A/N: Hello again everyone, I'm glad you could make it back to little old me and my Zelda fic I've been trying to write since 8th grade :D Thankfully this time I have a much more solid plan in mind for the future, so this version won't be undergoing extensive rewrites before I can even get halfway through it.
Just something small I'd like to address, now that this fic is starting to get a bit of a readership again: obviously I accept and expect criticism on my work, all I ask is that you be polite about it. No one wants to hear that their protagonist is "dumb", especially at the very onset of their journey before they've even begun to growing into who they will be.
Thank you, and happy (?) reading.
The road from Faron to Castle Town was remarkably clear of anything worse than the occasional twilit boko, but Claire's confidence with her blades grew with every threat she faced and conquered. The idea that she could do something to help didn't seem so outlandish now. Could she face down Lizalfos now? Absolutely not. She doubted she would even be able to take on a Shadow Beast as she was. But the potential was there, now. And a slight confidence boost couldn't be mistaken for a diminishing of her fear every time they encountered another. Even the weakest of monsters had Claire's heart leaping into her throat, refusing to leave until long after the fight was over. Midna was relentless in her mockery whenever she noticed.
"You light-dwellers are pathetic. Are you going to quiver and tremble like a frightened child after every monster you kill?" the imp jeered, seeing how Claire's blades rattled shakily when she sheathed them.
"I killed them, didn't I?" she snapped, rounding on her bitter little partner-in-crime. Midna's eye twinkled with cruel amusement.
"Sure, you did," she seemingly agreed, tiny fists on her hips. "But if you're so frightened of these mindless creatures, you won't last a minute against the rest of Zant's forces," she finished with a haughty, infuriating smirk.
"Then it's a good thing we won't have to worry about anything smarter than an ape in the near future, isn't it?" Claire snarked right back. "Plenty of time to practice in the meanwhile." Midna's glare became suspicious, but for whatever reason she let Claire's odd comment go unremarked upon for now. She was just fine with that small mercy, still catching herself eyeing every shadow in the corner of her vision. The ever-present undercurrent of anxiety compounded on itself with every minute she spent out in the open in this hellish plane of reality. It was choking, suffocating in its sheer density.
The southern road hadn't been blocked off by a rockslide yet, thankfully, so it was the work of a few hours to get into Castle Town. The odd peace had Claire even further on-edge as they made their way into the capital.
Claire missed Link. She missed talking to humans, to people who didn't insult and torment her with every other word they spoke.
She missed Julie and her tough love. Her rare, sharp laughter. The nights she let Claire sleep in her bed after a nightmare. She never turned her away, no matter how late it was.
She missed her own body; fingernails instead of claws, skin instead of the odd scales that covered most of her skin that she could see. Midna would probably identify with that last one, missing your true form, Claire thought. She wouldn't be the one to bring it up, though. Not when Midna was still like this.
"If you're finished staring into the horizon, look alive — we're here." Just when Claire was about to make some snarky retort, she caught up to Midna and stopped dead.
Twilight Princess truly couldn't hold a candle to the beauty of the real Hyrule Castle. Even with the painfully-fresh destruction of the outermost structures around Castle Town's perimeter, the aged splendor was undeniable. Like seeing the Roman coliseum in person, or the Great Wall of China. It's incredible, she didn't say. Midna wouldn't like to hear it. "How are we going to get into the castle dungeon?" she asked, instead.
"Aren't you supposed to be telling me that, one O blessed with foresight?"
"Oh, shut it. I know a way we can get in, but... it might be locked. We have to go to the southern residential quarter." Assuming they would even be able to get into town. Surely it would be too soon for there to be Shadow Beasts patrolling, right? Zant was cocky and foolish, and he had the Hero in his grasp. Who was left to stand against him, when the princess had also surrendered? Let's hope he's that dumb...
It must have been late at night, there were hardly any spirits on the streets of town. Picturing the map in her head, Claire made her way to the only surefire way into the dungeon that she knew of.
"If we're lucky, this guy's still capable of answering the door..." she muttered when they entered the alcove of Jovani's front yard, and banged on the front door. "Jovani! Are you there? Open up!" Midna was grinning nastily for reasons Claire didn't stop to wonder about, kneeling down to the keyhole and peering in. To her dismay, she could just make out an arm and a leg, encased in gold. Damn, he'd already been cursed. She slammed one fist against the door, frustrated.
