I know this is late, but my only excuse is that I was very busy. I know, lame. Still, it's the truth. Please feel free to leave a review or PM me if you have any questions or comments!
HUGE THANKS to Fyrusfairy, Kerriss-Singer-of-Light, Nerdwen, HyruleHearts1123, and ultima-owner for reviewing!
To HyruleHearts1123: Vaati- Inverted Triforce of Strength (meant as a parallel to the Triforce of Power) Shadow- Inverted Triforce of Deceit (parallel to Triforce of Courage, sort of) Dark- Inverted Triforce of Cunning (kinda parallel to Triforce of Wisdom)
Ralis was right where we'd expected, still standing by his ancestor's gravestone. The silence of the area was broken only by the sound of birds chirping, the young prince still staring at the grave.
I glided silently across the water and set down next to him, the zora boy turning to look at me in confusion.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Ah, actually, we kinda need your help. We gotta catch a reekfish, but we have no idea how. I heard they need a special type of bait, but we don't know what that is," I explained. Ralis nodded.
"Yes, that's correct. You require a certain variety of red coral, and the reekfish are only found by the Mother and Child rocks in the Zora's Domain," he answered. Then he unclipped one of his red earrings, the one shaped roughly into a hook, and handed it to me. "Here. This earring is made out of that same red coral you need to catch a reekfish."
I looked at the earring in my palm and glanced at him in confusion. "Um, thanks. But why give me your earring? We could've tried to get some on our own, you didn't need to give this up."
The young prince tilted his head to the side. "Well… you needed it. Besides, this coral is fairly rare. So… good luck."
I smiled. Ralis would make a good king one day. "Thanks." Then I floated back to the other side, rejoining my friends and brothers.
"Link, we've been here for hours and you still haven't caught a reekfish. Just give the stupid rod to me already," Vaati whined in exasperation. Out of the four of us Vaati was undoubtedly the best fisherman, a bit ironic considering he wasn't all that fond of water. Though his animal form was a panther, so…
"Hey, hey, relax! I know they're there, I can see them swimming around. Just a few more minutes!" Link replied, jerking the rod from side to side in an attempt to lure in the small red fish swimming around the large rocks.
"Just face it, Link. You're not a fisherman, so just hand over the rod to someone who is," I yawned, gazing lazily at the clouds from my position on the grass.
"Yeah, just give Vaati the rod already, I'm getting impatient," Dark called from his half-in, half-out position with his torso sticking sideways out of the nearby rock walls.
"Oh shut up. Hey, a bite!" Link shot back, tugging on the rod and landing a small red fish. The four of us quickly shifted to beast form and crowded around, each getting a whiff of the strong scent.
"Yeesh, those things really do reek!" I snorted, backing away and sneezing in a futile attempt to get rid of the scent. Now that I'd memorized the smell I could see a shimmering orange line when my senses were activated, tracing the path that the supposed fish-stealing creature had taken back to the Snowpeak mountains.
"Yeah, whatever. Just kick that thing back into the lake, it stinks!" Vaati growled, wrinkling up his nose. Midna popped her head out and giggled as Link used a paw to push the flopping red fish back into the water, then reminded us that we still needed to get to the mountains.
"Ugh, that is nasty. Come on, let's go," Link muttered as he shifted to hylian form and leapt into the water, heading for the tunnel that led to the Snowpeak Mountains.
"Goddesses, this place is cold! Thank goodness for fur," I muttered as the four of us leapt across a frozen lake. The biting wind cut right through our clothes like knives of ice, so within two minutes all four of us had shifted to our animal forms. Now equipped with sharp claws and thick coats of fur, the frigid climate was much easier to weather than when we'd been in our hylian forms.
"Aaand it's snowing, too. Wonderful. Just wonderful. As if the wind and ice wasn't bad enough already," Dark muttered as we landed on solid ground. Even with my senses activated I could barely make out my surroundings, the pulsing orange scent trail my only clue that I wasn't about to walk off a cliff or something.
A sudden howl split the air, answered by another, then another, and another. Within a minute a pack of wolfos had materialized from the snow, penning us in.
"Oh, great, wolfos. More aggressive and even harder to kill than the regular white wolves that live up here. Greaaaat." Vaati was getting annoyed now, it was obvious. His claws were unsheathed and kneading the ground, fur puffed out and ears pinned back. "Hey, Shadow, I think this is the perfect opportunity to show you that new move I've been working on. Wind Claws!" he roared, leaping at the nearest monster.
