A/N: Fun Fact: Did you know that there are actually SIX senses that humans have? Most animals have this sense too. It's called proprioception and it's basically the awareness of our own bodies. Knowing where our body parts are, how tight we're holding things, etc. It's the first sense that I think would really smack Wolf Link over the head when he comes to. "Why is my nose not my nose? Why are my joints in the wrong place? Help me!"
Had a lot of fun with Link's unreliable narration in this chapter. He keeps making the most dramatic assumptions possible. Poor sheltered boy needs to go to Hyrule Field and touch some grass.
The Light Invasion
PART I - DESERT THE ARMY
Link of Ordon: Is your duty to your kingdom, or the parasite in your shadow?
Chapter 3 - Servant of the Enemy
There was something deeply wrong with himself and the world. Link knew it even as he stirred. Even with his eyes shut.
For one, his arms and legs weren't as long as they should be, nor were the joints in the right place. His nose was in line with his spine, drawing in a strong whiff of musky wood, iron, dust, pine, pumpkin, and brine. He sneezed through a… snout? Was it a snout?
His ears, set atop his head, swivelled after the footsteps creaking along the floorboards above. A familiar alien tongue snipped back and forth. An argument between the shadowy henchmen from before. A door slammed after that. Wait. He knew that slam!
Eyes snapped open. Basement. His basement, just as the smells described. The colours were off. The contents was a darker hue bathed in orange light. Without a light source, it was supposed to be pitch-darkness down here, so why could he make out every jar of pickled pumpkin, every childhood toy, and every animal wood carving his father had made lining the shelves? Could Link see in the dark at the cost of colour?
As he groggily raised himself on four -four- legs, a clamp around his front left jingled. A chain. A chain on a white canine paw. A white canine paw with the glowing Triforce symbol on it! Any time he wrapped his head around one crazy detail, another smacked him over the head like a bulblin's club.
Okay. Slow down. He's in his basement. He has a canine paw. A canine stance. A canine set of senses. He's chained. What was he chained to? Let's start with that.
Well, not only was he chained to the leg of his rather heavy, and thankfully unopened, chest of savings, but he also had an ashy coat, dirty white underbelly, and wolfish tail.
What was he? A wolf chained in his basement. Hooray! Question answered.
Why was he a wolf chained in his basement?
Why were those henchmen upstairs? Who were they? What were they? Who was that otherworldly warlord they worked for? What did he do to Ordona? Why did Ordona come to Link's aid? Why were they able to repel the henchmen but not the warlord? Questions bred like rabbits, his mind rushing like river rapids. Every time he broke the surface, he caught a single breath before he was dragged down, spun, and tossed until he forgot where 'up' was all over again.
What mattered was the basement. Stick to the basement. He was a wolf, and there was nothing he could do about that for now, but maybe his new chompers could snap a weak link. Yeah, good start.
Iron wasn't a pleasant taste upon his floppy tongue, nor was the way it groaned against his teeth. Torture on his nerves and ears, but that couldn't stop him from shaking and heaving until his gums ached and his teeth were shy of chipping.
The chain clattered against the floor. Those henchmen must have known it would hold, otherwise they wouldn't have left him to be fetched later, or rot down here, or- too many questions!
The ladder on the other side of the basement mocked him. He couldn't get to it, and even if he could, he couldn't climb it. It dangled freedom just out of reach like a raw, juicy steak on a ceiling hook.
There was a warm, rectangular spotlight shining from the basement's entrance, and a silhouette dropped into it. Peggy legs. Curvaceous hips. Arms that almost reached her knees. Long, pointed ears. There were thick, symmetrical appendages rising from the sides of her head. They could be horns reaching for the heavens, or a mount for her eyes, or yet another chilling stone mask.
The imp hopped to the floor. Link shuffled back with a growl. Her cool grey lips spread into a fanged grin. "I found you!"