"What now? Surely you had some kind of backup plan," Midna taunted her as Claire started digging around in her bag for anything she could use to try and pick the lock. She ignored the imp, settling for taking out the small hairpins Uli had given her — despite her hair no longer feeling like hair, somehow it had held onto the shape well enough to keep her gifted accessories. Something in her wilted, bending them out of shape into a suitable lockpick, but they would get the job done. "Hmph. Did you suddenly learn lockpicking in the last eight hours?" Eight hours? It felt like they'd been in the twilight for days!
Think about it later!
"My sister taught me to pick locks far more complicated than these. I just needed to find something to do it with." It was trickier than she would admit, she'd underestimated Hyrulean locksmiths. But it wasn't impossible; before long, there was a muted click within the lock.
Jovani's door creaked open slowly when she turned the knob, and she pocketed the ruined hairpins for later.
"See? I don't need a backup plan," Claire finally said, maybe a little smugly, and gestured for Midna to enter the house. "...Don't take anything out of here. The treasure is cursed, you'll end up just like Jov..." Once she joined Midna, her words trailed off and her legs again refused to work: inside the house lay more gold, treasure, and jewels than Claire ever thought she would see in her life, let alone all at once. And on the far back end of the room perched a golden statue in the shape of a stout man with a cat on his head. "...You'll end up just like him," she finished bleakly.
"Hah! I have no interest in gold," Midna rebuked, like the idea was laughable. But she looked unnerved as she took in the cursed resident of the house. Jovani was... Odd-looking, in the twilight. That his golden-encased form had remained when he became a spirit already marked him as strange, but she supposed it made sense as he wasn't necessarily a being of flesh any longer.
He was still a being of the world of light, however, so his spirit remained tethered to his cursed body, and it gave the appearance of a ghostly glow behind his jewelled eyes. It disturbed Claire more than she was ready to admit, so instead she closed and locked the door behind her and made for the ornate, partially-buried treasure chest with the secret path to the castle. She lifted the lid away to reveal the entrance to the sewer — and, thus, their way into the dungeon.
"Of all the stupid places to hide a secret entrance..."
"Do you ever not complain? Shut up and close this lid behind you," she instructed Midna, dropping down into the tunnel before she could psych herself out of doing it. A dull clang from above was quick to follow, and Midna appeared shortly behind her.
"Hmph. I'll admit, you've impressed me. What now?"
"Now we hope and pray that there's nothing too big standing between us and the dungeon. I'm not interested in finding out what a twilit Skulltula looks like, especially not up close and personal." It was just a matter of working her way backward to... There. "If we climb up there, we can make our way to the underground waterway, and then to the dungeon. Then we can double back to reach the tower once we have Link."
Midna followed her easily, but Claire felt her gaze boring into the back of her skull as they moved forward.
Of course, it couldn't be as simple as finding Link, breaking him out, and escaping. True, they cleared out a lot of the monsters in the sewer on their way, and maybe if they crossed their fingers, they wouldn't respawn by the time they made their way back through to the tower.
"We're here. Pull that chain, and I can follow you in," Claire pointed to the handle hanging from the ceiling. It was the work of a moment for Midna to phase through the bars and open the way to the dungeon.
Their entrance wasn't subtle — it really would be a miracle if the sewers weren't already repopulating with monsters to slow their path, never mind making it to the princess unnoticed. Did Claire make Link's work harder, unintentionally, just by helping to save him?
Quit borrowing trouble and just get him out of here!
Speaking of Link, the clanking around had certainly woken him, as Claire could hear snuffling from the other cell, and rattling chains, where before it had been dead silent.
"Link?" she whispered tentatively, and the noises stilled. Damn it, I probably spooked him. "Link, it's me, Claire!" she whispered again. She heard a low growling as she pushed the cell door open and left it. The growling became a full-blown snarl, and she knew he must have seen her. Turning to face his cell and start working at the door, she stopped short. Even having seen the transformation happen, the massive wolf shackled to the ground in the next cell was incredibly jarring. She'd never gone far enough into the woods around Port Anderton to see the wolves that supposedly roamed the brush, and the captive wolves she'd once seen in the Starling City Zoo as a girl had nothing on Link's size— and he wasn't even on his feet yet!
Analysis aside, she could see the tension in his frame. "I'll get you out of there in a minute, just sit tight," she mumbled, digging her hairpins out and kneeling by the cell door. Link eyed her mistrustfully, though he no longer looked so openly hostile.
Did he not recognize her voice?
