Ack! Late! Um, I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but sorry! Real life made itself known loudly and rudely, making me very busy very fast. Sorry!
HUGE THANKS to Mercenary Princess of Crimea, HyruleHearts1123, ultima-owner, Cheza the Flower Maiden, ocarina921, and alemery for reviewing!
To ocarina921: Normally I update once a month or so, since I'm currently writing two stories at the same time. Sometimes longer, though, if I'm busy with the annoying thing called Real Life. Sorry, but I update slowly.
"Oooh! Well, if it isn't from Renado the shaman! All this writing, and he doesn't even bother to mention a thing about little ol' me? Honey, that is what I call RUDE! Well, there's no accounting for the foolishness of a man. And at least I understand Ilia's situation now. Of course I can lend a hand for that adorable little girl! Hmmm, what else do I know... The first one to bring Ilia to this shop was that doctor… Maybe he knows something, but he's a crusty old bat, that's for sure…" Telma pursed her lips with a contemplating expression for a moment, then smirked.
"Ah... I've got it! Honey, you all go ahead and take this to him. This magic little paper will get that codger talking! It sure would be nice if she started remembering things soon, eh, boys? Don't you worry, honey! That girl's memory will come back! But don't just wait around for things to happen, you hear me? You all make sure you take care of what needs doing, OK?"
Telma handed a paper to Link, with several large numbers on it. I took a peek over his shoulder and my eyes widened.
"Dang, that old guy sure has racked up quite a bill," Dark said with a whistle. "Why do you even still let him come here?"
Telma smirked in satisfaction. "Well, you never know when you might need to call in a favor, eh boys?"
Vaati snorted. "True enough. Though if it were me, he would've been thrown out a long time ago."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's go pay a visit to the doctor."
"Hopefully it'll go better than last time," Dark muttered under his breath. I winced. The last time we'd stepped foot into the old codger's office, which was to (legally!) buy some medicine as a favor we owed to somebody, he'd chased us out with threats to call the Guard. For an old guy, he wielded that cane surprisingly well. In the end, we'd had to come back after closing hours, break in, steal the medicine, and leave the money on the counter. Hopefully this time, things would go a little more smoothly.
"You monkey-faced son of a half-baked bombskit!"
"Your mother was a bokoblin and your father was a deku baba!"
"I'll bet you got eaten by a kargarok as a baby, but it spit you out because you were too nasty!"
"Oh yeah? Well you act like you were raised by a skulltula! Maybe that's why you're hiding in a dark, slimy alleyway!"
"Why you little-!"
"Aaaand that's enough," Vaati said as he forcibly dragged Dark away from the (still cursing) rich kid. "In case you forgot, we actually did come here for a reason other than cursing out an arrogant rich boy who wouldn't know an honest thief from a sneaking pickpocket, y'know."
I sighed in exasperation. "Great Farore, Dark, you usually have better control of yourself than that. What in Hyrule did the guy say?!"
My older brother growled low in his throat, a rumbling sound eerily reminiscent of his wolf form. I wondered offhandedly if the traits of our animal forms were influencing our hylian ones.
"Guys, what's going- oh, great…" Link sighed as he pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered around us.
He had gone ahead and questioned the doctor without us, since we'd decided that showing our faces around his shop again probably wouldn't be a good idea. From there the trail had led to Louise, Telma's cat, who informed us that it had been taken from her by dog beasts that apparently only came out at night. From that information, along with the knowledge my brothers and I had about the town and its surrounding areas, we concluded that the statue had been taken by stalhounds- skeletal, dog-like monsters that had worked in packs and had been unusually active in recent months. Now we were only waiting for nightfall, so Link had been in the market stocking up on supplies.
"I leave you three alone for less than an hour and already you guys end up tangling with a noble? Of course… why am I not surprised…" Link muttered under his breath.
I coughed pointedly. "Actually, it was just Dark. Vaati and I were pickpocketing people."
Link clapped a hand to his forehead. "That's just as bad!"
Some of the people around us gasped and searched their pockets. Several cries of outrage were heard as their valuables were discovered missing.
"Shadow, Vaati, give them back," Link told us sternly. Dark just snickered, his temper having cooled.
I heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, fine. I don't get why we can't keep these, though. It's not as if the people can't live without them," I replied as I pulled several rings, bracelets, a hair ornament, and a pocketwatch out of various hidden locations.