Just like the warlord, her arms were adorned with glowing blue runes. Just like the warlord, she wore a stone helmet, but with a spikey orange ponytail, or tassel, spilling over the back. Unlike the warlord, one of her true eyes were exposed. Yellow 'whites' and a red iris within an orange one. A humanising improvement from the lamplights of the henchmen but still off. The rune-covered ears and top half of her face were black, but from the bridge of her nose to her chin was cool grey. The black covered her arms, her breasts, curved under her belly, and cloaked one of her legs, tattooed with glowing teal.
Only one word came to mind. Monster. A monster just like the ones who had attacked Link, gagged him, dragged him, transformed him, and trapped him. His lips peeled back into a greater snarl. "Ooh, aren't you scary?" she cooed in almost perfect Hylian. Her posh, foreign accent was pitched high. Link hadn't heard many accents before, but that one, that one, echoed the warlord. "Are you sure you want to be doing that? Snarling and glaring at me?" Link barked at the veiled threat. He wasn't gonna be intimidated. Like it or not, he was a soldier now, and a soldier did not yield to the enemy. She crossed her arms with a snooty little sigh. "Well, that's too bad. I was planning on helping you, if you were nice."
He didn't trust the offer, but it did tempt him to stop growling. She softly cackled. If tea bells could laugh. "That's much better. You humans are obedient to a fault, aren't you?" She had to be allied with the warlord. How else did she know his true form? "Oops! But you aren't human anymore, are you? You're a beast." She smacked twice under his jaw. Link snapped at her, but she leapt back. In his pursuit, the chain on his ankle went taut. "There, there. You be a good boy and calm down. No need to bite." Maybe not a need, but there was a nagging want.
The imp bowed her head over her palms, one hovering over the other. Between them, an orange spark formed, expanding into an apple-sized orb of crackling energy. With a grunt, she flung her palms aside. The ball burst into sparks. Metal snapped. The cuff on Link's ankle lost tension. That was some powerful magic, to snap metal just like that. There were probably more morbid things she could snap, too.
A cackle spooked his left ear. He jerked up. Her fanged smirk was right in his face. "You look kind of surprised." Can't expect a rancher to have witnessed dark magic before, and if it was that easy for someone to break the chain, it seemed a little incompetent to leave him unguarded. Unless she was his new warden, tasked with transporting him from point A to B.
"So, I bet you're wondering, what exactly is going on?" The imp floated backwards, following the lines of the ladder until she disappeared onto the next floor. "Well, I'll make a deal. If you can get up here, then maybe I'll tell you." Her shadow on the basement floor beckoned, then it stretched its arms above its head and yawned.
Link might be a dog, but he still knew how to move like a human. That could be enough to climb the ladder. He took a tentative step forward, then another, and another. Walking on four legs he'd never had before was surprisingly intuitive. Had his muscle memory shifted too? Even his tail was pointed at the ground without conscious command.
His front paws reached halfway up the ladder. In a way, this form was taller than his other one. The imp leaned over the entrance with her hands on her hips. "Come on, Wolfie." That was not his name. "What's the hold up?" Give him time. New form: new balance.
The claws scratching into the wood weren't as good a hold as fingers. This better not end with a fractured spine. He put his left hind onto the first rung. So far, so good. The right hind left the flooring. He tipped backwards, lost the wood, swiped the air, and twisted onto his left side. The floor smacked against his shoulder. A sharp yelp. He rolled onto his feet, throbbing, but functional.
The imp doubled over, arms crossed over her gut as she cackled so high that his jars of pickled pumpkin might shatter. What a twisted sense of humour these monsters had. Their taunts and games were far from hysterical. Sure, climbing the ladder as a wolf wasn't the brightest idea, but still.
Forget that stupid ladder. There had to be another way, and he would find it before she got impatient enough to zap him with her magic. Hmm. His hinds had more spring. Maybe if he cleared a few shelves, he could leap between them.
