I landed in a heap on the ground, but it was strangely dry. In fact, the area looked positively arid. I staggered onto my feet and noticed my Triforce glowing again. "Here we go..." The transformation was quicker this time but no less painful. Bones snapped and rearranged, blood vessels burst and reformed, skin melted and fur grew, and poof! I was a wolf. My muscles ached as I shook some dirt from my body, but at least I was conscious afterwards. "Ow..."

Midna slammed down on my back, and when I glared up at her, she gasped innocently. "I didn't do anything. What're you looking at?" She giggled and held up my fake eye. "Like before, I'll hold onto this for you." The eye vanished into Twilit particles. "Ahh, look! The black clouds of Twilight are so fetching today..." She stretched her arms and grinned widely. "I feel so much more at ease here... And you look so much better like this than in those clothes, anyway. Eee hee! So, let's get going!"

I sighed and rolled my shoulders. I didn't like being a wolf. It was itchy and hot, especially in the mountainous region of Eldin Province, and Midna was kinda heavy.

Don't ever tell her I said that, though.

Anyway, I trotted off into the Twilight-infested area, my paws stepping on small rocks and debris. Before long, I came upon a great expanse of two landmasses connected by a single bridge... except that the bridge was missing. Nodding to myself, I walked forward, only to jump back when a shadow baba popped out of the ground nearby and lunged at me. It was a small one, barely the size of my head, but that didn't make me go any easier on it. When it lunged again, I bit down on its neck stalk and shook it like a rope toy. Eventually, my fangs scissored through and cut the baba in half, causing it to explode into Twilit particles.

"Oh, blech!" I shook my head in disgust. "That's so gross. Tastes like spinach."

"You're just getting your vitamins and minerals. Eee hee!"

I growled but moved on. "Get ready, there's gonna be a shadow beast attack when I go near that bridge area."

Midna sighed. "That's just great. At least I have plenty of magic power." I nodded and went into the designated fight area, and like clockwork, Twilit barriers appeared around me and Midna. A red vortex opened above and dumped three shadow beasts into our midst, with one secluded behind an alcove made by the barrier. "Go for that one first."

"Duh."

"Hey, I'm just helping."

"I know what I'm doing." I moved into the alcove and immediately jumped at the shadow beast, latching my jaws around its throat. Midna's fingers clutched my fur as I chomped into the monster again and again, and then I had the good sense to let go before it could grab me. My muzzle black with putrid blood, I snarled at the shadow beast and silently dared it to come forward. Once it was close enough, I darted under its legs and jumped onto its back.

I did not expect it to have enough backwards reach, so I never saw its arm coming until I was already being squeezed half to death. Midna came to my rescue and smashed the shadow beast in the face with her giant fist of hair, causing its mask to dent inwards. The creature lumbered about for a moment before finally collapsing, but it still held me in an iron grip. Midna sighed and worked on prying open its fingers while I tried to force them from the inside.

"You know what you're doing, eh?" she grumbled, then used her hair to wrench the shadow beast's hand open.

"I do, it just caught me off guard."

Midna glared at me. "I think you need to be more careful."

"Whatever." I rose to my feet and gestured at the other two shadow beasts. "Time for that energy field thing." I dashed between the two monsters and let Midna work her magic. A black field outlined with orange grew around me, and when the shadow beasts entered that field, Midna's hair shot them with electric markers. Once I was sure I would not accidentally hit the barrier, I jumped and tore through the first, then the second. I wasn't drenched in blood, though, which surprised me. Maybe Midna was warping me at the same time as I connected with them, I dunno.

Once they fell and the vortex turned green, I approached the missing bridge's edge and sighed. "Well, time to go back for that bridge," I said.

"Great... Okay, um... just, just try not to move..." For the third time in our adventure journey thing, I split into Twilit particles and landed in front of Coro's hut.

"I don't know why you seem so nervous," I said. "You've been teleporting me just fine."

