The Bleeding Effect

Chapter VIII

Link was alone.

There was no way to tell how long he had been unconscious, what with the Shadow Temple eternally plunged in darkness. He leaned against the wall as his eyes struggled to readjust to the dim of the corridor.

"Navi? Sheik? Where are you?"

"I'm here!" Squeaked the fairy, as she popped out of his item pouch. He squinted at the sudden flare of bright blue light.

"Sheik?" He called again, his voice echoing back at him. Link rose, and checked the entire length of the corridor, then peered around both its ends; there was not a lone trace of the Sheikah. "Navi, did you see what happened?"

"It was something large, and dark. I couldn't see what it did, and before I knew it, it was gone again, and so was Sheik. You wouldn't stir no matter how loudly I called. All I could do was wait for you to awaken again."

Link rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Navi's and his impressions of the creature were too vague to pinpoint what exactly attacked them. And where was Sheik? Could he have been killed by the unknown monster? Why would Link be left alive, then? No, it was far more likely that Sheik was still alive, somewhere. Would he have retreated back to Kakariko, if the creature injured him? Or perhaps he pressed onwards, thinking he could rescue Impa faster without Link? The hero scowled. No. Sheik was annoyingly overprotective—even if he had lost enough of his trust in Link to want to continue on in the temple without him, the Sheikah hardly would have left Link alone, unaware and vulnerable. It was most likely, then, that Sheik had been taken by the monster. But where? And for what purpose? If it was to trap him, it was a waste of time; Link was already motivated to plunge into the Shadow Temple. What if Sheik was wounded? What if he didn't get to him in time?

"Link?" Navi hedged, drawing Link from his musings.

"Yes?"

Navi fumbled for the right words. "Well, you're not normally so…quiet and still. That is, unless you're solving some sort of trap or puzzle. But…there's nothing here."

Link chuckled. "I'm just debating which course of action to take next."

"As silly as it sounds, standing around planning and thinking just isn't like you. Listen, are you feeling alright?" Her tone flits from anxious to accusatory. "Did you hurt your head when fell, and you just haven't told me?"

"No, no, see?" He ruffled a hand through his hair, then held it up for the fairy to examine. "There's no blood. Not even a lump back there. I'm fine."

Navi was still not convinced. "Normally you would just jump right into the action."

Link shrugged, and weakly joked, "I suppose I'm just maturing, becoming more like an adult."

"What?" Navi blinked.

"Nothing. Now, let's go."

"You're pressing on? Without Sheik?"

"There's a better chance we'll run into him ahead of us then behind. Besides, Sheik can look after himself." Hopefully. He swallowed down the pessimistic word—he had no desire to work Navi up into a frenzy—as he continued onward, deeper into the Shadow Temple.

A soft, strange sound wormed into his ears, a repetitive snick, snick, snick. He turned two more corners before he found the origin. Guillotines.

"Fantastic." He muttered.

"Link? We still haven't found him."

"I know."

"We've explored almost every room so far."

"I know."

He couldn't find it within himself to be cross with her, despite her constant badgering and worrying. Navi's peppy voice was soft, subdued. Scared. Link didn't blame her. The Shadow Temple felt wrong, all wrong. His every instinct screamed at him to retreat back to the surface, to the dewy grass, the crisp air, the bright sun. To run from the shadows and back into the warm embrace of life. Everything here was cold, dark, dead. And the further he traveled down into its bowels, the thicker the presence of pure evil. This was not like Zant, not like the twilight, but something worse, tremendously worse. The swell of darkness he and Sheik had encountered in Kakariko Village could hardly compare to its enormity. It was if the Shadow Temple channeled and entombed all the wickedness of Hyrule. Impossible, his mind told him. His gut insisted otherwise.

But most frightening of all was how the darkness was beginning to affect him. In the gleam of a guillotine blade he caught his reflection. His mouth was swollen slightly, teeth growing almost too large to be contained. His nose was longer, the very beginning of a snout. He paused once, pulled up the cream-colored undershirt: sure enough, blue-gray fur had begun to sprout along his arm. Link did not stop to look again. Instead, he fought faster and with greater ferocity, wanting to rescue the sage (and Sheik, if he needed saving) before he transformed completely, even as it grew hard to hold the Master Sword with claws.

