The next morning, Tails got up early, and was planning on heading into the village, his new sword on his back. He'd had to adjust it so it didn't get in the way of his tails, and he still wasn't used to it, but after yesterday he felt more comfortable with it nearby.

Ilia met him in the village.

"I heard about yesterday. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm just glad they all made it back alright."

"They're not meant to go into Faron Woods at all."

"I didn't know."

"That might be why father let them off with a warning."

"I guess I should have asked Rusl."

"Don't worry about it. He said you did a good job."

"Thanks. It was kind of fun, I guess."

"So where are you headed?"

"I thought I'd meet Rusl from his helping at the ranch."

"So was I. His horse, anyway."

"Rusl has a horse?"

"Of course. I take care of her for him."

Bo met them at the entrance to the ranch, also waiting.

"Good job yesterday Tails," he commented, yawning. Evidently Bo also wasn't much of a mornings person.

"Does everyone know about what I've done already?"

"It's a small village," he shrugged. "News travels quick."

Rusl rode in on his horse. She was a brown colour with a white mane. Ilia went to her immediately as Rusl dismounted.

"That's the goats in again."

"You shouldn't have to keep doing that as well, Rusl."

"Who else can ride a horse here?"

"Fair point."

"Rusl!" Ilia's accusing voice caught all their attentions. "Epona's injured. You weren't messing around jumping gates again were you?"

"N-no, of course not," he stammered stepping back under her furious look.

"Ilia, it's only a small nick," Bo tried to reason with her.

"Father!" Now he too drew back. She glared at Tails as if he was going to make a comment, and he just looked helplessly back.

She turned back to Epona, tending the cut. The three of them exchanged a nervous look behind her back.

"Come on. I'll take you up to the spring." Her anger diminished while talking to the horse.

"Wait! Ilia! Rusl needs Epona to make his delivery to the castle in time!" Bo called, but she paid no attention.

Rusl sighed. "I guess I shouldn't have done the fence jumping after all."

"Rusl!"

"Sorry mayor. I wasn't expecting this to happen. Honest. I'll go fetch the sword. Maybe she'll have cooled off in a bit."

He left for his own house, leaving Tails with Bo.

"She's awfully over protective of that horse," he said to no one in particular.

"She looks very close to it."

"She is. She wouldn't even let Rusl ride it if she could ride herself." He sighed. "Would you go talk to her?"

"I'll try. The springs just up from where my workshop is, isn't it?"

"That's the place. Ordona spring."

Tails headed on up, pausing at his workshop to make a proper torch. The lantern was good for setting light to things like cobwebs, but it didn't really help when it was dark much. He'd have to be careful not to let anyone notice he was using technology that, as far as he'd seen, didn't exist here.

Colin was already with Ilia at the spring. The gates were closed. He hadn't noticed them the day before, but he had been in a hurry then.

He turned when Tails approached. Ilia had Epona over at the spring itself. She glanced over, then back again, saying nothing.
"Did you need her for something?"

"Bo asked me to reason with her. Rusl will be late if he can't take Epona."

"I'll try. There's an old passage just round a bit, you might be able to squeeze through. By the time you get here through that, I should have been able to bring her round."

"I could fly over."

Colin shook his head. "She'd notice."

Tails made his way around to the clearing just behind the stump with his workshop on. Behind some bushes, there was a small tunnel. He could just about squeeze through.

As he came out, Colin and Ilia were talking. She noticed him immediately.

"Alright. I overreacted. Promise me something Tails?"

"What's that?"

"No matter where you go, or what you do, you'll be careful?"

"Of course."

Colin went back to the gate to unlock it, but apparently saw something and ran back, hiding behind Tails.

The ground rumbled. Tails drew his sword, ready to fight whatever appeared, then realised he couldn't fight the giant beast that appeared. It was green with horns and rode a great boar-like creature. Two smaller ones followed, each with two smaller green creatures on.

Epona spooked and bolted around them and away. Colin was caught by a swipe from one of the smaller creatures, and Ilia after.
The larger one caught Tails on the back of the head, knocking him down and out cold.

The creature looked around, and blew on a horn. A strange black portal appeared in the sky, with red lines on it. Then, scooping up Colin and Ilia, they left.

Tails got up, rubbing at his head. Then he realised everyone had gone, and ran quickly back toward Faron woods, thinking they'd have gone there.

