Link found himself bursting through thin wooden boards as he leapt out of the hole. Despite himself, he let out the slightest of whines as he landed on the still-sore ankle. Shaking himself off, he looked at his new surroundings. There was no sign of the room he'd seen behind the cellar, only large stone plaques scattered around and sticking out of the dry dirt. The few trees in the area seemed almost completely dead, and a few shadow bats screeched as they flew haphazard circles around the area. One of the plaques had words engraved into it, and all at once he realized what this new area was. 'This... is a graveyard.' He let out a low whine as he slowly walked closer. Midna made a sound from his back, and suddenly the weight was no longer on his back and Midna was floating nearby his side.

"Hey, what's wrong? You're walking kind of funny..." Link paused. 'Is it that obvious?' Then he held up the ankle he'd - broken? injured? sprained? for Midna to see. She floated closer, though she didn't touch the ankle.

"So you did get hurt... Ah." She fell silent. Link slowly put the foot back onto the ground, wincing slightly as it made contact with the ground. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of furious rustling in the dirt not far from him. Sure enough, his senses revealed the silhouette of a shadow insect scurrying just below the surface. He dug the foul creature out of the ground and lunged forward with his fangs before it could escape. Again he winced at the taste of the insect's blood and flesh, though he was relieved to see the light orb float out of the insect. Once more he let out a contented sigh as a feeling of pleasant warmth spread through his body. For a moment, only a moment, the dull pain in his ankle seemed to fade away.

With the insect taken care of, he turned back to the plaque. To his surprise, the symbols didn't look familiar to him. Some of them were reminiscent of Hylian characters, but even those were strange and unfamiliar. He tilted his head to one side.

"Something the matter?" He turned, just barely managing not to jump from the suddenness. He hadn't expected Midna to appear next to him so suddenly. She was looking at him with a curious expression. 'How do I explain it to her?' After some moments, he turned back to the gravestone and gently pawed at it, carefully avoiding scratching it.

"Someone you knew?" He shook his head, surprised by how odd it felt to do so as a wolf. Midna hmmed, floating closer to the tombstone.

"Huh... I don't think I recognize these symbols, actually. Do you recognize them?" Again Link shook his head, slowly, hoping it would ease the odd feeling.

"More than one language..." Midna mused to herself, barely loud enough for Link to hear. Link snorted, somewhere between a laugh and a cough. 'Did she think everyone all speaks one language?'

"Anyway, let's get going! The sooner you help that light spirit, the sooner you can help me find the next Fused Shadow!" When she sat on his back, Link noticed that the landing was much gentler than usual. She patted his shoulders, nudging his sides with her heels. Link looked around for a moment, before noticing a path through the high cliffs that surrounded the graveyard. Stepping carefully around the tombstones, Link followed that path as it wound down from the cliffs.

He blinked as he rounded the corner to see the other side of the building that Renado and the children no doubt were still hiding in. He looked inside for a few moments, and closed his eyes to send a silent prayer to Hylia. Once he opened his eyes, he walked out into the main part of the dingy village. Many of the buildings were made of old and weathered bricks, clinging to the sides of the cliffs that walled the village in. They also had similar roofs, their tiles turned a dull blue in the unending twilight. Cloth banners hung limply from the upper buildings, and like in the graveyard most of the trees were dead and bare. On the other end of the canyon, Link noticed wooden beams clinging to the wall and supporting a tower at the top of the cliff.

Directly in front of him was a simple building, with an old wooden sign that said "General Store" hanging from the second level. There was a staircase leading up to the door, as well as a crude wooden fence to the right of the building. As he stepped closer, he noticed old signs propped up by the fence, with crossed swords above the words "Weapons". Looking around, he noticed a large hole in the foundation of the general store. 'Let's see what's for sale today.'

He found himself in a hole a little taller than his own height, with bricks lining the top. Jumping up brought him to what seemed to be the shopkeep's area - a stone counter for talking with customers and accepting payments, and shelves to the side for storing and displaying goods. All of a sudden, a chill ran down his spine as he remembered Barnes' words, grateful that there didn't appear to be any shadow beasts inside the small store. A crackling noise from above him drew him out of his thoughts, and he sighed. 'Of course there's an insect in here.'

