"Flee."
-Unknown
"She swore to protect Hyrule when she ascended to the throne, carrying all the weight of the holy power her position as High Priestess of all of Hyrule provided. So why now, does she choose to massacre her charges?"
-Malladus
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The Wolfos yawned, stretched his limbs, and pressed his nose into the neck of the woman lying beside him. The shock woke her immediately and she boxed his ears with an ease only practice could grant. He, in turn, nipped at her exposed skin until she woke up.
Link watched the morning ritual with amusement. It was rare that he got to see the Beast and Midna together, so relaxed and familiar with one another.
The Beast glanced at his, green eyes meeting blue, and in an instant memories and thoughts poured between them.
Midna's words to the Beast the night before. The shock of watching the fabric of this world tear to allow the Lords entry.
I'll come.
No. The Beast was surprisingly adamant. Link offered the wolf a bitter sort of smile. He wanted to stay as much as the Beast wanted him too, but he couldn't afford such a luxury.
Their curse bound them to one another, and distance would only provide problems.
…She will want to come.
Link's gaze went to the slumbering form of Ilia, lying curled beside her mother, softening with worry. The distaste in the Beast's tone didn't go unnoticed.
To be honest, he agreed. Ilia was naïve, idealistic to the point of stupidity. She knew nothing of what any of them had gone through-the Beast in particular-and she clung to her ignorance and misguided beliefs.
She believed he and the Beast to be the same exact person, always in a human body. Even the changing of their eye color didn't seem to faze her. She constantly sought the Beast when he was in Link's form, and never accomplished more than arousing Midna's hatred.
It did provide him with some amusement, though he wouldn't dare admit it to Midna. Seeing her get so damned possessive of a wolf in a man's skin was interesting, and it was the only time the Beast ever seemed to get flustered.
But there was a reason he sought Ilia's companionship.
She was so…regular, so average. Nothing like any of them had known, something that he wanted more than anything to be. She gave him that feeling of normalcy, something he craved.
Now. Let's go now.
The Beast's lips seemed to curl into a wolfish smile, and his head dipped in acknowledgement. The effect was ruined when, a moment later, he pounced on Midna's still prone form.
Link stood up and stretched, waiting for them to get ready. He'd been able to bring nothing with him-but thankfully, his body always carried a sword and armor, and the Beast never removed it.
His gaze went to Midna.
He didn't trust her.
The Beast had never explained how he had ended up with her. After Link had forced the Beast into the body of a wolf, after Link had escaped from the Beast's captor, they had met up in the thick forest of Hyrule, the Beast in the company of a naked woman whose skin, when the sun hit it just right, glittered a dusky grey.
Midna had led them to a tear between Hyrule and this world, the Dark Realm. She had led them to the little settlement they had called home for the past few years. She'd never explained how she knew where to go, what she was. She knew things about the Lords-he'd seen the way she looked at him, gaze cool and entirely calculating, her questions to others, Koume and Kotake in particular, in the dark of the night.
"Link." He blinked in surprise and looked up. A heart-shaped mask gazed down at him, yellow eyes narrow and cold. Majora had never interacted with him before-Link would go so far as to say the creature hated him.
"Yes…?"
"Distract them on their journey. Tell tales, stories, history. Argue with them, fight with them, joke with them-anything. Do not let her dwell too much on the past, lest the wolf loose himself in his. Should that happen, your hands will be stained so dark with crimson you will forget what other colors were."
Cryptic. But nothing he didn't already know.
The Beast's captor had injured him in ways Link could not even describe, toyed with the very core of his being as if it were child's play. There lay a dormant connection between the two, as between creator and created.
When Midna brooded, the Beast tried to pull her out of her mood. When that failed, he, too, brooded. The connection had sparked a few times before-before they had come to the village. They'd barely escaped with their lives. Link understood how dangerous it was.
But Majora's tone….Had the Lords come here just for the Beast?
"Why do you care?"
A thick silence enveloped them for a moment, and when he looked up, Majora was gone.
Link sighed in irritation and walked over to Midna and the Beast, silently checking to make certain his sword was securely strapped on.
"Ready?" Midna asked, gazing coolly at him.
"If you are."
And with that, they slipped away with only Majora aware of their disappearance.
An hour later, he regretted leaving so quickly, without anyone else coming with them.
"Where are we going?"
