Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay, my brain decided to finally takes its vengeance out on me for writing instead of playing solitaire like it wanted and gave me writers block. So in a vain attempt to get out of it I spent about three hours every day for a week playing solitaire while listening to music. The good news, it worked, I got out of writers block, the bad news, I have basically memorized about 40 songs, most of them in Japanese, all of which seem to love getting stuck in my head at various points in the day. Believe me, it is extremely annoying trying to remember the acceleration formula without wind resistance when Ayumi Hamasaki's Flower Garden is playing over and over in your head, not to mention the weird looks I get when I start singing Japanese under my breath.

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

Author's note: Since some people have asked me why my pen name and my character's name are the same, I've decided just to post the answer with my new chapter. I got the nickname Zyte after a few of my friends read a few of my short stories with Zyte in them and started calling me that instead of my real name(and before you ask, yes, my friends are weird, but then again so am I^_^)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Link charged at the Dark Soarans, his mind only on the battle, ready to defend himself and Zyte, no overgrown lizards were going to intimidate him.

  *Better be careful though, that beam Zyte dodged looked pretty dangerous, and those claws look pretty nasty.*

  A few yards away from him, the Dark Soarans stopped abruptly, their claws skidding slightly on the soil, and started backing away, their gaze beyond him, and clearly showing fear.

  *What the… Shoot, Zyte!*

  Link quickly turned, but what he saw nearly made him drop his sword in shock.

  Zyte was standing in front of a third Dark Soaran, her eyes closed and head slightly bowed, wings unfurled to their full extent. Shadows swarmed around her, slithering across the ground to encircle the air around her. They suddenly enclosed her, so that only darkness showed. Then her form began to seethe and twist, growing in size. As she grew upward, features began to form. Her skin turned scaly, a long, sinuous tail grew. Claws formed on the ends of her feet and hands, her legs and arms had become thick and bulky with muscles. Her wings became scaly as well, and her head turned snout-like and grew frills that swooped backward. A line of spines drew down her back and tail. Then the black of the shadows melted away into a rich, medium blue. The creature drew its lips back to give a slight snarl, revealing rows of sharp teeth.

  Zyte had turned into a water dragon.

  "Eep!" Navi took this opportunity to disappear under Link's hat.

  "Ignore the boy! Get the Shadow Twister!" the Dark Soaran closest to Zyte snarled at the other two.

  The Dark Soaran then had to quickly leap out of the way, as Zyte had taken a swipe at it with a clawed hand.

  Link turned as the two Dark Soarans leaped over his head to join the fray, only able to watch in stunned disbelief.

  Zyte twisted this way and that, striking at the Dark Soarans with her claws and tail, lunging with her head when she got a chance. When one of the Dark Soarans managed to draw a line of blood down her back she rammed her head into it, sending it flying several feet before it managed to right itself. While she was preoccupied with that one another moved in to get a shot at her throat. Its daring was rewarded with a slash from Zyte's claws, breaking the Dark Soaran's outstretched arm. The Dark Soaran scuttled backward howling in pain, its arm hanging limp. In its haste to get away from any further strikes it bumped into a second Dark Soaran that had been circling for an opening. The second Dark Soaran screeched in annoyance, striking out with its bladed tail at the one that had bumped into it. Dodging the attack, the Dark Soaran shrieked at the other, as if it were enraged that it was being attacked by its own kind, before lashing out with its good arm. Noticing the argument between the two Dark Soarans, Zyte drew in a deep breath before blowing a blast of frosty air at the two of them, encasing them in a block of ice. She quickly struck out with her tail, shattering not only the block, but the Dark Soarans as well.

  The remaining Dark Soaran noticed the destruction of its colleagues and quickly took off from the ground. Screeching out what sounded like "one day," it disappeared into the glare of the sun.

  Zyte gave one last resounding roar of fury before turning her attention toward him.

  He raised his sword, unsure if Zyte recognized him or not.

  "You can put your sword away, I'm not going to attack you."

  Link twisted, looking around wildly, he knew he had heard Zyte's voice. He glanced back at the dragon, its form was now covered in shadows. It started to shrink rapidly, claws melting into hands and scales melting into feathers.

  Zyte finally reappeared, and when the last shadow had dissipated, she fell forward onto her knees, her arms shaking as she held them rigid against the ground, trying to support herself.

  Link quickly hurried over to kneel beside her. She was breathing heavily, her skin pale. The cuts on her shoulder started to bleed slightly, ruby colored droplets falling to the grass.

  "Hey are you all right?" He asked, offering her a cloth to help stem the bleeding. Zyte took the offered cloth and settled back into a crossed leg position.

  "So, how exactly did you do that?" Link asked, bewilderment lining his face.

  Zyte pressed the cloth against her shoulder before looking at him.

  "I'm sorry if I frightened you, Shadow Twisters tend to have that effect on people."

  Seeing the blank look on Link's face she lowered her head and sighed.

  "You don't have Shadow Twisters down here, do you?

  He settled down into a crossed leg position as well, "I think I would know if we did. So how did you do that?"

  "Shadow twisting, the ability to absorb and transform into different forms at will."

  "So can a lot of Light Soarans shadow twist?"

  She shook her head, "I'm the first one in a thousand years, and only the second in the history of my people. And the first one, he was killed for having that ability."

  Link's eyes widened in shock, "They killed him just because he could shadow twist? Seems a little prejudiced."

