Chapter Six: Eldin

Once he was fully in the Twilight, the golden triad of triangles on Link's hand started to glow. Midna set him down on his feet, withdrawing her orange magical hair, and he nervously waited for the transformation to happen. Then a ripple of pain went through his body and he bent double, grimacing. He kept bending to find his hands on the ground as he fell to his knees, and there was a brief flash of searing pain all throughout his body. The hands on the ground in front of his face were no longer hands, but gray paws. Link had transformed, and while it was still painful, it was fast. It wasn't so bad that he screamed in agony, unlike the first time.

He felt her land on his back then, the little imp sitting on him to ride again. Link resisted the urge to grumble about it, not wanting to prompt any biting commentary from her, but still was indignant that she wanted to use him as a mount. He turned his head to fix one eye on her, and saw that she was grinning her fanged grin.

"It feels good to be back in the real world." Midna said, stretching her little thorny arms above her, and then putting them behind her over-sized head. "My real world, anyway. This place must seem alien to you, right?" She lowered her arms and leaned forward to rest them on his shoulders and move her face closer to his. "Now that you can't talk or use your fancy weapons, it's time for me to take charge."

Link rolled his eyes to this, but couldn't say anything in response.

"Relax." she said, patting him on the head as one would a dog. "You're not my servant, as much as I think it would suit you. We're partners, but this is my turf and I know it better than you, so you'd better listen up and do as I say."

He couldn't help but grumble this time, but then nodded his head in agreement. Now that she was back in the Twilight again, Midna was behaving more like the obnoxious brat that he first encountered in Hyrule Castle. It was almost as if the Twilight brought out her inner asshole.

The imp pointed down the road. "Get a move on." At least she didn't thump her heels into his sides like he was a horse this time. He took off at a loping canter, using the wolf's speed to make up the slower pace he held as a man. Midna clung to the scruff of his neck as he ran, humming to herself now that she was no longer a shadow. At least she seemed happy.

There were some shadowy keese flapping around aimlessly between the trees, but the one-eyed bat monsters didn't seem like they wanted to attack the two of them. If anything they seemed bewildered at their transformation by the Twilight. That was fine by Link; the idea of biting down on bats was repulsive.

He saw the strange tumbling black stuff that reminded him of snow that would vanish in a flash of black triangles when it neared the ground, but he still had no idea what it was. It didn't actually land, and it didn't feel like it was suspended in the air around him. If he looked up at the dim disc that was the sun, he could see a halo of the stuff, a dark ring that became a prismatic rainbow. This dark stuff could be entirely magical, something that he could see but not touch. It didn't remind him of any shadow magic he had heard of. He'd have to remember to ask Midna about it later.

The run was at least an hour, perhaps closer to two. He covered so much more ground as the wolf, without feeling as tired. If he could transform into the wolf without the agonizing pain, he would find the transformation useful, and wouldn't mind being able to turn back and forth whenever he wanted. He doubted that's how his power worked, but still having the wolf's endurance and speed would be useful at times.

Kakariko Gorge was one of the deep canyons in the area carved out by thousands of years of rapid water. The Siela River ran fast and foamed with rapids as it swirled around rocks and continued to cut the gorge even deeper. It was spanned by a great stone bridge that was built after the kingdom recovered from the Gerudo War, and even two centuries later the well-made bridge was sturdy. It was also blocked by a group of shadow beings as Link approached, both larger and smaller ones. Neither were the stone-masked Shadow Beasts, but instead the larger broad-shouldered ones had long tattered black ears, a single red eye, and a long canine snout. Two of the group carried clubs of twisted black wood, and one had a spear.

The smaller monsters were what saw Link first, beings with leathery black skin and stone helmets instead of masks. This variety of Shadow Beasts didn't make too much sense until he heard one of the smaller ones point at him and shout something in its gibbering language, and the sound of it made him realize that these used to be Bulbins before they were transformed. If that was the case, then the larger ones had to be something like Moblins that were turned. That was troubling; Moblins were extremely dangerous, especially in groups.

He had no weapons other than his teeth, and seven enemies with weapons to face. He should have been nervous, or afraid...but he wasn't. Instead a low growl rose from his throat and the wolf's fighting instinct took over again, setting aside the human mind for the time being. Link broke into a sprint and Midna clung on by gripping to the fur of his back, and he took a leap at the first Bulbin that had pointed at him with no regard for the surrounding enemies. There was a spray of blood as he tore the throat out of it, and then focused on the one next to it.

"Right, you can get these little guys. I'll get the big ones." Midna shot off of his back in a line of shadow and materialized behind the Shadow Moblins. One started to turn on her, but she formed her hair into a fist and gave it an uppercut, causing it to drop its spear. She picked it up with her orange hair, and now armed was far better suited to fight the large beasts.

The next Shadow Bulbin took a swing at Link with its club, but he swiftly hopped out of the way and went for its throat. Something whizzed past his furred ears, and he turned to see that one of them had shot an arrow at him. It was the last arrow it ever fired, and Link disposed of it in a similar manner as the others. When he set aside his human mind, the blood and the gore didn't bother him as much. It was simply part of it. With only one left, he focused his eyes on it and rushed in for the kill.

Midna was having success fighting one of the larger beasts, dodging the club that it swung and timing it right to embed the spear in its chest. It toppled over, and she tried to pull the spear free but it was stuck in the Moblin's ribs. She had to dodge another club and face this one without a weapon. The little creature flickered in and out of solid form, turning into a mass of shadow to dodge the club until the Shadow Moblin did an overhead swing, stepping forward and shifting its weight that way. She wrapped the hair around the black club and wrested it from the Shadow Beast's clawed fingers, and bashed it on the side of its head with its own weapon.

