Welp, I killed my right hand playing piano this morning. So excuse the typos, my hand keeps twitching. This is why you do not play Decole's theme, chord triplet containing waltz and jazz multiple times in a row. Anyways, this chapter title been in my head for months, glad I could finally use it.

Chapter 23

And in the darkness you shall find

Epona woke with a jolt. She'd been having nightmares about the night the greys had fallen. There were flecks of sweat on her coat and her sides were heaving. Her heart hammered in her chest. For a moment, she couldn't place herself. The mare circled her stable, no monsters to attack her. The large shadowy form of Aaron outline in moonlight acted like an anchor for her panicked mind. Just a dream. Slowly her heart begun to calm and her breathing returned to normal.

The sun had yet to rise, but the sky was already beginning to lighten with the first rays of dawn.

Epona walked outside, her mind's eyes still filled with horrible images of death and destruction. Out in the clearing, Eclipse was roosting in a tree. He stirred, lifting his head out from under his wing. His wide black eyes shone in the moonlight.

"Hey, Epona."

"What do you want?" The mare flicked her tail with irritancy.

"Ah, I was looking for you earlier. Where's Link going? I saw him skulking through the woods in the dead of night." Epona's eyes widened. "Only, I wouldn't normally pry just Zelda told me to keep an eye on him and… Epona?"

Epona suddenly kicked the tree in which Link had made his home.

"Yikes! Epona!" Dal's head emerged from the window. "What in Din's name was that for?"

"Is Link in there?" Epona asked.

"No, why?"

"Call Silver to the window." Epona snapped impatiently.

"Yeah, uh she's not here either." Dal said.

Epona half reared, ears flat.

"What's all the ruckus this early in the morning?" Aaron asked sleepily, his head emerging from the stable door.

"For the love of time." She whirled on Eclipse, who had been in the process of hiding himself behind a leafy bough. "Go and call Zelda as fast as you can, tell her to meet me at the spring. Don't tell anyone else of this message."

"Why the fuss?" Eclipise muttered. "It's way too early in the morning for this."

"Say Link's done something stupid. Now shut up and fly."

The hawk didn't need telling twice, with a flap of his mighty wings he'd disappeared through the branches.

"Epona, I think you're over-reacting." Dal whined.

"Shut up and get your sorry backside down here."

Dal yelped and disappeared into the house.

Up in the City in the Sky, Zelda was pulling an all-nighter, reading through tome after heavy tome. Piles on piles of books were stacked in piles around her. She leant on the table, head resting on her hand, reading the small block text. Eclipse clawed at the window pane. Zelda looked up, and on seeing him, rushed over to open the window. The hawk flapped to the table and crashed into a pile of books.

"Is something the matter?" Zelda asked, helping him stand up.

"Message…from….Epona…" The hawk was panting so hard, he could barely get a word in.

"Breathe Eclipse." The hawk took a few deep breaths. "Now tell me what's wrong?"

"Epona said to meet her at the spring. Link's done something stupid."

Zelda growled.

"Find Kay, tell her to get to the training grounds as quickly as possible."

"More flying?" The hawk wilted. "Yes princess."

With a few heavy beats of his wings he disappeared into the paling sky. Zelda herself ran from the room to change.

Some minutes later at the training grounds, Zelda had changed into breeches and a chainmail shirt with a purple tunic and a golden aegis. Her bow was across her back as well as a quiver of arrows while a rapier hung from her hip. Her hair had been quickly braided down her back. She was resisting the urge to pace, but her foot tapped the ground impatiently. Her eyes scanned the skies.

Kay crashed down out of nowhere.

"Perfect timing." Zelda ran over to where the sky dragon was getting to her feet.

"Hi princess." Kay said.

"Kay, I need you to take me down to Faron Woods."

"Uh, that's not a great idea princess. I'd probably crash into something and hurt you."

"You don't need to land, just fly down close to the trees and I'll jump from there."

"I repeat, something might hurt you."

Zelda shook her head and held up a square of cloth.

"I read it in one of the books. One simply needs to use this cloth to slow the descent and land safely. Now we need to move quickly."

Kay nodded and Zelda scrambled up onto the dragon's back, crouching low over her neck. Kay leapt into the sky and folded her wings into a dive.

"Feeling better?" Silver asked.

Link nodded and got to his feet. Nothing broken, a few bruises maybe but nothing major.

"Cave of impending doom time right?"

Link smiled and patted her head. With a whine, she led him down the treacherous trail of roots and ledges until they were at the mouth of the cave. It was black as tar, not even a sliver of light penetrated its darkness. The pale grey light of dawn was not even able to touch the darkness let alone dispel it.

"Do we absolutely have to go inside?" Silver asked hopefully.

Link took a step forward, somewhere in there was Ilia, he was sure of it.

