We stalked away from the spring. Zach eyed me and grinned.

"So, I guess we're a pair of animals for the moment? I wonder how we're going to get out of this."

"I dunno," I responded. "If I were to venture a guess, I would presume that we have to purge ourselves of the magic that transformed us. Unfortunately, we have no idea how to go about doing that, Twilight magic is unknown to the habitants of Hyrule. We know that the Twilight realm normally turns monsters into spirits, the real question is why we got turned into animals."

Zach nodded. "Maybe we should just keep moving onwards for the moment. As far as I'm concerned, we dropped our backpacks and weapons when we entered the Twilight. We should see if we can recollect them."

We walked towards the bridge and crossed it, walking up to the giant wall that still hung in the sky. Neither our backpacks nor our weapons were lying on the ground. The villagers must have come by and picked them up, thinking us taken or dead.

"Oi!" A familiar voice yelled out. My shadow split in two at my feet, and a shadowy image of Midna flew out in front of us. "Did you think that I just left? Listen, you aren't just going to be able to run off and save those kids. Last time, a shadow beast pulled you through the curtain of twilight, but if you want to go that way, you're going to need cooperation of someone from the twilight, like me! And right now, I want a sword and a shield that'll suit me, or else I won't take you across, understand me?" And with that, she disappeared back into my shadow.

What a bitch. I mean, she did essentially have us there. We wouldn't necessarily get lucky enough for another of the twilit beasts to bring us into the twilight shrouded lands of Hyrule. We got incredibly lucky the first time, although lucky isn't necessarily the best word to use. But without her help, we weren't going to get anywhere as far as saving Hyrule.

Better to do what she wanted for now. Luckily, we had already planned to recollect our gear, which included our swords and Zach's shield. We made our way towards the village, and there were a few monsters here and there, patrolling the area. We snuck up on them, biting them and clawing at them, and they exploded into smoke.

When we took out the monsters directly outside the village limits, a squirrel approached us. "Thanks for taking care of those bad guys!" It squeaked. "They made both the village and the forest a mess, kidnapped all the village children. But I know that you two aren't with the monsters. I can tell because you smell like humans, not like those monsters. If you run into any trouble, try talking to the other animals, we understand each other, so you'll be all right!" It scurried off after telling us that.

"So it seems like the animals are willing to help us at least." Zach said. "But we would be incredibly lucky if the humans were to trust us. We currently are huge predators. Forget the fact that a snow leopard doesn't live in this part of the world. These humans have just had their children taken away by monsters riding on armored boars. A huge cat and a wolf entering town will just make them think that the monsters are attacking all over again."

I nodded in agreement. "We should stay away from the townsfolk as much as possible. They'll just try and attack us, or worse, go and get the other villagers and they'll drive us out of town before we can get any of our things."

We walked into town. A man stood in the middle of the village. "Please!" he cried out into the air. "Please say that nothing has happened to the children… Please forgive your good for nothing father…" He sighed.

We made our way around him, careful to avoid being seen. "We should split up." I said to Zach. "We'll cover more ground and maybe get more information that way. We can meet up at the entrance of town later or as soon as we see each other."

Zach nodded, and we split up.

"So those poor young men are nowhere to be found?" My ears picked up at this information, and I hid in the grass nearby, using my natural leopard instincts to remain as quiet as possible.

"No," A new voice sounded, and soon I was cognizant of footsteps approaching along the roadside. "I found their backpacks and weapons at the giant black wall. Either they're dead, or with our kids." The footsteps were right next to me, and I looked through the grass to see. Rusl walked past, talking to the mayor of the town.

The mayor's voice rang out once more. "It's a pity that we don't know what happened to them, perhaps we could have asked for their aid in defending the city. At least if they're with our children then they'll stay safe."

Rusl nodded. "If we ever find them, I'll be sure to give them back their things; I'm holding them in my house for the time being." The two of them stalked off, Rusl holding his own weapon in hand as a precaution against any monsters that they might come across.

So their gear was in Rusl's house?

"How nice!" Midna giggled. "Their keeping your things for you, on the off chance you ever come back. Well, since you're back, you might as well grab your things! Eee hee!"

