Link had come to enjoy sparring against the ghostly knight. Each strike, each swing, each dodge was a new challenge, hunting for the minute changes in position and posture that can open a weakness.
"We will stop here for now," said the knight. Link was confused, as he hadn't even begun to tire yet, but he sheathed his sword all the same. "Do not sheathe your blade, for your battle is not yet done," as he raised his shield hand and pointed behind Link.
Confused, Link turned around to see the white mist had turned to a pitch black, glowing with patterns of pinkish symbols. Link redrew his sword, startled, as shadow beasts began to slink out from the mist, grouping up as an endless army. Link readied himself to fight, and moved to charge towards the growing masses, but felt his feet refuse to move. The mass of shadow beasts charged away to his right, and he turned to see Ordon Village as they blew through the flimsy wooden gate.
"No..." he whispered, as he saw Bo's house broken open, the fields trampled and crushed underfoot, and the water wheel ripped from its housing. "NO!" He tried to run to the village, but his feet remained firmly planted to the ground.
"Link..." called a voice from behind him, one that he knew. Turning around, he saw that the knight had vanished, and in his place stood Ilia, blood trickling from the arrow wedged in her side.
"Why haven't you found me, Link...?" The wave of shadow beasts surged over her, blocking her from view. As her scream echoed in his ears, Link felt a presence behind him. Turning around, he saw that the black mist had formed into a massive, hulking figure towering above him. Along with the pinkish symbols, the figure's body was adorned with hundreds of shadow beast masks, both full and broken. The figure shifted, forming from the mass a hand glowing solid pink, similar to the one Midna would create. Cocking its shoulder back, the figure swung its hand down, and Link's vision was filled with pink as the palm descended towards him.
Link woke up in a cold sweat, panting as his eyes took in the pale brown stonework of the Elde Inn. His hands shook as he slowly looked around the room he was in, anything to distract himself from Ilia's scream still echoing in his ears and from the image of the Ordon Village houses snapping like late autumn twigs. He was startled to notice Colin standing by the side of the bed.
"It's okay, Link. You're at the inn, in Kakariko." The boy offered Link a small smile. It was then that Link noticed Renado standing in the doorway.
"Mr. Renado said you were probably just having a nightmare, but I wanted him to be here just in case it wasn't." Link smiled at Colin, reaching out with a hand that thankfully wasn't shaking to gently pat Colin's head.
"I'm alright, but thank you for checking on me." Colin's smile grew, but just as quickly fell into a concerned expression.
"Do you... want to talk about your nightmare?" Link frowned as the images once again flashed through his mind. He shook his head.
"I'd... rather not." Colin didn't look any less worried, but he nodded.
"Okay." He began to turn to walk away, but then looked back at Link. "You've been here for all of us, but remember... we're here for you too, Link." He gave Link another smile, one that didn't quite reach the corners of his eyes, before turning and walking past Renado. Link sighed.
"The boy speaks truly. Nobody expects you to shoulder the burdens alone. If you are in need of help, do not hesitate to ask." Link nodded.
"I know. I just..." He sighed again. "The kids have been through so much, I don't want to worry them further." Renado nodded.
"I understand." He stared at Link for some moments, before closing his eyes.
"You have also been through much, and I imagine you will go through much more as you heed fate's call." Renado opened his eyes. "The roads for all of us have been lined with thorns, and while you may not want to worry the children, attempting to shoulder everything yourself will only concern those who care about you, whether you aim to or not." Link nodded, not entirely sure what to say. Renado stared at him again, for much longer than before. Then he sighed.
"There is breakfast downstairs, if you would like something to eat, before you make your journey north." Link realized with a start just how long it had been since he'd last had anything to eat. As he mused about how it could be that he hadn't yet starved, he rose from the bed and followed Renado down the stairs.
Colin and the other kids had pulled some of the boxes over to the counter by the kitchen, where they were cheerfully eating off of some plates. As he and Renado walked closer, the kids turned their heads, smiling when they saw Link.
"Hey! Link! C'mon, Mr. Renado made breakfast!" Talo shoveled another forkful of food into his mouth. "It'sh really good!" Beth rolled her eyes and turned back to her plate, in a similar albeit more dramatic way to Malo. Colin patted the counter nearby himself, where Link noticed a plate. He was surprised to see eggs and roasted fish.
"I am afraid that we do not have much food or drink to offer. I apologize." Link shook his head.
"You don't have anything to apologize for. Thank you for making us food." He paused. "Though, where did you get the fish?"
"The spirit Eldin allowed me to take some from their spring."
"Did they know you were giving the food to us?" Renado chuckled.
"Oh, certainly. I reminded them that it would not do for you to go hungry, if you are to help Lanayru." It brought a smirk to Link's face, imagining how it might have played out. He took his seat next to Colin, who smiled up at him. As Link picked up his fork, he looked up at Renado.
"So, Lanayru is to the north?" Renado nodded.
"The fastest route to the lands guarded by Lanayru is to leave through the northern entrance to town." Renado made a sound, a clear sign of distaste. "The entrance the Bulblins blocked with a gate. Though, as you now have your horse, that will not present as much of an obstacle to you." Link frowned as memories flooded back, of pursuing the monster - the Bulblin, perhaps even their leader from how the others followed it - that had kidnapped Colin.
