The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

by Annie Felis

A game novelization. Link had finally found peace living in Ordon, when he was suddenly dragged into a magical field called the Twiight and transformed into a wolf. After meeting a strange creature named Midna, he discovers that he has been chosen by the gods to be the next Hero of Hyrule. Thrust into this unlikely role, he must save his home from an enemy he knows little about.

5. Chapter Five: The First Fragment

Chapter Five: The First Fragment

"What are you doing, letting yourself get caught like that?!" Midna shouted at him angrily, as if he had been careless.

Link hadn't been careless, at least he was convinced that he was being quite careful and cautious as the head of the plant had slowly raised out of the water. It was a plant; he didn't expect it to move that quickly. Now it held him up in the air above the water, strong jaws clamping down on his body. The pressure of the teeth digging into him was painful, but the chain mail beneath his green tunic prevented the teeth from breaking his skin, and likely from him getting bitten in half. He grimaced, grunting in pain while reversing the sword in his hand, and started stabbing at the plant in hopes it would drop him. If it decided to pull him back beneath the water, he'd be in trouble.

Suddenly there was a loud concussion nearby and he fell into the dark water below. In the cold silence beneath the surface he could hear his ears ringing, and he swam back up to stick his head above water, the sounds of the shrieking baboons muffled by his injured hearing. The pool was far deeper than he expected and he needed to tread water, which was a little strange to do while holding a sword in his left hand. At least he hadn't dropped it.

The massive plant above had a number of vines sticking out of the water by now, and was grabbing at the agitated baboons. A few vines still held them, but none of them had been pulled beneath the water yet. Looking up he could see that the head that had snapped him up was missing a chunk of its top half, and one of the baboons had wedged a spear between the jaws so it couldn't bite down on him again. He knew that he had stabbed it with his sword, but he couldn't have possibly damaged the toothy head that much. There was a movement to his right and another head rose out of the water, leaning back to strike at him. It was impossible for him to swim to safety, and from this angle he would be going into the mouth head-first.

Then a blast hit the head and it staggered, pieces of green and brown plant matter spraying outward. Link looked around until he saw the large male baboon clinging to the vines on the side of the chamber, shaking a fist at the monster plant and howling at it in a rage. He turned to another nearby baboon and grunted at it, and the other monkey hurried back out of the opening above. Link used this chance to swim to shore, and once he was on the stones of the floor he saw the baboon return to hand a bomb flower to his leader. Without hesitation the monkey king threw the bomb flower on the still-stunned plant head, and the entire top half of it was blasted away. It sank down into the water, and the tendrils that held onto the baboons loosened, letting them jump into the water to swim away to freedom. All the vines retracted into the water, and for a moment the surface of the pool was still. Then it roiled again and something far larger came out of the dark water.

An enormous green variegated trunk shot up, run through with lines of red and the back side plated with thick segments of leathery shell. On the end of the trunk was a much larger head, this one covered in dark red spines, and a few fat fleshy petals surrounding the toothed maw of what was the main part of the evil plant. It swung its head around to face the monkey leader, and opened up its petals and jaws, the lower toothy jaw splitting into two halves as it opened. A spray of some kind of dark purple substance shot out of the mouth at the two baboons, and at first Link thought it may be some kind of poison. When it hit the vines that were being occupied by the two monkeys a split second before, it dissolved them and corroded the wooden wall behind. There was an acrid stench, and tendrils of smoke rose up from the wall where the acid had hit it. The head turned to aim a spray at baboons on the other side, who quickly scampered out of the way, but now their handholds on the sides of the chamber were gone.

The leader baboon stood on the stones not too far away, examining his left hip, which had a few splatters of the acid on it. His companion worriedly patted at his leader's fur, but the monkey king waved him off, not concerned with the pain at the moment. While the two animals were distracted, the head swung around to face them, the toothed mouth and petals open slightly, and it began to shudder as it prepared to shoot another spray of acid.

There was no way that Link was going to let that happen. He pulled the boomerang from his belt with his right hand and quickly threw it at the head of the plant, and it was blown back by the force of the wind, its spray of acid shooting harmlessly into the ceiling above it. A few droplets landed on the trunk and they hissed as they burned, the exterior of the monster not immune to its own acidic fluid.

Link held up his hand and the boomerang returned to it easily, and his suspicions on how the enchanted weapon worked were confirmed. His aim was horrible when he threw things with his right hand, but this boomerang went where he wanted it to go, and returned to him when and where he wanted it to. The surface of the water still rippled from the wind generated by the boomerang when the monstrous head turned back towards him and opened its fanged mouth wide. He could see that there was a large yellow eye in the roof of what looked to be a fleshy mouth, and the lower jaw had some kind of vent in it, likely the place where the fluid shot from. Why would a plant have an eye? It shivered and he knew that it was going to aim the acid at him, so he ran to dodge it. The dark purple fluid splashed where he had been standing, but did not follow. At least once it was aimed in a particular direction, it had problems chasing its target with the fluid it sprayed.

The monkey king loped over to him, holding a bomb flower in one of his hands and then pointing a finger with his other at the large plant, making grunting sounds at him. Link was confused; what was this baboon trying to tell him? To kill the plant? Wasn't that what he was trying to do? The baboon threw up his hand in anger and then hurled the bomb flower at the evil plant, and it fell short of hitting it, exploding in the water nearby. He angrily stomped his feet in frustration, waving his hands at Link while gibbering, and then turned to scream at the smaller male that had been fetching bomb flowers for him., causing the second animal to run off.

"Link!" Midna called, and he turned to see that the shuddering head of the plant was aimed right at him. Both he and the monkey king dodged out of the way, but the acid was starting to pool on the worn stones of the floor, and if this kept up they'd run out of safe places to stand.

Now with another bomb flower in his hand, the head monkey glared at Link impatiently. He pointed at the bomb flower in his hand, then at the boomerang in Link's hand, and then at the monster that was recovering from shooting acid at the two of them. Oh, well that makes sense. Why didn't he figure that out before? If the bomb flower can't be thrown far enough, then it can be pushed to where it needed to go by the winds of the boomerang. At least that was the idea in theory, for all Link knew the bomb flower would explode from being jostled around by the wind. There was only way to find out. He held up the boomerang and nodded to the large primate.

