Omg guys, I'm so sorry about the delay. Sixth form is a pain and my dad's laptop is kaput along with the finished chapters I hadn't posted yet that were on it. So I had to wait to get a new laptop, and then there's homework and piano and projects and crap, which is why I am like four months overdue. Forgive me!

Chapter 26

Yet dawn shall break and the light be shown

Ilia was like a doll: her father lifted her onto Epona's back with as much ease as a goron would a baby. Her eyes were blank, her face slack and emotionless. Her father held her in place, walking alongside the mare with his hand on her back so that she wouldn't fall.

"Go on ahead to the spring, Zelda should already be there. I'll go and get Silver." Phaira said.

"Be careful." Epona told her, turning to look at Phaira, with a thousand fears in her dark eyes.

"Of course."

Turning away, Phaira and strode towards Link's house, leaving a trail of glowing silver footprints in the grass.

Silver was huddled in her basket, buried beneath a pile of blankets. Phaira grew from a tiny ball of grey light into her human form. She crouched next to Silver, her sobs were horrible to listen to.

"Silver."

She didn't reply, curling up tighter as if to block out the roiling despair that writhed like a cold lead snake in her chest, crushing her heart in its icy embrace.

"He's still alive, Nubia won't kill him."

Silver whimpered, burying herself deeper within the blankets.

"Silver, he needs you, Ilia needs you, Zelda needs you."

"Go away!" She cried pitifully.

"No, they need you."

"Go away!"

"Silver."

"Just leave me alone!"

Phaira felt her temper fraying. She was still rattled from seeing Epona's curse. Silver was not helping her mood.

"Silver, I came here for you and I'm not leaving without you."

"Just go!" She was almost begging, her tears staining the red blankets so that they looked like fresh blood.

"For Farore's sake!" Phaira cursed. "Link gave his life to save you and Zelda. He risked everything to bring Ilia back. Are you just going to throw that all away? Let his sacrifice go to waste? Because you're too wrapped up in self-pity to even leave your bed."

Silver whined.

"I don't care if you're upset. We're all upset. But I don't see Epona in here. I don't see Zelda, or anyone. They're all at the spring, trying to save Ilia's mind and they can't do it without you."

Silver raised her head a little, the blanket falling around her shoulders.

"But, I'm useless. I left him to die."

"No you didn't. You did as your alpha told you. What Link did was his decision and his decision alone. You couldn't have stopped him even if you had known what he was going to do. All you can do now, is help the others in his place."

Silver dipped her head, knowing better than to argue with the spirit.

"We need to go, we have to pass sageship to Ilia. It might be the only thing that saves her."

Silver stood up, the blankets cascading to the floor in a crimson waterfall. Padding to the window, she climbed up onto the sill and jumped down. Phaira shrank to a sphere of light to pass through the window before becoming a deer.

At the clearing in front of Link's house, Phaira faced Silver.

"Go on ahead, there's something I want to check out first."

"As in?" Silver asked.

"Just a theory of mine. I need to ask some questions."

"I pity them."

Phaira chuckled.

"Yes I suppose. I'll be a few days. Talk to Epona after the changeover, she needs to tell you something."

Silver dipped her head and bounded away.

"Stay strong!" Phaira whispered after her.

Then turning back, she leapt into the air, following some invisible path. Little splashed of moonlight leat from where her hooves impacted the air. A shadow passed over the waning moon and she was gone, now more than a phantom on the threshold of a dream.

The spring was deathly quiet. Zelda sat hunched on the edge of the spring. She hadn't changed, and looked as if she'd been dragged through a burning hedge backwards. Ilia knelt in the centre of the spring, supported by her father. Behind her lay Epona, so still that she could've been mistaken for a bronze statue.

Opposite Ilia sat Saria. Her green hair was intertwined with leaves and vines, withered brown with age. Closed buds grew from the foliage. Her skin was as pale and thin as the bark of a silver birch, seeming to hang off her very bones. Her clothes were ripped and torn, worn threadbare with time. Ivy covered limbs, as withered as her skin. Her fingers and arms had become disproportionally long and thin so that they resembled the branches of a tree. Her legs, folded beneath her, were slowly melting away, becoming roots which were already beginning to anchor themselves into the soft sandy clay of the spring. Only her eyes were bright.