Only one other Shadow Beast remained now, the final Shadow Moblin without a weapon. Midna was still occupied with bludgeoning the other one to death, so Link moved in. The large muscular arms were far faster and stronger than those of the Shadow Beasts that were once human, but he was far faster than a human as well. After a few frantic swings from the Moblin, he launched himself at its fat neck and latched on. It was harder to rip the throat from this one, its neck large enough that Link's jaws couldn't bite down very far. It swung itself back and forth, shaking like a wet dog and whipping the wolf to and fro as he clung on to its neck. The movement did not have the desired effect that the Moblin was hoping for, and the tugging drove Link's fangs into its jungular vein in a spurt of blood. It managed to dislodge him, sending the wolf tumbling to the ground, but by then it was too late. The Moblin clawed at its neck, bleeding out.

Then it raised its long-snouted face to the sky and let out a shattering roar, a strange sound for a death cry. It collapsed, one of its hands to its neck, blood pooling beneath it. The echoing roar faded, and then a different roaring sound was heard nearby, and Link looked up. A portal was forming in the sky near the bridge, and four more Shadow Beasts dropped out of it, the variety with stone masks. One of them stood on its back legs and clutched its hands into fists, and let out a sound that was very similar to the roar that the Shadow Moblin had made as it died. Then it charged.

"Great, reinforcements." Midna crackled her small knuckles, swinging her bloodied club with her hair. "Let's get to it, Link."

He nodded at her and bared his bloodied teeth at the Shadow Beasts that advanced. The one that had roared was knocked flying by Midna's club into the nearby gorge, and she laughed gleefully about it. Link had already attached himself to the throat of the next one by the time the first dark creature wound up in the gorge, and he left behind tattered flesh before moving on to the next one. Midna simply bashed her next one into the ground with the club, cracking both the stone mask and the bones in its body. By the time it stopped moving, the wolf had already circled around the final Shadow Beast, baited it into a lunge, and killed it.

Midna dusted off her hands, even though she hadn't used them for anything in the fight. "Well now, that was kind of satisfying, wasn't it? I don't know what those big guys were, but we took care of them pretty good." She dropped the blooded club and turned to Link. "And here you were worried about taking on about a dozen guys at once. Did you see what we just did? I'll bet that's preferable to your sword."

"Nooo." Link said, shaking his lupine head emphatically.

"What do you mean, 'no'? You fought so much better this time than the last time you had to take care of Shadow Beasts. Being a wolf has to be much better." When he shook his head at her again, she crossed her arms. "Well why not, then?"

"Blehhh." he said, sticking out his bloodied tongue, curling back his lips so she could see the blood on his teeth. Link couldn't see his face well, but he knew his muzzle was covered in gore.

"Oh, yeah. I guess that is pretty gross. I'd be freaking out a bit if it was me. You going to be okay?"

He pawed at his face a bit and snorted in disgust. "...ress?"

The little imp moved to sit on his back again and patted him kindly. "Good enough for me. We'll get you a drink of water first thing after you're human again, all right?" He could hear a crackling sound from her direction, and saw the ball of energy she threw to capture the portal. "For now, let's move on. And this time, if we can avoid fighting anything, we should. I'm all in with your plan from yesterday: let's not fight anything we don't need to."

Link nodded in agreement. "Ress." Then he once again started running down the road through the sickly brownish light of the Twilight. Midna had helped him in the fight, and even was nice to him. His suspicions that she had put on an act to appear more mean-spirited were starting to prove true. Not that she didn't still have her nose in the air sometimes, but he was getting used to working with her after only three days.

It was far easier to avoid the packs of roaming Shadow Beasts with two pairs of eyes, and they continued to move on both near and following the road to the east, moving swiftly past rocky outcroppings of sandstone that pushed their way up through the scrubby grasses that grew nearby. The road was within a dried river bed that looked like it used to flow into Kakariko Gorge, or the river within it that was much higher ages ago. The raised sides of the dry gulch became stony, and then solid canyon walls of banded shades of orange and brown.

The gates of Kakariko had a large metal sign over them that declared cheerfully "Welcome to Kakariko", but the gates themselves were not very welcoming. They were chained shut, and past the sharpened stakes that had been attached to the metal gate there was a number of things stacked: crates, chairs, rocks, even what looked like a butter churn. The people of Kakariko had used whatever was handy to hastily reinforce their gate to keep the raiders out.

"Interesting gate technique." Midna said from up on his back. "Were they trying to keep out the groups by the bridge, or something else? Who knows what else is roaming around out there. I don't know what creatures you have in your light world, but if those big guys are any indication, there are some real nasties here."

Link couldn't exactly tell her about the monsters that inhabited the Eldin region, so he started to pace back and forth to try to find a spot to get through the gate. On the left side, near the canyon wall was a gap beneath the gate, and a space between two crates beyond. This seemed to be the best place, but when he tried to squirm beneath he couldn't quite fit. He huffed in frustration, and looked at the spot beneath the gate.

"Guess you'll have to dig again." she said, hovering behind him. "Another thing you do better as a wolf, I might add."

He rolled his eyes dramatically and started to dig at the packed earth with his black claws. It was a bit harder to get through than the softer dirt that was beneath the dungeon in Hyrule Castle, but he was strong enough to clear enough of it away. After another attempt to squeeze through and a few more minutes of digging, he wriggled his way beneath the gate, like a dog escaping its yard. He could barely squeeze through the gap between the crates, and came out on the other side after pushing his way through with his back legs.

Midna thumped down on his back, causing him to grunt. She absolutely did not need to land on him that hard. "You couldn't have done that as a human, you know. What would you have done, climbed over the gate even though it's covered in spikes at the top?"

"Ress." Hands would have been better, then he wouldn't have had to go grubbing in the dirt. Or perhaps he would have been able to squeeze beneath the gate in his human form, which had a much smaller chest than the bulky wolf did. Link hadn't realized what an enormous wolf he was until he encountered Zelda.

