I wonder why Midna said "As romantic as this is" when the storehouse was on fire. XD It's kind of funny to me, when she could've said anything else!
Hmmm...
As much as the bug hunts are tedious and boring, I figure it's better to do them since this IS a novelization. I'm already cutting enough by not doing a full detail of the dungeons.
Oh! And I love it when Link (as a wolf) turns around in a circle after he finishes howling a song. It's so cute! Speaking of which, the person who made the visual guide I use to do this, actually SKIPPED going to howl at the howl stone! What the heck?!
Well, it made a lot more work for me since I had to do it from memory. Luckily, I played the game enough times to pretty much memorize it. Ugh.
Anyway, here we go.
--
With the vessel of light in our possession, we headed over to where the scent of the children led. It was this large, stone building near the spring. I caught sight of someone peeking out through one of the windows, mumbling.
There was just one problem.
We couldn't get inside. I was a wolf and couldn't open doors, and I could see that Midna wasn't about to either. Great.
I went around near the back to see if maybe there was a backdoor or even a spot I could dig through.
"Hey, you can climb up here!" Midna suddenly said.
I followed her gaze, and looked to see a dead tree, facing a wooden awning, and from there we could get onto the roof. Perfect!
Midna floated to the tree, I jumped up after her, then the awning, and onto the roof.
There was some wood and straw on the roof, and once we stepped on it, we fell through a hole and into the building.
Once inside, I could see there was six spirits sitting around. Using my senses, I saw a man next to the window, peeking out. He was wearing a visor, like some people did when dealing with extreme temperatures.
The other spirits were the children sitting with this man with long black hair, and a young girl who looked to be his daughter. The kids looked scared and nervous, but they didn't seem to be hurt. Thank the Goddesses they were all right. I was glad to know that.
But where was Ilia? I didn't see her there with them. What if something happened to her? Where was she?
"Cripes! I don't see those black brutes anywhere..." The man by the window suddenly said. He also wore little round glasses. "They've gotta be hidin' somewhere, waitin' for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they'll FEAST!"
I guess he couldn't see that we killed the shadow beasts. They had nothing to worry about.
"We are safe as long as we remain in here, child. Be at ease." Said the man who was sitting with the children.
"Oh yeah? I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you..." The other man by the window said. "They sure didn't seem impressed by my bombs! How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh? Once they attack, it's OVER!"
I could see Talo cowering in fear as he clung to the long-haired man.
How dare this guy scare the kids like that! Talking that way in front of children, how despicable. If I wasn't in the twilight or a wolf right now, I'd teach him a lesson. At least the other man was trying to be comforting.
"Remember the lady from the general store?" The man with the visor continued. "Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened? She was already gone, and there were TWO monsters waitin'! ... You connectin' the dots? That means that if we get attacked by them, then we'll be..."
"BARNES!" The other man shouted angrily, interrupting the little speech that the man named Barnes was making. Obviously he'd had enough of him scaring the children.
Beth started to cry, burying her face in her hands. The other man glanced at Barnes, sighing in exasperation as if to say "Now look what you did!"
Lowering his visor, Barnes sank to the floor, half sobbing himself.
"Look, Renado..." Barnes said to the other man who was obviously Renado. "All I mean to say is that it's risky here, too! Ain't you got someplace we can hide?"
"There is...a cellar." Renado admitted.
Hearing this, Barnes scrambled over on all fours, surprised to hear this. "WHAAT?! You've got a cellar?! Where's the entrance, man?"
"The entrance to the cellar is designed to open when all of the candles have been lit..." Renado explained.
I looked around the room, and sure enough, there candles situated along the round area. Wow, pretty secretive idea. Although not very convenient if you have to get in there fast. Maybe a hidden door would've been more effective.
Barnes took a torch and went to light a fire in the small metal bowl sitting next to the large owl statue. As he crawled away, Renado's daughter spoke up.
"...I...would not do that." She said as Barnes stopped in mid-crawl and fell on his stomach. "When Father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw insects like the beasts outside..."
Insects? She must've meant the bugs we had to hunt for in order to gather the spirit's tears of light. Sure enough, I sensed that there were insects down in the cellar. We had to get down there.
Barnes, hearing this, suddenly scrambled back to the window in fright. Obviously he didn't like that idea, going down in the cellar where the bugs were. I guess I couldn't blame him.
Beth was still crying, and Colin was trying to soothe her.
"Don't cry, Beth! It'll be OK!" Colin reached out to pat her, but she slapped his hand away.
I rolled my eyes at this. Jeez, even in this kind of situation, they still can't stand him. Oh well, I'll worry about that later.
But Colin didn't seem to care. "Link is coming to save us all!"