There was one small blessing from the Goddesses: it was too dark for Navi to see him clearly enough to notice he was changing, even with the faint illumination her body put forth. He hadn't the strength to deal with questions about his wolfish qualities, for his problems with the cloying darkness were not only external. The evil was clogging his veins, muddying his mind. Too often Navi had to shout warnings to him, lest he lose his life or a limb to some sick trap or twisted foe.

The dead piled at his feet, and bile constantly prickled in his throat, the Master Sword's silver glimmer coated in reddish-brown gore. He was miserable, sick to his soul. He had been having a hard enough time as the Hero of Twilight—he never wanted to be burdened with the responsibilities of the Hero of Time as well. He had never expected to face something like this. Link felt his courage being gnawed away. By the time he final reached the source of this evil (if he ever reached it) he would be nothing more than a trembling, frightened cucco.

Not for the first time, and probably not the last, Link pined for Midna. She would have lifted some of the haze from his mind with her witty comments. Who knows—perhaps the shadow crystal unintentionally gifted to them by Zant could have sopped up some of the black in his heart.

He surveyed the new room quickly, eyes darting from the map to the surroundings and back again. It seemed he had to take the ferry to reach the last handful of remaining rooms. Strange, to think that this would be his first boat ride. He should've taken Iza up on her offer for a free ride when he was still in his own time.

Link stepped onto the boat carefully, tapping the floorboards with the tips of his boots for stability before resting his full weight upon them. He had shoved the Hover Boots back into his pouch some time ago, their usefulness in this temple seemingly at an end. Patches creaked and groaned here and there, but despite the damp of the air, there was no area softened by rot.

There were no sails, no hint of wind. No oars. Link's gaze lingered on the gargantuan symbol of the Triforce carved into the wood.

"What should I do?" He asked dumbly. He knew the answer, he did, but his mind was too sluggish to dredge it up.

"Are you feeling alright, Link?"

"Let's just finish this." He couldn't spend a single day more in here. They needed to finish this before the now-delicate threads of his sanity were unraveled completely.

"Get out your ocarina. The Princess' lullaby might work."

Link wanted to rip his hair out. "I can't play the dumb instrument without Sheik's help!"

"I'm sorry."

Link breathed deeply, but instead of clearing his head, the air only clouded it further. His anger simmered like hot coals in his gut. He desperately tried to smother it, but instead it was fanned, a blazing inferno of rage.

"What's…happening to me?" He choked. Link fell to his knees, palms pressed uselessly against the burning in his chest. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it still felt wrong, terrible. It was as if every nasty thought that had ever crossed his mind came flooding back. Small things, petty things that he'd gotten over as he matured. His envy of Rusl's swordsmanship. The tiny spark of irritation when the Ordonian children pestered him to play on his one day off from the ranch. The burst of greed when he'd see families together, while he returned to an empty house. Why was this all coming back? Why now?

As sudden as the rush of negative emotions came upon him, they were gone. Link rubbed at his chest, the heat now abruptly absent.

"What was that?" Asked Navi.

"I'm not entirely sure. But whatever it was, it's gone now." Pushing down his unease, he dismissed the odd occurrence until he was more clear-headed, and could truly puzzle over it. "I can't play the ocarina, not well enough. How else can we get the boat to move?"

Together, Link and Navi inspected every inch of the boat they could reach. It seemed that there used to be a deck below, but regardless of how much he pulled and pried, he could not open the trap door that lead to it. Honestly, he was not sure he wanted to. The ship was mostly unadorned, save for its bow. Two golden bells were gripped tightly in withered hands. The bowsprit was carved from dull slate, in the now-familiar image of a raven. Though slightly interesting, neither decorations were very helpful. Link returned to the triforce symbol, and sat down in front of it, his back to the bow of the ferry, the religious symbol inverted.

