Author's Note: Here you are, a nice, decently long chapter to make up for the pitiful one before. This was going to be strung together with the last one, but I couldn't make the pieces fit. Also, someone very special is finally getting into this story… Link! I've been trying to get him back into here for a while, but I just hadn't found the right moment. Enjoy. And review, please. Just a 'hi, I'm actually reading this.' Would be great.
Also, I'm not proud of the way this chapter is written, but I currently can't think of another way to write it.
Link had been dreaming again.
Mostly he dreamed of his shadow. Every time he slept in fact, from the moment he closed his eyes to the second they opened again, and he slept a lot. Truth was, he was beginning to regret being so active as the "Hero of Time".
He had come to the realization that even though he technically had already defeated Gannon, when he returned to being a child, it left his deeds as an adult yet to be completed. Not long after his victory, he had been gripped by the sudden need to visit the Temple of Time.
The Master Sword was still there. Impulsively he gripped its hilt.
And he was an Adult again.
He dropped the sword. He had not expected the magic to still work. Shakily he looked around.
Sheik was still there, and had explained everything to him. One of the repercussions of traveling between his adult and childhood body involved needing someone to play the part while the Hero was essentially gone. After all, something had to be done to protect his body in the in-between time. Therefore, his consciousness from before and after his defeat of Gannon needed to change places in Time.
"If it's so important to defend the body while the other me is no longer there," Link had asked, "Why can't my 'consciousness' just return to the same instant it left?"
Sheik had stared at him for a moment. Then with a flabbergasted stammer and a tacked on excuse, he (Or was Link now qualified to call him a 'she'?) vanished.
Link had attempted to shove the sword back into the stone, without any luck. Finally, he settled for waiting alone in the Temple. Time passed, he estimated about two or three days, before the urge to shove the sword back into the pedestal came over him. He succumbed to it willingly, and was once again, a child. An exhausted child- his other consciousness had obviously run him ragged- but a child nonetheless. Deciding against returning to Kokori Forest, he decided to rest inside the temple.
He eventually became used to this "swapping of minds", although he never did quite get used to the constant, horrible fatigue that came with the body. Obviously this was why he never had any need to sleep as the Hero of Time; His future (past?) self always rested for him.
On the rare occasions when Link did not cross over to a completely exhausted body, he chose to wander around in the time period, amusing himself, saying hello to friends. After awhile, the urges to pull out the sword subsided, and for a little less than seven years, they seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Eventually though, he did return to the temple. He had to dodge the re-dead, and was less than thrilled to discover that he was a bit out of shape. Not that he was less powerful, or physically inept. No, he had simply not fought anything in a good while. It was less than intelligent to mess around with history. That, and Sheik had already warned him against doing so.
Either way, he had returned to the exhausting schedule of switching time. Not long after, he began having the dreams. Dreams of Shadow Men, and Shadow Women, although there were few of the latter. He didn't remember having them the first time, and this was essentially the third time he went around this time period.
Still, he didn't let the dreams bother him too badly. He took it in stride and went about his business.
Currently, his business involved combing out the knots in Epona's mane.
It would have, and should have, been an easy chore, but the mare was feeling frisky this morning. Already she had nipped him twice on the elbow, and had once artfully maneuvered her hoof upon his toe. Link soon managed to predict her more painful ideas. She had countered by bobbing her head out of the reach of his brush.
"Come now, come on." Link pleaded as he once more attempted to pull his brush through his horse's mane. "Hold STILL."
Epona stopped moving her head. Link stepped foreword with relief. "There. Now just be a good gir-"
Epona at that moment trod on his foot. The time weary hero leapt backward with a yelp, and began hopping up and down, grasping his foot.
"Ow! Owowowow!" Link muttered several oaths under his breath, hissing in pain. "Damn it! Some hero, damn it, can't even brush a damn horse… Stop that!"
Epona, with her intelligent eyes, had been watching Link with what may have passed for amusement. Link glared back. "Stop that, damn it! It's not like I can do anything!" Epona still watched him, blinking softly in a half bored manner.
