Chapter 9:
Animal
Many say his tower was built for his dead lover. They say it has sixty floors if you count the two roof top gardens. It stretches beyond the clouds, straight to the heavens' belly. There are four laboratories where ungodly experiments where done, ten residential floors for thousands, four shrines and temple levels, eight factory floors for weapons and goods, two transport stations to get to the tower, twenty beautiful court yard gardens scattered throughout the tower, one well, and finally ten sewer levels below that. At one point in time the people of the tower used to talk to those that dwelt on the ground beyond the gates.
They celebrated with them, traded, and got along very well with the land walkers, so they called their neighbors below. But, those living on the tower never stayed on the ground for long. They would return eventually to their sky high kingdom. No one knew why this rule was so religiously followed by the people of the tower, but even love could not persuade them to stay.
Another rule they also seemed to instate was no land walker was allowed to travel to the tower itself. These mysterious peoples odd ways soon became questioned by their friends on the ground. Distrust started to rise, accusations, and fear rose within those on the ground. Yet, even then those from the tower remain to denied access to them. Tensions over this matter became so strong a war almost started.
But then, the people of the tower vanished without a trace. The land dwellers climbed the tower, to fined nothing but, old rusty equipment and none could be salvaged or fixed in the factories. The labs were full of cobwebs, the gardens were overgrown and crumbling. The holy shrines and the temple were falling to ruin. Finally the residential sections were deserted as if everyone just disappeared in the middle of their daily activities. The whole place looked as if it was abandoned for hundreds of unrelenting years of rot. Yet, on the very top floor those who dared to climb as far found a clue to what had happened to the people of the tower.
A broken stained glass monument stood at the edge of the roof's highest most garden. A message was written in the blood of two young boys, who laid dead hand in hand at the alter's base;
If a Shadow should die, no one will care.
We all fade one day, all Shadows are destined to die.
If we are the Shadows, then there is no hope for us.
Maybe we should just hide, and wait for the end...
The midnight creature woke up with a start on a cold stone floor. He was caged in a small cell. The smell of a mildew hung heavily within the air. The iron bars were rusty as well. A group of three men all wearing masks stood guard over the cage. They were laughing and talking as they stood unaware the being had woke up. The smell of the familiar water caused mold, remind the creature of his old lake home and that he hadn't drank anything in awhile. A guard had a pail beside him that was catching water from the ceiling of the wooden roof. In fact there were three others around the other side of the bars catching water.
Still a bit dazed the dark creature crawled towards the pail and reached out to it.
"Hyiiahhh! Kirp!" A guard yelled when he saw the claw hand reach out to the bucket. "Watch out it's awake!"
"Giants!" The man jumped kicking the pail and spilling the water everywhere. The creature sighed and withdrew his arm sadly. "Heh, heh, thought you'd get me huh, demon? But I saw right through ya!" He pick the bucket back up and the being watched him with it's pupil-less ruby eyes. "Huh, odd pair of eyes you go there. Ya kind of remind me of that old livin' shadow people tale my aunt used to blab on about."
Suddenly the heavy steps sounded down the hall. A short man with purple hair was escorted by two other guards. The man wore orange and yellow, a popular colour here probably. He pulled his duckbill mask down and looked at the creature straight in the eye. Suddenly shy by all the attention to his glowing eyes, the being tried to look away.
"Well, well..." The man chuckled. "Not the real Onigami that terrorized our lands so many years ago, but it dose look just the same..."
"What is it then sir?" A cat masked guard asked.
"What is it in deed..." The man thought as he got close enough to be face to face with the being. "Tell us... What are you?"
The creature looked into the mans eyes with confusion. He never really thought about who or what it was before. The world had consumed his mind, and he devoted to knowing everything but himself. He once believed he was the god of all that existed before him, though that was proven untrue when he was set free. The creature then tried to talk, but no intangible sound was made.
"Ah, ha..." The man stood back replacing his mask. "Nothing more then an animal that wandered into town..." He turned to the guards. "Boys, this thing is but a undocumented creature that has just found himself lost. I believe it might be closely related to Swamp Monkeys in the Deku Swamp. Must have divided from his troop passing through the field last night. Since we never saw something like this before, it must migrate as well as be very nocturnal... Never have I seen such black skin on a creature... Well might as well throw him into the zoo with the rest of the animals and take it from there."
"Yes sir!" The guards said as the man left.
"I'll be..." The guard by the cage laughed. "Yer might be that shadow person my dear old aunt use to blab on about! To bad your nothing, but a lost animal who found himself lost in town!"
A guard with a wolf mask walked up to the cage carrying a iron collar. He carefully opened the cage door obviously trying to keep the being from escaping the cage. He closed the door and approached the creature cautiously.
