Groggy, my eyes opened to a cool blue moon glowing from outside the window. In as much as I could see, the sky was clear as water with stars twinkling like diamonds. The wind was gentle; it hardly bothered the shutters and curtains.

I sat up with a pop in my spine. Still half asleep, I hardly recognized the sound of Midna snoring until it occurred to me that the room, wind aside, was silent. Settled in just my boots and chainmail over my sleep clothes, I climbed out the window after her.

She was sitting at the edge of Eldin's spring, her Twili runes shining in the moonlight. Her hair, free from her ponytail, was longer and much looser than I expected for her imp form and covered her black shoulders like golden-red fire.

What was she doing out there? It was cold out and the spring water was kinda warm but the blankets and bed were much warmer and softer, so what could be so interesting about the spring?

When I sat down beside her, she looked over for a moment. "Trouble sleeping?" She nodded and splashed some water into her face.

"Look at the state of me," she half-whispered. "I used to be royalty, the proud daughter of the King and Queen of Twilight, heir to the throne passed down from generation to generation..." Her hands clenched, trembling. "I used to be tall, beautiful, and elegant... Now I'm this... this decrepit imp, forced to hide in the shadows of another, forced to spectate rather than fight myself... Ugly, hideous little me."

Was that what had her so upset? ... Hm, I could see her point, so, fair enough.

I blinked when I noticed her with one eyebrow—or ridge, I didn't know if she had eyebrows in this form—looking at me. "Well?"

"Uh... 'Well' what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well, this is the part where you tell me 'Oh, Midna, you're not hideous and ugly. You're beautiful on the inside!', isn't it?"

I matched her raised eyebrow with one of my own. "Okay, um... No and no?"

Midna recoiled as if I slapped her. "Thanks..." She turned away, facing the spring water again.

I sighed. Once again, I had managed to piss Midna off. Well, if I upset her, I can un-upset her, right?

"Hey." Scooting over, I nudged her shoulder and pointed at the water, her reflection. "You see that? That 'decrepit imp'?" She nodded with half a heart. "That's not gonna be there forever." Her eyes shifted in my direction. "It's not going to be easy, and it's not going to be soon, but we'll get you back to your normal, tall, blue self."

Midna smiled a little and wiped her face. "Beautiful, too?"

"Ehh... Seven out of ten," I replied with a smirk.

Midna's mouth opened like a fish before she started laughing. "SEVEN?! Seven?! I am not a seven! I am a nine or above, curse you." She pushed me into the spring with a giggle, followed by a splash in my face.

"Hoo, that feels pretty good," I said. "I wouldn't mind a bath right about now." And then I splashed her back.

She sputtered and parted hair from her face. "Ugh, tell me about it. I don't even have fingernails but I'm sure I have dirt and grime caked on them."

"No toes, either."

Midna nodded with a splash. "Nope. No toes. It's a bit strange that you're from an entirely different world and yet you're human like the people here."

"Well, technically the people here are Hylians, which I think is an ethnicity since they have the pointed ears and I don't. Where I come from, those people are called elves."

"Wait, you have elves in your world?" asked Midna. "I thought you said there was no magic."

I chuckled. "Sorry, I misspoke. There are no elves in my world, but they exist in stories. Everything I know about Zelda and Hyrule, I learned secondhand from the stories and games."

"I'd say that's pretty magical in and of itself," she said with a snort. "I mean, you can fit so much information and music on such a tiny conduit as your phoon."

"Phone."

"Whatever. My point is that it's a little odd that humans are so commonplace across realms. What, there's no Twili roaming around in other stories?"

I cupped some water and rinsed my face off. "Yeah, it's weird. What's weirder is that some humanoids still have breasts but they serve no purpose."

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking down at her chest.

"Well, there's this one story called 'Mass Effect' and it has a race of beings called Asari who are genderless but look like women with feminine features such as feminine voices, figures, and breasts. They're aliens from a completely different region of the cosmos, yet they are structurally similar to human females. I find that very odd."

"... What."

I chuckled and shook my head. "Nevermind, I'll explain later."

Midna shrugged. She settled on the ground with her head resting on her folded arms. "What are those lights in the sky? And why is it so dark and kinda bluish?"

