Cannot deal. Mocks all over Christmas pretty much killed me. I will get the Christmas special up I promise but for now, here's what I was working on before my laptop kaputted itself. I finished it just because the school internet is utterly kaput and this is the only thing I can do without the internet.
Chapter 31
And when all worlds by the gods are forsaken
Silver stood at the entrance to a deep cavern. The weak light threw her shadow deep into the tunnel. A tired wind pulled at Silver's hair, throwing it over her shoulder. Her hands opened and closed, stretching the muscles in them.
"This is definitely the place?" Silver asked.
Phaira dipped her head.
"This is where Ciara found him."
Silver took a step forward. Her footsteps echoed ominously down the passage. She lifted up her dark hood to hide her bright white hair.
"About that spell?"
"It's not a spell." Phaira huffed.
"Whatever." Silver muttered.
"Call your mist."
It took a few minutes before the mist grudgingly curled around Silver's feet.
"Now what?" Silver asked, looking at Phaira from the corner of her eye.
"Wrap it around you, as if it were a fur coat."
Silver concentrated hard, gritting her teeth and screwing up her eyes. It was like trying to order about a group of monkeys while someone else kept distracting them with bananas. The mist tried to disperse, but Phaira stepped towards it in such a threatening manner that it reformed. Slowly, it rose up to cover Silver like a shimmering white veil.
"What now?" Silver asked through clenched teeth.
"As long as you stay calm, the mist will shield you from enemy eyes."
"I'm invisible?" Silver grinned, already thinking of all the mischief she could get up to.
"Not invisible, just unremarkable. You are of no more interest than a speck of dust."
"Cheers…"
"But while it might fool a shadow or a simple monster, Nubia and Majora will see straight through it."
"I'll take what I can get." Silver said with a shrug.
The cave was dark, the rocks seeming to suck the light and warmth from the very air itself. Silver crept down it, eyes darting to and fro, ears pricked for the faintest sign of danger. Even though Silver was in her human form to throw Nubia off of the scent, she still looked more lupine than human with her ears and tail. Phaira had shrunk her form so that she appeared as a tiny little hind the size of a fairy. She dimmed her glow so that she was as bright as failing firefly.
As Silver penetrated deeper and deeper into the caves, the rock slowly changed from dark sandstone to black obsidian. Dark as sin itself the black glass threw Phaira's light back at her, sending it reflecting down the corridor to alert the monsters that prowled through the cursed corridors of Nubia's lair.
As Silver came to a junction where four corridors intersected, she paused, hiding round the corner.
An eerie melody wound its way down the corridor, she recognised it from the town, drifted from one of the corridors. But this melody was subtely different, its melodies were minor and dissonant, as if mocking the humans and everything they stood for. She knew that instrument, it was Link's ocarina, a gift from the Ooccas. One of the holes was cracked after Silver had accidently bit it when she was trying to annoy Link, and there were a few notes that seemed off key to the rest of the melody. There was no doubt about it. Whoever had it, had Link. And there was only one person who knew that melody, the thought of it made Silver shiver with dread and her veil of mist flickered. What had Zelda told her of Majora? He had planned to bring down the moon onto a town for the sheer purpose of watching the people suffer. The sixth Link had fought Majora and seemingly defeated the demon. But in doing so, he had unwittingly written his own terrible fate. That was the thing with Majora the one thing that made him unbeatable. How could anyone possibly fight something that could not be destroyed? Even the goddesses had been forced to stop short at sealing him within a mask. As soon as you believed him vanquished, he would rise again and trap you, play with you like a cat would a captured mouse before finally delivering the finishing blow and sending back a mauled and dismembered corpse to your loved ones. That was the terrible fate of the sixth Link. Silver prayed the same would not hold true for his descendant. She couldn't bear it.
Phaira shook her antlers to get Silver's attention. She cantered through the air, pausing at the entrance to one of the corridors.
"Listen." She whispered.
Silver tucked a strand of hair behind one ear, cocking her head to one side as she listened intently. Beneath that awful song, she heard another. A melody she recognised. It was faint, and warped terribly. But it was there, the song Midna had called the Ballad of Twilight when they had rescued Link from Bulblin all those years ago, the song of the hero himself: Link's spirit song.