"Okay big fella..." The guard said calmly. "I'm just going to put this on ya and we'll go for a little walk!" He quickly clasped the collar on. It was a little too tight and the being pulled at it well gagging a bit. "Hold on there..." The guard loosened it some. "There you are, now lets go for a walk." He tugged on the chain, but the being just sat looking up at him on the ground.
"Heh heh..." The other guard laughed. "It seems he doesn't understand what you mean. Maybe you should carry him? You know like how we move the monkeys? The old mayor said he might be related to them."
"Are you crazy?" The wolf masked guard turned to the other. "He's the size of a teenager! He must weigh just as much! I don't think my back could take that!"
"Look, I don't think he knows what we are doing, Mic." The guard replied "Besides your acting like he's a Goron! It would hurt you to pick up a creature his size."
"Fine." The guard sighed. He got closer to the being. "Okay, buddy up we go!" He bent down and lifted him up. Startled the creature gripped tightly and warped his legs around the guard's waist. "Huh, your right. He's lighter then I thought. Come on, lets go down to your new home..." The guard carried the creature out of the cage and was followed by the others.
They soon arrived at a newly fenced off area just on the outskirts of the city. It appeared that Clocktown was planning to expand even more into Termina's field. The guards took the being down to an empty cage that only had a tire swing, a small pond, and was made to look like a cave inside. There was a pile of hay in the very back corner of the cage almost hidden from direct public view. Though there was a window on the other side looking into a building that connected the cages. It was probably so spectators at the zoo could still see whatever animal was put in the cages even if it were sleeping or it was too cold out. The guard opened the iron barred door and walked in closing the door behind them. The guard carrying the creature bent down and placed him on the dirt floor.
"Well here you go." The guard said standing back up. "A brand new home for a brand new attraction to the Clocktown city zoo. Aren't you lucky they even put a tire swing in for you to play with!" He pushed the swing a little to emphasize his meaning. The creature watched it with some curiosity of the object.
"Hey!" Something called from the next cage over. "Mind telling me who's the new neighbor?" It was a bluish white man with gills and other fish like qualities. He didn't wear much then a fish bone belt.
"Oh, Kirki!" The guard had left the being's new cage and locked it. "I didn't know you were in today."
"Yeah I'm here." The fish man sighed. "You can't really have a proper zoo without every common animal in Termina now can you? Unless your human or Hylian it seems... Anyway educating tourists about Zoras and my culture is lot easier in here then having them bothering our tide pools and scaring the tadpoles. So mind tellin' me about that midnight skinned Hylian over there? Are you guys finally putting in a Hylian exhibit, or at least a rare Hylian one? Never seen that dark of colour on them."
"No, we actually don't know what he is." The guard sighed. "He can't talk, nor dose he seem to know or understand modern Hylian. We just found him wandering around town, hissing at a group of children. We think he might be a shadow person like in the old stories, but we'er not sure yet."
"Shadow person..." The Zora thought. "Like the ones said to steal children away to cut off their souls?" The guard nodded. "I hope he isn't one, but good thing you caught him. Dose he have a name?"
"Not yet." The guard sighed. "We don't even know why a creature with such dark skin would be wandering around outside in the daylight. The mayor had said it must be camo for an animal more active a night."
"Hmm... Dark skin..." The Zora thought aloud. "Why don't we just call him Dark? You said his black skin is dark and shadows if they could be solid would have darker skin tones."
"Well it's better then calling it animal." The guard looked over to the being, who was looking around the cage. "Hey!" The being looked at the guard. "Your going to be called Dark now." The creature cocked it's head to one side a little confused. Then returned to looking around the cage. "At least he responds... Well, Kirki I'll be off. Come by the Chu-chu food & drink stand sometime well your out. We just got some new fish on the menu you'd might like." The guard said before leaving.
AN:
Poor Dark, trapped in a Zoo. T-T, but don't worry friends his next little chapter is going to be, how you say more "interesting". (And no I am not talking about a sex scene, he and Link haven't even met yet!) Good thing I made the poor dear too innocent of mind to really understand what is happening though!
On a side note; Kirki is a Zora from the Great Bay Beach, he is apart of an agreement the Zoras made with Clocktown to keep tourists on the main beach and kept away from the Zoras' eggs. Although, he is upset that their is no Hylians or humans on exhibit at the zoo, which makes him wounder how the people of Clocktown view his race. Oh, and there is a Goron in the zoo too, but I'm save'n him for Link's zoo chapter (he dose go visit the zoo).
P.S. The dead lover's tower story is based off of "Lost in Shadow" a game where you use only the shadows to climb a tower to find your physical body. I highly suggest you guys play it if you like mind-f*cking games, because it is a 2D game mostly with a 3D environment. I thought it would be nice to include a little of "Lost in Shadow", because my story is about two people (who are practically the same person) trying to reconnect with each other, no matter how random it seems.