As the farmer drove them away from the burning stronghold, Naia had not recovered. She lay there breathing rapidly. Hermione, however was alert and spotted a flash of red hair amongst the citadel. " STOP!" she shouted to her new companion. A black dog was hunched over Ron and looked at least slightly rabid. " ACCIO!" Hermione screamed when the driver didn't stop.

Ron heard Hermione's scream, but the spell did no use. He was pinned down good and proper. He flinched as the drooling muzzle travelled over his face and he scrunched up his eyes, his breath bated, waiting for the killing bite.

"FLIPPENDO!"

The dog rolled off Ron and the lion got to his feet, stumbling backwards and drawing his own wand.

His saviour came running towards him and soon became distinguishable as he emerged from the fire's dark fumes.

It was Harry, limping a little, but still with a determined look on his face.

But what was that... Behind him... In the smoke... It seemed like a dark figure... With thunderous, pupilless red eyes?

"HARRY, BEHIND YOU!" Ron bellowed as the smoke monster moved slickly towards his friend, a red and black dagger materialising in its hand. It threw its other arm around Harry's neck and pulled him up, into a position which gave him no free movement.

Harry yelled in shock, his wand dropping to the cobblestone ground, leaving him defenceless.

"The wand..." The assassin hissed into Harry's ear, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, "Where is it?"

"W-what?" Harry was struggling to breathe. He looked down at the black gauntlet which had him in this deathly hold and recognised it immediately, "LINK?!"

The being growled in annoyance, "I don't have much time for your foolish detective work, kid!" His arm tightened around Harry's throat, making him grunt in pain and anxiety.

"W-who are you?!" Harry wheezed.

"A shadow... Of the very man you call 'Link'." It spat.

A bark. A flash of black. A glimpse of gnashing jaws.

Harry gasped. This was it, surely? He was going to be mauled to death.

"AGH!"

The arm around Harry's throat loosened and he was able to break free, turning around briefly to see the black dog wrestling the shadow to the floor.

It looked as if it could have been Link's evil twin, his hair as black as Harry's, garbed in a toxic smoke dark tunic and long floppy hat, a dark doppelgänger of the Master Sword on his back.

He didn't have time to gape any longer. Ron grabbed his shoulder and heaved him around. They both sprinted away, casting fearful glances back every so often.

Hermione screamed and screamed for her friends. She didn't notice the cart had stopped, her eyes didn't see the farmer run out and her brain did not make sense of what was happening.

It was then that she passed out. It's wasn't some girly faint at the mere mention of unladylike deeds, it was hitting a stone wall of her consciousness. Her brain stopped working because it could not compute what it was seeing. Now both Naia and Hermione were incapacitated.

The farmer hoisted both boys and slung them over his shoulders. Her dumped them on the cart and rallied the horses. He drove away from the burning castle and its destroyed town. He headed through fields and grassland. He turned only the once to speak.

"I am Talon. Do not ask questions, I need to focus on the ride. Please try to rest. Hold anywhere that bleeds and with any spare limbs grab anything solid and we will go." After that the cart took off with great speed.

The cart eventually trotted back in to Lon Lon Ranch and Malon came running out.

"Father!" She squealed, "Father, thank Din you're OK!" She ran up to him and hugged him.

Harry jumped off the cart and took hold of Hermione, hitching her up into a bridal lift and carrying her back inside, Ron following with Naia.

Link was laid out on the sofa, sleeping with a wet flannel on his forehead.

Harry placed Hermione down on the other sofa and straightened back up, his mind still contemplating hopelessly over the thing which he had just been a part of.

He had almost died.

However, thanks to the dog which was hunting them, he had managed to get away with his life. Why was that? Was it because the dog wanted to kill them himself? Was the shadow in league with Voldemort?

Hermione's eyes snapped open. She caught her breath and stared at the ceiling. Wait, ceiling? She should be outside! Her fingers twitched amongst the cushions. Cushions? She should be in a wooden cart! Last she could remember Ron and Harry had been viciously attacked by some man dressed entirely in black. With soot black hair and a loose black tunic... Someone of that exact description loomed at the edge of her peripheral vision. He stared at Link, maliciously? Hermione found her wand and flipped quickly and pelted a spell in his/its direction.

"INCARCEROUS!" She shouted, watching the black light jump from her wand.

Harry yelled as ropes wrapped around him and he fell to the floor, squirming and looking around, "Hermione?! What the HELL did you do that for?!"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Hermione tried to look menacing and imposing, however her mask soon morphed into desperate confusion as she looked at a very sooty Harry. He was not the scary man who had attacked her friends, he was just Harry. Blackened by the soot of the burning palace he had just escaped.

"I'm so sorry, I thought you were that horrible man!" She spilt her exasperation while still pointing her wand at him.

Harry got to his feet and nodded, though still a bit cranky. They looked round at Link as he grumbled.

