Chapter Thirteen: Lanayru

It was mid-afternoon by the time they reached the curtain of brown-gold Twilight, after walking a couple of hours from the Goron outpost. The sun was just above the Twilight as he approached, and as the amber smear of light began to obscure the sun, it gained that strange blackened rainbow halo around it.

"I've never been in the Twilight at night. Does it really stay about the same whether it's day or night?" He wondered if the moon was up instead of the sun, would it would look the same; a pale disc with the strange dark halo around it. If they were only getting to Castle Town now, they wouldn't get to Lake Hylia until dark, and that was only if he was swift as he ran there.

"It's the same. I don't know why. It could have something to do with those crystals that float in the Twilight." Her voice was from around his ears this time. Where did she go when she did that, in the shadows of his hat?

"Crystals? Wait, is that the stuff that looks like black snow that disappears a few feet above the ground?" He recalled seeing it float around the torches in Hyrule Castle, and it dissolving into squares when it neared the ground in Eldin. "That would explain the dark halo around the sun."

"That's the stuff. There aren't any of those crystals back home. Zant's using some other kind of magic for the Twilight here, and I don't understand it." She made a frustrated sound. "But I will, eventually." Midna appeared, briefly obscuring his vision with shadows as she did so. Did that mean she was in the shadows on his face? He didn't want to know. "Are you ready to go in?"

Link sighed, looking at the brown undulating wall in front of him. "I guess. I'm not looking forward to doing the wolf thing again, but at least it's the last time. I'm going to be a wolf all day and night too, so I'm going to be hungry when we're done." He gave a sour grunt. "I wonder if I can eat somehow. No, scratch that. Eating as the wolf would be strange."

"You sure?" She floated back a bit, closer to the wall of Twilight. "I could help you hunt a nice fat rabbit."

He gave her a flat look. "I know you're kidding, but can you imagine trying to eat with a mouth that's shaped wrong? Could I even chew-" His sentence was interrupted as her dark hair darted forward suddenly and grabbed him with the large hand on the end, and abruptly pulled him through the outer layer of the Twilight. "Midna!" he cried, the golden light on his hand coming to life. She set him down, and he glared at her angrily. "What the hell are you…" He trailed off as he doubled over, pain rippling through his body. His bones and muscles felt as if they were shifting, and then he was standing on his four gray paws. "Ow." he said in his deep wolf voice, able to pronounce the W at the end of a word far better than at the beginning.

"That's better. Now I can hear myself think." Her shadowy form was gone, and now Midna was in her Twilight form, aqua runes glowing softly. "You can be awfully chatty sometimes."

"Mih-naah." he grumbled. It wasn't as if he was talking any more than usual, it was more like Midna entered the Twilight and became an asshole again. She didn't even need to be in the Twilight, just near it. There were a few things he wanted to tell her, and couldn't. She'd get an earful later.

The little imp put her hands to her face and smiled. "I adore how you say my name. You're so cute!"

"No!" Link argued. He was most certainly not cute.

"Oh come on, yes you are. You can be cute as a human too. Don't you think people can be cute sometimes?" She giggled when he lay his ears flat at her in annoyance. "Since this is the last time...do you mind?" The imp alighted on the ground next to him and held out her arms for a hug.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. Fine. It was the last time. He sat down so she could hug him better. "Ress. Hug."

Midna put her arms around his neck and snuggled her face into the thick layer of fur on his chest, sighing happily. "I know you're not my pet, but you'd try to hug a wolf if you got the chance. Don't deny it." She giggled. "You even smell different."

That much he knew. He could smell his own self with his keen nose, and had discovered what his human form smelled like at Ordona's Spring. It was a strange experience, to say the least. Link sat there and endured the hug from Midna for a bit longer, and then brought a paw up to nudge at her back. "Ress, Mih-naah. Go?"

"I know, we need to get going." She gently pet his fur. "You're so pretty when you're a wolf. I mean, not that you aren't pretty as a human either."

"Mih-naah. Go now." He was running out of patience. That wasn't the first time she commented on his looks, and for some reason he didn't like it when she did. He wasn't sure if "pretty" was better or worse than "easy on the eyes".

"Yeah, all right." She stepped back. "I'm going to miss wolf you, and this lovely green fur. Ah, well. It is what it is." Midna floated up and over his back. "Thanks for indulging my cuddly side." He seriously hoped that her cuddly side only included hugging animals, and not hugging humans. While Link was something of a hugger, he had little interest in hugging Midna in the way she wanted to hug him as a wolf. They were friends now, but not close enough for that.