Silver branched out with her senses, feeling the walls like a blind man, down the corridor. The mist went with her, paving the road for her senses to follow. She turned corner after corner, tracking the song to its source.
There it was, behind the wall itself. Silver could sense beyond it into a small dark cell where Link hung. He didn't even lift his head when he saw her mist pool at the entrance, seeping through the gaps between the crystals. A stab of pain speared Silver's heart as Link's mist briefly tried to reconnect with its master. But as the mist touched its master, Silver's mind was flooded with a images that flashed so fast she couldn't even begin to register them. Sounds flooded her ears, screams and groans, and an onslaught of emotions bulldozed its way through her mind. It took all of her strength to force Link's consciousness out and drag is mist back to her. The sheer mental struggle of it all brought Silver's senses running back to her and she dropped to her knees, panting.
"Nubia is very thorough." Phaira said.
Link's mist tugged away from Silver, trying to reach its stricken master. Silver shook her head, forcing reassuring thoughts into her mind. It would be fine, she told the mist.
But the sorrow the mist felt was as real to Silver as her own. That was power of Link's mist Ciara had explained. It was alive, it could feel, it could think, it love just as much as its master could. It was more than a 'secondary soul', it was half of Link's very being. It hadn't even connected to Link and the access it had to his consciousness was terrifying.
Silver picked up the pace, half running down the corridors. Phaira ran ahead, keeping watch. They followed the sound of Link's spirit song, sometimes backtracking when it began to fade. At a T-junction in the corridors, Phaira suddenly turned on her heel and came fleeing back to Silver.
"Get down!" hissed Phaira.
Silver stopped dead at the corner, flattening herself against the wall, with nothing but her breathing and her thumping heart in her ears. The grey spirit was terrified, and she quickly hid herself in Silver's hood.
For an age, Silver stood there, waiting. She daren't branch out with her senses for fear of weakening her protective shield. So she waited. It was an age until the clatter of bone on stone scuttled down the tunnel. Silver held her breath and tried to calm her beating heart as something moved down the corridor. It sounded huge, a hundred legs clacking on the hard obsidian floor. It smelt like a grave, the stench of decay and soil filling Silver's nose. It stopped at the cross-section where Silver hid and peered down the corridor to its left.
Silver tried to press herself into the stone, not daring to look at it for fear she might meet its eye. The monster scuttled forward so that it stood directly in front of her. It turned in her direction, looking past her. For one agonising moment, Silver was nose to nose with it, as it peered intently at the stone to the left of her ear. It smelt awful, both sour and rotten. Her heart beat like the wings of a bird in the jaws of a cat. Silver silently prayed the creature would not hear it.
It was huge, easily bigger than Epona. It had the torso of a man, though corpse would be a better description. The skin was smooth and hard as marble, and it had the pallid sheen of the dead. There were no eyes, just hollow sockets, and when it opened its mouth to taste the air Silver saw the mandibles in its mouth. From the waist down it was more insect than anything. It was some three fathoms long, with legs of white bone like an insects. Inside those large legs, Silver saw smaller ones with a serration along the edge that it held close to its body. Silver could only guess that their function was as some sort of carrying mechanism.
Any further analysis of the enemy was cut short when the creature, having decided there was nothing amiss turned and continued its way down the corridor.
When the sound of its legs had long since subsided and the air had lost the stench of death that the creature carried, did Silver finally dare to breath. Her heart beat a rapid rhythm in her chest and for a few moments she panted heavily as she tried to revive the flow of oxygen to her brain.
"Come on." Phaira urged, motioning for Silver to follow.
Silver followed the little ball of silver light down the corridor, her chest heaving.
"What the hell was that?" Silver asked when she finally got her breath back.
"A Taint."
"A what?"
"A creature born of bone and flesh-eater with a demon for a heart. One of the first monsters the Dark created. Nasty creatures, they'll eat anything they can get their claws on, even each other. There were a lot of them around during the Hero of Time's era. But after Ganondorf was executed, they were eradicated."
"How the hell did Nubia get one of those?"
"I daren't guess." Phaira muttered ominously.