His eyes flickered open and for a moment, he was deep in confusion. Again, the memories hit him. He gasped, sitting bolt upright, "Harry?!"

"Yes?"

Link looked around at Harry and sighed in relief. However, his eyes soon hardened, "Harry, you idiot! Look at you! Bet those Stalkids in the field beat you up! You should have stayed here!"

"What, and let Ron get mauled by a dog?!" Harry said irritably, "'They'll find their way back!' What? From death?! Your cowardice almost cost Ron his life and me a best friend!"

"COWARDICE?!" Link growled, swinging his legs around angrily, "Let me tell you something, Harry; by the look of you, you only escaped death by a chance of luck! Are you calling yourself brave by charging headlong into death?! That's what I call recklessness, and only fools are that reckless! And, Harry Potter, you don't strike me as a fool, so what possessed you to be as careless as to run back to a burning castle at night?"

Harry said in an irritated but small voice, "So that I could bring them back alive."

"If luck hadn't been in your favour, Potter, then you could have died along with them! The whole reason that so many people have just been burnt to death, the whole reason that Zelda has been kidnapped, the whole reason that we are chasing this damned wand in the first place is to get YOU THREE HOME! I'm not complaining, because your families deserve to know that you three are OK, but when you put your life on the line like that, THAT'S when I start to complain!

"What would your mother and father think if I managed to get Ron and Hermione home and you were left behind?!"

Ron cleared his throat a little and looked the other way, a nervous look on his face.

Harry was looking down at his shoes. He mumbled something inaudible.

"I'm sorry?" Link asked, still miffed.

"I said... I don't have a mum or dad who would worry about me." Harry's voice shook slightly, as did his fists.

"They don't care?"

"THEY'RE DEAD!" He suddenly exploded, then stormed out, slamming the door shut behind him.

Link stared after him in shock, "W-"

"You don't know anything, do you?" Ron said in a dangerous tone, "He's the bloody Boy Who Lived. When he was one, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named stormed his house, killed his mum and dad, then went to kill him. But... It happened in reverse. You-know-who got clobbered and Harry came out of it with just the scar." He pointed to his own forehead, "He can get... A little touchy about it sometimes. Also, have you never had a friend who you would die for before?"

Link looked down, thinking deeply and feeling heavily guilty.

Hermione steeled her nerves and took a breath to add her thoughts into the giant cauldron of ideas and opinions already flooding the room they stood in.

"It was an extremely dangerous situation. We can either look back and shout the house down trying to discover who did what, why they did it, who didn't do this and that like CHILDREN. " She shook her head to emphasise her point, "OR we could actually try to do the job we set out to do. If you only look backwards, something will come along and trip you up. We need to prepare ourselves for exactly what we are going to do. We need to know how to get along where we are. Link, you put yourself in a situation which could have got you killed. You can hardly blame Harry for doing the same." She sheathed her wand and sat down on the sofa she had laid on a few minutes hence.

Link shook his head, then stood up, still shaky, but too annoyed with himself to care. He walked out of the house without another word and out into the paddock. He slipped amongst the horses and emerged into a space in front of the trough.

Harry was sat on the side of it, staring up at the stars with Malon next to him with an arm around his shoulders.

She looked up as Link approached and gave him a dirty look which made him stop in his tracks. It shocked him.

"Uh-" He carried on forwards, raising a hand in greeting, "Harry!"

"What do you want now?" Harry looked back down from the stars at Link as he drew closer.

"I... I want to apologise for my... Uh... Careless behaviour... I... I didn't know... And... And can sympathise." Link weighed his chances, then added, "Just as a matter of interest... Can you remember your parents?"

Harry hesitated, then answered dryly, "A little. I can remember their faces... Sometimes even their voices... But that's it."

"It must be nice... To remember your parents. Or maybe I've got it all wrong. Maybe it's better to not remember. I don't know. But... I am sorry about what I said. I just- I just want you three to make it through this alive which I am afraid will be quite a feat."

Harry looked down at his lap. He was right. What if they never got back? What if they would die before the wand was found? It scared him.

"I, uh... I really hope that we can pull this off. Because if we don't then-"

"Link!" Malon had leapt to her feet and was staring at him, fists shaking by her sides and tears shining in her eyes, "How old do you think he is?! He's thirteen, still a boy! Just because you can take the pressure doesn't mean that he can too!"

"I- I just-"

"No, Link! You can't just pile that all on his shoulders and expect him to hold the weight!" She stomped up to him so that she was looking right up to see his face and shoved his chest with a finger, "Stop shoving everyone around all the time and wake up already! It isn't just all about you all the time!"

"I know!"

"Then stop acting like a selfish MONSTER!"

Link stumbled backwards as she pushed him and held the place where her hand had been moments before, "I can't because I am." He rumbled, clutching his tunic and looking down at his left hand, the vision of the skeletal fingers flashing past his mind. He blinked. It wasn't a vision.