Midna sighed and said, "It's bound to happen sooner or later. I'm gonna screw one of them up, I just know it."

"Heyyy, come on. You're, uh, Midna. The Twilight Princess. Yeah..."

"Oh, it sure is rare to see wolves around these parts," said a familiar voice behind me. I turned around and saw Coro as he was leaving the bathhouse. "You're a good boy now, aren'tcha?" He carefully approached me and I instinctively backed away. From my lowered perspective, his afro was practically planetary. "Good boy..." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't hurt me."

I snorted at him and faced the gate leading to Faron Woods and the bridge segment. "Well, this is gonna take a little while. Have to backtrack through that poisonous fog again."

"Ugh, will this never end?"

"Probably not." I noticed the gate was closed and locked, but since there was a child-sized ditch beneath it, I decided to dig my way through. Clenching my eyes shut, I scrambled through the ditch and emerged on the other side no worse for wear. "Guh, I hate that."

The journey was uneventful until we reached the area holding the bridge and the trapped shadow beasts. "They are still there?" Midna asked.

"Apparently. Might as well take them out now... Except I can't get inside."

Midna emerged in her shadow form and crossed her arms. "What do you think? Try to get inside or not?"

I shrugged. "Would it be easier to warp the bridge if there was a portal right above?"

"Yeah, kind of. Here." She floated up to one of the Twilit posts lining the barrier. "Jump." I nodded and did so, and she used her magic to propel me into the ring. Once I landed, she dove into my shadow. "Alright, this will be a bit more complicated since I have to stay down here, but I'm going to use the energy field." I nodded in understanding and waited for the field to emerge. Once it did, I made sure all three shadow beasts were targeted and then jumped.

It went well right up until I tried lunging at the final monster. Apparently, like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, they can learn. The shadow beast caught me right out of the air and flung me into the electrified barrier. While it resurrected its fallen brethren, I was trying to regain my balance as my muscles twitched with every movement. "Okay, ow!"

"Stay focused!"

"Great advice from the one hiding in the shade," I growled. The energy field activated again, and this time, I made it through without getting wolf-handled again. "Give me a second."

"No. Get moving." She pushed me from below in the direction of the bridge. Deciding it was better to just do as she said, I grit my teeth and trudged over.

I looked up at the segment and was very glad it was a detail that carried from game to reality. "Okay, Midna. Time to build a bridge."

Midna emerged in her shadow form and floated up to the structure. "I-I guess so... Hoo, yeah, I can do this. Okay, I'll warp this first and then I'll come back for you." She flashed a grin at me. "Maybe." She zapped the bridge with her magic, and then she yelled and lifted it from the ground. The bridge steadily became drenched in darkness and then split into Twilit particles. Once it fully vanished, I followed behind in my own batch of particles, and once I was fully formed, I found that I was standing on the bridge as it spanned the chasm... well, half of it, anyway. "Damn it..." I looked over and saw Midna on her hands and knees. She was breathing very heavily, her skin glistened with sweat, and there were dark red spots on the floor beneath her head.

"Midna... are you okay?" I asked quietly.

She lifted her head and glared at me. "I... am... fine..." What scared me most was not her glare or her voice. It was the trickle of dark red blood running from her nose.

My eyes widened. "You're bleeding."

"Shut up..." She wiped her nose, smearing her glowing wrist and turning the light red. "I'm just not used to moving something so big, okay? Just. Drop. It." She stood up and limped over to me. "I can get you across the rest of the way."

"We don't have to rush," I said gently. "You should take a moment to catch your breath."

Midna glared and yelled, "I am not weak! I don't need a break, I don't need your pity, I don't need your insults!"

"I-I didn't insult you, Midna..."

She sighed and leaned against my side. "Just don't, Zach. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." I know she felt me shudder but she chose to ignore it, thankfully. "I'm fine, and in the off-chance that I'm not, there's a rejuvenating spring just up ahead."

