The town was dead. Completely deserted.
Link and Sheik stopped in their tracks at the sight.
"I suppose you're right. Something is off."
"How surprising." Link said dryly. His face looked pale and sick.
"Are you alright?"
Link nodded, then in an act of irony, doubled over and clutched his hand in pain.
"Link?" Sheik crouched next to him. Her hand brushed his back lightly as he winced and groaned. A dull throbbing began to radiate from her hand as well, but not nearly as painful as Link's.
"Midna? What the hell is happening?" Link asked through gritted teeth.
Sheik shot up and looked around. Her triforce ached similar to this in Faron Woods, before she found Link. The air seemed heavy and thick around her, almost like she couldn't see clearly. It was safe to assume that Kakariko was still under Zant's influence. Sheik had hoped that it could possibly wear off, considering this town posed no threat to Zant, but no such luck.
"Link, is your experience with becoming a wolf linked to being in Twilight?"
"Yeah, I guess so-"
A loud shriek echoes behind them. Sheik jumped and turned in time to see two Twili headed toward them. They ran unnaturally, as if though their limbs were too long. These Twili were such creepy and unsettling things to look at.
One Twili unhinged it's jaw and let out another deafening shriek.
"I got it. You stay there." Sheik pulled out a dagger and threw it quickly, grazing one Twili's arm. It analyzed the wound blankly for a moment. No visible recognition of pain or discomfort showed on its face or body. It glanced up at her and launched.
Sheik started running. She needed to get them away from Link as fast as possible. Both Twili raced toward her, but the one she hit reached her first.
It swiped heavily at her body with its long, freakish fingers. Sheik dodged easily, sliding between its legs and jumping up on its back. It's skin felt strangely human. It whipped around, trying to shake her off, but Sheik quickly pulled out another dagger and stabbed it deeply into the back of its neck. The creature stopped and a horrifying gurgling sound came from its mouth. Drips of black blood fell from its mouth. Sheik jumped off its body, letting it collapse and crumple onto the ground.
One down. The other one should've caught up already.
Sheik whipped to Link. He had hobbled up against a rock, the last Twili looming over him.
Sheik broke into a dead run, jumping onto the monster with enough force for it to stumble back. It screeched angrily.
"Link, move!" Sheik yelled, grabbing onto the Twili's arm and pulling herself up onto its back.
Link managed to drag himself away from the rock.
Sheik pushed off the Twili, flipping off it's back. The force of her legs shoved it forward, directly and violently smacking into the rock. Sheik grabbed a dagger and sunk it into the Twili's spine. It crumpled instantly.
A deadly calm washed over her. She hated knowing what these things really were. Killing was never what she wanted, but how else could they survive?
Link's sickening groan shook her out of her thoughts. "Sorry-" He began to croak out.
She knelt next to him. "Your body wants you to turn, Link, let it."
With a (somewhat girlish) yelp, Link's hand bursted into an intense brightness. Sheik shielded her eyes.
When her eyes returned to focus, Wolf-Link was next to her. His panting sounded heavy, but not in pain any longer.
"Are you… better?" Sheik asked him. "I don't even know if you can understand me."
Wolf-Link met her eyes and gave her the best nod a wolf could reasonably give.
"So you can understand me?"
Another nod.
"Where's Midna? Don't you need her?"
This time, he fought to shake his head. It was funny to see his ears flop around.
"Alright. I suppose it's only me and you then. Do you remember what you did to clear the twilight, back in Faron Woods?"
Wolf-Link stared blankly up at her.
"Right. You can't really tell me in this state." Sheik muttered. "Um, is it similar to the temple? Some sort of puzzle?"
Wolf-Link's head tilted.
"Not exactly? Maybe like the deku baba, find something and kill it?"
Wolf-Link barked and smiled. Even his tail wagged.
Sheik had to fight the smile from forming on her face. She had always wanted a dog, but was far too busy for one. Such an odd way for that dream to come true. And yet, it didn't seem appropriate to pet him.
"Just one, or multiple?"
Wolf-Link barked once.
"Does that mean just one?"
A nod. More tail wagging.
"Should we start exploring, then?"
Wolf-Link barked and bounded up a few steps ahead.
Houses and shops lined the main street. As rude as it was, they searched each and every building they crossed. Absolutely nothing. A thin layer of dust covered every floorboard, every door. A few Twili monsters had been lurking around, but they had been easy to kill.
Wolf-Link walked slowly beside her, his ears down and his head droopy.
"Last building. But there are other spots of Kakariko that we can check." Sheik awkwardly tried to reassure him. "In fact, this is the inn I was talking about."
