As I trudged down the hill, my mind began to wander. Should I tell them about King Bulblin? I considered the options. What good would come of informing the villagers of his arrival? It wasn't like they could have stopped him. In fact, if I told them, it could actually be worse than if I didn't. After all, the Bulblins originally only kidnapped the kids and injured Rusl, no one else was harmed. Though, when I thought about it, perhaps the villagers would put up a decent fight. I mean, they had pitchforks and stuff, right? I nodded and decided that I would tell Mayor Bo and Rusl about the attack coming on Saturday.
I looked up to find that I was already at the porch of Mayor Bo's house, and I smiled to myself at the subconscious path my feet took. I noticed most of the village was empty, which was odd since I figured they would have work to do outside. Didn't they have crops or something to deal with? With a shrug, I casually walked up the wood ramp up to the door, fist ready to knock. That was when I heard someone inside the house vehemently state, "The boy is unstable!"
I froze in place, mind and face completely blank. "You cannot seriously believe what this stranger said," another voice said.
"Now, now." I recognized that as Mayor Bo. "He bears the mark of the Goddesses. We cannot deny that sort of evidence."
"This boy, he looked off his rocker," said yet another voice. Who was in there with the Mayor? And why did they keep calling me 'boy'? I'm almost twenty!
"He was dropped into Hyrule Field by the Goddesses themselves," defended another voice, one I recognized as Rusl.
Something slammed inside as one of the previous voices cried, "He says they transported him, but what proof does he have?" The voice chuckled and muttered, "Video games, what rubbish!"
I heard Mayor Bo sigh and say, "He bears the Triforce on his hand—"
"What significance is that?!" The voices were getting much angrier than I was comfortable with. "If I draw three triangles on my forehead, does that make me 'blessed by the Goddesses'?" I was beginning to get agitated at what they were implying.
"Hear hear! No one 'blessed by the Goddesses' would have a lazy eye either! And did you notice how pale and twitchy he was? Surely that's a sign of evil!"
Right there. That moment, those brief few seconds of dialogue. That was when I decided, Screw this village, and walked away from the house. My anger was palpable in the stomps I made in the dirt, and my typical 'angry stance' of hunched shoulders and tense arms, eyes locked forward, uncaring of anything and everything in my way.
What gave them the right to judge me so caustically? I was there to save their ungrateful asses! I had the Triforce stamped into my hand, what more proof did they need?! I could feel myself literally seething as I marched past the kids playing near the shop. I had no clue what they were doing nor any desire to find out, so I continued on.
"Hey Mister Zach," called Talo. "Whatcha doin'?" I completely ignored the brat, set on my goal of returning to my temporary house and stewing in the dark. "Hey, what's your problem? I'm trying to be nice here, you doofus!"
I trudged through the gate and toward my temporary house. "Ugh, why did I say yes?" I asked myself as I climbed up the ladder. I know damn well why I said yes... My foot caught on the last rung and sent me to the wooden ground just before the door. That was it for me. I snatched the ladder up and flung it as hard as I could away from me. It fell limply to the ground beside the practice dummy, but I paid little attention as I slammed the door behind me. I hate everything, everywhere, I dismally thought.
Her interest in the Fused Shadow's past temporarily sated, the shadow followed the farmer down the hill, her curiosity piqued by his demeanor. She wanted to know more about the man, deciding she could always ask more about the Fierce Deity's past later. Who is this man? thought Midna. Why can I understand him? She slinked into his shadow without him noticing, squeezing into a unique dimension of her own making. The imp was no stranger to magic and the art of shadow-weaving, and so it was a trifle to create a pocket dimension, a veritable black hole where she could fit easily and comfortably. To an onlooker, the dimension appeared as a simple shadow and nothing more, the perfect camouflage.
This new Light Dweller deeply intrigued Midna. He seemed so out of place, just like her, and his clothing was vastly different from what she had seen. Of course, there was no doubt that only the Twilians used shadow silk and the somewhat rarer shadow velvet, but he clearly was no Hylian either. Perhaps he came from a foreign land, with different tastes and styles than both the Twilight Realm and Hyrule.
Before she knew it, the young man had stopped at some sort of house, just outside the door and ready to knock. The imp listened with some interest at the raised voices and the effect they had on her object of interest. She decided to see what all the fuss was about, so she sneaked beneath the door and hovered up in a corner. Paying little attention to the interior of the house, she saw eight Light-Dwellers huddled around a table discussing something that truly bothered them, for the Twilian saw the fear and animosity in their eyes, except three.
