Tails bounded along, pushing past bokoblins that tried in vain to attack him, and loping ahead of kargaroks and keese that dived at him, the only thing on his mind being to save Midna.

He remembered what Telma had said – there was a hidden passage to the castle in her bar. He'd have to run the risks of going through Hyrule Castle Town like this. The heavy rain would keep most people indoors.

The gate in was unguarded, and the streets almost totally deserted. A few cats were moaning about the rain, but a frog was remarking at the good weather. Tails ignored them all, continuing through the streets, until he found Telma's bar. Without thinking, he tried to go in the front door, but was pushed out be a burly Goron with a shout of, "Beast! Get out!" and the door slammed on him.

"You there!" another cat's voice called. He turned to see Telma's cat stood nearby. "You're Tails, correct?" He nodded. "Mmm, yes, I thought so. I could tell, you know. I'm Louise, Telma's cat. I don't think we've been properly introduced. I must tell you though, I'm a little puzzled as to why you look like that? Really, you can't blame them for throwing you out."

Midna pushed herself weakly up to look at the cat.

"Please... Zelda..." she had no strength to say much more.

"Oh my. Another patient? She doesn't look well at all. This way." Louise led him out into the courtyard, and looked toward a small window leading into the bar. "Get in through there. It leads to the attic, which is connected to the castle's waterways. It's an old waterway though, so it could be a rough trip. Be careful not to make much noise up there – don't want to the humans to know you're around."

Tails pushed one box near some others so he could run along a row of them leading to the window, and went on in.

He was above the main bar. Some ropes led from shelf to shelf over the patrons, not a safe way, but the only way. Over several ropes he'd have to go, through some pots without knocking any down, and through another small tunnel in the far corner.

Balancing carefully, he placed one paw in front of the other, slowly making his way across and catching snatches of conversation from below.

The first shelf of pots was no trouble at all, and he was on to the second rope in short order.

"How's it come to this, huh?" he heard Telma say. "Monsters walking in the streets of town! What are those soldiers doing? The Gorons are that much more reliable, it's not even funny!"

He made it to the second platform. He'd have to move a few pots aside in order to reach the next rope. One accidentally slipped off, so he crouched low behind some pots as everyone turned to look upward toward him, and the burly Goron shouted "What? What was that sound?"

"Easy there, it's just a pot falling down... some of those shelves are a bit loose."

Tails kept very still, using his sharper wolf senses to listen carefully. He picked up more conversation.

"I heard an acquaintance of Telma's defeated that beast attacking tourists on the bridge. His name was Tails, I hear. Sounds like he also brought Telma and that little girl to Kakariko through all those other monsters too."

"And here I was, thinking Hyrule was empty of men of valour," someone else said.

"Oh, no," a third voice said. "I don't believe he's from Hyrule at all. Something about being from some mystical ruins, I hear."

"This may sound terribly elitist, but people who don't come from a city don't seem to know fear at all..."

"Now, now, the young man is a hero for what he's done, it wouldn't do well to be heard speaking ill of him. Just imagine if he found out?"

"A fair point, I dread to think of ending up in a fight with someone who could defeat that beast..."

The bar seemed to have settled, so he got up again, and continued over the ropes, into another house.

Into something that was almost certainly not a normal house.

The floor was distinctly sandy, and there was a chest on one side of the room. The walls were clearly visible, but seemed also somehow to shimmer faintly.

There was nothing else here. Not even his wolf senses picked up anything.

He was still wary, however, and investigated the chest. It sounded like there was a tunnel underneath it, from the sounds echoing up to him. He tried digging around it, but the sand gave way to a stone floor, with no easy way to get past.

A faint noise caused one ear to flick.

"It won't open, you know," a deep, low and foreboding voice told him. "Not unless I let it."

Turning, he saw... himself. But it wasn't quite him. The other wore the same clothes he normally did here, the Hero's clothes, but in the dark black shades he'd seen in what Lanayru had made him witness, and with the dark eyes.

Tails watched him carefully. He didn't seem hostile, not yet.

