Chapter 3

After the heartfelt promise and tears shed, the sun started to sink behind the horizon. Link and Rusl returned from the spring, walking next to each other silently. Link's gaze was fixed on the grass that they walked on. Rusl watched the boy, he trusted the boy he raised with all his heart, he was just thinking about him. How did he not feel the urge to tell anything? Though, Rusl did completely understand, it was a secret and heck if he had that sort of secret, he would be scared out of his own mind as well. It's not something to be thought of lightly, people will freak out about a beast that can destroy them within seconds. Rusl soon enough looked ahead and saw two small boys, Talo and Malo, run over to the two of them.

"Link! Your back from... Where ever you went.. Anyways, you should train me! Me and Malo have been thinking of it and thought that since you and Rusl protect the village so much that it should be our turn!" Talo exclaimed, pushing fists out to the air. Malo shook his head, he was actually the owner of a successful business called Malo Mart.

"Only he did, not me." Malo mumbled, his eyes glaring at his elder brother. He was surprisingly mature for his very young age. Talo on the other hand... Was a huge handful compared to Malo.

Link softly chuckled then looked away awkwardly. "Actually, not now Talo." Link waved his hands at them, trying to avoid the children at the moment. Rusl followed behind the teen as he shivered. Rusl placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright." He whispered as Talo and Malo looked at them then at each other with confused faces. It was unusual to see Link seem afraid to them.

The two men continued to walk until they reached Bo's house. Rusl reached up and knocked on the door only to see Ilia answer it. Rusl said hello to the young girl, Link said it quietly as he could. He held his arm in fear that she confused her thoughts about. Bo walked up behind her, waving his hand.

"What brings you here gentlemen?" The mayor asked, then told Ilia to go back upstairs and let the boys talk. He turned his attention back to them, "Are you two alright? Link, I can see you holding your arm. Are you hurt?"

Link shook his head quickly, his eyes refusing to look him in the eyes. Rusl looked at him with a sad look, but spoke up. "Well, actually, we've come to talk about something quite important. And then decide if we should tell the rest of the village after." He turned to look at the mayor, Bo let them inside and pulled with some chairs for them to sit in. Link decided to stand, but he refused to look at either of the adults, his anxiety starting to wire into his head.

Rusl sat down as Bo sat across from them, "So, what is very important to talk about?" Bo asked, Rusl looked at Link then back at Bo. Link slowly gave a short glance at Rusl forcing Rusl to sigh.

"Are you not ready to? If your not, we don't have to talk about it yet." Rusl spoke as Link looked back at him again but stared for a moment. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Bo looked at Link sort of expectantly, then softly let out a huff. "If your not ready to talk about the important thing, I'm sure it can wait?" He said reassuringly. Link shook his head in response.

"N-No. It needs to be said, I'm just.. trying to find the right words." Link stammered, his pointed ears slightly drooping with his expression. Trembling a little, he cleared his throat and sat beside Rusl.

Rusl started for Link, he cleared his throat but did not look ready. Rusl gave him a thoughtful gaze and looked at the mayor. "You remember that wolf, from the night the children were stolen, right?" Rusl stated, as Bo thought for a moment.

"Yes, the one that scared me away, right? What about it? It's been about almost a year since we saw it. Why are you bringing this up now? Did it come back?" Bo gave a concerned look.

"Well to be honest, yes indeed it did but, there's a bit of a twist to it..." Rusl said, looking at Link as he started to tremble. Rusl's expression dropped with worry as he patted Link on the back.

"What do you mean twist? It's a beast! The twist is that its a monster!" Bo replied with demand, as the teen trembled even more, his stare looking at the ground and his hands clenched his legs.

"It's not a monster, never was, Bo." Rusl said firmly with a narrowed expression. "We've known him his entire life. Don't go calling him a monster."

Bo broke into a laugh, "we don't know that wolf though! It's just a wild animal!" He pointed to Rusl with his finger, "Its just-"

"It's Link." Rusl replied bitterly, his eyes looking fierce enough to pierce through the thickest of metal.

Bo stopped completely. "W-What? What?" He said in alarm as he looked flabbergasted. "You're pulling my leg... Aren't you?" He said, leaning in towards Rusl. Link gripped at his legs, almost to the point of scratching them and shivered.

