Link felt a tunnel bird's talons dig into his shoulders and he swung his sword toward it. He felt it connect with triumph, only to turn to dismay as the feathered mass he had struck flew away, revealing it to be an entirely different one from the bird that had him caught. He swung again, with the same result. Only this time the bird knocked the sword from his hand as it retreated. The master sword tumbled down. And down. And down. Link's eyes widened as he saw how high he was now.

Link didn't mind heights so much. He had fallen from death mountain on multiple occasions and lived to tell the tale. He had talked a dragon while it was in mid-air and plummeted to the ground with it. He had been blasted in-between Hyrule and the Occooco city with a canon for Fyore's sake! But he knew that a drop from this height would most defiantly kill him. So he stopped struggling and glanced up to find out how the wing-less bird was up so high.

It was, for lack of better word, swinging along the cave ceiling. A little like a monkey swings from tree to tree (and Link had enough experience with monkeys to know), except that instead of grabbing a tree branch, it dug its claws into the rock.

Link glanced around among the flock of birds that blocked his view, searching in vain for his allies. Midna, at least, should have been able to escape. She could have simply dissolved between the birds claws. Link suddenly felt a sickening jolt as he saw Midna in one of the bird's claws. She was unconscious, and quite burnt. She must have fired a spell off at close range to a bird and been caught in it herself. If her wounds weren't attended to soon then… Link shook his head. One step at a time. That was how he had finished all the other temples and that was how he would complete this one.

Link gave an experimental jab to the bird just as it anchored into the rock. The bird paused for a second and its claws slipped from the rock. Link paled as it began to plummet.

Then the bird grabbed the rock with its other claw and continued.

Link gave a sigh of relief and a prayer or thanks to Nayru. Apparently all he could do was wait and hope he was over solid ground soon.

Zelda landed in the birds nest with a thump. She had already realized this was where the bird had been taking her, so she was prepared. She scanned the nest quickly for danger.

It was a small nest, about the size of the goron patriarch when he was curled up. There was only one egg in it, about the height of a toddler. It wasn't hatching currently, so there was no danger there.

The nest was perched on a tall spire of stone in the center of a enormous cavern. The slime and moss on the stone were so thick that the tunnel had been bare by comparison. Zelda quickly ruled out climbing. Or jumping for that matter, the fall was tall enough to shatter diamond if it was dropped.

Suddenly there was a crunch from behind Zelda: the sound of something enormous landing on the nest. Zelda turned around slowly, nervous at what she might find.

Something I should tell you: the tunnel birds were big. They were about as tall as Zelda. But there was a tunnel bird behind Zelda, and the others were midgets compared to this one.

Zelda's eyes bulged in their sockets. As I mentioned before, the birds resembled parrots. The giant bird looked like a cockatoo, one with a golden plume and matching golden claws. It almost looked as if it was smiling at Zelda. Not even the nasty type of smile that Ganondorf gave, it was almost saintly.

If Zelda had been anyone else, she might have been lulled into peace, doubtless the point of the bird's beauty. But Zelda had the triforce of wisdom.

And the triforce was telling her to GET AWAY.

Zelda leapt out of the nest, ignoring the fact of height. If the triforce said to get away at any cost: you got away at any cost. The bird's head plunged into the nest, swallowing the thing whole, egg and all.

Zelda snatched at the moss at she fell, trying to slow her descent down at all. A small quantity of the bird's spit landed on the moss near her. Zelda would have sworn by all three goddesses that the moss was screaming in pain.

Zelda let go of the moss, she didn't care if she was killed by the fall, she wanted to get away from that thing as fast as she could.

It was dark now. Cover sighed in relief. The shadows were his element, his domain. Egon shifted beside him, nervous.

The silence was too much Egon blurted something out, not even thinking of the words before he said them "You know you'll be executed for this."

Cover nodded "I know. But if they fail, everyone will be dead. So if I'm going to die, at least I can do it heroically. Save a few lives and such. Maybe they'll put a statue of me up in hyrule!" he grinned "Spose that would be kinda hard. Seeing as no one in hyrule has seen my face."

Egon shifted again "Why do you hide you're face Mr. Cover?"

"Hmm? Oh it was because I knew you're village would freak if they ever saw it."

Egon frowned "Why?"

Cover shrugged and his hand went to his face "I suppose I might as well show you, seeing as I'm on death row anyway."

He took the spectacles off and unwrapped the bandages over his face, pushing his hood back as he did.

A comb of silvery hair shone in the moonlight, contrasting with his tanned skin. He turned his head toward Egon with a grin, his crimson eyes shining.

"Funny how something normal people do every day can feel like such a luxury."

Egon's eyes were wide with terror "W-What are you?!"

Cover's grin turned to a frown, stung "Tch! Leave I to a villager be terrified of someone they've known for years! I'm a sheikah, a one of the shadow people of hyrule. Body-gaurds of the royal family until a few years ago."

Egon was too terrified to speak, but Cover continued anyway, looking at the moon now. He had wanted to tell someone about his mission for so long!

"We sheikah are scattered all over now, don't ask me why cause I don't know. But I was born here, same as you. A while ago, the sage of shadow came to me. She told me 'bout the four hyrulians coming. To defeat Muerte and all. And she told me I was suppose to help them." His face turned to a shining grin "imagine! The sage of shadow! She spoke to me! Me!"

Egon finally was able to speak "I don't know what you're trying to do. But those four'll be stopped Mr. Cover!"

Cover turned his head back to Egon "You better hope not. Because if they do fail, we're all dead." He shrugged "Oh and it's Itzal."

"What?"

"My name. Since I've shown you my face already, you might as well know my name. It's Itzal."

Suddenly Itzal's eyes widened and his hand shot to his pocket. He brought out a black disk, and his eyes widened.

"Crap."

"What?"

"I'm leaving. Go home if you want."
"What? Aren't you scared I'll tell where you're camp is?"

"We won't come back to the camp. If they win. They go back to hyrule. If they lose. We're all dead."

There was a poof of smoke, and Egon was gone. As Ganondorf said, the sheikah tended to like drama.

Chamber of the Sages

" I have sent Itzal, but I don't think he will be enough."

"Well of COURSE he won't be."

"They need another warrior though."

"Well only three of us have helped them now. Two of us can still help"

"Make that just me."

"Right, I forgot."

"Whaaaaaat?! Why isn't she helping?"

"She says she is holding back support for when Ganondorf betrays them."

"Well that's just silly!"

"Actually it's smart."

"Pfft! You four are serious pessemists!"

"Realists. You never met Ganondorf face-toface have you?"

"Actually I agree with Saria."

"You can't be serious."

"He got the triforce for a reason."

"He got it because he stole it!"

"Zelda turned back time. That never happened."

"Well if the battle didn't affect this timeline at all then the triforce would still be locked away."

"And none of them would have a piece of the triforce."

"I suppose that is true..."

"Pfft! I wasn't talking about the triforce."

"What do you mean?"

"You really haven't noticed?! Well then I'm sure not gonna spoil it!"