Green
Everyone landed hard on the ground when Midna's hand let go of them. Scrambling onto his feet, Green checked to see if everyone was all right. He noticed Midna was back in her solid implike form. Once he saw what she was doing, he had to bite back a laugh.
The imp was sitting on Gray's back, which wasn't very new. What was new was that the imp was wielding the sword, and wearing the shield… on her face.
"Hmm, so these are the weapons you use in your world? She asked.
"Yes, but the shield doesn't go on your f-" Green stopped mid-sentence and gasped as Midna swung the sword a few times, several nearly clipping Gray on the back of the head. Gray, wisely, ducked his head and whimpered.
"Hey! Watch it! What do you think you're doing?!" Blue snarled. Indifferent, Midna held up the sword.
"Do you really think that thing can slay the creatures of twilight?"
Gray started growling. Midna took the shield off of her face and dropped the two items, the wooden shield landing herd on Gray's face.
"Well," she leaned back and crossed her arms, "I won't use these, but I'll hang on to them for you!" The items dissipated into little black squares which disappeared.
"WHAT?! You make us go through all of that and now you're not even going to use them?!" Blue roared. Green was feeling the same, though he didn't voice it, "What kind of-" Blue stopped his rant suddenly and laid his ears back in embarrassment as his throat emitted a hiccupping noise.
Momentarily forgetting Midna, everyone stared at the mortified blue rabbit.
"I told you not to eat so fast…" Vio noted.
Blue hiccupped again and grumbled, "I know, I know… Do you know how to *hic* stop them?" Since he was so small, whenever he hiccupped, his whole body would jump. It looked a little ridiculous.
"Try holding your breath," Vio suggested. Blue, disgruntled, did as Vio suggested. However, it made his eyes bug out. Green, feeling sorry for him, faced Midna.
"Are you going to help us or not?" he asked, drawing everyone else's attention away from Blue as well.
"Well, I guess a promise is a promise, I trust you guys enough to help you," Midna responded, leaning forward on Gray's back, "In exchange for my help, though, I need you to gather some things for me!"
We are not *hic* stealing again!" Blue thundered. Green agreed.
"Oh, you're not stealing! It's more of a search-and-find! Well, I can't tell you all of the details now, but it'll be easy, trust me."
Just then, Red, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke up, twitching his ear.
"Hey, what's that noise?" he asked, "It sounds so sad."
Green stopped to listen, perking up his long ears. The sound that greeted them was a beautiful, melancholy melody that sounded utterly sad and miserable. Yet, it was also beautiful in a strange sense.
"Oh, that noise? That's the lamentation of the spirit that had its light stolen," Midna informed them, "Where in the world could it be? Eee-hee! Better get going don't you think? Don't blame me for your world's fate if you don't hurry up and find that light! Snap to it!" She leaned forward on Gray's back
"Come on," Gray growled surly, glaring at Midna, who had just punched his sides with her legs like she was kicking a horse. The group started forward, Gray in the lead because he had an idea where the spirit was. Gray led them down a sloping path into a small clearing. In the middle of passing through it, several familiar knobbed stakes fell from the sky, landing around them in a circle.
"Not again," Green groaned as the trap sprung to life, another portal in the sky forming. This time, instead of dropping only one shadow being, three fell from the swirling portal in the sky. The five got into their own battle positions.
"Pffft! Who do they think they're dealing with?" Midna scoffed, "There's five of you, and only three of them! No need to take the little pests one at a time, right? Just take them all at once!"
"She's right," Vio added,
"So, you guys can handle this by yourselves, can't you? Good luck! Bye!" Midna leaped off of Gray's back and flew straight out of the trap.
"Get back here you coward!" Blue raged, running at her.
"Blue, watch out!" Vio warned as a shadow being reached out to grab the rabbit. Blue squealed, enraged as the shadow beast lifted him into the air. Green raced towards him to help, but Blue didn't need as much as he thought. The rabbit twisted, sinking his sharp teeth into the being's hand. It dropped him, hissing. Then Green reached them and leaped into the fray. The two bunnies bit and scratched relentlessly until the beast collapsed onto the ground, unmoving.
