AN: Well, I felt like neglecting sleep for a bit tonight to make a bit more progress on this story. Also to make up for the lack of posts. Apologies again.

So here is a special treat for all of you patient people. Chapter twenty four, coincidentally less than twenty four hours after the posting of chapter twenty three. And it's a longer-ish one to boot!

Additionally, I thought you all deserved an emotional break, too. :)

Cheers!

[LINK]

I walk slowly. Even though I am invisible I can't seem to shake the feeling that I am being watched. I turn around once I get to the corner of the outer wall to look for Impa in the crowd. She walks casually over the bridge, her focus straight ahead. No one thinks she is out of the ordinary until two guards dressed in all black stop her just before she enters the gates. Shortly after, they grab her arms and begin dragging her behind them. I see the littlest glimpse of a smirk on her face and smile. She executed the 'capture' perfectly.

Now I need to do my part.

I come up to the corner and walk around it to face the southern side of the field. There is another bridge up ahead that I will use to cross the river. Swimming would cause too much noise. Luckily for me, no one uses this bridge very often. I turn to walk on it when a horse and a cloaked rider comes charging out of the castle ahead of me.

Just my luck.

I bolt to the side of the bridge to allow them to pass, unfortunately a bit too fast and my cloak comes up to slightly reveal my ankles. I turn my gaze to the rider to see if they noticed.

I instantly regret looking under the hood.

Ilia speeds forward at full strength, tears trailing down her face and hands shaking, eyes closed. Thank the goddesses she didn't see me, I stop to watch her, but she doesn't turn back for anything.

I feel pity for her, but I know I can't stay here if I'm going to save Zelda.

I walk across the bridge and jump down about ten feet to a narrow sidewalk that runs along the river. I follow it around to find the entrance to the tunnels. It takes me about fifteen minutes to find the entrance once on the path and open the gate just enough for me to slip in. The steel bars echo in the tunnels as I move them to create an opening. It seems far too loud to me, and I check over my shoulder to see if anyone is behind me.

No one; at least no one who I can see.

I slide through the opening and land safely on the other side. The tunnels get gradually darker as I burrow deeper. They are about a head taller than me, and roughly four feet wide. It's a decent escape tunnel, I think to myself. Just in case we don't have another exit, these tunnels would do nicely.

I come up to a fork. Luckily, I have Fi with me until Impa gets into position. I unsheathe the Master Sword and dowse the area for the tunnel that will lead me closer to the heart of the city, to the castle.

"Master," she says, flying out of the sword and forming next to me, "I am unable to detect Miss Impa's presence in town."

I bring my arm down to my side and the tip of the Master Sword clangs against the pavement. I turn my attention to Fi.

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"I cannot seem to find Miss Impa, Master. You might not be able to rely on her sending out a beacon to signal where to go."

Suddenly I feel alone. I had Impa help me through all of this, and now that we don't know where she is, I feel worried.

"Should we search for her? Or should we continue to search for Zelda?"

Fi doesn't respond right away and turns around. She is probably weighing our options. The longer I wait, the more impatient I get. I try to calm myself down. Losing my head isn't good in this kind of situation. Finally, Fi turns back to me.

"I believe that searching for Zelda is the best course of action. She has been here for two weeks and there is a sixty seven percent chance that her captors haven't given her any food this entire time. Impa is also a fully realized Sheikah. She may be unavailable as of now, but it is only a minor setback. I calculate an eighty percent chance of her escaping her captors."

I nod, reassured.

"You may use dowsing to help yourself find Zelda, but there is so much happening in the town above us that I cannot guarantee an accurate read."

I furrow my eyebrows and bring my freehand up to my chin.

"Fi," I start, "do you think it is impossible to dowse for Zelda specifically?"

"No, it is not impossible," she states. "Do you have a sample of her? I will get a more accurate read for her location if you do."

"Sample," I state. "What do you mean?"

"It could be something that belongs to Zelda that has her scent on it like a ribbon, necklace, or ring."

I don't have anything like that on me. Not with her scent on it anyway.

I think. Then I get an idea. I have no clue where it came from, but it felt like the right thing to do.

I pull out the ocarina and begin to quietly play Zelda's Lullaby.

