First off, just to let the *whole world* know, I snuck on to the 'net to read some new reviews, and I actually remembered them this time (YAY!), so here's my responses.

To ??? – Yeah, looking back on the chapter, I agree. That *was* a bit too strong for PG-13. I'm going to be re-vamping the first coupla chapters soon, and I think I'll revamp that as well, and take out some of the more disturbing parts. Thanks for the bonk on the head.

To H7 – Sorry 'bout that, I was hyper. I don't usually do that, so it *will* be a one-time thing. Thanks for the criticism, and thanks for reviewing!

To Darkdragon – I *so* told you Tyr was in on this! You just weren't listening, kiddo! Oh, and I read the first two parts of your X-Men Roadtrip to Canada story – heehee. You're much, *much* better at writing humour than me. Yeah, and I can't remember what you said in your other two reviews, so, whoops. And thanks for posting all this stuff – uploading stuff takes too long, and my parents would catch me…heh heh. This little note will be revamped along with the rest of it, believe you me. My parents encouraged me to give their buddies the URLs, and if they're reading this, I'm dead. Colleen, if you're reading this, please keep the silence! I have good intentions, believe me! PLEASE!

Oh, and Barenaked Ladies are Canadian, and they rock! So do all Canadian writers! We don't get enough credit in the writing world!

Anyway, that's about it for the author notes. I hope you guys enjoy this part!

-Shawshank

Chapter 23 – The Breaking

Tyr's eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness – or at least as fully as they could, given the circumstances – and she was able to distinguish Furona's dark fur from her equally dark surroundings. She wasn't exactly able to see rocks on the ground, though, and she knew that the next time she saw her feet, they would be blue and purple.

She scratched her bare scalp, feeling tiny hairs already beginning to poke through her skin. Her hair had been entirely burned off, and it was already starting to grow back. For once, she was glad of her grow-like-a-weed hair, which she had to saw off with her swords about once a month. Apparently she wouldn't be doing any sawing for a while to come – it would take at least a year for her hair to grow back to its former length. Even so, she missed the comforting swish on her back. Although she reasoned with herself that, with her hair out of the way, swordplay would be much easier, she still wanted it back. All of it.

For a moment she thought of the others, and her step faltered. What would they think when they saw her? Would they even recognize her? Or, worse, would they think she was dead and not even come looking for her? She hated wondering about things; she needed certainty in her life, or she would probably go insane.

She ran a shaking finger over her suddenly turned red scales, marvelling at how they shone with a faint inner light, even in the total darkness of the Forest of the Lost. Tyr wondered why they had turned red. Was it the next stage of the transformation? Was she already that far along in the process, that her colouring could change? Everything was just too strange. She looked ahead of her, and saw light.

At first she thought she was hallucinating. But as they walked closer and closer, the light increased, and she saw that multitudes of candles were placed all around the strange, beige – coloured stone structure she suddenly found herself in. She walked through a huge stone archway bordered by barely visible dark green leaves, entranced, and saw many versions of herself doing the exact same thing; too many others to count. Tyr bared her sharp teeth; all of the rest copied her. She walked to the nearest one, hoping for a fight, but laughed at herself when she saw that the many copies of her were merely mirror images. The ancient stone structure was full of countless mirrors, all completely identical. There was also a beautiful stone sculpture fountain in the middle of the hallway. Leaves poked in between the mirrors, searching for some light in all the darkness.

She reached out to touch the one she was standing in front of, but a huge paw pushed her back. "You might not want to do that, girl. People before you have, and we never see 'em again, never. Remember this, don't touch what y'don't know what is. Now, c'mon back here, follow me, don't be shy! You have to meet my friends. Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you. We've been waitin' a long time for you to come around. Come on, girl, step up!"

Tyr cleared her throat uncomfortably and refused to move. "Um, Furona, are we going to see other people?"

Furona turned to her. "Of course we are, girl, what…oh. I see. Ah, hang on a second."

She bounded through an dark doorway on Tyr's left, and Tyr was left to wander around the mirror room, making sure to avoid coming too close to any of the mirrors. She stared at the heavy bars of metal in her wrists and ankles, and swivelled her wrists, then stretched all of her muscles. She was just as flexible as before, despite the metal, and she smiled to herself in relief. She sat cross – legged on the well – worn floor and nervously wrapped an arm around her stomach. She drew her knees up to her chest and stretched out her other arm, using it to secure her knees stayed close to her bare body. Tyr let her head fall on her kneecaps, and she sighed, letting out a trembling breath. She hoped that Furona wouldn't come back with a dress – she hated dresses. She had always worn dresses back before she had been exiled from her Tribe, and they reminded her of too many bad things.

