Chapter 8

I went up to the horse grass and searched my pocket as I had been told andto my surprise I grasped a small object. I pulled it out of my pocket to find it looked rather like the end to an instrument, guessing entirely at what to do next I picked one of the pieces of grass and tried imitating the song that Link played to call Epona, to my surprise the addition when held in front of the grass made the tune much deeper and almost added a sort of echo. After playing the melody I waited a moment and just when I thought nothing was going to happen a horse materialized, in the same way Link and I did after Midna warped us anywhere, right next to me. It was the darkest shade of black I'd ever seen in my life, and its mane and eyes were an orange that matched that of the setting sun. I looked over at Link who just sat there waiting for me to mount up so we could move on out, but Midnahad shown her translucent figure but there was a look of utter chock in her eyes. I glanced around quickly making sure no one was near enough to hear me besides Link, "Midna," I asked waiting for any sort of response.

Suddenly she shook her head like shaking off a bad dream, "It... It's nothing, let's go," she said and did not wait a minute more before sinking back into the shadows. I hopped on my new steed and it did not even snort as I did so. Link took off first at a pace which I never thought I would be capable of keeping up with. Great, I'm going to end up falling off and looking like a fool in front of Midna, wait, why the hell should I care what she thinks, I thought, my face turning red but not for long as my horse suddenly let out the strangest noise I had ever heard a horse make, reared back and then took off at an incredible pace. Oh dear God, last time I rode a horse was at least 6 years ago, and that was short, but I did manage to bring the horse back under control after thunder spooked it...I thought gripping the reins and leaning low to avoid any major wind knocking me off balance and therefore off the horse itself. After a moment however it seemed to me the horse knew where to go better then I did so I simply tried to get the hang of sitting properly in the saddle. I got situated just as I caught up with Link. Surprised he looked at me and I glanced back, after a moment deciding the horse was self-sufficient enough I could stick out my toungeat Link. Link however was not pleased and with a kick at Epona's sides he pulled ahead. Well if it works for him, I thought giving my horse a decent kick in the sides and it picked up such a difference in speed I nearly fell backwards off it.

Racing like we were it did not take long to cross the bridge and reach what looked like a dead end, but as we stopped briefly a strange noise could be heard from behind us. I was rather exasperated to see that a rather large chunk right out of the middle of the bridge had up and vanished and three shadow beasts had been placed on our end of the bridge. "Tell you what Link, I'll take out the guy on the right and you bring down the other two at the same time," I said hopping off my horse as Link did the same. As promised I lunged directly at the far right shadow beast and began clawing at it and generally bashing it down, oddly as I finished it off with one final claw from my right hand however I could have sworn I saw the claw itself flash black and enlarge slightly. I turned to see Link unleash one final spin attack, our job here done we returned to our horses and remounted. Link pulled out his bow and arrows and just as I was about to ask what he planned to do with them he pulled out his bomb bag and attached a small bomb to one of his arrows and shot it at a three large rocks blocking the path. They were, of course, removed by the bomb and Link and I proceeded on down the path, avoiding flaming arrows and little club swinging goblins on the way.

Then as we approached the wall that was the entrance to the twilight Epona reared back, turned and promptly dropped her front hooves in place, refusing to go any further. To my surprise however my steed refused to stop and I was forced to bail off to one side, ending up smashing my head into the cliff not but three meters to my right. Midna popped up and laughed, causing my face to turn red, "Damn horse wouldn't stop, it's not my fault..." I stood up and stumbled trying to regain my balance after smashing my head. I turned to see Midna's giant handalready pulling Link into the twilight. "Oh crap," I said trying to run but tripping over my own two feet due to disorientation caused by smashing my head. About an inch from my face hitting the ground I felt something grab my leg and roughly yank me backwards through the wall of the twilight.

This time when I came to my armor had already completely engulfed me, Midna smiled at me, not needing to speak to get her point across. She always seemed slightly pleased when I was unable to talk. Just then I remembered something and got an evil look in my eye that outdid Midna's evil grins, which I had maybe only noticed once or twice when she seemed frustrated. Midna gave me a questioning look and I focused my mind on hers. "Don't think, that just because my mouth is covered I no longer have a means of communication," I said attempting successfully to send the message to just her through her mind. "Keep this little power of mine 'hush-hush' and I promise I won't tell your secret," I said to Midna andshe nodded jumping onto Link's back again. We travelled a short ways to find ourselves very near HyruleCastle again. Link had found Illia's, whom I had only heard about until now, pouch and gotten her scent off it. We managed to follow it all the way to Hyrulecastle town. Here we found Illia watching over a Zora boy who seemed to be drying out to say the least, and a woman seemed to have befriended Illia.

