I suppose. They could be giant kittens instead."

Vaati purred, leaning heavily against his father's side as Wardmaster Eklipse scratched behind his ears. His eyes were half-lidded and his entire body rumbled with satisfaction, the throaty sound vibrating deep in his chest. At that moment, he looked like nothing else but an enormous, purple, housecat. His father cast a baleful glance at our father upon hearing those words, but did concede the point.

I wagged my tail and barked, ducking down with forepaws outstretched in a classic canine Wanna play? stance. Then I leapt up and pranced in a circle around the purple-haired Sheikah, acting as much like a bouncy puppy as I could get away with. Shaide laughed at my antics, especially when Dark joined in with the fun.

"I take it back. Puppies! Eklipse, our children are puppies and kittens in the guise of mature, grown-up adults," Duske exclaimed, even as he scratched gently between my ears.

Somehow, I found great amusement in the way everyone was staring at us. What? Haven't you guys ever seen wolves before? I want to ask cheekily, but the lack of a hylian voice prevented that. Instead, I merely settled for barking at them playfully.

Midna giggled, spinning in a quick circle as she floated above the group, which had become a tight cluster of people and animals. Link broke away from his conversation and preemptively transformed, moving to stand shoulder-to-shoulder beside Dark. Our fathers stepped away and raised their hands in farewell, joining the crowd that had formed around our group.

"Everyone ready?" the Twili asked, fang glinting as bubbles of magic coalesced at her fingertips. "Hang on tight, people! Let's go!"

With that, she whirled away into nothingness, and I felt myself break down in a vertical rain of twilit squares.


Vaati, by nature, is a bit of a drama queen. Flashy magic aside, when he decides to show off… well, he tends to go all-out. The bigger the better.

Which was why the entire Palace of Winds was literally gleaming in the sunlight, banners waving over polished stone as they snapped and rippled. The wind was blustering around in gales and whirlwinds, sending clouds scuttling across the sky like a dog herding sheep. Magic lay thick and heavy in the air, deceptively benign-appearing wards pulsing with lavender streaks. The entire castle looked like new, its sheer size and design both elegant and imposing all at once.

As we landed on the City in the Sky, looking up at the enormous structure, Vaati swept out his arm in a wide gesture that encompassed nearly all that we could see. "Welcome," he said, "to my creation."

"Impressive," one of the Sheikah mages complimented. "Did you construct it yourself?"

Vaati grinned. "The Palace, I designed myself and built with a monster army. The City was designed and built with my supervision and assistance." He wove a spell between his hands, bright and swirling as he altered the wards to let us through. "Hold on, I'm going to bring us into the Palace now."

The moment he said that, wind roared from nowhere as the world blurred away.

In the distance, Argorok roared a fearsome challenge.