Author's Note: I'm Back! –ish. This chapter's rather short, I'm afraid. And I apologize for Darunia's Shadow's horrible name. I was reading a lot of SGT Frog at the time, and their names are all like Keroro, Giroro, Tamama… And by the time I got around to coming up with a more suitable name, the name he now has was deeply printed in my mind. I apologize. I also apologize for lack of updating. Summer makes the updating of stories miserably slow, since I have no ready access to wireless internet, and my computer lacks a plug-in for a phone-cable thingy. Again, I apologize.

You have made an enemy today, and you will make many more.

A night's sleep had not yet erased Darunia's warning from my mind. I stood now at the peak of our Shadow Mountain, looking down at the world bathed in light.

And you will make them faster than you can kill them.

Hyrule was vast. Despite my proud words to Darunia, I could see this. There were so many lands, so many people, so many small, piddling kingdoms within this land all with their own petty squabbles and personal tragedies to contend with. To the east, the Zora, if they haven't frozen yet. To the west, Hyrule Castle Town, what was left of the desolate place, beyond that, the Gerudo Desert, beyond that, Lake Hylia. To the north, Kakariko Village, Hylian Fields, Kokori Woods. Beyond them… Who knew?

At the very least, there were three peoples to deal with, at the very most, uncountable. This was, of course, if I counted in all the monsters of Hylia, the Peahats, the Skullchilds, the Skullkids, the Deku Scrubs… in the forest and fields alone!

…faster than you can kill them.

Here I knew Darunia was wrong. I would make too many enemies to kill, not make them faster. My tiny clan, against an unknowable number of people…

I looked over at Darunia's shadow, since christened Daruru. He stood silently beside me, watching the sun rise.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"So beautiful. So vast. So full of people. Would you agree that we, too, have a right to this land?"

Daruru looked at me. "Of course."

"And you would agree that we are few in number, yes."

"Sir, what are you getting at?"

I continued to stare out into the horizon. "We are not many. Out of the eleven of us, only two are women, and one," I smiled thinly. "is a damn chicken. So there're ten of us, really. Two women, eight men, of varying ages. That is not a good ratio for survival."

"So we need more women?"

"That, yes. We need more people, period. I was thinking that you, being the shadow of a cheiftain, would have some ways to remedy this."

Daruru seemed to think for a moment. "In my tribe, there are not many women. It is rare for a female to be born. When one is, they are sent to another tribe. The male and female tribes live separately, and come together only to mate."

"I see. And you mate in the usual way?"

"Yes."

I was quiet for a moment. "I don't believe we have time to expand our tribe that way."

"We shadows are made from that potion, yes?"

"Yes."

"Could we not just 'copy' the people out there? As you said, the world is vast."

"I have thought of this. But I worry about the time."

"If you were to split the people, into pairs perhaps, and send them each with a small portion of the potion…"

"That would work." I interrupted, rubbing my chin. I briefly wondered why I hadn't thought of this myself.

I looked out one last time at the sun. It had risen above the mountains and shone solidly on the fields. Yes, Daruru's plan may work after all.