This caught the kid's attention, since they all seemed to stop crying and realize what he was saying. Barnes just made a confused grunt.
"...I can feel it!" Colin said.
I was surprised to hear that. Colin really believed I was coming to save them, and here I was doing just that. I couldn't believe it. They all thought for sure I would, and yet they didn't know I really was.
It was pretty sad. But here I realized that being a hero didn't just mean defeating enemies, it also meant being there for the ones you cared about.
Don't worry, kids. I'm going to work to clear the twilight from this place and make sure you all get home safely.
I looked at Midna over my shoulder as she started talking.
"These kids knew you'd come save them! What a hero!" She said mockingly. "How sad, to be right in front of someone and not be noticed at all... Ee hee hee! You are chosen by the gods, and only that keeps you from turning into a spirit, or worse, into a dark monster, when you enter twilight. And no one knows what you have done... You may be doomed to toil in obscurity forever... You're the type to worry about everything, I can tell...but don't fret over Princess Zelda! She chose this state of affairs, after all..."
I was having a very hard time biting her right now. But then again, she did have a point. I know Zelda didn't exactly choose for this to happen, she just did because she wanted to save her people. I'm sure she was beginning to wonder if her decision to surrender really was the right thing to do.
I couldn't imagine what it must have been like to face that kind of decision.
It was true that the spirits here now couldn't see us in the twilight, and it was good thing because we would've scared them, a wolf and an imp would definitely stir up trouble. But they were counting on me, I wanted them to know I was coming to save them.
"Anyway, what's with having to light candles to get to the basement?!" Midna continued, incredulous of the idea. Not very subtle, is it... So, what are you going to do now? My lonely little hero... Ee hee!"
I think I might've blushed if I wasn't a wolf, or if Midna hadn't said that mockingly.
Anyway, I went over and picked up the stick from the ground, lighting one end of it with the fire. Then we went up the little staircase, jumping the gaps and lighting the candles along the way.
Once all the candles were lit, the large owl statue slid over to the side, revealing a hole in the floor, obviously leading to the cellar.
The opening of the door also caught the attention of the spirits in the room.
"What sorcery is this?!" Renado exclaimed. "The entrance to the cellar is opening on its own... Could those beasts have engineered this?"
Oops. Maybe I should've waited until they weren't looking.
Anyway, we went to the trapdoor and fell through it.
Up ahead, we came to a round room in the underground basement. There were three bugs in the room. We took care of them and collected the tears of light.
There was nothing else in the room, except for another doorway leading to an empty space with scaffolding, and there was a strange owl statue nudged into a crook in the wall. I stared at it for a moment. Something told me we would be dealing with that later.
We went through the other doorway, since there was no other way to get back out. There was a hole up in the ceiling of this room.
"...How about that?" Midna suddenly said. "Looks like you can climb the scaffolding..."
She floated to the one of the right, I leaped after her, then to the left, then up and out!
We came out through a large hole surrounded by a stone wall, in a graveyard. What a pleasant place to put the cellar, beneath the graveyard.
But I digress.
There was a bug near us, so we killed it and took the tear. We sensed some other bugs off in the village, so we turned and headed out of the graveyard.
Back in the village, which we could see was pretty run-down and abandoned, we went to what appeared to be the general store, across from the sanctuary. There was a bug inside.
I couldn't see a way in, but then I spotted a hole in the side of the building I could crawl through. Midna disappeared into my shadow and I crawled through the hole.
The bug was near a couple of jars, so with the help of Midna's energy field, we killed it and collected the tear. Once we had it, I crawled back out where I came in.
Next to the store was a hotel, and there were some bugs inside. Midna pointed over to a hill, where we could jump to the ledge leading into the hotel through the window.
We went up the hill and jumped the gap, getting inside.
There was a bug in the fireplace, but we couldn't get it out. I noticed a stick near the fireplace, and a lit candle on the wall next to the door.
Hmm...
I picked up the stick, went over to the candle and lit one end of the stick. Going back to the fireplace, I set the wood inside on fire, and sure enough, the bug came scampering out through a hole in the piping that led up to be a chimney through the roof. We killed it and collected the tear.
Going through the doorway, we came into the lobby. A couple of twilight goblins, or bulblins were waiting around in there. We killed them off and went upstairs, since a bug was up there.
The bug was in the room, on the wall. Using the energy field, we managed to get it off the wall and killed it, taking the tear of light.
Once done in here, we went back down into the kitchen where we came in, and climbed up some boxes and shelves to get back out the way way we came.
Next, we went down into the village and came to a bomb shop, apparently owned by Barnes.