They encountered no other Taints. A few lesser monsters prowled the corridors, but they didn't notice Silver sneak past them. Once she nearly walked into the back of a moblin-type creature, but it didn't even bat an eye. Not wanting to risk another close call, she moved as fast she could through the maze of tunnels. The twisted Ballad of Twilight became louder and louder as Silver tracked it through the underground labyrinth.
When Silver finally stood at the entrance to Link's cell, she was so spooked and frightened by the horrible place that her shield was flickering like a candle in a strong wind. She had heard more monsters in the tunnels, Goriyas and lizards and things that had no name. She was jumping at every shadow now.
"How do we get in?" Silver asked.
Phaira looked at the cave wall, searching for the tiniest key to entering it. There were none, it was if the stone had grown back over the doorway, or Link had been teleported in. Returning to her full size, Phaira gestured for Silver to keep watch. The girl backed away and stood at the nearest cross-section, branching out with her senses for the slightest hint of danger.
Phaira meanwhile assumed human form and placed a hand on the wall of the cell. She understood the layout of the rocks and using what little power she had as a grey spirit, bolstered by Link's mist as it tried frantically to reach its master, she was able to rearrange the crystals to form a hole big enough for Silver to fit through. The crystals moved back, filling the air spaces in the porous rock, but it was slow and laborious, as if the rock was actively resisting her. The walls groaned and strained against Phaira's magic. Ten agonising minutes later found Phaira, flickering with exhaustion and a hole just about big enough for Silver to brawl through.
Silver and Phaira switched places, and the girl crawled through the hole. It was tight, but not as much as the one she had crawled through to escape the caves where they had found Ilia. It would've been pitch black if not for Link's mist which was now clouding around Link's feet. She could feel Link's consciousness battering against her mental defences, and the mist's own emotions were threatening to flood her own. Silver called it back to her, she knew next to nothing about greys and their anatomy. Silver didn't know what would happen if the two reconnected here, she certainly didn't think Link could handle the shock.
And by Din he did look awful. In the soft ethereal light of the mist, his skin was so pale he could've been a corpse. He was covered in injuries, dirty black bruises and . His scars stark red gashes clogged with dried blood. His scars stood bold on his skin, so that Silver could trace each one of them. Everything about him was monochrome. His hair was more ashen grey than gold, and the triforce on his hand was so weak that it didn't even light the gloom. Silver's own was pulsing a slow flashing warning, beating like a second heart in unison with Link's.
"What in Din's name did they do?" Was all Silver could say, reaching out with one small hand to touch his cheek.
At her touch, another flood of emotions hit Silver like a wave. More disjointed memories filled her mind's eye. It stripped away her shield, and it took all of Silver's mental strength to push the emotions out. She staggered backwards, gasping for breath. Phaira, back as a hind, bent her head and peered through the hole.
"We need to leave! Now! That Taint could come back any minute."
Silver nodded, taking a sharp dagger from her belt she sliced through the chains. The shadows parted easily in the wake of the blade and dissolved in the light of the triforce. Zelda had been right to give Silver a blade made of the aurum. The blade cut through shadows easier than a hot knofe through butter.
Link collapsed in a heap. Silver rushed to support him, putting his arm over her shoulder. He took none of the weight himself. It was like carrying a sack of potatoes twice her own weight. Silver staggered.
"I can't carry him like this." She hissed.
"Well he's in no shape to change form. Epona will catch us up. Just get to the exit."
Silver nodded and with some difficulty managed to squeeze Link out through the hole. Outside, Silver took Link's weight again.
"Phaira?" Silver whispered.
She could hear that awful melody from before. She hadn't noticed it underneath Link's spirit song, but now she'd tuned him out…
The deer turned to look at her.
"Is it me, or is that song getting louder?"
The grey spirit's ears went flat against her skull.
The music was getting louder and faster with each passing second.
"Oh-"
Phaira never finished her sentence, for something lanced out of the shadows and struck her. With a screech she fell forward on her knees. Before Silver could even open her mouth to scream, a second blow landed on the fallen spirit. With a low keening cry, she disappeared in a flash of light.
"PHAIRA!" Silver cried.
The music stopped.
"Irritating little creature isn't she. Bad enough she fought me once, but to help the little brat fight me and sneaking into my domain... Such filth."
