Chapter Twenty Two

Link stares at the Mirror of Twilight. He's almost seemed to... change I guess, in the last few minutes. He seems a little... older almost. Wiser, and sadder. Like Twilight Princess Link, actually.

"What's it like?" Link asks me. "The Twilight Realm, I mean."

"Scary. I mean, it wasn't too bad in the game, but in real life it's probably worse than the Silent Realm. The world itself is beautiful, but the monsters that live there not so much. The Twili are harmless, but the Shadow Beasts are brutal. I don't think you'll like it."

Link laughs humorously. "I haven't liked anything so far, but I still have to deal with it."

I frown a little. He just seems so sad all of a sudden. I guess it's the burden of having the fate of Hyrule on his shoulders. It's finally caught up with him. He must be so scared right now, but he doesn't want us to know. I sure wouldn't like having to go through the Twilight Realm alone.

He sees me frowning and attempts a smile. "I'm okay, Nicky. Just... tired of being... me, I guess."

Sheik walks up to Link and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Have fun, Hero. Don't make me come in there after you." He smiles at him.

"I won't."

Zelda hugs him. "Be careful, Link, please." He smiles at her.

"I will."

Navi flutters out of his hat. "Don't die, Link. Because if you do, I'll kill you." He smiles at her.

"I'll try not to."

I walk up to him and hug him tightly. "Please Link, be careful. Make it out of there alive, huh?" He smiles at me.

"I promise."

I let go and Link smiles at us. "See you soon," He hesitates, then walks through the mirror.

Please, I think to myself. Don't let him break that promise.

~Link's POV~

I stand in front of Hyrule Castle, but it's not the Hyrule Castle that I know. It's dark and foreboding. But the castle isn't the only thing that's like that. All of Hyrule seems this way. It looks like the sun has just gone behind the mountains, but at the same time as if night is already here. There are strange black bits and pieces floating around in the air. A thin fog makes it difficult to see to far. Everything is tinted with yellow and gold and shadow. It's... kind of scary.

"Different, yeah?" Link asks behind me. His voice echos and rings.

I turn to look at him. "Yeah, definitely different."

He stares at me for a moment. "You are a hero, if you've lasted this long here."

"What do you mean?"

"Normal people turn into spirits when they come in contact with Twilight. You're still yourself."

I look down at my hands. Still me. "Is that good or bad?"

"Good. It proves even more that you're the Hero chosen by the goddesses. But just wait a moment longer, even though you're the Chosen Hero you can't survive here in your current state."

Suddenly, a wave of pain floods my body. I cry out in pain and fall to my knees. It's like it's eating me from the inside, tearing up my soul. I clutch my head and cry out again. I've never felt this kind of pain. My spin arches and my bones break, only to mend again. Hair sprouts from every pore and my nose changes shape. My senses sharpen. I can smell, see and hear ten times better than before. My heart pounds loudly in my ears. It hurts even more. All I can think about is the pain. My skeleton changes its shape, my skin morphs to match it. I'm not human anymore. As the transformation completes, I howl through my new mouth and pass out.

~X~

When I come to the first thing I notice is that I'm hairy. Very hairy.

That's strange, I think to myself. I don't remember growing a beard.

But it's not just a beard. It's everywhere. My face, my arms, my chest, my legs. But then I notice that I have no arms, chest or legs. At least, not the human version of them.

I yelp and get up on not two legs, but four. I'm not human. I'm a wolf.

"Are you okay?" Link asks next to me.

I try to answer, but I can't talk. All I can do is bark.

"Oh, sorry." Link says apologetically. "I forgot you can't talk."

I can't talk? Great, just great.

"Okay, so you need to get to the Palace of Twilight. Battle all Shadow Beasts that get in your way. Once you show me that you're capable of controlling your wolf form, I'll send you back to normal Hyrule and give you my weapon." I nod. "Good luck, Link." He walks off.

I pad away from the castle and Castletown, when it occurs to me that I have no idea what Shadow Beasts look like or how to kill them. I really hope that won't be a problem in finding them.

It proves not to be. The second I leave Castletown I spot a strange black, tentacled creature. It's pretty big, and it walks weird, like a monkey. It also wears a strange mask. I guess this is a Shadow Beast.

I'm trying to get used to my new body and senses. I can smell the Shadow Beast vividly, and he doesn't really smell very nice...

And apparently the Shadow Beast can sense me, because its head whips around to face me. It leaps towards me, and I yelp. That thing's faster than it looks. Unfortunately it's just as heavy as I thought it would be. It slams into me and knocks me to the ground. My vision explodes into stars. The creature walks back and prepares to hit me again, and I snarl at it. I'm ready this time. When it charges me I bite it by the neck. At the touch of my teeth the beast screams and dies. I stand panting over it. This is not going to be a fun trial...