He gently bit his father's carvings on the first shelf and set them down one-by-one. Each dent his teeth made stung like a deku hornet. The imp yawned again. "You're taking forever. Just knock them off already." No way. He was gonna do whatever he could to prevent them from chipping or cracking. "You know what?" the imp said. "I'll give you a freebee." There was a snap of fingers. The statues vanished into black particles. Everything in the basement was gone! Destroyed? Stolen? How dare she take his treasures! Link paced under the entrance, barking and snarling. She was damn lucky to be above his snapping jaws.
The imp rolled her visible eye. "Calm down. I have better things to carry than your junk. I'll put everything back when you're up here, Snail-Wolf."
She was many vile things, but there was only one way to find out if 'thief' belonged on the list. He clambered onto the first shelf. It was too narrow for him to be fully centred and too short for him to stand up all the way. Might not be enough room to spring to the next shelf.
He hung over the edge, snout pointed at the higher shelf on the opposite side, and jumped. One of his hinds didn't make it, but with his claws in the wood, he shimmied himself forward and dragged the straggler on. The next shelf was easier, with no limbs spilled. Time for the jump out of the basement.
The edge of the entrance smacked into his stomach. He was slipping, scraping floorboards with his claws and raking air with his hinds. He'd have to start again. Do this over and over. There was no winning! None!
His left hind brushed the ladder. He hooked the rung and the slipping stopped. Good. Just gotta shift around the corner with his front paws. A bit. A bit more. There. His left hind felt around for the rung above his right. Caught. He 'walked' up those final few rungs until all four paws found the floor.
Something dropped onto his spine. It was her, riding him like some steed. Link bucked, but her thighs were firmly dug into his middle. The imp humphed. "I guess you're not completely stupid after all." A tiny hand snatched his ear and dragged him towards the empty basement. A snap of her fingers, and it was full again, though a few sad carvings were still stranded on the floor. "See? I'm a woman of my word." For now. She lounged against his back, raking her fingers through his fur. "Listen, I like you, so I think I'll help you fix your little town." Ordon wasn't perfect, but what about it could be fixed by her? She pulled his ear to her lips. "But in exchange for my help, you have to do exactly as I say."
What a stellar soldier he was. His first 'day' of enlistment and he had already been imprisoned and enslaved by the enemy. An enemy who played mind-games, who could break metal, who could vanish anything with a snap, and who could probably curse him into this wolf form, too. Sure, that warlord was responsible, but who's to say she hadn't mastered the same spell?
If Link was certain about one thing, it was easier to escape a guard than a chain. For now, he'd follow along, and that was why, against every impulse to thrash and snap and snarl, he mustered a nod.
The imp released his ear to pat his neck with a bit too much force. "Good dog." The quip almost triggered a snarl, but he would play nice, no matter how little she deserved it. It would only be until he got back his form, and then he'd enlist in the army so that she and people like her couldn't exploit another person like him ever again.
Her chest left his spine. No more breath rattling his sensitive ears. Thank Hylia. "I suppose you'd want the name of your new mistress," she said. "It's Midna. And what a shame! You can't tell me yours." She drummed her hands on his shoulder blades with a snicker. "That means we get to stick with Wolfie." His growl inspired another cackle. "Too bad, Wolfie. Now, come on. Get moving!" Her peg legs kicked his ribs. He yelped and scampered through the living room, careful not to rake the books still sprawled over the carpet. Midna scoffed. "You nest like a beast, too."
And so came the next impossible barrier. The doorknob. Actually, this could be a good thing. She'd have to clamber up his head to twist it, and he could buck her off and smash out a window before she recovered. It wouldn't be pretty, but at least he'd be rid of her.
A large, orange hand extended over his head and grabbed the knob. A hand made of hair. That settled it. He didn't know her limits well enough to escape. Anything he tried might be countered by a new, unknown trick.
The door swung open to a warped world. It was as though the sun was rising again after all this time, but no. Midna sighed wistfully at the horror above the trees. "Isn't the dark cloud of twilight beautiful, tonight?"
