A/N: So this is the first time I've tried to write a big action scene, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. If you have a reaction, good or bad, or a suggestion, I would love to hear it. Oh, and just to let you know, the next chapter should start the main storyline. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
_

I swung my sword with all my strength as I spun around, but it only hit air. There was nothing there. "Farore," I cursed under my breath. I turned in circles slowly, my eyes searching furiously for any hint of the demon. I thought I saw a light flash in the distance, but it was gone as soon as it came. Was I going crazy?

"Link are you there? Can you see the creature?" asked Trenton sounding absolutely terrified.

"The two of you stay where you are," I called back to them. "I'll find you, and then we ca-ooph." A hard object struck my back as I was walking towards my companions. "Link!" I heard someone yell. Instinctively, I rolled over after I hit the ground, just barely avoiding my head getting roasted by a small ball of fire.

Now on my back, I got my first good look of the creature. It had a ragged, tan cloak with the hood pulled up, obscuring most of its features, save it's glowing orange eyes. It's torso looked normal, but below that, there was nothing to support the rest of the body. Instead, it just floated above me, holding a lantern that matched its orange eyes in one hand.

I rushed to grab my sword, which had fallen from my hand when I fell, but the wraith disappeared with a demented laugh before I could reach it. I slammed my hand into the ground in frustration. "It's some kind of malicious spirit, guys," I called out. "Watch out because it seems to be able to appear and vanish at will."

"No, that can't be right because I told you from the beginning that I would fight anything with you except for one thing: evil spirits. Just that one thing because I don't want to be cursed or damned for eternity, and you told me that wasn't a problem, so I need you to figure what it really is because you promised, and you're supposed to be a man of your word..."

I stopped listening to Landon's hysterical ramblings and instead just focused on following the sound of his voice until I could make out him and his brother through the fog. He was still going on when I reached them. I grabbed him by the shoulders. "Pull yourself together, man. Had I known, you could have stayed behind, but I didn't and you didn't. Therefore, you need to suck it up and help me or sit down and wait for it to kill you. But I need to come up with a plan whether it involves you or not, so are you going to fight, or are you going to die?"

He was basically hyperventilated at this point, but he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Slowly, he was able to gain control over himself. "Okay."

"You're good?"

"Good as I'll get."

"Alright then, let's form a triangle with our backs to each other," I commanded with authority.

"You have a plan?" Trenton asked hopefully.

I gave him a sheepish smile. "Not yet, but at least this way none of us will get attacked from behind like I was. Now I want you to alert us the second you see anything," I said to Trenton. "Also you should hold your sword in your left hand. I know you won't be able to use it very well, but at least you'll have a small layer of defense."

He nodded, and we took our positions a few feet away from each other. I was searching my brain furiously for an idea as I looked for any sign of the spirit. I saw a flash of light and locked on. That had to be its lantern. I was about to shout out my discovery when I heard two successive grunts behind me followed by a sharp pain across my back that brought me to my knees.

The wraith had appeared in the center of our triangle. With a swinging spin of its lantern, it had knocked all three of us down. I heard the disturbing hysterical laughter off in the distance, which was soon joined by the spirit next to us before it vanished.

"Please tell me I just imagined the second set of laughter," Trenton said.

"No, I heard it too."

Landon looked like he was about to be sick with the way his body was shaking and sweating. I tried to give him a comforting look. "Don't worry, another isn't so bad. As soon as we figure out how to kill the first one, taking care of the second will be easy as pie."

He didn't look convinced. It didn't help when Trenton asked quietly, "But how can we kill something that's already dead?"

I stood there racking my brain for any kind of solution, but all I could give them was silence. I stared at the ground, frustrated that I let my companions down. The spirits had us at their mercy in the meadow, but leaving would result in an even surer death. I honestly had no idea how we could escape the situation.

I looked up to see if either of them had any thoughts just in time to see one of the wraiths appearing behind Landon. Without even thinking about it, I thrust my sword forward at the creature. I couldn't hit it where I wanted because Landon was in the way. However, I was able to nick its side causing the spirit to hiss before it disappeared.

The brothers looked at me with wide eyes. "Did you just injure the spirit?" Trenton asked in awe.

I was as shocked as them initially, but a grin started to spread over my face. "Yeah, I think I did."

"So they can be defeated."

"Yeah, yeah," I said as I nodded my head enthusiastically. "I think when they appear, they briefly take corporeal form. That makes the trick attacking them as soon as they appear."

Landon didn't look nearly as enthused as Trenton and I. "But how do we do that? We were lucky that Link happened to look at that exact spot when it appeared. Every other time, we haven't known about their presence until someone's been knocked to the ground. Even when we literally tried to watch each other's backs, one of them attacked before any of us could react." Landon normally looks me dead in the eye when he's being serious like that, but his eyes were darting around the whole time he was speaking, and he had trouble keeping his voice steady.

"I have an idea, but you guys aren't going to like it." They looked at me warily. "I need both of you to stay exactly where you are. I'll be back."

"I don't think that's a very-"

"Stay exactly where you are," I said cutting him off as I took off running into the fog. I stopped when I reached the stone building and started the familiar climb to the top. I made sure the whole time to never forget the twins' position. When I reached the top, I pulled the bow from my back and strung it with an arrow. As I touched the string to my mouth, I aimed to where I hoped the brothers still stood and waited. I had to devote all my focus to the task at hand, so I prayed that I wasn't attacked from behind first.

Just when I thought the spirits might have lost interest in us, a light flashed in my line of sight. I took aim just slightly to the left of the light since they both held their lanterns in their right hands, and let my arrow fly.

