Chapter 3

Link and Sedna ran on through the cold. After a few hours, Link looked over at Sedna. "Why were you calling me 'Sire' back there? I've never met you."

"Sire, I know I have never met you. You are the Shadow Wanderer, come to save my people in our time of need." She replied, looking somewhat surprised.

"I have no idea what you mean by 'the Shadow Wanderer" or any of this."

"Then I shall explain. My people, the sled-dogs and the people who care for us have been living in the north for many generations. We have lived as nomads, wandering, patrolling this harsh climate. Protecting it."

"From who?" Link asked, "I cannot see why anyone would want to invade it."

"Not from who, from what. Night time here lasts many months. The sun shall be going down in a matter of months, and when the night comes, so do they. At the axis on which this world rotates, there is a tower. The tower is a key, locking this world from the shadow. In the weeks approaching the nightfall, the interlopers will come, and try to free themselves from this prison.

Link perked up. If they could get out, then he could get in, and that meant…

"In past years, only a few have slipped past our defences, but this year, they have come is masses. My people cannot cope, and they are dieing. My master was instructed to plead with the Hyrulian Knights that live in the mountains to the south. Yet it seems that even they have turned on us. He approached on near where you found us, and she forced the bear to attack us. If you did not show up, Sire, Kiviuq and I would have met the same fate as Inouq"

Link couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was impossible. "That cannot be right. I knew that knight. I was travelling with her. She would never have done anything like that. You must be mistaken." He said.

"I know what happened to us. These are dark times, sire, and things are not as they seem or should be." She said, "Your 'friend' attacked us."

After that conversation, they talked little. Link's head was trying to wrap his head around the situation. Were these interlopers from the twilight realm? He thought he brought peace, and a stable ruler. What happened to Midna? Was she okay? What was wrong with Ashei and her knights? He was confused, all he could do was to calm down and take things as they came.

After a few days hard journey, Sedna pointed something out on the horizon, some small mounds of snow. "That cannot be the village." he thought to himself, but still, he trusted her guidance.

Soon, they arrived at the village. The small mounds were domes of snow that the people lived in. He assumed they used them because they could be made from the ground. As Sedna said, many of the people seemed wounded.

As they got into the village, an old lady approached them. She was short and bent over, shambling on a cane. Her thinning hair was matted in long clumps. What few teeth she had left looked rotting. She looked into Link's eyes and said to Sedna, "That's a good girl. Looks like you found him." Her voice was coarse and raspy. "She pointed a long, crooked finger at Link. "You must come with me, it is time for the ceremony. Link followed her, and looked back at Send, she seemed worried about something.

The old woman led him into one of the small domes. The little light that shone through the cracks cast the place into an eerie shadow. She produced a stone with a large slab of meat on it. "Eat up", she instructed, "You must be hungry."

Link quickly ate the meat. It tasted odd to him, but he was too funny to notice.

She lit a small fire in the centre and crushed some animal bones into it. She then poured a foul smelling chemical into it. The fire roared and the smoke turned purple. The woman knelt by the fire and inhaled the fumes. Her eyes rolled back into her head and the started chanting incoherently. She produced a dagger and began to approach Link.

He snarled at her. He tried to run, but she held him fast, with unnatural strength. Or maybe he was just weak, something was defiantly in the meat. Chanting louder, she plunged the dagger deep into his side. Link yelped as he felt its white hot sting sear his flesh. Still chanting, she held the dagger up to his neck. "What is she doing to me." He thought, woozy from the loss of blood. "I thought I was some sort of hero to them." She swung the dagger, slashing his neck. He fell limp into the snow, and the world went black before him.