"Here you are, child. Hurry up and pull this on."

Damn. It was a dress, and an uncomfortable – looking one at that. The material was soft, but it was cut in a way that was clearly meant for a woman to wear it. She gulped, and dared to speak out.

"Um, Furona, not to sound rude or anything, but I don't exactly enjoy wearing dresses."

She looked shocked, or as shocked as a huge panther could look. "What? You don't wear dresses? Why not?" Tyr looked away uncomfortably. Furona's eyes were understanding. "I see. Well, until I can ask Taybur to make you some pants, I'm afraid you'll have to wear it. Our resources are kind of limited."

Tyr took the garment with heavy hands and tugged it over her head, automatically reaching back to brush away her hair, but feeling slightly at a loss when she discovered it wasn't there any longer. Furona nudged her, and she stood up, pulling the dress down to where it hung just below her knees.

Despite her first impression, the dress was very comfortable, except for the open bottom. She nervously pulled at the wrinkles and assessed herself in the nearest mirror. Tyr had to admit the dress didn't look that bad on her – it was made of a thick, supple leathery material, and covered her body well enough. The bottom edge of the dress was slanted, so that on the left it was below her knees, but on the right it came up to mid – thigh. The dress had short sleeves, and the neck of it was slightly elongated, forming a short collar of sorts. The entire thing hugged her skin snugly, and she scratched her neck uncomfortably as Furona looked her up and down.

"You look lovely in that, but I think blue is more your colour. Not to worry, not to worry, you look fine just the same. Now come on. They've been waiting long enough for you. Come this way."

Tyr followed Furona out of the hall of mirrors through the dark doorway and into a small adjoining room, where she saw many pairs of eyes blinking at her from out of the darkness. They were all sorts of colours, and every single one of them was anchored on her. The silence stretched on, and Tyr was almost ready to run out of the room. She reached out to Furona for comfort, but found only air. She had gone to join the others, and now was just one of the many pairs of eyes, staring at her like they could see through her.

Finally, a long, deep sigh echoed through the room. It reminded Tyr of the wind sighing, but she had no time to dwell on such things. The voice that had issued the sigh spoke, deep and masculine and comforting. "Well, well, what have we here? Why have you brought this girl to us, Furona?"

Furona's voice came out of the darkness. "Her name is Tyr. She is one of us. She can help us."

"That is no comfort to me. We must live in secret. This one's soul is troubled. She may betray us."

"No, she will not betray *us*. She is meant to betray someone else. She is the Hybrid."

Tyr heard many intakes of breath, and a few of the eyes inched closer. She almost took a step back, but controlled herself and stood there, slouching a bit, trying to appear relaxed before the many eyes.

"Hmm. The Hybrid, you say. Well, that would make sense. But still, I am not sure."

"She's a good kid, Eval. C'mon, give her a chance, please?"

The voice, who she assumed was this Eval person, spoke again, though she could hear the indecisiveness in his voice.

"Well, I am still not sure…"

Tyr felt as though she was about to break in two from the tension in the room, so she decided to speak for herself.

"Eval, whoever the hell you are, you can trust me. I keep many secrets myself; one more would do no harm." She had no idea what she was talking about, but she tried to make it sound like she did. Luckily for her, the male voice laughed.

"Fine, fine! I agree. She has spunk; she sounds like a good person. Ayran, light, please."

A small column of fire shot through the darkness, lighting about a dozen candles at the same time. Light flooded into the room, and Tyr's mouth fell open in shock. She started moving backwards, but Furona leapt up from her place and stood behind her, so that she backed into her furry bulk. Tyr wanted to snarl at Furona, but her eyes were glued to the beings before her.

In various positions, laying on the floor, sitting upright, or lounging in chairs, what appeared to be a random assortment of various creatures occupied the room. However, as Tyr looked closer, she saw that some of the creatures were not entirely animals. And all of the humanoids were not entirely Hylian. One young man sported a huge pair of leathery wings, and as he grinned at her, she saw that his teeth, like hers, were sharp and pointed. His tongue was also starting to fork, and he stuck it out at her when he noticed her staring. She bared her teeth and continued looking around.