"I sealed it, knowing you'd be coming. You seek to restore the creature on your back."

He stepped around Tails, looking him over.

"You are no doubt wondering who I am... I am the opposite of many a Hero. You currently hold the title of Hero of Hyrule. Therefore, I appear as you do, unchanged."

That explained a lot. But what did he want?

"I once challenged the Hero of Time, before you. I lost... but testing him was all I was there for. Now it is your turn, Hero." He draw a sword and shield matching Tails' own ones, and assumed a battle pose.

He didn't have time for this, but if all he had to do was force this... imposter to open it, he'd have to go with it.

The weight of the equipment the fake carried slowed him, giving Tails the edge. He moved quickly around his foe, getting behind easily, then lunging at the back, wolven instinct making him aim for the throat.

It finished the fight almost before it had started. The fake lay on the floor, defeated. Then, to his surprise, it got up, sheathing the sword and returning the shield to his back.

"I see. I will allow you through... but some time, you will return here, and I will challenge you again as yourself. Until next time."

The chest creaked open. As he glanced over at it, there was a sound like whistling wind, and he turned back to find the fake had vanished.

He didn't waste any time trying to find out how, and simply jumped down the tunnel in the chest.

The sewers were dark, something he solved with his wolf senses, smelling bokoblins, rats, and filthy water.

It was difficult to tell where to go, but the sewers were relatively linear. A few torches had to be lit, but he didn't bother going back to normal senses.

Eventually he found his way back to the familiar sewers he'd first traversed when he'd still considered Midna a possible threat. He knew better now, of course, but he couldn't deny there were times she went a little far with her teasing.
Some of the vermin were back in the sewers, but they posed no threat to a wolf running at speed. He already knew which switches to pull on to alter the water levels, then got back to the spiral staircase.

A few more stairs had fallen down, and some tightropes had been added. They made getting back up again even easier, aside from some more bokoblins. He didn't even bother to attack them, just ramming them off edges instead. Their startled cries as they fell down echoed loudly.

The rooftops. They now had a periodic strong wind blowing, forcing him to dig claws into whatever foothold he could do prevent being blown off.

Kargaroks were still around, in place of their shadow counterparts, and were just as annoying. He dealt with each in turn, making his way back to the second staircase, and run up into Zelda's room.

She wasn't there. Midna tried to push herself up, but her grip slipped, and she fell to the floor. His quick reactions caught her in his tails, preventing her from further injury.

Zelda silently appeared at their side.

"Please," Midna begged Zelda weakly. "Tell me... how to break the curse... on this one?" Zelda looked surprised, so Midna went on. "This... is the one. You need him. To save your world. You've got to save him, princess."

Zelda placed a hand gently between his ears, closing her eyes briefly, then shook her head.

"What binds him is a different magic than what transformed him within the twilight. It is a power formed from a great evil. Our world is one of balance... just as light drives away darkness, benevolence banishes evil. Head for the sacred grove that lies deep within the lands of Faron. There, you will find the Master Sword – the blade of evil's bane, that evil can never touch. That blade has the power to remove the cloak of evil around you." She looked over them for a few moments, then continued. "Like you, Hero, I have been granted special powers by the Goddesses of Hyrule." She turned to Midna.

"Tails..." she breathed, even weaker than before. "You can get to the woods on your own, right?" Reluctantly, he nodded. "Princess... a favour... tell him where to find the Mirror of Twilight."

"I believe I understand now just who and what you are, Midna..." Zelda breathed, seeming to be in awe. "Despite your mortal injuries, you still act in our stead. These dark times are the result of our deeds, yet it is you who have reaped the penalty. Accept this now, Midna," she told her, taking one of Midna's tiny hands in her own. "I pass it to you."

Tails almost didn't believe his eyes. Zelda seemed to become bathed in a bright light, then faded slowly away.

"No!" Midna screamed in shock. "Tails, do something! Stop her!"

What could he do?