  She sighed, "Light Soarans tend to be wary of anything new or different, we've practically forbidden exploring, even going beneath the clouds, why do you think I freaked so much when I found out I was on the ground? Leyann's the only one who knows I'm a Shadow Twister, well her and you now."

  "Oh, so what forms can you turn into?"

  She held up her hand, ticking off fingers.

  "Let's see, there's the water dragon, a Zeira, an Ixila, and a Variya, those are giant birds that roam the sky above the clouds, the Zeiras are fire elemental, the Ixilas are lightning, and the Variyas are water. And the last form I have is a Dark Soaran."

  "What? You mean to tell me you can transform into those things?"

  She lowered her head, "Yes, the Dark Soaran who form I use is my mother's."

  This caught Link's attention. "You're mother is a Dark Soaran?" he asked cautiously.

  She nodded. "Was, my father too, they transformed two years ago, that was when I found out I was a Shadow Twister too." A single tear slid down her cheek and fell to the ground. "We were just going about our daily routines, my father and I were just about to go out and collect pyre crystals, my mother had come to tell us to be sure we were careful, and then…" her voice stuttered. "My mother fell to her knees screaming, and transformed into a Dark Soaran. She came after me, my father tried to protect me with his sword, he managed to land a few blows, but then he too fell screaming to the ground and transformed. They both came after me then, and some instinct told me to focus on my Dark Soaran that my mother had become and I did so. We were both surrounded by shadows, shadow twisting is rather painful on the forms I absorb, my mother, she didn't survive it, but I turned into a Dark Soaran. When the shadows dissipated, the Dark Soaran that my father had turned into thought I was my mother and left, I still don't know what happened to him. Of course, news that my father and mother turned into Dark Soarans spread pretty fast, many people will lose a parent to a Dark Soaran, because they transform, but I was the first to lose both. People basically avoided me after that, fearing I was cursed or something, because I'm so different."

  "Sounds rough, I know what its like to be different."

  "Really, you don't seem like the kind of person who'd be shunned. What happened to you?"

  Link proceeded to tell her about the Kokiri Forest, the Kokiri, the day Navi appeared, the Great Deku Tree, and the many adventures he'd had.

  When he finished, Zyte seemed deep in thought.

  "What's up?" Link asked.

  Startled, Zyte looked up.

  She shook her head, "oh, it's nothing, really." In truth she had been thinking of more of the legends they had supposedly gotten from the Hylians, Link's stories were confirming many she had thought only to be fairy tales. What else could be true that the elders of her race had decided to keep secret? But now wasn't the time for such thoughts. Shaking them from her head she gingerly removed the cloth she had been holding against the cuts on her shoulder, thankfully the bleeding had stopped.

  "That's good," Link said, noticing as well, "why'd they start bleeding again anyway? Seems kinda odd that they'd just start bleeding again after what you just did, if anything I would think they'd of healed."

  Zyte took a deep steadying breath before answering, "sometimes when I shadow twist if I already have wounds they'll sometimes heal, sometimes get worse, or they won't change at all. Shadow twisting is very fickle, even I seem to change the forms in some way so that they're closer to me. Take the water dragon for example, the dragon I absorbed had pale blue scales, my form has medium blue, the same color as my eyes. Or my Dark Soaran form, instead of black wings, they're the same color as my regular wings, even my Zeira form is different, normally a Zeira's wings are covered in flames, mine aren't."

  She gingerly stood up, looking at the clouds with a look crossing between longing and concern alight on her face.

  "I really need to get back, they might start thinking I died or something, but I can't go anywhere with my wing like this, and I don't want to risk shadow twisting again, it might make it worse."

  Link stood up as well, "I have an idea, it might take you a little while to get back, but I promise that your wing will have healed. I have a friend who's been studying medicine and such, she'll be able to help you, but it's a bit of a ride to get there."

  Zyte thought for a second, "well I'm willing to try anything, but what exactly do you mean by ride?" The only thing Zyte had ever ridden on were her parent's shoulders when she was young.

  Smiling, Link reached into a pouch at his belt and brought out his ocarina, and Zyte, upon seeing it, brightened at once.

  "Oh, what a beautiful ocarina, I have one at home, but it's not nearly as nice as yours." Zyte felt her heart sink a little at this statement, she hoped she'd be able to hold her ocarina in her hands once more, it was nice down here, but she didn't want to stay down here any longer than she had to.

  Link's smile widening further, he raised the ocarina to his lips and played Epona's Song. A whinny was heard, and Epona came galloping over a crest on the ground, her mane and tail streaming behind her in the wind.

  When Epona had reached them Link reached out his hand to pat her nose. Zyte however had backed up considerably.

  "What in the name of the Goddesses is that?!"

  Chuckling, Link replied, "this is Epona, she's my horse, don't worry, she won't hurt you, this is what I meant by ride. Come on, give her a pet, she doesn't bite."

  Zyte cautiously edged forward, when she had gotten near Epona she held out her hand, which, Link noted, was shaking slightly from nervousness. Epona gave her hand a nuzzle, clearly looking for carrots. Upon finding none she tossed her head and gave Zyte a reproving look.

  Laughing at the look on Zyte's face, he moved to Epona's side and helped Zyte get on before getting on himself.

  "Okay, hang on, it might take us the rest of the day to get there, but it'll give you a great look at Hyrule Field."

  He reached down and patted Epona's neck, "all right Epona, let's go see Malon."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.