There were three couples and two remaining men. One couple consisted of a scrawny male and his pudgy wife, the next had a short but muscular flat-top and his wife, and finally the last was a warrior with his pregnant wife. The remaining two men looked like another farmer and the big boss man, respectively.
"Hear hear!" said the wife of the muscular man. "No one 'blessed by the Goddesses' would have a lazy eye either! And did you notice how pale and twitchy he was? Surely that's a sign of evil!" Midna was surprised at the clear distrust the woman held, though the imp had not a clue as to whom she intended it for.
The large man rubbed his brow and looked at the warrior tiredly. "What would you have me do, Pergie?" He paced back and forth, brow creased sternly. "Throw the lad out? He's done nothing to harm us."
Pergie looked down at the floor and wrung her hands. "I hadn't thought of that."
"He looked like he was gonna kill Bessie," said the lone farmer, who looked like he did not wish to speak ill of anyone. "I almost let him off early so he wouldn't hurt any of the goats."
The stocky man spoke up. "Just because he hasn't done anything yet doesn't mean he won't!" The pudgy woman and her scrawny husband murmured and nodded in agreement.
The warrior stepped forward, raising his arms in a gesture of peace. "Everyone calm down," he politely commanded. The others quieted down when he spoke, trusting in him to make the right decision. "If Zach bothers everyone so much, I'll speak with him."
The warrior's wife smiled and nodded in approval. The others nodded as well, happy to have a chance to be rid of the blight, except for the large man, who mildly protested, "Rusl, are you sure about this?"
Midna grew bored of the conversation and seeped out from under the door, only to find her shepherd nowhere in sight. Huh- where'd he go? She remained in the shadow of the porch as she searched for the Light Dweller. After scanning the quaint little village, Midna saw her target stalk towards the village gates, anger and resentment practically scrawled across his hunched back. What's he so upset about? She shrugged and decided to leave him and the village be, and floated over the canopy of trees.
"I'm tired of sticking to the shadows," she declared to no one in particular, then stretched her magic out, only to find that when she tried to warp, the portal never formed. She tried again and met failure once more.
"You must remain in the forest..." Orochi informed her.
Midna tried to whirl around to face the Fused Shadow, but that was impossible given that it was on her head, blocking her left eye. She settled on crossing her arms as she lowered herself down to one of the tree branches that was safely blanketed by higher leaves. The imp phased into reality and sighed as she stretched her now truly physical limbs. "Why exactly do I have to be here?"
"The Sacred Beast is near..."
The Twilian paused and lifted an eyebrow. "You can sense where the Beast of Legend is, but you can't tell me where the other pieces of the Fused Shadow are?"
She felt a very uncomfortable twinge in the back of her mind, a sign that the spirit was angered. "Make not the mistake of believing Us to be perfect," the Fused Shadow warned. "Were you to lose a limb, you would not track it easily. The Guardian Light Spirits have hidden Us well."
"Okay, okay, calm down," Midna urged. "It just confused me how you could find the Sacred Beast easily."
"We have not found the Hero..." Orochi replied. "We merely feel a strong divine presence in this meadow... Somewhere among these trees lies your ally..."
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there." Midna rested her chin in one hand and that arm on her knee. "This Sacred Beast is just that, a beast. I'll keep it as a pet afterward, but that doesn't make it an ally." She scoffed at the idea of it. The Twilight Princess, allies with a simple animal. Unthinkable! However, since Orochi was restricting her to the forest, she needed something to occupy her time. "I suppose I better start looking for it," she grumbled, then frowned. "Why am I bothering with the Sacred Beast at all? When Zant's Twilight expands enough, I can retrieve those Fused Shadows myself!"
"How will you fend off the shadow creatures...?" Orochi asked. "You are no warrior... and Our power is limited... You would not last long..."
Midna scowled and tried to argue, but she found herself agreeing with the dark spirit. "Fine. I don't see how some animal would be much help, but I guess you're the expert here." She leaned against the bark of the tree and mumbled, "I could fight, if I had my normal body."
"Do not dwell on What Could Have Been... Learn to adapt..."
"How am I supposed to find the stupid creature? For all I know, it's some risu on the other side of the meadow." The imp growled, snatched a leaf, and crushed it in her petite fingers. She sat there for some time, and would have enjoyed the warm air around her, if only her mood was not so sour. "Do you think that farmer guy would know?"
"Why do you consider him...?"
Midna shrugged and answered, "I dunno, I can understand him, so he must be important somehow." She cupped her chin and hummed negatively. "Then again, I could understand Zelda's daughter and I highly doubt she'll be very important..." She looked around wistfully and drifted off the branch down to the forest floor. She hated being stuck in the meadow, hated being stuck in the body of an imp, hated having to look for some dumb animal.
