Link wasn't sure how much time had passed while the fragments of himself and his mind aimlessly floated along, but it came to an abrupt end with the tingling sensation coming back, this time starting from his feet and spreading upwards. Suddenly his body was back, and he no longer had the feeling of weightlessness. He blinked and his nose twitched, as he drank in the smells he had never noticed as a human. His sense of smell had largely been blocked at the castle by the rain and the shadow monsters, but that was not the case here. The clean freshness of the water at his feet, the earthy dirt and rocks surrounding the spring, the powerful but not unpleasant smell of mint from the trees, with some subtler smells of pine from the trees in the village. 'How did I live my entire life, not knowing about all this?' He looked up to the sky, glad to see the clear blue of a beautiful day rather than the sickly hazy yellow that surrounded Hyrule Castle.

"Oh, that's right. I forgot to mention one thing…" He was startled to hear Midna's voice behind him. By habit, he looked to find her on his back, but neither felt the weight of her sitting on his back nor saw any sign of her in the area. He circled, confused and trying to find her.

"Though you may have left the darkened realm, you haven't transformed back to your former self… and you won't anytime soon!" He stopped circling, looking up towards the sky again.

"Now why could that be?" She paused, then laughed, the sound echoing in the spring. 'She asks an interesting question.. Why haven't I changed back?

"See you later!" Despite his distrust in Midna, the implication of her leaving him felt.. wrong. After some moments, he decided to wade out into the deeper water in the back of the spring, in the hopes of cleaning the injuries from the shadow monsters. Unlike the frigid waters in the castle's dungeon, the spring was pleasantly mild. He would have smiled if he could have. As he paddled through the water, he could swear that his tiredness and pain slowly faded away. 'I didn't realize the spring could do this… Though I suppose that makes sense that I never knew, since I never got into combat until I had to save… Talo…' He whined. 'Ilia and Colin were taken.. Are the others alright, at least?' As he ran to the entrance of the spring, he noticed that the sun was beginning to set.

"So, um, what's next?" Again, by habit, he looked behind him, as if he expected to see Midna there. 'How is she talking to me, when she isn't here?' Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and when he turned his head he noticed his shadow changing shape and floating up to make a figure that he recognized all too well, one which he was almost relieved to see despite himself. He tilted his head to one side. 'Interesting trick. How did you do that?' As if she could see his confusion, Midna laughed.

"Did you think I'd disappeared?" Link snorted. 'Kind of, yeah.'

"Listen, there's another thing I forgot to tell you… Don't think you can just run off and save your friends, because you can't." Link huffed. 'Why not?' Midna paused.

"Just beyond that bridge, the land is covered in twilight. Last time, a shadow beast pulled you through the curtain of twilight…" Link blinked in surprise and tilted his head to the other side. 'How.. how did you know about that?'

"But if you want to go that way this time, you'll need the cooperation of someone FROM the twilight… like me!" As Midna's words sunk in, Link looked down. 'So I don't really have a choice but to act as your little servant, do I.. Unless I work with you, I'll never be able to help Ilia and Colin..' As if to echo his thoughts, Midna continued.

"So you really have no choice but to do what I say." Link closed his eyes and grimaced, baring his teeth. 'Could you at least not make it seem like you're enjoying this?'

"Saving your friends and all that… Well, that'll depend on your actions…" Link scowled. 'I get. The point.'

"Because you can never trust words, you know." Link snorted. 'Not like I've had the chance to speak to you, so far.' Midna paused, her tone becoming thoughtful.

"Right now, I want a sword and shield that'll suit me." Link looked up in surprise. 'Really? You? A sword and shield? What about that.. that red ball thing you threw at my chain to break it?' Midna's tone became almost mocking.

"You do understand me, don't you?" She laughed, and he sighed. 'No, Midna, I honestly don't.'

"So, what do you plan to do? While you're here dawdling, the twilight continues to expand." He tilted his head once more. 'It can do that? What is going to happen if it covers all of Hyrule…?'

"Come on! Hurry it up!" Without another word of explanation, Midna disappeared back into Link's shadow. He sighed again, and ran towards his home and the village as the sun continued to set.