Midna didn't speak, and the Beast seemed content to walk at her side. Link walked a few steps behind them, letting them lead.
"Midna."
"What?"
"Where are we going?"
Can I speak? The Beast's shockingly formal request startled Link into silence for a moment, and he slowly allowed the Beast to creep into his body, feeling himself slipping into the body of a Wolfos.
"You said Lorule's Triforce couldn't be separated. Why do we seek its broken pieces?" Midna turned at his words, halting mid-stride. The Beast relinquished his grip, and Link again found himself in his body.
Puzzled, he absorbed the discussion silently.
"It was cared for by the High Priestess. When she died, she shattered it into pieces large enough to hold the fabric of this realm together-but only just. The longer they are apart, the worse the strain gets. The fissures are a result."
Oddly enough, explaining seemed to calm the tall woman. Tension eased out of her and she returned to walking as if nothing strange had occurred.
"Link, the Lords are after Hyrule's Triforce, which was locked away. The key, Lorule's Triforce, has been broken and scattered. Majora wants us to get the shards from their guardians, to keep them safe from the Lords."
"No! They do that in every story of the Hero that exists, and it's always exactly what-"
"Majora is the most powerful of the guardians, and he alone has been protected by the presence of a village by his domain. The others have been attacked relentlessly ever since the Lords took over, without a village to save them from the brunt of it. What makes you think that these lesser creatures have succeeded where Majora would have failed?"
"Majora would have destroyed it." Link replied. A silence met his words, Midna's eyes flashing as she looked at him.
The truth in his voice rang out sharply.
"The others wouldn't have."
The truth in hers shattered his argument.
"And we're supposed to succeed where they've failed? A mutt, a boy, and a creature lying to everyone who's ever trusted her?"
The Beast's weight slammed into him, claws digging into the flesh of his chest as jaws snapped above his throat, the snarling of an enraged animal filling the air.
There were lines, Link supposed, that he shouldn't cross. But with Midna, there were none. She poked and prodded his history without concern. Why shouldn't he do the same?
"The only thing stopping me from killing you is him." Midna said softly. Her words stilled the Beast, though the Beast's terrible teeth still remained a fraction of a breath above his throat. A second later the Beast, rage still burning in his eyes, got off of Link.
He hadn't expected such a violent reaction from the Beast—In fact, he'd almost forgotten he was there.
"Good. We're in the same boat."
Midna's eyes flashed dangerously and she half-lifted a hand before seeming to catch herself, forcing her arm down sharply and her expression tightening.
"Stop wasting time. The longer we sit and idle, the greater the fissures grow. We might not be able to get back by the time we have the other pieces if we don't."
The absence of the word 'home' in her words had never been greater.
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Blackened trunks rose from soil flecked with purple quartz, sickly lavender leaves wilting as they brushed his pelt. Shadows crossed the ground around him, frigid air
He moved slowly, paws seeking silent places to tread before moving onwards. Midna came just behind him, Link a few steps back.
Water. Vile.
Link let out a soft grunt of acknowledgement. His ears flicked in irritation. What was the point of silent communication if the other party refused to use it? That noise could have given them away to every monster in the entire Realm. Midna's fingers ran along his flank momentarily, a warning to not start a fight.
He turned towards her, pushing against her legs as he slithered out of the forest.
He blinked, eyes adjusting to the sudden influx of light, before freezing at what lay before him.
Rot perfumed the air-how had he not noticed it before?-thickly enough to clog in his throat. Dry grass stabbed into the pads of his paws, and a dark orange ball burned in the sky, searing his thick fur with its rays. Stones bleached and worn from the heat lay scattered around them, but did not hide what lay beneath them.
There were large sections of grass that appeared darker than the rest and was matted down as if trampled, and smears of this grass and murk were plastered against the bases of a number of rocks.
A rustle and a muffled curse later, Link and Midna were both standing beside him.
What…?
He shifted uncomfortably, growling softly as his hackles raised. Nothing moved—not even a faint stir of wind—yet the sense of danger—death—was nearly overpowering.
Midna let out a wistful sort of laugh, startling him.
"Don't wake the Serpent."
And with that, she darted forward.
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HOLY SHIT GUYS I AM SO SORRY. I've been sitting on this chapter for a long ass time, and….I am so sorry T.T If any of you are still reading this lol.
I did remember the formatting thing though. Hope you guys don't mind? I'm sorry lol.