A/N: The first boss battle of a fic is always tough to write. They are tough to write in general, but it's always the first few that are just... urgh. I really hope this turned out well! They generally turn out in the end.

Also I got inspired by 'The Wolf of Farore' fanfic on AO3 to name the boss fight chapters after the bosses themselves and give them proper titles like the games do, hence 'Woodland Primate Faron'!


The Light Invasion

PART II - LIFT THE LIGHT

Region by region, dungeon by dungeon, trial by trial, Link and Midna build a fragile trust.


Chapter 18 - Woodland Primate Faron


Before the plague had massacred half of Ordon, there was a swing tied to a branch that hung over the spring. Link, Ilia, and the other children had delighted in swinging on it as their toes skimmed the water. They used it so much that, combined with the water, they wore on the rope, and they had to replace it every six months or so.

When the plague forced everyone to huddle in their homes, it was when the rope was almost due for another replacement. The seasons and elements continued to wear and tear until only two out of four children emerged from their homes. By then, their precious swing was nothing more than rotten wood half-buried in the sand.

Link and Ilia never built a new one. What was the point without their lost friends? Still, Link never stopped itching for that rush through the air.

But now that he had the grapple, he got to experience it all over again and in a whole new way. There was no seat to support him, no water to catch him, but that was part of the thrill. Snatch a branch in the fangs. Tug to ensure it's secure. Fall into the swing. Fly through the criss-crossing forest. Twist the rope to make it let go. Land and sway for balance. If he got to keep this toy after his adventure, perhaps he'd be content romping through Ordon or Faron one last time, but how could it compare to the Sphaera Forest?

Link reeled back the grapple for the next narrow branch towards the forest's core, but his shadow hissed. "Wait!" He stopped mid-fling. The fangs missed the branch. He almost glared at his shadow, but she had to have a reason for stopping him.

He squinted at his next landing; what he had taken at a glance to be brittle, twiggy branches were stiffer, stronger, pointier. Thorns. Some were as tall as a rupee, and others rivalled the length of Link's sword, sticking out of the trunk and into each other. Somehow the glow from the centre didn't expose them. The darkness kept them cloaked, like a cover of dry leaves over a spike pit.

Midna's lone eye hovered beside him. "I take it you don't need me to point out the obvious?" Link shook his head. "Good. Now let's see if we can find another way through this death trap."

With Midna's night vision and Link's grapple, they carefully avoided the spiked branches, but the further they went in, the more numerous they became. As Link swung towards Midna, he clipped his ankle on something sharp. He almost stumbled off and into a thorny thicket, but thankfully the grapple was still latched. His arm was taught, his palm was sweaty, but his grip was iron. He heaved himself upright and checked his ankle. It throbbed, but the spine had not broken the leather boot. Just a scratch.

He shot a glare at the red eye hovering within a strip of darkness. "It was the biggest and smoothest patch I could find," Midna said defensively. Well, Midna had already proven that she at least cared about Link's bodily safety, so why complain?

The branch he stood upon was straight (aside from the thorns) and cut into the glowing centre. The roots made sharp triangles that were ablaze with the golden light. They were close. The final stroll to the final battle.

He carefully wove around the spikes, feeling around for where they were, and checking that the next spot for his foot was truly stable before shifting his weight to it. Just be careful. Be calm. Don't think about tripping. Don't think about slipping. Don't think about the tips raking and grazing and almost snagging on the trousers. Just step, step, step.

Stop. There were screeches. Monkey screeches. From the branches above extending into the central orb, the monkeys galloped out or dripped from the trunks in the dozens, and swung on branches shrouded in shadow. They landed upon the thorny branches like hail. It tremored beneath him. Link spun his arms. Don't fall. Don't fall. Don't let a gods-damned monkey tackle you into the thorns.

Link bent down and seized two thorns to balance himself, but the monkeys were mere feet away, weaving between the thorns as if they were cones in an obstacle course. He drew his sword. "Grapple!" he shouted to Midna.

She snapped it into his hand. "It won't take them down."