[ZELDA]

My head leans against the wall behind me. Finally, I am awake when the sun is just beginning to rise over the horizon. Now at last I am able to see my place of confinement better. Steel bars for other jail cells line the corridor perimeter, and there is a row of free standing cells in the center. A walking path circles the center cells and cuts off into the corner opposite of my cell for the entrance. Mine is a corner cell, so I have two walls lining my area, and two steel barred walls keeping me in place. The sun is gradually rising higher and the beams of light shine through cracks in the ceiling directly into the water covering the ground. Parts of the walls in this room are torn down and trees have grown in their places, overwhelming them with leaves and vines of other plants. If I wasn't a prisoner behind steel bars, I would find it beautiful. It almost reminded me of the same architecture of the temple.

But I have almost lost all sense of beauty in here. I don't remember my friend's faces. Even Link's voice is slowly fading in my mind. It scared me the first time I couldn't remember his face or voice. I started hyperventilating, unable to calm myself, wondering if it was real. After a while I was able to calm down and remember, but it has been happening more often since. I am terrified I won't remember him, my friends, my parents. People who love me.

I bring my head off of the wall to continue studying the room and see something shine out of the corner of my eye. Across the room, where a beam of light left as quickly as it came, rises a creature resembling a dog. But this wasn't a dog, more of a wolf. Its fur was dark as charcoal in spots, and light as snow under its chest and lining its face. Instantly I cower, I get as far away from the bars as possible with my chains and wait for it to attack.

But all it does is walk to me slowly, and sits in front of my cell.

I look into its sharp brown eyes. They seem to be trying to communicate with me. I feel like I have seen this wolf before. Somewhere, but I can't place where, I know I have seen those intelligent eyes.

Then it hits me.

This wolf reminds me of one of the legends of Hyrule. A twilight fell over the land and took all light from its existence. The hero of that era had the ability to transform into a wolf and was able to cast the twilight out of Hyrule. In the legends, the wolf had a chain on its left paw from escaping this very place I sit in.

I look to his paw out of curiosity. When I see the chain, I almost collapse from the overwhelming peace I feel. My mind instantly clears and I stand up slowly. It takes me an embarrassing amount of energy simply to stand and lean against the wall.

"Are you the wolf from the legends?" I whisper. "Are you the hero of Twilight?"

It simply stares at me. Then shakes its head.

"Oh," I say dejectedly. "I was really hoping for some help right now."

It continues to stare at me. Then I realize something.

"Hey, you responded to my question, though. Are you intelligent?"

Nod.

"Can you help me?"

Nod. My heart races.

"But you're not the hero of twilight?" What can I say? I first have the curiosity of a child over my own safety.

It stares at me. Then a thought occurs to me.

"Are you a descendant of that line?"

Nod. I take a deep breath. Of course, otherwise its eyes would be blue.

"Then I can trust you, right?"

Nod.

"Good, because there is something I wish for you to do."

I formulate a plan as I speak. The wolf nods in agreement or shakes its head if it thinks something needs to be better. Once the plan is formed, it bows. I am stunned, but bow in return. It locks its brown eyes with mine one last time before turning and jumping out of a hole in the wall further down the room.

I focus on the sunlight beams finding their way in and am filled with a new courage and hope. This is what my freedom is riding on. I pray to the goddesses with all my might.

Please work.

[LINK]

I continued to walk through the tunnels with Fi when all of a sudden I hear something else in the shadows. Quickly, I duck down the left tunnel and ready my sword. Whatever it is, it isn't human. It sounds like it has four legs, and pads lightly along the shallow bit of water that runs through the tunnels. Fi hovers behind me as I sidle up to the corner to look into the adjacent tunnel.

Whatever it is, it's dark. I can't see its outline in the shadows of the tunnel ahead, but I hear it getting closer.

As I turn to duck behind the corner, it comes into view. A dark gray wolf with patches of white and the muddiest brown eyes I have ever seen. I don't know what it is doing here, but I don't have the feeling that I need to run from this wolf. It has such a powerful, friendly, and good aura, it draws me from my hiding spot to confront it head on.

It is bigger than I thought it would be. I am around six feet tall and it comes up to my waist. It looks straight at me, so the invisibility cloak apparently doesn't work on him either. I kneel down to get a closer look at it, but it turns away to walk in the shadows where it just came from. I stand to follow when Fi stops me.

"Master," she starts, "are you sure this is safe?"

"I don't know why, but I know it won't hurt us. It wants to help us."