It was the inverse of the sky Link knew. The colour of inferno with dark smog drifting along. This twilight was not sombre and mournful like Rusl had described. It was angry and vengeful and invasive, like the creeping singe of a candle by an unwatched hem.
A faint, layered lament twitched Link's ear. "Ooh, heard something interesting, Wolfie?" Midna asked. Link pointed his snout towards the source: Ordon Spring. "Better follow it then." Another jab in the ribs sprung him into the clearing. As he plodded along the path, he glanced over his shoulder. Epona's stable was silent, and there was no sight of her, though it was hard to tell with the imp in the way. Midna slapped his shoulders. "Hurry up! We don't have all day." She chuckled at her own taunt.
Link rounded into the spring. Above the waterfall, half as thin as normal, was a dim, swirling orb of light. The singer of the sorrow.
The water sloshed around Link's ankles, weighted his fur, but halfway to the spirit, something whistled from the sky. Gnarled wooden stakes thumped into the sand. Between them, a barrier of red runes glowed, caging him in. Cutting him off from the orb. Above was a black portal. Red, angular runes jutted from a spiral. Link craned back and growled at it. A fragile cover for the tail between his legs.
"I'll leave you to deal with this." Midna's weight left his back. Link would bet ten rupees that she led him into this trap. Would it be his torture, trial, or execution?
A thousand black particles fell from the spiral, puzzling into a beastly tangle of black leather halfway down. Its landing sprayed Link with water. Long arms. Short legs. Red runes etched over the torso. This stone mask was vaguely shaped like a lyre, tying its allegiance to Midna and the warlord. Sprawled on its back, it should have shattered its spine, but it rolled onto its toes and knuckles, leering above him.
Each step the monster made was a step back for Link. Without his hand and sword, Link was no warrior, and he was no beast slayer, but as a wolf, he was wild and feral and fuelled by instinct. Anything to save his pelt.
When the monster barely raised a hand from the water, Link sprung forth, claws out and jaws open. The beast smacked into the water. Its chest was soil and he was digging to the bone. The monster's claws beat and scratched at Link's back, but they were no deeper than paper cuts in his thick hide. Link bit tight into the monster's neck and thrashed his head until flesh tore free. He spat it out. Rancid blood bittered his tongue. With a dying shriek, the monster's head fell back into the water, the red barrier faded, and the pegs shattered into black particles.
Dark blood ribboned through the water. Bits of flesh bobbed on the surface. Damning proof of the one thing that Rusl had taught Link not to do.
He attacked first.
Rusl had taught him that the just swordsman would rarely strike first. "Do not presume anyone is a monster," he said. "Do not seek to kill. Your priority is to defend, and there will only ever be a need to defend if they strike first."
Did this creature trap Link? Damn likely. Did it horrify him? Absolutely. Did it intimidate him? That approach was designed to terrify! But did it attack first?
No. It didn't.
"Nice work," Midna quipped. Apparently this was a trial (though not one of court) and his beastly bloodlust had passed it. She floated by him and hovered over the creature. "Here's a fun little thing about our partnership." She flourished her arms, and the flesh burst into black flames, unaffected by the water. Even the bits and blood in his fur and teeth melted away. "You make the messes, and I clean them up." This was so much more than spilled milk. This wasn't something easy to clean and forget.
Link met his blue eyes, human eyes, in waters cleansed of all but memory. Midna ended her flourishes at the sky to settle on his back again. Head hung low, he approached the living light who had just witnessed his slaughter.
"Please be careful… this town has changed…" The voice was like a rusted music box. A battle to crank out words that barely chimed. "The dark clouds of dusk cover this land… This drape of shadows is called… twilight. In this twilight, those who live in the light… become as mere spirits… It is a place… where the dark ones and evil creatures dwell…" Midna scoffed, stung by the truth.
"I… am a spirit… of light… Ordona…" the voice croned. "The evil king… you encountered. He stole… my light and… shrouded this province in… this cursed cloak." The unravelling mystery loosened some of the tension in Link's shoulders. There was a clear problem now. All he needed was a means to solve it.