~X~

I've been in here for at least two days, maybe three. I can't tell because of the perpetual twilight. It looks like night 24/7. I suppose that's why they call it the Twilight Realm. I managed to get about five hours of sleep before some Shadow Beasts found me and almost killed me, so that was nice.

The Shadow Beasts. I hate those things. Some are easier to kill than others. When I bite them, they die. But some require multiple bites and me slamming into them to get them to fall over. They're like stone walls. And when they come in groups they're even harder to kill. I have to kill them in rapid secession, or they revive themselves. They revive themselves. It's so unfair.

I've gotten used to being a wolf, I'm actually pretty good at it. I know how to use my senses to track things, hear and smell Shadow Beasts before I can see them. Plus, I don't think I could defeat them if I was human, it'd be ten times harder. More than once I'm positive being a wolf has saved my life.

I'm broken down and tired, dragging myself to the palace. I can see it, it's not too far now. A huge purplish stone fortress with threads of blue that seems to float in the air. There are starting to be more purple and black clouds in the air. I don't know if that's good or bad.

The only thing pushing me on now is the thought of my friends, my promises to them. Especially Nicky. I promised her that I'd get out of here, and I never break promises. I'm going to get out of here.

I fight a few more Shadow Beasts, get a few more cuts and bruises, and then suddenly I stand in front of the Palace of Twilight. Oh, thank the sweet golden Triforce. I can finally get out of here. I wait for Other Me to appear and take me back, but he doesn't. I sit in expectation, but he still doesn't come. Maybe I have to actually enter the palace.

I walk a little closer to the palace, and immediately Shadow Beasts attack me, more than usual. There's about seven of them.

I take out the first four pretty quick, but the next two take a little work. I have to bite both of them about a dozen times each, then I slam into them, and bite them again. They finally die. The next one hits me hard, but after a few bites it dies too. That just leaves the last one. I growl at it and attack. We attack back and forth, me biting and him swiping at me. Each swipe that comes in contact with me feels like a boulder slamming into me. But I'm sure each bite to him feels like poison. Within a few minutes I'm too tired to continue. Lack of sleep, food, constant fighting and wounds are starting to take their toll on me. It's costing me. The Shadow Beast slams into me, hard, and I whimper. I've probably broken more than a few bones. I can't get up, I just can't...

But there's Nicky's voice again, the same heartbreaking voice that called out to me during the fight with Dark Link. Along with it comes Sheik, Zelda, Navi, Mom, Dad, Alac, Tanner...

Tanner. I haven't thought about my older brother in a long time. It's just so painful to imagine him rotting away in Ganondorf's concentration camp, after all he's done for me. Because of me. When Mom and Dad died Tanner devoted his life to taking care of me. I was 6, and he was 11. Even when Alac took us in he felt the need to help me with everything. I couldn't ask for a better brother. We spent all of our time together, even as I got older and made friends with Sheik and others in Castletown Tanner came first, and me with him. I can't even remember the last time we had a real argument. I didn't know what to do with myself when he moved into Castletown and took up a job in the Market. And then everyone in Castletown was made a prisoner of Ganondorf, including Tanner. I wanted to charge in there and save him so bad it almost physically hurt. The chance to save him was one of the reasons I accepted becoming the Chosen Hero.

What would he say if he could see me now?

He'd probably yell at me for being a wimp, that's what.

With his encouraging voice ringing in my mind I force myself up and growl at the Shadow Beast. I'm ready to end this. I just want to get back to the normal world and sleep for 24 hours, and I'm not going to let a smelly black heap of slime get in my way. I attack him, biting as hard as I can. I can still hear Tanner telling me how proud he was of me when I first rode Epona correctly, managing to stay on her the whole way. Laughing as I tried to comprehend why in Hyrule he would want a girlfriend when he had me. Scolding me when I first broke into Hyrule Castle, even though I knew he was just doing it to be a good big brother, and that he was actually proud of me for being so sneaky. It makes me fight harder. I want to hear him say he's proud of me again. Within a few minutes the Shadow Beast is dead. I stand over it, panting and about ready to collapse.

I don't notice him walk up behind me until he speaks. "You did good."

I jump and turn around. Other Me stands looks approvingly at the seven dead Shadow Beasts. "Very good."

I whimper again as my front left leg erupts with pain. I definitely broke it.

Link looks sympathetically at it. "Broken? I'm sorry. You can take care of it back in the normal world. You have completed your test with courage and strength. You more than deserve my weapon. Let's go back, yeah?" The mirror appears again and he walks through it. I limp through it, relieved to transform into myself again. This time, painlessly.