She saw a red – haired man with slightly silly – looking rabbit ears, a brown-haired woman with the lower body of a horse, but a human torso (A/N: Think centaur), a blue haired woman whose skin was covered in shining purplish scales, a younger boy who had large, yellow eyes and feathers sprouting out of his skin, and a man with black hair that was shot with silver, whose head was entirely wolf, and who had a wolf's furry tail. She quickly passed her eyes over him; the memory of the wolves leaving her was still painful. The rest were a random assortment of colourful birds, creatures that looked like horses but had antlers, small furry creatures she had never seen before, and scaly reptiles. All of the last bunch had some human parts; some still had their human feet, hands, or faces.

Then she looked to the far right, where she had estimated the voice of Eval had come from, and saw the only creature who could have a chance of possessing Eval's deep, calming voice. Oddly enough, his skin was a very deep shade of brown, but she thought it only added to his overall air of being of another world. His face was entirely human, but a single, long horn that looked like it was ivory was poking out of the middle of his forehead. Several small locks of black hair fell around that horn, and his hair was long and black and wild, reaching down to the middle of his back. His brown, understanding eyes smiled out at her as she stared at him in amazement. His feet were no longer feet, but hooves instead; but not horse's hooves, heavy and awkward, but rather more like a goat's, smaller and more agile. Thick, smooth, black hair was growing on his legs, but only up to his knees. He turned around to give her a better look, much to the amusement of the rest of them, who laughed their heads off at Tyr's amazement. He had a long, black tail, like a horse's, that almost brushed the floor from his height. He finished 'modelling' for her and went up to her to shake her hand, smiling lovingly down at her. She immediately felt accepted and respected, and she actually smiled back, not caring that this man had different skin and a different voice. He was the most wonderful person she had ever met, that much she could tell just by the kindness and acceptance he projected into the very air. He didn't care that she was different, or strange; he knew she was a wonderful person too. Tyr shook his hand firmly. She would look forward to talking with him.

The rest of the group shuffled past her, either shaking her hand and welcoming her to their 'humble home,' or taking her hand gently in their jaws and holding it for a few seconds, then verbally welcoming her. The man with the bunny ears joked with her, telling her not to worry, that if she looked half as hilarious as him, she would have been laughed out of the room; she playfully tugged his ear and smiled, then turned to walk over to Furona, nervous because of all the attention. She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't I get to say hi?"

She whirled around and tried to stop herself from frowning, but she couldn't help it. It was the youth with the leather wings; he had folded them close to his back, and he grinned at her, taking her hand and kissing it with a mock bow. They all laughed, and Tyr pulled away, automatically reaching for her swords. She remembered that they had been snapped in two, and her face burned, embarrassing her even more. The young man chuckled softly, and she ran out of the room before she started crying. She was too upset to even notice that the room had fallen silent behind her.

Furona lifted her huge paw and smacked the young man on the back, knocking him onto his face. "And what did you think *you* were doin', boy? She's new, and she hasn't had it easy, let me *tell* you."

The youth got up, looking confused. "But, I was just saying hi!"

She snarled at him. "Sure, you were, but she don't know that. You may think she's pretty, but you can't come on so strong with her. She's not innocent, nobody is, but she isn't used to being touched, or even being accepted for that matter! Things are gonna be shaky for the first little while, but she's a smart one, she'll learn fast. At least I hope so…for her sake, I do hope so."

Eval walked over to the young man and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ayran, we know you mean well because we *know* you. She doesn't. You might want to apologize to her."

Ayran shook his head. "No, it's too soon. I'll give her some time. I'll apologize when we eat our next meal."

Eval smiled a bit. "Isn't that procrastinating a bit?"

Ayran held himself a bit straighter. "No it's not; I'm just making sure that I don't ruin any potential for a friendship by talking to her too soon after I hurt her. Do you see?"

Eval grinned. "I see. Don't worry, all things are forgiven with time." He stroked Furona gently on the head, and she purred loudly, then laughed. "Well, I'm sure about that, if I'm not sure about anything else. You apologize when you think it's right." Ayran smiled a small smile and nodded, then walked towards the door on the far right, opening it swiftly. However, he couldn't get through it before the man with the bunny ears sent one last jibe after him.

"Well, I'll keep score. I'd say that's Tyr: One, Ayran: Zip!" The room was echoing with raucous laughter and Ayran's face and neck were bright red before he could close the door behind him.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere on Hyrule Field, all hell was breaking loose. (A/N: *Shawshank does the little drum solo thing and waits for laughter…we hear cricket noises…sniffs, wipes away a tear, smashes the drum set Sum41 style, and shuts off the spotlight.* Aaaaaaaaaaanyway…where was I…oh, yes, all hell is breaking loose somewhere on Hyrule Field.)