This time the baboon leader tossed the bomb flower in an arc, and then Link threw the boomerang as soon as he saw it leave the animal's hand. It went towards the bomb flower, which was starting to drop near the water, and picked it up, spinning it around. It quickly flew to where he had intended for it to go: the large fanged maw of the monstrous plant, although he didn't know how the fairy understood what he wanted to do. It connected with more force than if it was simply thrown, and the explosion was strong enough to remove one of the fat petals and a piece of the lower jaw.

He caught the boomerang and the injured massive plant made a high-pitched noise, then fell over onto the stones as the baboons dodged out of the way. The head was on its side with the toothy mouth open, and the strange yellow eye stuck out of the center of it on some kind of stalk, like the stamen of a flower. Link ran then, taking a flying leap to get to the plant before it could move and connecting with a downward slash on the eye at the end of the stalk. It severed in one hit and the giant plant shrieked and trembled, pulling its tentacles out of the water to cover at its wounded head, but it continued to lay on its side.

That wouldn't be enough. While that strange eye was something of a weak spot for the monster, cutting it off certainly wouldn't kill it. Without thinking about what he was doing, Link jumped up on the long trunk and plunged his sword into the softer side beneath the plates, tearing a huge rent in its side. The large baboon followed him up with a bomb flower and shoved it into the hole before giving the side a solid thump to trigger the explosion. He then grabbed onto Link as he jumped from the trunk, and forced the two of them into the water. There was an explosion above, and when he surfaced he could see the dark plant flailing around in agony, it still somehow producing the high-pitched shriek of pain. It slumped then, no longer moving, the heavy tentacles sinking back into the water.

Then the plant turned entirely black and dissolved into dark squares, similar to how the Shadow Beasts had done. Instead of vanishing, the squares flew towards a central point and coalesced into a solid form. Something made of stone fell to clatter on the floor.

Link and the leader of the monkeys both swam to shore, and he approached the dark relic, dripping water as he pushed his wet hair out of his eyes. It looked like a carved piece of dark gray stone, the curling design of it reminding him of the masks the Shadow Beasts wore. The rest of the baboons were cautiously grouped around it in a semicircle, none of them wanting to get close. What would happen if one of these animals picked it up? Not wanting that to happen, he bent down and reached for it.

"Stop!" Midna commanded sharply, and his hand froze before he could even touch it. "Absolutely do not pick that up." She quickly moved down to stand on the stone floor next to the relic and carefully picked it up with the end of her hair. "Touching dark magic like this would turn you into a horrible beast, like the one you just fought. I doubt your own magical power would save you from that. Such power is not meant to be handled by the people of the light world, which is probably why the Light Spirits hid it here."

She extended her hair in front of her to look at the carved stone fragment that she held between the thumb and fingers of the large orange hand. "This is a piece of the Fused Shadows, and it's the thing I've been looking for." Midna gave a small smile while looking at the relic. "It can't possibly be this easy, can it?" she said quietly, to herself. "That this ancient power could be the solution?"

Link removed his wet hat and wrung it out. Now that he was no longer fighting, he realized that his body felt sore, especially his upper chest and back, where the plant monster had bitten down on him hard. "What is this Fused Shadows thing? Is it something that the Twilight people like the King of Shadows created?" He was unsure if the smile on her face was simply a normal one, or one tinged with greed.

Midna blinked then, no longer staring at the ancient stone relic, and it vanished quickly in a flash of black squares. "If you want to know more, then help me find the other two pieces. Maybe then I'll let you know what's going on."

He put his still-soggy hat back on his head. "I'm so glad you trust me after all the things we did together today." he said dryly. She didn't say anything in response, so he took the lantern from her hands and started back up the ramp, his wool cloak dripping. So he had found himself starting to trust her, yet she did not trust him. It was going to be difficult for them to work together if he went into this whole ordeal blind.

Link made his way out of the shrine beneath the tree, and then out of the tree itself into the now-dark forest, the sun having set. The baboon tribe escorted him out, and Midna floated back a ways, silent and lost in thought. He turned to look at the group after he was back out on the dirt path in the forest, and considered the strange group of animals. They were nearly as intelligent as humans due to living near the fragment of the Fused Shadows their whole lives. Did that mean they would go back to being regular animals with time, or were they changed forever? Midna might know, but she would likely tell him nothing.

The large male baboon reached out to pat Link rather roughly, far harder than the females had, and he stumbled a little. It made his chest and back ache where the plant had bitten down on him. Then the king of the monkeys turned and brought his tribe back into their home in the ruins, nearly every baboon following him. The Bokoblins were dead, the dark power gone, their leader sane, and now they can finally live in peace.

There was a soft sound from one of the baboons that remained behind, the larger head female that had been with him this entire time. She reached out to his dripping cloak, and then gripped it in her hands to wring it out as she had saw him do with his hat. The process tugged him a bit off-balance, but he appreciated the gesture.

"Thanks." he said, knowing that the animal couldn't understand him. She bared her teeth in a grin again, and then started down the path, gesturing him to follow. He followed her, holding his lantern at his side as the two remaining females followed. A monkey escort. Not that he thought there would be anything in these woods that was worse than the giant plant he had just fought.

"Well look at you." Midna said, coming to float next to him, a barely visible shadow in a dark forest full of shadows. "Aren't you popular with the ladies?"

"Maybe they like blondes." he quipped. She didn't laugh, so he shrugged. "We should return to Faron to ask where the next piece of Fused Shadow is."

"Sure." was all Midna said, her one red eye the only thing on her reflecting back the light of the lantern. She seemed distracted, so he decided to walk in silence on the way back through the dark woods. This time he didn't mind so much; other than his clothes being all wet, he was tired from everything he had done that day, hungry and thirsty. He checked the food that he had in his pouches as he walked, but the leather was sealed well enough that they remained dry. Link considered eating as he walked, but didn't want to do so in front of the baboons. He didn't have enough for everyone. At least he was able to drink some water.

His baboon guardians walked with him, sometimes reaching out to pat him once or twice, but usually moving along to match his pace. He was unsure if they would walk with him all the way but they did, remaining with him for the two hour walk back to Coro's cabin. It wasn't too bad having them along, even though they couldn't talk. At least they didn't insult him like Midna.

It was getting late when he got to the closed gate, and he was unsure if Coro was still out there. He had no idea how early the merchant went to bed, but at this time many Ordonians would have. Link rattled the gate and called out. "Coro! Hey, Coro!"

