A.N.: So, a new chapter is here, and in time! This is a longer one and contains a lot of things happening, so might as well let you read it.

Y'all know all the disclaimers and other things already, right? Good.

Chapter 12

"Could you for once pay attention to what I'm saying?"

Link rolled her eyes, grunting under her breath. "I did! And if my memory isn't betraying me, what I also did was to tell you why exactly do I need to visit Ordon before leaving for the temple! Like four times!"

Midna had been out of her mind since the moment Link had gotten out of Faron, and they had been arguing for a good fifteen minutes already. The imp was really getting on her nerves. During moment like this, Link was sure she could do better without the little Twili companion she was doomed to travel with.

The imp scoffed and crossed her arms, effortlessly floating next to the girl.

"Whatever duties you have in that little village of yours, I would guess that saving the two worlds would mean you a bit more." she mentioned in a frustrated tone.

Link took a deep breath and let out a short sigh. "It does mean me more. Why do you think I would've left my home to wipe out that stupid Twilight of yours from Faron if it didn't?"

Midna threw a dark glare at her, and without a second look Link knew she was entering the wrong topic. Again.

"So you are basically saying that all of this is my fault?" Her voice grew more threatening by every word.

"Well, in a way it is." Link stated blankly with a shrug, her sky blue eyes glued forward. It would be too much for her to glance on the side and see Midna's single, orange eye filling with anger and despair.

"Do I have to remind you of what happened earlier today? I honestly was sure you would learn from that." the Twili hissed through her sharp teeth, clenching her small, shadowy hands in fists. If Link would've looked, she would have seen her disturbingly orange hair pulsating with rage, but the girl remained quiet and avoided looking at her angry companion.

"Watch your mouth, doggy." Midna added. Link was about to call her out for the nickname, but decided to shut her mouth instead. Maybe it would be better to keep silent for the rest of the time they would spend walking through the woods.

While the Mistress was rampaging the lower halls, Don stayed put in her chamber. He was afraid to move around in a place like this, which had been seen only by a few. His big eyes felt to be glued in place, the gaze never leaving the old, brownish map for even a second. On the ink-embroidered paper, four columns of light stood tall, but one of them was weaker than the others. Its golden light traveled slowly but surely towards the mountain range where the stone castle was located. Two of the columns, the silver and blue ones, stayed halted at the same spot with each other, and the goblin noticed their lights flickering from time to time. The last column was bright white and heading south, but it was also shaped differently from the other three, round ones – as a triangle. Don furrowed a brow at the whole column-map thing under his nose, he didn't understand what it was for. Surely it was some kind of tracking purpose it had, but other than that, he had no clue.

A good amount of minutes had passed, and he found himself worrying about the Mistress. She had her magic with her of course, but despite the bulblins' stupidity they could be dangerous if they had something planned for her, and there was quite a lot of them down there. And if they managed to wound let alone kill her, all the hell would break loose. It would start a war between the upper class and the bulblins, middle class being thrown right in the heart of it... Oh god, he could not let that happen.

After a moment of hesitation he grabbed his scythe from where it had been leaning against the table, and with a last glance at the map hurried to the door. As he was sure the way was clear, he carefully stepped out of the room and was about to close the door behind him as a cold wave of realization washed over him. He should not exit the room, she had told him, and he should not let anyone other than herself in. Oh boy, but he had to do something to prevent her getting injured. Just what could it be... He couldn't even call his friends and tell them to go down and check if she was all right, the upper class' monsters weren't looked at with a good eye in the lower floors. Demons could get down there without anyone noticing, but Don was below them in the ranking, there was no possibility of them even listening to him, let alone obeying him. Frustrated, he retreated back to the chamber and shut the door behind, hurrying back at the table.

Three floors down, the woman was still single-mindedly searching the hallways. The lower class' floor was mostly dug deep into the rock mountains, and the deeper you wandered, the darker and narrower the corridors became. They were barely lit there where she currently strode, a single lamp hastily attached to the wall with a gap of ten meters till the next one, and almost every other of them had been long broken. It didn't bother her though, she was able to see in the dark well enough, and so were the bulblins. No need to fix those, then.

There were still corpses of bulblins lying across the corridors, this time all of them lifeless, and some even had knives or arrows still stabbed in their bodies. Certainly, they were left there as warning signs or such, but she didn't cast another glance as she stepped over a headless and pretty much limbless torso. Life was cruel, and she was used to it. Also, she wanted back her sword, and that gave her a bit of an extra motivation. She could set things right later, but for now, all she had to do was to find her blade.

Where in the name of Hylia have they hidden it... I swear to Din, when I get my hands on those little pieces of...

A soundless 'oh' escaped her mouth as her eye was caught by something laying near yet another slain bulblin, reflecting the yellowish light of the nearby lamp from its surface. Warily, she sneaked closer but before even seeing it she knew what it was. On the dirty, blood-stained floor lay her blade, half of it stuck inside a bulblin's head. She grimaced at the sight, not because of the monster, but because her sword had been touched by those... deformed creatures. She was about to crouch down to pull it out of the skull as she heard footsteps coming from the front. Many footsteps. Whatever it was that was coming she wouldn't know until the last moment, since the corridor made a slight turn and prevented her from seeing anything. Then again, it could not be anything else than damn angry bulblins, could it?

