Hi guys, sorry had wifi troubles hence this is so late. I don't like the way it turned out, its not as smooth as it used to be. So i apologise, but you gys can be the judge of this.

Chapter 39

To hold a handful of arrows

Zelda's arrow whistled towards Dark Link, but without even batting an eyelid the shadow merely flicked a hand and a shadow snatched it from the air. The arrowwas snapped in two, and discarded to one side. Zelda drew her breath in sharply, knocking another arrow. With his mad cocky grin still plastered on his face, Dark Link drew his sword from his scabbard. Bending low, he adopted a fighting stance, the shadows coiling around his booted feet.

"Zelda, go and find Link." Silver said, her mist bunching around her.

What, Zelda snapped her head to Silver, disbelief plastered over her features. The princess made to protest but she was quickly cut off.

"You have the best chance of getting through to him. I'll keep Chuckles here occupied until you get back."

Zelda tried not to dwell on the word 'occupied', for the wolfos to admit defeat before a fight was too terrifying to bear thinking about. And though the triforce on her hand showed her that she was wisest choice to find Link, she desperately sought for a way to convince Silver not to fight. She was still more child than adult, forced to grow up in a world ruled by war. She couldn't leave her here to fight this battle on her own, children were not pawns to use on the battlefront. Zelda was not going to make her fight the only family she had left, even if it was just his shadow.

Yet before she could voice any of this, Midna spoke up. The same tone in her voice as when they had fought Ganon, one that left no room for arguments.

"She's right Zelda, go. I'll look after her, " and Zelda knew she was referring to Link back in that tower where they had firstmet in what felt like a lifetime ago.

But she wished Midna could see why it shouldn't be Silver. Triforce be damned, couldn't they see it wasn't right.

"You're going with her." Silver said matter-of-factly.

But as Midna tried to argue back, Silver growled and cut her off.

"Now's not the time to argue. You're the only one who knows where Link is. So go!"

Both princesses looked at Silver, as she stood there, resoloutly staring down Dark Link. With her mist curled up around her, writhing like an angry beast, she looked like just as much the Hero of Time's descendent as Link did...does. In that moment the argument was lost

"Go!" She snarled once more.

And to her eternal shame, Zelda obeyed.

...

There was a moment of stillness, as shadow and beast stared each other down. Silver felt safer knowing Zelda was out of the fight. While she was certainly a competent fighter, Silver had somewhat inherited Link (her uncle, Din that felt weird) protective streak over the years. Once Zelda found Link, she could wake him up, and they fight together and all would be well again. All she needed to do was buy time.

Which lead her to her current dilemma. She knew she was better off staying as a wolfos. Link was stronger than her end of, without the disadvantage of her new and clumsy human form. She also knew he never guarded his legs as well as his torso, so that was her best target. So with her strategy in mind, and a quick prayer to Din, she broke the silence in a surge of teeth and claws and mist.

Her mist wrapped around the shadow wrestling it out of the fight, flashing blue with magic. Whilst Silver ducked under Dark Link's blade and sunk her teeth into his leg. He gave a cry of pain and slammed the hilt of his twisted master sword into Silver's skull. She yelped in agony, letting go just in time for his leg to catch her squarely in the chest and kick her across the ashen battleground.

Skidding to a bruised halt, Silver retreated back, calling back her mist and sending it forward to engulf Dark Link. He had her more than matched strength for strength, so time for a new tactic.

Now half bind in a whirling snowstorm of mist, there was nothing he could do as Silver leapt from the whiteness to deliver a helmsplitter to the head. The cry of pain he screamed as she sliced through armour and flesh at his shoulder, cut far deeper than any physical wound but she tried to push it to the back of her mind. This wasn't Link. If she hesitated here, she would be dead in a heartbeat.

As Silver landed, she spun to get in another attack, only for the shadows to wrap around her, suffocatingly tight. Her mist instantly rushed back, but lacking sentinence as it was, could do little in Silver's panicked state of mind.