Link snagged a monkey and flung it to the branches below, but another leapt for him instead. Just as the warm breath puffed on his face, he stabbed it into dust. Fling. Fling. Stab. Fling. Stab. For each he fell, two more leapt in. Chipped away at his rock-hard balance. One leapt from his right, caught his arm, dragged it down. A thorn jabbed his forearm, and the grapple slipped from his grasp…

He withdrew his empty hand and swung his blade at the monkey. Overdid it. It disintegrated, but the momentum carried Link off his footing. He did the first thing he thought of: flung his left leg from under him, and landed stomach first on some shorter spines. They pricked. The chainmail caught the brunt. Mostly. A monkey landed on his back, shoving him deeper. Shoving the thorns through the fabric, the chain links, and into his abdomen.

Link gripped the taller thorns so tight that it scraped his fingers, just to keep himself high enough to resist the monkeys still leaping onto him, but the spikes were nailed in deeper and deeper, bit by bit. Gods, where was Midna?

Something silver and coiled dropped before him. "I got the grapple back!" Midna shouted. Link reached for it. Big mistake. Another monkey landed on him. He jerked in pain, and another monkey's hand shot for the grapple. Just before it grazed, it shattered into shadows.

Wait. Shadows. If these monkeys could pull Twili out of shadows, then maybe…

"Use the grapple, Midna!" Link spat through his grimace. "Drag them into the shadows."

"But what if–"

"Just try it!"

The second after his strangled order, the weight of one monkey was plucked from his back with a squeal. The other monkeys stopped bouncing against him. A second was ripped off, fangs deep in its thigh, and pulled into darkness. The monkey's screech fizzled to an echo. The snake kept lunging and dragging the monkeys into nothingness. Light incinerated by shadow. Over and over.

The final monkey on his back leapt right to where the serpent retreated and plunged a hand into the shadow. Link pried himself from the thorns and had scarcely crawled to Midna's aid when something inside the shadow caught the monkey's arm and pulled it deeper like a hand caught in the meat-grinder. The monkey tugged, it howled, it put up a damn good fight, but it was drawn deeper, deeper, until its shoulder, neck, and head gurgled into the darkness, and the rest of the body scattered into gold dust.

The remaining six monkeys –a mere fifth of what had existed before– stopped mid-swing, mid-run, and mid-spring. They stared at the shadow, Link's shadow, as he got to his feet. He needed to show strength –ferocity– as the final kick to their bare arses, but that was nigh impossible as he staunched the many punctures on his abdomen and held his hilt in a trembling grip.

But the grapple lashed out one last time, cracked the air, and the monkeys turned and fled as if it had stung their rears. They tripped and fumbled over each other, causing a few to shatter on the spikes and fall from the trees, until a grand total of three fled into the glowing core.

And the core brightened. There was something harsh about it, like the flaring of nostrils.

Link had to sit squished between two large spikes to lift his tunic, chainmail, and undershirt. Only a sliver of light revealed the punctures in his stomach. They oozed blood, but didn't seem deeper than a half inch, at least according to his and Midna's assessment. No artery or organ had burst. Thank gods.

Back in Hyrule, Link and the other scouts had been given some first aid supplies, including gauze, cotton, and cleaning alcohol. He cursed himself for leaving them behind, but Midna had stolen his share of the supplies when no one was looking. Clever little thief.

Her magic carried everything that treated him. The alcohol-soaked wads of cotton made his flesh sting and his muscles seize and his teeth grit. Her orange lightning guided the last of the gauze around him and pulled it taught. It was as if he was being tended to by a ghost. Made him miss the gentle, caring touch of Mama and Uli whenever they patched up his scratches and scrapes, but Midna did the job well enough, and after a short rest, Link was on his feet again, if a little unsteady from the pain and his nerves.

As he continued on, the thorns packed tighter together, until Link could no longer weave between them. He offered his shield to Midna to lift with her magic, and he took the handle. She lifted him over the spikes, bathed in the harsh beams of gold, exposing points so sharp they could cut glass.

The narrow, triangle entrance to the harsh light closed in, then passed around them. Midna hissed in pain. The shield dropped. Link fell before his heart, but smooth bark caught him. He whipped back to Midna. She plopped into his shadow like a pebble, which had stretched to be as narrow as a scarf.

The interior of the centre was almost empty. The branches and roots squiggled and coiled like a bag of icing gone awry. Branches curved in by a few feet and out again, unwilling to invade the generous personal space of what floated in the very centre, almost as bright as the sun. Link's eyes watered. He peeked between his fingers at the pulsing orb. It was a perfect match to the one set between Ordona's silver horns, but where was the rest of the body? Where was Faron?