She opened her right fist and a whirl of black, shadowy ropes strung from her hand to grab the sword, then pulling it out and into her grip with ease. Her left hand wandered under her cloak just to be pulled out soon after holding a white cloth. As she wiped the long, slender blade clean, below her the bulblin started to bleed profusely as the plug had been removed from its head, but she paid it no mind.

Her brow furrowed behind the black hood as she was left to simply wait, and needless to say, she didn't enjoy it. She had never been the one to wait, at least not in a situation like this when she could not be sure what to wait for.

She didn't have to wait for long, though, as in a mere minute the first monster emerged around the corner. A pleased smirk played on the left corner of her mouth for a second as the bulblin noticed her, an almost invisible hint of hesitation flashing in its red eyes, but it charged forward nevertheless. Behind it, dozens of its kind followed its lead, bright crimson eyes glimmering in the dark hallway. The woman stood still like a statue, lifting her chin up as an evil smirk rose on her lips.

As the first one drew too close, she only needed to lift her white blade a few inches to impale the fiend along with the next one which had been right behind it. Quickly, she pulled her now-bloodied sword out of the bulblins' chests and caused a few closest ones to gasp loudly, only to cover the sounds up with increased screeching. They were enraged, how could the woman who claimed to be their queen kill them for fun?

She let out a dry chuckle as she realized how blind those monsters were of their own actions. They had been killing each other for a good few days, and just now as she went and ended two, it was like the end of the world had come.

She needed not to even concentrate on the fight as the bulblins were a weak opponent themselves, and as the narrow hallway allowed only two of them to fight her at once it made it a lot easier for her. With a single swing of her long blade she ended at least two and watched them pile up in the way of the others, wave after another, and another, and another...

In no time she grew bored on the constant slicing of her blade as the green monsters didn't put up a fight at all, and decided to quicken it up a bit. With only a mere twitch of her left hand, various shadow tentacles emerged from the floor and grasped the remaining fiends from their limbs and necks, slowly engulfing them as whole. A few choked groans could be heard before the life left the monsters, shadows retreating as their work was done just the same.

She watched as the last bulblin collapsed on the floor, snorting almost inaudibly.

"I am highly amazed that you thought you would actually stand a chance against me." she stated blankly, wiping her blade clean and sheathing it before scoffing, "How foolish of you."

And without another glance at the bloody corpses, she was off.

It was a few hours past midnight as Link and her not-so-happy imp-companion reached the northern part of Faron Woods. The moon was making its way towards the horizon as the first rays of daylight could be seen far in the eastern sky. Branches of the large trees were swaying back and front in the calm breeze, their leaves slowly but surely starting to lose their deep green color to give way to the browns and oranges of the upcoming fall. Link let out a deep sigh. The celebrations of fall were soon to come, and she was certain that she wouldn't be able to spend them with her friends and family in Ordon.

"What is taking you so long?" the unfortunately way too familiar voice chimed from her shadow. In the next second, the Twili was floating next to her, arms crossed over her chest.

"You have wasted enough time already, sleeping and chatting with your so called friends! Now as we finally are here you can pick up the pace and get into that temple!" the imp demanded, getting a look from Link, but the girl said nothing. She received only another sigh as the heroine returned her gaze forward.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." she flatly answered after gathering her thoughts together. She had gotten enough of arguing with Midna and to prevent that from happening yet again, she might as well do as she said.

The imp grinned, "That's more like it!" and dove into Link's shadow before she could cast another glare at her.

Link scoffed and proceeded past the little shop Trill, the blue myna bird, kept at the edge of the clearing. She smiled wearily at the bird as he noticed the familiar girl passing by, excitedly flapping his short wings and beckoning her to come closer. Without a doubt she did as she needed to fill her lantern and one of the bottles with oil anyway.

Before Link had even entered Trill's shop, the myna let out a series of bright squawks and chirrups, jumping on a plain branch he was positioned on.

"Hey! I know you! You are the Ordonian girl!" he exclaimed, never losing his excitement about the rare visitor. Link chuckled at the bird and stepped into the poorly decorated place, already digging her wallet for rupees.

"Welcome! You want to buy something? Buy anything!" he livened up at the instant, sidling closer to the girl on his roost.

Link looked up at the bird and as she noted all the hopefulness in his eyes, she knew she wouldn't have been able to just coldly leave and buy nothing in any case. Trill was always so happy when he got a new customer, for he seldom did, and it wasn't that hard to guess why it was that way. Hardly anyone ever visited this part of the woods anymore.

The thought of him sitting there without any company most of the time made Link a bit rueful.

She cast him a smile and nodded, "Yes, I would like to fill my lantern and this bottle with oil. How much is it?"

Trill seemed to think for a few seconds until chirping happily and stating, "Ee-ee! That would be forty rupees! For two bottles!"