"Link, it's me," she tried again, and he still didn't seem to recognize her. What the hell? The barred door opened with little more than a squeak, and Claire entered the cell. Link was immediately wary, another low, rumbling growl escaping him when she tried to come near. She lifted her hands to her sides and slowed her approach.
"... Midna, hurry up and do your speal, convince him to join you. He doesn't seem to recognize me," Claire finally said after another few moments' consideration.
"My, that is odd, isn't it?" Midna giggled. "Whatever. We found him!"
"I found him," Claire spoke over Link's suspicious, furious growling.
"Aw, and he's such a scary wolf," Midna cooed mockingly. "Well, we were going to help you escape this place, but you're awfully unfriendly. I don't know if we should." The word 'escape' had Link's ears pricking again — in moments, his growling had ceased. "Oh, I see the big bad wolf does know how to play nice! Eeheehee! I guess we can keep him after all!"
"Yes, you're very funny," Claire deadpanned, finally taking the opportunity to get to work on opening Link's shackle. If they could unlock it, maybe she wouldn't have to listen to the endless sound of chain rattling and dragging against literally everything. He never took his eye off her, and she understood, given what she looked like right now, but why did he still not know who she was?
"Link, it's Claire," she whispered. Surely he hadn't forgotten her, had he?
"Maybe you should try speaking more clearly," Midna jeered, that same horrible grin from earlier back on her face.
"What's your deal, huh? What do you know about this that I don't?" Claire finally demanded, losing patience with the imp's coy act — somehow, she knew what was wrong here!
The princess's resounding laughter was cruel and pitying. "He doesn't understand you because you're not speaking the Hylian tongue, Claire," Midna said, visibly delighting in how Link flinched at the name, at how Claire's expression slowly crumbled with this new information. Her one friend in this mess couldn't understand a word she was saying. Defeat and sheer frustration had her blinking back tears — she refused to allow Midna or Link to see her cry like a child over this.
...besides, she knew a way to speak without her voice; it was just a matter of hoping and praying Link would understand it. With shaking hands, Claire signed two words: it's me. A simple confirmation, but given Midna had already said her name, it was all she needed to say. Comprehension dawned in angular blue eyes, and Link no longer growled when she returned to her work on the shackle. He understood sign language. He knew sign. She was too exhausted to be anything more than relieved at the revelation. Before long, the shackle unlocked with a quiet click, and he was free. His eyes never once strayed from Claire's transformed, monstrous face. She had yet to catch her reflection since entering the Twilight, but she knew -from the glare reflected on Jovani's golden cheeks- that her eyes glowed like accursed fire.
'No time, have to go,' Claire signed quickly, ignoring the questions gleaming in Link's eyes as she jerked her chin back toward the cell they'd come in from. Link was stumbling to his feet — er, paws, without further ado.
"Eeheehee! You look kind of surprised!" Midna simpered at the wolf, cocking her head to one side in a very exaggerated movement. Claire rolled her eyes.
"Can we take him to meet her and get out of here? This won't go unnoticed forever." Claire didn't want to think about what could happen if they weren't out of the castle by the time the guard noticed Link was gone. Already, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was changing things she'd had no intention of changing, and it didn't sit right with her.
"Keep your tights on, outlander. We're going."
"I have a name."
"Whatever."
She didn't stop to wonder what the one-sided bickering looked like from Link's point of view. Especially as Midna delved into her 'listen, you help me and I promise I'll get you back to where you came from' speal. Didn't dare imagine what her voice sounded like to her friend. There were more than enough real problems to worry about, as they made their escape.
The sewer was essentially the same as Claire remembered, rife with twilit vermin and, if she looked from the corner of her eye, the spirits of frightened soldiers hidden in corners throughout the waterways (when she faced them head-on, they were just floating wisps of light). Fear itself seemed to oze from the walls, clogging the already-stale air beneath the castle and making her skin —scales— bristle with every move she made. But aside from that, it wasn't... That bad. Even when she caught Link eyeing her weapons, she just shrugged at him. I'm absolutely exhausted, I don't have the time to think of a way to explain this in signs right now.
She drew the line at trusting that cruel little imp to catch her when they reached the exit, taking her chances jumping gaps in the spiralling stairs out of the sewer. Sure, she wasn't exceptionally tall (as far as she could tell, at least, but neither Link nor Midna were the best gauge of that) but she had tried out for long-jump a few times in school and done pretty well.
...yeah, she could do this.