"If he isn't there, I can get you over." Midna told him. It was the first time she had spoken to him in hours. She seemed fairly distracted the entire way, although it was hard to read her expression in the dark, since she was made of darkness herself.

"Hang on, I'm coming!" came a voice a few minutes later. The little man also had a lantern in his hand, and the key ring from before in the other. "You were gone for a long time. I thought the forest had taken you like it took others."

"I was gone a long time, and I started out late, so by now I am very much done with forests and trouble." Link really was. The long walk at the end of everything just added to his exhaustion. He watched as the merchant unlocked the padlock and swung open the gate, and then glanced to his right where Midna had been a moment before. She was gone, hiding in his shadow. It was probably for the best she didn't show herself to ordinary people.

"I see you brought my girlfriends to me." The little man said with a smile, looking at the baboons that were waiting on the other side of the gate. The three of them rushed to him to pat at him while making pleased little sounds, and one even jumped up on his shoulders to start pawing through his bushy hair.

"Your girlfriends?" Link walked out of the gloom of the forest and into the moonlit clearing. He hadn't realized it, but being in the darkness so long had made him feel a bit like he was closed in somewhere. Out here by the road felt far more open.

"Yeah, these are my girls. They're my friends, you know. Some of the female baboons come to visit and hang out with me, and sometimes they even bring their babies. I hadn't seen them in a while and I was worried." He shooed the one off his shoulders, not interested in being groomed by her. "What happened in there?" The small man fell into step with Link, and the two of them walked to the stone-ringed fire pit that Coro had kept burning.

"A few things. First of all, those disgusting parasite bugs? There was one on the head of the biggest male, who I'm going to guess is in charge."

"Oh, poor King Ook." Coro said. "He's their alpha male: he keeps them in line, is the daddy to a lot of babies, that kind of thing. If he was being controlled things must have been pretty nuts out there."

Of all the things to call a monkey, he named one "Ook"? "I managed to get the insect off of him and killed it, and he seems better." He wasn't going to mention the boomerang, and hoped Coro didn't notice it on his belt. "That wasn't the only problem, either. There was a group of Bokoblins that were killing the baboons for their meat and hides."

"A group? How many were there? There's an awful lot of baboons and I would assume that they'd be able to drive off the Bokoblins with their numbers. Hard to hunt a monkey when he's throwing rocks at you with twenty of his friends, right?" Coro sat down at his fire, and the baboons sat down near him.

"Come to think of it, I didn't actually count them." Link raised his eyes skyward while he did a quick mental tally on all the Bokoblins. "Thirteen. Not that many, but enough to cause problems on top of King Ook's parasite." It felt so strange to call the large silvery monkey that. It was stupid name. Like "Book Guy". "At least now there are zero Bokoblins."

"You took care of thirteen yourself?" Coro seemed impressed. "I saw that sword on your back, and I wasn't sure if you knew how to use it, Bo- uh, Link." He actually had remembered his name. "Normally you'd come up here with Smithy and you'd be holding a bow." That's right, he referred to Rusl as "Smithy". That one made sense, and it was a lot better than "Book Guy". "Well color me impressed. I guess you turned out to be something of a good swordsman, huh?"

"Well that and Bokoblins aren't exactly the bravest. If they had come at me all at once I would have been in trouble, but a few at a time was manageable." The praise over his swordsmanship made him feel awkward. It wasn't like he really had taken care of all thirteen himself, and he felt bad taking credit for something that was a lie. He looked at a cookpot that sat near the fire to stay warm.

"Ah, I'll bet you're hungry, aren't you? I still have some squash soup left, and some other things too. No charge. I'm happy to give a free meal to a guy who helped bring my girlfriends back." Coro grinned and patted the lead female on the shoulder. She turned her head and looked at him affectionately. "My own little harem. Every man's dream, right?"

"Not mine." Link said, repeating what he had said to Midna before. He thought of Ilia again, still worried. He had found himself thinking of her quite often on the walk back. "I'd be happy to take you up on that offer of a meal, but I want to go visit the spirit's spring for a few minutes. I'll leave you with your ladies."

"Need to rest at the spring, right?" The little man waved him off with both hands. "You go on ahead and stick your tootsies in." Tootsies? "It's getting late, but I'll still be here when you come back. I'm usually up until midnight or so anyway, since I have raccoon friends that like to visit right around now." Of course Coro would befriend raccoons. The man would probably befriend a wolverine.

"Thanks." Link then turned, still holding his lantern, and began the walk to Faron's spring. The forest seemed completely different at night, full of different sounds: the sleepy peep of some bird, an owl hooting nearby, even a buck that he startled and snorted as it ran off. After being in the actual enchanted woods in the dark, the road through Faron Woods didn't seem all that terrible. He wouldn't have wanted to be out here at this hour a week ago, but now it was the exact same road, only darker.

When he reached the spring, he heard Midna speak beside him. "You go on in." He couldn't see her at all. "I'll hang out back here." She had hidden from the light of Faron before, so it made sense that she'd want to do so again. Recalling what she said about sunlight having magic in it, Link assumed that the magic of the Light Spirits was similar.

Faron's spring lit up once he entered the grotto, the etched lines on the otherwise smooth stones glowing a brilliant white in the darkness. They muted the moonlight that streamed down through the opening in the cave roof, the rippling white patterns of light reflected up from the pool brighter now that it was nighttime. Link stood there, lantern in hand and waited several minutes, but the spirit did not appear. The stones merely glowed in response to the hero entering the spring. Was it resting? Did Light Spirits sleep?

"Faron." he said, calling to the spirit.

The globe of brilliant light rose up out of the spring and the golden lemur formed around it, fixing his blank-eyed gaze on Link. "Hero. I did not expect you to return here tonight." Did that mean he woke this spirit up? The spirit turned its head away from him, to look into the woods behind the spring, in the direction of where the wooden ruins were. "Ah, you were successful." Faron turned back to him. "Excellent. I wish that it was not necessary, but I have faith that the dark relic is in good hands."

"Yeah, Midna seems all right. I think we're good." He knew that she could hear him, but was speaking the truth: she really did seem to be all right. She had her moments where she had that damned attitude, but the little imp had also shown a caring side. "Faron, may I ask something? It's not a selfish question this time."