Link paced closer, until his boots were on the edge of his branch, and he leaned forward, just to get a better view.

It triggered a pulse of light. He stumbled back. Wisps broke from the orb, and they collided and wove into claws gripping the orb, a long and hooked tail curling around it, and a fanged, primate snarl. Instead of golden light rippling through its markings, it was shadow instead.

"Does Faron seem off to you?" Link whispered from the corner of his mouth.

"I can't come out to see," Midna whispered back. "It's a boiling cauldron outside of your shadow."

At the word 'shadow', Faron's screech rumbled the sphere. Link stumbled back and forth on his perch, but when it finally stopped, and he regained his balance, the spirit leapt from the orb and caught Link's branch. The impact shook the arena, and Link fell off the edge.

Falling. Falling. Midna snapped the grapple into Link's hand. He hurled it, not expecting it to latch anything, but it caught the tip of Faron's tail. Faron shrieked. Link dropped safely to another branch and hopped from one to the other like stepping stones. The spirit landed behind him with a booming shake and pounded after him. Link kept running. Down to the base and up the side. He hurled the grapple, latched a coiling branch, and climbed, climbed, climbed.

Just as he heaved himself upright, a giant hand seized his torso, squeezed into his wounds. It seared like hot metal left in the summer sun. The grapple slipped from his grip. Link pried to no avail as he was drawn away, drawn to the second gigantic palm that would surely snap him in two.

Something jerked Faron down. The monkey caught the branches with both hands. Link was smooshed between hot flesh and grainy roots. Faron was yanked again, enough for Link to wriggle his left arm free, fumble for his hilt, and shimmy his sword from its sheath.

Link gripped a root with his right hand, and with his left, he plunged the sword into Faron's thumb, just as it jerked again. The grip loosened, and Link pulled himself free.

He sheathed his sword and scrambled up the roots until he threw himself around one thick and protruding enough to stand on. It gave him a decent view of whatever in Din's name had been going on.

It was a tug-o-war between the fanged grapple and the spirit's tail. Both were so taught that one or the other was doomed to snap, and Link wouldn't bet his rupees on the grapple.

She screamed from the dark gaps between the roots below. "FINISH IT!"

Right. Finish Faron. Finish them. Drive the ending blow through their skull. A leap and a stab of faith was all it would take to finish this, but in what state would that leave Faron? Would that one action destroy Hyrule's chance of ever seeing daylight again?

Faron scraped against the roots. Splinters flew everywhere. The tip of the tail dipped into the shadow. The spirit screeched, and so too did Midna. "HURRY!"

"LET GO!" Link shouted it before he thought it. Like a slingshot, the tail snapped from the shadows, free of the fangs. Faron nursed the tail, it was bleeding white smoke and stained with shadow. No. Not stained. The tip of the tail had been burned away, and something ashy and sinister had been exposed within.

Midna's hiss from behind startled him. "You better have a good reason for this."

He gulped. "I think they're under some kind of influence."

"Influence? Seriously? Is 'light must overcome shadow' not- IS THAT A FUSED SHADOW IN ITS TAIL?!"

Link grimaced at the noise, but worse still was that it snapped Faron out of their pity party, and they were climbing back up. Link sprinted and leapt from branch to branch, his shadow in hot pursuit. "The hell is a fused shadow?!" he snapped.

"I can explain after you get it out of that thing!"

He narrowly dodged a swiping palm. "How do we do that?"

"I don't know. You tell me! Just pin it down or something."

Pin it down... Pin it down... The ending blow! If he could just–

His foot slipped off the next branch. It smacked into his middle. As he slid off, dazed, Faron snatched him, squeezed him, held him high, and screeched. Their minions tumbled from the orb in the middle of the arena. Faron frantically pointed at some inconspicuous root. No. Link's shadow! And Midna hadn't fled. The fanged grapple flung out and whirled like a peahat propellor. The first to approach would be the one to drown in the shadows. The second would be the one to burn Midna in the light. Though the monkeys kept their distance, it was only a matter of time until someone took one for the team.

Faron drew Link close to their chest, away from Midna, near the other hand that was locked around a creaking vine. One cut was all it would take. Link twisted his shoulder and his wrist. He pried against the force of the grip. He was strong. He had stopped charging goats and hauled bails of hay. He had the muscle, the will, and the way.