We climbled a couple of crates, a dumpster and a smaller shed. There was a window there we could get in through, but we'd have to break the glass. I braced myself and we jumped the gap and into the window. Luckily, neither of us got hurt by the broken glass.
Inside, we went up some stairs and came to find the bug hiding behind a cabinet. I knocked it down, and we took care of it.
We couldn't get back out the same way, but I noticed another window at the top of a ladder and ledge. We climbed up the shelfing and then came outside.
On the roof, we sensed a few bugs up at the top of the hill. So we went up there, and came to a small building overlooking the village. I dug through some dirt went inside, and found the bug hiding among some jars. We killed it and took the tear before digging back out.
We sensed a bug crawling into the storehouse up above near the bomb shop. We went down there, and went inside through a hole in the side of the building.
The bugs were hidden in the small fireplace, there were three of them. A couple of sticks were lying around, and there was a small pit of a lit fire. I took a stick, lit it, and lit the fire.
Apparently, I didn't notice the cautionary sides around the storehouse stating that there was highly flammable material.
The bugs shot out from the fireplace, creating sparks that flew about. Flames blossomed around, and before I knew it, the storehouse was on fire!
"Huh?! What did you do?!" Midna cried in surprise. "Sorry, but as romantic as this is, I'm not going to stay in here with you. I'm getting out!"
She floated out to the hole and went outside. How lovely, saving herself. Oh well.
I hurriedly crawled out through the hole, making it out just in time before the flames singed me. Midna plopped onto my back as I came running out and away from the storehouse. Once we were away safely, there was a loud explosion and we turned around, seeing that the storehouse was gone, and there were three tears of light floating in its place among the debris and remainder of the walls.
Well, at least it killed the bugs.
"Hmm... I don't suppose there's any nicer way to hunt these things, huh? Well, you had to sacrifice someone's house to find Tears of Light...but that's how the cookie crumbles, right?" Midna said thoughtfully.
I made a wolf shrug and went over to the damage and retrieved the tears.
There was another bug in one of the buildings down below near us, so we jumped down to the roof, and fell through the wood and straw covering a hole in the roof.
We found the bug hiding under a crate, which I pushed away with my shoulder. It came scampering out, and we killed it.
We still had three left to find, but there didn't seem to be anymore in town. Where were the rest? I could sense them, but they seemed to be up higher and away from the village.
"If you're done with your errand, then let's get out of here." Midna said, pointing to a cabinet we could leap onto in order to get back out through the roof.
So we made our way to get back outside, looking around to see where to go next.
To our right, I saw a pathway leading out of the village, opposite of the way we came in. Curious, we hopped down from the roof and went out along the trail. Up ahead was gate, leading out of the village. Epona could definitely leap that gate.
Where was Epona anyway? She was obviously taken away by the monsters, but she wasn't here either. I hoped she was okay too.
Along the canyon wall, I noticed a trail leading up to Death Mountain, as the sign near it said. The bugs were up there, so we went up the trail.
We came to an impassable wall, with mesh and a broken ladder. If I was in my human form, I could probably climb the mesh up the wall. But since I was a wolf, I couldn't climb like that.
"Looks like the path's impassable...but I can get you up if you want to go." Midna said, pointing to a small, raised ledge near the wall.
We went over to it, and she floated to a rock. I leaped to the rock, then she went to the top of the ledge, where I joined her and we were on our way.
There was a strange rock-like creature spirit near us, complaining about standing guard, and suffering for the sake of their pride when they could ask the humans for help if they could help with it.
I guess everyone was suffering pretty bad with this twilight invasion. Well, we were going to free Hyrule from the twilight completely, take care of the king of twilight and then everyone would be saved.
We continued up the trail, and came to another mesh-covered wall. But there were some metal pipes and crates along the side, so we were able to climb them and get to the top.
Up ahead, there was a bug near some steaming gyzers. We killed it and took the tear.
There was also a strangely shaped stone, that I think was called a gossip stone. It had a strange eye symbol on it, the crest of an ancient tribe from a long time ago. It was also whistling, like the wind. As I listened, it was a tune that was known as the Song of Healing.
Then I remembered what the stalfos ghost told me, and realized this was probably the message he was sending me.
I sat down next to the stone, listened to the tune again, and then howled back the same tune. In satisfaction, I eagerly whirled around in a circle before I was lost in some kind of a trance.
Before I knew it, I found myself perched on floating ledge above the same castle from the other strange world. And off nearby on a ledge like mine, I could see the golden wolf, who we saw back at the entrance to the forest temple.
On instinct, I sat down and howled the tune again. And then the golden wolf howled back, and we howl-sang a duet. It was pretty nice.
After it was over, I could hear the voice of the stalfos.
"Let teachings of old pass to you... Take sword in hand and find me..."