"You may ask." The lemur's unblinking stare was a bit unnerving at night, when his light was brilliant and he was far more golden in color.

"There were animals living in those ruins that had the piece of the Fused Shadows in it. They seem altered by it, and are almost as intelligent as humans. Will they return to being regular baboons?" For some reason, it bothered him. There was a different kind of baboon now, one that could likely continue to advance and become its own race of people. He hoped that chance would not be lost.

"No, and neither will their descendants." the great Light Spirit told him. "They were indeed altered by the magic bleeding from the Fused Shadows, but that is not the only magic in that place. There is a very sacred place not too far away, a place that must be protected by powerful magic. That very magic will keep those animals safe from humans, so they may not gain notice. The spirits of the forest will also protect them." So he did see something in the trees after all. He could see the Light Spirits, so why not little leaf-faced forest spirits? "That question was indeed not selfish, and the kind that the hero would indeed ask. You are concerned with the welfare of others, even the very animals that live in these woods. I commend you for that."

Now the Light Spirit was praising him. He hadn't worried about the baboons because he was fishing for praise, he was genuinely concerned. "I don't know about that, but I was a little worried that something might happen to them once the magic was gone. They're better off left alone." His mind was set at ease. "Now another question: where is the next Light Spirit? Ordonia told me that there were four of you, and three were trapped under Twilight."

"I am glad you are eager to continue on on your mission, young Link. The spirit Eldin is found in the lands of the same name, in the foothills of volcanic mountains to the northeast." Faron said.

"Volcanic mountains? Do you mean Death Mountain?" he was familiar with the Eldin region, but didn't know anything about one of these Light Spirit springs being there.

"Eldin is at the base of that volcano, in a dry canyon that now holds a town. That land is shrouded in darkness, and when you enter that darkness you will once again turn into a beast." The Light Spirit paused, taking in his expression of distaste. "Fear not: if you banish the Twilight as you did here, you will once again return to your current form." The lemur leaned its head forward a bit to examine him more closely. "Hero...you are injured."

He wasn't expecting that. His back and chest were still sore from where the plant monster had gnawed on him, but at least he wasn't bleeding. "Only a little, it's not bad. I'll live."

"The waters of our springs have the power to heal, although my power is not as strong as Eldin's or Lanaryu's. If you bathe in these waters for a while, it should ease your pains and help you heal faster." As it had before, the Light Spirit vanished without a goodbye, leaving him standing in the light of the glowing stones.

He had heard something about the spring in Ordon easing the aches and pains of the older people of the village, but thought it was simple folk medicine that worked because people believed in it. It turns out that actual magic was behind it. Was that why when he woke up after being attacked by the Bulbins, his head didn't have a wound on it? Did he nearly die, and Ordonia's power saved him? There was no way for him to know without asking Ordonia, and he wasn't heading back in that direction. Link started to remove his damp gear and carefully set it down on the stones near the water. He hadn't really planned on sitting in the water, but he was sore, probably bruised.

"This should be simple." Midna said, her dark form coming into the grotto. The light coming from the stones did not seem to bother her. "All we need to do in order to find these Light Spirits is go to the land that's covered in Twilight."

"Yeah, and now we know where one is." he said, tossing his hat, vambrace and gloves onto the stone next to his cloak, baldric and shield. "I'm not excited about going back into the Twilight, though."

"Don't worry. When you transform into a wolf again, I'll be sure to take good care of you." She put her hand over her mouth and giggled a little. "While you're more than capable with that sword of yours, you seem completely clueless when transformed into another form."

Link removed his chain shirt and set it down. The weight of it off his shoulders alone made his pain feel a little less. "Oh yeah? Were you completely clueless a day after you were forced into your current form?" He was unable to keep the annoyed edge out of his voice.

She didn't try to argue this time, and crossed her arms, watching him as he removed the linen gambeson that was beneath his chain mail. "That's different. So...are you going to get naked in front of me? Have you no decency?"

Link gave her a flat look. "Of course not. I have the sense not to be naked in front of a girl, even if the girl is…" he gestured up and down with his hand at her shadowy form. "...whatever you are."

Midna gave a derisive snort. "Whatever I am? Can you have a little more-" she stopped as she watched him bend over to remove his boots, looking at his bare back and the bruises he knew were there even though he could not see them. "You really did take a beating today, didn't you?" she said a bit more quietly, her anger gone.

He set aside the boots, which were still damp on the inside, and shrugged. "It's probably the worst beating I've had, but I'm sure it's worse than it looks. The armor bestowed upon me by the gods saved me from becoming a snack."

She watched him as he waded into the water, only wearing his leggings. "You're tougher than you look." It was an actual compliment, coming from Midna. He thought about saying something, but then decided he should just accept the compliment. At least this time it wasn't based off a lie.

Link waded into the water until it was up to his waist, and then lay back to float in it. It was strange, but when he first put his feet in the water, it felt cold; once he was deeper in, it felt much warmer, almost pleasant. Curls of mist began to float up and away from the water that was somehow now warmer than the air. It was a magic spring, after all. He was beneath the hole in the cave ceiling, and in the gap he could see a few stars, and a bit of the moon that was slowly sliding out of sight. He wasn't sure how long he floated there weightlessly in the warm water, but after a bit the soreness was gone from his chest and back.

His ears were beneath the water, so he couldn't hear Midna talking, if she was talking at all. It probably wasn't that interesting to watch him float around in a mystical spring, but he wasn't here to be entertaining. He lifted his head to look at her, and saw that she was watching him with her single red eye. Again, it was hard to read her expression when she was a dark shadow at night, even in a place lit up like the spirit's spring.

The little shadow creature saw him looking at her and spoke. "Let me ask you something. Is the reason you're helping me because it's what's expected of you?" She probably had waited a while to ask that question as he floated with his head half-submerged.

Link looked at her, considering the question, and then gave a little sigh as he stood up in the waist-deep water. "I'm not exactly sure why." He slicked his hair back with his hands, shucking the water out of it, and considered why he had done everything so far. "At first I wanted to hurry to find Ilia and Colin, but now I can see that things are so much bigger than I am. I'm small in the grand scheme of things, even though I'm supposed to be this destined hero. There are some aspects of this whole thing that I don't like, and a whole lot more that I don't understand but…" He then shrugged. "I guess I'm doing it because it's the most logical thing to do."