In the rocky corridor leading there though, he was stopped. A giant dark wall blocked his path, with disturbing orange patterns on it. As he drew closer it seemed to suck more and more of the light out of the surrounding air.

A great black hand shot out of the wall and grasped Tails before he could react, pulling him in.

His world blurred as he went through the wall. Everything on the other side was bathed in a light like that of the sky as the sun sets, and strange black squares seemed to flow from ground to sky.

The hand that had grabbed him was attached to a freaky looking black... thing. He struggled, trying to break free as it stared at him. If it was staring at him. It's face, if it was a face at all, seemed to have almost no features at all.

Tails struggled to breath, spots appearing before him. He didn't notice one hand start to glow from a small golden triangle that had appeared on it.

The glow blinded him momentarily, and forced the creature to drop him. As he landed on the ground, he felt weird, as if things were changing, then collapsed from the exhaustion of the struggle.

When he awoke, he found himself in a cell. The black squares he'd seen briefly earlier were here too. He still felt odd, so looked himself over, and gave a yelp of surprise when he realised what had happened.

He'd retained his colouration, but instead of being a walking, talking fox, he was a wolf. At least he'd kept both tails.

His front right paw was also chained to a rung in the ground.

He struggled for a bit, trying to get lose, then twitched an ear, hearing something he normally wouldn't hear. He turned to see some kind of creature.

It was short – shorter than he normally was – and was a shiny black all over, except for some white patches, and some green markings. It had orange hair, and wore a helmet that gave him the creeps just to look at it.

It was grinning, the one visible eye narrowed.
He lunged at it, and fell short when the chain caught him before he reached, so settled for growling at it. He couldn't seem to speak like this.

"Are you sure you want to be doing that little wolfy?" it said, in a decidedly feminine voice. "That's too bad," she continued when he kept growling. "I was thinking of setting you free. If you were nice, that is." He stopped, and she giggled. "That's a nice wolfy. You humans are obedient to a fault, aren't you? Oops! Of course, your not human right now, are you?"

Tails wanted to tell her he wasn't human anyway, but there was no way to do so.

"You help me, little wolf, and I'll help you get free. Of course... you'd have to help me for a long time to make up for my getting you out of here," she smirked.

He stood to one side, leaving the chain in plain view of her.

"I'm getting to that," she said, and concentrated, placing the palm of one hand just above the other. A ball of dark energy formed. When she jerked her hands away sharply, the chain snapped.

"You're probably asking yourself why I'm helping you." She floated up, and then somehow through the bars of his cell. "Well, you'll have to help me before you find that out. So you can start by finding your own way out of there."

Tails poked around in his cell. There was the straw bed he'd been left on and a few boxes. Looking closer, he pushed the boxes aside and found a part of the cell where the stones were missing, exposing soil below.

He took advantage of the paws and claws he had for now, and dug under the bars, shaking himself free of dirt as he emerged on the other side.

He felt something land on his back, and realised it was the creature. He lunged and darted around a bit, trying to shake her off or get a bite at her, but she was too quick and had too good a grip, so he dropped it.

"That's a good wolfy," she said again.

Tails flicked an ear as if ignoring her, and looked around. There was another cell next to his, the door open. The main door was probably locked, and in any case, not much good to him. Paws couldn't open a door meant for hands.

He pushed the other cell's door open, and spotted a tunnel in one corner. What was it doing here?

Never mind that, he could make his way through it. The creature ducked, still riding on his back.

The tunnel emerged in a small room. There was what seemed to be an eerie green flame floating in mid-air.

"You know," the creature whispered in one ear, leaning down, "I reckon if you concentrated using your wolf senses, you could seen and hear things you couldn't normally."

He gave it a try, and was surprised. He couldn't see as far, but what he could see was in greens and greys, and he could smell a lot better.

The green flame had been replaced with the outline of a soldier, and he could hear words coming from him faintly.

"I think I'm safe here. What were those things, anyway?" He paused. "Oh no. What was that sound?"

Tails returned to normal senses, looking around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he continued on. He could smell sewers – there was no mistaking that scent, no matter what shape he was, or what world he was in.

The creature leaned down again.

"That was a soldier's spirit. In this world of twilight, they show up as spirits, but only to those sensitive enough to hear and see them. Like you."

He continued on, heading into the sewers. There were odd creatures here too. They looked like large rats, and the keese he'd seen earlier, but... shadowy.