"Yeah, and it's not as if they really need them, either. Except the pocketwatch, that's sorta useful," Vaati said as he handed back five wallets, a belt buckle, assorted jewelry, and other miscellaneous items.
"True, but carrying around all that junk is just gonna slow us down," Dark pointed out. "And besides, we find all the money we need in dungeons."
Meanwhile, the young rich boy was marching over, face set in determination. I hadn't really taken the time to look at him before, but now I decided to examine him bit more closely. He was dressed elegantly, with fabrics decorated in gold thread and his family crest over his heart. He had a heavyset build and a mop of thick hair that overshadowed beady eyes, and behind him followed several servants. A broadsword hung at his waist, the crossguard decorated in a finely-wrought design of a galloping stallion."You!" he said imperiously, throwing one of his gloves at Dark's feet. "I am John Ednus, heir to the Noble House of Eduns. You have insulted my honor! I demand satisfaction!"
At this the crowd grew deathly silent. Our eyes widened. That idiot was challenging my brother to a duel? Wasn't that a little much? And besides, weren't duels usually for nobles and high-class citizens, not gutter thieves like us? Though, when I saw the family crest stitched on his tunic, it did look vaguely familar...
"I insulted your honor?! What are you talking about? You're the one who started it by insulting me first! All I did was verbally defend myself," Dark retorted. "Why in the name of Farore would you want to duel me over something as trivial as that?"
The teen, who looked to be around Dark's age, drew himself up and looked down his nose at us. "Regardless of who started it," he said stiffly, "you have insulted my honor. Do you accept this duel? Or are you too much of a coward?"
Dark frowned. Now he couldn't refuse without damaging his reputation. "Fine," he said grudgingly. "I accept your challenge."
Ednus nodded. "Very well, then. My second is James," he indicated a similarly dressed teen, most likely a servant. I cast a cursory glance over him and concluded that he would be easy to beat.
"And my second is Link," Dark replied without hesitation. He cast an apologetic glance at Vaati and I. "Sorry guys, but you both know that Link's a better swordsman."
"We get it," Vaati said. He smirked and faked a yawn. "I wouldn't want to fight that guy anyway. Doesn't look like he'd be much of a challenge."
Ednus bristled, but didn't say anything.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Too boring. Like fighting King Bulblin all over again, except without the giant boar, battleaxe, and it's not going to be over a several-hundred foot chasm."
Suddenly the young noble looked very nervous, and I heard the whispered mutterings of the crowd. "Wait, they're the ones who knocked King Bulblin off the bridge? Twice?" one man said incredulously. "I thought they were just a few dirty thieves…"
"'Just a few dirty thieves'? You really aren't from around here, huh. Those three may be dirty thieves, but around here they're known as the Terrible Three for a reason. And they are d*** good at what they do," another murmured quietly. "I heard they even snuck into the castle and stole three sets of silverware from right under the Princesses' nose once!"
I smirked inwardly at that. The story was actually greatly exaggerated; we'd only stolen two sets, not three, and it hadn't been from right under the Princesses' nose- it had been after she'd finished her meal and the dishes were already being washed back in the kitchens. All we'd had to do was snag them off the drying rack. Embarrassingly easy, really.
"Anyway, previous battles aside, when and where do you want to do this? As soon as possible would be preferable for me, personally. I gotta kill time until nightfall anyway, but other than that I don't really care," Dark shrugged casually.
The other teen hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Then we shall fight right here, right now! I will reclaim my honor!"
Dark raised an eyebrow. "Right here? In the Town Square? The one currently filled with people?" He shrugged, then took a few steps back and gestured for Vaati and I to move. "Sure, but I'm not responsible for any collateral damage."
By now, however, many of the spectators were murmuring in excitement and clearing out to form a large ring around the perimeter of the square. This was probably the most interesting thing that had happened in weeks, barring the twilit barrier around the castle.
"Ooh, this'll be good. Come on, let's go up and watch," I said with a grin. Vaati nodded and we slipped into the crowd, then hurried down a deserted alley and flew up to the roofs. From there we chose a good vantage point and settled down to watch the show.
Back in the square, the two combatants were back-to-back. Ednus' second, James I think it was, announced the rules.