I didn't want to keep going. Midna getting a bloody nose set off too many warning bells in my head for me to just shrug it off. However, she had a point and I didn't want to risk disagreeing with her. "Okay," I said finally. "Let's go."

Midna floated across the chasm and nodded to me. I wasn't very confident since the gap was fairly large, but I stuffed it down and jumped. She pulled me forward and I landed safely, if unsteadily, on the other side. "There, see? You should have more faith in me."

"Riiight. So, what about the bridge? We might need to take this road back."

"I'll fix it once the Twilight is gone. Promise."

I started forward, passing by several shadow bulblins and shadow babas—'shadow' didn't even sound like a word anymore—and soon came upon an imposing gate that blocked the way to Kakariko Village. "Oh, look at that. Gated community, very posh."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "There's a spot over there you can crawl under."

I walked over to the spot and narrowed my eyes. "I'm surprised the person building the gate never noticed this." Sniffing around the hole, I discovered a familiar headband tucked inside. "Talo... Well, that explains it."

"What?"

"Talo, one of the kids from the village in the forest. Must've dug his way through... but that doesn't make any sense. He should have been... oh, whatever." I quickly burrowed to the other side of the gate and shook the dirt from my fur. Before hurrying off, I turned back to the hole and picked up the headband with my teeth. "I figure he'll want this back. Midna, you mind holding onto this too?"

Midna shrugged and vanished it into Twilit particles. "Sure, why not?"

Once that was settled, I walked through the canyon passage that led to Kakariko Village, then emerged into the entrance of the village. From my limited vision as a wolf in the Twilight, the town was a lot bigger than in the game. While it did have the main corridor of buildings and Eldin's spring at the end of it like in the game, there were additional alleys running along where the graveyard should have been, with various signs and stalls for selling produce and other wares. The entire town was deserted. People were either inside or long gone from the area, or worse judging from some dark patches on the ground.

"Creepy," I said as I went down to the central hub connecting the two branches of the town. Once again, a Twilit barrier appeared and three shadow beasts dropped down, but that was not all. Joining the monsters were half a dozen shadow keese, each cheeping as they flitted about in the air. Instead of a bat's face and ears, they had the same trumpet-shaped muzzle that the shadow Kargoroks had. "Son of a bitch..."

Midna reached up with her magic hair to crush a bat, but it dodged and divebombed down at us. "Ech! Get away, you pest!" I had no choice but to run from the flock of keese as Midna tried to keep them away, only I wasn't looking where I was going. I crashed headfirst into a shadow beast that quickly picked me up and threw me into the keese swarm, knocking Midna off my back in the process.

The damned bats bit into my flesh, covering me in tiny bite marks that stained my fur red, and I struggled to stand up. They were everywhere, gnawing and gnashing at whatever they could get their winged hands on. "GET OFF!" I jumped and spun in the air and managed to send some flying, but they just kept coming. One of them was particularly stubborn about getting at my good eye. I managed to latch onto its tail while it was trying to climb up my head. Snarling in rage, I shook the damn thing like a ragdoll until I heard a snap and it exploded into dust.

"One down..." I looked around the area and found Midna trying to hold off her own gaggle of bats while a shadow beast lumbered over to her. I tried to beat it to her but the keese smothering me kept getting in the way and tripping me. I rolled on the ground and managed to squish one enough for me to nab it with my jaws. "Two down..." After crushing the life out of it, I made a break for Midna and lunged at the shadow beast as it raised its fist. Catching it in the throat, I bit frantically into its leathery black skin and gagged as the foul fluids ran into my mouth. Before it could grab me again, Midna flew up and smashed her hair into its masked face. That seemed to be enough to kill it since it went down and stayed down.