Silver whimpered.

"One day, the baddies are going to be hiding out in a beautiful meadow with wildflowers and tea and good food and-"

Link turned round to beckon her forward. Silver could barely distinguish his outline from the darkness.

"One day…" She muttered darkly.

The walls were slick with moisture, and rough to the touch. Link could easily touch both sides of the tunnel, and it was difficult for Silver to walk alongside Link without getting stepped on. The air was heavy with the weight of the earth above. The sounds of their footsteps echoed down the passage, alerting any enemy to their presence.

"I hate this. I hate this." Silver repeated over and over under her breath.

The tunnel began to narrow, until Link was walking bent double. With a growl of annoyance, he reverted to his wolf form. The tunnel became narrower and narrower, until the wolves were walking in single file. The ground was slippery, like wet marble. It seemed roughly hewn into steps, that threatened to trip the wolves and send them flat on their noses and tumbling down the passage way.

Then all of a sudden, Link stopped dead.

Kay swooped low over the trees. Zelda crouched, ready to jump down. Opening her wings wide, Kay virtually stopped in mid-air. At this point, Zelda leapt down, opening her cloth up and floating down to land in the water around Faron's Spring. With a wave to Kay, the dragon headed onto Ordon Village.

"Finally." Epona said, trotting out from the shadows of the cave.

"Epona, is Link alright? Where's Silver?" The questions just tumbled out of the princess' mouth.

"I think Silver might've followed Link, but Eclipse saw him on his own in the woods. He knows who took Ilia."

"But he must know it's a trap." Zelda said.

"And he doesn't care." Said a voice.

All heads turned to the spring's centre, where a golden wolf stood next to a strange girl who looked more tree than human.

"You?" Zelda said, recognising the wolf.

"Greetings Princess." The wolf said, briefly dipping his head.

"Alpha?" Epona nickered, looking rather shell-shocked.

"Not this time I'm afraid. But I believe he is around Hyrule somewhere. I am merely, a guardian."

The girl smiled weakly and placed a hand on the wolf's back.

"Do you know where Link is?" Zelda asked.

"He has gone to confront the evil which dared to defy the goddesses. The same evil which now holds the heir to the forest prisoner." The girl said, speaking for the first time.

"Ilia…" Epona nickered.

"The trees speak of a chamber deep within the earth." The girl whispered, her voice so weightless it was like the wind ruffling the leaves of a tree. "A chamber now defiled with his darkness."

"Link's priorities have never changed. He would sooner give his life to save another, with nary a thought for who he leaves behind. A trait, I am ashamed to say, has not changed throughout the lineage." The wolf bowed his head, and his tail dropped to the ground.

"Where is this chamber?" Dal asked.

"There are few entrances still accessible. The closest one would be…" the girl thought for a moment. "There is a cave, not too far from here. Its tunnels are just above another tunnel which leads to the chamber you seek."

"Thank you Saria." Zelda said, mounting Epona.

"You know my name."

"History would never forget it."

Epona dipped her head in thanks to the wolf and his friend before cantering out.

"Link, you really need to stop-oh…"

The tunnel had abruptly opened into a huge circular chamber. The chamber was cut in half by a rusted steel bars. On Link and Silver's half was a table on which were laid blood encrusted instruments. The burnt down stubs of candles, flickered weakly in niches in the walls and on the table. The air was heavy and musty, claustrophobic even. The darkness was oppressive. To the right was a door, set into the curving stone wall. It was iron studded and heavy looking. Reinforced by steel and iron.

But Link was looking on the other side of the cavern.

Behind the bars crouched a scrawny herd of reindeer. Their fur was mangy and hung in matted grimy clumps, hung over their bones which were stark and sharp against their ill-fitting pelts. Their eyes were bloodshot and sunken, wide with fright and weary with months of abuse. Their branching velvety horns were cracked and splintered, the velvet itself patchy and worn. Dirty straw was strewn on the floor, soiled and grimy. The air stank with excrement and sweat and disease.

"A herd of reindeer have gone missing from Snow Peak."

Silver could remember the constant reports.

"Animals are disappearing all over Hyrule. There one day, then gone the next."

Link padded up to the bars of the cage. One reindeer stepped forward. Infected cuts covered his fur and his gait was stiff and arthritic.

"I remember you." He said in a wheezy voice. "You dispelled the darkness in us."

Link raised his paw to touch the bars. This was worse than his treatment by the bounty hunter, worse than the treatment of the slaves. The treatment was so much worse and these were innocent defenceless families. Fury began to boil up inside him.

"We'll find a way to get you out."

"No." The stag, while old and decrepit, still commanded an intimidating presence. "Run. Leave this place before you too are captured."

Link shook his head. He would not leave anyone in a position like this. What kind of person would he be then?