Struggling hard, gasping for breath. Silver's world began to teeter dangerously as each breath brought less and less precious oxygen. As the shadows began to eat at the edges of her vision, Silver heard that mocking laughter. And something in her snapped.

That was Link's laugh. That monster couldn't have it. She would not lose him like she did her mother. She refused.

In that moment of clarity, that ice cold anger sent out a single clear message sharp and defined as an icicle.

Destroy Dark Link.

And her mist obeyed.

...

Zelda ran on through the forest, Midna floating along beside her. She daren't let her thoughts wander to Silver.

"Listen Princess, there's something you need to understand." The Alpha Grey said, sitting cross-legged in front of her.

The little girl nodded, still stroking her new guardian's head as he lay curled up in his wolf cub form beside her. They were sat in the castle grounds, in a small garden not far from the training yard. Her bow and quiver lay not far. The result from her near assination a few months ago, when she had decided to learn to shoot.

"All this training you''re doing." He gestured to the target at the bottom end of the garden. "Its not good for you."

"But-"

He held up one hard calloused hand.

"Show me your hands."

She didn't want to, but the alpha had that presence about him that made her trust him. Showing the red raw fingers on her right hand, she tried to hide the stinging in her eyes.

He tutted gently and smiled reassuringly. Beside her, Link butted her knee, giving her a sharp-toothed smile and wagging his stubby tail. The sight made her smile and she scratched his ears fondly.

"Let me show you something. Pass me an arrow."

Obligingly she passed an arrow from her quiver.

"You listen too Link."

The cub immediatly shot up to attention, his mist turning him into a small boy.

"See this arrow, its strong right? You saw the damage it could do. This arrow is you. Yet," in one swift moment he had snapped the shaft over his knee.

The suddeness of it made both children jump, though Link despite being younger seemed less frightened by the alpha's show of force. Most likely as he was accoustmed to his father's habits.

Zelda however, simply stared at her snapped arrow. Her quiver had been a gift from the gerudos, and to see her beautifully crafted arrow with its falcon fletching broken and wasted made her eyes sting.

Silver was that arrow now. They had to find Link as quickly as possible, before Dark Link snapped her in two.

"Zelda, look!" Midna said, pointing ahead.

On the horizon, across the field of charred bodies of trees, stood a burnt out pyre.

Maybe once it had been tight knit grove of trees, but a fire had caused the great trunks to fall inwards, collapsing in on themselves. The scorched, blackened bones of the pines lay haphazardly in a circle. But that wasn't what leant extra strength to her legs as Zelda broke into a full-on sprint.

It was the little boy, only a little older than the one in her memories, who was sat in the ash and charcoal. He was curled up, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed, whilst shadows stalked around him. Sometimes becoming a lynx, sometimes a filly, sometimes a wolf.

"LINK!" Zelda cried.

The boy looked up, but immediatly the shadows surged forwards to block his view and attack. Midna snarled something incomprehensible, and her hair immeditately came to life, conjuring twili magic to bind the shadows.

"Go!"

Zelda didn't need to be told twice, slipping around the spell she ran to the small boy and dropped to her knees in front of him.

"Link." There were tears in her own eyes as she looked at the boy from her childhood.

With his ash-smeared face, turned to mud by the tears that ran freely down his face. His red-puffed eyes and blotchy skin made her heart twist, but she could fix this.

"Its me. Its Zelda."

"Zel..." his voice was hoarse and whispering, as if it hadn't been used for the longest time.

"Yes, you remember. We used to play together in the palace. We used to run through the corridors until the guards shouted at us and steal pastries from the kitchens."

The recognition was there in his face. She could see it.

"You know me."

"I...I..."

"Zelda!" Midna screamed a beathless warning.

Immediatly, she spun around, bow in hand and arrow drawn. The shadow leapt at her, screaming like a banshee. Behind her, Link gave a frightened cry, covering his ears and it only fueled the princess' anger. Zelda's magic poured into the shaft, and as she fired straight between the lynx's eyes, golden light illuminated the grove. The force of it sent both her and Link flying. On instinct, she grabbed the small boy, shielding him as they were sent rolling through the ash.