"No, I am not." Rusl narrowed his eyes a little bit more but as soon as he looked at Link, his expression changed as he wrapped an arm around Link and pulled him in. "Calm down, your fine."

Bo blinked, feeling as if he would faint, then looked at the trembling boy. "He's afraid... If he really is part wolf... Then I'm truly sorry for calling you a monster, Link. I didn't even believe Rusl but that beast, reminded me that those eyes were similar to yours and to find out that they really were yours. Its truly shocking. I didn't even know it was possible." Bo reached a hand to place on Link's knee, though Link flinched a little but allowed it to be placed there. He rubbed his knee gently. "Sorry, son." He patted it then removed his hand. Looking away as Ilia came down. "Ilia, I thought I told you to stay upstairs..." Bo said, looking at the confused and shocked expression on her face.

Link looked up at her, then looked away, getting up and out of the grip of the hug. "I-I'm sorry." He said, heading towards the door.

Rusl looked back at him then at Bo, sighing. Bo looked at Link leaving. Ilia watched in horror as she went after him, before being stopped by Rusl grabbing her arm. "Leave him be for now. He needs to be left alone at the moment. I'll explain what he told me..."

Link left the mayor's house, shutting it quietly as he walked back to his own house past the entrance. Talo followed after him, persistent in being trained to be a swordsman. Link told him to leave him alone, but as he walked back his home, Link's mind was racing with too much words and internal screaming of shame to himself to notice Talo following after him. The former hero engulfed himself in black to shift into his wolf form and raced away before hearing the scream from Talo behind him. His head whipped around quickly to see the boy scared and confused out of his mind. Link's legs shook from under him, his whines made way as he shook his head and ran off towards Faron Woods.

Rusl and Bo ran out of the house as the adults came racing out. Holding a torch and sword, Rusl ran towards the noise of the screaming, holding his sword up. His eyes raced around the clearing then looked down at Talo. "Why did you scream, Talo? You gave everyone a heart attack." Rusl told the boy, lighting a nearby torch stand next to Link's house.

Talo was in tears, his eyes big with fear. "I-It was Link. H-He turned into a dog! He went into black magic or something and I followed behind him." Rusl's eyes widened as Pergie and Jaggle walked towards Talo.

"You know better than to make up lies, Talo. Link isn't a dog." Pergie scolded as Rusl shook his head. She seemed to be fairly disappointed in him.

"No, he's right, but dog isn't the right word of the canine he is." Rusl sighed softly. Bo and Ilia looked at each other as Ilia walked forward to bend down next to Talo and patted his shoulder. Pergie and the rest of the villagers looked at him in surprise and shock.

"But Link's not a monster!"

"Humans can't change into a canines!"

"Well, he is a hylian, not exactly a human."

Rusl shook his head as he heard a howl. He shuddered then froze. "W-Wait. What's that howl?" He looked around. He wasn't sure if Link was still around but the howl didn't sound very familiar to any wolf he has heard.

"If he's truly a dog then he's going to howl," said Jaggle, shaking his head.

The older swordsman walked forward to the woods, his sword pointing at it while he held it with both hands. "That wouldn't be a wolf's howl. It sounds too, jagged." He replied, as he heard bones crackle and pop from the darkness. A pair of red eyes appeared from the darkness, then soon enough many of them appeared. "Those are monsters!" He exclaimed and held his sword up, prepared to fight. The other villagers screamed and ran back to the village, fear shaking them, Colin stood beside his father, holding a wooden sword.

"I can help too, dad!" Colin narrowed his eyes and held the sword in front of him. Rusl stepped in front of him.

"No way, you'll just get hurt. Go protect your little sister and mother. I'll handle-" He replied in a fatherly like tone and to be cut off by snarling and growling of a actual wolf. Seeing a monster fly towards them, but disintegrated before hitting the ground. "W-What?" He looked at the darkness closely to see Link fly out of it, sliding with a leg in his mouth. The leg of a stall-hound. Blood surrounded his side and face, it was his blood, not much but still his to show through. He snarled and snapped at the monsters that crawled from the darkness. His snarls alarmed two of them, but they retaliated with their own snarls. Link's form went black then changed him human. He spat out some blood and to show a gash on his side and a few cuts on his face. "L-Link, are you alright?" He asked, moving his sword away from the former hero and grabbed his shoulder gently. Link looked back with a battered expression. He spat out some more blood on the ground, some fur going with it. Colin watched from behind with surprise.