"Taking the lead, are you?" Midna asked, raising her brow inquiringly.
"Wouldn't want you to strain yourself and accidentally drop me," Claire retorted, getting a running start to clear the first gap. She overestimated how much force she'd have to put behind that leap — badly. She didn't want to imagine what her girlish yelp sounded like beneath the layers of magical distortion, as she sailed over the first gap. Then the second. She stumbled on a stair when she finally landed, rolled before she could run headlong into the wall, and nearly pitched herself over the edge of the broken step she'd finally landed on before she stopped moving.
"Well... That's new," Claire breathed shakily as Link caught up to her, just staring for a few seconds. Was it shock, awe, fear? Any of the things she was feeling right now?
"If you're finished showing off, we have places to be." Claire felt her eye twitch as she ground her teeth together and followed the pair.
God, Midna was the worst right now...
Link didn't know what to make of the creature Claire had become. And it was Claire, it had to be. 'It's me,' she had said. And the imp called her Claire. The way it moved; half-aborted motions he recognized as the girl's nervous fidgeting; the way its expression transformed with grief and devastation when the imp told her she wasn't speaking Hylian; but what of that incredible strength, that surprised even her? What of the monstrous form itself? If this really was Claire, and it seemed to be, why did the darkness turn her into that— when everyone else but Link himself were mere spirits?
What did it make him, for that matter, to be running on four legs rather than two? The imp called him 'wolf', but the only thing he would compare that to was drawings of wolfos in an old book of Rusl's. But it made sense, he figured. He had paws, and a tail, and he would both see and feel that he now had a snout. But why? Why was he not a spirit, like the others? Why wasn't Claire? How and why had Claire allied with this odd little imp, as well? What had happened after he fell unconscious, that led to all this? ...Even if he'd been able to voice those questions, Link had a feeling he would get no answers. So he did the only thing he could do; steel himself, and move further into the unknown.
They encountered a sparse handful of other spirits once they left the waterways, emerging out of a tower that, when he looked, was one of many belonging to the majestic castle that reached into the heavens. This had to be Hyrule Castle, and hearing the guard's despairing whisper only confirmed it. 'Oh... Our poor Hyrule Castle...'
This wasn't the work of a single day, it couldn't be. Just how long had it been since the kingdom fell? Would Link and Claire have gotten anywhere near Castle Town before this dark affliction caught up to them, or had their journey been doomed to fail long before they set out? He didn't understand. The imp continued to take some sort of perverse glee in his growing confusion and distress as they made their way across deeply slanted rooftops, and though he couldn't understand what Claire was saying, she'd obviously noticed it too. He clued into enough of her side of the interaction from the imp's reply.
"Don't be so dramatic. We're almost there, and she'll tell him everything he needs to know."
Claire said... Something, clearly in defiance.
"Unless you'd like to waste our time explaining it to him in those silly little hand gestures on this exposed rooftop, in the pouring rain, I think you should leave it to her, Claire." Every time the imp said her name, she used that same emphasis. At first it had unsettled him, casting doubt on his... Friend's? Identity. And now it seemed she was doing it exclusively for the sour look on Claire's face every time she said it that way. He didn't understand why they were working together, when the basis of their every interaction appeared openly hostile, or antagonistic at the very least. The further into the unknown they ventured, the more questions were raised, and still no answers.
Claire spat something in what sounded like frustrated agreement, signing 'sorry' to Link hopelessly immediately afterward.
And that was definitely Claire. Only she would apologize for not being able to speak to him for reasons beyond either of their control. He did his best approximation of a shrug in response, and they moved on. Once again, though, his thoughts were buzzing as they neared the tower. Who exactly was waiting for them inside? Link wasn't a fool, he had an idea of course, but again he doubted he would get a straight answer if he were capable of asking.
...Besides, the winged shadow creatures in the sky above were a nuisance that demanded their near-constant attention, anyway. Link determinedly wouldn't imagine what the fall to the ground would be like if one of these damned birds knocked one of them off the roof, thank you very much. If they did the work to take them out, it wouldn't be a problem. The beasts had the advantage from the air, and the deeply-slanted rooftops were slippery in the downpour. More than once, he or Claire had taken a tumble, carving deep gouges into the heavy shingles when they tried to slow their descent by force.