The spring was not too far up the canyon, on the very edge of town and within sight of the gate. Once again there was a faint whine, a weak cry of pain coming from the wounded Light Spirit. As he came and put his paws into the shallow water at the edge of the spring, the voice of the spirit spoke.

"Hero...hero who is now a beast...hear me…" it said, its voice weak. "I am...Eldin, and I have fallen to...darkness. Please, hero. My light is in...vermin. If you destroy them, I...will restore your humanity. Please…blue-eyed beast..." it implored, and then its voice faded into the whine of agony again. This one seemed even weaker than Faron was.

Hopefully those insects were all in this town, which was considerably larger than Ordon. That could wait a minute. First, he had to get the blood out of his mouth and off his face. He had been trying not to swallow, and was drooling a little bit. He hoped Midna hadn't noticed. Link put his face into the water of the spring and moved it back and forth, opening his mouth and blessedly rinsing away the blood that he had brought with him for over an hour. He did his best to rub at his muzzle with his paws, not exactly having hands to wash with at the moment.

Midna giggled at him. "It's pretty funny to watch you do things a human would do while you're an animal."

He raised his face out of the water and snorted some from his nostrils, glaring at her over his shoulder. Then he shook off, spraying water everywhere.

"Hey, don't get me wet." She patted him on his damp head. "You're awfully cute as wolf, you know?"

"Mih-naah…" he grumbled. He did not want to be cute, he wanted to save the Light Spirit so he could go back to having important things like thumbs and clothes again.

The little imp giggled at his pronunciation of her name. "No really, you're so adorable!" She leaned forward to pat the side of his wet face with a small inky hand. "When this is all over, why don't you come home with me? I can give you a warm bed by the fire, feed you biscuits and even scratch your ears sometimes."

"Mih-naah!"

"All right buddy, but you're missing out on some belly rubs." That comment would have made him turned red in the face, if he was able to blush as a wolf. He absolutely did not want her to rub his belly, ever. It was bad enough she wanted to touch his face. Just because he was a wolf didn't mean she could invade his personal space like that.

He trotted into the middle of town, which seemed to be the best place to start. He doubted that there would be dark insects right next to the spring. Ugh, insects again. This was not going to be pleasant. Link focused so he could see the bugs, but what he saw wasn't insects at all. Near the stairs of a nearby building was a black rat that glowed with a faint light from within. Eldin did say "vermin", but it wasn't specific on what kind of vermin. This time it must be rats, something the Shadow Beasts had used in the nearby area. He had just washed the blood out of his mouth, too.

Link lunged and bit down on the rat, crushing it. It was unpleasant, just as he had assumed it would be. The dead rodent released a small mote of light and it went over to the spring, dropping into the higher tier of the water where the spirit likely slept. He looked back at the rat and grunted. Disgusting. It tasted bad, and smelled bad too...and he had never considered what a rat might smell like before. Wait. Now there was an idea. He lowered his nose to the rat and sniffed at it, and suddenly his wolf mind was full of information.

Nests beneath stairs and buildings. Hoarded piles of stolen food. Babies that needed to be fed. And then...darkness. The bad smell itself was the darkness of the Twilight's corruption that had turned this ordinary animal into something worse. That smell was the one he focused on, since it was the strongest, while the others were simple animal smells. Link lifted his nose and sniffed at the air, and detected a trace of the scent coming from a nearby house that had its door swung open.

Inside there was a fire smoldering in a square hearth that had an oven on the side of it, and a table that was set for some meal that was never eaten. The rat was beneath that table, and it was simple for him to push his way under there quickly and snap his jaws down on it. Another mote of light flew away.

"Are these rats better than the bugs?" Midna asked him, floating behind him to stay out of his way instead of riding on his back as he hunted. Since they were rats, they were likely in places he'd have to squeeze into, like beneath this table.

"Ress." he said, backing his way out from beneath the table and returning outside. He put his nose to the ground and began tracking the other vermin. They were in houses and businesses, hiding beneath or behind furniture. As he found and killed them, he realized how empty the town was. There weren't the little green flames as there had been in Hyrule Castle. In fact there didn't seem to be anyone here. Did the people all run away?

His nose led him back to next to the spring, and another smell momentarily distracted him, something familiar that reminded him of home. No, better not be distracted. Link wanted to focus on finding the rats, not other things. The scent he was tracking was inside a large, round building next to the Light Spirit's spring, a very old adobe building painted with patterns of triangles and waving lines, with a half-broken steeple above that still had a bell in it. He went to the door, and then placed a paw on it, looking over his shoulder at Midna.

"You smell a bunch of them in there, don't you?" She tried the door with the hand on the end of her hair, but it wouldn't open. "It's locked. Hang on, wait here. I'll go around to see if there's an open window." The cursed creature floated up and started making her way around the building. Link sat down to wait, looking around the chilly Twilight. Even though the sun was overhead, it was still cold. The sun barely shone though, a faintly glowing disc ringed with a blackened rainbow, dim in the sky that barely permeated the Twilight.

"Link." Midna's voice said from above. He backed up until he could see her beneath the ruined steeple, on the roof of the round building. "There's a piece of metal here with a rock on top of it, and the rope from this bell goes underneath it. It's probably a hole. Do you think you can make it up here?"

He looked around and all he saw nearby was a gnarled hickory tree that he had no way of climbing. Link tilted his head at her and sighed in mild frustration. "Noo?"

"Oh, I guess not. You can jump, but you probably can't climb that tree." The little imp floated down to where he was, and carefully wrapped her prehensile hair around his middle. "I guess it's only fair that I carry you, after you carried me for a while." She rose up and set him down on the roof next to a piece of sheet metal. He would have thanked her, but had no idea how to pronounce "Thank you" without sounding silly. Using his snout, he pushed the rock off the piece of corrugated sheet metal, and then moved the metal aside to reveal a hole. From this angle, he couldn't see anything but a stone floor. He jumped down.