Laying beside her, I looked up at the night sky. The constellations were unrecognizable, not that I devoted much time to stargazing. Orion, the Big Dipper, Draco, I couldn't find them at all. Even the North Star was gone, or at least out of view. "Well, those lights are called stars. They are giant—and I mean giant—balls of gases that are superheated and give off that light."

Midna turned her head to face me. "So they're giant fireballs?"

"Basically, yeah. There's a lot more science to it like the chemical reactions of hydrogen and helium, but the gist is that they're flaming balls of gas."

"I see..." She looked back up. "Is... Is that big ball of light every day a star, too?"

"It sure is. We call it the Sun, but it has other names like... um... well, all I can think of is Sol."

"Hey, that's what we call our orbs of light," she said with a start. "I'm pretty sure you know what those are."

I nodded. "About the size of a beachball, glowing white with swirling lines all around them, source of power in the Twilight Realm."

"... Yeah." Midna sputtered her lips. A grasshopper chirped nearby. "... I feel like a fool, asking all these questions."

"You're in an entirely new world," I said. "What better time for asking questions?"

Midna made a sound that was like a shrug and a whine. "You know so much more than me, and I'm royalty."

"Oh, I see. To be fair, I do a lot of reading in my spare time." I pulled my feet out of the water and sat up. "To answer your other question, the sky is dark because the Sun is not lighting up the day. You see, this world spins around the Sun while spinning by itself. A day is how long it takes for the world to make a full rotation. A year is how long it takes for the world to revolve around the Sun."

"That sounds really confusing," she said, sitting up as well. "And what is that other thing in the sky? That white disc that's been changing shape as we've been traveling."

"That's the Moon. It's a giant ball of rock that orbits our world, and that light is sunlight being reflected off it."

"Okay, how do you know so much about this stuff?" she asked with a laugh. "Is there a class for this sort of thing?"

I laughed back. It felt good to talk about something mundane like the sun and stars. This past week had been really stressful for both of us... but probably more for Midna. She was right, she was the one hiding in the shadows and spectating more than doing. It took getting turned into a wolf for her to actually partake in the action, which was good since I still had trouble in wolf form. Lanayru Province was going to be a real pain in the ass unless I could master swimming beforehand.

Ah well. One step at a time.

"Sort of. There's different classes for different things that are similar. When it comes to space—"

"Hey, what does space have to do with this?"

"Let me finish. Space is what we call the..." I was not about to say 'The Final Frontier' in a British accent, nope, nosiree. "Uh, well, space that is beyond our planet. The general science of space is called Astronomy, I think."

Midna tapped a finger on her knee. "You think? Well, whatever. Can we go back inside now? I'm starting to get cold." I nodded and stood up, brushing some dirt from my pants and back. I took a few steps forward before Midna lightly held my arm. "And Zach?"

"Hm?" I looked at her with a tilted head.

"... Thank you. For what you said earlier, I mean." Her cheeks turned a slight blueish red tint as she floated past me. "It still bothers me that there's so much time stacked on because we need to get something from that forest village, but I guess with all the craziness happening, things aren't going to go smoothly."

I shrugged. Sure, we'd need to take a detour like in the game, but... Ah, I'll let her figure it out for herself in the morning. She didn't seem too happy that I was basically going through the motions, so I figured Epona showing up out of the blue would be a pleasant surprise... For some reason. I still needed to learn how to ride, and then there's the horseback combat and so on.

"So does anything here surprise you?" Midna asked as she floated through the window. Settling on the bed, she redrew the covers and snuggled in deep. "You know so much about this world and the events going on, you even know that I apparently break the only link between Hyrule and the Twilight Realm."

"To be fair, I didn't expect the Kokiri Marsh to be what it was," I replied while removing my boots and chainmail. "I was expecting a larger area with huge gaps in the floor, bridges that had to be turned with a magical boomerang, and more chests. So, that was a surprise, I guess."

Midna half-chuckled. "That's comforting, in its own way. So, Mister Know-It-All, what's the next area for this Fused Shadow? I'm gonna assume it's somewhere up the mountain, at least."