Wolf-Link perked up a little bit. He bounced up the steps and nudged the dusty door open with his nose.
Sheik stepped in after him. Once she walked in, she immediately got a headache. The throbbing matched the throbbing she still felt from her triforce.
"Link?"
She turned to look at him. He was staring dead at a corner, sniffing around.
"Link, it's just a wall."
Wolf-Link whined at her. He got closer, pawing at the dirt.
"Is it there?"
Sheik walked over to him. The wooden wall did look a little odd.
She leaned her ear against the wall and knocked. It sounded hollow, the tell-tale sign of a false wall.
"You're right, there's something behind here. But how do we open it?"
Sheik surveyed the room. It was your basic check-in and dining area. A bar lined one side of the room, with tables on the other. A stone fireplace was embedded in the wall, empty and cold.
Wolf-Link trotted in circled near the corner nervously, whining.
"I'm trying, Link." Sheik's headache felt worse and worse.
Her eyes darted around the room. The bookshelf near the door, the cold fireplace, even one of the taps behind the bar; there were too many secretive ways the false wall could open. Upon further inspection of the wall, there appeared to be no handle or lock to move it directly.
"Oh, for the love of the gods." Sheik groaned. "Back up, Link."
She pressed her back heel into the ground, driving her right leg up and slamming it against the wall. It shuddered and a few crumbles from the top of the frame rained down.
Wiping the shavings out of her eyes, Sheik tried another kick. A grunt escaped her as she stumbled back from the force.
Just a little more. She gave one more kick, the hardest she had done so far. The wall splintered down the middle, the sides caving inwards.
Sheik stepped back, panting.
Wolf-Link started barking crazily. He raced forward from behind her and began nosing the wood around, pushing the boards further apart, wiggling through the small opening.
"What…?" Sheik coughed between heavy breaths. This whole no-communication thing was quite frustrating.
Her headache seemed to transform into a migraine when the wall broke. She pushed the boards aside more and followed Link.
Inside the passage was a small, cramped room. There seemed to be a heavy haze over the entire room, much worse than outside. Sheik could've sworn she was seeing figures from the corner of her eye, but when she turned, there was nothing.
The room was littered with empty crates and apple cores. Wolf-Link had rushed past that and instead was pawing at the crates, whining and whimpering. He kept staring around as if he was seeing something she wasn't.
"Is the monster in here, Link?"
Wolf-Link turned back to her and whined. If a wolf's eyes could tear up, his sure were. He gestured with his nose to the crates.
"Is there something in them?" Sheik tried to look closer, but the haze felt too heavy to see. She squinted at them, and could almost see something… blue? Her migraine throbbed angrily at her, breaking her concentration.
"If it's not here, we have to go." Sheik turned back towards the broken door.
Wolf-Link didn't move.
"Link?" Sheik stared at him.
Wolf-link began to follow her out the secret passage lazily. As they passed the threshold Sheik could just faintly hear the whimpering and crying of a child. Her head snapped towards the direction of the sound and Wolf-Link's ears shot upward and turned. Sheik shook it off as a part of her migraine and motioned to get his attention once again.
He reluctantly turned away, his ears drooping.
There was definitely something she wasn't seeing. "I saw a path we could check. Come on."
Outside, Wolf-Link seemed sad but very determined. He was sniffing every inch on the small side path they had found.
A rickety, creepy looking metal archway lined the end of the trail. Since leaving the inn, Sheik's migraine had alleviated back into a dull headache. The further away they got the more her headache ebbed away. But the heaviness in the air seemed to thicken, and a sense of dread washed over her.
A graveyard. Just their luck.
Wolf-Link, on the other hand, seemed to perk up once he entered.
His lips bit back into a snarl, his entire stance on guard. A harsh growl escaped him as he slowly moved ahead.
"Is the monster in here?" Sheik tried to follow Wolf-Link's gaze, but she could only see the empty air. A few leaves, crumbling headstones in rows. Nothing that looked alive.
Wolf-Link barked and leapt at the air, crashing down on the ground.
Sheik pulled out her dagger, pointing it around her blindly.
"Link, there's nothing-"
Wolf-Link let out another deep, low growl, lunging again. His eyes seemed crazed and dark, his teeth snapping wildly.
He turned to her and barked. She could feel the anger coming off him in waves.
He lashed around and jumped up against a tree, growling and snarling. He kept trying to get higher and higher against the trunk, baring his teeth.
Wolf-Link's head snapped toward her. He seemed like he was trying to motion with his head toward something higher up, within the branches.
