She teleported inside the castle, but couldn't manage any further. "Oof!" She almost fell over when she felt stone under her feet after the quick trip. She'd have to walk the rest of the way. The dungeons were easy enough to get to—Hyrule Castle's dungeon was not very large or used anyways—but Zelda still found herself pausing every few minutes to catch her breath. "Phew!" She patted her belly. "A few more weeks. That's all."

There were no windows in the dungeon, but Zelda's magic provided enough light. This was lucky since she didn't think carrying a torch would be doable for her. That teleport spell had taken it out of her!

When she reached the end of the hall, she shivered involuntarily. It wasn't that cold, but this part of the castle had been closed off for good reason. There were three cages ahead of her. Two were closed, rusted shut, but the third's gate had been bent as if by an impossible force and partially ripped off its hinges. Zelda had never bothered to have it fixed. For a moment she remembered being in that cell, and how not Link, but Shadow had destroyed that gate, to let her out. She remembered the look on his face still, the anger and self hatred, the same he had exhibited today. She walked into the cell and surveyed the shadows, feeling like she was being watched. She held her light into the corners, sending some of the shadows away. "Come out, Shadow. It's me."

Reluctance. She felt it. But then shadows converged on a spot against the wall, and Shadow appeared, sitting with his back to the wall. She was pleased, and then confused, to see he was back to his more human-like form. Did that mean he had calmed down already?

"I got angry," Shadow stated. "I exploded." He sounded shocked. Zelda didn't like it. Usually Shadow knew when he was angry. It didn't come as a surprise.

She crouched and sat in front of him. "Yes. Do you know why that is?"

"No. I mean, I promised I wouldn't . . . not in front of Zelly." He dropped his face into shaking palms. Zelda scooted closer so she could put her arms around Shadow and cradle his head against her shoulder.

"It's just that," Shadow began. Zelda loosened her hold and Shadow lifted his head. "I just hated him so much."

"Who?"

"Link."

Zelda's eyebrows furrowed. "But you don't hate him. You haven't for years. You only ever hated him because Ganondorf cursed you to."

"Yes, but in that moment, everything got cloudy. I couldn't tell where I was anymore. It was like . . . being back in Ganon's control and hating everything." He forced a laugh. "But it's not like Ganon's back, right? S-so what's wrong with me?"

It felt suddenly much colder to Zelda. "Maybe it was just a fluke," she suggested.

"Huh . . . how is Zelly?"

"Upset that her daddy disappeared. She asked if you died."

Shadow grimaced. "I'd better apologize."

"That would be nice."

"Hiiiiiiiii," Melody said in a sing-songy way as she rocked on her heels and batted her big brown eyes at Colin.

Colin was too busy trying to keep up with Tatl and Tael to feel more than a little discomfort. Well, he thought. At least I don't have to ever wonder where SHE is. It was always wherever he was, a few feet away, staring at him dreamily. Russ was always in the penalty corner if he wasn't off terrorizing animals somewhere. As for Tatl and Tael, they were big enough to carry and keep from going where they shouldn't, but that didn't make handling them any easier.

"AUGH!" Colin yelled, a giggling Tatl and Tael playing patty-cake as they hung from his arms like potato sacks. "Melody, couldn't you . . ." The girl giggled at him. "Never mind." Come on, Colin, be like Link. He took care of all you village kids for HOURS.

"TEACH ME HOW TO SWORD PLAY!" Russ yelled, running out of the penalty corner and tackling Colin from behind. "I GOT YOU! EN GARDE!"

"ACK! RUSS!" Colin cried out as he and the three children fell in a heap.

"You're on my head," Tatl complained.

Tael giggled. "You made Tael eat dirt." His expression suddenly changed. He spat. "Yuck!"

"RUSS!" Melody yelled dramatically. "GET OFF OF HIM!" She ran over and started tugging harshly on Russ' ears.

Colin felt Russ knee him in the back as he tried to get away from his sister. When he finally managed to get up again, Colin made a note to tell his mother again that combing hair was pointless and why couldn't he just run around with tangled hair like Link all the time?

Although, thinking of his mother gave him an idea.

"RUSS! You, here! Melody, here! Both of you, hold Tatl and Tael! Now, we are going to the nursery!" Obediently enough, the children trailed through the halls of the castle next to Colin. I'm going to remember that! Colin thought. Apparently moms knew what they were doing with their voices. Maybe if the kids were in one room he could keep them all in one piece. They reached the nursery and Colin happily opened the door. But as the kids trailed in, he counted four heads . . . then groaned. "Saria. Kids, stay in there, okay? I have to find Saria!" And he shut the door after them and ran down the hall.

The children didn't answer. Zelly and Shadow were already in the nursery. Zelly was sitting in Shadow's lap, and Shadow had been playing with finger puppets. "Um . . ." he uttered. Then smiled as big as he could. "Hi kids!"

Russ ran up to him. "TEACH ME HOW TO DO THAT!"

Tatl pointed a tiny finger at him. "Inside voice."

"No, Russ, I can't teach you that," Shadow answered. "I don't want to actually DO that, ever again."

"Aw, why not?"

"And why were you so MAD at Papa, anyway?" Melody demanded snottily. "He's better than YOU."