An arm burst free of Faron's grip. Faster than Faron's head could turn, Link drew his sword and cut the vine in a single slash. And they both fell. Link dropped from Faron's slack grip. A wide gap between the roots rose to meet him. He stabbed, caught his sword in the wood, and almost lost his clammy grip. His heaving arms shook, his toes scratched against the bark, but once he got his ankle hooked on the top of the root, he shimmied himself sturdy.

Faron was a mound before him, stirring from their tumble, with their tail lying before him for the pinning.

Two screams rang from behind. Midna and the monkey, locked in a tug-o-war. The latter's shoulder was caught in the fangs and being yanked into the darkness, but their hand was in the shadows and trying to pull Midna into the harsh light. The rest of the monkeys jumped, screeched, and pounded the wood, egging their fellow on.

As Link bounded towards her, one thought lapped. Gotta save Midna, gotta save Midna, no matter how nasty or insufferable she could be.

Two monkeys in the ring leapt at him. Link planted his feet on the roots and chanced a horizontal slash. The monkeys fizzled into dust. At that, most of the monkeys scurried away, between the roots. Cowards. The only one that stayed was the one locked in a tug-o-war with the fanged grapple. It lifted its head and screeched for help. Faron screeched back. The roots shook as Faron closed in. The monkey pulled further and further until half the handle showed and Midna was inches away from being exposed to the deadly light.

Link swiped through the monkey, then a giant palm swatted him across the arena, through the roots, towards the thorns. He screwed his eyes shut, shielded his eyes, waited for the thorns to bite into his skull, but instead, something bit into his ankle.

The grapple pulled on skin and flesh and bone, and just as the thorns pricked Link's sleeves, it recoiled, flinging him back into the arena, and narrowly missing Faron's lunging hand, and their swishing tail.

The momentum of the grapple was slowed by Midna's magic. It dangled him upside-down and not-so-gently laid him on a root. Link got to his knees and tried to pry the fangs from his ankle. The pain flared. He hissed.

"Sorry, Wolfie." With the snap of Midna's fingers, the snakehead dispersed.

Link staunched the blood seeping from his ankle. "It's fine," he rasped.

Faron turned around and screamed to the heavens. Yet more monkeys tumbled from the orb, but they didn't all run straight for Link and Midna. Oh no. They climbed the walls, circled around, caged them in with this corrupted beast. "Can you keep going?" Midna asked.

Link chanced a step and crumpled. "Not like this." If they were gonna make it out of here, they needed to end this battle, now.

But how to pin down a rampaging light spirit in a rain of monkeys?

Midna cracked the whip from his shadow, and it lit a candle in the back of his mind. "Hey, could you fling me at that thing?"

"What?! Why?"

"If we aim right, I can pin down the tail, and then you can burn the rest of the light away from the fused shadow."

"That's nearly impossible odds! I can't save you from the thorns if you're flung fifty metres away."

Faron bounded towards them. Link bolted to the side, but sharply curved back in when the ring of monkeys reached for his shadow. "Then what else can we do?!" he yelled.

"I don't know!" She paused. "See if you can slow it down. I'll take care of the rest." While on a bad ankle? Well, he had pledged to be more trusting of her. Better be worth it.

Link hopped to a halt and spun around. He held his sword before him, but he couldn't stand strong. His weight was shifted on his good ankle, and that bounding spirit was about to knock him into the thorny abyss. He should move. Don't take the blow. Move! That thing wants him dead.

No. It didn't. It just wanted him out of the way, and that meant-

Faron lurched to a stop before him and open palms swooped in on both sides. Link's clumsy spin attack recoiled the spirit. They stumbled back, palms pressed under their arms. A cry shook the arena.

Something lurched from between the roots. The grapple. It caught the ankle and wrenched it down. Faron slammed forward, palms smacking the roots on each side of Link, and sending him stumbling.

A few monkeys screeched frantically and broke the circle. Together they pulled Faron's leg out until they shook it free from the darkness. It was withered, smoking, and when Faron ambled to Link on it, they stumbled, but not for long. Faron screeched an order to their minions, and they scattered, plunging hands into shadows and coming up empty. Why? They had been perfectly capable of spotting Twili among the shadows before.

The grapple flung from the right side of the arena, drawing a stampede of monkeys, then it lashed from the left mere seconds later. The minions were occupied, leaving Link to sting Faron's palms every time they tried to grab him.