He lunged at them as they came close, biting. They left a bitter taste in his mouth, but it dealt with them. The rats he just swatted with a paw. Maybe being like this wasn't so bad really, he decided. Being a wolf had it's good points.

Part of the sewer ahead was blocked off with a spiked floor. Why were the spikes in a sewer? He didn't know, but it stopped him going that way, so he headed onwards, ignoring the short route to his left. The route ahead was short too.

Up on a ledge, there was a chain hanging from the ceiling. Maybe it did something?

He jumped and bit, hanging from it. A grate in a nearby wall lifted, letting several shadow rats out. He swatted each of them in turn, and returned to take the other route.

There was another chain here. This time, when he pulled, it raised the water level. For a sewer, it was surprisingly clean.

The raised water meant he could swim over the spikes. He'd never actually learned to swim before, but somehow he paddled through. The doggy paddle, he realized.

The junction on the other side went ahead, left and right. Ahead and right were dead ends, but had chains down them. Left led to some bars blocking the war.

The creature floated over, then through them, "Come on, wolfy. You'll have to find your own way here."

Your own way? He had been finding his own way! It wasn't like she'd helped.

He went ahead first, yanking the chain. Yet more rats appeared, though they were no trouble. The one on the passage to the right lowered the water level again.

He examined the way leading down to the bars, and found a small tunnel he could just about squeeze through. It led to a cavern, with another soldier's spirit in. Like the first, it was afraid and jumpy. Neither seemed to have been able to see him, so he left them and found another tunnel back out that led behind the bars.

The creature landed on his back as he exited. He snarled at her a little, but continued into a large round room. There were several shadow keese in it, each dispatched easily.

He looked around. There were stairs leading upwards.

He followed them until they gave way underneath him, making the creature scream, annoyed at him.

This time when they reached the same point, he used a tightrope nearby, and continued up.

At one point, the gap was too large for him to make.

The creature on his back flew over the gap to the far side. "Well come on then!"

Tails made a dash, and just made it.
They had to repeat this several times along the way, Tails growing more adept at it with each attempt.

At the top, she got him to dash up several ledges to reach outside.

They emerged on some rooftops of a castle.

"Ah, the twilight looks so nice today," the creature said from his back. "Come on. There's someone I want you to meet. Be a good wolfy and go ahead."

He made his way over the rooftops, pushing a crate into position so he could jump down to a tower top instead. A large shadow bird attacked. As it made for him, he lunged and took hold, tearing with his claws and ripping away with his teeth. It really didn't like that, but it couldn't shake him free.

The bird defeated, he carried on, defeating another of them along the way.

He jumped down to some sharply sloped roofs, with a number of the larger birds swooping around. This time he ignored them, and made a dash for a window at the far end, making the creature give a surprised gasp, then take hold quickly before she fell off.

Oh well, maybe he'd get her off another time.

The birds didn't follow him inside. There were stairs there, leading up, and a door at the bottom. There were faint voices from it, so Tails made his way upwards instead. He pushed open the door at the top, and padded into a well furnished room, the remains of his chain clinking on the stone. A robed figure stood looking out the windows.

The creature on his back made no reaction he noticed, so he growled warningly.

The figure turned, and saw them.

"Midna?" she asked the creature on his back. "What are you doing here?"

"You tell me... twilight princess," Midna replied, jumping off his back. Tails sat on his haunches, watching.

"The shadow beasts are looking for you, Midna. You shouldn't be here."

"Oh, I won't be any longer. I found who I was looking for."

The other woman knelt on one leg, and examined Tails.

"Hmm. There's something not right... but he is the one, isn't he?"

"He wasn't very cooperative at first. He also isn't exactly the best I could hope for, but he'll do."

"Listen to me, wolf. I don't know who you are, but listen anyway. This was once the kingdom of Hyrule, and I am it's ruler." She pushed back her hood. "I am princess Zelda.

"I surrendered to an evil force under a creature called Zant, to save my people, my land. I had no choice. Now his twilight pervades the land, and corrupts places. The light spirits have had their light stolen. You may be our only hope, wolf, if you'll help Midna."

"You know, it isn't so bad in twilight. Some of us manage a living here."

"This is no time for levity, Midna."

"Just trying to help. Zant looks like a walking squid with that silly armour of his."

Zelda sighed, and looked back at Tails. "You must leave. The guard will make his rounds soon."