From the shadows stepped Majora. Only he wasn't the helpless creature Silver had last seen him, when Link had kicked the stuffing out of him. Now he was at full strength and he looked angry.
"Ah, you're the kind soul who gave me back my body. My thanks for that."
Silver didn't understand what was going on. All she knew was that she couldn't fight Majora and hold Link at the same time. There was no way she could protect him down here.
As if things couldn't get any worse, there was a scuttling behind her, and the Taint rounded the corner. It filled the corridor, even if it wasn't standing at its full height. Now she was trapped.
"Now what to do? I could call Nubia over here." Silver was starting to panic now, her eyes darting to and fro while the demon deliberated. "Or I could deal with you myself. It's been ages since I last had some fun. Not since the last hero."
Silver backed up, but the Taint clacked its mandibles threateningly, rearing up so that its head brushed the ceiling.
"Oh decisions, decisions."
As it turned out, that indecision saved Silver's life.
Something very bright and very big barrelled down the corridor, filling the air with the sound of thunder. It hit Majora square in the chest and ran him down. Silver tried to move back against the wall, but tripped on Link's foot and stumbled.
Around the corner, in a clatter of hooves came Epona, flanks flecked with foam, beside her was Ciara's ghost. Ordona picked herself up from the unconscious form of Majora. The goat shook her horns and glared at the Taint. But it didn't get a chance to react as a glowing hook burst from its chest. It didn't do any real physical damage, but the Taint still collapsed face first.
"They won't stay down for long, get a move on." Epona said.
Silver nodded and dragged Link over, slinging him over the mare's back with some difficulty.
"Nubia knows we're here by now. Luckily for you, Majora's a chatterbox." Epona chided as Silver went to climb up.
As if on cue, the shadows converged to reveal Nubia, looking very very angry. She stepped from the black fog and looked down at Majora and the Taint, confusion spreading across her face. They didn't have much time.
"Go!" Silver said, slapping Epona's rump. "Get Link out of here!"
The mare on instinct leapt into a gallop, spooked. With any luck, she wouldn't stop running until she was clear of the cave.
The light spirits had vanished, chased away by the shadows.
"Brave words from such a little cub." Nubia taunted. "But you forget that you couldn't defeat me the last time and you had the great and powerful hero on your side."
Nubia had her hands in her sleeves like the ghosts of the sages, but her sleeves were made from shadows. Her long dress writhed and broiled as if made from a thousand black snakes. Her round childish face haggard and grey.
Silver growled and pushed back her hood, which so far had kept her white hair hidden from view. There was no need for subtlety now.
Nubia hesitated.
"Ciara?" Her voice was quiet and small.
Silver leapt forward, her claws slipping down her wrist into her hand.
"I'm in charge now!" Came a voice that wasn't Nubia's.
Silver barely dodged beneath the attack, as something took control of the woman. Ciara seemed to have fled with the light spirits, and Epona was hopefully long gone by now. It was just Silver and Nubia now. Not good. Silver backed up
The mist bunched around Silver, in harmony with her emotions.
"Die little greyling!"
The tendril of shadow clipped her shoulder, sending her spinning to the floor.
Silver snarled, crouching on all fours. She clawed the air with one hand, more lupine than human. The mist that had until now bunched around her, took on the form of a huge wolf and leapt forward towards Nubia. With a flick of her wrist, the woman raised a shield, but the mist wolf hit it with the force of battering ram and within seconds reduced the shield to tattered clumps.
With Nubia's attention on the wolf, Silver ran low to the ground and attacked. Using the wall to rebound off of, she hit Nubia hard, slashing her claws across the woman's face.
Nubia screeched and staggered back holding her face as black shadows fluid as blood seeped from the scratches. Silver and the mist-wolf moved back, snarling, circling Nubia as she screamed.
"How dare you, mortal! Have you no inkling of who I am?"
"You are the one threatening my pack!" Silver retorted.
"Then protect them from this!" Nubia lifted her hand as if pulling a puppet up by the strings.
The blood from the wound on Silver's shoulder that had dripped onto the ground suddenly began to bubble and hiss. The shadows crowded around it, gorging themselves on the crimson nectar. Silver's own shadow grew long, as if lit by the setting winter sun. She stared at it in abject horror as it got to its feet and eyes flashing the same colour as the blood from which it had been born. Shadows curled around it exactly as Silver's mist did.