By the time they reached the window to the tower the imp had pointed them to, both Link and Claire were soaked to the skin and unpleasantly chilled. The open 'window' leading into the tower was a welcome respite from the sheets of torrential rain. His nerves only worsened when they jumped down into the dimly-lit stairway. There wasn't much to see, but he was picking up an array of scents, some much older than others, lingering in the air. Delicate perfumes and silk, intermixed with something unobtrusive and pleasant. The heaviest scent was of metal and oil and human— or, human but not quite; probably a guard, he reasoned privately. It was the freshest, for given definition. It seemed like it had been some time, maybe a few hours or more, since anyone had come up or down these stairs.
The stairs led up to a pair of hardwood double doors, one of them left open just enough to push through with his nose and creep into the room. The room retained only the barest hints of its former opulence; a large fireplace crackled merrily against one wall, indifferent to the shadows attempting to smother its light; a truly massive four-poster bed lay against the opposite wall, with a writing desk nestled not too far from it; the chair to accompany the desk had been dragged over to the window opposite the door, and looked plush and soft. Next to the chair, gazing out into the world of ruin, a single hooded figure loomed.
Link found himself sinking into a crouch and preparing to fight, a growl rumbling out of his throat. A clawed hand carefully (so, so very carefully) splayed into the fur on his scruff — a caution, or a reassurance? Link settled and looked up at Claire. She had time to sign a single word; safe. But their arrival and Link's growling had drawn attention. He remained wary, but no longer poised to attack when the stranger turned and gasped under their breath.
"Midna?!" she —and it was a woman, though she remained shrouded in her hood— whispered in a nearly forbidding voice when she recognized the small being atop Link's back. So Midna was her name...
"Eeehee! You remembered my name, what an honour for me," Midna drawled as the woman approached, and Link padded further into the room to meet her whisper-quiet steps halfway. She came to kneel at Link's side, almost completely obscured by the shadows the firelight cast from her hood. Her eyes just barely reflected in the gloom, but he could see her looking at him with a depth to her gaze that was almost uncomfortable; like she would see right through the shadows and their curse, like she knew exactly who he was.
"So, this is the one for whom you were searching..?" It was spoken like a question, yet Link couldn't shake the feeling of being seen by this woman in a way he wasn't sure he could even explain. I know you, her eyes said. I know you, something inside him whispered in return. Something that was woven into the very core of his being, yet... he had never left Ordon since his family had settled there, when he was almost too young to remember.
"Well, neither of these two are exactly what I expected, but... I guess they'll do!" Midna nodded, looking satisfied but leaving Claire with a significant look that drew the woman's attention. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she took in the details of the girl's transformation.
"You were transformed into this by the Twilight?" she asked, seeming bemused. There was something different about this question he wasn't sure how to place, and he wasn't sure how Claire responded, but it ended with a despondent shrug. "...the magic that's taken hold of you is... different. Certainly not of the Light, but I cannot say that it was because of the Twilight either. I am sorry," she said, but the words themselves didn't seem to matter overmuch to Claire, who nearly fell to her knees.
"Oh, you can understand her too? It seems the poor wolf is the only one who can't!" Midna cackled without a hint of empathy. "The poor thing really has no idea where he is, or what's happened. Don't you think he deserves to know what you've managed to do? You owe him that much... Twilight Princess! Eeehee!" The unfamiliar address had some kind of significance to it, it must have, for the way Claire tensed and the woman (princess?) narrowed her eyes at the imp. Then she looked back to Link, and something conflicted behind her eyes settled into firm resolve.
"Listen to me carefully," she urged, leaning in close and keeping her voice low. "This was once the land where the power of the gods was said to slumber. This was once the kingdom of Hyrule. But our blessed kingdom has been cursed, transformed into a world of shadows at the behest of the king who rules the Twilight. The kingdom has crumbled, overtaken by creatures who shun the light..."
Link was both captivated and horrified by the woman's tale of the invasion, the ultimatum the dark king had delivered with claws and blades at her people's throats: surrender, or die. For her, it had never been a question. But for the princess's efforts, her subjects were caught in a miserable half-existence, entities of light in a world of shadows.
"All the people know now is fear... fear of a nameless evil they cannot even describe," the woman said, defeat in her voice. Then she took a deep breath, like she needed to brace herself. "...the kingdom succumbed to twilight, but I remain its princess." Gloved hands betraying only the barest tremor, the woman pushed her hood back, revealing a jewelled circlet fashioned to look like folded leaves. Much of her hair was gathered behind her shoulders, but for two separated tails on either side of her face. Her eyes were blue like the skies above Ordon, and despite her youthful features, her eyes looked like they had seen many, many lifetimes. She was, in a word, resplendent — despite the shadowy world around her, she seemed to positively radiate Light. That whisper of I know you utterly sang with rightness when she finally said, "I am Zelda."