Angrily, Link stomped off. Epona watched him go, flicking her ear back and forth. Then, with the carelessness of a horse at ease, she lowered her head and began grazing.
Her master, however, did not go far. Currently staying at Lon Lon Ranch, he went no further than the windmill. There, he sat down and leaned against the cool stone.
He had been spending increasingly more time here, where the monsters outside had forgone invading. Unwilling to mess with the past, being all to aware of how it could alter the future, Link had abstained from battling with them, except when they threatened to breach Lon Lon's walls. After all, the monsters of today were for his past (future?) self to conquer.
There was also the matter of living, for the second time, the past that was his childhood. He had tried to live it the way he had lived it the first time, but with a seven-year gap hazing his memory, he had long since given up. This had, of course, resulted in new problems, generally involving forgotten promises he had made and carried out seven years before, and were expected to be carried out again. At times the memories twisted and turned in his head, causing him to apologize for offenses he had forgotten to commit.
The position was tedious, to be sure.
As of now, he was enjoying his few and precious moments as an adult, or at least he had been until he realized that the past (future?!) him had neglected to perform a few daily chores, admittedly involving hygiene and general maintenance of his gear and horse.
Somewhere in his moody and generally unpleasant thoughts, he must have dozed off, as time whizzed by to reveal Ingo standing before him in the colorful death throes of a weary day. Link squinted at the silhouetted form before him.
"Sleeping again?" Ingo asked, his voice still in his sickeningly cheerful, pleasant new mood. "You know, if Talon caught you sleeping, he'd probably-"
"Skin me alive and tan the hide, if he got off his lazy rear long enough to try."
"Now, don't be like that." Ingo tisked. "He's turned over a new leaf he has. Just yesterday I saw him actually mucking the stables." Link raised an eyebrow. "Well, he was trying." Ingo revised.
"On the subject of stables," Link rose to his feet. "Where's Epona?"
"Oh she's in the stable. I finished grooming her and would you know it, she bit me!" he held up two fingers, sufficiently crunched and bandaged.
"She never did like you. Thanks though." Link stretched. Things had improved since he had finally beat Ingo in the race for Epona, although he wasn't quite sure if Ingo's sudden boost in jubilation over his lot in life was an exact improvement.
"Not at all, not at all, my pleasure." Ingo waved the thanks away, his happy grin still splashed across his face.
The two entered Talon's and Malon's home, talking blandly of assorted subjects and wondering what was for, and more nervously, who had made, dinner.
Slouching patiently in the dark, Etnad watched the original form of his leader enter the building. He waited a few moments, nervous and afraid he would come out again. When he didn't, the boy slipped from the shadows and stole along the walls to the stable. He entered without event, and slipped to the other side of the stables.
He carefully removed his own small vial, conjured from nowhere by Acantha and filled painstakingly with drops of the potion. He then set about his task, bringing the shadows of the horses to life. He made his way around the stable, breathing heavily and sweating, nearly sick with terror. Ghosts and poes and the living dead never caused him to blink an eye, but Din help him if he were caught magicking horses.
He quickly doused all the lights but one, and crept with it over to one of the horses. Balancing it carefully on a post, he slipped over the low fence that encircled the equestrian creatures. He deftly poured a measured amount of the potion onto the horse's shadow, then quickly darted back and blew out the light.
He could hear the shadow taking form, but did not move until he saw the two large red eyes staring at him in the darkness. He produced a package of stolen matches from his pocket and lit the lantern. A black stallion stood blinking in the light. Etnad rubbed the horse's velvety nose. "Good boy. Yes, you're a good boy." He then went about changing the others' shadows, freezing in terror at the slightest noises from outside.
At last, he reached Epona, content and in place as Ingo had promised. She flicked an ear and eyed the shadow menacingly. He eased toward her, hand outstretched. "Easy girl."
The instant his fingers came within reach she slammed her teeth down upon the digits. Hissing and gasping in pain, Etnad snatched his fingers away and shoved them into his mouth. Struggling with his remaining hand, he sprinkled the needed amount of potion on her shadow. Removing his throbbing fingers from his mouth, he blew out the torch and waited in the darkness.