"Link, I have no idea what you want." Sheik said, exasperated.
He barked harshly at her, turning back and forth between the tree and her direction.
Frustration bubbled up in her stomach. What the hell did he want? Sheik let out a growl of her own.
Wolf-Link let out bark in her direction. His fur was up and bristly, his face fixed in it's snarl.
Sheik's hands went up. "Sweet fucking gods, Link. I DON'T SEE ANYTHING THERE!"
Wolf-Link jumped and pressed angrily against the trunk, barking repeatedly. The noise was deafening.
"Fine!" Sheik aimed quickly and threw her dagger in the general direction of the trunk, a few feet above Wolf-Link's head.
A gross smacking sound filled the air. A giant, dark bug appeared where her dagger was, struggling to fly with drips of thick black blood falling. It suffered for a moment, it's wings struggling to keep it in the air, before crashing to the ground.
Wolf-Link pounced on it the second the body hit the ground, biting and tearing it apart. The black blood gushed around his mouth. It's legs spasming for a moment before going still.
Wolf-Link nosed the corpse. What little left there was of the bug's body began to shrivel and blacken. It's abdomen cracked open and a shot of light burst from it. The heavy, hazy air that weighed down around them seemed to dissipate into nothing.
Sheik stared wordlessly. A mediocre bug? That's all the Twilight was?
Wolf-Link immediately went back to his happy, peppy demeanor. His tail wagged excitedly as he stared up at the light.
The light shot off out of the graveyard. Link let out a happy bark and ran after it, leaving Sheik alone with the dead insect.
Sheik let out a sigh, grabbed her dagger, wiped it off, and followed him.
Sheik jogged after the set of pawprints left in the dirt road going down Kakariko. Wolf-Link's four feet seemed to be much faster than her two.
She hurried all the way out of the town, around the trail they had taken, and to the fairy spring she had healed in shoulder in. Epona still grazed over in the grass.
At the top of the falls, a glowing sea creature hovered. Wolf-Link sat in the shallows of the water, listening intently to whatever the creature was saying.
Was this some sort of hallucinatory side effect from undercooked fish, or…?
The creature noticed her walking up. "Ah! So kind of you to join us, Daughter of Light."
Sheik hesitantly approached, keeping a fair distance from the edge of the spring.
"I am Eldin, light spirit of this region. The monster you helped kill was the very monster sapping my energy and plunging this world into darkness. I am so grateful for your selflessness and bravery. My gratefulness extends to you as well, Link." The spirit smiled warmly at Wolf-Link, who wagged his tail harder.
"I hope that you two continue to help Hyrule in these dark, dangerous times. I'm afraid there are more dangerous battles ahead of you. Please fight for us. The world is depending on you."
Sheik bowed her head. "We'll do our best, Great Eldin."
Eldin bowed his head in return. "Good luck, Hero and Daughter of Light."
A blinding flash burst from the falls. Sheik stepped back and shielded her eyes behind her arm, wincing. All these light bursts were not helping her headache.
"Oh, thank the gods." Link's voice groaned.
Sheik peeked out. "Link?"
Eldin had disappeared, and Wolf-Link had been replaced by Link. Or, Human-Link. Whichever.
She saw Link's body rise and fall with a giant sigh. He turned slowly to face her, rubbing his temples.
"How. Could you not. Understand. What I was trying to say!" Link huffed at her.
"What, you expected me to figure out what barking meant?"
"Yes! You saw me gesturing!"
"To empty space! I couldn't see what you were seeing, Link!"
"You're Sheikah! What, you don't have magic for that?"
"If you don't remember, I used up most of my energy fighting Twili AND kicking down a wall!"
"I would've helped if I could! You weren't much help with killing the bug, you know!"
"I couldn't even see it!" Sheik yelled, crossing her arms. "How did that bug taste, by the way?"
Red crept up from Link's neck into his face. His head dropped down and he messed with his hair. "We don't really need to talk about that."
A light smile crossed Sheik's face. "Is there something wrong?"
Link trudged out of the shallows, passing by her. "Wolves have very strong taste buds, okay?" He muttered.
"How would you rate it-"
"Uh-uh! No more. That's all I'm gonna say."
Sheik let out a laugh. Link's shoulders relaxed as the tension and frustration between them melted away.
"Why were you so interested in what was behind that wall, anyway?" Sheik asked.
Link's eyes widened and he started to jog, grabbing Epona's reins and hopping on. "I gotta go!"
"Link, wait up!" Sheik raced back towards Kakariko with him.