"There's just two of these bat things left," she said as she saddled down on my back. "I can handle four enemies but to be on the safe side, stay close to the shadow beasts. They're the main ones, after all." Nodding, I huddled between the two monsters and waited for Midna to conjure the energy field. It spread out like a veil of darkness, swallowing up the beasts and zapping them with orange energy. "Ready... Go!" I jumped through the first creature, then the second, then zig-zagged through the air to get the two keese. Like dominoes, they fell one after another and exploded into Twilit particles.

The barrier vanished and I collapsed to the ground in relief and exhaustion. "Well, that was easy."

Midna scratched behind my ear and said, "Yeah. Come on, the spring is right there." I dragged myself over and flopped into the blissfully warm water. My fatigued muscles re-energized and my wounds healed up, and as I watched the blood clear away, I noticed the light spirit hovering above the short waterfall of its spring.

"One... chosen by the goddesses..." Eldin whispered. "Look for... my light... Gather the light stolen by the shadows..."

I nodded and turned around. "Okie dokie, another fourteen shadow insects before the Twilight is banished."

"Got it. I sense three in the tall building close by." She pointed to the shaman's house at the corner of the two corridors of Kakariko Village. After spending some time to frolic in the water, I shook myself off and trudged towards the building, and then Midna gestured to some fixtures adorning the side. "Hey, you can climb up here."

We did another jumping minigame and landed on the roof of the building, where a shadow insect buzzed about. It noticed me and swung its stinger in my direction. Dodging to the side, I snatched it in my jaws and crushed it to death. Before I could move, the patch of roof I was standing on collapsed. I managed to get lucky and landed on a tall statue bearing an owl at its peak, then hopped to the ground.

I looked around and noticed a huddle of green fire in one part of the room, which was wide and had several ledges along the walls that held unlit torches. The ledges were split up between two doors on either side of the room and a window nearby. A spirit orb kept a sharp lookout at the window.

Upon closer inspection, I found that the gathering of spirit orbs consisted of Renado, his daughter Luna, Talo sans headband, and the rest of the kids from Ordon Village. Minus Ilia, of course. There were other people there, however; a woman and two men. The woman bore red hair and a simple outfit consisting of a white elbow-length tunic beneath a dark vest plus an ankle-length skirt that was currently being clung to by Malo and Colin. One of the men was tall and handsome with violet hair, and the other looked to be older than all of the people combined with a long white beard to show for it.

"Cripes!" the spirit orb at the window exclaimed. "I don't see those black brutes anywhere..." The man was chunky, his stomach folding over the loose pants he wore, and on his red-haired but balding head was a welding helmet. Overalls covered his normal pants and reached up to hook over his scraggly shoulders. "They've gotta be hidin' somewhere, waitin' for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they'll FEAST!"

"Wow, what a downer," Midna and I said at once.

"We are safe here," said Renado, the shaman of the village. His long brown hair was combed neatly behind him as he held Beth's shoulder. The girl was shaking as she clutched to Renado's robe. "Be at ease, child."

The woman with red hair frowned and whispered, "I hope my cuccos are alright... the poor things, I haven't a chance to feed them today."

"Anju, relax," the purple-haired man said. "I'm sure they're fine."

"Anju?" I looked at her and then the purple-haired man. "Kafei? What are you two doing here?"

"You know them?"

"Sort of. They're from a different game, they're not supposed to be here." I looked at the old man more closely. He wore a gold robe and matching pointed hat that covered his eyes, with a decorative red cloth hanging from his neck. "Sahasrahla?"

"Sasha whatnow?"

"Sahasrahla. He's the elder of Kakariko Village... but not this Kakariko... What the hell is going on?!"

"Whoa, why are you so upset?"

"Because this isn't how it's supposed to be! It's different and that means I'm useless!"

"How does that even make sense?"

"We must take the children to a safer place," said Sahasrahla. "If the dark creatures are gone, this could be our opportunity."

