(author hides behind steel-enforced bulletproof glass guarded by cyborg wolves, eagle-winged tigers, robot bears with mini-guns for arms, and a six-foot-tall dragon-winged, fire-breathing werewolf) Hey, everyone. Sorry I took so long to update ANYTHING. I got pretty bad case of writer's block... and laziness. I worked pretty hard on this chapter, so I hope you can all forgive me. Enjoy!

-o-

Ilia sighed as she sat on the edge of her bed. Link had been gone for almost a week. He had said that he was going to a foreign country, but had promised that he would come back as soon as he could. Did he get caught up in something? Was he pulled into another crazy adventure of some sort? It wouldn't really be all that surprising to her. He could never turn his back on a problem that demanded rectification. That was one of the reasons she loved him: his sense of responsibility always had him doing the right thing and helping others, even complete strangers.

"Where are you, Link?" she asked aloud.

Just then, there was a loud knock at the door. Her father was out at the moment, so she got up and went downstairs to see who it was. There was another knock when she arrived at the first floor of her house. She opened the door to see a trio of Hylian Knights, each armed with a spear.

"Excuse us, miss," the middle one said in a gruff tone. "We're looking for Link of Ordona Province. We understand that you're rather close to him."

"Yes, I am," Ilia replied with a curious look. "Is there something wrong?"

"Link was witnessed with an accomplice. He and his partner killed three people."

"Wh-what?"

"They murdered two civilians and killed a guard that tried to intervene before fleeing the scene," the knight explained. "I'm very sorry, but if you happen to see Link, then please, you must turn him in."

Ilia just stared wide-eyed at the knights. Was what they were saying true? No, there must've been some sort of mistake! She couldn't believe that Link would hurt innocent people, let alone murder someone! Still… "I-I understand."

"Thank you, ma'am," the guard said with an appreciative nod. "Now, we have to get going, but until the felons are apprehended, guards will be stationed at the village's entrance. Have a nice day." That said, the guards left her to her thoughts.

There must've been some kind of mistake, right? Link would never hurt anyone without good reason. There must've been some impostor putting the blame on her boyfriend! She had to find him and try to figure this out. And she had a feeling that she knew where to look.

-o-

Link awoke to the sound of birds singing gently and the spring's water quietly washing the shore. He could feel warmth on his left side. He looked to see that Amaterasu had pressed herself up against his body in her sleep. Thinking nothing of it, he silently rose, took a few steps away, and stretched out his stiff, lupine muscles. Being a wolf sometimes required these morning exercises. He was just letting out a yawn when a little pink light landed on the tip of his snout.

He saw that the creature was a small very, and that it was actually smaller than the ones that he had seen. She sat on his nose with a visible grin and a curious stare. "Um… Hi," he said.

"Hello!" the fairy replied cheerfully. She flew off of his nose and hovered in front of him. "My name's Sprite! And you're Link, right?"

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"Fairies like to gossip a lot. You're pretty well-known among my people, and when I saw the other day, I decided to follow and your friend over there." She pointed to Amaterasu, who looked like she was just waking up.

The white wolf stretched and yawned with Issun bouncing on her head. She looked up at the sky with a wolfish grin. She really did love mornings. They were always so peaceful. She looked around until she found Link, who had a fairy floating next to him. "Good morning, Link," she said.

"Morning," Link replied. "We'll be making our way to the village today, so we're going to have to go into our human forms."

"What? Why?"

"The people of Hyrule aren't particularly fond of wolves. We have tons of stories about wolves attacking and killing people. In fact, predatory animals are rarely seen as a good thing around here. The villagers might panic if a pair of wolves just waltzed right into their town."

"Oh," Ammy replied with a depressed sigh. She should've figured that returning to normal wouldn't last her very long. "Well, how are we going to change back?"

Link shrugged. "I usually just concentrate on my human form for a few seconds, and then poof." As if to demonstrate, he closed his eyes, and a few seconds later, he was surrounded in a shadowy aura, which exploded away from his body to reveal his original human form. "Now you try."

With another sigh, Amaterasu closed her eyes and focused on the image of her human form. After a few moments, she could already feel her body changing relatively quickly. When she opened her eyes again, she looked to see that she had reverted to her human form. "I hate this body. I'm still not quite used to its… added parts."

"Look on the bright side," Link replied. "You won't be called a monster by the villagers at least. Trust me, that can be very damaging to one's self-esteem."

"Okay, okay," Ammy replied. She stared at the little fairy that was hovering next to Link. "By the way, why do you have a fairy with you? Did you catch it or something?"

"No." Link turned to the fairy. "Why are you here?"

Sprite the fairy shrugged her tiny shoulders. "I got bored at the spring, and I heard that you go on a lot of fun adventures. I just thought I'd tag along with you so that I could get some excitement!"

"I'd be willing to welcome her!" shouted Issun from Amaterasu's shoulder. "Name's Issun, the Wandering Artist of Nippon! Nice to meet you!"