Translucent claws of pure wind magic had extended from his paws, each one nearly a foot long. Within minutes the wolfos had scattered, the survivors disappearing into the snow with their tails between their legs. Vaati had become a blur of purple, leaping and tearing like a whirlwind of teeth and claws.
"Whoa."
"Ack."
"Yeesh."
"Oh, that looked like it hurt…"
"Wouldn't want to be him."
"No kidding."
"Ouch."
"When did Vaati get so… vicious?"
"I have no idea. My guess is he's mad about something. Maybe it's the ice."
"Oh, I bet it was because he got wet crossing the lake and now there are icicles on his whiskers. You said he didn't like water, right?"
"Maybe. Hey, did he just-?"
"Yup."
"Wheesh."
"Uh-huh."
I cringed slightly as one of the survivors appeared, trying to get in a sneak attack from behind. It was promptly disemboweled and exploded into black dust, joining the rest of its brethren. The battle over, Vaati straightened up from his crouch and allowed his Wind Claws to dissipate, trotting over with a smug expression on his face.
"Ha! Was that awesome or what?!" he mewed, standing proudly without even a scratch. The snow had lightened up, and among the falling snowflakes he looked like a weight had been taken off his shoulders, appearing much calmer and genuinely happy. Suddenly a scene- almost like a memory -popped into my head, though I had no idea where it came from…
Vaati was in his hylian form, standing on the edge of what looked like a huge tower overlooking Hyrule. But somehow, it didn't quite look the same. There were rivers and lakes where there should have been forests, and Castle Town looked much more… old-fashioned, somehow. Snow was drifting lightly down around the Wind Mage, white flakes settling in his hair.
Vaati wore a strange purple had that I'd never seen before, and instead of his battered cloak and tunic he had a much more opulent outfit entirely in different shades of purple with thin red shoes. The expression on my brother's face was peaceful. Serene. It seemed completely out of place.
"Shadow… have you ever seen snow before? This is the first one of the year. No, of course you haven't," he said softly. His tone was much more arrogant, scathing, and had a hard edge to it. It was as if he was an entirely different person from the one I knew.
"You're right, my lord. I haven't," I heard myself reply. It was as if my lips moved on their own, uncontrolled by my will. Experimentally I tried to move my hand. Nothing. With a start, I realized that I was a mere passenger in someone else's body. Someone who also happened to be called Shadow, who knew a person named Vaati. The coincidences were too numerous to discount. But why had I called him "my lord"?
"Tch. Idiotic shadow… just a reflection of the real thing. Come, I believe a messenger has arrived." With that Vaati held his arms out to his sides and leapt off the edge, transforming midflight to an enormous monster with a single red eye, curved horns, and four bat-like wings. Somehow I was unsurprised, and merely followed him off the edge while bristling inwardly at the "reflection" comment.
After that the scene faded and I was back at Snowpeak, staring at an entirely different Vaati, the panther that was also my brother. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right…
"Ugh, those reekfish had certainly earned their name. Even in this f****** blizzard I can still smell it," I grumbled. The wind had picked up full force now, and not even Vaati's magic could tame it for long. Right now Link had passed into whatever trance he went into after activating a Howling Stone, the three of us standing guard over his currently limp body against any wolfos attacks.
Suddenly howls split the air during a lull between the winds. At first I thought it was wolfos, but the sound seemed more melodic and less bestial for that. Then my wolf instincts kicked in, and I suddenly recognized it as the hunt-song, the howl of wolves closing in on prey! From the looks of it, Dark and Vaati had recognized it as well. Vaati snarled and hissed, snarling in challenge to the dim shapes that appeared through the snow all around us. Piercing eyes in shades of brown, green, and yellow appeared, cutting right through the falling storm.
Crud. These were snow wolves, powerfully built to survive in the harsh conditions of these mountains. They wouldn't be easy to defeat, especially since they're much more intelligent than those wolfos we'd been fighting all the way up the mountain. Since the odds were almost ten against three (four now that Link was waking up) we didn't have much of a chance.
"Wha… what's going on?" Link yelped as he scrambled to his paws, shaking off the snow from his fur. The snow wolves shifted at this, a few backing away slightly as Link revealed his full size, nearly half again as large as most regular wolves. As the snow wolves were larger than most others anyway, though, so Link was only an inch or two taller at the shoulder than most of them.