Faron slammed Link's root. It tremored. He stood firm despite the agony of his ankle, but feigned unbalance. The other hand swept in. Link stabbed. Faron recoiled. Again and again, the spirit tried to get Link off-balance for an easy grab, but he refused to falter. Later, his leg could crumple. Right now? Chip away at the spirit. Wait for the right moment…

After the seventh screen of pain, Faron withdrew. White smoke rose from several gashes in their trembling hands. Faron eyed up their palms, their withered leg, and their half-burned tail, then glanced over at the monkeys running back and forth after the grapple. Their head followed Midna, and their eyes narrowed.

They raised a palm and the sphere of light pulsed. A wave of light burned away the shadows, but only for a second. Long enough to expose Midna, hanging onto a branch and the grapple for dear life as she screamed and writhed in pain.

The monkeys stampeded after her.

Faron smirked deviously.

Their tail twitched before Link in anticipation.

And the right moment had arrived.

He bent his knees and sprung. Faron sounded. Tried to sweep their tail right. But Link had accounted for it, drove his sword through, and nailed the tail to the root. Faron threw back their head and howled, and with that, the pulsing vanished. The sphere grew dimmer than when they had entered, and Midna faded back into the shadows just before the monkeys could dog-pile and maul her.

Splinters of wood flew back at Link. Faron was scraping their hands and legs against the roots and branches, desperately trying to rip themselves free of the stake in their tail. If not for their weakened hands and leg, they might have succeeded too. With a few frantic screeches, the monkeys came hopping and running in, after the dark sprite that zipped through the shadows.

With Midna's mighty yell, the grapple sprung from Link's shadow and tugged on the tail. Faron thrashed, pulled, resisted. Link turned to the approaching monkeys, his shadow behind him, and stood ready to defend it, sore ankle be damned. The first monkey leapt. He punched it into a root and it slid into the thorny abyss. The second was walloped to the same fate, and the third. Meanwhile, Faron's pained cries became more ragged, as did Midna's strenuous yells. He spared a glance. The thick part of the tail, where the fused shadow was encased, was almost submerged. No monkey would thwart them now.

Just as a fourth monkey jumped to tackle his head, another climbed from below and snatched his injured ankle. Link jolted in pain. The leaping monkey smacked into him. He fell back, through the gap, and would've smashed against the spikes if not for the other monkey shackling his ankle. He dangled upside-down, clawed at the beast smothering his face, until he wrenched its locked wrists apart and shoved it into the darkness.

From his small vantage point of the arena above him, shadows lashed at the monkeys reaching for Midna, but they did nothing more than shove them around, and half the tendrils were easily swatted away. "HELP ME!" Midna yelled.

But he was upside-down! What could he do? One move to threaten the master of the monkey holding Link above the thorns, and it would let him drop.

Drop. Weight. That's it! "Give me the end of the grapple."

A few feet away, the rod-like end fell. Link swung for it. Missed. Swung again. Missed. Oh please, please, Faron. Command this monkey to hold onto this dweller of light. He swung again. Caught the grapple! Link heaved on the tip, and within the shadow that the grapple was fed through, Midna heaved with him, but it wasn't enough. The source of Faron's corruption stayed just above the 'acid water' of the shadow. One last, good tug should seal their victory, and there was only one way to get it.

Link kicked at the iron grip around his ankle. Let him go. Let him go. Let him fall. Let him win. One last kick hit the right nerve between the monkey's knuckles. Its fingers flung apart, and Link plummeted, and he held the handle tight, and the rope went taught, and he bounced, bounced, bounced.

Midna yelled one more time. Strain? Agony? He didn't know, but there was a ringing, wet tear, like the ripping of flesh.

And Faron screamed.

And Midna screamed.

And Link fell towards the thorns.

And everything went white…


Honey-coloured waters lapped at Link's scuffed boots. It did not seep or soak through the seams or the strangely painless punctures on his ankle, but the leather didn't shield him from the silky warmth. His shadow rippled with the water, and a second hovered beside it. Midna, and she wasn't lost against the black sky. Her orange hair, blue tattoos, and grey skin were back, but it only made the shiny burns on her waist and the peeling skin across her form all the starker. How odd. Where she was flesh, he was meant to be wolf, and where he was human, she was meant to be shadow. In this in-between realm, they were their true forms.