"This fight will have swordplay only, and will end only at first blood or until one of the combatants is unable to continue," he said loudly.
My brother and his opponent took three steps forward, then turned to face each other. Dark drew his sword and held it in a ready position. The young noble did the same, a smirk on his face. "You'll pay for what you said, guttersnipe," he said snidely.
Then James took a few steps back, raised his arm in the draw, and dropped it. "Begin!"
Ednus instantly leapt forward in an aggressive downward slash, forcing Dark to quickly leapt out of the way. Steel clanged against stone, sending up sparks. My eyes widened. He was faster than I'd thought. There had been quite a bit of power in that blow as well. Unluckily for him, though, he had nothing on all the monster's we'd faced throughout the dungeons.
"Hey, not too bad, for a soft-bellied rich boy anyway," Dark taunted. "You're faster than I thought. But are you faster than me?"
He shot forward and crouched low, sweeping his sword in a wide arc meant to cut his opponent off at the knees- literally. However, I noticed that he wasn't quite as fast as he could have been.
A gash appeared in the expensive fabric. "Whoops," Dark said with a wide grin. "That's going to be costly to fix. Want me to recommend you a good tailor?"
"Shut up," the other teen growled angrily. Underneath the tattered cloth, light glinted off metal, exposing the gleaming shinguard beneath. A faint line was etched into it, a scratch really, but it was a testament to just how close Dark had gotten.
Ednus launched his counter-attack as he feinted quickly to the left and came in with a stab on the right, but my brother wasn't fooled and steel met steel with a metallic clang. The two pushed against each other for a heartbeat before breaking apart, neither overpowering the other. Dark had a wide, feral grin on his face, exposing his sharp fangs and making his red eyes glint evilly. It looked as if he was enjoying this fight.
Which, I realized, he probably was. Being able to publically beat down on an arrogant noble right in front of everybody was something that every street kid dreamed of doing. Especially if you had eyewitnesses who would testify that he'd attacked first, meaning that if the rich kid's parents wanted to throw a fuss you'd be able to get off scot-free. I was actually kind of jealous.
"Oh, that's brutal. He's obviously toying with him," Vaati snorted as Dark executed a fancy triple-flip over Ednus' head and a spin to whack him hard on the back with the flat of his blade. I winced inwardly. That was going to leave a mark.
By now the noble was starting to get tired. It seemed that he had pretty good strength and speed, but his endurance was s***. It had only been ten minutes and he was already getting tired.
Overextended on that last stab, wasting energy, I thought to myself as Dark playfully leapt up to balance on top of Ednus' blade and poke him in the forehead. Physically it shouldn't have been possible, but for some reason Dark has always been unusually light. And at times, it's like he can become as light as his ghost form without becoming insubstantial. He's tried to control this ability at will before, but without success. Usually it'll just pop up randomly, most often during a fight.
"What the- that shouldn't be possible!" Ednus sputtered as Dark backflipped off and landed in a light crouch, weight balanced on the balls of his feet. He shrugged carelessly.
"Not by normal standards, no. But I've never been normal, or even close to it," he replied with a grin. "Abnormality seems to run in the family. After all, I'm sure you've heard of me- I'm the eldest of the Terrible Three, the greatest pack of thieves in town. You know, the trio that are supposedly demons?" He smirked widely as Ednus' breath hitched sharply in surprise. "Whoops, I thought you knew. Why else would you bother picking a fight with a peasant? And besides, I thought for sure you'd at least recognize the red eyes. Seems like I overestimated you." A casual shrug, even as he leaned back to avoid deadly steel passing an hair's breadth from his face. "Ooh, close one. But not quite close enough."
"Of course I recognized you! You've only just confirmed it for me," he hissed. "You were the ones that stole my family's priceless heirloom, the sword that has been passed down for generations!"
My eyes widened. So that was why his family crest looked familiar. Yes, I remembered that sword. It had fetched quite a price on the black market. Enough to keep all three of us fed for a month. No wonder he was so mad.
The noble snarled angrily as his strikes began to get progressively slower and sloppier. Clearly he'd been trained, but wasn't nearly as experienced as Dark was. He let his opponents get under his skin too easily. Dark continued to taunt him for a few more minutes, until it seemed he finally got bored and executed a set of fancy footwork that ended with Eduns falling into the fountain backwards with Dark's foot on his chest and his sword at his throat. A thin trickle of blood ran from a shallow cut on his cheek, just under his left eye.