I sat in the basement, in the dark, with music blaring from my headphones. How appropriate that the first song on shuffle was 'By Myself' by Linkin Park, phone reading 3:43 PM and proving that I had no concept of time. I was perched on top of the decrepit chest, its half-rotted wood croaking slightly under my weight. I sighed and punched at the air, furious at the unfairness of it all.
It's not like I chose to be this way, I thought bitterly. The frustration boiled in my skin as I began to feverishly pace across the basement floor. How dare they judge me! They don't even know me! I climbed back up the ladder to the main floor and snatched up my wooden sword, tossing my phone and earbuds onto the makeshift bed nearby. I flung open the front door and jumped off the ledge, deliberately slamming my legs into the ground as I landed and ignoring the pain that came after.
It was a good thing Rusl put up that practice dummy, because I really needed something to hit. I slammed the blade of my sword against the pumpkin head, making an indent in its 'cheek'. I swung again, catching the puppet in its 'ribs' and making the rig wobble slightly. Too caught up in the adrenaline rush, I continued to smack and pummel the dummy with slashes and thrusts until, ten minutes later, I ran out of breath and collapsed against the base of the house. My skin cold with sweat, I sighed and looked up at the sky in exasperation.
"You alright, Zach?" asked Rusl from the threshold of the village gates. He was holding two buckets of water that were looped over a staff that rested on his shoulders, and he looked at me with concern and curiosity.
I nodded blandly and replied, "Just tired. I practiced on the dummy for a little while."
Rusl lifted an eyebrow in interest. "I would have liked to see that." He nodded and walked over to the path leading to Ordona's Spring. "Let's have a walk, I'll show you around Faron Woods."
I looked up at him and almost said no. I wanted to go back into the house, lay down with some music playing, and take a nice nap. I wanted to say no, but I had the feeling that Rusl wanted to talk about something important, so I nodded and stood up. "Lead on."
The Hylian walked at a fair pace, talking about his past. He was actually from Kakariko Village, grew up with his parents until he decided to move out of town when he was 22. Uli was one of the Ordonians who regularly delivered fresh supplies and produce to Kakariko along with Ilia's mother. He had settled down in Ordon Village when he met Uli on one of her supply deliveries, then they wed and had Colin.
We strolled into Ordona's Spring to find a familiar red horse being groomed by her owner. Rusl smiled and greeted Ilia fondly and she him. "How goes your day?" the warrior asked.
Ilia smiled, and it wavered slightly when she noticed me, and answered, "Just fine. I've been spoiling Epona all day here in the spring." She spotted the water buckets Rusl was carrying and added, "Would you like to borrow Epona for a bit?"
"I'm not completely useless for my age," Rusl teased. "Still, we do need more firewood," I decided not to make a joke about how their houses were firewood, "and I doubt Zach would appreciate all the heavy-lifting." I looked at them with half-lidded eyes and shook my head.
Ilia offered Epona's reins to me. I took them candidly, careful not to startle or upset the horse that was a good foot taller than me. At that moment, I really wished I had taken riding lessons when I was younger, because I had absolutely no clue what to expect from Epona. Was she hungry? Was she bored? Was she incompetent? I had no way of knowing.
"If you want to get Epona's attention," Ilia said, "just hum her favorite tune." I was half-surprised when she did not add anything about pressing the A button or something like that, but I digress. Thankfully, the horse seemed to know it needed to follow Rusl and me, so it was relatively easy to take control of her. With Epona in tow, Rusl led the way out of the spring and over to the great bridge connecting Ordona's province to the rest of Hyrule Proper.
The second I laid eyes on the rickety bridge, I spun around and declared, "Nope!"
Rusl raised an eyebrow in concern and took Epona's reins. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"I don't like bridges," I said simply. One would assume I would be willing to walk across a simple bridge, but not everyone can be the daring hero, can they?
Rusl looked slightly amused as he replied, "You've been across this bridge already, when Bo and I carried you in from the edge of Hyrule Field."
Oh yeah... "Well, I suppose that makes this bridge perfectly safe, doesn't it?" I was making a big deal over nothing, and I knew it, so I took in a deep breath and set one foot on the first wood step. When the rig didn't collapse under me, I took another step forward, then another, until I managed to cross the bridge with low stress involved. "That wasn't so bad," I sighed out.
Rusl chuckled and said, "You get used to it as time goes on." We walked in awkward silence past a second spring, the one belonging to Faron, and I remembered something.
"Where do you go to wash off?" I asked, looking down at my sweat-stained clothes.