Zelda continued to fade, the last to go, her own hands. As they too finally vanished, Midna was restored. Even though they were away from twilight, she was in full colour, the green markings as bright as they were before, and her hair flaming orange once more.

Midna stood, whole again, staring at where Zelda had just been.

"She gave me everything she had, even though I didn't want it, just to save me... why, Zelda, why..." She continued staring into space.

Tails padded over to her, gently licking at her face with his long, wet tongue. "Hey!" she exclaimed, giggling. "Cut that out!" She washed her face in a bit of his fur, then jumped back up on his back. "Come on then, wolf boy. Back to Faron Woods. We've got a curse on you to break."

A shattering kind of sound drew their attention as they left by the east gate. Glancing back at Hyrule Castle, they saw an immense yellow crystal engulfing it, inside clearly shrouded in twilight again.

There wasn't anything he could do about it for now, though. There was nothing left for them there.

He loped on ahead, intending to run back. He enjoyed running as a wolf, tirelessly.

"Hey, Tails?" Midna called. "You know, while you're still a wolf, I can use the warp portals. I could warp us all the way there."

He slowed, stopped, then checked no one was around. Then he turned and nodded to her.

Faron woods formed around him.

"I think... north, toward the temple. I'm not sure why... I just have a hunch."

It was better than nothing, so he followed her directions. It led them to a familiar monkey, and a strange looking creature that resembled a puppet.

He lunched at the puppet, hurling it to the ground, where it seemed to deflate and vanish.

"Did you save me?" the monkey asked. "Are you also looking for the other forest? I know the way... but when I went there, that thing came after me! I can guide you, but you'll have to deal with those for me."

He nodded, following. Of course, he couldn't follow exactly the same route as the monkey, but Midna led him to sure footing, then following a new route, over more tightropes, and a few platforms.

There was another howling stone nearby. The monkey watched curiously as he listened to the wind whistling through it, then howled the same tune. Link told him to meet him somewhere on Hyrule Field.

Both Midna and the monkey were still watching him curiously, but he couldn't really explain, so they moved on.

The monkey stopped.

"This is where they attacked me... I'll leave you here. Good luck!"

There was another howling stone. This one wasn't a real one. It summoned four of the puppet things.

Like the one before, he pounced on each, and defeated them easily.

The path behind him had vanished. In it's place a strange creature was floating. It looked similar to the puppets. It floated over him, leading him to chase the route he followed, occasionally dealing with yet another puppet. After a while, he started ignoring them and just running on, taking them out in groups. Through this mystical looking forest he chased, past waterfalls and small caverns, finally ending up in a clearing of ruins, where he waited.

It said nothing, laughing and summoning more puppets, and floating around quickly. He chased around the clearing some more. Midna tried to hold them still for him, but they moved too quick for her.

After he'd got in a few hits on the creature itself, he shouted "Bye!" and left.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Midna asked. "Whatever it was, he's taken us to here... wherever here is."

Tails sniffed around, searching, and uncovering a door with the sign of the Triforce in front of it. Upon the door was an inscription, and a musical score. He couldn't read the ancient words, but the score he could, and so he howled the tune.

The door opened with a cracking and scraping of stone, showing the way to a sunlit clearing. In the exact centre, held within a pedestal was a large, ornate sword, gleaming in the bright light.

Midna took off from his back, and floated around it, nodding to him.

He took an awkward hold, and pulled upwards, feeling his form change as he did so, finding himself holding the Master Sword aloft in his sword arm, returned to his own form. The sword seemed to brim with an indescribable power.

Something thumped onto the ground nearby.

"Now isn't this interesting?" Midna commented, diving to pick it up. It was a small black crystal with orange markings on it.

"What do you make of it?" he asked, hearing his voice again. It had been a while.

"It's not my magic," she told him. "I'd say this is what you were cursed with. I can use it to turn you into a wolf any time I like."

"Oh, please no. At least do it when it's useful."

"Aw, where's the fun in that, wolf boy?"

Tails sighed, and threw his arms skyward, "Why me? Of all people, why me?"

Midna just burst out laughing.