"Hi evee-body," interrupted Zelly. "Daddy has had a VERY bad day, but Mommy says he's okay now."

"Thank you, Zelly." He looked at the others apologetically. "Kids, I'm really s—"

"SHH!" Zelly put her hand over Shadow's mouth and squished his lips to the side. "Shhhhhhhhh. You're the tiger, remember? Tigers don't talk."

"He not tigow, no stwipes!" Tatl noted.

"I GOT THE STWIPES!" Tael had successfully opened a can of orange paint and gotten it all over his hands. He ran up to Shadow and planted two messy handprints on his knees. "Now he tigow, WAAAAAAAAAAW!"

"Doze is spots!" Tatl exclaimed.

Russ stared oddly at Shadow, who stared back with some trepidation. Then Russ brushed one finger on Tael's hand and dragged it across Shadow's cheek, leaving a long, thick line like warrior paint. "Awesome," Russ said about his handiwork.

Melody began laughing her head off.

"ROAR DADDY!" Zelly yelled.

Shadow bared his teeth and growled.

The children screamed and all of them jumped away from Shadow and ran to the other side of the room, laughing once they got there.

Shadow stood up. "RAAAAAAR!"

An ear-splitting scream reached them, but it came from outside the nursery. The kids looked around, confused since the person didn't sound like they were having fun. "That was Saria!" Russ realized.

"Stay in here," Shadow told them, and hurried into the hall. He looked left first.

A few yards from the door, Saria stood over an unconscious Colin, staring past the nursery door and down the hall.

"Saria!" Shadow rushed her way, but the little girl gestured behind him frantically, blubbering something.

"There—There—There was a man!"

Shadow spun, but the hall was empty except for them and the other children peeking through the nursery door.

"He was r-right there!"

Shadow scanned both ends of the hallway but found no one. Footsteps sounded at one end, and guards appeared, alerted by Saria's scream. "Men, search that way!" Shadow pointed in the direction Saria had pointed.

"NO!" Saria yelled as the guards ran off. "H-h-he could be ANYWHERE! He DISAPPEARED!"

Another two guards knelt by Colin. "Saria," said Shadow, "I need you to go into the nursery and stay with your brothers and sisters, okay?"

"NO! NO NO NO!" She leapt away from his reaching hands and ran around the guards.

"SARIA!" Shadow ran after her, yelling behind him, "Guard the nursery!"

"SIR!" came a panicked reply. Shadow skidded to a halt and looked back. The guards and Colin were motionless. And gray. "What?" Shadow ran back to them, unable to believe his eyes.

The guards and Colin, they were all turned to stone. Heart pounding, Shadow ran to the nursery door, and found four stony faces looking out from the crack. No . . .

Four faces. Where was Zelly?! As he tried to find a way to enter the nursery without harming the other children in the doorway, an ominous voice spoke up behind him,

"I knew this wasn't a job for junior."

A creature with a hideous, toothy grin stood there, head tilted to the side. He wore a gold crown that extended into two tall horns. His face reminded Shadow of a bloodthirsty weasel, with white skin and black angled pits for eyes. Tiny red irises leered at Shadow from within them. He took two steps toward Shadow, a large black cloak materializing out of the darkness. Impossibly long, shin-length hair, dark purple, moved about his body like wind as he stepped. "My question is," he said, brandishing a sharp-nailed finger at Shadow. "Why haven't you turned to stone? Everyone else has!"

His voice was like slimy silk, and his words made Shadow's spirit churn. "Who are you?" Shadow snapped. "What have you done? . . . Change them back!"

"My other question," the intruder continued as if Shadow had not spoken, "Who to take, the mother . . . or the child?" He waved a hand, and suddenly Zelly was there at his feet. One quick look told Shadow that she, too, had been turned to stone.

Shadow's heart was in his throat. "ZELLY!" He felt his anger returning. He charged at the figure. "CHANGE HER BACK!"

"Hahahaha!" The air around the figure distorted and began to shine. Both the figure and Zelly began to disappear into the air.

Shadow recognized the spell. I must do it, once more. He let his anger consume him and leapt toward the spot the two had disappeared. His shadow form latched onto the tendrils of the spell and dragged him along, away from the castle and into a dark, shadowy space.

The weasel man was ahead, floating in the nothingness, Zelly in his arms. He was looking at Shadow with a confounded look. "Hm! You followed me! . . . Now how did you do that?"

Shadow took control of every shadow in the space and launched them at the man as he also dove toward him.

The man screamed, summoning a spell, and the shadows and magic fought with each other, blinding them both. Shadow reached for where he remembered Zelly was. He collided with something, and everything turned white.

Shadow curled into a ball and waited for the dimensional winds to pass.

As soon as they did, he opened his eyes. At first he thought he magic had not left yet . . . but then he realized he was in a canyon, and it was blisteringly hot, and the moving lines were the waves of heat, not magic.

He sat up and looked at what he had managed to grab off the sorcerer from before. He stared at the golden hair for several seconds in shock. Then he pushed them out of the way to find a sweet little face. "Zelly?! Oh dear Goddesses, thank you!" He hugged Zelly to himself. "Zelly? Zelly, are you alright?"