Silver backed away, too frightened to growl. The mist followed.
It looked exactly like her, with the same messily cut hair and thick furs. It had the same slim strong build and the same claws attached to its knuckles. But its skin was black as night and its hair was even darker. Its eyes held the only colour, bright and red as hot coals taken from the very depths of hell. All Silver could do was panic.
You're different, your mist can't be inverted.
Silver remembered her mother's words.
"Look cail." Ciara's voice sounded almost real. "The shadow's slow, it can't copy you perfectly."
Silver turned round and saw her mother standing there. How she came to be there, Silver didn't know. But no matter, her presence gave Silver courage. She stood as a wolf, lithe and black. Her gold markings, the same as Link's stood stark on her skin.
"You can destroy it cail. Leave chwaer to me."
Silver moved to the left, and sure enough the shadow was several seconds late to respond. Now to use that to her advantage. She called her mist to her, begging to change. The mist took on the form of a wolf around her, but it refused to allow Silver to change and she hadn't the time to slip into a state of deep concentration to do so. Silver snarled and leapt, unable to do anything else. The shadow was so slow to respond that Silver was able to hit it square in the chest. The mist wolf, like armour around her, bit deep into the shadow's neck while Silver clawed its chest. The wounds closed up the instant Silver made them. And her mist wolf seemed to have no effect, its teeth glanced off of her shadow as if it were made of titanium.
You're different.
She could see her mother and Nubia circling each other. In that instant, Silver knew what she had to do. The shadow shook them off, but Silver was already leaping away running on all fours around the shadow as it struggled to copy her. Silver sped her movements up ever faster. The shadow was lagging so much now that Silver knew its exact sequence of movements.
Faster and faster she ran until the shadow began to smoke with the strain of memorising so many movements. Now for the finishing blow, with Silver as the skeleton of the mist wolf around her, she leapt up and kicked off of the ceiling. The mist around her flashed blue and Silver called on the wolfos blood within her. Her mist wolf froze over, until it was a creature of ice encasing her. The shadow couldn't respond, how could it, it was made of mist and Silver's grey blood. The wolf suck its teeth into Silver's shadow, and there was an earth-shattering crack. Then like a shattered window it fell to pieces. Nubia froze, staring at the scattered tendrils of shadows on the floor. They began to hiss and slowly metamorphosed back into the gold-shot mist that was once Nubia's, and dissolved into nothing.
"Run cail!"
Silver didn't wait for a second invitation. Her mist obeyed her this time, and she changed into a wolf, sprinting down the corridor. She leapt over Majora was groaning and shaking his head. Monsters were rushing down the corridors, the giants that had laid siege to Hyrule Castle strode down the corridors. Silver barrelled past them, running between their legs and sending them sprawling. Goriya too were running to the scene, but they didn't even have the chance to blink before Silver streaked past. At the entrance, Ordona was there waiting.
"Follow me!"
Silver changed course to follow the goat as she galloped through the gorge. They had barely reached Eldin bridge, where the Skulren's wolverine was strung under the arch. Its owner could be heard whistling from beneath the bridge where she was tied up. An eagle's screech pierced the air. Silver looked up to see Eldin circling overhead.
"They're on our trail." Ordona explained.
"Where's Epona?"
"She should be by Kakariko Gorge by now."
"Where are we even going?" Silver asked.
"To see an old friend."
The bridge suddenly shuddered beneath them. Silver tripped on a rack and rolled across the stones. Getting to her feet, she shook her head to dispel the pain.
Ordona reared and shook her horns.
"Run Silver!"
A tendril of darkness whipped out, and just like with Phaira, Ordona dropped to her knees in pain. Overhead Eldin screeched and dived down.
Silver backed away, Majora got to his feet. His long whip-like arms trailing beside him. He flicked his arm again, and Ordona bellowed in pain. A flash of light momentarily blinded Silver as Ordona disappeared. Eldin wailed his grief and dive bombed Majora. The demon merely flicked his whip, wrapping it around the light spirit's wing and threw him down into the gorge.