Link shrugged and stood, and when she sat on his back, he took off running. It wasn't too far of a run until they reached the flat stone bridge that spanned the Lower Zora's River, but Link was hesitant to approach it. Above was a bright purple portal in the sky, and milling around in front of the bridge was a group of Shadow Beasts. Two were of the variety with stone masks, but there were six more that did not have masks, as well as about a dozen large black-skinned reptiles. The six other Shadow Beasts had large black crystals sticking out of their backs, wide bodies, and rounded heads that had wide fanged mouths as their only feature. Their presence next to the horned black lizards made sense to Link. He knew that these were some of the Gorons that Hagar had sent to Castle Town, transformed into Shadow Beasts.

He didn't want to fight them, so he kept his distance, huddling close to a group of birch trees, which were more common in the western part of the Eldin Plains. The transformed Moblins weren't too much trouble, and he had no problems killing those. These Gorons were people, not monsters. That wasn't the only reason he didn't want to fight them; a young Goron had hurt him with one hit. These Shadow Gorons were probably incredibly strong, although he wasn't sure if they could roll into a ball like a normal Goron. The jagged black crystals on their backs made it seem like it would be hard for them to roll along.

"Why are we hanging back?" Midna asked, keeping her voice down. She knew that he was being cautious for a reason.

Link pointed with his nose at the Shadow Beasts. "Gorons." He was able to say that word with little difficulty. Some sounds would still be impossible for him to pronounce, but so far he was gradually learning to speak with the wolf's mouth.

"Oh yeah, they do look like Gorons. And those lizard things are probably those pack animals they use." Midna didn't realize that they were domesticated dodongos, but he had no way of telling her. "Did you want to avoid them?"

"Ress." He looked past the bridge, at the green fields that surrounded the outer wall of Castle Town. He might be able to lose them if he looped around the town, but he wanted to run straight through it to save time, from east to west. The wall was a dull yellow-tinged gray, and he could see the guard station at what was likely a drawbridge. The town would likely have drawbridges or gates if it was completely walled in. If memory served him from when he was at Castle Town as a small boy, it did have wooden drawbridges that crossed the moat that was just outside the walls. He had an idea, but the problem was trying to explain it to Midna.

"Mih-nahh. Run, go. No Gorons." He felt foolish, breaking his sentence up into the most basic words. It was worse than baby speak. "Ress?"

"You want to run past them?" He felt a light touch on his ear, but then she stopped immediately. She was about to idly pet him again, and then remembered what she was doing. He appreciated the effort on her part.

"Ress. Go mmi..mmihh…" he struggled, trying to make the sounds. "Rrij. Rrrij! Augh, ammit." It was so frustrating. Some sounds he could manage, but things like a letter B were impossible.

"Oh good, we get to play this game again." She sounded a bit impatient, and he couldn't blame her. It had to be frustrating to try to understand him. "Uh...ridge?"

Link shook his head and looked over his shoulder at her. "No. Rij up. Up!" He considered writing in the dirt of the road with a claw, but wondered if he had the dexterity to draw runes with a wolf's feet. What could be a different word for a bridge?

"Ridge up...oh! Bridge up? Wait, what are we going to do to the bridge over the river? We can't destroy it once we're past." She had part of the idea, at least.

"No. Run, no Gorons, go on rij. Run, go. New rij. Run, rij up. Gorons gone." It was a hell of a sentence, and it sounded so ridiculous to his own ears, but he was trying the best he could with his limited vocabulary.

"Okay, so...let me go through this. Run past the Gorons, onto the bridge, and then past it?" She was actually trying to figure it out instead of making fun of him. The old Midna would have giggled at him the whole time.

"Ress! Go, new rij. Ress?" He hoped that she could see the gate house near the wall and get the idea.

"New bridge? There's another bridge past this one? Wait, is that the bridge that goes up?" She snapped her fingers. "Oh! Of course, it's a town that has a wall and a moat around most of it, so there would be another bridge over that moat. And it's a bridge that goes up, a drawbridge."

"Ress, ress!" She had figured out that part, now it was a matter of explaining to her what he wanted her to do. "Mih-naah go rij up?"

"Me, go bridge up? Okay, I think I understand. Stop me if I'm wrong. We run past the Gorons so we don't have to fight them, and when we get to the drawbridge, I use my magic to raise it up behind us so they can't catch us. Does that sound right?"

"Ress." Link nodded his head emphatically, pleased that she finally understood. He had the strange canine instinct to wag his tail, and had to remind his body that he was most definitely human and should not do things like that. If they went through with this, they would be stuck in Castle Town for the time being, but he doubted they needed to backtrack immediately. If they did, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. He sighed to himself, wishing he could make that joke out loud. Instead he pointed towards the Gorons again. "Go?"