When at last he was met again with the red eyes of a shadow horse, he lit the torch a final time.
Epona, the original, cocked her head and looked at Etnad sharply, as though less than pleased with his earlier actions. However, her earlier threatening gaze had been transferred to her shadowy counterpart, who raised its lip and whinnied at him.
The boy stepped back. The two eyed each other briefly. Etnad turned away and began releasing the horse shadows from their stables, allowing their originals to wander out. He did nothing to remedy this, and by the time Etnad returned to Epona, the stable was fairly crowded. Struggling in the tight space to maneuver the board that barred the horses in their stables, while keeping the torch he now held in his teeth from catching anything on fire, he didn't notice the cloned Epona rising to her hind legs until her front hoof connected with his head.
He crumpled to the ground, dead upon impact. The torch, having fallen from his mouth, rolled away, lighting several wisps of straw as well as the wooden structure.
The whole place was ablaze in instants. Had the boy somehow survived the shadow horse's kick, he never would have lived through the trampling that followed as the mares and stallions stamped and kicked in their tight quarters.
The barn around them burned.
At some point in between a mouthful of bread and a glass of milk, Link's ears began to ring. Trying his best to restrain a sigh of resignation, he began to slide his seat back, recognizing this as the signal reminding him to return to the Temple of Light. "I have to go."
"Already?" Malon asked, looking up from her own meal. "You only came back a few days ago."
"I know." Link had long since given up attempting to explain the circumstances of his life as it was, and the other residents of Lon Lon Ranch had long since given up trying to figure it out. Eventually, they just came to accept his seemingly random comings and goings.
"At least finish your food." Malon insisted.
"I'll eat it on the way."
After a quick farewell to Talon and Ingo, Link left the building.
He soon burst back in, shouting "The stable! It's burning!"
A dumbfounded space of silence followed. The room suddenly burst into noise and bustle, as each of the three ranch workers began to rush the door as one, each struggling to get out before the other.
Link had already turned and raced to the stables, now fully oblivious to the persistent ringing in his ears. He threw open the door, and without pausing for thought, thrust himself into the midst of the flames.
At first he thought he was hallucinating, as the number of horses in the stable seemed to have doubled. Automatically though, he forced himself into action, dodging the horses' flailing limbs and teeth. Some of the horses had already noticed the open door and began racing toward it, nearly trampling Link in their wake. Others though, were still rolling their eyes in fear, oblivious to the escape route before them.
Link grabbed one of their bridles. Immediately the horse began to rear itself up, forcing Link to pull it down on all fours again. He tried grabbing another, but was kicked to the ground.
He landed on his back. Groaning in pain, he rolled over.
And came face-to-face with the beaten and bloodied corpse of what appeared to be a young boy. He was barely visible in the flickering shadows, but there without a doubt.
Link however, had no time to consider how or why the boy had been in the barn, and instead returned to his feet and continued moving the horses out.
Most of them had already ran from the barn, but there were a few still in the back of the stables. Link randomly one of their bridles, and this time ignoring the others, began to lead it out of the burning building.
When he had finally gotten the horse into the clear air, he relinquished it to Malon and turned back to the stables, just in time to see it collapse in on itself, killing whatever horses were still within it's walls.
Link paled. "How- how many?"
"Seven."
"Seven? I thought there were only four, counting Epona."
"I don't think most of them are ours."
Link finally looked over to the field where the horses were wandering aimlessly. Off in their own corner, four of them stood solidly in their own group. Each of them were solid black in color, save for their eyes, which were a burning red. They were eyeing the four Hylians, two of which were struggling to put out the fire.
Link could see Epona among them, and released the breath he wasn't aware he was holding.
"'Hoy! Link!" Talon hollered. "Get over here an' help put out this fire."
Link, fully aware again that he desperately needed to get to the Temple, went against his better judgment and moved to obey the command.
The horizon was becoming lighter by the time the last ember had been extinguished, and Link was once again, exhausted. Miserable, tired, and with the damned ringing still prancing in his ears, it was longer still until he finally managed to mount Epona, and make his way out into Hyrule Field.