He leapt onto the top of the counter, and then turned to notice a wooden platform that was supported by beams attached to the counter. The crackling was louder, and now he could faintly smell the insect, a smell as unpleasant as their taste. He jumped onto the platform, and then onto the final back platform. Sure enough, his senses showed him an insect scuttling around on the back wall of the general store. With a growl and a lunge, the insect was dead, and the light orb collected into the vessel. As he jumped back down to exit through the hole in the side of the building, he idly noticed a wooden ladder leading up to an upper level of the building, though he couldn't see whether anything was on it.

Shaking himself off as he left the hole in the general store, Link was again greeted by the building that housed the entrance to the cellar. All at once, he noticed its odd shape, almost like an irregular Cucco egg with a yawning gap in the top and a large metal bell suspended above it on small and fragile-looking wooden support beams. He stared at it for a time, wondering what the building was intended for. A sudden corrupted trumpeting sound from above him dragged him out of his contemplation.

Unease and disgust settled into his stomach as he recognized another of the eerie bird-like shadow beasts. 'I'd hoped these things were only at the castle…' It swooped down to him, and Link growled as he faced the macabre monster. It stared down at him, the red markings on its sunken cupped face almost pulsing in time with its wings flapping. The circular marking at the center of the others seemed close enough to an eye to make Link falter for just a moment, just a moment of pure unease and fear as its red eye seemed to stare directly into the core of Link's being. Then he shook his head and leapt up at the monster, sinking his fangs into its chest. Like with the other monsters infected by twilight, there was no taste in his mouth, almost as if he were biting into a creature made of mist. He grimaced as he remembered the sour and rotten taste of the insects' blood.

The shadow bird-monster let out a loud trumpeting call, likely of pain, as it recoiled. It seemed to almost glare at Link from the distance it had put between the two of them. He met its gaze with his own scowl, accompanied still with his growling and with his teeth bared. After several moments of this, the creature flew to him again, readying itself for an attack, and Link once again leapt up at it to sink his fangs into its chest. This time it flew backwards into the cliff wall and fell to the ground, laying there for a moment before its body suddenly exploded into black particles. Link shuddered as he looked around, sending a silent prayer to Hylia that there were no more of those beasts in the village.

Noticing the wooden fences to his left, he walked over to realize that there was a path leading up the side of the cliff to a higher part of the village. A sign in front of the path read, in frantic and shaky letters, "Dead End Ahead". At the bottom was a hastily scrawled signature, though only one of the two words was legible: Inn. Continuing up the path led him to a sudden dropoff in front of a tall building, with a wooden platform in front of a doorway without a door. A sign stood on the edge of the cliff, with equally hasty writing that read "DANGER! Do not jump across from here! (Hotel accepts no responsibility for accidents.)" This sign's signature was simpler than its lower twin, reading "Elde Inn".

Link slowly stepped closer to the edge of the dropoff, looking down once his front paws were resting near the corner. While the distance wouldn't kill him, it would be an unpleasant injury. He grimaced as he remembered how his ankle had healed. As if on cue, the dull soreness returned. 'Will I be able to make this jump without Midna's help?' He took several steps back, warily eyeing the gap he had to jump across, wincing as his ankle made small protests at movement. He closed his eyes, imagining himself clearing the gap and landing on the platform. He exhaled a shaky breath. 'You can do this, Link.' Without any input from him, the mental image shifted to include someone else. Midna. She patted his side, laughing as she called him a good boy. He shook his head and opened his eyes, not having the time to process the new image.

With a leap, he landed on the platform, his back paws narrowly avoiding missing the edge. He let out a sigh of relief as he continued through the gaping doorway. Inside the building were stone walls with wooden support beams going between walls. He could hear the sickening scuttling of at least one insect, below him. Down there were some shelves and an empty table, as well as a still-lit torch on the wall next to another doorway.