Midna patted his back in front of where she was seated on him. "Yeah, I'm ready. I'll try to grab the portal on the way by too, all right? You keep running no matter what. Let's go."

He took off at a brisk run, but he didn't try to go around the group in front of the bridge. Instead he drew close to them and then made a sound halfway between a shout and a bark to get their attention. One of the transformed Gorons noticed him and opened its wide fanged mouth to let out that same shattering roar that other Shadow Beasts had made before. The group turned to pursue him as he ran south, slowing slightly so they could nearly catch up to him.

"Is this part of the plan?!" Midna cried from his back. He couldn't explain this part to her, but she didn't have anything to do during it, so he hadn't bothered. The stilted conversation they had was bad enough.

"Ress!" he said through a wolf's lips, still running. He was correct when assuming that the Gorons likely couldn't roll along as balls in their transformed state. They ran on all fours just like the Shadow Beasts that used to be human, a strange ambling run that moved nearly as fast as he did as a wolf.

He lead them in a wide loop, slowly turning while kiting the group behind him. There were small trees and shrubs in the way that he dodged, and the transformed Gorons simply plowed through them, strong enough that very little would stop them as they loped along. When he zipped through the groups of birch trees near the side of the road, he picked up speed and sprinted, making a beeline for the bridge over the Zora's River. He easily outpaced them, moving as swiftly as a horse's canter.

There was a small kink in Link's plan, however. A human could pick up speed and sprint for a good distance without too much trouble, but as it turned out wolves could not. It was different when he maintained an easy run that was efficient, but like most predators wolves were designed for speed in short bursts due to the way they hunted. His legs burned with sudden fatigue, and his speed flagged. There was a crackling sound as Midna captured the portal, and then he could feel her small hands clinging to the scruff of his neck once they began crossing the stone bridge.

"They're starting to catch up! Was slowing down part of our plan?" she said loudly, leaning forward a bit so she could speak closer to his ears.

"N...no!" Link panted. He did not consider that the wolf couldn't run at a fast speed for long. It was better off if he didn't look back and keep trying to push his body for more speed, since Midna would tell him if anything was getting close. It was so damned stupid that a wolf would run out of energy just from a sprint like that. He could sprint and then run a mile as a human without any problem, and humans only had two legs.

His breath was heavy as he approached the drawbridge, and when he passed the guard station, it was empty. There was no time for him to wonder why as his claws hit the wooden bridge with a hollow clicking sound. "Up!" he cried, barely having the breath to say the word, and he loped over the bridge and through the open gates of the city, passing the crank and winch.

He felt Midna come off his back, and he slowed and skidded to a halt on the cobblestone street. Link turned to look, and Midna was next to the winch for the bridge, raising a hand as the mechanism sizzled with black and orange electricity. The bridge rose quickly, far quicker than human arms could move it, and no Shadow Beasts had managed to make it across before it went up with a slam.

There were startled sounds coming from the two spirits that were standing guard on either side of the gates. As before, they couldn't see Link or Midna, but they could certainly see them manipulating the world around them. They clung to their halberds and stared at the closed drawbridge in a mixture of fear and confusion.

"This isn't right." One of the guards said, a shorter man with his chain mail tight against his wide stomach. Apparently the guards in Castle Town didn't need to be in shape.

"It's closed now, so maybe we should go report?" suggested the other guard nervously. He was tall and lean, the opposite of the guard he was stationed with.

"I'm all for that idea." said the first guard, and the two of them abandoned their post in a hurry. They ran right by where Link stood, unable to see the green wolf that was panting from exertion with his tongue lolling out.

"Are they running because they're scared, or are they running because they actually think this is something important to report?" Midna asked, floating over to Link. "For all they know the bridge could be malfunctioning."

He shrugged and lay down on the dirty stones of the city street, his legs feeling rubbery from the run. The other times he had ran through the Twilight as a wolf, his gait was more or less the equivalent of a human's jog. Like jogging, it was efficient and easy to do for long distances. It normally didn't tire him out as much, but this time he had sprinted a few hundred yards, and was most certainly tired from it. The poor sleep he had wasn't helping, he was sure.

"What, are you tired out from that run?" The impish creature asked, landing on the stones next to him. She put a hand to his heaving sides. "Wow, you really are tired."

"Ress." he panted, putting his head down on his paws, needing to rest for a moment. He then saw something along the side of the road, up against the side of a stone building. There was a number of pieces of trash along the side of the road, cities never being very clean, but one thing stood out to him. Link lifted his head, realizing what he was looking at.