"The way we came is too small…" Silver mused.

Link nodded, the reindeer would never fit in such a tight space. And even if they could, they wouldn't be able to climb up the side of the ravine.

As if on cue, an explosion rocked the cave system.

...

Zelda took out a few bomb from one of Epona's saddlebags. Planting them around the tunnel floor, she retreated to a safe distance.

"Your quite the arms expert princess." Epona said.

"One of my many talents." Zelda replied, making an act of flicking her braid over her shoulder.

Link ran to the door, easily pushing it open. In the corridor, he reached out with his senses. There was a draft blowing down the corridor, a link to the surface perhaps, no for sure. He could sense the spirit songs of Zelda and Epona. Oh dear…they were going to kill him when they got their hands/hooves on him.

Stepping back inside, he explained his findings to Silver.

"For some reason, I never put Zelda down as a blow-things-up-and-see-what-happens type."

Becoming hylian, Link crouched by the lock in the prison door. It was a fairly simple mechanism requiring a small key. Rooting around in his pouch, Link pulled out a small iron key.

"Ah, I wondered why you had Ronan make a skeleton key. I thought it was just because you were too lazy to carry multiple keys."

Link glared at Silver for her lack of faith, inserting the key and turning it. It was a little stiff, but the door yielded and swung open.

"Ok, out the door and turn left, there's a hole in the ceiling with some friends of ours. The rubble should've made a ramp by Link's calculations. That should get you out. Run straight to Ordona's spring and wait for us."

The reindeer began filing out, cantering out of the open door and down the corridor. The leader approached Link and the wolfos.

"Thank you, we are forever indebted to you."

Link smiled and gave the reindeer a pat on the neck, before pushing him to the door.

"Be careful."

Link nodded lifting a hand of farewell to the reindeer as he cantered down the corridor after the herd.

"If they're here then do you think that?"

Link nodded. There were more animals here and no doubt Ilia too.

Smoke filled the tunnel as the explosion went off. Covering her eyes with her sleeve, Zelda sheltered behind Epona at the mouth of the tunnel. When the smoke had cleared, Dal padded cautiously down the tunnel. Zelda's careful placing of the bombs had meant that the rubble had formed a makeshift ramp to the lower level.

"Its safe." He called back.

No sooner had he done so, did the thunder of hooves come rushing up to meet the wolf.

Dal barely had the time to jmp aside as a stream of galloping reindeer spewed forth from the ramp.

"What in Nayru's name?" Zelda mused as she watched the reindeer flee from the tunnel and out into the forest.

"This has Link written all over it." Epona snorted, watching the last of the herd scrabble out and into the light.

Taking her bow from her back and knocking an arrow, Zelda peered down into the corridor below.

"Think it's safe?" Dal asked

"Of course not." Zelda replied, picking her way down the ramp.

At the bottom of the ramp, the pair were almost run over by a pack of wild dogs.

Link and Silver worked their way through the complex, releasing the occupants of any dungeon they came across. There were wild dogs, birds of every shape and form, foxes, palace dogs, wild horses. With every group of animals they found, Link's mind came further and further to the truth.

"All these animals…do you think they're searching for something…"

"The Greys were wiped out in a single night."

"Not genocide, I missed a few."

"Nubia wants you, we have to keep you and Epona safe."

Slowly the pieces began to fit together. Canines, hoofed animals, of course it all made sense. But then…why the birds? Could there be another grey, still alive somewhere.

"Link, are you ok?" Silver asked.

If someone was searching for him and Epona…but why? Why would someone need a wolf and a horse? Why would someone need a grey with next to no control over his mist or a grey whose mist is poisoned? Who?

Magenta lights. A strange heart-shaped rune in the ground. The myth of the sun and the moon.

"History always repeats itself."

Everything made sense now.

"Link?"

Link stopped, facing Silver. They had covered the entire compound now. He could sense Dal and Zelda not too far away. There were only two left now, Ilia and a wolf pack. Those were the only ones left.

"Find the wolf pack? You don't mean Dal's do you?"

Link nodded.

"Wait, why am I going? Where are you off to?"

Link gestured to where the corridor branched into two sections. Down one, was where Ilia was.

"But it's a trap."

Hence why Silver had to come later.

"It's too risky."

The wolf growled, they didn't have much time. He could sense the evil inside the complex growing irritated and impatient.

"Fine, as soon as the others get here, I'm coming straight for you."

Link flashed Silver a toothy grin. He gave the wolfos a quick nuzzle and bounded down the right fork.

"Don't you dare die." Silver growled, taking the left.

OK, a bit jumpy but I thought this is a good place to stop. I'm gonna try and return to my old schedule. Heartless on a Friday and ODAHG on a Tuesday. Well, do review and see you around.