Jumping down to the ground floor using the shelves, Link found himself in what seemed to be a kitchen of some kind, with an unlit stove in one corner and various pots and pans hanging in another. Continuing through the doorway, he was greeted with an unsettling sight. Two eerie blue monsters stood amongst some bare tables, idly looking around, though thankfully not noticing Link from behind the counter.

With Midna's help, the two monsters soon dissipated into shadowy particles, and Link noticed a small wooden chest under the stairs. He pawed at the chest, before resolving to come back later to see what was inside.

Up the old wooden stairs, Link found a simple loft, with another of the unsettling blue monsters charging towards him with a club. Once more, Midna's aid left the monster as a disintegrating pile of black particles, allowing Link some moments to explore his surroundings. A tattered and ripped carpet lay across the floor, leading to a dresser, as well as to a gap in the railing and to a doorway. The dresser was surprisingly intact, unlike everything else. The railing, however, had a large section missing, as if something or someone had been pushed against it and fallen to the ground. The splintered pieces of the broken railing lay on the ground below, though there was no sign of who or what had broken it. A chandelier hung from the ceiling nearby, though it gave off very little light in the unending twilight. Looking back towards the open doorway, there was an equally ineffective torch on the wall next to it.

The doorway led into what looked almost like a bedroom, with beds haphazardly scattered around the room and a large dresser sitting against the wall opposite the doorway. Wooden beams with tattered pieces of cloth leaned against the walls, and a matching cloth hung limply in front of what Link assumed to be a window. There was another of the pale torches on the wall, uncomfortably close to the curtain. Wooden boxes were also scattered around the room, amongst the beds. 'What.. happened here?'

A sudden hissing noise startled him out of his pondering. His senses showed him another of the insects, glaring at him from the wall. He leapt at it, narrowly missing the insect, instead hitting his muzzle on the rocky wall. The insect flew down, its body crackling with some kind of magical energy that Link wasn't familiar with. 'Did the other insects also have... this?' He chased the insect around the room, barking with each jumping attempt to catch it. Finally, it flew low enough that he could jump up and bite it. Even as he cringed at the taste of the insect, he felt the familiar warmth of the spirit's light flow through his body. 'There was another one in this building... I heard it in the kitchen.'

He could still hear the insect in the kitchen, although he wasn't sure where the sounds were coming from. They were mercifully scent-less, if their taste was anything to go off of, though it made finding them that much harder. All at once, he noticed with a start that the smoke pipe from the stove had a large hole in it, with pieces of the metal sticking out as if something had punched its way out of the pipe. There, barely hidden behind the folded metal, his senses just barely showed him the insect's legs. 'Found it. But how to get to it?' He jumped up towards the insect, again hitting his muzzle, this time on the hard metal of the stove. The insect refused to move, only hissing angrily at him. It was then that he noticed a couple of loose sticks that must have fallen out of the fireplace of the stove. Were he still human, he would have smirked. He picked up one of the sticks in his mouth and surveyed the kitchen again.

The torch on the wall was unfortunately too high up for him to reach at his canine height. He sat on the cold stone floor, pondering his options. The other torches in the inn were also higher up on the wall than he could reach, and unfortunately those were the only sources in the building of fire. As he stared into the flickering flames that should have been comfortingly warm, he noticed the barren table in the corner of his vision. He stood, hopeful that Midna hadn't realized his confusion. The stick still in his mouth, he climbed up on top of the table, hesitating when it creaked slightly under his weight. When the table stayed steady, he continued until he was standing on it. With a start that he hoped wasn't glaringly obvious to Midna, he realized that it was just like opening the cellar. 'Just jump across and the stick should pass through the flame. And no carpets this time either, so no risk of the fire spreading anywhere.'

Once the end of the stick was on fire, Link carried it back over to the stove. Carefully, he put the stick down inside the fireplace, and the other sticks and kindling roared to life. An angry hissing and crackling erupted from the hole in the stove pipe, which Link could only assume was the insect being chased out. His senses confirmed as much, and with a pounce on the still-disoriented insect it was dead, the light it had stolen now reclaimed. 'I don't think there's anything else here, aside from that chest.' He clambered up onto the crates and shelves, and soon he was back outside on the ledge.