"Yep. The Goron Mines, full of giant magnets and lava and a lot more archers than before."

"Oh, and I thought it was going to be difficult." Midna sputtered her lips. "And is there gonna be a giant monster here, too?"

"..." I couldn't help but laugh. "Would you be upset if I said 'yes'?"

Midna rolled over so she could face me as I laid down on the floor mat. She had one eye ridge raised. "Zach... are you sure you don't want to share the bed?"

My pulse quickened in my chest. "Pretty sure."

"Why are you blushing?"

"How the hell can you tell that I'm blushing? And I'm not blushing!"

"Eee hee! Zach, if you're shy about being in bed with a girl, you could just say so. I can respect that."

I flopped down and rolled over so my back was to her. "I'm not shy, I just... I want to be on the floor."

"Well, if you insist." She groaned, buried her face in the pillow. "So much to do, so much to do! Zach, please put on some nice, relaxing music. Anything, just as long as it's soothing and lulls me to sleep."

With a smile on my face, I scrolled through my list of music. "I got just the thing. Calm, soothing, and right up your alley." Upon pressing a song, string harmonics began to play, along with a jaunty flute tune.

"Oh, I like this already," said Midna. "Lemme guess, this is something from one of your video games?"

"Yep! This is the end credits theme to The Wind Waker, the Zelda game just before this one." I yawned and settled down on my 'bed', placing my phone between us. "Good night, Midna."

Midna yawned mightily and smacked her lips. "Good night, Zach."

I flung up, pulling my face out of the drool-stained pillow. Strangely, the drool was colored dark brown, almost red...

"Zach?" I looked over and spotted Midna sitting beside me, just out of reach of the morning sunlight. "Your eye is bleeding!" Groaning, I reached for a towel in my satchel and dabbed my left eye socket, only for Midna to stop my hand. "Your other eye."

I pressed the towel against my good eye socket and it came way red. Not a giant gash of blood, but it was enough to make me lurch backward. "What the fuck!"

"It's just residual damage from when you got stung earlier," she said, sitting beside me. "Just take a deep breath and hold still, I'll clean it off for you." One tiny hand rested against my right temple, the other dabbing gently at my eye. "The sun is up now. Someone was knocking earlier but you were still asleep. You were... well, you were having a really weird dream."

"Y-you saw?" I was already forgetting what I dreamt of, much less what it represented. When someone knocked on the door, I jumped and nearly bonked Midna off. "Y-yeah?!"

"..." Someone's feet shuffled against the floor, and Talo spoke up. "Renado's waiting for you in his house. He's trying to open the basement but it's giving him trouble."

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah, alright, I'll be there in a minute." Midna finished cleaning up my eye and I cracked my back. "The shaman's waiting for me. He's trying to get into his basement or something."

Midna nodded, threaded her hair into her braid, and then froze. "The basement? Didn't we fight a zombie things in there?"

I locked eyes with her. "... We never killed it, did we."

"..." Midna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh, great."

Throwing on my hero outfit, I leapt out the window and made a mad dash for Renado's. "Don't open the basement!" I cried, but my shouts were deafened by the frantic hoofbeats of a certain red-furred horse as she stampeded through the northern entrance to Kakariko... but she wasn't alone.

The good news: they weren't King Bulblin and his entourage.

The bad news: they were a horde of tall, bipedal lizards wielding cleavers and machetes.

The ugly news: the ReDead was unleashed. At the same moment I burst through Renado's door, the statue covering the basement shifted. The ReDead burst from the hole and roared, its scream piercing the air and my eardrums. Renado was the only other person in the building, frozen in place at the opposite doorway.

Paralyzed, I could only scream to Midna, "This is not how I expected today to begin!"

"I can't move even in the shadow!" she replied. "And what are those things chasing that horse?!"

"Lizalfos!" Once I could move, I covered my ears and ran for the street, only for Epona to cut me off. "We got to get Epona under control, we can use her to shorten the trip to Ordon Village." I tried to run after her but Midna floated in front of me.

"Whoa, and what exactly is your plan?" she asked.

Sparing a glance at the incoming Lizalfos, I yelled, "I'm gonna jump on her!"