Link strained his eyes to seek some sort of truth, a way out of this place that did not rely on his abysmal musical skills, but nothing was forthcoming.

Something was watching him.

He whipped around, but there was nothing there, save for the back of the statue's head and the tunnel beyond. With a soft curse, Link rose again, and lifted the Ocarina of Time from his pouch. With Navi's (unnecessarily over-detailed) instructions on where to place his fingers, he managed to squeak out the melody. As soon as the final note faded, he stuffed the ocarina away again, a stain of embarrassment on his cheeks. At least no one but Navi was around to hear it.

As if just to prove him wrong, the statue of the raven's head started to twist around. It turned slowly, and the screeching sound it emitted as it did so forced Link to cover his ears and Navi to cower beneath his cap. Stone was never meant to twist.

Once its head faced Link, to the hero's astonishment, the stone began to speak. The first syllables were dry and hoarse, but its voice quickly gained strength.

"I am the Ferry to the Other World. You insult me with such a pathetic offering."

"I cannot play well," Link admitted, voice quavering slightly.

"Clearly."

"Is there something else you would like as payment? I need to get across this river."

The raven tilted its head slightly, the stone shrieking. Link winced, but the statue remained unaffected by the noise. "Can you sing the lullaby instead?"

Link nearly laughed, at the edge of hysteria. Through all his adventures, he never imagined he would perform a song for a talking boat. A talking boat. What a ridiculous concept!

"I will try, at the very least."

"Fail again to please me, mortal, and I will never move for you." Link clapped his hands to his ears again as the raven twisted back to its original position, before falling completely still once more.

Well, Link could hardly allow Ganondorf to win simply because he couldn't impress a chunk of stone. He stood up as straight as possible, and breathed deeply, though the air was dank with evil.

What came from his mouth, to Link's horror, was a howl. He was already several bars into Zelda's Lullaby; he didn't dare cut himself off and begin again, forcing himself to sing as a Hylian. There was no guarantee he'd be able to do so, and to disrupt the song would anger the raven. So he closed his eyes, and continued to howl the song with gusto, like he would in a duet with the old, golden wolf. The last note reverberated, and slowly faded away within the tunnel. Then, nothing. A spike of fear pierced Link's heart. Would the boat not take him after all?

A rumbling laugh rent the silence in two. "I cannot say I have ever heard such an interpretation of the Royalty's most beloved song, wolf-man. The toll has been paid."

The bells jingled; Link peered over the side of the ship, and saw the hands waving the bells to and fro. He staggered as the ferry shuddered into motion, slowly drifting forwards into the gloom.

"Why didn't you sing it?"

"Oh, well, you see…" Link fumbled. "I just felt that howling it would be more…fitting. Yes. More fitting for such an atmosphere."

He could tell that Navi did not believe him, but she did not voice this, so he did not bring it up.

There was a faint splashing sound in the water. Link hesitated at first, one hand gripping the raven statue for safety's sake. But as time passed and they seemed no closer to reaching the end of the tunnel, he gave into his curiosity. He leaned over the edge (not too far) to observe the water. A thick mist, like clouds covering up the sun, obscured his sight of it.

The wolf within him growled in protest, but Link gingerly lowered his hand anyway, past the cool kiss of the mist, straining to touch the water beneath, only to be met with…nothing. No water, only empty air. The boat was floating through nothing.

"What if it falls?" His voice was infused with horror. How far down would the drop be? And, assuming he survived the fall, would something be waiting for him down there at the bottom?

A deathly cold hand grabbed his. With a cry, Link struggled to pull his arm from the mist. Something equally as strong was trying to pull the rest of his body in. Through the swirl of black and white, he saw himself, half-transformed into his wolf form. But Link's own mouth was open with a scream he could not voice, his features twisted with desperation; his reflection was sneering, hateful. The pupils dissolved in a blaze of red.

"It's Dark Link! You can't let him pull you in, you have to fight!"

"How can I?" Link grunted. "He's just as strong as I am. He is me!"

"You must conquer yourself. Be more than who you already are. Be better. If you don't, you'll die!"

