AN: No suggested soundtrack this week =.= Sorry I've been kind of aloof (I think I have been anyway)

Thanks for the favorites/follows/reviews, everything. You readers are awesome and I love you : 3


It was a whole two weeks before Shadow was allowed internet access, but he was still grounded.

iluvpigz26: y dos Dad ground me, neway? its not like its ever worked

W1nds0rc3r3r:hahaha mayB he wnts u out of hs hair?

iluvpigz26: :P

iluvpigz26:hey dad sed I can fnly have visitors on Sat u wan2 come?

W1nds0rc3r3r: no I am going out w giri :3

iluvpigz26: who iz this giri and y is he more important than m3?

W1nds0rc3r3r: Just a boy I met at school 3

iluvpigz26: My 3 just broke

W1nds0rc3r3r: :P u sed u wernt interested

iluvpigz26:lol im kidding wats he like?

W1nds0rc3r3r: hes

iluvpigz26:yes?

W1nds0rc3r3r: its a secret }:)

iluvpigz26:oooooo mysterious

W1nds0rc3r3r: ok gtg ttyl

iluvpigz26:. . .

iluvpigz26:bye

SSS

Link sat in the waiting room of the doctor's office for his physical. In order to do what Shad did, he had to be given the a-okay by his doctor. The bespectacled man with the triangle beard gave Link the willies. His appointment was in the afternoon, so he didn't even get time off school . . .

The building's doors opened and none other than Shadow walked in. He spotted Link and grinned, sitting down next him. "What's up!"

"Not much. Just a check up. You?"

"Oh. Regular checkup, yeah."

There was something odd about Shadow at the moment. He seemed . . . paler than usual. It took Link several moments to figure out why. "Your fingerless gloves. You're not wearing them today?" Now that he thought about it, he'd NEVER seen Shadow without his gloves. His eyes wandered over the suddenly exposed limbs. The skin was mottled, and in some places scarred.

Shadow turned his hands around so Link could see his palms and how they, too, were scarred. "That's why I'm here," Shadow said. "I got burned badly a few years ago. Got some skin grafts and such, so now the doctor's just checking me every few months to make sure everything's okay. I don't really like how they look, so I wear the gloves to avoid questions."

"What the heck happened?"

Biting his lip, Shadow turned away. "I don't want to talk about it. Um, there's my doctor, see you later, okay?" and before Link could reply, Shadow had sprung to the door that led to the examination rooms and disappeared.

SSS

"Are you okay?" Sheik asked. He was hanging out at Shadow's doing assignments due at school on Monday. It was Saturday.

Shadow messed with his gloves, pulling at them restlessly. "Yeah."

". . . Bad day?"

". . . Bad month." The roots of his hair had started to grow out black again. Shadow sat up on his bed mound and kept fussing with his gloves. "I can't stop thinking about this twin I have . . . and who HE grew up with. And Dad and I still aren't talking." His brow furrowed. "And my best friend is ignoring me to be with his new boyfriend . . . And it's almost winter. I hate winter."

"Aaw, really? I love winter! The snow, the cold, the hot chocolate . . ."

"But it's always so dismal here, cloudy and what not. And Dad always drags me to his lodge in Death Mountain for school break. I'm not looking forward to it."

Sheik clambered onto the bed and sat next to him. "I think the problem isn't that this is a bad month, it's that next month isn't going to be any better. Am I right?"

"Probably."

"Well, we've got the talent show before break, that should be fun. OH! Did you hear? They opened it to other schools. It's now a multi-school event!"

"Wow, that's pretty awesome! . . . If only Dad would let me rehearse."

"Yeah, there's only so much you can do over the internet."

Shadow sighed audibly. "I'm still grounded, and going to be for a few weeks more."

"You're dad is THAT mad?"

"Yeah. I guess. There's no way I'm getting out of this house in time to practice with you guys."

Sheik squinted thoughtfully, then tapped his chin. "That's not entirely true . . ."

