As light returned to Faron Woods, Midna reverted to shadow form and turned to look at the beast.
Beside her was a Hylian.
For a moment, his transformation caught her off guard. He didn't look at all as he did when he was a wolf. She noted different features: he was young for a Hylian, sandy-haired with pointed ears, and dressed in a green tunic and cap he didn't seem to recognize either.
The eyes are the same, though. Midna thought. Beast's eyes...
She snapped herself back. It doesn't matter. He is useful to me only until we have the Fused Shadows. Then I can leave this dratted world of light and dethrone that coward, Zant.
Yet something about the beast's new face threw her. There was some indefinable quality in his expression, something that didn't quite map to the ear twitches and other body language he had used as a wolf. Something that maybe had retreated within as he resolutely carried out his mission in the twilight.
He made eye contact with her, and Midna saw a quiet heart — reserved, almost shy — standing there in gentle, tender silence.
Like the twilight.
As a wolf, he couldn't speak. Now she knew he wouldn't have said much anyway. He was a determined fighter — she had seen that much as they hunted down the tears of light — but his courage came from a broken soul desperately afraid for its friends. As Midna was afraid for her people.
She shelved this train of thought and dove into the Hylian's shadow as the light spirit emerged from the spring. This one was a glowing, long-tailed primate, curled about a luminous orb that somewhat resembled a Sol. It spoke in a resonating, glittering tenor.
"My name is Faron."
Midna yawned from within the shadow as Faron went on. Something about the life force of the gods, the beast's transformation being a sign, and the green clothes. Then —
"Your name is Link," the spirit said, addressing the beast-that-wasn't-a-beast. "You are the Hero chosen by the gods."
Hero… chosen by the gods?
And he had a name... Link.
What force of fate brought her to find him? What did this mean, good or bad, for her mission? For the Twilight Realm?
When Faron left, Midna slipped the mask of casualty back into place. The "hero" mustn't think himself any more than a pawn to her.
She had to be sure not to make him any more than a pawn.