Her red eye stared at him. "Am I one of those things you don't like?" It didn't seem to bother her too much when he was a wolf and openly expressing his dislike, but now that he was human she seemed to care.

He paused, unsure how to answer without sounding like a jerk. At times he absolutely did not like her, but other times he got along with her fine. There were two sides to her personality, and only one side was one he could grow to like. Link waded out of the water and picked up the green tunic, which had a few spots of blood on it from the Bokoblins. "I don't know what to make of you yet." He dunked the tunic in the water and began scrubbing at it. "I have no idea who you really are, and only have a vague idea where you come from. You obviously know a lot more than you let on, and for some reason you're not telling me much." He pressed his lips into a flat line. "All sense would dictate that I not trust you, but we need to work together." Link worked in silence for a minute, not saying anything else.

"I can't force you to trust me." Midna said finally.

"I know that." he said quietly. "It might be a bumpy road, but I'll at least try."

After he had cleaned the tunic, he put on his boots, padded undershirt, baldric and shield. Everything else he rolled up into his chain mail, and that he rolled up into his still-damp cloak. At least the water he had fallen into in the shrine wasn't murky and stagnant like he expected, and likely had some other source it connected to. He would have had to wash everything else if it had stunk like swampy water.

Coro was waiting for him at the fire, with something frying in an iron pan that smelled good. Then again, everything smelled good when you were hungry, and Link hadn't exactly eaten well over the past two days. The little merchant looked up at him, his kindly face lit from beneath by the flames of the fire, and smiled in greeting. "You're looking better. Do you need to go hang up that cloak? I've got some lines out between the cabin and one of the shacks if you need to dry anything." He shook the pan and moved around what was a small butterflied bird that was crisping up in some kind of oil or fat. "I'm going to offer you somewhere to sleep too, since it's way too late for you to head back to Ordon, and you don't have your horse with you right now."

"Thanks, I actually was going to ask if I could sleep in one of your shacks or something. I hadn't planned on going back to Ordon anyway. I'm off to Central Hyrule tomorrow morning." He combed his hand through his now-dry blonde hair. It felt like it was sticking up in all kinds of directions, which sounded typical. "Are you cooking that bird for me?"

"If you don't count the two raccoons that are behind me, yeah. Don't worry though, you can have some soup too." Link didn't see the raccoons, but then again the three baboons had curled up to sleep near the little man, so it was possible that they were hidden. Just part of Coro's usual menagerie.

"You didn't cook one of your little bird friends, did you?"

The joke sailed completely over Coro's head and he looked shocked. "Of course not! I keep squabs to eat. I used to keep cuccos, but my forest friends kept stealing the eggs." He swatted away a black little hand that reached up from behind him towards the hot pan, and continued to cook. "It might have been these guys, for all I know."

"They steal from you and you still feed them?" Then again, he probably would be befriending the animals if he had nobody else to talk to. It was probably fairly lonely up here in North Faron with nobody coming by most of the time. Link didn't know how Coro could stand it. "Never mind. I'm going to hang up my stuff."

It wasn't too long before his gear was hung up to dry and he was sitting down and eating. The fairly bland soup wasn't squash, it was pumpkin. When Link told him this, Coro told him it was the same thing, which it most definitely was not, but he wasn't going to argue with the man that was feeding him. Link didn't care for pumpkin too much, but he was so hungry he ate it anyway. There were two fat raccoons nearby that watched him as he ate. They had gotten the drumsticks of the bird and he had gotten the rest, although the two animals looked like they felt they should get more. Raccoons could be nasty or even rabid, but these two seemed to be fairly tame and healthy. He didn't appreciate how they kept putting their strange little dark hands on his legs to beg as he ate, though.

He slept on the floor of the shop, wrapped in a spare blanket that Coro had, nestled behind the counter. It was a much better place to sleep than in the middle of the store, where there was still a dark stain from the bug he had killed earlier. He didn't need to be reminded of his awful experience with that. While it would have been nice to get back to Ordon to sleep in his own bed, he was so tired from the events of the past two days that he fell asleep immediately, and slept so deeply he didn't even dream.

The next morning his gear was dry, and he went about putting it back on while Coro was still asleep. Link had gone to bed not long after he was done eating, but the little merchant had remained at the fire with his raccoon buddies and the sleeping baboons. He had been concerned about his chain shirt, since it had gotten wet and he didn't have anything to treat it with, but it seemed to be fine. After looking at it more closely, the fine metal links it was made of seemed like it was a different silvery color than steel. Perhaps it was something that didn't rust. That would be convenient.

"How far is it to this Death Mountain place?" Midna asked quietly as he was buckling on his belt and pouches. She hadn't been able to speak to him since the spring.

"A few days worth of travel, for sure. I know that a fast horse can get from here to there in two days, but I'm not a fast horse." Link answered just as quietly, so Coro wouldn't hear him talking to what the merchant would assume was himself. He tugged on his gloves, hiding away the three triangles on the back of his hand. "I don't know what we're going to find out in Hyrule. Zelda mentioned the Bulbins raiding places in Hyrule, and now they've attacked this far south. It might be a bit dicey in places."

"At least this time you have a sword and a magic boomerang instead of just your fist." she said.

"You were at the spring that day." It wasn't a question. He knew that she had been there after all she had said.

"I was." she admitted. "I was trying to figure out where the first piece of the Fused Shadows was. Zelda told me that it was in the forests way south of the castle, and some people called Kokiri had it. I went a little farther south past the edge of the Twilight, thinking that maybe it would be in a place that wasn't covered by it." She paused. "I saw you transform. You looked like you were in a lot of pain." Her voice was sympathetic.

Link put his right hand on the vambrace he had just buckled on, shifting it in place, and remembered the agony that he had felt when he first transformed into a wolf. "It was the most painful thing I've ever felt. I thought I was dying." He stood there, staring at the ground with his hand on his wrist, wondering if it would be that painful again. The thought gave him a small twinge of fear.

"It sure sounded like you thought you were dying. If I could sleep, that scream of yours would give me nightmares. I hope that it's not so bad for you next time." She seemed far kinder today, after their discussion at the spring last night. Midna couldn't make him trust her, no...but she could at least act a bit more trustworthy. The more compassionate and kind half of her personality was preferable anyway.