To his surprise, there was some kind of monster patrolling the path to his house. It looked nothing like the purple or blue monsters he had seen on his way to save Talo. This monster's skin was a dark green, and it had a cloth mask covering its face which had two horns jutting out from either side. Beady red eyes peered at him as it readied its club for a swing, which Link was glad he dodged. With only a couple of lunging attacks, the monster fell dead in the dirt, allowing Link to study it more closely.

The monster was wearing some kind of fur shirt and shorts, with a leather cap on its head and bandages and gloves of old fabric on its arms. The club itself was a rather large rock tied onto a thick branch, and around its chest was a leather band with different teeth strung onto it. He growled once at the corpse, and then continued down the path to his home, where he found two more of the monsters patrolling. They, like the first, were swiftly slain, and Link took some moments to look around himself.

Night had fully fallen, though the usual chirping of crickets was noticeably absent. He sighed as he looked up at his house, now completely inaccessible to him. The scent of pine trees and the earth beneath his feet, as well as some other smells that he couldn't quite recognize, filled his nose, encouraging him forward into the town. Suddenly a voice rang out from behind him.

"Wait!" He began to growl, his hackles raised. 'Who said that?!'

"Thank you for taking care of those bad guys! They made both the village and the forest a mess…" At the mention of the village, Link stopped growling and turned around, surprised to see a squirrel perching nearby the ladder.

"They kidnapped the village children…" At that, Link whined. 'No.. No it can't be.. I.. I failed to protect all of them..?'

"But I know… you're not one of them. I can tell because you smell like the trees of Ordon…" The squirrel paused. "If you run into any trouble, try talking to the animals. We animals understand one another, so you'll be all right!" With that, the squirrel ran away, and Link again turned to walk into the village.

Despite it being nighttime, Hanch stood on top of the platform where Jaggle usually stood, looking towards the sky. Thanks to his sharper hearing, Link could hear the poor man praying to the gods.

"Ohhh… How did it come to this? The children… Please say nothing's happened…" Hanch slumped. "Please forgive your good-for-nothing father…" Link whined. 'Hanch.. It's not your fault.. If anything it's my fault, I.. I should have protected them, I was there when the monsters attacked.' For several moments, Link simply stood, worry over the children filling his mind. Then, he shook his head. 'Feeling guilty isn't going to bring them back. I have to go save them.' He grimaced. 'And that means running errands for Midna.' Noticing two people standing near Jaggle and Pergie's house, he quietly walked over and across the bridge.

"Oh! About the shield…" Jaggle was quickly shushed by Bo.

"Hey! Not so loud…" Link slowly crept closer while staying low in the grass, realizing that the two wouldn't recognize him in his form, and would likely see him as a monster.

"... So, that shield is still in your house, right?"

"Uh, yeah, it should be in our storage loft."

"Good! Go grab it, quick as you can! Rusl got wounded pretty bad, so he can't go search for the kids. I'll take over for him." Link fought back the urge to whine. 'Rusl got hurt..?' The worry turned to anger. 'Those monsters will pay for hurting my family.'

"But Rusl had a sword, Mayor! And he STILL got hurt! If you're unarmed, you're done for!"

"I'll be fine. The sword we were going to present to the royal family should still be at Rusl's house." Link blinked. 'The gift for the royal family.. was a sword? Why?' Jaggle seemed relieved.

"Oh yeah? All right, I understand, Mayor. I'll hurry up and get that shield. You just wait here…" Link stood to leave, but the rustling of the grass must have caught Bo and Jaggle's attention, and the two turned around and fled. Midna appeared from Link's shadow once more.

"That's not a bad bit of information you heard, huh?" She peered up to the roof of Jaggle's house and scoffed.

"Ugh… Look at that open window. This village is full of idiots." Link let out a low growl. 'Don't insult my family, Midna.' She seemed not to notice, preoccupied with looking around for a way up to the roof.

"So…" Her gaze settled on the water wheel. "We should jump up there… but from where?" Link made his way across the bridge again, and began to walk closer to the water wheel, when suddenly there was a whoosh of flame and a scream from Hanch.

"Mon.. MONSTER!" Link winced, tucking his tail between his legs. 'Hanch, no, please, I'm not a monster, I..' He looked up at Hanch.