He noticed that a part of the roof sloped down to create a flat platform to his right, leading to what seemed to be a higher part of the building. 'I wonder what's up there?' As it turned out, this was an intentional walkway, if the railings on the upper section of the roof were anything to go off of. He climbed up onto what looked like another building's roof, only to realize that in fact it was a series of wooden staircases built around and on top of the building, leading higher up to the top of a steep cliff face. As his paws finally touched ground once more, he blinked as he noticed what looked like a spring to his right. 'It's not a spirit spring... Maybe it's a hot spring?' He huffed disappointedly as he realized that the spring had no water, and turned to his left. Nearby was a sign that confirmed his guess, calling it the Kakariko Hot Spring and saying that "Anyone and everyone is welcome. Soak slowly to warm your heart!"

He looked around for a time, stretching idly as he glanced at his surroundings. 'Doesn't seem like there's anything else up here. I guess that means I have to head back down and check the other buildings, then.' Midna let out a loud yawn, to which Link huffed indignantly. 'Hey, it's not my fault there's barely anything up here.' Back down the many staircases he walked, forcing him to realize just how high up the hot spring was and making him think back to how comparatively short the cliffs were in Ordon Village.

Once back on the ground, he noticed the building across the street from the inn. It had a diagonal roof, and a wooden shed that angled up to the lower side of the roof. The door and windows were boarded up, and there was a gap between it and the neighboring house. 'I wonder if anything's up there?' The creaking and slight swaying of the barely-stable shed unnerved him, but it mercifully held steady until he could get his footing on the angled roof. He took a running start up the roof, and at the end jumped over the gap and onto the neighboring house's roof. Across that roof he ran and found himself jumping onto another house's roof, only to fall through what apparently was mere straw dyed to look like the shingles laid on top of weak wooden planks that easily splintered beneath his weight.

He landed roughly on what felt like a table with more wooden planks laying across it. Shaking himself off from the dust and dirt that fell from the ceiling, he surveyed his surroundings. An almost empty kitchen to one corner, a wooden crate nearby the table he stood on, and some shelves and cabinets against the wall on the other side of the building from the kitchen. 'This was someone's home..' The emptiness of the building made him fight back a shiver. A painting barely clung to the wall nearby the table, and he whined as he recognized a distinctly human form in the painting.

Hissing and scraping sounds from beneath the flooring pulled him from the uneasy mourning of the family he'd never met. His ears twitched. 'That's... under the crate?' Using his shoulder he shoved the crate against the wall, and a hissing sparking invisible insect scuttled out. He growled and leapt at it with his teeth bared, doing his best to ignore the bitter taste. Suddenly he didn't feel the weight of Midna sitting on his back anymore. He turned around, finding her hovering over the tall cabinet in the corner of the room, beckoning him with her hair-hand.

"If you're done with your errand, then let's get out of here." With her help, Link leapt up onto the cabinet and out of the new hole in the ceiling. From the roof, he noticed a building at the end of the village, starkly different from the other buildings. Where the rest of the village's buildings were stone and pale grays and yellows, this building was instead a patchwork of pale green and pale yellow. As he neared the building, he noticed a sign on the side of the road that simply read in large letters "BOMBS". He stopped, tilting his head. Hadn't Barnes said something about bombs, whatever those were? His hackles began to raise, as a low growl started in his throat. 'So this building must be his, then.'

Running around to the other side of the building, he found a series of platforms and small sheds that led up to a window in the side of Barnes' building. While the window wasn't open, it was likely Link's only way into the building. He stopped as he reached the last shed, noticing the broken and cloudy glass in front of him. Had he still had his human form, he would have frowned. Even Midna hmmed as she saw the glass.

"You're gonna hurt yourself if you jump through that, you know." Link huffed. 'Yes, I am aware. But there isn't another way in.'

Suddenly, the same ethereal orangish-pinkish hand swung out from behind Link, crashing into the glass that shattered into shards and hundreds of tiny pieces. Link only barely fought back the frightened jump that he almost made. Midna giggled from his back.

"You're welcome!" Another of the pats on his shoulders. "Now let's get going!" After a moment of adjusting how he stood, Link leapt through the now glassless window.