"At least you'll be with me this time. It probably won't be so bad when I'm not alone and confused by what's happening." Yeah, probably. Hopefully. There was no way of knowing if it would be that awful again until he went and did it, and he needed to go and do it. It was best not to think about it until he was standing outside of the Twilight about to go in.

Coro was up not too much later, and he shared his breakfast with Link, even though it was just bread and jam. Food was food, and in the end he needed to eat no matter what. Link shared his peaches, knowing that he needed to eat them soon anyway. It turned out to be yet another meal of bread and fruit. After that he decided to buy some supplies for his trip with what rupees he had left. He purchased venison jerky, dried apples and pears, a few flat round biscuits in place of bread, a lump of lard wrapped in wax paper, a metal plate with a matching cup, a pan, and more lamp oil since he had used another vial on his way back last night. Coro kindly gave him a leather satchel to carry half the supplies in, since he really shouldn't be mixing his food supplies with things like tinder and lantern oil. The slingshot went into the satchel as well, since he didn't plan on using a child's toy anymore. He managed to find a small leather sling intended to buckle a riding crop to a horse's tack, and decided to use it for the boomerang, attaching it to the lower strap of his baldric below his right arm. Now that he knew that the boomerang was Kokiri, he definitely didn't want to lose it. The race was thought to have gone extinct, so finding anything left behind by them was incredibly rare.

"Are you going to buy a book while you're here? I actually have some fiction if you're interested in that kind of thing." Coro offered.

"No, I really don't need the extra weight." Where would he put a book anyway, in the satchel with the lantern oil and dishes? "If you still have some here when I'm done doing the things I need to do, I might buy them." If he had any rupees left. He only had fifteen after buying supplies, and he was certain that Coro gave him discounts on things to be kind.

"Yeah, fair enough. Do you need a map or something? You might want to know your way around Hyrule a little better if you grew up in Ordon." Coro reached into a small rack of square cubicles that held up some rolled up parchment and papers.

"I didn't grow up in Ordon." Link told him. "I was born in Castle Town, and lived here and there around Hyrule before moving down this way five years ago. I know the geography pretty well." He had a map at home anyway, one with detailed locations that he had marked with the intention of visiting them when he was older. He knew where he was going.

"Ah yeah, I guess that does make sense. I wondered if there were some Hylian families down south or something, but I guess not. You said you were the only Hylian in Ordon." He put his hands back on the counter. "I've gotta ask you something before you go. Did you plan on going up to Lanaryu at all? Like, maybe up near Zora's Domain?"

"That's pretty far north, so I don't know yet. It's possible. Why?"

The little merchant lowered his brown eyes. "I've heard about Bulbins attacking settlements, and there have barely been any merchants visiting me here for weeks, mostly Gorons. I'm worried about my sisters. I haven't gotten any letters from them in a month, and I don't know if it's because the postal service is disrupted, or maybe something happened." He raised his eyes back up to Link's face. "If you're near the northern part of the Zora's River, can you look for two women? Iza runs a white water rafting business on the river itself, and Hena has a fishing business on a little lake not too far away from that. If you find them, can you tell them I'm all right here?"

The poor man looked worried, and Link couldn't blame him. There were likely many families that were torn apart by the invasion. He nodded. "If I'm up that way, I'll tell them that you're okay. It's the least I can do after all you've done for me. I really appreciate this, Coro." He held out his right hand to shake, despite being left-handed. Whenever he held out his left hand, people looked at him funny.

Coro took it with a smile and shook it. "No problem, Link. You be careful out there, all right? Those people from Ordon are counting on you. Do your best to bring them back home."

It was mid-morning when he departed the merchant's depot and continued north on foot to Central Hyrule. Traveling north up the road that lead all the way to Castle Town was slow, far slower than Link liked, but without Epona there was nothing he could do about it. He wondered what happened to the poor horse, who had bolted in fear after Ilia screamed next to her. Did the Bulbins steal her to ride? Did they try to eat her? That last idea was upsetting, that his father's warhorse would wind up in some disgusting green Bulbin's belly. Hopefully that's not what happened to the humans that were kidnapped by Bulbins. Now that was a disturbing thought that he didn't want to pursue.

Link replayed the moment that Colin and Ilia were taken in his mind, looking back on it for probably the tenth time since it happened. The way the leader of the Bulbins had grabbed Ilia to put her over his saddle and then laughed, it was like he was taunting Link. She had an arrow dangling from her shoulder, blood soaking the back of her shirt, and the monster had laughed and held onto her like was going to play keep-away. Then he had said "you're dead", thinking that was Link's last moment, and intentionally made that moment cruel. Why behave that way? Was he being cruel for cruelty's sake? He wanted to scream in frustration, to vent his emotions, but instead he bottled them up and let them stew, deciding to let that resentment fuel his drive to kill that Bulbin leader.

The woods of Faron thinned out and turned into the open grasslands of Central Hyrule, dotted here and there with groves of smaller trees and hedgerows that marked the edges of farmland. The summer sky was a brilliant blue, marked with puffy clouds to the northwest that were forming off Lake Hylia. It was picturesque, but there were some signs that everything was not as it should be. Soon he began passing the farm houses themselves, and saw that the first one he came across had been burned. The next two as well: the silos, the barns, the houses and even some of the crops were all destroyed or looted, with no signs of people. What happened here?

There was no reason to wonder what happened, because he had his suspicions, and found evidence that he was correct: there were many cloven hoof-prints in the dried mud of the road, made by dozens of the giant boars of a Bulbin raiding party. Perhaps it was the same raiding party that had made its way down to Ordon and stole away Ilia. The thought of her while looking at those dried prints in the ground made his anger rise again, but he pushed it down. There was nothing he could do right now, and no point in letting his anger take control.

He walked until sunset, coming across more signs of the raiding parties and ruined farms, but did not encounter a single living soul out on the road. He stopped next to one of the ruined farmsteads and looked up the path rutted by wagon tracks that lead to it. That would do. Link turned off the road and began walking to the assembled buildings of the farm.

"What are you doing?" Midna asked from ground level, in his long shadow cast by the setting sun.

"I need to rest, and I don't want to travel at night." The door to the house looked like it was open, but not burnt, so he started out by going in that direction.

"Don't you have a lantern? We'd get to the Twilight sooner if you walked a few more hours." She sounded a little annoyed.