It was a bit high up and the landing was a little rough on his feet, but he managed to make it down. The inside of the building looked like it was some kind of church, with a large wooden statue of an owl at the center of the room, surrounded by kneeling pillows. There were two nooks set into the walls at opposite sides: one had a few bookshelves full of books, the other had a desk with a chair, and a blue-green flame that was near the window. There were a group of spirit flames on the long curved bench that ran along the outside of the wall.

Link focused again, willing the flames to reveal their true forms, and then he gasped in surprise. It was the children from Ordon, along with two men and another child he didn't recognize. The children were alive! Tears stung his eyes and he felt a wave of relief at seeing them safe, although he knew that he couldn't see him right now. They clung to the man who was seated with them fearfully, a man who wore a long leather robe marked with an angular, symmetrical pattern. He held Malo on his lap, and the little boy was huffing small breaths while crying.

The scruffy man by the window moved away from it to peer up at the metal that Link had moved aside, rubbing at his balding head. "What the heck, did the wind move that or something? There's no way the beasts could have gotten up there."

The other man turned his head to look at his companion, his long beaded tails of hair swinging. He didn't say anything, but held Malo gently, almost like a father would his own child.

"I can't see where those brutes went anyway." the bald man said, turning back to look out the window. "They have to be hiding, waiting for us to come out. That's when they'll strike, I'm sure."

The man in the robe shook his head at the comments, and smiled down at Talo, who clung to his arm. "It's all right, Talo. We are safe as long as we remain in the Sanctuary. The power of Eldin will protect us." His voice was deep and soft, a contrast to the other man's loud and nasal voice.

"Yeah, you so sure about that? That old god of yours didn't do anything to stop the shadow beings from invading." He turned away from the window again and took a few steps towards the group, pointing in the direction of the rest of town. "They don't seem to be afraid of my bombs. It didn't even seem like they cared when one of their buddies blew up." He took another step forward, his eyes behind his round glasses nervous. "How long do you think we can hide out here? We don't have food or water. Neither one of us planned for this."

The robed man put his arm around Beth's shoulders, and shot a warning look at the bald man. The other man failed to notice, already set into an anxious tirade.

"Did you see? When just one of those big black monsters attacked the lady from the general store, half the town went to rescue her. By the time they got there, there was two monsters there and no sign of her!" He panted, frantically. "And then...then there were others, one by one, gone!"

"Barnes, calm down." said the robed man, trying to both comfort the children and soothe the frantic man. Link did not envy him.

Barnes did not seem to hear him, and groaned, putting his hand to his forehead. "I can't calm down! Do you get it?" he dropped his hand and stared at the other man, his eyes wide. "Do you connect the dots, here?! If those shadow monsters get to us, then we'll be turned into monsters too!"

"Barnes!" barked the long-haired man, his face angry. "Be quiet!" Talo and Beth burst into tears then, terrified by the things that Barnes had said. The robed man shot a look full of venom at Barnes, and then kindly patted the children. Barnes lowered his head, and went to sit down on the bench, putting his head in his hands.

"This is the curse that the King of Shadows has forced upon your world." Midna said softly, from Link's back. "It would have been fine to leave the people as spirits, like this group here...but no. That's not how he works. You may have noticed, cruelty is a theme here. There are some who are cruel simply because they can be." She patted his face again. "I can see you're upset. Let's find the rest of those rats so we can free these kids, okay?"

Colin, who had been sitting quietly between Beth and the girl Link didn't recognize, put a hand on Beth's shoulder. "Please don't cry, Beth. I know it's scary, but Link is still out there." Link's ears turned towards the boy when he heard his name. He and the girl next to him weren't crying like the other children. In fact he looked quite brave, and Link felt proud of the boy. "They didn't steal him away, so he's probably working out a way to save us."

"Link's dead!" Talo burst out tearfully. "You said yourself you saw him get his head bashed in!"

"You're wrong!" Colin insisted, balling his hands into fists. "He was still fighting! Link can't die that easily. He'll come here to save us, just you wait and see!"

The faith that the boy had in him brought tears to Link's eyes. This child that had become his little brother believed in him so fiercly. There was no way for him to say that he was here, that he would free them and keep them safe, not while he was in the Twilight, not while he was a wolf.

Midna giggled a little bit. "It's a shame you're still a wolf." she said, echoing his thoughts. "It's so sad to be here right in front of somebody important to you and not be noticed at all."

Link thought that perhaps the King of Shadows is not unique in his cruelty, and all beings from the Twilight can be like that. She had been kind a moment ago, but now here she was laughing at his pain. How far gone is Hyrule if it has to consort with that kind of people to defeat the Twilight? He turned his head to glare at her, and her smile faded.

"Oh, hey there. Don't get emotional." She had seen the tears standing in his eyes. "I was poking a bit of fun. I'm sorry." The apology didn't make her words sting any less. She had kicked him while he was down, and gone back to the Midna that he hated.

"Are there any other ways we can defend ourselves here?" Barnes asked, raising his face from his hands. "I doubt this Link guy is going to get here in time to help out."

"There is a cellar of sorts beneath the Sanctuary, and it connects to the graveyard." the other man told him. "The other end is shut, but if things get bad we can hide down there and hope that the beasts won't fit. The way down is beneath the statue of Eldin, and the switch to move it aside is on its back."

That was it. Link stopped feeling sorry for himself and went around to the back side of the statue. If there was someplace that the rats were hiding in this building, it would be in the cellar. There was a small lever on the back of the square base of the statue, and he thought he could do this one without Midna's help. He didn't want her help right now.