The shadow was thrown the other way, and when it stood, there was patches missing from its ethereal form.

Every part of her ached, but the boy seemed unhurt. Though he had been shocked into a hiccuping silence. Laboriously, Zelda got to her knees, pushing Link behind her. Her bow had been thrown to one side, out of reach. Her quiver had spilt most of her arrows, save for a handful, on the floor.

The shadow stalked forward, hissing. Behind her, Link was crying again, hands over his ears.

"Sor...sor...ry" he cried over and over.

The triforce on her hand burnt white-hot and the hissing translated into words, dark and violent.

"You killed me...you murdered me...all your fault...all your fault..."

"Leave them alone!"

A giant glowing hand reached up and grabbed the shadow around the middle, dragging it away. Behind it, Midna floated up off the floor. She was covered in cuts and bruises, but the look of murder on her face was enough to put the fear of the goddesses in any man.

With the shadow occupied again, Zelda turned back to Link, who was once again curled up.

"Hey, hey." She said. "Look at me. None of this is your fault."

The small boy looked up, with a fear that only a child could have.

"But...Nubi..."

"Was protecting you. What happened was an accident. A horrible tragic accident. It wasn't your fault. It was never your fault."

Reaching into her quiver, she selected an arrow.

"You've been dealing with this on your own for too long. We can help you, you just have to trust us." Zelda could tell that he didn't believe her, and from Midna's cries and the sound of battle behind her she knew she had to get through to him soon.

"This arrow is you."

...

Somehow, the fight was beginning to tip in her favour. Her mist had created an icy shell, just as when she fought her own shadow. But instead of a wolfos appearing around her human form, it was in reverse. The sheer absurdity of a wolfos encased in a titanic human avatar made of ice, seemed to have thrown Dark Link off. He didn't seem sure if he should attack the avatar or try to hack away to get to the wolfos.

The result was Silver, relatively unharmed discounting her pervious injuries and Dark Link stooped, panting with several gashes and bruises leaking black blood into the grey ash. Swiping her paw through the air, the mist mirrored the action, sweeping its arm through the air, the claws catching on the shadow's shield to send him skidding along the ground.

Fighting against her superior, mist-enforced strength, he struggled to try stop himself being squashed into the ground.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Silver tried to not hear the familiar grunts of pain. This wasn't her Link.

She prayed Zelda would hurry. This may not be her Link, but he was still a quick learner and it wouldn't be long before he figured out a strategy to circumvent her new advantage.

She would just have to hold out until then.

...

"You see, even a strong arrow, on its own it doesn't take much to break. Now pass me a handful of arrows." The alpha said.

Back in her memories, the little princess passed him 4 arrows, with less enthusiasm this time.

"This arrow is you," and he laid it on the ground.

"This arrow is Link, this arrow is your father and this arrow is me."

He gathered them all into his hand. With the same sudden swiftness, he tried to break them over his knee. Zelda closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable snap of her precious arrows.

But there wasn't.

Opening one eye, she saw the arrows still in tact in his hands.

"You see, even a handful of arrows are stronger together then one on its own. Do you see what I'm trying to say? You need to trust us Zelda. Yeah?"

Zelda looked at Link, who was nodding enthusiastically and grinning widely. Then to his father who had that soft smile and caring gaze which she had known since as long as she could remember.

"Yes Uncle Cal."

When Zelda snapped the arrow, Link jumped at first. Before reaching out to grasp the broken shaft. Zelda let him take it, watched him as he turned the wasted arrow in his hands.

"Me..." he whispered sadly, tears carving new tracks in the mud on his face.

"But let me showing something clever."

She took the last four arrows in her hand, and carefully counted them out before him.

"This arrow is you." He took the arrow, holding it gently but examining it closely.

"Me" he repeated.

"This one is me." She handed him the second arrow.

"You?" He pointed at her. "Zel...da"

And at her smile, he too offered her a ghost of one himself.

"This one is Midna." And she pointed out the twili as she fought.