"I can't die here. There are far too many people depending on me!"

His hand seared, the golden light of the Triforce bursting forth. Dark Link hissed, and its grip slackened enough for Link to pull himself free. He fell backwards, hard onto the deck of the ferry. His body, once stuck in the stupor of shadow, now hummed and pulsed with the bright energy of fear.

Link sat up, and any relief he felt at breaking free of the monster was quashed by dread as Dark Link slithered onto the boat.

"I don't understand!" Navi babbled. "This doesn't make any sense at all. You defeated your reflection in the Water Temple already. Why has it come back again?"

Link drew his blade. Dark Link mirrored him flawlessly. "Navi, tell me. What exactly is Dark Link?"

"I am you." The voice was deeper than Link's own, but he could still hear himself threaded within. "The Shadow Temple is the manifestation of what Hyrule truly is, beneath the surface. Just as I am who you truly are. All your hatred, jealously, anger. Everything that you lie to yourself about, everything you attempt to ignore or deny about yourself—that is me. That is Dark Link."

Link paled, his pallor now contrasting even greater with his counterpart's. "This is impossible. The people of Hyrule have noble hearts. They would never—they could never carry in their hearts such evils as I have encountered down here."

"When King Bulblin held Colin captive, in your fury, you imagined inflicting such tortures upon the creature. You wanted to quarter him, with Epona being one of the pulling horses. You wanted to flay it alive. You wanted to slowly twist the Master Sword into its most tender muscles until it eventually bled to death."

"No, I-I didn't do any of those things. I only thought them. I didn't mean them!"

"You always mean what you think." Dark Link lunged as Link did, the clash of their blades ricocheting off the tunnel walls as the ferry trundled on. They continued their duel, constantly meeting each other's swords, perfect mirrors. Slowly, Link felt himself begin to weaken, in both body and spirit.

"You want Midna." Dark Link began again.

"Enough! Don't drag her into this!" Link's attack, over-hasty in his anguish, cost him, as Dark Link managed to slice open his shoulder. The strength of his sword arm puddled out onto the wood.

"She's smart, and shares your sense of humor. But you cannot love her completely. The reason is shallow, but who can blame you, really? All the heart and character in the world amounts to nothing when she is just a squat, deformed little imp. You could never happily fuck something that small."

"Stop," Link nearly sobbed. All his techniques that he worked so many days to master escaped him now. Every time their swords connected, some of the darkness within his foe seemed to travel into Link. The sluggishness from earlier resurged with a vengeance. He could barely see the boat anymore, and Navi's blue light had been swallowed entirely. The only thing keeping him alive was the bright glare of Dark Link's eyes.

Before Link could react, Dark Link grasped his wrist and dragged him closer. The shadow's body was chilled, and its breath smelled of rot.

"You're not good enough to be the hero."

Link had heard this line of reasoning before. From Shad, from murmuring Zoras who thought he wasn't within earshot, from a troupe of sneering Gorgons. From himself. Though such comments stung his pride, he could normally shrug them off. But the situation he was in now, down in Hyrule's underbelly, was the utter opposite of normal.

"You let the children get kidnapped. You couldn't defend Midna, so to save her you murdered Zelda."

"Stop, please!"

"You cannot accomplish your own mission to defeat Zant. And now here you are, blustering about in the past, trying to fill the shoes of the greatest hero of all time. Zant is a flea to Lord Ganondorf. Someone as pathetic as you could never hope to even scratch Him."

Dark Link watched without sympathy as Link fell to the floor. The tip of its foul blade bit into Link's neck.

"You are worthless. You are not a hero."

Dark Link raised its weapon for the final blow.

Link squeezed his eyes shut, but quickly opened them at Dark Link's unexpected howl of pain.

Light, brilliantly gold, fiercely bright, lit the entire tunnel. It dimmed slightly, but then a second magic-infused arrow hit Dark Link in the chest. The shadow staggered back, clawing at its new wound. Link could feel the light working on him, too, cleansing him of his wolfish features. The arrows continued to rain down upon it, until, with an angry howl, Link's double disappeared back over the side of the ferry. Only one person he knew had the wisdom to use light in such a way.