The golden wolf then leaped off the ledge it was perched on.
After a moment, I came to and then we continued our way up the mountain trail.
Then we came to the main area known as Death Mountain. There was a mountain of lava towering up above us in the distance, and a lot of ledges and canyons we could climb up.
Inside down in the crater, we were penned again by the shadow beasts. We took care of them and created another portal. Perfect, now we can warp back here if we need to.
There was a bug on the wall nearby, so Midna used her energy field and we killed it, taking the tear.
We climbed up the ledge, and went along the edge until Midna led the way up to higher ledge. The last bug was somewhere up there, and we found inside of what looked like a quarry.
With the bug taken care of, we collected the tear, filling the Vessel of Light. We were then warped back to the spirit's spring.
The Vessel of Light floated out, and then went into the spring. Like before, the twilight cleared and light returned to the Eldin Province. I was human again, standing before the spirit's spring.
Midna, now in her shadow form, was floating over the water.
"Aw, I was just starting to have fun! Don't forget that Fused Shadow! Ee hee hee! See you later!" Then she twirled around and disappeared just as the spring's water and rocks lit up with a holy glow.
The orb of light rose up from the water, swirling in its light. The light spirit then appeared, which was in the form of a large, majestic owl. It spread its wings and perched its talons onto the orb.
"My name is Eldin." It said in its golden voice. "I am one of the light spirits of Hyrule. I am the spirit that guards these lands. O great hero chosen by the gods..."
It pointed its head up toward Death Mountain, I followed its gaze as I wondered if it meant we had to go up there again.
"The dark power you seek lies in the sacred grounds of the proud mountain dwellers. But already these grounds have been defiled, draped in shadow and seeded with evil. You must go to those sacred grounds and cleanse them."
Eldin then folded its wings, and disappeared in a bright glow of light.
OK, so that meant we had to go up Death Mountain and go into some kind of sacred grounds in order to find the Fused Shadow.
With that in mind, I turned and left the spring. At the corner of my eye, at the sanctuary, I noticed the door open and someone standing in the doorway. Sure enough, I looked and there was Colin. I could also see Talo and Beth peeking out from inside.
"Link?!" Colin exclaimed.
He rushed out to greet me, but Talo pushed him down to the ground and ran past him over to me. Beth came running to, and Malo walked past him also. None of them seemed to care about how Colin felt.
"Ha ha ha! See, Beth?! I TOLD you Link would save us!" Talo exclaimed.
Although I knew fully well that it was Colin who first said I would come save them, since I was there when he said it, but I couldn't tell them that. I didn't like how they were treating Colin, but I was happy to see them and glad they were okay none the less.
I looked over at Colin, who smiled and helped himself up, coming over to the rest of us. Renado, his daughter and Barnes had come outside too and came over to us.
"You are the one from Ordon whom these children spoke of?" Renado asked me.
I nodded.
"We are well met. I am Renado, shaman of this town. And this..."
Barnes must've thought Renado was introducing him, so he lifted his visor and grinned stupidly.
"This is my daughter, Luda." Renado finished, gesturing toward the girl next to him, who smiled up at me.
I held back a chuckle as Barnes flipped his visor back down, mumbling to himself and walking away.
"The beasts took us and left us to die...but Mr. Renado found us." Colin explained, looking up at the shaman.
"At first, I couldn't believe they had come from so distant a place as the Ordona Province..." Renado remarked.
"Yeah, I... We don't remember much. All of a sudden everyone was captured, and then...until now...it's been like..." Colin said.
"...A nightmare." Malo finished for him.
Colin nodded in agreement. "Yeah! It was like a terrible dream and we couldn't wake up..."
"Mmm... Nightmares are everywhere these days, it seems. This village has certainly seen its shares of recent hardships..." Renado said, and looked up toward Death Mountain. "The dark beasts attacked, but even worse was the sudden inexplicable change in the mountain-dwelling Goron tribe. They had long been our friends, but suddenly treat us as foes. Even now they refuse to permit us entry into their mines. It strains the limits of belief... To think that such a gentle and proud tribe could change so suddenly... It makes me wonder if something in those mines is the cause of this change..."
That would explain why that Goron guard was mumbling about the whole thing of the elders apparently not allowing humans around on the mountain. What was up with that? First they were friends with the humans, and now a sudden change?
I wonder if the Fused Shadow had anything to do with any of this trouble.
Renado sighed and then turned back to me. "In any case, you must take these children and flee this village before more nightmares descend. I, of course, cannot leave my village in such a time. There is no telling what may happen to us here... But it is my job to try to coax the Gorons back from their recent change of heart."
The kids all looked up at me, silently begging me to do just that.
There was one problem. How would we get back?