Link nudged the lever up with his nose, then moved out of the way as the statue shuddered and began to move. There was a grinding sound as the statue retracted to reveal an earthen hole ringed in light gray stone. There were cries of alarm from the kids, and from Barnes who shouted a word that was inappropriate to use in front of children. He looked at the group sadly, not wanting to frighten them. Could he explain that it was him here that did that? They wouldn't understand, he knew it. It was then he noticed the girl next to Colin looking at him. Not at the statute like the rest of the group, but right at Link, making eye contact with him. Could she see him? Who was this girl?

He couldn't stay here even if she could see him. Link jumped down the hole and landed on a worn stone floor that was lit only by the light above. "It's all right." said a girl's voice, the girl who had seen him, "The gods are protecting us." There were footsteps then, and the owl statue slid back over the hole, sealing Link and Midna in.

Now he couldn't see his surroundings in the complete darkness, although he could see the glowing forms of four rats that scurried around what was a medium-sized room. That was something, at least. He somehow managed to hunt and kill them without running into anything, using their patterns of movement as they scurried around the room to determine where the walls may be. A group of bright lights shot out of the bodies, briefly lighting up a room that looked like it was constructed out of close-fitting stones before flitting away to return to the Light Spirit. Then he was left in absolute darkness.

"Uh." he said. "Mih-naah?" It was the closest he could manage to asking for help.

"Can't see at all, can you? I'll get us out, then." He felt her lift off his back, and could see the glowing aqua runes on her body and ears as she moved around the room and down a corridor or hallway nearby. He wasn't afraid of the dark, but sitting in a pitch black room that opened up into a graveyard was still unnerving. After a moment he saw a light at what looked like the end of a hall. He walked towards it, and after a moment he came out into the amber glow of the Twilight again. Looking behind him, he had come out of the doors of a mausoleum. This was the graveyard, just as the robed man had said.

Once he focused he could see no rats in the graveyard, so he moved on. By using a combination of his wolfish nose and this ability he suddenly had to spot hidden things, he managed to find two more in the kitchen of what was an inn, the building proudly displaying the name "The Eld Inn" out front. At least with this one he didn't need to ask Midna's for help, and he he had entered through a swinging screen door on the back side of the building that opened up to a dusty yard. He sniffed the air once he exited the same way, realizing that there were still many of them. Were they all together? Rats sometimes nested in large groups.

His nose lead him up a road that zig-zagged up the tiered levels of the town, to a single-floor wooden building behind a few shops that was all by itself, about halfway up to the top of the canyon. There was a sign outside the building: "No Entry. No Trespassing. No Open Flames." He had smelled something sharp, almost sulfurous when he had gotten near the building. No open flames? Was there something flammable inside?

He pawed at the door and then looked over his shoulder at Midna, feeling a bit pathetic for having her open another door for him. She gave him a jeering smile and used her hair to turn the knob. "Ah yes, life without opposable thumbs. It's rough, isn't it?" Link gave her a discontented snort, and then pushed the door open.

Inside the wooden building was two rows of metal shelves stacked with jars, boxes and sacks of chemicals, all lit by a large window that covered a good portion of the back wall. The rats scattered when he entered, hiding beneath shelves, behind powder kegs and sacks of gunpowder. Now that he could read the word printed on the sacks, he knew what it was he was smelling. Link had never seen a gun, nor watched anybody use explosives, so he had no idea what the stuff smelled like. The smell was rather strong in his lupine nostrils, and he wanted to get out of the building as soon as he could. There was no way he was going to get the rats in this place without a plan. He didn't want to ask Midna to move around explosives, either.

He trotted back outside, and sat down on his haunches to think to himself as he stared at the shack. The sign was right there, warning him to stay out and not have any open flames. Oh, now there was an idea. Hopefully he could do it with his wolf body, because he had no way of explaining to Midna what he had planned.

"So what are you thinking? Those rats are hidden pretty well in that place. I'd ask you what "gunpowder" was, but you can't exactly tell me at the moment." She idly pet his ears, enjoying him being a wolf a little too much.

He grunted and shook his head a little to get her to knock it off. Didn't she realize how personal she was being by touching him? In any case, he had to put his plan into motion. "Rraait." he said, trying to speak but once again unable to pronounce most sounds correctly.

"Rait? Do you mean rat?" Midna asked, not understanding the poorly-pronounced word. She flew off his back to hover in front of him to look him in the eye.

"No!" he said clearly. Link patted the ground with his paw, the manacle on it jingling. "Rait. Aaait. Ait!" Gods, why was this so hard to do? Wolf mouths were terrible for talking. No wonder dogs never evolved the ability to speak.

She frowned and tilted her head to the side a little. "Oh, you mean wait?"

"Ress!" Oh good, she got it. It was a stupid conversation, and he was glad it was done. Now that she understood him, he went back into the building and clawed at one of the bags of gunpowder until he had torn a hole in it. He grabbed the sack in his teeth and dragged it across the room, near the door. As he had hoped, it left a somewhat sloppy trail of black powder behind it. He could see her looking at him with a bewildered look on her round face as he turned with the sack still in his teeth, dragging it back near the other ones. She probably thought he was out of his mind. The floor now had a decent amount of powder on it, and he clawed open holes in a few of the other bags to let them spill some of their contents, just for good measure.

He ran back down to the inn to look for something flammable. There were lanterns laying around, but none of them were lit. Maybe he could find a candle? Could he even have Midna light a candle for him? He then saw something in the rear yard as he searched: set into a sconce on a wooden pylon near the outhouses was a pitch torch. That was something flammable, but there was no fire out here. He grunted, pacing back and forth and looking at the torch he would have been able to pick up with his human hands. He should have had Midna come with him, but he wanted to do this himself. If she wanted to treat him like a pet, he'd act intelligent and like a man. Maybe then she'd stop touching his ears.

He reared up to put his front paws on the wooden pylon. As it turned out, when he stood up on his hind legs he was nearly as tall as he was as a human, or perhaps even taller. Link poked at the torch with his nose a few times before he managed to knock it loose to the ground. He picked it up in his jaws. All right, now he had something flammable. Next he needed flame.