She knew it too. As she examined herself, she asked, "Are we dead?"

"Don't think so." Having been knocked out only to wake up in strange realms before, Link knew it was too early to tell.

Curtains of golden light beamed from above. Midna gasped and curled into herself, but it did not scorch her. It came from the same orb of light that had floated in the centre of the arena.

Just as when they had approached the orb in the forest, the wisps of light that orbited it converged, forming the hands, face, torso, legs, and tail of the monkey spirit, now free of violence and murderous intent. Where shadow once pulsed through their markings, gold replaced it.

When they spoke, it was with the chorus of Ordona, but there was an undercurrent of tweets, chirps, chimping, and children. An amalgamation of the voices, past and present, all merging into one. "My name is Faron. I am one of the light spirits who dwell in Hyrule. I use the life force of the gods to protect Faron Province, and the cursed power hidden within." Cursed power? Was that what supposedly haunted the Forest Temple? "When an intruder, their aura cloaked by Sheikah magic, wandered into my domain and claimed that power, they used it to corrupt me, and I was commanded to enter this realm with my brethren and blot out the twilight." Link recalled the shadow that had snuck into the spring during the last sunset in Hyrule. Who could it have been? Zant and Fabian both made little sense.

Midna crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. The spirit continued on, but judging by the way Midna chewed her tongue, she was loading snarks like cannon balls. Though Link was raised to revere the light spirits, Midna had every reason to despise them. If she lashed out, maybe he'd hesitate to stop her.

"Oh, brave youth, you have freed me from this corruption, and I am now able to return to Hyrule once the portal opens again, but my brethren are still under the control of the dark power. They scorch this realm with their light, while the lands they protect suffer under a mantle of darkness.

"The one you seek, Eldin, can be found at the bottom of a cursed valley. Travel there, but-"

"Yeah yeah, the Mariana Valley," Midna cut in, "but before you bore me for another moment with your speech, it's time for you to answer for all the damage you've caused my realm. An entire generation of children are dead. Twili are forced to live as ghosts in their own world, and now look at me! Look at the people of Malogra. We have been burned by your light. Corrupted or not, I demand reparations!"

For a moment, the spirit was silent, and as always, expressionless, but when it spoke, it was with authenticity and conviction. "As we should offer, oh twilight princess." Link choked on a laugh. This whole 'princess' thing seemed to be an in-joke between holy beings. "Rest assured that my light has already left Silva Province. Your people roam the streets freely, and I will remain here, in the gap between dimensions, until my brethren are freed. Once we have united, we will combine our powers to heal your people of our blight, and open the portal between worlds once again, where we shall remain forever more."

"That's it?" Midna balked. "You're just gonna 'go away' and 'heal' us? What about our damaged ecosystems? What about the grieving parents, friends, and siblings? What about the shoddy state of the sols? Those are the powerhouses of our realm. You have destroyed so much that the twilight can't bring back, but now you think you can just wash your hands clean of this whole embarrassing affair, while we are left to suffer!"

The last word echoed around them, and Link and Faron just… allowed it to. Allowed it to remind them of that grim reality: no one was truly saved. Damage had already been done. The Sphaera Forest was still a dying one, the dead children still haunted the living, and Twili were still scarred and short on food.

But there was one thing that left a sour taste in Link's mouth, one thing he'd regret saying, but needed to say anyway. "Are you actually looking for reparations, or revenge?"

She spun around so hard that it was like a slap across the face. "Who are you to lecture me about revenge!" Tears streaked her cheeks, fists shook at her sides, and Link's lips were sealed tight by his shame. With the slight bow of his head, he shrank away.

"There is nothing I or my brethren can do to mend every wound we have inflicted," Faron said, "but perhaps we can offer you something to match the power of the king of shadows."

Midna's eyes widened. "Zant?"

Faron raised their head and made a singing cry. It called particles from the black sky and they merged into the ashy stone relic that had been embedded in the tail. It floated down, gently spinning, until it slowed before Midna's gaping jaw.

"Take this now, Midna. It was always yours to wield."

She gingerly reached out her hands to accept it. Always hers to wield? How strange. The fused shadow had a few cracked edges, almost as if it was meant to join with her helmet. Midna snapped the relic into her void before Link could question further.

"I will now return you to the twilight realm. There, chosen hero, you will transform back into a sacred beast."