Behind her lay the golden wolf, watching Bo cautiously lest he prove himself a threat.

Silver sat down on the other side of the spring, half intrigued by the changeover ceremony, half uncaring.

"It is time." Faron said, waiting at the boundary of the spring.

Saria looked at Ilia, taking her hands in her own.

"Your mind is lost." She whispered.

A soft breeze rustled the trees overhead. Birdsong filled the spring as a swirling melody swept through the spring. The sweet smell of the forest flooded the area.

"The forest heals, let it in." Her voice was a mere rustle of leaves.

Ilia's eyes closed and she lifted her head up as if listening. The warm breeze ruffled her hair.

Where their hands intertwined, vines leaves and branches grew, wrapping around their fingers. Green lights, a pattern of foliage, spread across Ilia's skin.

Bo moved to separate the two.

The gold wolf growled threatening, flattening his ears. Bo backed down, looking fearfully at his daughter.

Fireflies and fairies alike swirled around the pair, following the strong currents the wind blew in a vortex around them. The song of the forest swirled with them.

Saria herself began to change. Her skin peeled like old bark, revealing a crisp new layer beneath. Her hair returned to its lush green shade, the blossoms that grew within it flowering in a myriad of brightly coloured flowers. The leaves shed, and new buds grew, green and fertile. Her clothes repaired themselves, stitched together by tiny blades of grass. For a moment, she was a kokiri child once more. Both she and Ilia now were glowing green, tattooed with foliage.

The trees rustled overhead, shaking as if in a storm. Dormant seeds in the ground around them began to sprout.

A blast of air swept back Ilia's hair, and fairies fluttered around her head, braiding her hair with flowers. A look of peace blossomed on her features.

Then the changeover was done. The wind blew away the green lights of Ilia's skin, and it dispersed like pollen. For a moment, her skin was riddled with lines as if it were bark, then those too faded and she once again appeared human. The plants that had wrapped around her hands withered and crumbled to dust. Saria herself, began to revert to her old form. But she went further this time. Her skin became so wrinkled, it was almost indistinguishable from the bark of a tree. Her hair so matted and tangled that it was like the leaves of a tree, her fingers so long and thin that they were branches.

"Listen to the trees, they hold the secrets that neither man nor beast can bear to keep." Saria said, her mouth nothing more than a shadow on the bark of the small laurel tree that had replaced the kokiri.

"Dear Epona." She said, speaking to the mare. "You're race is not dead. Hope shall blossom just as surely as spring shall come." Her voice was no more than the rustling of the leaves in the tree.

Epona blinked in surprise, too stunned to reply.

"Now at last, I can return to mine. It has been too long."

Then, just as the tree had done in the lost woods, this tree began to crumble, becoming a cloud of green lights, like leaves. Two petals, the same emerald colour as the kokiri's eyes, hovered for a moment in front of Ilia, conveying some silent message. Then the wind took the petals away, scattering them amongst the stars.

Ilia breathed in and out, slowly, in time to the rustling of the trees.

No-one said a word.

Slowly, her eyes opened, bright and alive.

"Ilia?" Bo whispered, his voice cracked.

"Yeah dad?" Ilia asked, looking at him with her head tilted to one side.

"Oh Ilia!" He cried.

And the mayor of the town broke down in tears and hugged her tight.

"Can't actually breathe." Ilia coughed. "Ribs…cracking…"

"I was so worried! I was so- Oh Ilia, my darling little girl."

"…help…"

"I was so worried." He bawled.

"…please…"

Bo released her, holding her at arm's length. Ilia coughed, probing her ribs with one hand.

"No fractures." She announced with a smile.

"My baby!" Bo's eyes were shedding more water than all of Lake Hylia put together.

"Ok dad, care to tell me why you're bawling like a five-year-old girl." Ilia asked, speaking levelly.

"You…you were all unresponsive and you were missing and…oh the horror!" He started crying again.

"At this rate, we'll all drown." Ilia told him, tempting a smile from Silver. "But, I do remember being trapped…and…"

She suddenly looked around.

"Silver? Epona? Are you hurt? Dal? I swear, if there's so much as a paper cut on you."

Dal chuckled, wagging his tail.