Flame was in the kitchen, as it turned out. The fire in the hearth had burned down until it was embers, but there was still enough heat coming from them. If this didn't work, then he had no idea how he'd do it. He set down the torch and picked it up again from the very end of it, and lay the pitch-covered end in the coals. There was some ash on the coals, and he hoped the heat was enough to ignite the torch. If not, he didn't have the ability to blow on the coals; that would require a human mouth with human lips.

It didn't take long for the torch to light. As it turned out the heat from the dying fire was enough, so now he had to get it out of the building without starting it on fire. He carefully picked up the torch at end, trying to hold it as far away from the flame as possible. The flame was still hot near his face, and he squinted his left eye shut as he moved out of the inn and through the back door.

Midna was laying on her back on the ground when he returned, staring at the Twilight-tinged sky with her little hands folded on her belly. "Finally. You tell me to wait here and then you go away for a while? What were you doing that you couldn't bring me along? Getting a fire?"

"Mmm-hmm." he said, torch in his mouth.

"It would have been faster if I had done it, you know. I guess you have a bit of a stubborn streak, hmm?" She sat up to look at him. "All right, so you have a fire and the sign says that there should be no open flame. Does that mean something is going to burn?"

He shrugged, and odd gesture as a wolf. Link couldn't explain it without the ability to talk. She'd find out soon enough. Link stepped up to the shack cautiously, hearing the skittering of the rats over the flaring sound of the pitch burning on the torch in his mouth. Where should he drop this? If it was flammable, he probably didn't want to be standing in the middle of some powder, otherwise he'd be cooked. The trail he dragged out to the entrance would do. He lowered his head to set the torch down on the end of the black powder, and immediately a smoking pillar of flame shot up and quickly advanced up the trail.

Link didn't wait to see what would happen. He turned around and started running. "Run!" he said clearly as he ran past her, dashing down the hill.

"Run?!" Midna asked, alarmed. She shot forward to cling to his back, able to move far faster than him.

Link knew that bombs exploded, everyone knew that. What he didn't know is what kind of explosion would occur when enough gunpowder to fill hundreds of bombs would explode, along with the bombs and jars of explosives that sat on the warehouse shelves. To say it was a big explosion wouldn't do it justice; even though he had sprinted halfway down the hill and out of the direct path of the force of the explosion, the shock wave still sent Link and Midna tumbling down the hill. Shrapnel and debris flew above them, missing them entirely since they had been knocked down to the ground. They were fortunate, because the wood and metal that was sent flying could have killed them. He could hear nothing but a loud ringing in his ears, and he slowly rose to his feet to look at what was left of the building.

There was only a bit of a charred foundation remaining, and a star-shaped scorch mark spreading out on the ground from where the building was. Midna shouted something at him, but he couldn't hear anything she said. In the middle of the ruined building were several pinpoints of lights that hovered in the air gently for a moment before zipping off towards the spring.

It worked. It actually had worked. He began to laugh as his hearing slowly returned. His crazy idea actually went as he had planned, and they lived through it. It was stupid, it was dangerous, and it worked. He continued to laugh, giddy about the whole thing. His laugh sounded very human despite coming from a wolf, almost like his normal laugh, and Midna turned to look at him now that her hearing was starting to come back. She grinned and began to laugh too, and it seemed like she was laughing with him and not at him.

The two of them stood on that hill for a moment, watching the remnants of the warehouse smolder, and then Midna stood next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know what? You're kind of fun." she said, grinning at him.

There was no way for him to respond with a joke to that like he normally would, so he gave a little chuckle instead. "Ress."

"The Light Spirit hasn't reformed yet, so there has to be more rats somewhere else." Midna hopped up onto his back. "Can you smell more in town?"

Link lifted his wolf nose to the air and sniffed. "No." He was getting better about saying that word, at least. His wolf voice was deeper than his human one, but in some ways he felt it still sounded like him speaking.

"Hmm. There are some buildings at the top of the canyon walls, I could see that when we went halfway up. We could try up there." She grabbed onto his back when he suddenly started moving down the hill. "Or we can go where you want to go. That's fine too."

He let his nose lead him again. Starting from the road he could track the rats north through the town, and to the path that was at the far end of it that wound up through the canyon wall and towards the tall mountain that loomed next to the town. Link had heard of Death Mountain before, the home of the Goron race. It was an active volcano, but one with enough vents and oozing lava to not pose a threat to the nearby area. It didn't build up pressure and blow its top like some volcanoes, and so the Gorons had their city up near the top, where it was the hottest. He had no idea if it would be hot as he climbed up, following the switchback trail as it made its way up the mountain. So far, the Twilight had been cold even in places that normally would be hot in the summertime. Maybe it would be the same up here.

There was a Goron on the trail then, clearly visible even though he didn't actively focus. Was that power of his just turned on now, since he needed it? The brown-skinned creature stood in the middle of the path, arms crossed, as if he was on guard. Link knew the Goron was male, because all Gorons were male. He didn't understand how they bred that way, but he really didn't want to know the details. When he stepped around the Goron, he turned to look in his direction.

"Huh? Was that another rat?" the Goron shaded his big round eyes from the sun that seemed dim in the Twilight, and looked up the path to where Link and Midna were. First that girl had looked directly at him, now a Goron was able to notice him. Maybe he wasn't completely invisible to the people within the Twilight after all.

As he continued up the trail, a white light shot overhead, back down the mountain and towards the spring. Midna noticed it too, watching it as it went. "Are these rock creatures killing them too? If they are, they're making our job easier."

Link nodded in agreement and continued on. Eventually he reached a more level area, where a young Goron was being chased by a rather fat rat, one larger than the ones in the town. The stony creature was rolled in a ball, trying to move away from the rat, who for some reason wanted to attack him. The rat noticed Link far too late, as his jaws were closing in to crush its skull. A white light flew up and sailed back down the mountain, and then the young Goron uncurled himself and looked at the dead rat, confused.