A stone dropped in his stomach. The people of this world had been so hostile to him when he was a human. As a beast, they might do worse than throw rotten fruit. They might sharpen their spears, or skin him of his coat, but what say did he get? Nothing. Nothing as everything faded to gold. Nothing except for the spirit's final words.

"Thank-you, hero and companion, and I am truly sorry for the part I played in your suffering."


Before sight, sound, and touch came pain. The shifting of bone, stretching of skin, and compacting of muscle was not kind to the punctures in his stomach or his ankle. His body pulled and distorted, snagged and tore, and once the pain faded enough for him to feel the bark under his claws and the woody, fruity aromas, he was crouching and panting haggardly.

He cracked open his eyes. The twisting and curling canopy was now adorned with glowing blooms. It was as though the twilight sky, oddly serene here unlike in Ordon, was cracking to reveal a night sky beneath it. It was breathtaking. A familiar sunset with a fantastical twist, and it was so at home in this world.

Frantic, hushed chatter crowded the air. On the branches, walkways, and balconies of Malogra, Twili emerged from the shadows, and into the twilight. Orange light dappled against their grey and black skin and cyan tattoos. Loose, black, embroidered trousers garbed bare-chested men. Women wore skirts with one slit or two hung from the stone-textured belts. The children, however, wore waist wrappings akin to Uli and Jaggle, only theirs were cut off at the knee. Distinguishing their gender was nigh impossible, and it wrenched Link's heart to see not one younger than a toddler.

He shrank away, his ears folded, and his tail tucked between his legs. Of all the places for Faron to leave Link, it was the heart of a hostile village, but they weren't throwing plums at him this time. They weren't throwing anything. They were whispering in their native language, gawking at him, and some even closed in.

Link jumped from the first hand that grazed his fur, right into the second, but it didn't grab a fistful of his scruff and toss him into the bottomless sky. No. It pet him, like he was a domestic dog.

"Esne caerulea lusca bestia?" the child scratching him asked. Link blinked at them, confused.

"Esne caerulea lusca bestia?" someone asked again. The question repeated, over and over. "Esne caerulea lusca bestia? Esne caerulea lusca bestia?" More hands closed in, stroking his fur, scratching behind his ears, and making him feel… something. He glanced at his shadow.

"They're asking if you're the blue-eyed beast," Midna whispered, so quiet that only his canine ears could pick up on it.

Link cautiously eyed the crowd, their smiles widening in anticipation, and he nodded.

"Lusca bestia! Lusca bestia!" they exclaimed over and over, and then before him, they shuffled (and floated) aside. Down the walkway was a wood-carved statue, no bigger than a cat. It displayed a noble wolf perched upon a cliff, and had brilliant aquamarine eyes. Upon his back was a figure wearing a hooded cloak, but the cloak was pulled down. She looked nothing like Midna. In fact, she looked like any other Twili adult.

The artist's rendition of the wolf was willowier than Link's bulky frame, but the implication was clear: he was always fated to come to this world, and he was always fated to be the Twili's saviour. At long last, any lingering doubt that deserting the Hyrulean army was the wrong choice were firmly erased.

The hands of the village still scratched, stroked, and fawned. It would be wonderful to stay here a while, to bask in his first true act of heroism in this strange realm.

A child's hand rubbed at his punctured ankle, flared up his wounds. He whimpered. The Twili withdrew as if stung, blinking their lamplight eyes. Everyone was frozen. Where would Link go? Where should he go? Link glanced at his shadow again. He needed Midna to communicate on his behalf, but she refused to show. Instead, she stayed hidden and whispered again.

"Head to the north-eastern platform." Link glanced around until he saw it peaking though the branches about a hundred feet away. Above it, a portal swirled, teal like the ones Midna hijacked back in Hyrule. "We'll warp to Luce Prima." She snickered. "Time to visit the vet, Wolfie."


A/N: I fully confess that for the Twilit language, I literally just Google translated everything into Latin. I may be willing to spend a year outlining this story before I write it, but I can't be arsed making a conlang. To anyone who knows Latin and is reading this fic, sorry-not-sorry.

Small heads up: Next chapter, we won't be joining Link and Midna's thrilling visit to the vet. We'll be back in the not-so-light realm with Zelda. That cure has been doing wonders for her! And now she's ready to do some sleuthing. But how will she do it? And what secrets will she uncover? As usual, please comment your predictions below.