"You've returned for more, haven't you?! My… My daughter… Return her!" Link whined. 'Hanch, I.. I'm trying to..'

"And TAKE THIS!" Hanch pulled a reed out of his pocket and blew into it, the same melody that Link had taught to his hawk. Link whined again. 'No.. not my hawk too..' Ever the obedient bird, the hawk landed on Hanch's wrist. Hanch pointed viciously at Link, and in a flurry of feathers his hawk flew down at him. Link only just barely managed to dodge his hawk's talons, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his hawk fly away into the night. He noticed Sera's cat run over to him.

"Were you attacked by that hawk? You're no match for him…" Link nodded. 'I trained him well.'

"I'm sorry! That person calling the hawk is my master's… husband." The cat's tone became mischievous. "You could sneak up from behind and scare him." Link winced at the idea. 'Even though he did attack me.. He's still my family..' However, he knew that he wouldn't be able to get the shield for Midna unless Hanch was no longer summoning his hawk. He sighed, and as he turned to jump onto Sera's house her cat followed him.

"You smell the same as the ranch hand named Link, so I know you're a nice wolf!" Link blinked, and would have smiled were he still human. 'At least someone recognizes me.' He jumped onto the rock nearby Sera's house, and once again Midna formed from his shadow.

"C'mon, let's get up on the roof from here and scare that guy. Look at him… posing like he's all important… Wait until he sees us!" She laughed, and Link whined. 'I don't want to scare him.. He's scared enough…' Midna floated up to the roof of Sera's house, and Link leapt into the air after her. Then he crept along the roof and jumped onto the rock formations, until he was behind Hanch. His hawk flew away, and Hanch jumped with a scream and fled into the lake. 'Sorry, Hanch…'

Before getting Midna's attention so he could jump to the water wheel, he noticed the reeds still growing nearby where he stood. 'I wonder…' He began to howl the melody that he usually played on those reeds, although he unfortunately could not perfectly replicate the sound of the reeds. However, he heard his hawk caw up in the sky above him, and a moment later his hawk was flapping his wings in front of Link.

"So… you're Link… right?" Link nodded. 'It's me, buddy.'

"Sorry about giving you so much trouble before. I'm not proud of it, but it's in my genes to obey anyone who blows a reed. How sad…" Link would have smirked if he could. 'I thought it was because I gave you treats for coming when I played that melody?'

"Your voice… It sounded just like a reed… That's why I flew down." Link huffed. 'It really didn't. I guess I just got close enough to the melody.'

"I'll tell you what… Next time, call me like that when you need something. Who knows? I might be able to help you out!" With that, his hawk flew away into the night sky once more. After watching his hawk fly away, he gave a quiet bark once more to get Midna's attention. She floated over to the water wheel, and Link leapt after her, easily clearing the gap. With Midna's help, another leap brought him onto the roof, and he slipped into the open window.

He found himself on a raised platform in Jaggle's house, next to what looked like a makeshift bed. On the other side of the house, a simple wooden shield hung on the wall between two curtains. 'That's the shield.. But how do I get to it?' Puzzled, he leapt down to the ground floor. Then he noticed the table. 'Maybe from up there…?' As soon as he had gotten onto the table, Midna appeared from his shadow, giggling.

"Found it! Found it!" Link snorted. 'Excuse you, I found it first.' Midna floated up to the platform, and Link leapt up after her, easily landing near the wall. He stood for some moments, staring at the shield. 'Now.. how to get you down from there?' He rammed into the wall with his head, and while his head hurt from the impact, he noticed that the shield began to come loose from the wall. 'One more hit should do it.' He waited for the pain to subside, and then he again rammed the wall, knocking the shield down to the floor. He nudged it with his nose, and Midna appeared from his shadow once more. She frowned, looking down at the shield.

"It looks… kind of cheap…" Link huffed. 'It's not like we usually have the money or materials to have anything better.'

"Well? Aren't you going to pick it up?" Link snorted, nudging the shield so it flipped over and then picking the shield up in his teeth by the handle on the back. 'And give her a moment to realize that was a stupid thing to ask..' To his dismay, however, Midna seemed to see nothing wrong with Link carrying the shield in his mouth.