"Look… for my light… Retrieve the light stolen by the evil king… and keep it… in this vessel." Three strands of light departed from the swirling orb, converging into each other. When the glow faded, a glassy orb with a curled, golden stalk floated downwards. Midna snapped her fingers and it shattered into particles. She better give that back, too.
"In the shadows of twilight… the dark insect… who hoards my light… is as… invisible… as normal beings are here…" Normal beings? Invisible? Ordona did mention something about spirits, but that could mean anything. "Find… the insect of darkness… It is the form taken by evil… once it has latched onto… my stolen light. Only then… will your true form… be restored."
He waited for Ordona to continue, to explain his wolfish form, or the nature of this war, or if he should trust the imp on his back. Nothing followed. Ordona had only the strength to give him a task, and if Link wanted to voice his questions, then he needed his true body back and the spirit restored.
The chat, vague and one-sided as it was, had Link far better off than when he had awoken in his basement. Arguably more so than when he was drafted, too. Why? Because he had two things: motivation and direction. Get back his true form by restoring the light. Restore the light by killing an evil insect. An invisible evil insect. In an unknown location.
Yep. He was still screwed. Slightly less screwed, but screwed none-the-less.
When he plodded onto the beach, Midna hopped from his back and hovered over him, compensating for her puny stature. "Look at you, sulking like a lost little puppy," she cooed. "Seems like you've bitten off more than you can chew. Good thing I'm here." She must really like the sound of her own voice. "Did you know that more shadowbeasts roam that dingy little town of yours?"
Link's jaw fell open. Ordon had been captured? And all the men remotely capable of defending it had been taken away! What fate had befallen Uli, Colin, Ilia, and the rest? If they even scratched a single one of them, then forget principal! Those monsters would answer to Link's teeth.
Midna leaned down, smug to have dug where it hurt. "Oh yes," she drawled, "and these shadowbeasts can only be defeated with my help, so if you want to take back your home and restore that glow-goat of yours, I'm going to need you to pick up a few things for me first." For any decent person, liberating an innocent town should be incentive enough, but as Midna had demonstrated over and over, she was far from decent. Her motives and allegiances were too muddy to place.
"Right now, I want a sword and shield that will suit me," she said. Any sword or shield in Ordon would be too large and heavy for her, but even if he had his voice, why bother telling her? He had no choice but to obey lest she sting him with her magic. She'd realise her mistake on her own, and what a moment it would be to witness.
"You do understand me, don't you?" Link nodded, but upon his first step towards Ordon, he paused. The only sword and shield he knew to still be in Ordon were the tributes to the royal family. He couldn't give those to the enemy. Then again, she might leave them alone once she realised how useless they'd be to her.
"So what do you plan to do?" Midna lounged in the air, examining her claws. "While you're here dawdling, the shadowbeasts get closer to sniffing out your family, and their master is attacking more draftees all over Hyrule." Odd that she 'cared' about that, but not-so-odd that she'd pretend to care just to win Link over. And it was working. Midna flipped onto his back and smacked his shoulders. "Come on. Hurry it up!"
Link scampered through the gates, through the forest clearings, and past Epona's empty stable. If giving up the tributes to appease the monster on his back assured the survival of himself and Ordon, then so be it. That town couldn't afford to suffer any more than it already had.
For now, he would continue to serve the enemy to her mysterious and malicious ends, but mark his thoughts, no leash on him would go unsnapped.
A/N:
Midna: "You're my servant but this is actually a mutually beneficial relationship."
Link: "I have been ENSLAVED by my new NEMESIS who I have no choice but to obey lest she hex me with her torturous dark magic."
Fun fact: When I was watching Midna's introduction cutscene to copy her dialogue, I realised that she never introduces herself. The game just tells you her name. Canonically, Link doesn't find out Midna's name until Zelda uses it in the tower.
What do you think of my choice to have Link be more suspicious and hateful of Midna?