"Ilia's back! Link better run for the hills!" He yipped happily.

"Hey! You make me sound like a monster!" There was a moment's silence. "And I can understand you. Why can I understand you?"

"The trees hear all, no matter whether the voice is human or animal." Faron said from the edge of the spring.

"Didn't see that one coming." Ilia muttered.

"Secrets huh? No wonder Link isn't here. You'd skin him alive." Bo chortled.

That cast a sombre mood on the spring. Silver sank down to her belly, her head on her paws. Zelda held the sword tighter to her chest as tears threatened to fall. Even Epona lowered her head, ears slack.

"Where is the little cretin?" Ilia asked.

No-one answered.

"Zelda?" The princess looked away, tears stinging her eyes.

"Silver?" The wolfos hid her face, whimpering.

"Epona?" The mare shifted, shaking her great head.

Ilia looked from person to person, yet none offered any explanation. Looking up, Ilia closed her eyes and focused on the trees. She could hear their voices, like the whispers of children, sharing secrets and gossip from across the continent.

"Where's Link?" She asked them.

"Gone. Stolen by darkness. Alone. Afraid. In the dark. Evil. Sacrifice." Words drifted to her as all the trees spoke at once. "He's gone, sacrificed himself to save the others. Trapped by the dark incarnate in the darkness. Lost in inky blackness. Fading to a shadow without his mist."

Ilia's eyes flew open and her hand covered her mouth.

"Goddess no." Ilia gasped.

"Gone. Gone. Gone." The trees chanted.

"What is it Ilia?" Bo asked.

"Gone." Was all Ilia could say.

Link hurt everywhere. Where was he? He remembered, he remembered fighting. His memory was fuzzy. His mist was gone. He could feel its absence like a missing limb. It was hurting him too, like there was a hole in his heart. A cold empty hole. Was his pack safe? He remembered being afraid. The shadows had come. He remembered being saved. Of fleeing. What was going on? He felt like a cub again.

"Hello little one." A voice so sickly sweet, it made him shudder. "How the fates have reversed our fortunes."

Link looked up. He knew her, she had a face that reminded him of home, of safety. Yet the dark shadowy sheen upon her skin marked her as an enemy a creature to be feared.

"Why shy away little one?"

Link growled. His hands were bound above his head. The shadows had solidified into manacles. Similarly they had created shackles for him. More shadows writhed around his captor, pooling around her skirt. They clawed at his feet, numbing his toes.

"Now, now, be nice to our guest."

The shadows retreated a few inches, roiling like a mass of clouds before a thunderstorm.

"You fear me little one, don't you?"

Link shook his head, she was safety. He knew it like his pack bond.

"No? Then perhaps you fear them?" She gestured to the shadows.

Link nodded this time.

"Yes, they can be a little frightening, but don't worry little one, they only bite when I tell them to."

As if to prove her point, a piece of shadow took the form of a tiny dragon and perched on Link's knee. It hissed and bared its dark fangs. Link recoiled, shying away from the creature.

"Don't be frightened little one, he won't bite. Will he?"

The dark dragon looked round as if to say "won't I?" she flicked her wrist and the dragon returned to the mass of darkness behind her.

"How things have changed these past fifteen years. Fate is cruel, is she not?"

Link eyed his captor warily, unsure whether to be afraid or not.

"NUBY!" A whiny voice called.

"Of for the love of-" She cursed. "I'm coming!"

"I want a hot chocolate! And a hot water bottle!"

"You're 3000 years old Majora, you're old enough to get it yourself."

"But I'm hurt, and in pain and everyone hates me and WAAAAAAH!"

"Bloody-" Nubia massaged her temples with one hand.

"Evil beings of darkness don't ask for hot water bottles." She called in return.

"WAAAAAAAAH!"

Nubia let out a long sigh.

"Excuse me for a moment."

"NUUUBBYYY!" The thin wail was loud enough to shatter glass.

"I'M COMING FOR DARK'S SAKE!" Nubia shouted in reply.

Then she disappeared out the door.

Link blinked, unable to quite process what had just happened.

Sorry about the delay, but its done and its late so I'm gonna sleep 'cause I got a hell of a lot to do. And my book is finally going round a target audience. My ego is not going to survive this.