Revised as of 14/04/14

Chapter 32: Transform

"Jumping off a bridge was one thing, but I really think this is a bad idea."

After all of this, we were finally on our way to fight the Morpheel. But Link wasn't too keen on jumping down into the dark hole we were standing around. I couldn't help but laugh at the reminder about my stunt on the bridge.

"If it makes you feel any better..." I trailed off, scooping out a fairy from a ceramic jar into my one remaining bottle. "Now we've got two fairies if we need them. Also, I'm terrified. Now, here we go." With that, I jumped, letting myself fall. I gritted my teeth to keep quiet. I fell for a long five seconds before I hit the water with a splash. I swam up again as quick as I was able. "I-It's safe, Link! Just g-give me a s-second!" I chattered. It was freezing! I swam backwards to keep away from where he would generally land, trying to keep my teeth from chattering. He appeared beside me with a splash seconds later.

"It's freezing down here!" he stammered. I could tell he was trying to do the same as me; not chatter.

"Lets j-just get this o-over with, yeah?" I suggested. He nodded, and we dove under the water. It was dark, and it got even colder. To descend faster, Link opted to try and put the Iron boots on. With a bit of difficulty, he managed to do so whilst floating, and I held onto one of his leather bracers so we both went down. It seemed to get lighter as we neared the bottom, though I wasn't sure if my eyes were just adjusting to the darkness, or if it was actual light.

'This far underground, I doubt it.' I thought as we continued to sink. I saw that on the sandy ground, there was something waving around lazily in the water. It was a tentacle, I knew. The moment Link's feet touched the bottom, a round object - an eye, euck - made its way up the interior of the tentacle, glaring at us from the top. It clearly wasn't impressed by us. After a few moments, it quickly descended back into the earth, and it was quiet. I looked to Link, who seemed both confused and wary.

The ground began to shake, and more tentacles sprung up from the sand. Letting go of Link's forearm, I swam up a little ways just in time to see the mouth of the Morpheel -which illogically, impossibly, and stupidly had an eye in the middle of it- erupt from the ground. I swam back down, trying to pull Link backwards to a safer distance from the tentacles; when this had still been just a game to me, I knew from experience that the morpheel liked to munch on you if it caught you with its tentacles. Also knowing that this was not the videogame, I knew that the morpheel deciding to munch on me or Link was a really bad idea.

Link looked to me questioningly, his eyes asking 'What do I do?'. I made a gesture meant to look like using a clawshot, while pointing at the slimy eye in the tentacle nearest to us. It took a few tries before the clawshot managed to catch the gross ball, but we finally managed, and the second it reached us we both began slashing at it until it managed to hop away and return to the body.

I suppressed the urge to twitch. That eye was just gross.

With another hit to the eye, the Morpheel returned to the sand.

"That was easy. A little too easy, don't you think?" Midna asked. I nodded my head at her, because she was right. The ground suddenly shook even more violently than it had before, and I saw Link struggling to maintain his balance. I felt bad for him, really. Not only was he still sore all over -from the Bari's electric attack- but he also admitted to having a massive headache and sore throat from the drowning ordeal. I'd tried to get him to rest more, still sore myself, but he refused. I didn't blame him for wanting to get out of here, but still...

I yelped when the Morpheel decided to show itself completely. My eyes widened; I knew it was huge, but this huge? Oh man..

"Oh… my… Well, have fun with that! Don't die!" Midna shrieked as she returned to Link's shadow. He was already unstrapping the iron boots, getting ready to take this fight into the more open water. I could see that he was afraid, just like I was. He was definitely brave for doing this, especially since he was still injured. I gave him a look, and he nodded his head as we kicked off the ground and headed straight for the enormous eel with haste. The murky water gave us a bit of a harder time, but the Morpheel was so huge that it was impossible to miss.

Link seemed to know what to do when he reached it, because he already had his clawshot out and aimed for the thing's eye. It latched on at his first try and he lurched forward. The Morpheel let out a loud screech of some sort as Link attacked the eye, and eventually it's thrashing was strong enough to throw Link off... right into one of the stone pillars. I winced, swimming to him even faster. I took the clawshot from him, signing with my hands that I was gonna do this one.

Link gave a weak nod, holding the pillar to keep from floating upwards.