"All right, then… Next is a sword. Hurry up and get one!" She disappeared back into Link's shadow, leaving him standing, dumbfounded. After a moment, Link shook his head and looked around for a way out, before seeing another open window to the side. 'Let's see just how far she's willing to take this…'

The window ended up leading directly into the lake, and Link found himself paddling while trying to keep the shield above the water as much as he could. He exhaled, careful to keep his teeth firmly clamped onto the shield. 'Alright. Bo said the sword was at Rusl's house. So that's the next stop.' However, he didn't immediately swim towards Rusl's house. Instead, he swam around to the other side of Sera's house, where he climbed up onto the small dock. Then, after taking a careful look around, he delicately dropped the shield into the grass, keeping it as hidden from view as he possibly could. 'Maybe I can just leave it here and come back for it once I have the sword. Since Midna apparently thinks there's nothing wrong with me carrying things in my mouth.'

The shield hidden, Link began to walk over to Rusl's house. From the distance, he saw Rusl carrying a torch as he walked along the path. Link snorted. 'That makes things more difficult.. I'll have to sneak around him.' He climbed up onto the ledge nearby Rusl's house, watching him from a safe distance. He got close to the house, enough to realize that Uli was sitting on the porch. 'If I jumped out in front of her, she'd scream and call me a monster.' He retraced his steps until he was near the bridge nearby Bo's house. It was then that he noticed the stream that widened and deepened closer to Rusl's house. 'I could swim over there, and sneak past both Rusl and Uli.'

He waited until Rusl had his back turned, and then slipped into the water as quietly as he could. Just to be sure, he swam through the furthest part of the water that he could, until he reached a point where he could safely sneak past Uli's sight. Finally, he stood next to the house, though from there he was uncertain how to continue.

'Senses.' Without any other leads, Link decided to follow the images' guidance, and he sniffed the ground at his feet. Suddenly, he realized that there was a large hole in the dirt under Rusl and Uli's house, tucked away behind a pile of firewood. The dirt was soft, and easily moved out of the way as Link dug his way through.

On the other side of the wall, Link dug his way up into a patch of dirt that had no flooring placed over it. He shook himself off, and almost immediately he saw the sword and sheath resting on the couch. 'Much more convenient than getting to the shield.' Midna appeared again from his shadow.

"All right… So now you have a sword. Looks like you can actually be useful when you concentrate!" Link let out a low growl, just for a moment.

"All right… No more detours. I'm going to take you back into the twilight." Link tilted his head. 'Hopefully not without me getting the shield, you don't.'

"Go back to the woods where you first transformed into that shape!" Midna disappeared into Link's shadow, and he picked the sword up in his mouth.. Only to realize that his only way out was the way he had come in. He exhaled. 'My best chance at getting out of here with this thing is to try and drag it through the hole with me..' He was grateful the sword was of better construction than the wooden sword he'd allowed Talo to use. 'Hopefully that kid's okay, wherever he is..'

It took much more effort than Link would have liked, but eventually he and the sword were both outside of Rusl's house. Uli was still standing on the porch, and Rusl was still slowly walking along the path, so Link again swam through the stream while holding the sword's sheath in his mouth. Once he was safely past Rusl, he ran back to the dock by Sera's house. To his relief, the shield was still there, hidden in the grass. He gently dropped the sheathed sword on the ground, laying it down so that he could pick up both the shield handle and the sword in his mouth. 'Hylia's sakes, I must look so silly like this…' With both the sword and shield in his possession, he ran up the path to his house and then towards the bridge.

As he was about to pass by the spring, an ethereal voice suddenly called out to him from the spring.

"Wait… Come… to my spring..." He turned to look into the spring, seeing nothing. Suddenly his hackles raised, and the scent on the air shifted from mint and pine to mint and pine with a familiar otherworldly undertone.

'Leave sword and shield here.' Link carefully dropped the sword and shield near the entrance of the spring, before trotting into the water. Again the voice called out to him.

"You have… been transformed… by the power… of shadow… Come… to me…" Despite Link not recognizing the voice, he took cautious steps further into the spring's water. 'What's going on here?' Suddenly stone pillars with unnerving red markings dropped down from the sky, a barely-visible barrier forming between the posts. Link growled. 'Was this a trap?!'