Link slid the right amount into a wooden box the bird had for customers to put money in, as he couldn't take them himself, and filled her lantern and the bottle as full as she could without spilling the dirty-yellow liquid. She had a feeling she would need an extra light inside the temple, and she was far from sure that there would be any oil pots there.

"Thank you, Ordonian girl! See you later! Come and buy anything at any time!" he chirruped his thanks as Link turned to leave. She simply nodded and waved her goodbyes. Finally she would get into the temple, hopefully without anymore blasts from Midna before it.

However, as she got closer to the narrow branch-pathway, something bright white directly ahead caught her eye. Immediately her blade was unsheathed and she strode way more warily as she approached the figure. By each step she could see it better, and now she knew it had already seen her. But why didn't it attack? All enemies she had come across this far had been charging towards her right at the moment they saw her, but why this wasn't? It left Link with two options; either this was not an enemy, or it was a very powerful one.

In no time at all, she found herself standing just a few feet away from the creature she now clearly could identify as a wolf, very... ghostly looking one though. Its fur was shining white, bright golden markings forming very similar patterns to her own wolf form and its right eye was glowing bright crimson. The wolf was oddly calming, its presence strong and assertive, yet tranquil and stable. Its breaths were loud and deep, wavering the ghost-like body with each one, its tail swaying slowly from side to side.

And then, when Link the least expected, it stood up and leaped at her, all in a split second. She didn't even have time to blink before everything turned blindingly white, and in the next moment she found herself in an otherworldly place.

Everything around her was white. Not blinding so, but white indeed. The ground seemed to be made of... clouds, and so was the sky. She frowned as she tried to spot something – anything – other than clouds and whiteness but was unable to. Though, far behind the clouds and just barely visible, she could make out a few silhouettes of what could have been landmarks, but she recognized none of them.

What is this place?

All the cloudy whiteness made her mind somersault and her head dizzy, she had never seen or heard of any place like this. Was she even in Hyrule? Surely that strange wolf would have warped her somewhere unknown, similar to what Midna could do?

Am I... dead?

The only thing suddenly making its appearance in Link's mind was that she was in the Sacred Realm, but it couldn't be that, right?

Right?

No... No I couldn't be...

The Goddesses wouldn't let me die...

There was no way she could be dead. She had been given a task she needed to fulfill. She was the one chosen by the Goddesses, and they certainly would not let her die, right? Right...

Soon, however, she was drawn out of her thoughts spiralling her mind as she heard the familiar, deep breaths behind her, and at that same instant the presence of the wolf was present again.

She whirled around expecting to see the same, white canine sitting there just like before, but instead was frozen in both fear and confusion as she came face to face with a big, armoured skeleton, which looked way more alive than it should have been.

It carried a partly cracked, round shield and a sword that looked similar to hers. Moss was growing green on its bones and equipment, which made Link think it was probably very old, and its right eye was bright red, just like the wolf's had been. It frightened her the most.

Before she could think more, it lifted its blade high in the air and dropped into the fighting stance that had become so well-known to Link already. She did just the same, waiting for it to lunge at her, but as it did not confusion conquered her mind yet again. To test what it would do she performed a quick jump attack towards it, but even more quickly it swung its blade and in a blink of an eye, Link found herself soaring through the air and colliding back first with the ground.

If you could call it that.

And then, before she could fully stand up and attack again, it spoke.

"Sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage." it simply stated, its voice echoing all around her as it continued to breathe as deeply as before.

Link stood up, now utterly confused.

Before she could say a word, it, or he, continued, "You may be destined to become the heroine of legend...but your current of power would disgrace the proud green of the hero's tunic you wear."

She frowned. What was this... skeleton up to?

"You must use your courage to seek power...and find it you must. Only then will you become the hero for whom this world despairs."

How did he know about me being the Chosen?

"If you do find true courage, and you wish to save Hyrule from the horrors it now faces..."

The skeleton had a silent break, and just then Link noticed what stood behind him. It was Hyrule Castle, in all its glory, only the highest towers breaking through the barrier of clouds the ground was formed of. So this was the Sacred Realm, wasn't it?

Then he spoke again, and Link was thrown harshly back into the reality which really didn't feel like one.

"Then you will be worthy to receive the secrets I hold!"

And right then, he told her that all enemies weren't to be ended easily with a swing or two of a blade, and that even if they would lie motionless on the ground, they would soon rise and attack her again. He told her, that to effectively kill her enemy, she needed to learn a way to end them at once, and so he taught her the ending blow.
Link was hesitant at first as he offered himself as the practice enemy, but after the skeleton stood back up harmless she was once again confused for a second, until she remembered they were in the Sacred Realm. He had to be a ghost, but a ghost of whom, she had yet to find out.

After the short fighting session, he spoke again, "There are still six hidden skills for you to learn."

"Those are only for one who carries the blood of the hero...the one whose spirit is that of the sublime beast." he breathed, "Grow powerful. Test your courage. And when you find that you need another skill to overcome the threats that face you... Search for the statues that howl with the sound of the wind. Seek the sound that calls to the spirit of the beast to awaken me again."

She wasn't sure what that meant at the moment, but she nodded, willing to memorize the words.

"A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage. Remember those words... Farewell!"

And with that, everything faded into white again.