Rusl nodded over to the tunnel leading away from the spring and said, "There's a man down that way, Coro, who runs a bathhouse with his sister." I paused then, remembering that his two sisters should be up in Northern Hyrule with a boating course and fishing lake. How many other things were different about this world?
...What if the dungeons were different?
That thought chilled my blood, opening my mind up to the possibility that I would be completely prepared for the wrong settings. If the dungeons and temples were changed and altered from what I knew, I would be in a massive heap of trouble.
Rusl eyed me from aside and misinterpreted the apprehensive look on my face by saying, "Don't worry, son. They respect people's privacy."
"Th-thanks," I muttered, my thoughts occupied with the new dangers that I had no clue about. Hell, I probably wouldn't be able to handle the threats I did know about! I could barely move a goat into its pen, how was I going to stop rolling Gorons or fight a giant plant?! It was that moment that I finally realized I was out of my league, way out of my league. The only way I was going to get through this was with a lot of help, but the only companion guaranteed to accompany me was...
I sighed at the uselessness of fighting my predicament, focusing instead on where Rusl was leading me. We had walked for some time while I was busy rambling in my head, so I was surprised to find us standing in a large clearing. To our immediate left was a large house, roughly two stories, with a decent-sized bathhouse next to it. Straight ahead and slightly to the right were two passageways carved into the forest walls. One probably led to Hyrule Field while the other went into Northern Faron Woods.
"Hey, guys!" called a chipper voice from one of the windows on the house's second story. I couldn't see who was speaking until I heard lots of clattering and things breaking from inside, then a scrawny guy emerged from the door. He had a rather wide pelvis shrouded in white pants, a blue vest around his shoulders, and the most absolutely ridiculous afro I have ever seen. It was large enough to house a bird's nest! Good thing, too, because he was barely taller than my shoulders. "Rusl, good to see you," he said cheerfully, grating against my ears and mood.
Said warrior smiled and met Coro's outstretched hand. "Always a pleasure to see you. How is Iza?"
Coro settled his hands into his pant pockets and hunched over, creating a slight question mark look in his spine. He smiled widely and said, "Just fine, but I think Iza's about ready to head back to Kakariko." He turned to me and tilted his head, somehow managing to keep the bird nest completely balanced on top. "Who're you, guy?"
I said nothing, only stared in open disbelief at the ridiculous afro and bird nest. How the blazes does he balance that thing?! I was mesmerized by the fluff of hair and twig, observing it as though it held the secrets of the universes. I must have been stuck like that for a little while, since by the time I woke up from my trance, Rusl and Coro were looking at me with mild concern and curiosity.
"Uh..." was all I managed to say before a woman emerged from the house. She wore faded blue pants and a rather small black top, but what I paid attention to was the presence of yet another over-sized afro! Unlike Coro, this woman was my height, but that still did nothing to keep me from looking at the afro. Do these people grow from an afro patch, what the hell?
She walked over, gave me a quick but judgmental glance, then said to Rusl, "How's it going, Rus?"
He smiled and answered, "Just fine, Iza. I was just taking our friend Zach here for a tour of Faron Woods."
Coro blanched and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know about that. Trill mentioned seeing some unpleasant-looking things wandering around."
"Uh, Trill?" I asked. The name sounded familiar, but then so did everybody's.
Iza shuddered and rubbed her arms as she said, "That stupid pet bird of his, the one who runs the shop up near Kokiri Marsh."
Ah, yeah, the bird I always stole supplies from, I thought, then stopped thinking when I registered the rest of her sentence. "Kokiri Marsh?" I asked, managing to sound sincerely curious and deceptively calm despite the inner panic. No Forest Temple? Well, that makes things complicated, doesn't it?
Iza stared at me as if I was an idiot, and I immediately took a disliking to it. Before she said anything, Rusl cleared his throat. "You were saying, Coro? About the unpleasant-looking things?"
"Right, yeah. Trill's been seeing some weird things wandering about, like oversized plants with big chompers and Bokoblins."
Iza shuddered again and said, "I keep telling you we should go back to Kakariko." She humorlessly chuckled and waved her arms in the air. "Giant plants? Bokoblins? Soon you'll be telling me about hearts popping out of the grass!" She and I both snickered at that, but for very different reasons.
Rusl nodded and replied, "Of course. But," he looked at me knowingly, "perhaps you could spare young Zach a bath?" He reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a shiny red gem, almost the size of his whole hand. "I trust this is enough?"
Iza and Coro both smiled at the jewel, though Coro seemed much more pleasant compared to Iza's greedy leer. She all but snatched it up and said, "It'll do." She started off toward the bathhouse and called to me, "Come on, Zake!"