He stood and walked over to it, gently turning it over on the ground with his paw. It was a dark green suede purse designed to be wore at the hip, not over the shoulder or at the waist. The straps were made to resemble the links of a chain, and a simple metal clasp held the bag part closed. The straps were snapped, and the owner had likely dropped it without realizing it. While it was possible that somebody else had the same purse, he hoped otherwise. He hoped that this was the thing he thought it was, and it belonged to someone from far away, and not from this city of thousands of people. Link lowered his nose to it and could immediately smell something familiar, something that made his heart skip a beat in hope.

It was Ilia's purse.

"What's your problem? That's just garbage somebody threw on the ground." Midna had moved to hover next to him to see what he was up to. "People do that in the city all the time."

Link shook his head. "No! Irr-ee-ah!" He couldn't possibly pronounce her name, but he knew that this purse was hers. Could she be in Castle Town?

"Oh, yeah. That's your friend's bag, isn't it?" Midna asked, pushing at it with a toe. "If she was taken to a village somewhere, I doubt she dropped it here. Somebody probably found it and then ditched it in the street later."

He wasn't going to give up. This was a lead, something he could cling to that might lead him to finding her. "No, Mih-naah. Here!" He put his nose to the ground near the bag and started to sniff around. There was a clear trail, despite all the other overwhelming smells of a city full of people. He knew her scent well, and could detect it easily. She was here! She had dropped the bag for some unknown reason, but she was here in the town somewhere. Head down, he went down the street as he followed the trail.

"Where are you going? We shouldn't be taking side trips. We only have so much daylight today." She landed on his back and held on to his fur again. "You said it yourself, we'd be out until it was dark."

He ignored her, following the trail, his heart buoyed by hope. Ilia had walked down this street, although there were strange scents mingled with hers. There was the smell of cedar, like that of an old linen chest, and then a strange scent he couldn't identify. It smelled almost like algae, or perhaps fish. The smell made him think of rivers and lakes, but he couldn't figure out what it actually was. Either she had fallen into some dirty water somewhere, or she was carrying something that stunk like it. Under it all, there was the faint smell of blood. That was concerning, because he had hoped she wasn't wounded anymore.

"Are you too busy to notice what's going on around you?" Midna asked, after he passed a large intersection that was full of spirits that glowed green in the Twilight.

"No." he replied, still following the trail, but dodging around the spirits that clogged the streets. It was midday, and the city was busy.

"With you so focused, it was hard to tell. So you can see all these spirits going around on their business, like life hasn't changed for them, right?"

"Ress." He stepped off the road to get out of the way of a coach. Nothing could see the wolf, not even the horses people had in the streets. Most of the people on the city street were walking, though. They were far easier to avoid.

The trail lead him to a building on the main road that had a sign above its door. Link raised his head to read it. In large runes it declared that the business was for "Dr. Borville MD". There was another sign in the front window of the office that said "CLOSED".

"MD…" Midna said. "Medical Doctor? I suppose a place that doesn't allow magic would need to rely on doctors. The place is closed, though. She's probably not here." She jumped slightly when a panhandler sitting near the doctor's office reached out his hands and called to some passer-by, begging for money. The man had appeared to be asleep until then.

"Ress." he said in agreement, and put his nose to the ground to find the trail again. It continued west, down this wide main road that he knew spanned the entirety of Castle Town, from one gate to another. It had been many years since he had been in town, but some memories of the place were coming back to him now that he was here.

The trail joined with another, and Link knew it was the panhandler that was sitting next to the doctor's office. He raised his head to look down the road at the man, who was unshaven and wearing ragged clothing. Despite that, he smelled of soap, and seemed fairly healthy. The beggar act was just that, an act to get people to give him money out of pity. It was dishonest, but that was none of Link's business. The faux beggar had gone along with Ilia somewhere before returning to where he currently was. Strange. So far none of it made sense, but he imagined it would eventually.

Ilia's trail went through the large half-circle square that was at the center of the town. It was lined with expensive shops and restaurants, and a large multi-tiered fountain stood at the center, topped with a sculpture of the same bird and three triangles that were on his shield. Luda was right, the three triangles were in multiple places around town. It wasn't just the fountain in this square that had the emblem, it was also on the cornerstone of a building, and even topped a metal fence surrounding a cafe's seating. He needed to figure out what that was and what it represented. That might give him a clue as to what the glowing thing in his hand was.

The fountain was not running, and was ringed by guards that were preventing people from reaching it. Arguments between the people and the armored guards had broken out, and he could pick out a few words here and there in the midst of the cacophony of noise in the square. There was an issue with water in the town running low, and people were attempting to get to the remaining water in the fountain with buckets and pitchers in their hands in hopes of bringing some home.