She had a point. Even if all we had was a map and some food and water, at least those meager supplies would be a benefit on the road. Plus, our weaponry is probably also with our backpacks. I stealthily made my way up to Rusl's house, careful not to let anybody see me.

I didn't know how I was going to get inside though. The door would most likely be locked, and Uli stood in front of the door, making sure to scan the area. I walked around the side of the house, and saw a chicken.

"Hey Sir! Sir! Sir! You trying to get in the house?" It cawed to me. "Well there's a small spot here, see, that you can squeeze under and get in the house."

I thanked the chicken and burrowed into the house. This was work more suited for a dog, or a wolf, in Zach's case. Large cats hadn't evolved to be digging very often. But I made my way inside, and quickly found our gear, including both backpacks and the swords and shield.

"Wow!" Midna's voice quipped, "You two sure were planning on going on an adventure, weren't you!"

I lightly growled at her, before collecting our things and exiting back the way we came. I ran to the town entrance, where I found Zach pacing around.

"I found our gear; Rusl was keeping them for us so I snuck in his house and get it all."

"Alright, so now that we have our weaponry, including two swords and a shield, you should have no problem with bringing us back into the twilight, right Midna?" Zach asked.

"Yup!" she said, coming out of my shadow. "We're all set, let's go to the wall and make this thing happen."

As we ventured forth, we heard a strange voice come from the spring. "Come… to my spring." It beckoned. I shrugged my leopard shoulders, not sure how, and walked into the spring. "You have… been transformed… by the power of shadows… Come to me." I walked forwards, and suddenly, dark spires fell from the sky, and a strange light shown between the spires. I understood instantly; I was trapped. Zach stood beside me, his hackles raised.

"Beware," came the voice. "A creature of shadows… approaches."

And suddenly, from the portal high above came a monster, of the same kind that had initially brought Zach and I through the veil of Twilight.

Zach lunged for it, and I followed suit. In our animal forms, our claws flashing and our sharp teeth digging into it, it stood barely a chance to fight back. If it was sentient, it clearly hadn't expected that we would be strong enough to take it down, nor would we be brave enough to try.

As soon as it died, vanishing into smoke, the smoke raised to the portal above, turning it a teal and black instead of purple and black.

As soon as this was done, the spring began to glow, the stones shining white with power as a light came up from the depths of the spring. It grew until it took on the shape of a large ram; complete with large horns and hooves and everything, yet made of light.

"Oh brave youths, I am one of the four lights spirits that protect Hyrule at the behest of the gods.. I am Ordona. The black beast you slayed was a shadow being, it had come to seize the power of light that I wield. My brethren in Hyrule have already had their light stolen from them, the entirety of Hyrule falling into a netherworld for the creatures of twilight, and they will not stop at just Hyrule, they will overtake the entire world of light. To save this land from the king of Twilight, the lost light must be recovered. The three light spirits that have lost their light must be revived."

It paused, before continuing. "There are but two who can revive them, and redeem this land… the two of you, who are not turned to spirits in the land of darkness. You still have not discovered your true powers. Those transformed by twilight cannot usually recover their original forms, unless if you were to return to faron woods where you were first transformed, if you were to revive a light spirit there, by the power of the light spirit, you may find the means to regain your state of being."

It slowly disappeared, which was entirely unhelpful, I had some questions that I wanted to ask it! And yet, it was no longer visible to either Zach or I. Extremely unhelpful… and yet, my wounds on my back seemed to heal, and I felt refreshed. The spring waters must have healing properties now that we've aided the spirit that resides here. That might be useful information in the future.

We left the spring. "So," Zach said. "We free the other spirits, or revive them somehow, and we not only purge the land of twilight but also get our humanity back? That's what I go from that thing."

I nodded. "It would appear that our journey into the darkness is like killing two birds with one stone then, get our normal bodies back and save the world, sounds like fun."

We made our way across the bridge, back to the wall of Twilight. Midna jumped out of my shadow as we got near.

"Hey… Look. The Faron woods that you might know from before, they're now covered in twilight. You might not be able to come back here, but… Do you two still want to go?" Zach and I looked at each other briefly before nodding our heads towards the imp.

Midna nodded and entered the wall, before a giant glowing orange hands reached out from inside and grabbed both of use and pulled us through.