"Mid...Ari..."

Oh, she was his sister's charge too.

"Yes, Ari looked after Midna. So now Midna looks after you."

"Mid...ri..."

Close enough. He hugged the three arrows close, counting them out to himself.

"And this one is Silver. She's your niece. She's out there fighting for you too."

"Sil...ver...sil..." there was recognition in his voice. "Ari...Mama...Papa..."

No, no, no, she was losing him again.

"They're all in here." She pointed to his heart. "They live on in you, and Silver."

And the way he cradled all four arrows was enough to bring tears to her eyes too.

"So now..."she held out a hand for the arrows, but he clutched them tighter, "Trust me Link."

She took them from his firm,desperate grip and tried to break them over her knee. He gave a cry of such pain, Zelda almost doubted the sanity of her plan. But the triforce wouldn't have shown her those memories without good reason. She too needed to have faith, faith in Nayru.

The little gasp of surprise when the arrows held was all she needed to know she was getting through to him.

"When we act together, we can be stronger than when we're apart. What happened, was never your fault. You don't need to be the hero on your own anymore."

She could see realisation spreading across his face, and while the pain was still there, there was solace too. Mist, grey as the sky that promises rain after the longest of droughts, rose around him, and where it touched green spread. Grass broke up through the ash, moss covered the fallen pines and new saplings began to grow.

"Zel...da..."

The sigil flared golden bright, and the darkness screeched. Throwing Midna aside, so that the twili was sent flying into a stump with a horrible thunk, it ran towards the pair.

Her bow out of reach, all Zelda had was a handful of arrows to defend them.

But her triforce burnt white hot on her hand, and Link's mist rose up, forming a glowing golden bow in her hands.

There was no time to question how, drawing the bow she fired all four arrows at once.

When they hit, the resulting explosion was enough to rival the one that levelled her palace. But Link's mist shielded them, Midna too, and Zelda was treated to a golden display of shadows been torn apart and vaporised by the triforce's combined holy light.

"Than...yo..."

Smiling, she turned round, expecting to see the boy from her memories. But as the light faded, from supernova to bright sunlight, she instead saw Link as she knew him. The mischevious yet battle-worn adult she had trusted her country's future too.

He didn't speak, and Zelda doubted he ever would again, but he grinned and his eyes were bright again. For the first time since her father's death, she threw aside ettiquete and instead threw her arms around him and hugged him.

"Morning sleepyhead."

He seemed surprised at first, but hugged her back. When they parted and she looked at his ash-stained face, she knew he was saying

'Thank you for coming to wake me up.'

Then as her euphoria at his return faded, she rememebered why she had had the time to get through to him.

"Midna. Silver."

Link nodded and ran past her to where his mist, in the form of a wolf that was no doubt his memory of Ciara stood sentinel.

As Zelda followed suit, her heart leapt into hr throat as Link broke into a desperate sprint.

Of course...she didn't need the triforce of wisdom to know holy light was dangerous to twilis. The dose she had recieved from that explosion...she prayed Link's mist was strong enough to shield the twili.

As she approached where Link knelt, gently cradling the twili, Zelda's hand flew to her mouth.

Maybe his mist had shielded her partly, but the colours on Midna's body were grayed out. And Zelda knew that gradually they would invert as the light disintegrated the twili's magic.

"You stupid mongrel." She heard Midna growl, in her typical high and mighty tone.

The imp lifted up, hovering somewhat shakily in front of Link.

"Don't you dare pull anything like that again. I leave you for 5 minutes." She was ranting, but that was her way of showing she cared.

Link melted into his wolf form, and shut her up the only way (he pretended) he knew how. With a yip more expectant from a puppy than a 'sacred beast' he leapt forward and gave the imp a doggy hug.

"Get offa me you mangy fleabag"

Link however, just looked up at Zelda, tail wagging and tongue lolling.

"Be gentle, she's back to being small again." And she's just recieved a fatal dose of holy light that we need to somehow remove.

That killed the mood a little, and Link backed off. Gently, he reached forward and sniffed the imp, blue eyes wide with concern.