"Beware… A shadow being… It approaches…" Suddenly, from above, a creature dropped down that looked much like the one that almost suffocated him when he first entered the twilight. This creature, however, had black tendrils coming out from above and below its flat face, and much like the pillars the creature had bright red markings on its body. It stood on its legs and arms, staring at Link for a moment, before reaching out an arm to strike him. Link dodged the arm, countering by lunging at the creature and biting it across the face, which felt less like flesh and more like stone, as if it were a mask. This pattern continued twice, thrice more, until finally the creature reared up to attack and Link pounced, grabbing onto the creature's body and sinking his teeth into its chest several times. The creature swatted shook him off, and he caught himself and landed on his feet. Twice more he dodged a lunge and countered with his own, until finally the creature fell dead. To his surprise, the body of the creature exploded into strange green particles that floated up into the sky, forming an odd whirling vortex of green and black that hung in the air. The pillars disappeared, and Link took a couple cautious steps back into the water of the spring when he realized the area had grown very dark suddenly. The rocks around the spring began to glow with a green light that faded into a light teal and then finally a blinding white, and the entire spring was enveloped in that same blinding white light. An orb of bright light rose from out of the water, and slowly a set of horns and then a head faded into view, followed by the body and a large tail. Its body was a pale white, with markings that glowed with the same light as the orb and the rest of the spring. Link blinked in surprise. 'Is.. is that an Ordon goat?' Rather than hooves, however, the being had clawed feet, almost like Link's hawk. The spectral goat faded in and out of sight, pulsing at the same time as the markings along its body that coursed with light.

"O brave youth… I am one of four light spirits that protect Hyrule at the behest of the gods. I am Ordona." Ordona spoke slowly, each word echoing in Link's ears.

"The black beast you slayed was a shadow being. It had come to seize the power of light I wield." Link could only stare up at Ordona in a mixture of awe and surprise.

"My brethren in Hyrule have already had their light stolen by these fell beasts. The entire kingdom has been reduced to a netherworld ruled by the cursed powers of darkness. The blight will not stop with Hyrule. Before long, the entire world of light will fall into the hands of the king who rules the twilight.

"To save this land from the king of twilight, the lost light must be recovered. The three light spirits who have lost their light must be revived. There is but one who can revive them and redeem this land…" Ordona paused. "You. You still have not discovered your true power…" Link wasn't sure what Ordona meant. 'My true power?'

"Those transformed by twilight usually cannot recover their original forms… Unless… If you were to return to Faron Woods where you were first transformed… if you were to revive the light spirit… There, by the power of the light spirit, you may find the means to regain your other state of being…" Link tilted his head to one side. 'So.. if I help your friend, I can go back to being my normal self again?' All at once, Ordona faded away, and the spring slowly eased back into the way it had looked before.

Link's head swam with all Ordona had told him. 'Ordon is the only place in all of Hyrule.. that hasn't fallen to the twilight?' He struggled to imagine the scale of the lands affected by the twilight, having only seen Ordon, Faron Woods, and Hyrule Castle. As he mulled over what Ordon had said, he returned to the entrance of the spring and retrieved the sword and shield. Then, as both Midna and Ordona had requested, he made his way across the bridge towards Faron Woods.

As he drew near the barrier, the world around him darkened to nothingness, until it was just him and the barrier. He shivered, remembering the arm flying out of the barrier to drag him through, remembering the shadow beast that nearly strangled him. Suddenly, Midna appeared, only barely visible thanks to a faint green glow around her body and to the bright yellow of her eye.

"Hey… Look… The Faron Woods that you know so well… They're now covered in twilight." Link stared up at Midna. 'I didn't know the woods all that well, really. I went there to rescue Talo, and I tried to go there to save Ilia and Colin.' A pang of guilt struck his heart.

"You might not be able to come back here, but… Do you still want to go?" Link nodded. 'I can't save the kids by standing here. And that spirit.. Ordona.. said that I'm the only one who can stop the twilight from spreading.' Midna turned and floated through the barrier, which rippled like water as she did so. Then, suddenly, a large orange hand reached out and grabbed Link, pulling him through the barrier.