"Snow wolves. Be careful, Link. I've heard they're vicious, more so than the wolves down where we come from. And they're larger than most as well," I hissed quietly.
A larger, grey-tinted wolf stepped forward, most likely the alpha. "Who are you, and what are you doing on our territory?" he growled. Link bristled and stepped forward, unnaturally large mane spiking and fanning out before settling back down.
"Please, we are merely travelers passing through, following the scent of the reekfish. We'll continue on our way as fast as possible to leave your territory," Link replied. Honest with a politely respectful tone. Huh, maybe he wasn't such a country bumpkin after all. Seemed like he wasn't a bad diplomat. If it were me I probably would have attacked before they could attack me.
"Hm." The alpha scrutinized us carefully, most likely assessing our strength. I suppose we did look pretty ragged; a bunch of weird-looking wolves from the southern area all beat up and half-frozen.
"Fine. But get out quickly, or feel the wrath of our fangs. And don't you dare hunt any prey!" he snarled finally, earning a quiet sigh of relief from our group.
"Come on, let's go before he changes his mind," Dark muttered before turning and loping along the scent trail, nose to the ground along the orange trail. The rest of us strung out behind, bringing up the rear. When I looked back, the snow wolves had disappeared into the swirling white.
"D***, these things are annoying," I growled irritably as another of the annoying bat monsters known as ice keese was pinned beneath my claws and reduced to dust. With their high-pitched screeches that echoed and amplified within the ice cavern we were traversing, they had put my sharpened hearing out of commision completely. Add in their sharp claws and hooked tails, as well as the ability to give you frostbite through contact, made them small but annoying enemies.
"Oh joy, more tiny monsters to make my deaf. Die!" Vaati snarled, batting another out of the air. Finally they were all dead, and the four of us continued on.
"On the plus side, we are now much richer than before," Dark said brightly as he shifted to hylian form just long enough to collect the rupees left behind. The rest of us just sighed and waited for him to catch up. Though it was true, our wallets had become noticeably fuller.
"Shadow beasts!" Link barked, latching on to one of the twilight monsters that had fallen from the spiraling red portal. We split up, then all weakened our targets to the point where they would die with another stroke before delivering the killing blow. By now we were so used to fighting that it was second nature; not even fazed by their claws and twisted appearance anymore. And we'd now gained a warp point on a mountain peak, which meant that we could come at any time without traversing the entire slope all over again. That was a definite plus.
"Hey, now that we've got a warp point here, what say we go back south and rest up, maybe restock before coming back?" Link suggested, pawing a clump of snow from his ear. This idea was received heartily, and soon we were back in the much warmer southern climate we were used to. Unfortunately, Midna had a wicked sense of humor and dropped us directly into the pool in the middle of the throne room in the Zora's Domain. The water, which felt somewhat warm compared to the frigid snowstorms we'd come from, sent a shock through our bodies as we rapidly transitioned from freezing cold to a temperature easily twice as high.
"MIDNA!" Vaati roared in anger as he splashed around, heaving himself out and shaking out his fur irritably.
"Shut up, Vaati, you're scaring the zoras. And you're not helping!" I growled, sticking a paw into Link's shadow and poking the imp's head in admonishment. She just giggled and sank deeper into the shadow dimension, not even the least bit sorry.
"Ach, it doesn't matter now anyway. Come on, let's head towards Castle Town. Actually, why didn't Midna just warp us there in the first place?" Dark grumbled. Midna giggled again and obliged, dissolving our still dripping-wet forms into twilight squares and sucking us up before depositing us in front of Castle Town.
"Hey, you could have given us a little warning before doing that!" Link barked, thumping a paw on his shadow. Midna just giggled again. I sighed and shifted to hylian form, wringing water out of my tunic. Great, now I was going to smell like lake water.