I continue to follow the wolf. It starts to get so dark that I can't see. The wolf slows down its pace to brush against my leg. I lean down to grasp a bit of its fur at the base of its neck, not so tight as to hurt it, but enough to keep me going the right way. As soon as my field of vision vanished, my hearing heightened tenfold. It almost felt as if the wolf was lending me its powers for supernatural hearing. I could tell simply by how the sounds echoed through the tunnels where one starts and one ends. The wolf turned multiple times and I tried to remember where we just came from. Right, left, right, straight, left, left, straight. The wolf continued on as I tried my best to remember, but after a while we had taken so many routes I lost my way after the tenth turn.

Until we saw a light up ahead.

The wolf speeds ahead and I tail after it. The ground gradually slopes upward and leads to a small waterfall. The wolf stops after it jumps up to turn back to me with those large brown eyes expectantly. I jump up and grab onto the side of the ledge, hoisting myself up. Once I pull myself over, I look at the room we entered. It looks like some sort of run down jail cell. My hopes rising, I jump down into the standing water and take in my surroundings. Light trickles in through cracks and throws the rest of the place in shadows. My eyes skirt the perimeter until I see a figure in a cell across the room, sitting in a beam of sunlight.

My legs almost give out from underneath me. She's there.

Zelda.

Her left arm is chained above her head, which is drooping down causing her blond hair to curtain her face. Her clothes are tattered and bloodied, her skin pale, but she is there. Waiting.

I look at the wolf for confirmation. It nods. Immediately I bring my attention back to her and start running. The splashing of my feet in the water brings her to her senses and she cowers immediately. But as I get closer, recognition crosses her beautiful face, her eyes grow wide as she stands, and tears begin to fall to the pool we stand in.

I feel a pang of sadness. She is frail, beaten, and exhausted. But I am beaming. She is alive.

I make it to the bars and immediately raise my sword to break the lock when Zelda holds up a hand.

"Link," she whispers. Her soft voice alone is enough to stop me.

I look at her in confusion.

"It's enchanted. Only the correct spell can unlock it." She walks as close to the bars as her chains will allow her to, reaching out with her free hand.

It is covered in blisters, dried blood, and cuts. Anger swells up inside me.

"Zelda," I reach through the bars to hold her hand. It's freezing. I begin rubbing circles into the back of her hand, where there was the least amount of blisters, like I used to before she was taken. She sighs contentedly.

"I will get you out of here if it is the last thing I do. I promise." She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes.

"I know you can do it." She drops her hand and falls to her knees. The chain whips her backward a bit and she leans against the wall for support, hissing in pain. She is so weak, and I can't even open the cell to get her out.

I try to calm my rage when I hear a door open in the corner of the room.

"Hide!" I hear her whisper.

I turn to dive behind the base of the cells in the center of the room and float in the foot of standing water. Two guards are bringing someone in. They aren't struggling. I lift my head a bit to see Impa being carried by the same two guards into a cell next to Zelda's. I take this opportunity to ready my hookshot. They lock her cell and one of the guards takes the keys and hooks it on his belt loop. I lean out from behind my hiding place and aim the hookshot at the keys. I take a breath and fire it right through the loop of the keychain. It hooks and begins the return journey. The near silent recoil from the hookshot always astounds me, but I got the keys on the first go. Wading backward a bit, I wait for the guards to leave. I hear the sound of another door closing in the distance and deem it safe to reveal myself. I stand, keys in hand, and walk directly to Impa's cell. She is smiling.

"You're early," she laughs.

"Better than late," I turn the key in the tumbler.

"Good point."

I open the door and let Impa out. She immediately turns to the lock on Zelda's cell.

"We need to figure out what spell was used on this lock," I shouldn't be impressed, but I always am with Impa. She knew right away that it was protected with a special spell.

"Any ideas?" I ask, sword at the ready in case of trouble.

"Two." She folds her hands in front of herself, takes a deep breath and summons magic. There is a dark green and white glow surrounding her as she pushes her hands in front of the lock and mumbles something indiscernible. The lock broke instantly.

"How—"

"Intuition." She looks at me over her shoulder, smiling.

"I knew only two spells would work on this lock, it was just a matter of using logic to discern which one Ghirahim would use. Rather, Ilia. Am I right, Zelda?" She reaches her hand out for Zelda to grab. She takes it and stands weakly.