It was hard to swim fast, given the sluggish response of my aching muscles, and I found I had a better chance of catching the eye if I anticipated the eel's movements. After planning that out in the course of a few seconds, the beast was directly beneath me. But, it seemed it noticed me this time as it opened it's mouth and inhaled, trying to suck me into it with the whirlpool generated by the action. I kicked and paddled as hard as I could to break out, and I did so just in time to not be eaten. I finally managed to latch onto the eye, slashing away for all I was worth. The eel screeched and roared, inky purple blood polluting the water as I attacked.

It twisted and writhed, throwing me off its back and floating in the water again. One more hit was all it would take. I swam to catch up with it, trying to predict its course, when I was sent flying to the right with a muffled cry of pain. It had hit me with it's tail, and my left side ached even more now. I scowled, keeping a safe distance from its tail-end and swimming to where I saw it was going to be. I felt a hand grab mine just as I pulled the trigger on the clawshot, and saw Link was with me now as we were both pulled towards the bleeding eye. Double the attack, half the time.

Worked for me.

With each hit, the purple clouds of blood became thicker and darker, rushing past our faces with the eel's movements. I closed my eyes and hacked away at it until, finally, it began thrashing around the chamber in an irate and confused defeat. Finally. We held on for as long as we could, but were quickly thrown off it's back, heading straight for another pillar. Saving us another injury, I raised Nayru's Love just in time for us to collide harmlessly with said pillar.

The creature continued whipping around the room, taking down the architecture as it did so, until, finally, it collided with the wall and finished what we had started. It was finally, finally, dead. The water began draining down into the large cracks in the wall from the dark eel's collision, and the two of us began sinking down as the water level decreased.

I took in a deep breath when the water cleared away from my head, and my feet touched solid ground. It was only seconds later that the morpheel's corpse exploded into familiar black squares, which all grouped together to form...the last fused shadow. It looked like the front piece of Midna's helmet, with the two horns on it.

"There it is! The last Fused Shadow..." Midna breathed, flying up from Link's shadow again. Her hand-hair scooped it up from where it hovered in front of Link. "Don't resent me for what I've put you through to get this, because I NEED these things." she added. I wouldn't have resented her anyways. I waved that away with my hand, a tired smile coming to my face.

"You need these things to get rid of Zant, we understand that. You can prove his power is fake by using those." I said, pointing to the shadow. Midna shrugged.

"I've got what I needed. I'm sorry for dragging you two around all over the place. Even if, in your case Rose, it helped you find your family again." she admitted, seeming awkward.

"You don't have to apologize." Link dissuaded her. "If you hadn't helped us, we'd still be in that cell in Hyrule Castle, I'd bet."

She seemed to blush at that, as she opened the portal that would lead us out, but her expression changed to concern. "Hey, you alright?" she asked him. I looked over, and saw that he seemed unstable on his feet. He nodded his head, but I saw his legs about to give out. I caught him when they did, sitting him down on the sandy ground.

"You exhausted yourself..." I muttered disapprovingly. He shook his head, trying to push away from me.

"I'm fine." he disagreed, but I didn't let him stand up. This was getting frustrating.

"No, you're not!" I exclaimed. I tried to think of anything that could have changed between the time we entered the chamber and now, and there was only one thing; he'd been thrown into the stone pillar the first time he attacked the eel. "Did you hit your head when you hit the pillar?" I asked worriedly. Without waiting for him to answer, I removed the zora hat and inspected the back of his head. Sure enough, there was a large bump forming, and there was a trickle of blood mixing into his wet hair. I sighed exasperatedly.

"Well, that answers that question. You've probably got a concussion. A pretty bad one, at that." I concluded.

"I'm fine, Rose!" he protested. "You don't need to-"

In that moment, my body made a decision my mind wasn't quite privy too. I tilted my head downwards and pressed my lips to Link's. His words cut off with a surprised grunt, but it didn't appear he was pulling away. Was it shock that kept him still, or...did he want me to?

It was a snap-decision. I'm not sure why I did it, or what prompted me to do it in the first place. I do know that I did it, however. I had kissed Link! And... I liked it. It was different than giving him air during CPR, aside from the lack of fear and panic in the action; he was responding to it! When I finally realized what I'd just done, I tensed and practically jerked away from him.