"Hi! I'm Sprite! It's a pleasure!"

Issun let out a quiet, perverted chuckle. "Heh, it sure will be," he whispered.

"You say something, Issun?" Ammy said in a warning tone. The Poncle froze at the thought of what happened when he had taken a nap in her clothes. Hearing no response, the sun goddess nodded. "That's what I thought." She turned back to Link. "Should we get going now?"

"Yeah. My house is the first one we'll see in the village. Follow me." The goddess nodded and followed the Hylian out of the spring, their new companion Sprite sticking close to the Hero of Twilight. They made their way down the path leading to Ordon. It was quiet and serene, with birds tweeting and squirrels hopping from tree to tree. Eventually, however, that peace was interrupted.

"Halt!" called a man's voice. Link turned and cursed when he saw a group of guards heading for him and Ammy, each brandishing a long spear. He grabbed the goddess's hand and pulled her after him as they both began to run. They sprinted through the woods, the guards hot on their trail.

"Ammy!" Link shouted. "Do you think you can do something to stop them, or at the very least slow them down?"

The goddess thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think I have an idea! You'll have to keep hold of me though!" Link nodded as Amaterasu concentrated, then flicked her hand through the air twice, creating a pair of horizontal lines. "Kasugami! Veil of Mist!" A deep fog began to fall around them, and time seemed to slow down. The guards' approach slowed to a crawl as the two heroes and their tiny followers made their escape.

-o-

Ilia was on her way to Link's house, where she would start looking for him. If he did come back to Hyrule, she would want to rule out the more obvious places for him to hide from the guards. She didn't believe that he was a murderer of course. She was more worried about this "accomplice" that the guards had mentioned. Was this person responsible for whatever happened? Could they be the threat that Link had mentioned when he told her that he had to leave? She sighed. "What am I going to do?" she asked to no one in particular.

She finally made it to Link's yard, where, out of nowhere, a body collided with hers, sending her sprawling to the ground. She groaned as she sat up, holding her head in pain. She looked over at the person that had run into her. She immediately broke into a huge grin. "Link!" she shouted as she gave the green-clad boy a bone-crushing hug.

"Ilia…" Link replied. "Can't… breathe…"

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Ilia let him go, and only just noticed the young woman wearing a strange red and white outfit standing behind him behind him. She didn't look much older than Link himself. "Link, who is that?"

"Introductions later!" the young hero said. "We need to hide out somewhere!"

Ilia nodded and motioned for Link and the girl to follow. She led them straight to her house, where she told them to wait in her father's wrestling arena. After they managed to hide themselves, the guards inevitably appeared at her doorstep.

"Ma'am, Link and his accomplice have been spotted in the area," one of them said impatiently. "Have you seen them?"

"Yes," Ilia replied. "I think I saw them heading for the ranch. You may want to hurry." The guards nodded unquestioningly and sprinted off. The green-eyed girl let out a sigh of relief. She towards the direction of the arena and said, "They're gone! You guys can come out now!"

The two heroes came out of the arena, both looking more than a little relieved. "Thanks, Ilia," Link said gratefully. "I owe you one."

The girl crossed her arms and said, "Well, you can pay me back by telling me who your friend is."

"Right," Link replied with a nod. "Ilia, this is Amaterasu. She's from Nippon, a country to the east. Amaterasu, this is my girlfriend Ilia."

"Your girlfriend, huh?" the silver/red-haired girl said with a sly look, though her tone sounded somewhat dejected to Ilia. Still, she extended her hand in greeting. "It's nice to meet you, Ilia. You can just call me 'Ammy' for short if you want. Everyone else does."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Ammy," Ilia greeted, shaking the foreigner's hand. She didn't seem too bad a person actually. No more jumping to conclusions from now on, she chided herself.

-o-

Ninetails sat cross-legged on a ledge that overlooked the tiny village that the Hyrulians called "Ordon." He sipped from a sake cup as he eyed the quaint little town. He was eager to get started, but had to wait for those two. If it wasn't for Lord Yami's orders, he would've laid waste to this quiet patch of land already.

Soon, that repugnant scent of death touched his nose. That was one of the many reasons that he hated these newcomers. They reeked like living corpses to him. His many tails swished back and forth in agitation as a pair of unnatural shadows approached him from either side.

"It's about time you two got here," he said angrily.

"Sorry about that," Dark Link said with mischievous grin as he rose from his own shadow. "The bosses called, and we had to answer."

"Don't be so serious, foxy," Tsukuyomi said as she slung her arm around the demon's shoulders, a mocking look evident in her features. "At least we get to burn Dark's twin's little hometown to the ground. You can look forward to that, right?"

Ninetails mulled it over, and soon smirked. "I suppose so. It should be an excellent way to the afternoon." His tails swished around behind him again, this time with anticipation it had been while since he last annihilated a town full of people. This should prove to be very entertaining for him.

-o-

All right, longer than last time. See ya later!