"What's this about water? A city shouldn't run out of water, right? Normally they're built at a water source." Midna frowned at the angry Hylians as Link moved past them. "Something's fishy here. I doubt this is related to the Twilight, so we can't do anything about it. Of course something like this would happen when nobody's in charge at the castle."

Link couldn't comment with his own thoughts, and continued to follow the trail as it turned south. The southern road, which was the main thoroughfare, became a market district just past the fountain square. There were more angry people here, some shouting at merchants, others grumpily waiting in line in front of sparse food stalls. It was far harder for him to move around this crowd without bumping into a few bodies, and a few times people would turn around to see what had brushed up against them. He had to squeeze between two people in line at a fish stall, who were both arguing with the fishmonger. The two men turned to one another and started accusing one another of pushing, and it quickly devolved into a fistfight.

"It's not just water, it's food too. Look at these people." She waved her hand at the assembled crowds in the market. "They're acting like this because they're afraid. What was the king doing before the invasion happened?" She gave a wicked giggle. "Oh, that's right. He was busy killing your friends in Kasuto instead of taking care of his people."

That comment made Link growl slightly. It was hurtful, especially after she had seen what visiting Kasuto had done to him. The Twilight was affecting her and making her more cruel, he knew that. Still, her comments made him think of how Adelbert had failed people other than Link during the magic purge. His own words came back to him from last night: he'd kill him, but he can't. He'd get revenge if he could, but the king was dead and he was unable to. That was a dark, disturbing thought. He was not the kind of person to want vengeance.

There was an empty stall that had no customers nearby, and instead had a lone Goron child sitting on the ground in front of it. The child was blubbering, wiping at the tears on his face and calling out desperately. "Please, somebody help. Please!" the boy cried. "Someone needs to help me find my dad!" No one stopped to talk to the little Goron, so wrapped up in their own concerns about food that they didn't notice him. Link was unable to do anything for the crying child in his current form, which was frustrating. He hated to see kids cry.

"People here are so selfish." Midna said as they passed the spirit of the crying Goron child. She leaned forward and tugged one of his ears back, and act that made him stop for a moment. "Are you sure you want to help them? Do you think they're worthy of saving?"

Link glared at her, and then put his nose to the ground again. Midna giggled at him and he chose to ignore her. She wasn't herself in the Twilight. He had to remind himself of that. He had seen the real Midna, who was compassionate and kind. She was the person who gently put her hand to his head and told him that he shouldn't feel guilty for surviving Kasuto, and the one who told him his slaughter of the Bulbin raiding party was justified. This nasty little imp who giggled on his back about the plight of the people of Castle Town was someone else, corrupted by the Twilight just as Zant had corrupted the light itself. It was Zant's fault, not hers.

The trail went down a smaller street full of shops mixed with residential homes and flats, an ordinary neighborhood instead of the main streets with large businesses. It was still full of people but far less crowded, and it was far easier to follow Ilia's trail without having to dodge anyone. At first her scent seemed to stop in front of a chandler's shop, which was confusing, but then he realized it continued past it and through a wide alley, and down a set of stairs that went to the floor below the shop. He could smell something cooking that made him hungry, not having eaten anything other than oatmeal that morning. Link read the sign, which said "Telma's Pub". Why would Ilia be in a bar? Sure, there was food there, but generally pubs were for people who wanted to drink, and Ilia did not drink.

"A pub? What, are you going to drown your sorrows here?" Midna tittered, still being irritating. He considered asking her to open the door, but this was a side-trip he was taking on his own, and not where they were supposed to be going. She hadn't made too much of an effort to stop him, but he was being a bit selfish and ignoring his mission with the Twilight in order to look for his friend. She certainly wasn't helping him as he stood in front of the door right now, as she had done in the past. If he asked, she might laugh at him and do nothing, with her current mood.

He didn't have to ask in the end, since the door opened and two drunken guards stepped out of the pub, halberds on their shoulders. They weren't staggering, but the exaggerated way they walked indicated that they had a few too many. There seemed to be a running theme with the guards of Castle Town being worthless, and he didn't know if it had always been that way, or if it was a new problem.

Midna clicked her tongue at the soldiers, who left the door wide open after they walked off. "Were those two really drinking on the job? In daytime no less. I don't know who is in charge of your city and the people who work in it, but they suck at their job." She smirked. "It seems suitable, considering how much your King Adelbert sucked at his."