"Take that," Blue spat, turning to examine how everyone else was doing. Green turned around too, just in time to watch Gray ferociously take down beast number two. It seemed they were doing well, until the third shadow beast screamed. The shriek was so loud and nasty, Green felt like his head was going to explode. He tried to clamp his paws over his ears until the noise stopped. To his horror, Green watched as the two downed shadow beings clambered back onto their feet.
Midna, who had come back to ride on Gray again, asked, "What's the holdup? If you leave the last one alive, it'll just use that shriek to bring the others back. Listen, if you get in the right position, I can expand an energy shield to kill multiple enemies at the same time."
"Now you help," Blue muttered.
"I was just proving that you needed my help!" Midna grinned, "How far do you think you'd get without me? Now come on, before those creeps catch you unawares! Gray, crouch down and prepare to jump when I tell you!"
Gray grumbled something under his breath and nodded, getting into position. Gray and Midna approached the shadow beings, who charged eagerly towards the wolf and imp. When they were close enough, Midna concentrated, and a black ring of energy erupted in a circle around her, ensnaring all three of the black beasts.
"Jump now!" Midna ordered. Gray jumped and flew faster than should be possible, dealing a neat, deathly blow to all three monsters in quick succession.
The shadowy trio collapsed and evaporated into the now-green portal, the barrier disappearing as well. Gray stood, panting, in the middle of the clearing, Midna lounging on his back as if nothing had happened.
"That was… a bit of a rush," Gray noted. Midna giggled.
"Shouldn't you be checking on your dear light spirit now? Eee-hee! I daresay he has been waiting for you long enough!"
That jolted everyone back into action. Gray once again took the lead and brought them to a spring where a faint light was swirling in the center of the water.
"Please… Be careful… These woods have changed…" the light said, "The dark clouds of dusk… twilight… cover my lands… In this twilight, those who live in the light… become as spirits…
"Like that guard we saw in Hyrule Castle?" Red asked Green in a low voice. Green nodded grimly.
"It is a place… where dark and evil things thrive…" the light- which Green assumed was the spirit- continued, "I… am a spirit… of light…" Here the voice faltered slightly. Now Green knew for certain that it was, indeed, the spirit they were looking for, and form the way it sounded, it was using a lot of it's energy to talk to them. This was not good.
"Look… for my light… Retrieve the light stolen by the dark beasts… and keep it in this vessel…" Out of the light grew a delicate, golden carrier that looked like a long string of fern fiddleheads. Midna caught it and went back to Gray's back.
"Go… Find the dark insects that hold the light… There are… sixteen of them… I will grant you a map to guide your way…" Midna took the map produced by the light and gasped in surprise, showing it to everyone else. The map was magical. Back where Green was from, magic maps were somewhat hard to find and make. Judging from Gray and Midna's expressions, those sort of maps were just as rare- maybe even more so. Examining closer, Green could see sixteen blue dots on the map, probably marking the insects, and five triangles, one green, one blue, one purple, one red, and one yellow.
"Huh, I don't get a marker," Midna noted with a frown, "Oh well, I'll just have to stick with one of you!"
"You must hurry… Find my light…" the spirit urged.
"All right, all right, we get the point," Midna waved a hand dismissively, "Let's go," she said, "The first insects are just inside that tunnel," she pointed towards a log tunnel a few feet away.
"Let's get them!" Blue agreed, and led the way. Once inside, Vio twitched his ears.
"Listen, follow the buzzing noise," he instructed, crouching down. Green listened. Sure enough, a soft buzzing could be heard, that was rapidly growing louder and louder. Then the two insects were in sight. About the size of a small pumpkin and buzzing with electricity, the bugs were not a pretty sight.
"Get them!" Blue charged, leaping directly onto one, and scratching until it exploded into a large, blue, floating teardrop. The ball of light floated towards Midna, who reached out to it. The ball then evaporated into one of the fiddlehead-looking things on the light vessel. Vio took care of the second one, the same thing happening.
"Two down, fourteen to go!" Green said, "Where's the next one?"
"Down the path that way," Midna replied, pointing. The group ran in that direction, but were stopped by an ugly, shadowy monster popping out of the grass.
"That looks like… a deku baba gone through a nightmare!" Gray gasped. Indeed, it looked very much like that. Instead of its natural, hard blue mouth, the thing was black and deformed, looking twice as ugly. Gray leapt at it, teeth bared, and snapped its life-giving vine in half. The thing collapsed onto the ground.
