The gentle pitter patter of rain on the window is what stirred Anju from her sleep; the feeling of a hand harshly gripping her ear is what made cerulean eyes shoot open as she let out a yelp.

"Your cuccos are all over the village again, Anju. And it's almost 3:00! Why are you sleeping so late? Are you going back to the well at night?" Her mother's incessant nagging voice was not the best thing to hear first thing after one woke up.

"They always get out of their pen, mother..." Anju mumbled sleepily, pulling her head away from her mother's clenching hand.

"Don't use that tone with me, especially not after how you've been acting lately." The tone the woman used was a very biting one, and it wasn't long before her fingers were tightly grabbing onto her daughter's ear again, "Just WHAT are you doing down there, anyways? Or should I say who?"

Anju growled, but said nothing. This was getting annoying fast. All she wanted to do then was sleep, but her mother only wanted to nag at her.

"That's none of your business." She glared up at her defiantly, eyes narrowing menacingly in a way that no daughter should practice around her angry mother. This brought about an even angrier reaction from her mother, who then dragged Anju up by the ear into a standing position.

"Oh, it's my business if I make it my business; not that I even have to. If you're going to live in my home, then you are going to do as I tell you and I'm telling you to stop with your little late-night rendezvous in that well." Her tone was icy and menacing, but Anju did not feel threatened; just incredibly aggravated. Her arms were by her sides, fists clenching hard.

Suddenly she felt a sharp stinging in her palms, but before she could react, her mother had glanced up and grabbed onto a rather sensitive…protrusion on her head.

"And what are these?" The older woman hissed, grabbing onto another located on the other side of her head.

What were they? Anju had no idea, but they were obviously very sensitive and it rather hurt as her mother grabbed and yanked on them.

"OW." Was her only reply, unable to stop herself as she lifted a hand up, pushing away her mother's arms forcefully. It then took her a few seconds to realize that she had pushed her mother halfway across the room in doing so, and needless to say, the woman wasn't exactly pleased.

"How dare you!" She began, coming towards her daughter.

Alright, that was enough. She had to get out of that house and figure out what the hell was going on. Before her mother had a chance to grab her ear again, she had fled from the bulding and was outside in the rain, walking in no definite direction.

Anju felt soothed as the cool rain fell against her skin; now decided that she was going to her grandmother's. As she walked, she recalled the searing pain in her palms earlier, and opened her hands to inspect. Surely enough, there was a thin mix of water and blood trickling down her forearms, causing her to stop in her tracks and gasp. She followed the small red trickle p her arms and to her palms, where there were 4 small incisions in each hand. She had no clue what had caused it, until she glanced up and noted her fingernails.

True, she had really neglected to cut them in the past 2 weeks, but they were curved and sharp in such a way that normally it would have been impossible to achieve without filing them into such shapes – which she certainly hadn't done. They weren't particularly long; just enough to notice small points from the bottoms of her hands. Blinking, she shook her head and then took off at a much speedier pace towards her grandmother's shop.

…

On the way there, Anju had tripped over a few cuccos, but made no effort to pick them up and return them. Finally greeted with the comforting sight of her grandmother's door, she noted that the old woman was apparently out for another field study. Sighing exasperatedly, she reached up, grabbed the spare key, and unlocked the door.

She didn't even bother to light to torches or a candle as she entered the shop; she seemed to see fine in the dark. Of course, being preoccupied with other things, this didn't seem to strike her as odd at the time. Quickly she found her way behind the red curtain behind the service counter, met with the backroom that held the bookshelves, a bed, a vanity, and a small pet bed for her grandmother's pet…thing.

For the first time in several visits, she neglected the bookshelf and headed straight for the old vanity, seating herself before it. She leaned forward towards the mirror, tilting her head forward slightly to see just what her mother had been grabbing earlier. Surely enough there were two small protrusions poking out from her red hair, and upon further inspection, she found that the scalp around them was particularly red…and sensitive. Blinking, she looked closed at the actual appendages.