It wasn't Link's city, and it also did not seem suitable. Things were not right in Castle Town, and even though he had not been in the city for over ten years, it couldn't be like this normally. He went through the open door, the light inside the pub the same washed-out amber as outside. It was nearing the dinner hour, so the pub was starting to fill with patrons, although it didn't seem like it was as busy compared to the businesses on the main thoroughfare. There weren't any more guards, but there were some kind of workers sitting together at one of the larger tables, and then a lone young man sitting by himself at a smaller table with a tankard. There was no sign of Ilia.

As Link walked closer to the young man's table, he looked up from his book at the spot where Link was, frowning. The man lifted up his pair of glasses to peer in his direction, and then lowered them back down, as if that would make a difference when seeing something magical. He wasn't looking directly at Link, but seemed to sense that something was there, just as Pyle had done on Death Mountain. The man was Hylian, so it was more than likely that he had some magical talent and could sense the wolf nearby. He wondered if the man could see the Twilight or not, but then he heard Ilia's voice cry out in frustration. His heart fluttered at the sound, and he followed her voice.

He found her in a back room of the pub, which had a few cots and a small brick hearth, as well as crates of vegetables stacked along the walls. It looked like it doubled as a sleeping area and storage. She was sitting on a stool next to two of the crates that had been pushed together into a makeshift bed, and on that bed was a Zora child. He panted painfully with his eyes squeezed shut, and there was a bloody gash down his left side, the edges of the wound puffy and red. A second, taller Hylian woman stood nearby with her eyes on the Zora while Ilia fussed over him with a damp cloth.

Link rushed up to Ilia and saw her for the first time since she had been shot and stolen away from her home, and from him. She was wearing different clothing now, a belted robe with tight leggings that were Sheikah in design, and a pair of soft calf-high boots. Ilia had been barefoot in the spring she was taken, but now it seemed that she had a pair of shoes. The clothes smelled faintly of cedar, so whomever had given them to her had gotten them out of a chest or dresser made of the wood.

Link moved closer to her, looking at her face longingly, wishing that she could see him. He wanted to be human, to put his arms around her, to tell her that he was all right. He could do nothing but sit nearby as an observer, completely cut off from her despite being so close. His eyes filled with tears at the frustration of it all, and with a longing he had for Ilia herself.

"Isn't this touching?" Midna's rude commentary started up again. "A girl and her invisible wolf, re-united once again. Too bad no one can see you. It's as if you don't exist at all." She giggled.

"Mih-naah." He growled, tearing his eyes away from Ilia's face to give Midna a venomous look. "Jerk!"

"Jerk? Who's a jerk? The guy ignoring his duty as the hero, or the lady who is patiently waiting for him to come to his senses?" She leaned forward and patted his cheek. "Tears again, is it? You sure seem to cry a lot."

A low growl began in his throat. He was unable to ignore how terrible she was being to him, and his anger began to rise. Ilia spoke and he suddenly stopped growling at the sound of her voice, and turned towards her.

"I can't stand to see him suffer like this." she said, dipping the cloth in a bucket of water next to her stool and dabbing at the Zora's skin with it. The Zora's violet scales were dry, and Link didn't know if that was a bad thing or not. He had never met a Zora before, but he knew that they were aquatic.

"You've done all you can, honey." the tall woman said kindly, who Link presumed was Telma. She was heavy-set, with her hair done up into rows of braids and then tied back tightly in a tail behind her head. "I've sent somebody to the doctor's house, so he'll be here as soon as he can."

"How can you be so sure?" Ilia raised her green eyes up to the other woman, looking concerned. "He closed down his shop in the middle of the day. Why would he come here just because you asked?"

The woman who was most likely Telma put her hands on her broad hips and smirked. "Dr. Borville has an outstanding tab here. He has no choice but to come when I call."

"No…" the Zora child said weakly, grasping at Ilia's robed arm with one of his clawed hands. "No doctors…" His voice came between painful pants. "...Zelda. I need to see...Princess Zelda." He tried to sit up, but the pain was too great and he fainted.

Ilia bit her lip, and took the young Zora's hand in her own. "He's in so much pain…" she fretted. "Why do you think he came here to speak to the princess instead of the king or queen? Isn't the king in charge?" That was a strange comment. Ilia didn't live in Hyrule, but it was fairly well-known that the queen died years ago. Did she never learn about that?

"That will have to wait until this boy is a bit better. He can barely speak, when he's awake. That wound doesn't look too good, either." The woman leaned forward to look at the gash on the Zora's side. "I'm not an expert, but it doesn't look like he got hurt right outside of town."

"I think so too. His injury looked the same when I found him. He could barely talk when I carried him into town." She set the damp cloth on the Zora's forehead. "If someone wasn't willing to help me, I would have had problems getting him here. I'm not much bigger than he is." That explained why the beggar's scent went along with Ilia's for a while. She had convinced him to carry the boy.