"God those things are disgusting. There are several there. I was running off to Faron Woods and these buggers chased me back." He spoke, blood dripping from his mouth, "its not pretty to see me like this, and the metal taste of blood isn't nice, so I only changed back to let you know." Link said, before engulfing back to black and changing back to his wolf form. His teeth bared at the stall-hounds that were barking and snarling. Soon enough, a couple of them lunged, causing Link to lunge back and snap one in the neck. The other one that lunged grabbed his side and pinned him down, biting into his front leg, from missing his neck.

Colin gasped as Rusl twirled his sword and sliced at the hound that pinned him. "Get your filthy mouth off of him. Colin, go back to the village. Tell everyone that we got it." Colin nodded to his dad, taking his wooden sword with him and running back to the village. He looked at his son run off before looking back at the wolf. "You alright, Link?" He asked the big wolf on the ground. Link nodded and bared his teeth and pushed back Rusl's head to lunge at a stall-hound that was taking its chance to bite Rusl. Rusl gasped and stood back to see the boy mauling the monster. Rusl started to attack the ones coming at himself, swaying and slashing his sword into the skeletal monsters. Link barked and snapped at the ones lunging at him. Getting bit into the side and clawed down the chest. He grabbed a monster by the leg and smashed him against the ground. His paw started to bleed, wincing as he panted loudly, blood mixed drool fell from his mouth as he panted. He heard a yelp of pain from Rusl, whipping his head straight around to see one of them bite his leg. He slashed at it, making it let go and his sword stabbing the ground. He panted, out of breath. That's what pissed off Link, he barked and ran right towards him, snapping the one that bit him in two. He stood in front of him protectively, snarling and biting at anything that came close to the man that was like a father to him. The monsters realized the anger and fierce force that the wolf took. He stood tall and Rusl looked completely flabbergasted and on the ground. Link flattened his ears and his canines showed brightly in the moonlight. The rest of the stall-hounds ran off, towards Faron Woods and into their burrows.

Rusl watched them run from the fierce wolf. Rusl started to speak but had Link lost his balance and fell to the ground, his adrenaline ending and causing him to crash to the ground with blood racing out of his wounds and a little from the mouth. His ear was torn at the top, gashes in his sides, scratches on the chest and claw marks on the face. Link huffed, panting with large breaths. He whined at Rusl as he scooted his head on the ground to look at the man would scooted forward to him, petting his fur, but then caused his hand to bloody. He looked at it and started to stand, which was hard for him to do that due to the bite in the leg. He lifted Link into his arms, he started to shift into his human form. His eyes growing tired, but kept them open, refusing to close them. "I-Its not that bad.. Don't worry. Hurts a lot less than it looks. Not very deep wounds." Link spoke to Rusl as he smiled with some blood in his teeth. It was a small smile but he soon enough closed it, "I-I can walk." He said, as Rusl shook his head.

"Your hurt a lot more than I am. I just have a bite." Rusl reassured as Link huffed, wanting to walk. Rusl softly chuckled as he carried him back to the village while limping, blood seething out of his wound. Jaggle was pacing as he looked up at the entrance as to check, then he saw the two bloodied and walking in, or more of Rusl walking with the bite in his leg, Link was carried in his arms. Jaggle rushed forward, taking Link from Rusl.

"Oh no! Rusl your hurt!" Uli called over as she rushed on over before seeing the worse battered up Link. "Oh dear, you two are not alright, come on, let's go fix you boys up." She said, rubbing her hand across Rusl's face. Rusl shook his head lightly at his wife.

"Mine's less worse than the wolf boy himself." He said, Link blinking and looking away, slightly trembling. Jaggle looked at the battered boy and sighed, walking away towards the stream to lay him down and clean the wounds.

Rusl looked at them as they walked away, making him sit on the grass. Colin came from the house with some bandages, "I'll help you guys! You two fought bravely!" He squeaked with his childish smile.

Link winced as Jaggle poured some water from the stream into his wounds, causing him grit and growl in pain. "Ow, ow, ow.." He shuddered, his muscles protesting and caused him to lie down. "My arms are done for the day." He mumbled, looking with a done face.