After a short reminder she couldn't even see Link nor would she recognize him as a wolf we overheard some guards in the back talking about the light spirit at Lake Hylia. This whole time the only reason I was able to see and hear all of this was because I was feeding off Link's mind therefore enabling me to see what his wolf senses let him see. Following the guards advice we set off for the Lake, or at least the bridge above the lake. Even as we approached the bridge I had an uneasy feeling, Midnaconvinced me to go on however. A decision she found herself regretting about half way across the bridge as one of the goblins with a bow appeared, and I guess having been changed by the power of the twilight affected the power of his bow shot because from the side of the bridge in front of us he shot an arrow over our heads to the far side, and then shot another right in front of us. Just then I realized it, I could smell oil, we were standing in the middle of a death trap. Midna freaked out but Link being the holder of the Triforce of courage of course kept his cool and pushed a nearby box near the edge of the bridge. He then clambered up the box and lept off the side down towards the puddle that was the "lake." I stood on the edge of the bridge for a moment looking down and considering the weight of my armor. There's no way in hell I'm floating, but that flame, I have a feeling even if I still am immune to burning I won't be able to catch up to them any other way,I thought finally leaping just before the flame reached the middle of the bridge.

The rushing air was a great sensation but the sight of the ground rushing up at me was extremely frightening, the weight of my armor was almost as great as I predicted too. I nearly caught up with Link as I hit the water and sunk under, it wasn't until I hit the bottom that I realized I wasn't needing any oxygen. Realizing this I simply walked to the nearest wall and began climbing up. It took some time and luckily I met Link and Midna as they were departing from the small building nearby. At this point I was flustered to no end, I wasn't a big fan of water when I was capable of swimming but whether I be in the light or twilight here there was no way I was keeping my head above water. Midna pointed out the fact I had been completely engulfed by the dark armor except a section of my left arm, and my head. I shrugged and we continued to where they were heading. We ran into a dark goblin who decided to call on a giant bird to help him. Instinctively I reached for my new distance weapon. Just as I was about to swing it at the bird however the weapon locked itself in place andchanged black. It then wrapped itself around the remainder of my uncovered arm and altered its form significantly.

The blade now extended to either side of my hand, and was curved much like a bow. Either side was sharp enough to actually cut, and a strange glowing sphere had appeared half sunken into the middle of the two blades, right where the back of my hand would be. I reached out to touch it with my other clawed hand and to my surprise a small ball of glowing energy came up out of the sphere and an incredibly thin string of energy appeared, attached to either terminal end of each of the blades and underneath my index finger, or rather claw. Instinctively I pulled the string back and the small ball of energy lengthened and sharpened to a tip, creating an arrow. Perfect,I thought aiming the bow directly at the little bow wielding goblin on the birds back. I made sure the string was as far back as I could pull it, which was slightly hard due to the fact it was on my own arm. I took careful aim and let fly the arrow of pure energy, it flew straighter then any arrow I had ever seen and knocked the goblin flat off the bird. Strangely enough however after firing the small arrow I suddenly felt slightly fatigued, or at least a bit more then before I fired the arrow. Link ran over and finished off the little goblin and Midna took control of the giant bird.

"Nice shot Chris," Midna said sending me a smile that although I was sure was meant in slight good intention seemed to have a dark aspect that chilled me to the bone. "Unfortunately, although this bird is huge, I doubt it could carry you, even if it didn't have to haul Link along too," she said giggling once again. I flicked my wrist away telling them to go without me but focused my mind sending a telepathic message to Midna only.

"Just send me some sort of sign if you find out danger is heading for me, okay," I asked her and she nodded at me from on top of the giant bird, which then proceeded to snatch up Link and fly off to what would have been upriver, had there been any water flowing still. I yawned and walked over to what was left of the "lake" and sat down. I sat there for quite some time, just thinking to myself, but after a moment I became rather bored with this and fell back to stare at the sky, sighing inwardly. Now that I really stop to look at the sky in the Twilight realm, I can actually see why Midna likes it, but still it could be so much better I think, this sky seems slightly dark, even for "twilight",I thought suddenly noticing the giant bird that Midna had taken Link upriver with was back already. What the,I thought as it seemed to be getting closer, and just as it flew up I remembered what I had told Midna to do. The bird looked at me then up at where Midna had said the light spirit was, I took the hint and bolted off in that direction.