"Zach," I grumbled, following her like a bratty child.
As I walked away, I heard Rusl say, "Now, Coro, tell me more about what Trill saw..."
Iza opened the door of the bathhouse and a torrent of pleasant scents wafted out. "Hope you don't mind the cramped space," she said. "Afraid we could only afford to build one room. Anyway, you'll find everything you need, so have fun!" With that, she shut me inside the bathhouse, alone and completely unsure of what I was supposed to do.
It was fairly decent-sized, with space enough for a tub, a shelf of what I assumed were hygiene products, a rack lined with towels and washcloths, and a basket for dirty laundry. I quickly checked myself, sighing with relief upon finding Farore's satchel still attached to my pants, since all my spare clothes were inside. With that, I examined the bath itself. It was long enough for two people to sit in if their knees were tucked into their chests, and deep enough for a relaxing bath. Above was a bucket of water sitting on a small flame, most likely to keep the water comfortably warm without boiling. A chain was attached to the bucket and hung over the tub for the bather to pull and bring water over their heads.
Overall, not the worst medieval wash house I've been in, I thought as I began to undress.
"I feel like a complete fool," muttered Midna as she tiptoed along the ground, careful to avoid spots of sunlight. She looked back and sighed tiredly at the tiny footprints she was leaving in the dirt. Soon, Zant, my normal feet are gonna stomp on your neck, she thought darkly. The imp briefly considered shifting into shadow form, since she would be safe from the sunlight, but it also hampered her senses, and she wanted to truly experience the world around her, if only to distract from her more important troubles. "Call it a coping mechanism," she explained to no one in particular. After some time trekking through thirty feet of dirt, twigs, and acorns, she grew bored of it and rested against a tree. To help her ignore the uncomfortable stiffness of the tree's bark, she said to Orochi, "Tell me more about the Fierce Deity."
There was a pause as the spirit considered how best to respond. "He is Our creator... One of the Great Primordials..."
"Primordials?" Midna echoed. "Yeah, I remember reading about them. The first to challenge the Golden Goddesses."
If the spirit could nod, it would. "The Fierce Deity was one of the few Primordials who sided with the Golden Goddesses..."
"Wait, if he was on their side, why do you want revenge?" Midna was intrigued by the discussion, to be sure, but she felt there was something Orochi was not telling her.
"We do not want revenge..." the spirit clarified, then paused. "There are things you do not yet understand..."
"Ohh no!" Midna cut in, her fists clenched tightly against the tree bark. "This conversation was just getting juicy, you can't just divert like that!"
"...Suffice to say that the Fierce Deity was forced to make a very painful sacrifice... One that would forever cost Him everything..."
Midna was silenced by the gentility in the spirit's voice. It sounded so sad and melancholic that Midna's temper subsided. "I was just getting really into the story, that's all." Her curiosity burned through her mind, but she ignored it as the afternoon sun peeked through the canopy and missed her by just an inch. With a sigh, the imp became a shadow once more and slithered across the forest floor at a brisk pace, looking for shelter.
The usurped princess was ever thankful of the wonders of shadow magic. While an outsider would merely see a shadow and think nothing of it, the reality was far more complex. It was disorienting the first few times Midna became a shadow, as her vital senses were replaced by an ethereal essence that functioned similarly to echolocation. Rather than bouncing sound off distant objects, Midna projected her consciousness out in a general direction and followed it, using the minor pings she discovered as pseudo-landmarks to get a sense of her surroundings.
Using her shadow-location, Midna found herself at the entrance of a cave, its opening smaller than a child could fit, but inside was a fair amount of space and no creatures in the vicinity. Due to the singular nature of shadow-location, the imp had yet to determine where exactly the cave was situated in the forest, but she decided to investigate that later. She easily slid inside and emerged into reality, her darkness-attuned eyes adjusting well to the inner curves and structure of her temporary domain.
It was large enough for her current body to stand comfortably in, though if she were in her true body, she would be forced to kneel down from the low ceiling. The cave was decently sized, wide enough for her to avoid claustrophobia, and it even had a small pool off to the right, made more apparent by the steady drip drip of falling water.
Midna sighed wistfully at the idea of a bath, to feel warm water and bubbles on her skin and hair and to smell the fragrant aromas of oils and incense, but that was an entire world away. It probably did not even exist anymore. The imp shook her head sternly, forcing herself to stop thinking about the state of her stolen home. Instead, she took comfort that there was water at all, for her feet and lips were beginning to dehydrate, and the darkness would do wonders for after she washed the shadow silk she wore.
Overall, not the worst foreign wash house I've been in, she thought as she began to undress.