"Undead roam the fields of Central Hyrule at night, and I don't want to fight something that's already dead." The idea was disturbing, of something that should be dead and gone wandering around with nothing but malice for the living. Could you even kill something like that?

"Undead? What the heck happened here in your light world that made it so undead wander around at night?"

"There were two really big wars fought here a bit over two centuries ago. A lot of souls never got an honorable burial, so they still wander as skeletons." They probably never would, either. There was no way of telling who they used to be, or who their families were. He reached the house, but saw that the windows and door were smashed in, and belongings strewn about on the grass outside the door. Inside there was a dead dog, shot by arrows, and a lot of upturned furniture. Link looked through the house in locations he figured people would hide things of value, and happened across about eighty rupees. At least he had a little money again, but he didn't want to sleep in this farmhouse with a dead animal. A place with a door would be far better, too. He had spotted a cucco coop nearby, so he went back out to that.

The cuccos didn't seem to care when he came into their home and looked around. They were roosting for the night, retracting their long necks into their fluffy feathers to sleep on the boxes of straw that served as their nests. There did not seem to be a rooster, which was good since they could be rather nasty to people who got too close to their hens. It smelled a bit in the coop, but it was safe. He ate the flatbread that Ilia had made for him and the grapes that were starting to shrivel. He had to smile at it: bread and fruit again, a Link staple. How did he manage to grow two inches in the past year when he ate like this most of the time?

He shut the door to the coop and wrapped himself in his cloak to sleep, sword laying nearby in case he needed it. As he fell asleep, he thought of Ilia for the umpteenth time that day, and how she had gotten shot. The arrow in her back made him think of his mother, and as he drifted off to sleep those thoughts turned into a dream about her. The dream quickly became a nightmare, and in it he was horseback with his mother's arms around him, fleeing in terror from something hunting them. Arrows flew through the air, and he heard his mother cry out and stiffen as one struck her in the back. His eyes blurred as they teared up and he rode on, helpless to do anything as the arrows continued to fall around them. He thought somebody called his name, but he was too frightened to do anything but continue to ride.

Somebody shook him then and he sat up suddenly, breathing heavily. He couldn't see anything in the dark coop, but he could hear the disturbed cuccoos clucking in alarm at something. His heart was pounding and he found he was covered in sweat.

"Good, you woke up." Midna's voice came to him from not too far away. "I don't know what you were dreaming about, but you're making too much noise in your sleep. If you want to be careful, you should be more quiet."

Link put a hand to his face and found that it was shaking. He hadn't had that nightmare in a while, but it was one he had frequently when he had first come to Ordon. "Sorry, nightmare." At least he wasn't crying about it, like he did when he was younger. It was embarrassing enough that Midna had found him while he was crying as a wolf. He really didn't want to cry in front of her as a human.

"I had guessed that. Go back to sleep. If you start shouting again, I'll wake you up again." Her voice moved as she spoke, and she went over near the door of the coop, probably where she had been sitting while he slept. She had told him that she couldn't sleep, so she likely sat around doing nothing all night. He tried to lay back down and go back to sleep, but it was a while before his frayed nerves let him rest again.

The next morning he made a small fire from wood he found stacked next to the house, and cooked up some stolen eggs for breakfast. There was no way of telling if there were undead wandering around last night, although if they had been nearby and heard him, they probably would have just waited outside of the coop until the sun rose. It was a chilling thought, being surrounded by skeletons while trapped in a small coop.

He continued on to Death Mountain and the town below it that he knew was called Kakariko, taking the east road in that direction when he came to the major crossroads set in the middle of a deserted village. It did make sense that Eldin's spring would be near a town, after all Ordonia's was. Faron's currently wasn't, but not far into the woods were the ruins of human settlements, so it was at some point. Wherever the final spirit was, it likely was also near a town. That would make finding it a bit easier.

As he walked through the empty streets of the village, he felt a bit nervous, even though he was armed. There were no people in this town, and there were signs of struggle just as there had been at the farms. How many Bulbins had come through here? There were signs of smoke in the distance to the north, either from burning buildings, or a large collection of campfires. He hoped it wasn't the latter. So far he had been lucky and traveled through areas that were devoid of enemies, and he hoped that his luck would hold.

It didn't, not too much later. A patrol came through the fields of a farm, and towards the main road. Luckily they didn't see him, and he managed to dash off the road and into a group of skinny trees and shrubs to hide. They were mounted, there was about a dozen of them, and he knew he couldn't fight them. Not only that, but as they got closer, he could see three Shadow Beasts ambling alongside the boars as the group rode along.

Midna materialized in the shade of the shrub he was hiding beneath, laying on his belly to watch the Bulbins through the tall grass. "Why are you hiding like a coward?" she said, although not too loudly. The group on the road likely would not hear her. "Don't you have a sword? You could probably take care of that group."

"You're kidding, right?" he turned towards her shadowy form and raised an eyebrow. "I can't kill fifteen things on my own. That's impossible for one swordsman." Link watched as the Bulbins continued on towards the deserted town he had walked through about a half hour before. "I'm here to lift the Twilight and help you find those fragments of the Fused Shadows, not fight everything on the way."

"Fine, although people would find you a lot more impressive if you did something really cool like killed a bunch of Bulbins all by yourself." She sat down on the ground next to him, watching the Shadow Beasts as they loped along on all fours. "How are they not being harmed by the sunlight? Hmm…"

"Zelda did say that they could turn people into other Shadow Beasts, so that's who they probably were. There were quite a few missing people on the way up here, meaning that there's probably hundreds of those things roaming around now. I'd rather avoid killing them if they used to be people."

"But it was fine to kill them when they were beings from the Twilight?" she asked, a slight edge to her voice. Was she offended?

"I had no choice and you know it." He watched as the patrol went down the road, and decided to wait about ten minutes before moving on. They probably would actually kill him this time if they managed to catch him.

When they had to stop for the night again, Midna was audibly frustrated with him as she grumped about it from his shadow. "You're stopping again? I get you need to sleep, but having to stop every night sucks."

"I'm sorry if I need to eat and sleep, unlike you." Link said mildly. "I haven't stopped to eat anything on the way here either, so have a little patience, will you? These legs need fuel, and I'm running on empty." It was true. Between dodging patrols and walking all day, and after a previous day of being a wolf and fighting, he was very tired. Link knew he had a decent amount of stamina due to the amount of work he did every day, but what he had been doing was not the kind of thing a normal person would do.