Shadow looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's my birthday next Wednesday."

"What! No way! Why didn't you tell me?"

Sheik grinned. "My parents always have a grownup party on my birthday. If I invited you and your dad, he'd definitely let you come, wouldn't he?"

"I dunno . . ."

Sheik smirked and put a hand on his arm. "Don't worry. I know politics. No WAY would your dad say no. My parents have already sent out the invites, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind two last minute additions. I'll tell Link and Shad and Midna, and maybe during the party we can sneak away to rehearse for an hour or so."

"Wow, you're like a super villain the way you plan things."

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!"

SSS

Link sat outside school, on the steps, again waiting. He was biting his bottom lip anxiously, shaking his right leg restlessly.

"Hey there, Hero boy!"

His ears pricked up and he lifted his eyes to see Shad, who was standing next to him with a pile of rock-climbing equipment thrown over his shoulder. "Hi Shad. What's up? Going on another expedition?"

Shad gave him a sympathetic look. "Did you forget? We're going on assignment already."

Link sprang to his feet. "What, really?! WE? I thought it was going to take a few more weeks before I actually got to do anything besides office stuff with Mr. Rauru."

"Didn't they tell you about it?"

"Uh, well maybe they mentioned it, but Rauru asks those trick questions where you want to say no, but actually should have said yes, and so you don't say anything at all and sometimes I just kinda zone out when he's speaking."

Shad grinned and ruffled his hair. "You're odd, but that's alright. Let's get going."

Apparently Shad was old enough to drive. They were in a fancy UTV driving up trails in the mountains. Mr. Darunia sat in the back, taking up all three seats with his bulk. He wasn't fat, he was just . . . massively muscular, with barrel arms and a tank chest. He had this constant look of grumpy seriousness which belied a surprisingly fun underside. He especially loved happy music. Link learned all of this on the trip up the mountain.

"Alright, Link, was it?" Darunia began as they reached the uppermost trails of Death Mountain.

"Yeah."

"Okay, Link, do you know what we're doing?"

Link stared blankly, somewhat chagrined. "No. Sorry."

Darunia laughed and pounded Link on the back of the head. The force nearly knocked Link into the dashboard. "Don't worry, lad! Just do what I tell ya and you'll do fine."

Link followed the other two out of the vehicle and to a large cliff face against which was a large cavern.

"Dodongo's Cavern," Darunia explained. He pointed up. "Our work begins here. We discovered some cavern drawings after a recent earthquake dropped a few old walls. Our job is to clear a path to them and record the writing and take them to scholars so they can be translated."

"How?" Link asked.

Darunia held out paper and a large piece of brown crayon. "By drawing it." He stuffed the tools back into his many-pocketed vest. "Also take pictographs of it all. Our main job, however, as I said, is to clear a path. The Cavern can be very dangerous to the untrained spelunker, which is why WE are here to record data instead of the scientists. Well, let's get started."

Shad and Link put on their rock climbing gear and followed Darunia into the cavern. It was incredibly hot and stuffy, and smelled like burnt dirt. Darunia took in a deep breath. "Aaaaah, cavern air. Best in the country."

"I don't know about that," Shad said, frowning queasily.

They went through a short tunnel and found themselves in a large room with a platform in the center. Around that platform was a small river of nearly dried lava. These weren't the most interesting aspects though. Link gazed wide-mouthed at everything, especially at the gigantic, dragon-like skull in the opposing wall, the lower jaw of which was used as a bridge to a door at the back of the dragon's neck.

"WOW!" Link shouted. "THAT'S AAAAAAWESOME!"

Darunia chuckled. "Follow this path here. The murals are through these next few doors."

They left the giant room and came into another. It was a huge room, like the previous one, lit entirely by lava waterfalls from the walls, and at the edge of the platform you could see that the lava fell deep into the cavern, hundreds of feet below. Link stepped closed to the edge and stared down. It was beautiful the way the lava light reflected on the rocks. Stepping back, he craned his neck to look up. Sure enough, the lava waterfalls that fell into this room came from another room high above.