Midna clamped a hand to her face. "You can't do that, that's suicide! Do you even know how to ride?"

The ReDead screeched again. Even with my ears covered, my muscles froze up once more. "Argh, there's too much going on! If that fucking ReDead would shut up for a second, I can think of something!"

"Well, you can't get that thing to shut up, so think of something anyway!"

"Why the hell am I always doing all the thinking?!"

"ZACH, LOOK OUT!"

I spun around and then quickly spun again, booking it away from the Lizalfos that was right about to cut me down to size. I was almost safe when the ReDead screamed yet again, freezing me, the Lizalfos, and Epona nearby. I managed to recover first and gave the closest lizard a good kick in the cajones, and then I ducked behind cover while the other Lizalfos raided the place.

From the sounds of it, they were still in the empty buildings but that wasn't going to last forever. Talo and the others were somewhere else in the town, the Lizalfos would find them and tear them apart if I didn't kill the Lizalfos first.

There had to be a way to clear everything out but with that ReDead, I couldn't move more than a few seconds at a time before it screamed again... and it would freeze everything that heard it...

Turning towards the inn, I made a mad dash for the door with Lizalfos in hot pursuit. "Zach, what are you doing?!" cried Midna.

"I GOT A GODDAMNED PLAAAAAAN!" I leapt through the window just as the ReDead screamed, freezing the Lizalfos and myself. Luckily for me, crashing into the floor shook me out of it at the expense of my jaw when I landed on it. "Where is it, where is it?" I fumbled through the sheets of my makeshift bed, finally finding my phone lodged under the pillow.

Midna popped out of the shadows and slammed the window in the Lizalfos' face. "What exactly is your plan?" she asked, hands planted on her hips. "I want to be kept informed of any plans you come up with."

"Simple." I stood up and plugged my headphones in. "I use my music to keep my ears safe from the ReDead and while everything is frozen, I kick some Lizalf-ass. Hehe, get it?"

"Yeah, it's hysterical," said Midna, rolling her eyes. "Well, it's not the best plan I've ever heard but it's better than nothing. … Hey, wait a minute. What about that horse? You're just gonna scare the poor thing into submission?"

"Sorry," I said as I scrolled through my song list, "can't hear ya."

Midna dove into my shadow and yelled, "I am serious, Zach. That horse is terrified enough!"

"You got a better idea for taking care of all three problems at once?"

"No, but let me lead her away first. I've worked with animals before; I can tame her without you needing to add any more trauma."

"Deal, try taking her to the graveyard in the back of the town." While she sped off through the shadows, I finally reached the ideal song to block out the ReDead. As I stepped over the dazed Lizalfos outside my window, I pressed the play button.

"Test Your Might." There were about fifteen Lizalfos total but only nine or ten were actually in the street. "Test Your Might." Given how the visible Lizalfos were frozen, I figured the ReDead made another big scream. "Test Your Might." First things first; I needed to get the ReDead away from Renado. "Test Your Might." Last I saw, he was aiming for the backdoor.

"MORTAL KOMBAT!"

I ran into the sanctuary just as the ReDead grasped Renado's throat, ready to snap his neck or squeeze him to death. Like hell! "Yo, Slendy!" Both it and Renado turned to look at me, a raised eyebrow each. I cracked my knuckles, gave a cocky smirk, and reached for my sword. "Keep it down, will ya? You'll wake the—FUCK!" Slendy tossed Renado aside while I grasped at my hip, wishing that my sword would magically pop into my hand. "MIDNA, I FORGOT MY SWORD!"

"I—Got—Prob—Lems—Of—My—Own!"

Hot breath flowed on the back of my neck. I turned around and saw a particularly angry-looking Lizalfos wearing a steel helmet towering above me. In its claws were a machete and buckler, both stained dark brown with old blood. "Oh. Uh, hi. Look, right now isn't the best time—" It roared in my face and spattered spit and who knows what else on me. "You make a compelling argument."

The Lizalfos jerked and froze into place while my music protected me. "Well, um... Midna, is there any chance you can get my sword for me? I'm staring Godzilla in the face right now and his breath is gnarly!"