"I win," Dark told him smugly.
The sun was setting, the markets were closing, and the temperature was dropping. Crickets began to chirp as day turned to night and a cool summer breeze blew through the air, accompanied by just a hint of crisp autumn air. Light faded as shadows reached across cobblestone like grasping fingers, and visibility was diminishing fast.
Soon the sun had fully slipped beneath the horizon, and a pale full moon rose high into the sky. All four of us were beasts now, with far better night vision than our hylian forms. And what better way to fight a dead pack than with a living one?
Just then, as the last vestiges of light faded to nothing, the ground shifted in front of us and a pack of undead wolf-creatures clawed their way to the surface. I shuddered slightly. The sight of empty ribcages and eerily glowing red eyes brought back far to many memories of Arbiter's Grounds. Memories that I would have gladly left forgotten.
A larger one than all the rest, the pack leader, stepped forward. In his jaws was a small wooden statue, the same one that still had traces of the medicine scent on it. However, the other stalhounds would have to be defeated first. Link stepped forward and growled menacingly. Dark snarled, hackles up, and as if by some unspoken signal the stalhounds leapt towards us as one. Vaati and I jumped into the fray, and undead bone flew.
"Gah. So much hassle over one tiny statue," Vaati grumbled as he picked shards of bone out of his hair. "Gross. I need a bath."
"Yeah, me too," I agreed as I shifted back to hylian form and spat out a tuft of brown fur. "When was our last one? Two, three weeks ago?"
"Somethin' like that," Dark said.
Suddenly, Link, who was heading back up the steps to the East Gate, stopped and swore under his breath. "C***. We got a problem."
"What?"
We turned, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Standing in the gateway was Ednus and a full squad of guards. Who, judging by their shocked expressions, had just seen us transform. And possibly fight the stalhounds as well, if they had been standing there for longer than a minute.
S***. How did we not notice them? You can't exactly move quietly with all that armor, and the guards were never that stealthy in the first place-
Though, in our defense, we had been rather occupied by the numerous undead monsters trying to kill us. I should have known all the noise would attract attention.
"Midna? To heck with letting people see us, a warp would bereally nice right 'bout now…" Dark said nervously as he backed away slightly. The soldiers snapped out of their stupor and began to advance cautiously, spears bristling behind a wall of shields.
D***. Of ALL the times, they choose NOW to finally pull off a Turtle Spike Maneuver right?!
Sometimes, I really thought the Goddesses had it in for us. Greaaat.
Thanks a lot, Farore, Nayru, Din. Thanks a LOT.
Midna, however, wasn't responding. I frowned as Dark called louder. "Midna? Midna!"
A helmeted head popped out of Link's shadow. "What do you want?" she snapped irritably. "I was sleeping!"
We all pointed to the advancing soldiers, and I swore loudly as several archers appeared with arrows notched and bows drawn. Midna's eyes widened, and then I felt my body shift to wolf form even as it dissolved into so many particles of twilit squares.
"GAH!"
I sputtered as my world shifted from one of cool, breathable air to one filled with most definitely un-breathable water. Of all the warp points we had throughout the kingdom, Midna chose to dump us in the Zora's Domain?! Figures.
"Ah great, now I'm soaked," Dark growled as he scrambled out of the water and onto dry land. At this point the zoras were used to us coming and going, so the ones still awake didn't even bat an eye at our arrival.
"Hey, at least we're a little cleaner now, though," Vaati pointed out as he shook himself. In the dark, his red eyes glowed slightly, as did Dark's.
"True, but it's also the middle of the night, and the wind is making me cold," I grumbled. Link just laughed and shifted to hylian form as he took off his hat and wrung the water out of it.
"Well, think of it this way- we didn't get speared by the soldiers, which is good," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but now that they've seen us shift, they'll be on the lookout for when we come back. If they catch us, we'll either be executed on the spot as demons or imprisoned just to be killed later," I said. "Which means that now, Castle Town is either off-limits or we're going to have to be very careful when we sneak in."
The four of us processed this for a moment, then Dark summed it up with one simple sentence. "Well, f***," he said. "That's gonna be a problem."