Midna landed back on his back, and patted between his ears. "Come on then wolfy. Time we left our twilight princess here to brood."

"Midna," Zelda said sharply at her, making her giggle.

Tails left again, headed down the stairs, but paused when he heard the door move.

"Boy, that guard sure is prompt," Midna commented.

Tails leaped up onto the ledge he'd used to get in, and left. The rooftops were deserted now, even by the birds.

"So, what now? I could take you back to those woods I found you in... you know there's something you've forgotten."

Tails tried to think, but couldn't so shook his head.

Midna turned in place, and an image of Colin surrounded her, screaming, then Ilia.

"If you want to help them, you'll have to be my servant... and do as I tell you, just like a servant."

He snarled at her, but left her be.

"Well, here we go then, back to those woods."

The world around him seemed to dissolve and turn into blackness square by square – the same kind of squares he'd been seeing all through this 'twilight' realm. When they dissolved away again, he was back at Ordona spring.

"I hope you don't think you've gotten rid of me that easy," Midna's voice teased. "I'll be hiding in your shadow. Oh... and it looks like you're still a wolf. Too bad... I guess you'll have to find out why for yourself!"

He made to leave the spring, and his shadow shifted, formed into Midna – though all black, except for her eye – and floated in front of him.

"So, what now? Going back to the twilight? You can only do that with my help, you know. I don't feel all that interested in it right now. I want a sword and a shield that suit me first. Be a good wolfy and find me them?" She sunk back into his shadow.

He loped back to his house instead, and found the small green creatures he'd seen moments before being knocked out. They charged him, so he lunged and tore into one, throwing it against a wall, then whipping at the other with both his tails. At least he could still do that.

The other one was stunned, so he pounced, raking with his claws, finishing it. There didn't seem to be any others around.

He headed on toward the village. A squirrel jumped out in front of him.

"Wait," it said, startling Tails. It could talk? "If you're going into the village, be careful. The humans are all on edge. We animals can help, talk to them if you're in a bit of a pickle." It jumped off again.

"Useful advice," Midna's voice came. "You can talk to animals while you're a wolf, it seems."

He ran on more cautiously now, steering clear of anyone he saw, just in case.

He spotted Jaggle and Bo near Jaggle's house, talking. Somehow he could smell they were afraid.

Crouching in the grass nearby, he crept close, trying to hear.

"But Mayor, you can't go! What if you get hurt?"

"I'll have the shield that's on your wall inside."

"Rusl had a sword and a shield, and look how he came back!"

"The sword that he was going to deliver is on his couch still, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"I'll use that then."

"But Mayor-" Jaggle stopped, and spotted Tails. "It's another monster! Run!"

"To my house, we'll barricade ourselves inside!"

They both ran off. Tails felt bad for scaring them, but there was no way they'd recognise him.

"Now that's good information," Midna said, appearing again. "Look up there. An open window. This village is full of idiots. We could get up there from the water wheel, but how to get onto there?" She dropped back out of sight.

Tails looked around nearby. The rock towers near Sera's shop would do, except Sera's husband, Hanch, was up there. He really didn't want to scare anyone else off, but it looked like he'd have to.

As he drew close to the base of the tower Hanch was on, Hanch spotted him.

"Monster! Take this! And give the children back!"

He summoned a hawk, and sent it after Tails, who jumped quickly aside, and ran out of sight before it came back.

Instead, he went to the back of Sera's shop, and leapt up onto it's roof from a nearby rock. He heard whimpering sounds from inside as his claws clicked on the roof tiles.

Jumping from the roof to one rock tower, then the next, he landed behind Hanch. He really didn't want to do it, but he growled and snarled. Hanch jumped, saw him, and dived into the water in fright.

"That's the way to do it," Midna encouraged him.

Now he made his way onto the water wheel, then onto Jaggle's roof, going in through the window. He spotted the shield on the far wall.

He was thankful there was no one about, and jumped down, up onto the table, then up to the ledge near the shield. He slammed into it twice, knocking the shield down and collecting it. Midna popped up and secured it to his back.

"This is the best you can find? It looks... cheap. Better than nothing, I guess. Now for a sword."

Tails tried to sigh, and leaped out the window. He knew where Rusl's house was, so made his way down the river so he could keep out of sight. As he drew close, he saw Rusl and his wife outside.

"They still haven't come back yet. I'll only be gone a short time."