"What?! You're gonna try to—GET OFF THE HORSE, YOU DAMNED DIRTY LIZARD! You're gonna try to fight them? Zach, that's way too dangerous!"

"Hence the sword!" I smashed my shield into Godzilla's helmet—and then I immediately dropped my shield because solid wood on metal hurts. "Son of a...!"

Epona neighed nearby. "You can't handle those things even with your sword, Zach."

"Of course I can, you've been training me and I've been killing monsters since I got here." Godzilla sniffed once, twice, thrice, and its reptilian eyes looked past me. Slendy's reflection stood in Godzilla's breastplate and helmet.

"Zach, you are not an instant expert just because I've been giving you some tips for less than a week!" Epona neighed again, followed by the sound of bones breaking and Lizalfos squealing. "These things are smarter than the trolls in the woods."

Rolling my eyes, I scooped up my shield and dove to the side as Godzilla and Slendy roared at each other. "Yeah, well, I don't really have an option, do I? And besides, the plan was to attack them while they were stunned. And besides besides, it looks like we're gonna have a showdown between Slenderman and Godzilla."

"What does that even mean? Argh, stop quoting things! I've almost got this horse—"

"Epona."

"Right. I almost got Epona calmed down. I... may have used her to trample some of the lizards. By my count, you have nine to deal with."

I ran to Renado. He was frozen from the scream but he was alive and unharmed, so I kicked open the back door and dragged him just off the threshold before locking the doors shut. Thankfully, the Lizalfos had yet to reach the second street and thus our location. "Try whistling a song for her, she has a favorite."

"What? Whistle?"

"You can't whistle?"

"Not with this fang, no, and it's too loud for music anyway."

I sighed, crouched beside Renado, and tapped the next song... and the next song... and the next song... "Fair point. At least I got music for me." And the next song... and the next song...

"How positively marvelous for you." Epona barreled past Renado and me, Midna's shadow clinging to her tail. … And the next song... and the next song... and the next—Got it!

Caution, this next part might get a big graphic.

When I turned around, I was face to face with another Lizalfos. Or rather, the big heavy gauntlet attached to its fist. Everything went white, followed by a searing hot pain in my nose and warmth flowing down my face.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" I bellowed as I clutched my nose. It was crooked, crushed, and off to one side. Blood gushed from my nostrils and from a cut on the bridge of my nose, made by the knuckle of the Lizalfos' gauntlet.

I swung at it with my shield, inevitably missed, and had to watch through a misty eye as it stuck its tongue out.

You're pathetic.

That right there froze me to the ground. That voice, it was so familiar that I could feel my spine turning to ice.

I think you're the most pathetic person I've ever met.

"What the fuck would you know, Dad?!" The Lizalfos must have been stunned when I charged at it considering I was able to knock it down. Sitting atop it, I rammed my fist into its snout over and over. "HOW! FUCKING! DARE! YOU!"

A pair of two feet stomped nearby, a horse neighed, and someone grabbed my arm. "That is enough, Zach," said Renado. A trickle of blood oozed from his lip, and his brown eyes looked down at me. Then he winced and froze from the ReDead scream.

Yanking my hand free, I took my shield and smashed it down into the Lizalfos. Something inside its head cracked and it stopped twitching, but that didn't stop me. I kept going, and going, and going until there was nothing left of its head besides paste and bits of bone. My shield was now stained red towards the bottom. Rather appropriately, my phone's next song was 'Rage of Sparta'.

"That is it." Cracking my neck, I made my way down the street at a brisk pace. "Fucking had it." One stunned Lizalfos had a machete clutched in its claw, so I pried it loose and swung the blade. Fresh blood gushed from the beast's neck and its eyes rolled back. "This is what you get for straying from the fucking story."

It was a simple and gory process. Wait for the Lizalfos to freeze, cut their throats, wait for freeze, then cut throats, rinse and repeat. It was going well; I took down seven of the nine Lizalfos left. From the way the ReDead kept screaming, it seemed like Godzilla failed, so that should have left just one for me to finish.

"Zach, I think I've finally got Epona settled down," said Midna as the aforementioned horse neighed near Eldin's spring. "I'm gonna try to keep her in the spring, and then I'll grab your sword. Don't think for one second that I'm gonna let you forget this or your sword again."