"Yes. Ilia is the one who set the lock." She looks down at her feet sadly.

"Well, we can deal with her later," she says as she breaks the clasp of the cuff around Zelda's wrist. "But right now, someone has waited a long time to see you."

Impa pulls Zelda to me, holding out her hand for me to grab. I do, and lift my arm underneath her shoulders to support her better. She falls into me instantly resting her head on my chest.

"Link," is all she is able to whisper, before sobs take over her entire body. I nod at Impa so she can set to work on healing her right away. I rub circles into her back and hum her lullaby. Impa smiles at this.

Color begins to come back to Zelda's cheeks as Impa continues to heal her. She takes care of the more concerning injuries first, and then will attend to the smaller ones.

"Is there anywhere internally that hurts, Zelda? I want to make sure to not miss any internal bleeding or other serious issues."

She ponders.

"No, I don't think so. I think it's mainly external."

"Glad to hear," she places her hand on Zelda's shoulder and squeezes it gently. Zelda smiles.

"I thought I would never see you again," she says as her grip on me tightens. Impa is doing serious work if she is already getting some strength back.

"Never think that, Zelda," I whisper into her hair and plant a kiss to her head. "I will always be there for you. No matter what."

"For some reason I believe you, since you are standing here now." She lets out a small laugh. Her spirits are rising, too. A wave of relief washes over me. "I'm glad the wolf led you here safely."

"You sent it?" I grab her chin to tilt her head up, gazing into her stormy eyes.

"It appeared over in that corner," she points over my shoulder, "and walked right up to this cell. I talked to it immediately and it responded to my questions. I asked it to lead you here, but how it got here in the first place is beyond me."

"If I may," Impa intercedes, "Link is the one who called it here." She turns to Zelda's side and presses her palm to her waist, sending magic coursing through her body.

"I—what?"

"Remember when I gave you your ocarina and said that you would need it?" I nod. "I gave it to you just in case we got separated. I'm glad I did, and that your intuition is sharp, lad."

"But how did I—"

"Patience, young one," she holds up a palm to cut me off. "I will explain. When you played Zelda's Lullaby, that tune was echoed all throughout Hyrule. It is actually the tune of the ancient royal family. All of their closest servants learned this song to further serve their rulers. It has magical properties tied in to the melody, that whoever plays it, if righteous at heart, can summon the appropriate help they need to continue their mission at any given moment. For example, this wolf. He was summoned by you when you played the royal family's melody." She turns to the wolf, petting its head as Zelda's healing was complete. "He has served the royal family for years in the shadows. Appropriate, since he is a direct descendant of the hero of Twilight, and your cousin, Link."

The wolf looks at me with its piercing eyes as if to acknowledge that everything she said is true. He nods. I look from Impa to the wolf and back again.

"Um. We're related?"

The wolf nods, then something I wasn't expecting happened. A blinding light engulfed the wolf, and its figure transformed into something familiar. A human. A boy. A friend.

Fledge, donned with his orange sweater, blue pants, and brown boots, touched the tips of his pointer fingers together repeatedly, blushed profusely, and rocked back and forth as his features solidified. My jaw dropped.

"Fledge," I breathe. It was a lot to take in. Fledge, my best friend ever since coming to the academy, was my wolf-cousin.

"How—"

"I can explain," he flails his hands in front of himself, as if this was a normal occasion, "but right now we need to get out of here. Quick. Ghirahim doesn't know we unlocked her cell, but when he does he'll be here in a hot minute."

"He's right," Impa agrees. "Let's get out of here."

I bend down in front of Zelda and hold my arms out for her to climb on. She doesn't hesitate, and climbs on my back, wrapping her arms around my chest and dropping her head into the nook of my neck. I take a deep breath and walk over to the entrance of the tunnel. I turn my head to look at Zelda over my shoulder.

"Ready to leave?" I whisper. She simply nods, eyes drooping. I smile.

"Then let's get out of here," I say. Fledge turns back into a wolf to lead us through the paths of the tunnels and to safety, at least for a little while.

As I carry Zelda, everything I lost with her over these past two weeks came slowly back to me, and if it were possible, I fell even more in love with her as we traversed the tunnels to freedom. I am just so relieved she is alive and well—probably a bit hungry, but well.

And that's all I needed to keep going.