They were small, maybe the width of her thumb, black, hard, and pointed. It was almost as if she was growing…

…horns?

"Curse's can have strange effects on those who expose themselves to them." Her grandmother's calm voice spoke from behind Anju, causing her to jump slightly in her seat. Turning around in her chair, she saw the old woman standing in the darkness, holding a small candle as light. Strange…she hadn't even heard her come in.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, dear, that those horns are not unexpected, and those fingernails are not surprising."

Anju proceeded to turn the seat all the way around, folding her hands in her lap and tilting her head inquisitively. It didn't bother her that her grandmother knew what had been going on; she was a very gifted woman in that department. When Anju was younger, she had always seemed to know when she was in trouble or when she was causing it.

"…what do you mean?" She repeated herself, idly bringing a hand up to mess with one of her…horns.

"Anju, do you know why it is forbidden to go into the well?"

Anju rolled her eyes and nodded.

"The well is home to a dreaded shadow spirit who will kill all intruders, yes, I know, everyone does." She spoke in a drone-ish sort of voice as if she had heard that statement thousands of times in her life – which she had. Her grandmother just laughed slightly and shook her head.

"You've been read too many fairytales. That's not why the well is off limits." The old woman turned to the bookshelf behind her, and then turned around with 'Shadow Spirits' in hand a few moments later. She held it out to Anju with the hand that wasn't holding the candle, and Anju took it, confused.

"I've read this book, grandmother, and you used to read it to me all the time."

"You've read the myths from it, yet, but you haven't read the rest."

Anju was lost. She had flipped through this book several times since her meetings with Kafei had begun, but all she had seen were stories of demons and spirits that haunted Hyrule.

"Turn to the end of his story." Her grandmother said coolly, dragging a chair over next to her granddaughter, holding the candle up to the book so Anju could see the book better. Finally, her fingers found the page with the inverted Sheikah eye, and Anju turned to look at her grandmother. The old woman just looked up at her, "I said to turn to the end of his story." Anju was confused, but still she turned the page. As it was every other time she had looked at the book, the pages were blank.

After a moment, she raised an eyebrow and looked up to her grandmother with an inquisitive and confused expression.

"…it's blank." Anju stated the obvious after a few moments of silence, and then looked back to the book.

"It's not." The old woman spoke softly, and then blew out the candle.

As soon as the light was gone, the pages were illuminated with glowing writing, all in the Sheikah language. Anju's eyes widened as she skimmed over the symbols, until the realization hit her that she had no clue how to read Sheikah.

"It can only be read…in shadow." Her grandmother spoke, reaching over and bringing the book into her own lap, "It says that there is a curse upon the well that is keeping the spirit trapped. Anyone killed within the perimeter of this curse will be cursed for eternity, and anyone exposed too long to this curse will fall under it as well."

Anju gasped as everything rushed into her head all at once. The sleepwalking back to the well…the horns…the claws…She was being affected by the curse.

"I fear it's almost too late for you, Anju." Her grandmother closed the book and looked over to the girl through the darkness, eyes appearing as if she could clearly see her, "You'd best stay away before the curse claims you."

Comforted by the fact that her grandmother couldn't see her face, Anju found herself grinning.

"Yes, grandmother."

Not five hours later did Anju find herself walking through the well again, meekly offering waves to the ReDeads that she passed along the way. She found that they returned the waves, and then went back to wandering around the well seemingly aimlessly. She couldn't just stop these meetings with Kafei – the other night had just been too…well, wonderful.

She wistfully recalled that first kiss and the many that followed, the feeling of his arms tightly wrapped around her body, that wonderful warm trickling down her shoulder as he…

That was the one part that bothered her. He had, like many nights before, bit her shoulder, but last night…she had enjoyed it; reveled in it; begged for it and moaned for him as he did it.

It had hurt, yes, and it had left a painful wound… but it had been so…wonderful.

Snapping out of her daydream, she found herself face to face with the door to Kafei's chambers. She took a deep breath and a moment to collect herself, then smoothed out the wrinkle on her dress and stepped forward into the darkness…