"But Rusl, you're hurt."

"I'll be alright."

Rusl had a torch in one arm, and his sword in the other. Tails was careful to keep out of the light.

Rusl hadn't left any windows open, and his wife standing by the door made it impossible to try to get in through there.

He remembered a visit he paid there on his first day here in Ordon, and remembered he'd seen a patch of earth inside by one wall.

He made his way to where he thought the other side of that wall and patch were, dug, and managed to squeeze in.

The sword was on the couch, just as Bo had said. It looked like it was the same height as Tails was normally.

Midna appeared again to strap it to his back.

"That's it. Now we can go back to the Twilight."

Tails wasted no time in getting back. Ilia, Colin and the others still preyed on his mind.

As he passed the spring though, a voice called to him, "Wait. Come to my spring."

He did so, padding into the shallows of it.

"Wait," the voice spoke again. "Beasts of Shadow approach."

He looked up to the odd red portal from earlier. A creature like the one that had pulled him into the twilight the first time dropped out, and the portal disappeared, bit by bit, in squares.

Tails wasted no time again. He lunged at the shadow beast, tearing and ripping as much as he could. It threw him off, so he lunged again.

This time, it fell to him.

When it exploded, spots of darkness hung in the air, then shot up to re-form the portal. This time, it had green markings instead of red.

Nothing else came from it.

He approached the spring again, and a flash of light rose from it, forming into a goat.

"I am Ordona, patron spirit of light for this place," it told him. "Oh youth of the changed form, hear me... this land suffers under a veil of twilight. The three other light spirits have lost their light, and can no longer hold it back. I beg of you to come to their aid, hero chosen by the gods, and restore their light. Restore them, and restore Hyrule."

It faded, dropping back into the waters. Tails was shaken. 'Hero chosen by the gods'? Him?

He padded out of the area, heading toward that creepy wall from earlier, still wondering about what Ordona had told him.

When he reached the wall, Midna popped up once more.

"You know, you can't get into the twilight without the help of a being from it. And of course, you can't get back from it without my help, though that's more difficult. Still sure you wanna go in?"

He growled a little.

"That's a good wolf." She floated up to, then through the wall, leaving ripples on it's surface, then a great orange arm shot out, grabbed him in a hand, and pulled him through.

Midna landed back on his back once through, this time back to normal. Evidently she couldn't show herself outside of the twilight.

"You call these weapons?" Midna slashed inexpertly with the sword, making Tails duck to avoid being cut. "I can't use these. But I'll hold onto them for you." They vanished. "Come on, wolfy."

He loped ahead into the familiar clearing he'd seen before. This time, a circle of stone posts shot out the ground, and a wall of semi-transparent twilight linked them, preventing escape.

A red portal appeared in the sky, dropping three of the shadow beasts in around him. Like before, the portal vanished afterwards/

"Well, this looks fun. You can handle them, right?" She leapt off him, and stood on one of the posts, watching. So much for her 'helping' him.

He rolled aside as one made a swipe at him, then lunged back at it, repeating his earlier tactic from the single one. Once it fell, he moved onto the next.

He was about to attack the third when it stopped and gave a piercing scream that made him stop too, and seemed to revive the other too.

"Aaagh!" Midna exclaimed. "What are you doing? You can't leave one alive, it'll revive the rest!"

Now she tells me, he thought to himself.

He felled one of them like before, then harassed the other two, nipping at their flanks, taking small bites. He tried to make certain he got both of them evenly while also dodging their attacks.

Finally, he had them both coming at him side by side, so he leapt between them and lashed out with both tails, one at each. They both fell, defeated, leaving Tails with another surge of victory.

They all exploded, and the hanging shadow pieces from them re-formed the portal above him, green, just like the other had been.

The posts retracted back into the ground, and Midna rejoined him. "Well, I guess that wasn't so bad. You're kinda smart, aren't you?"

Tails appreciated her comment, and continued northwards to the spring in Faron woods.

There was a faintly glowing ball of light hanging in the air at the spring. He approached it.

"Hero chosen by the gods," it said weakly. "Return my stolen light to me, and I will restore your form. Collect it in this." A stem of a tree fell down. It had pods on it. Midna caught it, landing in front of him.

"There are bugs... unseen to humans... they have the light. You must defeat them to take the light back."

Midna looked at Tails. "You kill 'em, I'll collect 'em?" Tails nodded agreement.