Jaggle laughed as Colin came by with some bandages and medicine. Rusl watched the boy as Uli wrapped up his leg, the older swordsman flinched as some spring water ran down his leg to clean the wound. He watched Link plop backwards with his down face. Laughing as well, "that's one way to put it."

After everything settled down after the fight with the monsters, Link was resting on the ground of Bo's home, laying on blankets that gave him support and a pillow under his head. The parents gathered up in there to discuss what happened. Rusl sat beside Link with Uli, the kids were put to bed. The teen boy shifted himself onto his side, facing away from everyone. Everyone was still flabbergasted about Link's secret. They discussed it in the dining room, away from them. Rusl brushed his fingers in Link's hair, touching the band age a little but removed his hand away from the area.

"They're surprised with disbelief, I don't know how much longer they'd want a wolf to stay with them..." Link mumbled quietly, his body trembled with fear a little. Rusl looked at the boy and sighed.

"It's not your fault you're like this." Rusl replied to the boy laying on the floor. He watched Link shift into his wolf form, and curling up under the blankets. Rusl sighed again and patted the lump that was under the blanket, the wolf boy trembled underneath there. "Calm down please." He said, rubbing his back from on-top of the blanket.

Bo walked into the room they were sitting in, the people in the dining room still talking. He looked at the lump in the blanket, "Link's under there isn't he?" He said, tilting his head slightly. Rusl nodded as Link let out a whine like grunt. Sticking out his nose from under the blanket. "You can come out, no one's sending you away, Link." Bo said, he knelt down beside him and patted his side, Link flinched and whined. "Sorry, bud. Must've been a healing wound there." Link came out from under the blanket, pushing his slightly wet nose onto Bo's hand. Bo patted his fur gently on his neck, the wolf yawned and lied back down. He curled up into a ball like way and Bo covered the blanket on him, careful to not cover his face just in case he changes back to his normal form.

Rusl smiled at Bo, "Thank you for taking a turn to watch him. Me and Uli need to rest up on watching the children and take care of the little Mya." He said to Bo, giving a small wave to the mayor. Link grunted and lowered his ears as if in protest. The three of them chuckled at the boy giving slight attitude.

The rest of the townsfolk left the house, leaving Bo, Ilia and Link to themselves. Link hadn't changed back into his hylian form and instead slept in his wolf form. In the morning, they changed his bandages and left him to his thoughts. The boy was too afraid to face the townspeople, his anxiety taking the best of him. Bo looked worried to the boy as he heard Link's whines when the bandages were changed and the slight panting. Inside the house was hot, but he didn't let himself to change back. His head on the pillow and his ears drooped down. Someone knocked on Bo's door, Ilia got up from sitting beside Link and opened the door, looking down to see a short pair of legs.

"Hello, Talo." She smiled, Talo looked away with a sorry look in his eyes. Link winced when he heard who it was. The kid that scared him half to death and made him run off because of it. He pulled the blanket over himself with his teeth, covering himself up. "Did you come to talk or see him?" Ilia continued to talk to the boy. Link stopped listening to what was going on in the background as he fell asleep, listening to nothing as he blocked out the conversation...

"I told you to not be so reckless!" Midna scolded Link like a child, he was cleaning the blood off of himself, Midna was helping him with putting medicine on the bandages before drying off the wounded area and wrapping his arm up.

"I wasn't trying to be, you were the one that just sat there in the shadow doing nothing." He replied, not even looking up at her. His gaze focused on fixing himself up.

"There isn't much I can do. I'm just a shadow to this world." She mumbled under her breath. She was clearly annoyed with the hylian. Her expression showed how done she was.

"Then you shouldn't have intended on me going in." Link snapped back at her, she was surprised his temper went off, usually it went the other way around. He looked away and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I didn't mean to, just, snap like that.." He sighed, shaking his head lightly and watched over the fields.

Midna looked away as an awkward silence hit them, until she spoke up and broke it, "it's my fault for pushing you into the fight." She murmured, sitting on the ground and pulling her legs to her chest. Link looked at her and pulled her close to him with a hand.

"It's alright, we all get carried away and emotional. It's normal to being a living creature in a world like this, light dweller or not." Link smiled to the imp, leaning back on the ground and reaching out. "It's one of the many ways we all connect." The hero reached with an open hand to nothing and let it swing to his side. "And never forget that, okay, Midna?"