"You did good, honey." She smiled at Ilia and put a hand to her back. "You're a kind soul. Don't you worry, there's a secret passage in this bar that leads right to the castle. I have a friend here in the bar who works there, and he can bring this Zora to Zelda once he feels a bit better." Telma patted Ilia kindly. "You sit with him for now. I have customers that need taking care of, and even more will be coming in for dinner soon. I'll bring you something to eat in a bit, all right? Sit tight."

"Thank you." Ilia gave the woman a soft smile, and then folded her hands in her lap, watching the Zora child as he slowly breathed. It appeared that he was sleeping now, not merely unconscious. The other woman left, and Link thought about what she had said about a passage through the bar into the castle. He had no need to go to the Castle right now, but once he was human again, he would return here. Then he could help the Zora meet with Zelda...after meeting with Ilia again. He longed to talk to her, but it would have to wait.

"That hidden passage that goes through this bar came in handy. I was able to escape while Zelda was caught because of it." Midna scratched at his ears, no longer caring about personal boundaries. "I hate to interrupt this touching reunion, but we need to get to Lake Hylia. You know where your friend is, so you can come back here another time. She doesn't look like the type to give up on somebody in need, so I doubt she's going anywhere."

He lay his ears flat so she would stop touching them. "Ress." Ilia was extremely caring, and the fact that she was able to still be caring towards others despite her capture and injury gave him hope that she wasn't traumatized too much by the experience. Link gave her one last look, and then left his best friend behind, his heart heavy.

The man with the glasses glanced up again when he went by, but then lightly shook his head to himself and continued to read. He may have to speak to that man if he met him in this pub in the future, but he doubted he'd see him again. If there were Hylians in Castle Town that could see the Twilight, he'd want to know how they felt or reacted. Renado had reacted with fear for his daughter, but this young man seemed unconcerned.

This time, Midna opened the door for him so he could leave. As soon as he was out, he could hear Telma mutter "Damn wind…" behind him as she closed the door. She had no idea why the door opened, but at least she wasn't frightened. Ilia and that woman seemed to be far braver and more capable than the guards around town.

He backtracked to the marketplace, passing the Goron child who was sniffling but no longer calling out for help. Link's heart went out to the poor child, but he could do nothing to help him. There were many problems here in town he wanted to figure out, but he could do nothing as a wolf in the Twilight. For now he had to concentrate on lifting the last of the Twilight.

His thoughts were of Ilia as he made his way back north and past the fountain plaza. She didn't appear injured, and she was wearing different clothing. Somebody had helped her, and she had made her way to Castle Town for some reason before finding that Zora child somewhere nearby. He had all kinds of questions for her, but he decided that the first thing he would do is make his feelings for her clear. He hadn't done that before when he had the chance, when she brought him fish dinner so many nights ago in Ordon, and he regretted it.

The western gate of Castle Town was open, just as the eastern one had been. Two more guards stood nearby, and Link realized that they were the two that had come from the pub. Drunken guards to protect one of the three city gates? The Hylian people had been operating rudderless for years, without a sane king to lead them. These two guards could be a symptom of that problem, something that developed over time.

Lower Lanayru was unknown to him. Link had never been here, but the rolling grasslands dotted with the villas of the nobility were serene as he began to lope through them at the easy pace. There were farms here and there, and clusters of forest in the distance farther west, but there were no signs of Shadow Beasts. If this was one of the first areas invaded as Midna had said, then there would be little reason for the invaders to stay. They had moved on, and seemed to be concentrating their efforts in Central Hyrule.

Moving at a wolf's canter was far easier to do than maintaining the sprint he had done earlier. He had learned of another thing his human body could do far better than the wolf, but it was something he hadn't expected. Why was a human's body better designed for sustained speed than a wolf's? It didn't make any sense, but then again he didn't know all that much about wolves. At least he was able to continue on without tiring too much. His stomach reminded him that he had only eaten once today, but there was nothing to be done about it.

There were patrols in the distance, Shadow Bulbins on blackened boar mounts. They paid him no mind, likely not seeing the small creature clinging to his back from the distance they were at, and his run straight across the vineyards and estates of Lanayru was uninterrupted.

He did run into one patrol, some distance north of the Great Bridge of Hylia. There were only two of the black, one-eyed boars that had Shadow Bulbins riding on them, but instead of engaging him, they turned and rode back south at speed. It was unusual, but perhaps word of the fierce green wolf had gotten around and the Bulbins within the Twilight were wary of him. Considering how easily he could kill them, they were wise to run, even if they did have an advantage with their mounts.