When I got there I considered myself lucky as the wall leading up the cliff was covered mostly in concrete, not loose soil. Using the new bow/ double-edged blade attachment and my trusty claws I scaled the wall and sat waiting at the top. After about five minutes I thought the bird may have just been being a pest, but just as I considered jumping back down I heard something. Closing my eyes to try and hone my ears to get a better read on the sound I realized it was running water, and not just a small faucet, or even a hose, this was the mighty roar of a river. I looked over in the direction that was upstream and just as I thought I saw water gushing out, so heavily in fact the lake was nearly a quarter full at almost the instant the water had begun to flow. I kinda expected them to get the water flow back, but if I had been in the way of that it probably would have pushed me clear to the other side of the lake, and then it could have taken me hours to walk along the bottom back to dry land, and by then they probably will have restored the light and I'll need to breathe again,I thought letting out a slightly frightened chuckle at the thought of Midna growing impatient with me walking along the bottom and restoring the light, drowning me. Unfortunately it was something I could see her doing too.

The lake filled quickly and not long after it had filled I saw some "debris" float nearby, and to my surprise it was Link, and Midna dragged him closer to the shore so that I could heave the wolf whom was much heavier then he looked up to dry land. After a couple minutes Midna became flustered constantly saying things like, "Is he awake yet," or "I'm sure if you smack him hard enough he'll get up." I just shook my head at her impatience and utter lack of concern for anyone else. Which seemed to make her stop when she finally saw me do it. Eventually becoming slightly impatient myself I began to heave Link up on my shoulder. Link however woke up just as I began to pick him up and growled right in my ear so I promptly set him back down. Midnahopped back onto Link's back, still persisting on riding him around, though I suppose the energy field technique they could use together was extremely strong. The light spirit was actually kind enough to shorten his speech, simply claiming he was sure we knew what the bugs looked like by now. I followed Link and Midna pointing out where the bugs were shown on the map until we had cleared out all those on the lake shore and not to mention some dark beasts, giving us a portal to the lake. The rest of the bugs however were upriver, not only where they had gone without me before but along the flight too, so Midna ordered me to go back and wait in front of the light spirit's little hollow while they destroyed the remaining bugs.

Being the ever kind gentleman that I was I went back and plopped my butt down right in front of the cave. I sat there thinking of what kinds of music would have been put into this game at the points I had been to so far, andwhat kind of themes each character would have. Laughing at some of the horrid tunes I came up with. I had just come up with a theme for Midna that I had felt suited her when suddenly I heard a loud crackling sound, I looked out into the middle of the lake and honing my eyes to wolf Link's enhanced sense level I saw a gigantic even uglier version of the bugs that held the tears of light. I quickly looked towards the portal that now hung over the lake, and as expected I saw dark squares coming down out of it. I ran to go meet Link and Midna but to my extreme displeasure I suddenly froze in place. THE GODDESS MUST TEST YOU, BEFORE YOU REVERT TO YOUR LIGHT WORLD FORM, the usual "announcer" of the goddesses proclaimed loudly in my head. As he stated I was flashed into a white world once again, but this time was different, everywhere my armor touched, felt as if it were burning.

"What the hell is this," I was screaming within my own head, trying to peel off the armor outside. COMPLETE THE LABYRINTH BEFORE YOU AND NOT ONLY WILL YOU AVE COMPLETED ALL THREE TESTS BUT THE GODDESS WILL STOP THE CURRENT PAIN YOU ARE FEELING, NOW GO.I looked ahead and as he stated there was the beginning of a maze. "Crap, knowing which goddess I'm dealing with, there's going to be mind games within that thing, and I gotta hurry this pain is so distracting," I thought to myself rising up andtaking off at a run through the maze. Only having to turn around at a couple of dead ends I soon came to a room andthe door slammed shut behind me with obvious promise not to reopen. As I had thought it was all mind games as a blue light appeared and began to speak:

"I am a tale in childrens' minds.
I keep their secrets and share them inside.
I blur their thoughts into fantasies kept
Like a canvas of art or a submarine depth.
Though an illusion, it occurs every night;
I give them a fantasy, I give them a fright.
Nor good or bad, but always nigh'
It's interesting to tell. What am I?"

I thought about it for a moment and then realized the answer was obvious, "You are a dream," I thought aloud and the light vanished and a path ahead was opened. Strangely enough I got through this next stretch of the maze without having to turn around once. I entered another room and the process began again. A new room and a new riddle:

"I have seas but no water,
coasts with no sand,
towns but no people,
mountains no land.
What am I?"

I had this riddle solved after the second line was finished and as soon as I was asked quickly responded, "A map," and was greeted with a new path.

"Only one final riddle," the voice stated and then the light vanished. My heart was pounding andI was growing weary. Only having to turn around a couple times helped but when I reached the final room my head was spinning andI could hardly stand never mind solve a riddle. Regardless the voice spoke up again:

"I exist but sometimes ignored.
I am forced to live on the floor.
I cast an image, though dark,
and follow my owner and leave no mark.
I disappear when the sun sets
And never be caught in any nets.
I will always forever lie,
Can you tell me what am I?"