Someone touched Link's shoulder, gently shaking him awake. Link groaned and lifted his ears, he heard a gasp as if they were relieved. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking them from the light piercing through the window. He slowly sat up and shook his head, licking his lips and nose. They were dry, his throat burned as if asking for some water. He looked at the person who awoken him. Rusl sat there with Ilia.

"Hey bud, Ilia was worried about you being in this form due to the heat. Why don't you change out?" He asked, tilting his head slightly as Link looked away, his ears flattened as he started to pant. He could feel the heat burning his grayish-black and white pelt. He let out a sigh, laying back down and changing back into a human, though he was facing away from them. "Thanks, Link. She was worried because you weren't moving either. Was the heat getting to you?"

Link didn't reply, but shrugged. He looked at them for a moment with chapped lips. Ilia looked at him closely as if to examine him. She got up with realization and went to grab a cup to fill with stream water to cool him down and hydrate him. She left the house and Rusl looked back at the boy laying on the ground.

"You gave me a scare when she said she couldn't get you up, are you alright?" Rusl asked as Link refused to look at the older man, "Link," He said his name and narrowed his eyes in a fatherly way. "Link, look at me." The former hero grumbled softly then looked at him with his cobalt blue eyes. "Are you alright?" Rusl repeated.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a little hot and thirsty." He mumbled, then turned onto his other side. Rusl gave him a worried look, but said nothing else as he got up from the floor. "How's your leg?" Link asked, though he still didn't look back.

"It's been better, just a small limp. I got off easy compared to what they did to you." He replied, then frowned at the poor boy lying on the floor. "Make.. Make sure you get better really soon... Alright?" He said before walking away. He stopped to hear speak up.

"Rusl.. Can we go for a walk? Just us?" Link slowly got up, slightly wobbly as Rusl turned and helped him up, but he refused with a wave of his hand. "We both can use some peace. Maybe even heal a bit at the spring. The stall-hounds won't come back until dusk and its only almost sun-high."

Rusl looked at the teen, he acted more mature for his own age, but not as much as Malo does with his own. "Sure."

Once they left the village to the spring, they kept a silence between them, rarely talking on the way as they walked in the hot sun. Ilia was walking back with some spring water when she ran into them. "What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting to let those wounds heal!" Ilia spoke firmly to Link as he shook his head.

"Just going to the spring to sit in. Cooling off and healing up a bit. Want to join us?" Link replied to her, waving his hand slightly at the female teenager. She sighed and shook her head.

"Nah, since your going there you can sip up the water then. I'll just give this to Uli for some cooking. She told me she wanted to make something to help heal your wound, Rusl and it needed water. So, why not healing water?" Ilia shrugged then she walked past them to the village. Rusl blinked at her with a slightly tilted head. Link, though, just kept walking.

Rusl sighed softly, "she doesn't have to." He ruffled his own hair and followed Link into the spring where he sat down in the water. Rusl walked beside him and stood to watch the soft ripples of the water before sitting down. Link lied back in the water, the spring water touching his cheeks as he closed his eyes.

"The water here is always nice." Link spoke with a soft voice, taking a couple of sips of the water on his side. His dehydration was satisfied at last, he placed his arms behind his head and opened his eyes, watching the clouds.

Rusl shook his head slightly to push the blinding sunlight from his eyes. "In a few minutes, I'll have to go home and fix the bandages. And to also spend time with the kids." He spoke, placing a hand on his forehead to shade his eyes from the sun.

"Alright, and I'll be fine here alone for a little while. Might even think about getting Epona to take a trip to the hot springs in Kakariko Village." Link chuckled softly. Rusl shook his head again to the boy.

"No, your staying until you heal." He said as Link waved him off.

"Alright, alright. After I'm done healing, I'll go." The former hero sighed slightly and stretched his limbs a little. "It's good to be out of the wolf form." He said, rubbing his face a little.

"Well, in this heat, anyone would be if they were part wolf." He winked and slowly stood up, "Now, I'm off to my house. Drop by anytime." He said to the boy. Link waved to him without moving and Rusl left the spring back to his house.

Link stared at the sky, his thoughts running through his head, but soon enough, he dozed off into a nap...