The only way he could tell it was evening was the sun had set to his right, leaving the nearly-full moon up in the sky. It had the same black halo the sun did, although less bright. The sky was the same brownish amber color, and there were no stars to be seen. The Twilight was constant, never changing, its ill-colored light draining the color and light from everything. As he passed the forests that bordered the northern cliffs above Lake Hylia, he could see the Great Bridge of Hylia in the distance, a large structure with a pair of tall square towers marking its entrance.

There were squeals to his right and a group of one-eyed shadowy boars burst out of the woods, Shadow Bulbin archers on their backs. That was a problem. He had thought the two were fleeing, but they were gathering allies to ambush him later on. His plan was to find a way down to the northern shore somewhere along the cliffs, but now that idea was no longer viable. He could do nothing but keep running south as the riders fell in behind him on the road.

"Can you run fast again?" Midna shouted above the wind as he ran. "I'd rather not get shot!"

Link was unsure. He had been running for hours, and while he only felt slightly tired, he knew that he couldn't maintain a sprint across the length of the bridge. All he could do was continue on, and hope that Midna could do something. As he approached the bridge, he could see more Shadow Bulbins standing on the top of the right tower. Upon seeing him, one of them blew a horn. The Bulbin was still sounding the horn as he ran beneath the archway between the towers, and faintly from the far side of the bridge he could hear an answering call. They were on both sides. Perhaps he had to fight, and although the Great Bridge of Hylia was broad with thick stone railings, it was still not ideal for a battle.

An arrow flew wide, and missed to the left of him to bounce off the flat stonework of the bridge. He was an easy target, running about thirty feet in front of them. Why did they miss? Why were they staying that far back? The boars could easily run faster than him, and he had seen them do so earlier.

"If I had to guess, they're herding us somewhere!" Midna called, leaning forward to speak to him again. "Something's on the other side of the bridge for sure!"

"Ress!" he panted, agreeing that the way they were following seemed deliberate. He had gotten perhaps a third of the way across the long bridge when his feet skidded on something slick, and he nearly stumbled. His feet pinwheeled on the slippery surface before he found a way to dig his claws into the stones of the bridge to give himself some traction. What was this stuff? It stunk to the point of overwhelming his lupine sense of smell, making him want to gag.

"They stopped!" She informed him from his back. "What the heck are you running on?"

It smelled like pitch, or perhaps tar. It wasn't as thick, so it was some kind of oil, which would explain why it was so darn slick and hard to run on. Something made from petroleum was his guess, but he doubted he could pronounce the word "petroleum" or even just "oil". He slid along until he got just past the halfway point, and then saw a Shadow Bulbin waiting beyond the end of the oil. Link skidded to a stop as the Bulbin raised its bow, thinking he was about to get shot by the ambush that they had set up here on the bridge.

The Shadow Bulbin pulled back the string of its bow, and the magical arrow set in it ignited with fire. Now the oil made sense.

He grunted and turned, running back from where he came, willing to take his chances with the group of boars than the Shadow Bulbin with fire arrows. His fur was coated in the oil now, the smell clogging his nostrils, the fumes burning his eyes. The arrow that was shot at him missed and fell short, or perhaps that was the intention. The fire crept along in a hurry, and it would be only a matter of seconds before it got to where he was. On the far side, he could see a similar fire moving across the oil from farther away. This was their plan, to wait for him on the bridge with oil and fire, and when he was halfway across, burn him alive. They knew he was coming to the Spirit's Spring, having lifted the Twilight from the others, and they were prepared for him. He was trapped.

He jumped up on the guardrail of the bridge, no longer in the oil but still coated in it, and likely still within range of the rapidly-advancing flames. Down below the lake level was low, and even though there was water directly beneath them, he wasn't sure if it was deep enough for them to land in from this height. He wasn't sure if jumping from this high up was survivable in the first place.

In the end, he had little choice. Another fire arrow lit up in the bow of the Shadow Bulbin, aimed directly at him. Link leaped off the bridge despite the dizzying height, opening his mouth and making a sound that was half human scream and half wolf's howl. Midna clung with a painful grip to the skin on his back, and he heard her cry out in fear behind him. The dark water of Lake Hylia raced up to meet them, and at the last moment a large orange fist made of magical hair punched the surface of the lake, absorbing most of the impact. The two of them plunged into the water, the force of their fall driving them far beneath the surface.

Midna's attempt to save them seemed to be in vain, as he sank deeply into the lake, not used to swimming with four legs, his body in pain from hitting the water. Link struggled to reach the surface before his breath expired, but then blackness crept in to obscure his vision, and then he knew nothing.