"Princess Zelda?" He wondered as he turned his battered body around. To his surprise, it was not a woman who wielded the bow, but a man.

"And here I was so sure we'd seen the last of that nefarious creature."

"Sheik?"

"Are you truly so surprised, hero?" The Sheikah knelt beside Link, swapping his bow for a roll of bandages. Carefully, but not all that gently, he dressed Link's wounds.

"How did—"

"Link!" Shouted Navi, right into said Hylian's ear. "I was so, so worried about you! When you were fighting Dark Link, it was as if there was some sort of huge black force field around you! I couldn't see you, hear you, anything!" She drooped. "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything more to help you."

"Navi…"

Before Link could wave off her apology, she perked up again of her own volition. "I won't let it happen again. We'll stick together. No matter what!"

Link smiled softly. "Right."

Her enthusiasm was charming. Sheik tied off the last of the bandages rather tightly, jerking Link's attention back to him. So many questions clamored in Link's mind, all wanting to be asked first.

"Sheik, how did you find us? And why did you run off on your own?"

Sheik crossed his arms. "I did not 'run off on my own'. I was dragged away, quite against my will. Did you not see it?"

Link shook his head. "I turned around when you shouted, and then the next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and you were gone."

The other man gave a hum of understanding. "It was a wallmaster. It dragged me all the way back to the entrance of the temple, where I finally managed to get free enough from its grasp to kill it." He paused. "Wallmasters crawl along the ceiling so quietly that no normal person would hear their approach. I would have heard it, however, had I not been…sidetracked." He leveled Link a look. "Which brings me to a question of my own. But first, drink this."

Sheik pushed a red potion into Link's hands.

Link uncorked it, but hesitated. "Shouldn't we wait until we reach the monster that came from the town well? We may need it more then."

"If you don't drink it now, what guarantee is there that you'll make it that far?"

"Sheik! Don't even joke about such a thing." Scolded Navi, before adding, "But Link, you really should drink it. You look terrible!"

"Tactful as ever." Link muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." He drank down the potion quickly, face crinkling at its bitter tang. The hero handed the bottle back to its owner. "Satisfied?"

"Not yet. Now tell me. How do you possess eyes which can see the truth?"

Sweet Din. Amidst all he had endured during the past several hours, Link had all but forgotten about their argument. Now here he was, scrambling for lies.

"Perhaps it's just a…hero…thing?" He floundered.

"No. It is not. Your predecessors did not share this power. Lady Impa would have informed me if that were the case. Try again. The truth, this time, if you please."

Link tried to rise, but Sheik grabbed his wrist, grip firm and unrelenting, pulling him down again. A bracelet on Sheik's arm Link had never noticed before jangled at the movement. Frowning, he peered closer. It was a simple gold band, inlaid with a bright amethyst in the shape of an eye.

"Did you have this on before?"

Sheik snatched back his hand and covered up the bracelet.

"It's none of your concern. A trinket gifted to me by Lady Impa; nothing more."

"It hardly seems a trinket." Link didn't want to start bickering again—where between him and Midna it was playful, between him and Sheik it was heated—but he still found himself falling back into the pattern again.

"Why can you see though walls?"

"'It's none of your concern.'" Link parroted.

The ferry shook violently.

"What's going on?" Link cried.

Navi, high above them, shouted back: "This ship is sinking! Abandon ship! Get onto a safe platform!"

"Come on!" Sheik tugged him to the port side of the ferry, and they leapt from it to a strip of stone. Link glanced back, and only saw the tip of the raven's head as it disappeared beneath the mist. They had nearly plummeted to certain doom.

Shivering slightly, Link stood. "Look, Sheik. You can't trust me to tell you the truth, and I can't trust you to do so either. But we can trust each other when it comes to this quest. We can trust each other for protection. We can trust that our backs will be defended, not stabbed. All through the Shadow Temple, I tripled checked every single room I came across, making absolutely sure I didn't overlook anything that indicated you were held captive somewhere nearby. If there had been one spot of fresh human blood, one strand of hair—I would have found it. I never gave up on you. And without you, Sheik, Dark Link would have killed me." Link extended his hand. "Now, are you with me or not? Can we both ignore each other's secrets for the time being, and press on?" Sheik was not keen. "Please, Sheik. I really have no desire to do this without your help."