"Okay, Link," said Shad, "Here's how it works. I climb up first, ten feet, setting in anchors to prevent us from falling. THEN you climb after me and remove the anchors as you catch up."

"Great!" Link replied cheerfully, eyes bright.

"You seem excited. Nervous at all?"

Link shook his head emphatically. "I can't wait!"

The trip up the rock wall was extremely tiring, and slow-going. Darunia watched from below, hands on his hips, radioing instructions to Shad when he couldn't see up high enough to make a path where he needed to go.

Eventually they made it to a stretch of wall that had been disturbed by the earthquake Darunia mentioned. Behind the fallen dirt and rocks, a mural was exposed. A script that was not anything like Hylian was carved into it, and paintings of Gorons filled in the blanks.

"Incredible!" Shad said as they stood next to each other on the ledge admiring the mural. "It looks like Goron script. They haven't used their native tongue in centuries! It's been literally forgotten!"

Link just liked looking at the lines.

Shad radioed the information to Darunia, who was just as excited. "Good work, boys! Record the HECK out of that wall! You have no idea how important this is to me."

Shad handed the pictograph to Link, and himself took his own paper and crayon. He held the paper over the writing and rubbed over it with the crayon to get a general image of the words.

For a moment, Link just stood and admired the wall. He could almost feel the artists, their spirit in the air. Imagine . . . somebody put this here hundreds of years ago, and even I can see it, and I'm way in the future! He held out a hand and slowly trailed his fingers against the writing. Was it history? A story? A blessing from some sort of shrine? Whatever it was, it was . . . sentient. He suddenly felt a longing to connect to these ancient peoples.

He forced himself to step back, and he took pictographs of the entire wall, as clearly and closely as he could. The pictographs came right out, and he put a letter in the corner of each so he would know how to put all the pictures together when he was done taking them. It was like constructing a giant puzzle.

"So how's your first day on the job been, Hero?"

Link paused to smile contentedly at Shad, before returning to taking pictures.

SSS

"I'm hoooome!" Link shouted. He greeted Aryll and Granny, and Aryll told him about her day while he ate a late dinner. When Aryll was done speaking, she climbed off her chair and went back to her business of drawing seagulls in the living room.

"So how was it, dear?" Granny asked when they were alone, noting that Link's posture was much more confident and less slouchy than normal.

"It was great! We went into this giant cavern, and there was a giant skeleton, but it was of a dragon, and oh, Grandma, there's HISTORY and it's literally seeping through the walls!" As he continued to babble on and on about his adventures, Granny began to smile wider and wider. She didn't dare interrupt. When Link was finished eating, she replaced his empty place with a bowl of ice cream, which Link started on without even realizing it.

SSS

Link bounced to the lunch table. "Hey guys! How was your weekend?"

Sheik looked up from her soup. "Oh, hey, Link. We were just discussing our rehearsal this Wednesday."

"Hey yeah," Shadow interruped, "What am I supposed to wear?"

"Just wear what you wore to the dance."

"It's formal?"

"Yes."

Link grimaced. "I had to return that tux, you know."

Sheik giggled. "Not you! And not Shad or Midna either. Shadow's dressing up because the only way he can come to rehearse is if he's invited to the actual event."

"Oooooooh," Link said, grinning.

"What are you smiling about?" Sheik suddenly asked Link.

"Hm?"

"You. You're smiling, like you're not even trying. It's not a sad smile like the last few months. You look happy."

Link considered this for a moment, and then replied, confidently, "I am. I'm really really happy!"

Sheik felt so happy he almost cried. How long had it been since he'd seen his best friend Link smile for real? He'd missed that reassuring smile so much, and here it was . . .

He sniffed.

"Allergies?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah," Sheik lied. "Here Link, have my pudding cup."

"Oh sweet! Thanks!"