"Let's keep moving and get this done with as fast as possible," he said, moving forward.
After more searching, and killing a third bug, they reached a dilemma.
"The map says that two more should be right in front of us! Where could they go?" Red asked. The animals were grouped by a fire pit right by a small house.
"You don't think…" Vio pondered, "Guys, I think they're inside the house," he concluded.
"They could be. How do we get in?" Green asked.
"The window," Vio angled his ears to an open window n the side of the house. Some boxes were piled outside of it, making it easily accessible.
"All right, I guess we have to," Gray conceded. Together, they clambered into the small, one-roomed house. Once inside, the first thing Green noticed was a spirit cowering on some wooden crates in the corner of the room.
"Coro…" Gray stated, staring at the bluish spirit too. Apparently, he knew this guy.
"Wh-what's with these bugs? Those things aren't normal!" Coro whimpered, "They're so big… so weird… so creepy… C'mon, get away bugs… shoo… get out of here…"
Then they noticed the bugs under a table in the opposite corner. Apparently, Coro could see the bugs, but not them.
"Come on, let's get rid of them," Vio stalked towards the insects, Green following in pursuit. They finished off the monsters, allowing Midna to collect the tears of light left behind. Then they left the house.
After gathering nine light balls, two of which were in a long, dark tunnel, they entered a large, foggy area.
"What happened here? What's that purple fog on the ground? It wasn't there last time I came here," Gray gasped.
"Don't touch it," Midna warned grimly, "It's poisonous."
"How do we cross it?" Red asked, "Some of the bugs are on the other side."
"We have to jump it," Midna answered, "Come on, I'll show you the safe spots."
~/_\~
Eventually, they precariously passed through the swamp of purple fog, catching two more bugs in the process.
Everyone sighed in relief as the fog ended and real ground began. Until then, they had had to leap from rocks, to small hills, to even sticks sticking up out of the smoke.
"At least that's over!" Blue sighed.
"Don't say that so soon, we still have to go back," Vio said. Everyone groaned.
After dealing with two more insects, the five reached a clearing with… three more shadow beings.
"How many of these things are there?" Green asked.
"A lot, I guess," Vio said as they walked into yet another barrier trap. The four rabbits dealt with one shadow being, while Gray the wolf cornered the remaining two and finished them off with Midna's help, another portal forming in the sky.
"That light spirit was right when it said there were lots of monsters here," Green noted.
"Hey, what's a bridge doing here?" Red asked. Green looked. Indeed, there was a large bridge leaning against a cliff.
"I have no clue," Vio said. Gray shrugged as well.
"Let's just keep going," Green interrupted, "We're almost done."
Indeed, there were only two bugs left to find.
"Alright!" Red cheered, racing down the path in the right direction. Everyone else followed quickly behind, eager for their search-and-find to be over.
The group charged down a long path, past a shop, and up a log bridge to a small clearing that led to what looked like a temple in the side of an extremely thick tree. There were two poles sitting out front, one being occupied by a frightened monkey who was shouting. "Eek! Yeek! Help!"
Normally, Green would have done a double-take if he found he could understand a monkey, but, being an animal himself, and being able to understand Gray, it made a little sense. He hoped Gray wasn't able to understand the squirrels that he killed for food. That would make it feel like murder.
Returning his thoughts to the task at hand, he listened for the tell-tale buzzing of the insects. Sure enough, he found them buzzing in the grass.
"Hah!" he shouted as he leaped on one, noting that Red took down the other. Midna collected the last two tears of light and held up the vessel in satisfaction. Then, she noticed the monkey. It had looked up from where it had been hiding it's face, noticing the bugs were gone.
"Someone… someone helped me?" she sighed in relief, "Boy, lucky for me… Ever since the boss went funny in the head, there've been scary monsters everywhere… Those village kids got led through the woods for some reason… The whole forest is so weird now… What's happened?" the monkey bounced away, seeming as if she was looking for something.
"The boss?" Vio asked, "And she mentioned the village kids! They were led through here!"
"Yeah, we're one step closer to finding them!" Red cheered.
"I guess," Gray said. He had a thoughtful look on his face, "Come on, let's go take this vessel back to the light spirit."