"Wait...it's dead? But I didn't crush it?" He rubbed at his head, confused, and Link left him behind.

They passed vents shooting steam, even cracks in the ground that glowed with the light of the magma directly beneath them, but there was no heat. It was as cold up here as it was anywhere else in the Twilight. It was as if the magical field drained all color, all light, all warmth out of everything. It turned everything it touched into something sterile and lifeless.

Another two lights sailed overhead, and Link did not slow. He could still smell something up the mountain, although he didn't know exactly where it was, only that they were going the same way that it went. They may as well continue until they found something to kill, or the Gorons took care of it for them. Either way, they would be sent back to the spring, just as they had in Faron.

He found it eventually, outside the entrance to what looked like a mine. There were several Gorons fighting a massive black rat the size of a tiger, a rat with eyes that glowed the same purple as the portals and the runes on the Shadow Beasts. It had a number of wormy tails all twisted together, and incisors so long that it had to unhinge its jaw to bite at the Gorons, a freakish sight to see. The creature had wounded two Gorons, and five more were still fighting it with their fists. These Gorons didn't look like warriors, and were probably miners that were interrupted when the rat appeared.

Link gave a low whine when he saw the huge mutated rat. He felt Midna gently pat his back. "Hey, don't worry about it. This overgrown mouse is nothing compared to that giant plant you fought a few days ago. You're a tough guy, I know you can do it."

She was right, and he shouldn't be afraid of the giant ugly rat. He ran up the trail and circled around the rat, who was still busy snapping at the Gorons. It could turn quickly, and when a Goron flanking it punched its side, it suddenly turned to bite down on his arm. The poor Goron cried out in pain. Link decided to let a wolf's instincts take over again, focusing on how he needed to slow its movements in order to get to its throat. He paced back and forth for a moment, and then lunged to bite through the tendon on the back of the giant animal's leg, hamstringing it.

The rat shrieked, and started to turn on Link, albeit slowly. The Gorons used this opportunity to punch at it again, one of them rolling into a ball to slam into the monster's side. It raised its head and swung it around to face the rock people attacking it from the side, and that was Link's chance. He leaped forward to bite down on its throat, avoiding the large sharp teeth in its mouth. The creature gave a strangled scream, but struggled as the wolf bit down with his strong jaws. Blood gushed from its neck, and it weakly started to collapse. Link finally let go and backed off, blood in his mouth and on his face again, and watched as the monster died.

A large amount of light flew up and out of the body, blinding him momentarily, as well as the Gorons, who shielded their eyes. They grunted and muttered about the light, and when it was gone, one of them stared at the giant rat with a stunned expression.

"What the heck just happened?!" he exclaimed. Link never heard what his companions said, because the world around him suddenly glowed a brilliant white, and he shut his eyes at the glare. He heard Midna grunt in pain, and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing at the spring. A quick glance down at himself confirmed that he was human again.

An orb of light rose out of the spring, just as it had for the others. Light coalesced above it, to reveal the form of a bird with its wings wrapped around itself. The great owl opened its wings wide, its talons grasping at the orb of light, and it raised its face to let out a deep long hoot. Then it fixed its round, unblinking stare on Link.

"Hero, I thank you. I am returned to my full form, and now I may protect this land and the people within it from the Twilight. Though darkness still lurks through my lands, it has lessened, and you have brought hope to this part of Hyrule." Its voice was deep, and sexless like the other two.

"I was told to come here by Faron, and asked by Ordonia to free all four Light Spirits." There was no point in introductions; the Light Spirit knew exactly who he was. "I need to know where the fragment of the Fused Shadow is in this region."

The great owl leaned forward, extending its neck to peer at Link with its golden stare. It didn't respond at first, but then retracted its head and snapped its beak. "Why would the hero want such a dark and evil power?"

"I'm allied with somebody from the Twilight who can use that power. She's in my shadow right now, hiding from you and the sun. I know that the Fused Shadows is dangerous, but if she combines her power with mine, we believe we can defeat the King of Shadows." It sounded good in theory, but it didn't look like Eldin was buying it. Then again it was difficult to read the expression of a giant golden owl.

"Is that so?" Eldin tilted its head sideways to peer at him.

"It was Faron's idea. I didn't know anything about the Fused Shadows until it told me. I had to go into Kokiri ruins to find the first piece." Link told the spirit.

Eldin twisted its head back to its original position. "That sounds correct. Each of the fragments was trusted to one of the races of Hyrule. You certainly did not touch this fragment?"

"No. My companion told me not to, and she picked it up. She told me that I'd turn into a monster if I tried." he said.

"Then your companion is wise, and respects that power. I shall tell you where the next piece is." It turned its head to face Death Mountain, which continuously spewed smoke. "This fragment of the Fused Shadows is hidden deep within a mine behind Goron City. The Gorons were charged with guarding it, but something feels wrong. Despite the Twilight being lifted, there is still a dark power within the mountain." It turned back to him. "Something is not right."

"The last time, it had turned a normal creature into terrible monster." Given time to think about it on the long walk through the woods, he had realized that the giant plant was a transformed version of the lesser toothy plants he had seen near the road in Faron Woods.

"That is likely the case again, so you must be prepared to travel up the mountain. Until then, please rest here in Kakariko. There are so very few here to provide hospitality, but it should still suit your needs." The great luminous owl folded its wings around its body, and then vanished in a flash of light particles. After it was gone, Link touched at his face around his mouth. The blood was gone again, thankfully.

He turned and began to walk away from the spring, and Midna spoke to him from within his shadow, which was longer in the late afternoon light. In fact much of the town was in shadow, the sun starting to sink below the canyon walls. "You're crazy, you know." she said with a laugh. "Crazy, but fun. I really enjoyed that last little trip through the Twilight."