"Fine." I could not care less at that moment, I was way too angry and frustrated to even acknowledge my bleeding nose. "Can you try to take down the last Lizalfos?"

Her shadow form popped up beside me. "I can try—Good grief, your nose!" She reached for me, I pulled away. "Hey, easy now, I'll pour some spring water—"

"It can wait." Stomping past her, I kicked open the door to my room and snatched up the Ordon Sword. "You take that Lizalfos, I'll handle the ReDead."

Midna rolled her eyes. "What happened to 'Slenderman' and 'Godzilla'?"

I didn't answer. She didn't press. I was sure she was happy I stopped being so immature. After all, goofing around and trying to cope with a situation was for kids, right? Adults wouldn't do that, they're always serious, right? "Fuck this."

Since I was still protected by my music, the ReDead wasted its breath screaming at me. It smelled foul, like rotting meat and desiccated bone. The clothes it wore were ragged and filthy, stained with blood around the neck and chest. The armored Lizalfos' gnawed corpse sat just a few feet away, its jugular twitching beside it.

Despite its shambling gait and overall decomposition, the ReDead caught my sword strike with surprising swiftness. With its other hand, it clenched around my throat and squeezed tightly enough to shake me out of my angry state. The room spun around me and I collided with a wall.

My earphones fell out, opening me up to the ReDead's roar. I had to sit there paralyzed as it shambled up to me. It lifted me up by the neck and I glared into its eyes, which had returned to their spooky red glow. Red-stained spittle clung to its jaws as it opened its mouth impossibly wide. Crooked, broken teeth drew closer and closer until...

"Swallow this." Into its mouth was shoved the glass bottle I got from Trill's shop forever ago. Having been used up during the week's journey from Faron Province to Eldin Province, the bottle was empty. Cracks formed immediately upon impact but it did not shatter, which seemed to surprise the ReDead since it dropped me and clutched at the bottle.

Being dead with decayed nerves and tissues, the ReDead couldn't fully grasp the bottle. The distraction was enough for me to crawl over to my sword, note my bloodied face in the blade's reflection, and spit at it. I stood up and twirled my sword, flinging some blood and spit about.

I ran at the ReDead with a howl of fury. Raising my sword high, I chopped into the creature's skull. The blade sank in easily and only stopped when it struck the glass bottle, cracking it further. Sword now firmly wedged into the ReDead's skull, I released the hilt and shoved my shoulder against the ReDead's emaciated torso.

It went down, and stayed down. I waited a minute, two minutes, three minutes, and finally decided it was dead for good when I sliced its head off entirely. "Took a little off the top, you look gorgeous." I gave the head a good kick in the teeth on my way out. "Midna, how are things with the Lizalfos?"

"I really wish I had thought to argue with you before I went off," she replied, "but alas, here I am, revealing myself to a bunch of Hylians. The Lizalfos is now focused on me, thus the people are safe if very spooked."

I ran toward the commotion with sword and shield in hand. "Yeah, that was my bad. Forgot about you needing a secret identity."

"A what? Whatever. It's better than if we did the opposite, you would have been killed by this thing."

A dark whine escaped my throat. The town looked both more lively and more deserted now that it was free of Twilight. With some elbow grease and a bonfire, the Lizalfos bodies would be cleaned up fairly easily. The ReDead would need some heavy-duty scrubbing to get that smell out, even more for the bloodstains.

"I would not, I did pretty well against the other ones," I said as I entered the bazaar containing Midna, the Lizalfos, and Anju and the Ordon kids. Midna was holding the Lizalfos at bay with her hair-hand as the others hid beneath the shopkeeper's bar.

Anju held her hand over her heart and cried, "Please be careful! Monsters are fighting each other now, the children are so frightened..."

I snorted at myself. "I got this. And the cute one isn't a monster."

Midna's head spun on me. "What did you just call me?!"

"I... er... Fuck it. I called you cute."

"... Thank you. Now get over here and help me!"

With the Lizalfos distracted, I pierced its side with my sword. Fresh blood poured out and ran along the blade. That alone should have been the end of it but as it turns out, bleeding out is not an insta-kill. I learned this when the Lizalfos smashed its elbow into my forehead.