"Is it just me, or do you ever get the feeling that the Golden Wolf is watching us as if he expects that we're gonna snap and go crazy or something? It's really unnerving, actually," Dark murmured as lounged into a tree branch above the place where Link and Golden Wolf had locked eyes, seemingly in a trance.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. It's almost creepy sometimes, 'specially 'cause his eyes don't have pupils. Just solid, glowing red," I agreed. A sudden flash of those same four Link duplicates- Vio, Green, Red, Blue -appeared in my mind. I stubbornly pushed it away, ignoring the way they seemed to call out to me- Shadow, hang on, don't die…
What the heck was that all about? Well, at any rate, I wasn't planning on dying anytime soon. But I got the feeling they had been about to call me something else, like they wanted to add something on behind my name, something that I could feel was an important piece of the puzzle they posed…
Suddenly the Golden Wolf howled in triumph, then stood and padded over to where my brothers and I were waiting.
"Remember, I am watching," he growled. "Do not disappoint me."
With that, he then disappeared in a golden flash as Link snapped out of his trance, the blond hylian staggering slightly as he regained his bearings. Dark, Vaati, and I glanced in each other in confusion.
"What was that all about?"
As I edged closer to the slope gravity began to take effect, slowly tipping my iceboard over the edge until I was hurtling down the slope, picking up speed with every second. Bending my knees I leaned forward and sped up, gathering enough momentum to completely clear the small chasm at the base of the small hill before it leveled out slightly. The massive form in front of us kept us clearly on track, his bellowing laugh echoing through the frosty air.
The freezing air quickly numbed my bare face as strands of purple hair whipped in the wind, adrenaline coursing through my bloodstream as I laughed joyfully. This was the surprisingly fun, albeit quite dangerous.
"Hey, watch this!" Vaati crouched, then leapt into the air on a purple tornado. The cyclone picked up snow and ice, propelling its creator high into the air. He set down in front of the large white creature in front of us with a thump, causing Yeto to gasp in surprise.
"Ah, a Wind Mage! Haven't seen one of your kind in a long time!" he exclaimed. I grinned eagerly, showing off one pointed fang. Swerving to the side I dove into the shadow of a snowbank, then quickly traveled through the shadow dimension to emerge just in front of my purple-haired brother. Then I gasped as I suddenly saw the edge of the trail drop off, a ramp leading into the open air above a miniature forest of snow-covered trees.
"AAAAAHHHH!" I screamed as the iceboard went straight off the edge, them gritted my teeth as it landed on top of a tree with a bone-rattling thump. Then it skipped across to land on another tree, leaping from snow-covered top to top until the forest ran out.
"Ugh!" I stumbled and nearly wiped out as I landed awkwardly, wobbling from side to side and just nearly missing the wall.
"Hey, you okay?" Dark called as he burst from the trees, Link close on his tail.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?" I called back, regaining my balance easily.
"A few scratches, but nothing too bad," he called back. Suddenly Link's eyes widened and he pointed in front of us.
"Guys, watch out!"
The mansion itself looked more like a forbidding castle, complete with dark grey color scheme and sharp pointed towers. It was placed in a perfect location, too, located on a peninsula of rock and ice that jutted out over a chasm so deep it had fog gathering at the bottom. There was only one way in and one way out, perfect for bottlenecking any who tried to attack. Three sides were surrounded by empty air and sheer cliff, impossible to attack from unless you had a veritable legion of mages.
Unfortunately, I was so busy staring at it that I wasn't paying attention to the path, and consequently nearly took a dive off the edge. Then I noticed a large curve that ended in cobble just ahead, with nowhere near enough room to slide to a stop.
Oh, crud, this is gonna hurt… I thought.
A minute later, the four of us were groaning in a heap at the base of the stairs.
"Yup, I was right. D***, that hurt," I muttered as I rubbed my back. I was sure there was a giant bruise where I'd slammed into the cobblestones, then gotten the wind knocked out of me when I tumbled into the stairs.
"Vaati, get off my leg," Dark growled as he lay flat on his stomach, snowflakes settling in his jet-black hair.
"Sure, right after Link gets off my stomach," he grumbled. The blond hylian was lying on his back, draped across Vaati's torso as his eyes swirled slightly in disorientation. Yeto had disappeared into the mansion, muttering something about making reekfish soup.
A few minutes later, we were all untangled and brushing ourselves off, shaking snow out of our hair, or digging it out of our ears.
Soon enough the four of us were standing in front of the doors, looking into a dilapidated and ice-covered mansion. Midna popped out of Link's shadow, grinning impishly.
"Come on, let's go!" she chirped happily, unconcerned for those of us who'd just tumbled across the icy cobblestones and gained several new bruises. Link rolled his eyes, then nodded and stepped forward to enter Snowpeak Mansion.