"Stop!" Silver screamed, running forward.
"Are you really so desperate for my attention?"
Silver growled.
"Leave him alone!"
"You my dear, are in quite a hurry to die."
…
Epona was so exhausted. She had been galloping at full speed for well over an hour, with Link on her back completely limp, it was killing her back. But she couldn't stop. The light spirits had told her to keep on running, she needed to get Link to safety before she lost him to the hero's spirit.
Epona leapt the gate separating Hyrule Field from Faron Woods and ran headlong through the tunnels straight into the forest. Faron was waiting for her at the pathway to the Lost Woods. He had closed it after Farore had saved her and Link all those years ago. Now he opened it again to allow her to flee through it.
She streaked past Faron, and heard the rumbling as he closed the pathway behind her. The song of the Lost Woods filled her ears, and she could hear the skull kid's trumpet from the trees overhead. But Silver didn't need his guidance, she knew the path by heart. The tall sentinel pines loomed overhead, watching her with uncaring eyes as she galloped beneath their boughs. They whispered to each other, high and haughty garbed in their evergreen robes. The mist became thick as Epona galloped into the heart of the grey's domain. Then the light began to fade as Silver passed through the dusk and into the twilight.
Pines and firs were replaced by skeletal poplars and ash trees. And still Epona ran on, the needle bed beneath her hooves thinned out to be replaced with hard rock and stunted heather.
There was only one person Epona knew who might be able to remove the shadows from Link's heart.
True to Faron's word, waiting for her on the other side of the Lost Woods were the Shadow Spirits. One was a huge, fish-type creature, long with six long fins. One huge dorsal fin lay across her back like a folded sail, two pairs sprouted from her underside, like four legs. Two more fins grew from the underside of the base of her tail. Her tail itself was long and thick and muscular. Her wedge shaped head ridged with whorls and the strange geometric patterns of the twili world. Her skin was black as tar, with bright orange markings covering her body, so that she appeared almost spotted. The other Shadow Spirit was a large tiger, like the fish he was as black as night, but his body was criss-crossed with bright turquoise lines, forming the same geometric patterns that defined the twili culture.
As soon as Epona appeared, the tiger called out.
"Follow me!"
Epona hadn't the strength to argue. She followed the tiger as he ran off of the island onto the air. Wherever he touched the air, a bridge of turquoise light formed, solid as stone for Epona to use. Behind her, Epona vaguely registered the other Shadow Spirit raising a wall of black rock, covered in more of those orange geometric patterns, across the forest.
The sight would probably have been beautiful, with the fading orange sky dotted with the silohettes of birds. But all Epona could concentrate on was the pain in her back and her leaden hooves, forcing one in front of the other. Her lungs were burning, she'd past her endurance limit miles back, and her heart felt ready to explode. The tiger ran ahead, untiring.
"Keep going, we're almost there."
The bridge took them over the islands that housed the twili people and the animals that inhabited this place. Soon a large central island appeared from behind the cloud of shadows. The bridge slowly began to descend, sloping gently down. Epona kept stumbling, and when she hit the ground, she almost fell straight into the small fountain in front of her. Skidding aside, she very nearly slipped over as she struggled to get her hooves beneath her.
Now in the streets, twili leapt to get out of her way as she galloped headlong behind the spirit. There were cries of outrage and fear as she leapt a cart, and clipped it with her hoof, sending its contents into the street and very nearly dropping Link as she stumbled again. Without a rider to keep her head up, she had no way of keeping her balance and not trip over her hooves.
"Almost there." The tiger reassured her.
Epona didn't hear him, she was running on sheer will power now.
Leaping a small gap between the islands, she followed him up to a huge cuboid palace. The twili guarding the doors barely had time to leap aside as she barrelled into the entrance hall.
Midna was there, speaking to some twili. But Epona didn't care, she'd gotten Link to safety. She stopped, her head brushing the floor, sides heaving and flanks flecked with foam. With a huge exhale of breath, Epona fell to her knees and collapsed. The last thing she saw was Midna rushing forward, before her world dissolved into nothing.
Well, don't hate me for it. I'll work on the Christmas special next and then we'll see what happens. I still have my three Theban turnabouts and one dog and his goddess,