"I'll be fine. See, its not like last time. Right now we need to get to Silver."

Link oblingingly offered his back, but Zelda knew he wasn't going to drop the matter any more than she was.

No, their first priority was to find Silver and make sure she was ok.

...

How quickly the tide of battle turned. She knew she didn't have long before he figured out a strategy, but she had hoped to have moe time to wear him down.

When she had decided to stay behind, she knew she was getting into a one-sided fight but she had hoped Zelda would've found Link by now. Staggering, the wolfos barely managed to catch the fatal sword strike on her avatar's arm, and while she still felt the pain in her leg, it was ice not flesh that fell to the ground.

Melting ice turned the ash to mud, so that both parties struggled to stand. With the mist around her, it made it harder to move and balance on the slippery terrain. She was finding it harder and harder to dodge attacks.

Her only hope, was that her transformation and magic had allowed her to give almost as good as she got. Black blood seeped from wounds in Dark Link, turning the mud black beneath him just as much as Silver had left crimson bloody tracks in the grey mud. She could see him tiring, but not nearly as quickly as she was. Link had always had better endurance in a fight, he was bigger than her, had more blood to lose before the world begun to spin like it did now for Silver.

She just held onto the hope that if she could just avoid getting mortally wounded, maybe she could outlast him. Or at the very least, buy enough time for her friends to save Link.

A helmsplitter from her left brought her down to the ground where Dark Link leapt over herin what she knew was a finishing blow. Without any time to rolloutof the way, his sword buried deep into her mist.

Crack

The numerous cracks and chips begun to connect together, as her icy exterior shatteed away to leave a lone and very vulnerable wolfos. Staggering to her feet, Silver snarled as her legs shook with exhaustion. Dark Link simply grinned, standing taller despite his apparent exhaustion.

That was when the light shot past the two of them, turning the grey landscape green once again.

Link was ok.

Dark Link gave a cry of defiance, all of sudden running off in the diection Zelda and Midna had taken.

She couldn't let him interupt them.

Racing forwards, ignoring her screaming muscles, she tackled Dark Link to the ground. She didn't think, attacking blindly, biting and clawing wherever she could find purchase.

It didn't last long, a hand reached over and grabbed her by the scruff. He threw her off in a random direction, where she went rolling over and over in a whirl of pain and confusion. A hissing noise alerted her to the bomb thrown in her wake and she just barely scrambled out of the blast. The resulting shock however, was enough to throw her into the dead branches of a fallen tree. Broken fingers of bark tearing into her skin, and pulling out handfuls of her silver fur.

Silver cracked open one eye, whimpring in pain, as she saw Dark Link saunter over to finish the battle.

She just hoped she had bought Zelda enough time.

Just as Silver descended into unconciousness, she heard a howl of such anger and fierce protection, she thought for sure it was Link's battlecry.

...

Zelda could barely keep up as Link sprinted through the trees. The wolf was moving so fast, he seemed more a shadow in the forest then her best friend.

As they approached where they had left Silver, Link leapt up onto a fallen tree, elliciting a cry of surprise from his rider.

Whatever he saw, it made him mad.

Howling a battlecry loud enough to wake the dead and send them scurrying back into their graves in fright, he leapt into the fray with Midna shouting advice from his back.

Zelda, straight behind him, didn't give herself the luxury of voicing her fear and alarm. Instead she drew her bow and salvaged arrows, firing rapidly at Dark Link to distract him from Silver's prone form whilst Link closed the distance. She didn't allow herself a smile of satisfaction when her arrow thudded into the shadow's shoulder.

With Link occupying his shadow in a whirling ball of fur and fury, along with small burst of dark magic from Midna. Zelda was free to get to Silver.

Please let her not be broken. They may be a handful of arrows now, but please let it not be too late. Let her not be broken.

Because even one broken arrow in a handful could break the others in a heart beat.

I struggled with this ending a lot. Still not happy, but I think you guys can tell me what I oughta change. This used to be so natural. T^T