I was dismayed to hear a shattering sound, indicating my arrow hadn't hit the spirit like I intended. I only had one shot with this plan, and I had blown it, hitting the wraith's stupid lantern instead. At least I hit something, I guess, I thought as I ran back to my companions. Though I wasn't sure if I should actually be happy about taking its weapon away because it was also the only way to find the spirit in the darkness.

When I reached the brothers, I found something I wasn't expecting. There was a dimly lit sphere-like object hovering over the shattered remains of the lantern my arrow hit. It kind of looked like a purplish flame suspended in mid-air. "What is that?" I asked the twins, who were both staring at it in wonder.

"When your arrow burst through the lantern, the spirit seized up, dropping the part it still held. Then it slowly faded away, but not like its disappearances before. It was more like it was dissolving into the night. As it was fading, that purple thing appeared. I'm not sure if that orb is the spirit's essence or what, but I don't think that particular one poses any threat to us anymore."

I couldn't revel in the new discovery of how to defeat the creatures for long because a distressed scream ripped through the night sky. I thought the creatures' laughter was chilling, but its scream sent shivers up my entire spine. I looked up to see the other wraith floating above us, eyes burning as it looked down at its fallen comrade. With another scream, it started spinning around at a furious pace. Every couple of seconds, a new fire ball shot out of its lantern. We all ducked and ran for any cover we could find.

"It's going to burn the whole forest down at this rate!" Trenton yelled over the continuous wail coming from the creature.

"Can you hit the lantern?" Landon asked me.

"No way. It's moving way too fast. Hitting the first one was an accident and that one was mostly stationary," I replied, distracted by the flames that were starting to grow all around.

They started discussing how we could come out of this alive, but I didn't hear a word as the fire entranced me. Memories started to blend with reality. The smell of burning, the cries of children, the flashes of light that remain after eyes close, the pure devastation. My chest felt like it was about to cave in as I was overcome with a crushing sense of loss. My breathing became erratic because no matter how much oxygen I tried to suck in, I couldn't get enough air.

"Link!" I heard Korst yell.

"I have to save her," I whispered desperately.

"Link!" he cried again.

"I have to get to the castle," I pleaded, already knowing it was too late.

A smack across my face brought me back to the present, and Korst turned into Landon. "Link, get ahold of yourself! We are about to be fried alive, so you cannot afford to check out."

"I'm sorry. I'm back," I said, as I shook my head, trying to clear my mind.

"Landon and I have been trying to think up some plan of attack."

"I've already got a plan," I interjected.

Landon snorted. "Are you actually going to let us in on this one, or are we just to be unknowingly bait again?"

"No, not this time. You're a better shot than me anyway. Just ready your bow, and shoot as soon as you have an opportunity."

I walked towards the middle of the clearing, ignoring the frustrated calls behind me that begged me to come back. "Hey!" I shouted at the wraith.

It stopped momentarily as its hateful eyes settled on me. I knew it would start its rampage once again unless I gave it exactly what it wanted. Luckily, my flashback assured that I knew exactly what that was: revenge. "I'm the one who killed your friend," I yelled up at it. "He's gone now, and it's all your fault. You should have protected him, but instead he died by my hand while you were trying to have fun with my companions and me. You failed."

The spirit became even more enraged if that was possible, and it made its way towards me. I could almost feel the rage that it focused on me. It came up right next to me, its face so close I could smell the spoiled scent of decay. I had no weapon ready to raise in my defense. Instead, I looked straight at its glowing eyes, refusing to blink in the face of my death.

Right as the wraith moved to end me, it was struck by an arrow. It hissed in pain, but didn't disappear as I was expecting. I took full advantage of the opportunity I had been given. Grabbing my sword from its sheath, I spun around the spirit and slashed at the lantern in its hand.

Never before had the sound of glass breaking sounded so sweet. The creature froze as if I had stabbed it in the heart before fading into the darkness. In its place sat a second purple sphere.

"Link!" I turned to see Landon and Trenton running towards me.

"I defeated it. And this time it was on purpose," I said laughing at little.

Trenton didn't look nearly as happy as I was. "That's great Link, but we've got to go. The fog may have lifted, but the fire's still burning. I know it is dangerous to travel these woods at night, but we if we stay, we'll be consumed by the fire."

I looked around, surprised to see just how much of the forest was on fire. "Yeah, it shouldn't be as bad now that the spirits aren't here to infect the forest anymore. Speaking of which, did you want to just leave their remains?"

He looked torn for a minute. "I guess it couldn't hurt to bring them with us. Do you have a container to put them in?"

"Uh..." I said as I started looking through my pack.

Landon let out a little laugh of disbelief. "What is it with you and bottles? The way you are always losing them would make a person think they were the rarest item in Hyrule." He grabbed a couple bottles of his own and captured the orbs in them.

We grabbed the rest of our stuff and ran out of the clearing before we could inhale any more smoke. As soon as we were out of immediate danger, we slowed our pace. I took the lead, and we traveled in silence for a while.

"I know this path is still dangerous especially at night, but it feels a hundred times better than the first time we took it," Landon commented.

I agreed. The creepiness factor had gone down exponentially. The moon that had been covered by clouds for our entire time in the meadow was now shining down, giving us plenty of light.

"So why do you think Sheik wanted you to face the spirits so badly? He made it seem like we were doing a pretty standard task, but I've never been more scared for my life. Those things weren't standard monsters."

"I have no idea what his game is. But believe me, when I see him again, he will give me some answers. He has a lot of explaining to do"