Link smiled. "It's dangerous to go alone."

Finally, Sheik reached out and accepted his hand.

"That seems a bit far."

Link, Sheik, and Navi peered down the giant hole in the center of the room. Below, the dark presence they encountered before was waiting for them. Though Link could not see the monster yet, he could feel its oily aura all about. For some reason, Sheik's presence warded off most of the darkness up to this point. At the moment, all Link had to hide was the curl of his claws; the rest of his features remained unaltered. Strange, as Sheik was one of the Sheikah tribe; a group of Hylians that served the Royal Family from the shadows. Yet another mystery to add to the pile.

Sheik picked up a nearby skull and dropped it into the hole.

"Hey!" Link protested indignantly. "That's disrespectful to the dead!"

"Clearly he didn't need it anymore."

They watched as it bounced on the floor, rolled a ways, then fell still once again.

"If that frail skull did not shatter upon impact, then neither shall we, hero."

They jumped down, Navi following, a tiny blue light to guide their way. Link braced for hard impact, but instead bounced. Leaning down, he inspected the surface of the ground. It felt like an old animal hide.

"What by Nayru is this?"

Two enormous hands emerged from the darkness, gray with rot and age. They beat a rhythm onto the floor, disrupting their balances. The low sound was not unlike a heartbeat, or that of a—

"It's a drum!" Said Navi. "You're standing atop a giant drum."

Then it appeared. A colossal corpse, bloated with death. Flaps of flesh wreathed its stump of a neck, and in the center, a massive, blood-red eye glared balefully back at Link. The color brought back a flash of memory—Dark Link standing over him, sneering, whispering—

Link moaned softly, and Sheik shot him a worried glance. But there was no time for concern. The monster from the well had begun its attack. The body of the beast receded back into a thin veil of shadow. The severed hands, meanwhile, chased Sheik and Link around the surface of the drum. The Sheikah threw sets of needles continuously, immobilizing the hand that pursued him one finger at a time. The other hand crept towards Sheik's back; before it could even come close, Link carved a long cut across its palm. The blood did not spurt out as Link expected. Instead, the split skin simply parted to reveal brown blood which had long since stopped flowing. Small bits flaked off and fell on the drum. Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised. Goddesses only know how long the vile thing's been dead.

Its voice was a deep rumbling of thunder. "It's not fair! It's not!" A hand glided closer; Link bashed it away with his shield. He heard two of the giant knuckles crack. "They were the ones who were mad. They were the ones who were wrong! Not I! Them!" Sheik subdued the other hand completely. A few swift sword strokes, and Link accomplished the same.

Its hands felled for the moment, the monster's body came forward once again, but this time to fight. The reek of its evil made Link bark with pain: his tail sprouted without warning. Wonderful. He needed to end this battle, now.

"They just couldn't see the truth! They didn't understand that sacrifices must be made. It's not my fault! It was the truth!"

See the truth. Of course. Link grit his teeth, which were elongating and sharpening by the second. Chopped off hands. An absent head. This was what remained of the man who had lived where the well was built, the man who obtained the eye of truth, the very same eye which gleamed in the black.

The hero charged towards the giant eye. He would deliver the monster a swift death, in honor of what it once had been.

But the closer he came to the monster's body, the thicker the darkness. He tried to push through it, tried to reach the eye, but every step sprouted more and more fur. Too much, too much. If he didn't turn back, he wouldn't be able to turn back, not in time for Sheik and Navi not to see. Link stumbled away, but it was too late. The meager distance could not shield him from the flood of darkness. Link hunched over, bones crunching, popping, shifting, growing, until the transformation was complete. Link was a wolf.

At the astonished, intermingled cries of Sheik and Navi, Link knew that they had seen him.

-TBC-