"Sorry, but you needed to stop talking." I all but squeaked, my face lighting up red as I pulled away. Link seemed stunned into silence, which had been the idea. It had also given me time to try and tap into my triforce powers to at least somewhat heal that nasty bump on the back of his head.

I stood up like nothing had happened, tamping down my embarrassment as I pulled Link to his feet as well.

"Right, let's get out of here!" I proclaimed, walking onto the portal. Link followed, and I saw he was still completely shocked by what I'd done, as the portal sent us back to the Spirit Spring.

I inhaled deeply, relieved, the moment I smelled the fresh air of the spring. So much nicer than the stale air in the temple. Link appeared beside me moments later, and we both let out an uncomfortable laugh as we turned around to leave. We halted in an instant, and I let out a gasp, my jaw dropping. Zant was here! Why hadn't I remembered this? He stood, stock-still and intimidating as ever.

There was a shimmering glow coming up from the spring behind us, and I heard the sound of Lanayru surfacing above the water. He was here to help us, and protect his light. Zant didn't even flinch. Instead he sent out a powerful shockwave, sending Link and I flying to the ground, and Lanayru into the wall. He seemed to be unconscious, his light left unguarded. Using some sort of levitation, Zant sent the light into the water, temporarily extinguishing it.

The land took on the appearance of the twilight, and Midna fell out of Link's shadow, quite literally. A dazed and unconscious Link reverted to his wolf form seconds later. Then there was me. I felt like my whole body was burning, from the inside out. Things were shifting, and there was an uncomfortable tingling across my skin. Was this what Link felt like when he'd transformed? Would I have endured this sooner had I not had my mother's ring? The burning continued to spread, and erupted. I heard myself let out a contorted scream as my bones shifted and cracked, before I collapsed, in pain and exhausted. I knew I had transformed, but into what? Was I a wolf as well?

'So this is what would have happened before, without the help of mom's ring... I'm an animal too...' I thought, fighting to keep my eyes open. It was a losing battle, though, and I quickly succumbed. Not for long, as it would seem.

The next time my eyes opened, it was still in the Twilight, and it seemed my senses were more attuned. I could hear, smell, and see better than I could before. I also felt pain more acutely than before, I could feel every scratch and bruise in my body.

Midna was immobilized to my left, Link was a wolf directly in front of me, and Zant was to my right. A bolt of anger struck me as I registered him in my brain, and I leaped to attack despite the weakness in my limbs. I heard Link do the same, but before I could reach him, I halted mid air, and pain shot through my head. I let out a whimper, and was sent flying backwards. Then my world went dark once again, though the fire in my head did not cease for several long seconds in the darkness.

The next thing my conscious mind registered was Midna's scream of pain, and a harsh, bright light. Lanayru had teleported us away, I knew. When the light faded, we were in Hyrule field. Link slowly lifted his head, his eyes dazedly drifting open. It seemed he remembered what happened, as he suddenly seemed panicked, looking down at his paws, and then to Midna. Her breaths were short, uneven, and laboured. She was dying.

"Link... Hero chosen by the goddesses... Go to the princess locked away in the castle. That princess holds the key to unlocking you and young Rosalie from your shadow forms." Lanayru whispered, his voice seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere, being carried along on the wind. I saw Link look over to me, his pale blue eyes meeting my green ones.

'Go, I'll catch up.' I urged, struggling to get to my feet- er, paws. Link didn't move. 'Run!' I ordered. With a reluctant nod, he did so, sprinting off into the night with the dying imp on his back. I didn't wait, I had to adjust to this new body. And that, unfortunately, meant I would be learning to walk all over again. Pretty much, at least. First I had to get the hang of standing. No, no, no! I didn't have time for this!

'Sometimes you gotta learn how to run before you can walk...' I thought to myself, and started running. Clumsily, but running nonetheless. Physical aspects aside, there was a lot I still had to get used to, with being an animal. Enhanced senses for one, the lack of attention span, and other such things. Then there was the truly disconcerting feeling of having a tail.

When I could actually bring myself to look, I saw that it was without a doubt a canine tail. Most likely a wolf. White fur with little streaks and markings of red-brown in it. Interesting.

I managed to catch up to Link just as we were entering Castle Town. It had been a pain to avoid the bulblins, but we didn't have time to take them out. We had to get to Zelda, Midna's life depended on it.

A/N: I did revise this one, I swear. You just have to squint a little to see it.