Kawhin clapped a hand over Zelda's mouth, cutting off her loud screaming, and stared with frightened eyes at the horde surrounding them. The hairy creatures were snapping their jaws, and the winged skeletons were loosening their swords in their sheaths and rustling large, black wings. Kawhin's hands began shaking, and he took his hand away from Zelda's mouth. She was silent, he was silent, Navi was silent. Dust settled over the plain, and the dead grass crackled under the sun's hot glare. A small tumbleweed rolled across the patch of dead grass, only to be crushed by the foot of one of the winged skeletons. It seemed to grin, although it was impossible for a creature with no lips to smile, and it raised its sword, still silent. It let out a small grunt, and the horde fanned out in an instant, surrounding the frozen trio. The skeleton opened its mouth and let out a strange howl; the rest of the horde copied it. They all dived on Kawhin, Zelda, and Navi, hacking at everything within sight with their swords and laughing like the rabble they were. The lead skeleton cried out, "We will have fresh meat! Get out of the way, imbeciles." The horde moved aside from the spot where the three had stood, grumbling mutinously and watching the crowd move away from where the three dead bodies were lying. Well, two dead bodies, and one extinguished ball of light. The Lieutenant – for that was what he was – laughed and moved in closer, waiting for the smell of raw meat to entrance his nostrils.

"Lieutenant? What's all the fuss about?" Yehrutte strode out of his tent in a huff, this time fully dressed, much to the relief of the Lieutenant.

"Sir, three fools wandered into the camp. The crew is hungry – we killed them, we want fresh meat." Yehrutte nodded, and the Lieutenant sighed in relief – he had not wanted to tell the horde that they would be denied this meat.

"Well, what have we here? Three wandering idiots?"

The Lieutenant saluted. "Yes, sir. We most certainly do, sir."

Urian smiled, but then it took a closer look at the bodies. "Who are – were these people?"

The skeleton shook his head. "We don't know, sir."

The General narrowed its eyes. "So you just killed them? Is that right?"

The Lieutenant nodded, more confident. "Yes, sir. That is correct, sir."

Urian smiled again, but this time it was a cold, cruel smile. "Hmm. Good work, soldier."

The Lieutenant nodded again, and opened its mouth slightly in an impression of a smile. When it melted into dust, its expression was frozen that way. Urian laughed as it sheathed its sword, having killed the Lieutenant in an instant. The horde obediently laughed along with it, but froze immediately as Urian whirled on them.

"You *idiots*! Can you not think for yourselves?" It was met with silence. "Well? Answer me!"

One of the furry creatures stepped forward. "No, sir, we cannot think for ourselves, sir."
It smiled at the monster. "Well. Finally one with some sense. What's your name, soldier?"

"Inriar, sir."

"Is that male or female?"

"Female, sir."

Urian smiled. "That's beautiful. You are the new Lieutenant. You are my second in command, and I am Yehrutte's second in command. You take orders from either Yehrutte or I. Do you understand, *Lieutenant* Inriar?"

She nodded smartly. "Yes, sir, I understand perfectly, sir."

"Lieutenant, it is your job to see that the horde is well fed, happy, and efficient. I don't want you to kill anything - *anything* - for food unless you check it with me first. Got it?"

"I've got it, sir."

It patted her on the back and nodded; she stepped back into the ranks, walking slightly straighter than before. Urian paced back and forth before the assorted monsters.

"Now. If I find out that the beings that you have killed," it waved towards the three bodies, "are not what I'm looking for, I'll spare your lives, and maybe even let you eat their bodies. However…" It drew its sword slowly and ran a thumb along the sharp edge of the blade. "If I discover that one of these people was the one I'm looking for, anyone with a bloody weapon will die. Is that clear?" They all nodded dumbly, and Urian whirled its sword around its hand, shoving it back into its sheath. It fell onto its knees and leaned over the three bodies, hoping to catch even a slight whiff of that scent that had been on the female, the now – dead female, the female whose dying words haunted its dreams. Yehrutte rushed into the open space before he could smell even the tiny dead fairy, and said, "Now, wait a second. You can't put your silly little search for a *smell* before the wishes of my Master and yours, the Great – "

"Oh, shut up, Yehrutte. You're too afraid to cross me – we both know it, and now the entire horde does." Urian stood up, anger clear on its stolen face. "And my search is not *silly*. Do I make myself clear?" Yehrutte remained stubbornly silent. Urian's hand went to its sword hilt, and it sighed. "Well, I must say I almost regret doing this…"

Yehrutte panicked and almost shouted, "No, don't, I understand!"