The building he had planned on stopping in was right alongside the road, surrounded by trees and next to a short bridge where the road crossed a creek. He had wanted to stop somewhere farther back and out of sight, but there hadn't been too much but woods in this part of Central Hyrule, and there was no way he'd sleep outside. It turned out to be a guard station, a single-floor stone building that had no people inside of it.

Link looked around inside and saw signs of flight, but not a struggle. There were three plates of dried-out meat and potatoes on the table, covered with flies, and one of the benches next to the table was overturned, as if the men seated at it had gotten up in a hurry. Three gray cloaks hung near the door, and in the back was a room with three narrow beds, neatly made. No signs of the men who slept in those beds, though...at least until he went outside the back door of the building to see what was out there.

The three corpses lay in the garbage pit near the outhouse, thrown there unceremoniously by the Bulbins after they were slain. The men were in chain mail hauberks and tabards that marked them as Hylian soldiers who served the royal family, a stylized red bird with wings outstretched on a blue background. Their armor did them no good; none of them had the coifs up when they were attacked, and all three had their heads bashed in by Bulbin clubs. Seeing their heads crushed like that disturbed Link, not only because seeing the corpses of another human is upsetting, but because he almost died in the same manner. If Ordonia's spring hadn't healed him after he was attacked, would he have been dead like these soldiers, with his head smashed in? He couldn't worry about that now; he couldn't leave these poor men lying dead out in the open.

"Help me find some stones." he said to Midna, who had come out immediately after the sun sunk below the horizon. "I don't know if there's a shovel, and I don't think I have the energy to dig graves right now."

She looked at the dead soldiers and then nodded. "Yeah, sure. It's not right to leave them out here like this. These were men that were doing their job."

Even with Midna's help, it took well over an hour for the two of them to gather enough stones from the nearby creek to cover the bodies. The moon was bright enough for Link to see once it got dark, but he didn't want to be out here much longer in case there were skeletons. Once they were covered with a large cairn, he stepped back to look at it, realizing that the families of these men would have no idea where they were buried.

"Did you want to pray to your gods for these men?" Midna asked. After finding the bodies, she had stopped with her usual abrasive attitude.

"I have nothing to say to the gods. If they cared, these men wouldn't have encountered Bulbins at all." If the gods cared, a lot of deaths would have been prevented, both now and five years ago. No, instead they installed him as the new hero to take care of things. He wondered if the previous heroes had also hated the gods for their lack of intervention.

Link securely latched the door to the gatehouse and did not light a fire or his lantern. The only thing he had done before locking himself in at night was thrown the plates of ruined food out the back door, not wanting to sleep with a bunch of flies buzzing about. He considered trying to find some food in the darkness, but had no idea where to look in the unfamiliar building. He ate some venison jerky and one of the travel biscuits that he had bought at Coro's, wishing he could have a hot meal, and then groped his way to the sleeping quarters to rest for the night.

The next morning he was able to eat some of the supplies from the guardhouse, although he didn't dare cook anything. Smoke from the chimney would alert any patrols to his presence there. At least there was cheese and a jar of what looked like stewed tomatoes, so that would have to do for now. It was better than more bread and fruit, anyway.

He looked around the guardhouse to see if there was anything else of use, since the remaining food supplies were things that needed cooking in order to eat. There were three swords, but they looked like they weren't made as well as the sword he currently carried, not to mention they weren't maintained. He had no intention of leaving Rusl's sword behind anyway. There were also three large heavy metal shields with the red bird emblem on them, but also with a crest of three yellow triangles at the top, the same pattern as the three triangles on his hand. Interesting. That probably meant something, but he had no way of knowing what it was yet. For now he was hoping that he could use one of these shields, but with his luck they would all be for right-handed fighters. He flipped them over, and was pleasantly surprised to find that one of them had straps to be worn on a fighter's right arm.

Link took Rusl's shield off his back and looked at it. It was beautifully done, but already it had a few pockmarks in it from where the plant's acid had splashed on it. As much as he wanted to hold onto it, the shield was really not very good for combat. He knew where it was, so it was possible he could come back here in the future to try to get it back. With a small sigh, he set down the shield his friend and mentor had made, and picked up the shield with the Hylian crest on it. It was heavier than the wooden shield once it hung on the baldric, but the weight at least let him know that it was sturdy.

With nothing else to do, he left the guardhouse through the back door, half-hiding next to the building as he carefully peered down the road in either direction before starting down the road himself. Even with a better shield, he still wouldn't be able to handle a full Bulbin raiding party. He walked for about an hour through the young maple forest that bordered Central Hyrule and Lower Eldin, and was able to hear a patrol coming before he could see them. He had to run to hide in the trees again, laying low to the ground in the hopes that they wouldn't glance over and see him there, but the Bulbins in the group didn't seem to be looking all that hard for people hiding. They were likely only looking for people trying to escape on the roads. This time, Midna did not complain. She was learning that he was going to do what he felt was best and not listen to her "suggestions". As if taking on a dozen Bulbins by himself was a sane suggestion.

The wall of Twilight was about another two hours down the road, looming dark brown and menacing between the thin maple trees of the forest. Link looked up at it, and saw that the Twilight became more orange and then purple as it extended upwards, blending with the azure of Hyrule's summer sky. The effect reminded him of a sunset. The sun was still low enough that it was behind the twilight, so where he stood was in shadow. How a magical field made of amber light cast a shadow, he had no clue. It did allow Midna to appear next to him in her shadowy form. She would need to appear to bring him into the Twilight, whether there was a shadow for her to hide in or not.

"May as well get this over with." Link said with a rueful sigh. He was not looking forward to being a wolf again, nor was he looking forward to the process of turning into the wolf.

"The Twilight really isn't too bad, but I get that you don't like being turned into a wolf." The little imp patted his arm, a kind gesture. He found he was starting to like this Midna, who acted a lot more like a normal person and less like a selfish jerk. "Are you ready?"

"Ready." Not really, but the sooner it was done, the better.

Midna reached out with her shadowy prehensile hair and carefully wrapped it around him. Then she gently picked him up and glided into the Twilight. He could see her body become solid again, and the hair that held him turned orange as he felt himself pulled through into the strange amber light.