Starry vision was all I could see as I tried to keep my balance. I still had my shield, so I swung it at what I hoped was the Lizalfos' head. It apparently worked since the damn thing squealed, spun on me, and clutched my already-bruised throat.

With mighty strength I was hauled against the bar and met with a face full of nasty, big, pointy teeth. It squeezed tight, far tighter than the ReDead, and I couldn't stop the ratcheting gasp in my throat. I could feel my tongue pressing out between my teeth, the walls of my lungs starting to cave in, and then...

"Hey, have a drink on me!" said Midna, right before she smashed a bottle over the Lizalfos' skull. Its grip relaxed, allowing me to slide to the floor with a hack and a wheeze—and a perfect opening to grab my sword from the Lizalfos' side. I yanked it out and hoo you do not want to read the rest of that, trust me!

Sitting by the spring, I washed the blood off my face and shoulders. The healing water—and a helping hand from Midna—fixed my broken nose with nary a... Okay, I'll admit it. I cried pretty hard. It was embarrassing but, in my defense, my nose was broken.

Anyway, I sat there in the spring with the rest of the town looking at Midna and me, who was sitting in my shade though not in my shadow. Since she revealed herself, everyone had demanded that she stay in plain sight.

"See!" Beth yelled, her finger pointed right at Midna. "What did I tell you? He's working with the monsters!"

Among them stood the old man with long grey-white hair, Sahasrahla. He rested his ancient hand on Beth's shoulder and said, "Calm, calm. Let us hear the boy out." Kneeling before me, the man smiled through his beard. "Go on, lad."

"Okay, well, I'll start by saying that Midna isn't a monster," said I. "She's... uh..."

Midna nudged me. "Just go ahead and tell them." Beth and Talo flinched when she spoke, probably not expecting Midna to be able to speak their language.

I ran a damp cloth through my hair. "She is the Twilight Princess, cast out of her own realm by a usurper and changed into the imp you see before you. She needs several artifacts called the Fused Shadow to fight against him, one of which is right up there on Death Mountain. It's the reason the Gorons are so angry, so the sooner we can get it, the sooner things around here will calm down."

Renado's arms crossed over his chest. "And the dark beasts are the usurper's minions? Natives of this Twilight Realm?"

"... Yes." I reached over and gave Midna a soft pat on the shoulder. "He did to them what they did to the general store lady."

Anju gasped, touched her lips. "Oh, the poor dear... And she saved us from that Lizalfos... We should do what we can for you two, you've sacrificed so much already."

I shrugged while hiding a smile. "Would be nice to have some extra food on the way to Ordon—"

"And a shawl or cloak or something," said Midna.

"Right." When Anju tilted her head, I continued, "Midna can't touch sunlight, it'll hurt her."

Her head spun on me. "How do you know that?"

My blood froze but my instinct said, "I just figured since you avoid sunlight like the plague. Am I wrong?"

"Well, no. Anyway, I would like to have something real to eat, too, if that's not too much trouble."

I nodded and rubbed the back of my neck. "It's been a while since we've had something that wasn't preserved in a can." Of course, I was already master of poor dietary choices—we Americans are like that—but Midna could use some actual nourishment.

"Of course," said Anju. "I'll be happy to cook something for you, I cook meals for everyone who stays at my inn."

"Stock Pot Inn?" I asked eagerly. When she nodded, I pumped my fist. "Awesome. If we've answered all your questions, I think I could go for some food."

Renado stepped in front of me as I tried to move forward. "I wish to speak with you," he spared a glance to Midna, "in private."

That sent a chill into my stomach. I already knew what it was about—me killing that Lizalfos with my shield—but that just made me feel worse. It was that kind of ominous, freezing fear a little kid would feel after knocking over a vase or something. I turned to Midna and said, "Go on, I'll be there in a bit."

"Er... Okay..." She jumped into Anju's shadow, leaving me with Renado. The shaman gestured to his house while everyone walked into the Stock Pot Inn for some food. I wish I had a chance to eat first because I knew I wasn't going to have an appetite after 'talking' with Renado.