"Oh yeah?" the man at the window said. "I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you... They sure didn't seem impressed by my bombs! How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh? Once they attack, it's OVER!" The kids recoiled at his loud and quite frankly obnoxious voice. "Remember that lady from the general store? Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened? She was already gone, and there were TWO monsters waitin'! ...You connectin' the dots? That means that if we get attacked by them, then we'll be..."

"BARNES!" Renado shouted, startling both me and Midna with his tone.

Beth cried into Renado's robe and babbled, "I don't want to die! W-will no one come for us?"

"I am afraid that may not be possible," the elder said, his long white beard ruffling as he spoke. "Gates bar the exits, as Talo found firsthand."

The boy nodded and reached up to the empty spot where his headband used to be. "Well... What about Zach?" he asked quietly, but enough for me to hear.

My head lurched up and faced in his direction. "Wha... Talo...?"

"What about Zach?" Beth asked harshly. She glared at Talo and shook her head. "He doesn't care about us, you saw how rude he was at home. Mom and Dad were this close to kicking him out!"

Talo shrugged. "I-I know how he was, but he did save my life. He didn't have to, but he did anyway. That... that has to mean something, right?"

"Well... I guess..."

Colin tilted his head. "Father and Mother seemed to like him. They thought he could use some manners, but he didn't seem that bad."

Malo sighed and raised an eyebrow at Rusl's son. "Doesn't it seem peculiar that he showed up just a few days before the monsters? I'm just saying, that's too much of a coincidence for me to believe."

"It was just a thought," Talo said. "I thought that, if it wasn't Colin's dad or the Mayor, it'd be Zach."

Barnes shook his head and peeked out the window. "Boy, I don't have a clue who this Zach fella is... but I've gotta say, I ain't overly confidant he's gonna come save this village!"

Midna suddenly tapped my head and said, "We can lay their doubts to rest later. Let's find the rest of the shadow insects first; I sense two below us... but I don't see a door." She chuckled. "You know exactly where to go, don't you?" I didn't respond, so she dismounted and stood in front of me. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Wha..." I cleared my throat and nodded. "I'm okay. I just... I'm not used to being counted on, that's all."

"Who's the downer now?" She smirked and patted my cheek. "Come on, you don't want to let them down, do you? Up and at 'em, Mister Hero!"

Once she was settled comfortably on my back, I looked around once again for a stick, but there were none to be found. "We need to light the torches around here but there's no branch for me to use."

Midna hummed in thought for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "I can summon a piece of cloth and wrap it around your sword. That ought to work." I nodded, and with Midna holding the Ordon Sword as a makeshift torch, we ran the circumference of the room, lighting braziers as we went. Once they were all lit, the statue in the center of the room buckled and shifted to reveal a staircase beneath it. "Aha! Not very subtle, is it?" When I chuckled, she chuckled with me. "What?"

"That's what you said in the game, too." Feeling slightly better and more confident, I ran down the stairs into the darkness beneath Renado's house, the statue sliding back into place above us. It was dark, but I could faintly see thanks to my wolf eye. The hall was tall and narrow with a wider section in the middle. Once we reached the wide area, I noticed that the owl statue blocking the way to the sky cannon was gone. There was nothing in this room except for one of our targets. One shadow insect was clinging to the wall, so I rammed into it with my shoulder and frightened the little bugger off. When it landed on the ground, I tackled and killed it, then smelled something... foul. With my enhanced senses, I could make out a soft patch of dirt beneath where I was standing.

"What are you doing?" Midna asked. "The next shadow insect is down the hall."

I compulsively dug at the ground and said, "I'm curious. This stinks to high heaven, but it's so familiar..." I narrowed my eyes as the scent grew stronger the more I dug. "Wait... It smells like... Blood."

The ground split open and a great lumbering shape emerged from the hole I had created. It was heavily emaciated and wrapped in withered bandages, and when it turned around, its glowing red eyes glared at me. Midna and I looked at each other and then at the ReDead, and then we both screamed.

It screamed back.