Link had to give a little chuckle at her reaction. It was fun, in a way. "I feel like I've been going crazy for days, so it was time to start acting that way." He looked across the town towards the wisp of smoke that rose up from the remnants of the warehouse. "I hope the owner of the bomb shop isn't too upset over the side-effects of my insanity."

"Considering the circumstances, I'm sure he'll understand." Midna made a small sound that he couldn't identify. "Then again, he was that bald guy in the Sanctuary, wasn't he? He looks kind of whacky too."

"He was scared. He's an ordinary person, not like you or me." Yet not that long ago, he was an ordinary person. An unrelated thought occurred to him. "Oh, and Midna? Stop scratching my ears. That's getting a little too personal."

"But they're so soft and cute. I want to snuggle down into that nice green fur of yours." She gave a giggle, and he had no idea whether she was serious or not. Then she stopped suddenly. "Link, you have company. We'll talk later."

He turned around and saw that the Sanctuary door had opened, and Barnes was peering around cautiously. The man turned his head to stare at Link for a few seconds, and then he pointed excitedly.

"There's a guy there!" the bald man exclaimed. "A guy with a sword!"

"It's safe now!" Link called over to him, and began walking back over to the Sanctuary. Barnes must have seen him through the window, probably while looking out and trying to figure out what the loud explosion from earlier was.

"That's Link's voice!" He heard the excited shout and Talo ran out of the door, past Barnes. Beth and Malo followed, running enthusiastically at him.

He got down on one knee, holding his arms wide with a smile and was tackled by Talo, who wrapped his arms around him. Malo clung to him too, smiling up at him in an unusual display of humanity, and Beth laughed as the three of them were gathered in a hug by Link. "You're all right!" he said, finally able to express his relief for finding them safe and sound. "I was worried about you guys." The guilt he felt about their abduction came back, but the warm feeling of relief washed it away. They were safe and unhurt. It was all he could to not get emotional in front of them.

"We're okay now." Talo said, smiling widely. "Colin said you'd come to help us, and you came." The boy didn't mention how he doubted that Link was even alive, but he wasn't going to bring that up. They couldn't know that he was an invisible wolf listening to their conversation.

He ruffled the boy's hair. "It took me a while, but yeah, I'm here." He grunted as he was tackled by Colin, who called his name as he hurled himself at the young man who had become like a big brother to him.

"I knew you would come." the boy said, in tears. "I knew that you would be strong and come to help us." He clung on and buried his face in Link's chest, overwhelmed.

Link held onto the boy tightly, unable to hold back his emotions anymore. A few tears slipped out from his tightly shut eyes as he held onto Colin. "Yeah. I'm here now." he said quietly, barely controlling his voice. "You did good, buddy. You were strong and hung on." He finally had Colin back, the sweet boy with a beautiful heart who looked up to him. It was the first time he truly had felt happy since they were attacked at the spring.

"Are you crying?" Talo asked, looking at him closely.

"Oh, nah." Link said, wiping at the tears on his cheeks quickly with the back of his arm. "I got a bit sweaty fighting all those monsters to get here." He didn't want to have the children see him cry. In their minds, adults didn't cry, and the older boy that had taken care of them until he grew up was stronger than that. He patted at Colin's back. "It's okay now. You're safe."

"You must be Link." the tall man in the long robe said as he approached with Barnes and the girl. Link looked up at him and nodded. He was still holding Colin, who was now sniffling and rubbing at his face. "My name is Renado. I'm the shaman of the Light Spirit's spring, and one of the remaining residents of Kakariko." He held out his hand to the girl and Barnes. "This is my daughter Luda, and this is Barnes, the owner of the bomb shop."

Link stood and shook hands with Renado, and then Barnes. Barnes gave a bit of an awkward smile. "I admit, I didn't think anyone would come to help us after all that's happened. But hey, here you are in the flesh." He leaned forward and adjusted his round-lensed glasses to peer at Link. "Did you have to fight many monsters?"

"A few." Link admitted. More than a few by now. He had to think of what he could tell these people of his journey so far. They certainly couldn't learn about Midna or his transformation into a wolf.

"I hate to interrupt, but if I may…" Renado said politely. "It's best to go inside and talk about this over a meal. The children haven't had anything to eat since dinner last night, before the dark creatures attacked."

"Good idea." said Barnes. "I'll handle the chow. Let's go to that inn over yonder. It's where we've been taking care of the kids so far." He turned and put his hand to the backs of Talo and Beth, and escorted them in the direction of the inn. Renado and Luda waited for Colin, who gave Link one last smile before following the others. The children were safe. He didn't know when he could tell their families, but he would need to at some point. There was no way he could get them home right now, even with the Twilight gone.

"You were totally crying." said Malo bluntly, who had remained behind with Link.

"Oh, yeah? Why do you think that?" That was the first thing Malo had said to him, and it was rude. He still couldn't figure out if he was intentionally rude, or only that way due to being young.

"You can't fool me." He looked up at Link with his round face, his expression bland. "Men aren't supposed to cry."

He felt his anger rise. This kid was just as emotional as the others a minute ago, and now he was daring to criticize Link? "Malo. Don't be a brat." The boy's eyes widened a bit. He wasn't expecting Link to scold him. "Adults cry just like anyone else. Even men, regardless of what your father says." He shook his finger at the boy. "If you had gone through the things I did in order to get here, you'd be bawling." He knew that Malo was in fact bawling not all that long ago, if his red face and tearful hiccups as he sat on Renado's lap were any indication.

The little fat-faced boy stared at him for a moment. "Fair enough." he said, and then he moved his little short legs to catch up with the others, who were already entering the inn. Link watched him go with a sigh. Would that boy change as he got older? He hoped so.

"That kid's a little shit." Midna said from his shadow. Link had to cover his mouth to stifle a laugh so Malo wouldn't hear him.