Link knew of the old tales; Hylia's mortal avatar, and the spirit of Her chosen Hero throughout the ages, but surely this couldn't mean... not him, right?
"You don't have to look so down about it! Many of us find the Twilight quite liveable! Is perpetual darkness really so terrible?" Claire bit out something scathing with a roll of her eyes, with Midna ignored. Zelda merely shook her head, chiding the imp.
"Midna, this is no time for levity. The Shadow Beasts search far and wide for you... why is this?" she asked, and Midna only floated aimlessly, settling crosslegged a foot or so above Link's head.
"Why, indeed? You tell me! Eeeheehee!"
Zelda sighed, shaking her head once more— this time in resignation, he thought. It was an expression he was already becoming used to seeing associated with Midna. "Time is short. You must leave this place, before the guard makes his rounds. Please, go," she finished, a new urgency in her voice as she stood up and away from the odd trio they made.
Not wishing to fight anything stronger than the vermin in the waterways just yet, Link was quick to obey the princess's plea. He noticed Claire linger behind to ask a final question of the princess, but she was following them in short order, so he decided not to worry about it for now. Halfway down the tower stairs, Midna yanked Link to a harsh stop by the ear. He snarled his displeasure but dropped into a crouch as they heard the door at the tower's base unlock and noisily creak open.
"Ugh, not that way! The guard's on his way! Boy, he's prompt..." Midna whispered, the three of them casting about for an escape route. The simplest, clearest path was out the window they had entered from, but what then? ...They would just have to figure it out and go from there, because they sure couldn't stay here.
Once they were outside, Midna lifted off his back and across the rooftop with a little hop-skip, coming to hover at nearly the edge of the peaked roof. "Eeehee! So, now that you know what's happened, and where you are, I suppose I should take you back to where you first stumbled into the Twilight..." she hummed consideringly, her tone almost deceptively cheerful as she continued. "But... are you very sure that's what you want to do? Aren't you forgetting an important something? Or... maybe a couple of important someones?" Midna tittered, spinning in place to show him Colin and Ilia's terrified faces. His heart began to pound. Ilia, the kids, his family had been stolen away, dragged into the Twilight! How could he have forgotten?
"Oh? I see I have your attention now! Eeeheehee! Well, little Midna would be happy to help you get them back," she cooed, but the twist to her little smirk looked so wrong on Ilia's face. Everything in Link's mind wished to reject what he was seeing. "All I need in return is... well, I'm in the market for something very powerful, and the two of you are going to help me gather it, like a couple of good servants! And, like a couple of good servants, I'll need you to do exactly as I say." And Link's heart dropped. Indentured servitude, to this strange being? That was to be the price for escaping what had to be certain death at the hands of the other shadow creatures?
"Eeehee! Why don't I send you back and let you have some time to think it over?" Before Link could realize what was about to happen, before he could even form another thought, he felt himself coming apart — he had bare seconds to understand before he wholly vanished from the face of the world. For a single, timeless, neverending moment, all Link was aware of was that he no longer technically had a body. Then, as quickly as the feeling had overtaken him, he was reforming on solid ground.
Link took small, shallow breaths until he was sure he was past the initial wave of vertigo-induced nausea from the experience. He took in his surroundings, quickly noting they had returned to Ordon's spring, as the imp had said, that Claire was still beside him, and he... upsettingly, had retained his paws and snout.
"Oh, right— I forgot to mention one little thing... just because you've escaped the Twilight, doesn't mean you'll be shedding that form anytime soon! Now why would that be? Eeeheehee! See you later!"
Claire, however, was back to the way he remembered her. Though, she appeared to be struggling to regain her bearings as well. They looked to each other, then back to the spring around them, almost collectively thinking well, now what?
A/N: Yay, I finished it in good time! I really hope this is a sign of good update patterns in the future, but I'd rather not jinx it. I'm sorry if you were hoping we'd make a little more progress into Twilight Princess, but I promise we'll start picking up steam pretty quick here! There should be more action coming your way in the next few chapters, and a (maybe) surprise character introduction coming soon. Too soon to talk about, but if you're familiar with the general arc of my original FBOTT series, it won't be too shocking.
See you next time! As always, I love reading any feedback you're willing to give me, but please be kind. Thank you!