Urian smiled. "Say it again. So they can all hear you." It waved a hand at the horde at its back. Yehrutte sighed.

"I understand. Your search is not *silly*. In serving your own interests, you also serve our Master."

Urian nodded, and kneeled again, leaning over the body of the young boy with white hair. It sniffed at the corpse, then looked directly at Yehrutte, narrowing its eyes. More frantically, it sniffed at the body of the tiny fairy, then at the one of the young woman with long, blonde hair. It stopped for a moment to look at the woman. She looked so familiar… that was it! It was her, she was the one he had been looking for! She had appeared to it in the tent, in its dreams…they had killed her. It would have its revenge, but for now, it had to be sure she was truly gone. It reached out to touch her cheek, to turn her face to its.

Its hand went right through her head, and her body disappeared.

It roared out loud and leapt up, taking out its sword again. It stabbed the fairy, which disappeared after the sword went through it; it cut at the white – haired boy, who also disappeared. Its blade had cut only dry earth and dead grass.

It screamed its agony to the skies, where a dark shape circled above the clouds, watching and waiting, always waiting.

***

Zelda, Kawhin, and Navi were laughing their giddy heads off, running away as fast as they could from the horde, running parallel to the Forest of the Lost.

Kawhin had become suspicious of the trail of dead grass they seemed to be following, and they had sent Navi ahead to scout it out. She had found a horde of monsters, half – asleep, sitting in the center of a large circle of dead grass. Kawhin had used the cover of the fog to employ one of the many skills he had learned in his childhood home.

He had sent out mental images of the three of them, half – concentrating on making them walk and lie dead on the ground while the real trio ran to the north, or what Navi was pretty sure was north, towards the border that the Forest of the Lost formed. They laughed for a long time, and Zelda cook an impromptu meal of a very thin soup. Nobody complained, though, because – though none of them wanted to be the one to say it – they were running out of supplies. Navi was the only one who had any experience of living off the land, and of course she didn't remember most of it, because she had not kept her memories of that alternate future. Zelda and Kawhin had been raised in lavishness, so they had no idea what to do out here, in the wild. Though they didn't speak it, they all knew the truth; they would have to learn to survive in the wild, or they simply would *not* survive. It was life or death, and that was that.

What they didn't know was that, far, far above them, that same dark shape was listening to them, formulating in its mind. It swooped over the forest, trying to find the only one it had lost track of, but to no avail. The tree cover was far too thick.

The shadow became that of a huge eagle, and it screamed into the sky, soaring away over the land. It was too far up to be heard by any of the mortals below, though, and so its anguish went unnoticed, along with many other things only that dark shape could see or hear.

As it glided on the breeze, it felt that sometimes, it was all too much to bear. But it had no choice.

Contrary to its former belief, nothing was entirely choice.

***

Well, I had the first few paragraphs of this one sitting around for most of the summer, but now that I know I have a 'deadline' of sorts, I finally got around to finishing it. I don't know what I'm on lately! I mean, I've revamped the first few chapters, I'm going to end up adding little bits to most of the rest of the story, so it's all good! By the way, any frequent readers will definitely want to check out the revamped chapters – I added part into them that may or may not come into play later, I'm still not sure. But please, read those chapters and tell me what you think of the changes!

Thanks to any summer reviewers – sorry I can't name anybody, still don't have internet. I'll reply to any new reviews in the next chapter.

Also, the offer of rewriting Christ's death still stands! It's just that nobody except DarkDragon (of course) wants to read it…

By the way, I'm going to stop doing the lyrical quotations and crap – it just clutters up the screen, and when people don't read the author notes, it's not a good thing. Please, guys, important stuff comes up every once in a while that you might need to know! Please read this stuff, even if it's annoying! *Gets up off her knees.* Well, whatever. So…

In the NEXT Chapter: Tyr gets friendly with the gang of people, and finds out why they're part animal and part human. Urian continues its 'search for the smell,' *snickers*, Kawhin, Zelda, and Navi play around with wilderness survival, and DarkDragon gets horribly, horribly sunburned and phones me to complain about it. Well, okay, that's not in the chapter, but by the time I get back home, I'm sure it'll happen.
Fav Song This Week: Safe Home by Anthrax

Fanfic Pick This Week: The Return by Lady Rose (GO READ IT NOW!)

Until the next chapter!

-Shawshank *thinks she's allergic to something because she's had a runny nose all day*