I tried to focus my thoughts and figure this out quickly, my brain followed a wrong path at first, thinking of bugs but then I remember following their owner. When my mind finally connected all the lines to disappearing at sunset I realized just how exhausted I was. "You... are... a shadow," I finally managed to think aloud and just as I had thought it my pain stopped and I suddenly felt revitalized.

"You have done well, I am Nayru the goddess of wisdom, you have worked hard and you no longer need to speak, our hero is about to restore the light to this final area, you however will not be able to aid him in acquiring the final dark power, I do however foresee you assisting him and this very world greatly, in the future, however to entrust you with such any more knowledge then I already have would be dangerous, therefore I grant you several powers that you will discover, when the time is right, and I return you to Hyrule which is just about to be restored, fear not you will be reverted to your light world form and be near the light spirits cave," the goddess seemed rushed to fill me in and sent me back just in time for Link to come walking out of the cave.

"Where the hell did you go," Midna demanded of me but I just sat there and stared at her. "While you were gone me and Link had to fight off that giant disgusting bug," she said shivering at the thought of the hideous monstrosity of an insect.

"Now excuse me but regardless of whether or not I was here I doubt I could have helped," I retorted to Midna's accusation.

"How do you figure that," she asked putting her hands on her hips.

I took a step closer and practically yelled, "Because, even if I had been here that thing was in the middle of the lake, and I sink, and even with that new bow thing on my arm I doubt I could have hit a moving target from that far!" Midna backed up and looked a little stunned, I sighed, "I'm sorry, I just... I'm sorry," I repeated myself unable to think of an excuse for my utter rudeness.

"It's okay, we should get moving though, the last Fused Shadow is inside the Lake bed Temple, but Link can't exactly just pop on those heavy iron boots without drowning, so we need the power the late queen of the Zora's promised us if we help her son," Midna explained to me.

"Wait, that Zora that Illia was with is probably him," I said remembering Illia in that bar in Hyrule town. We were having soemdifficulty getting out of this canyon of a lake, and it turns out the only way to get out was to pay some creepy old clown ten rupees, per person, just for him to shoot us out of a bloody canon. It got the job done and me andLink exited the building who's balcony we had just been blasted up to. Walking towards the town we found some "horse grass" and used it to call Epona nd my horse which I had yet to give a name. Just outside town our horses refused to walk up the steps, which made sense considering they were pretty thin. Link hopped off and ran over to a small rise just right of the steps and climbed up some vines to meet that strange glowing wolf again. Like before he disappeared, like before Midna didn't and also like before Midna perceived this as an ample opportunity to have a private little chat with me.

"So, what's the story with you always vanishing at crucial moments," she asked taking a seat on top of my head.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I snickered and tried tilting my head to get Midna off.

It failed as she could simply float while sitting there and so I gave up and she continued, "You know, if a while back you had told me Zant would take my kingdom from under my nose I would have laughed and had you thrown out, or killed."

"Your rather cruel sometimes do yo realize that," I asked causing her to look away anddown at the ground. I sighed, "Midna if I tell you, you can't just go blabbing it to everyone, got it?" Midna nodded and I took a quick glance over to where Link had vanished to make sure he hadn't come back yet. "Your probably going to think I'm a nut or something, but... I'm not exactly, from this world," I said waiting for Midna to laugh but to my surprise she didn't not even a snicker.

"You know I kinda figured it was something like that, I mean you seemed a little clueless to everything when I first met you, but what was with the disappearing," Midna asked urging me to continue the story.

"Well as we both know Link is the goddesses chosen hero, and well I'm not even from this world, in fact where I'm from both Link and your world are nothing more then dream worlds that according to the "laws" of our world are both impossible and do not exist. Then explain how the hell I'm here, whatever, anyways, so I tried travelling with the goddesses hero andthey just didn't appreciate some unknown entity from another world hanging around their hero, so they tested me and I passed," I explained the whole situation to Midna, everything from the bad day to getting zapped into Spira, and Rikku.

"So you have a girlfriend eh," Midna said a strange tone of depression in her voice.

"Kinda, but in case you forgot, she is in another world altogether, and was forced to kill me in order to save said world from the evil that I was about to become," I said causing me to realize, that if I fell in love here again I would be torn between two worlds. "Oh sh-"

"What," Midna interrupted me but luckily Link finally returned at that moment and we got up and headed into town

Phew, that was long, I couldn't find where I wanted to end it XD. This part of the game is my favourite and I seem to focus in more detail on my favourite parts, anyways, I'll try and update soon, but I think the chapters are only going to get longer so be patient please. Review if you get the time eh :P. Oh and the riddles came from web./conker/puzzles/puzzle-june-answers.htm