"That bridge, in the field, where does it lead?"
"That is the Bridge of Eldin. Past it is a trail through the mountains." Renado raised a hand to scratch thoughtfully at his chin. "There have been earthquakes there as of late, so I can only hope the trail is still traversable." He turned his head to look somewhere, though when Link followed his gaze he only saw the door of the inn. "The mountain trail will bring you to the northern section of what is known as Hyrule Field. From there, you should be able to reach the Bridge of Hylia, with its namesake lake below." He finally turned to look at Link again. "The spring of the spirit Lanayru is close to that lake."
It was only when Link heard his fork scraping uselessly against the plate that he realized all of the food had somehow vanished, without even a lingering taste in his mouth. He stared at the puzzlingly empty plate, almost feeling betrayed. Renado chuckled.
"I will choose to take that as a compliment to my cooking." Link felt his face grow warm, even more so when his stomach growled again. Renado wordlessly picked up Link's plate and walked into the kitchen, coming back some moments later with more eggs and fish. Talo grinned at Link.
"See, I told you it was really good!" Link nodded, eagerly reaching for the plate that Renado offered to him.
"The spirit Lanayru," he asked between bites, "what are they like?" Again Renado stared off towards the door.
"It is said that many would visit Lanayru's spring to ask for their insight before making an important decision, as they are the spirit most concerned with history and knowledge." He looked back at Link. "They are likely to give blessings to those who would risk their lives to protect Hyrule." A chill ran down Link's spine. For a moment, the heavy hunger was gone as he tried not to think too hard about what Renado meant. In the blink of an eye however, that fear was gone, replaced by the image of a bloodied Ilia shrieking as shadow beasts trampled her. It was enough to send Link springing up from where he sat, startling both Renado and the children.
"Link? What is wrong?" Even through her usual calmness, Link could hear the worry in Luda's voice. Try though he might, he couldn't come up with an answer - or, at least, an answer that wasn't "I forgot about my closest childhood friend and Eldin said she's in Lanayru's lands and I have to go find her before I forget again".
"Is it about the nightmare?" Link nodded wordlessly as the other children looked to Colin in a mixture of confusion and worry.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" This time Link considered the offer, before shaking his head. He drew in a breath and sighed.
"I should start making my way to Lanayru's lands. Thank you again for the food, Renado." The shaman nodded. Link began to make his way to the door when Talo called over to him.
"Are you gonna be okay, Link?" He looked back at the still-worried children, offering them a small smile as he nodded before turning and continuing to the door.
The morning air was cooler, a gentle breeze flowing through the village. To his surprise, Epona was standing next to the deck of the inn. He smiled, genuinely now, and reached out to scratch behind her ear.
"Ah, is this your horse, Brother?" Link hadn't expected someone else to be outside. Turning to the voice, he noticed a Goron standing nearby. He nodded, and the Goron grinned.
"He has been standing there since sunrise. Perhaps he was waiting for you?"
"Maybe she was." Link reached out to scratch behind her ear again, smiling as she leaned into his hand.
"Have somewhere that you're headed, Brother?" Link nodded.
"I'm heading to Lanayru's lands." The Goron blinked in clear surprise.
"Is that so? One of my Brothers went to the capital some time ago, in hopes of success there as a merchant. If you see him, tell him that his Brothers hope he is doing well." Link nodded again.
"I'll be sure to do that."
As always, Epona easily cleared the gate blocking the village's northern entrance. The rock walls slowly fell away, until a wide grassy field stretched out in front of him, interrupted only by a wall of yellow that dominated the horizon to his right and stretched high into the sky. He could only just barely see the outline of the mountains through the hazy wall. Strange green creatures scurried across the ground as Epona carried him to the bridge where he had fought the Bulblins' leader. On the other side of the bridge, he frowned as he noticed three large boulders blocking the path. 'Renado did mention that there have been earthquakes in the area lately.' He was about to nudge Epona to turn around so he could tell Renado that the path unfortunately was blocked, when he remembered that he had bought some bombs from Barnes.
As he jumped down from Epona's saddle, however, he happened to glance at the bridge behind him. In the sky above it, he noticed a portal eerily swirl into place. Three shadow beasts dropped down in front of the bridge, shambling towards it and raising their crooked hands to point at it.
'Midna... What are those shadow beasts doing?' He could almost imagine the frown on her face.
"I don't know, but it can't be good. I'm sensing some strong magic coming from them." She didn't need to say anything more to convince him to draw the sword and charge towards the shadow beasts. 'Let's see how these monsters like this sword!'
Evidently, the shadow beasts hadn't expected him to appear behind them, hissing in surprise as they turned to rush towards him. He swung his sword in a wide arc, striking at least two of the shadow beasts and causing them to recoil with angry shrieks. The third shadow beast lunged forward with vengeful claws, but not before he swung the Hylian Shield up and snapped the shadow beast's wrist back. It hissed in pain, glaring at him as the other two recovered from the shock of the gashes in their arms. Link responded with a wide spin attack that sent all three of the monsters falling onto their backs. He kept his grip on the sword, waiting to see them stand and slash at him again, but instead their bodies exploded into the same green particles as the other shadow beasts' had. A green portal formed above where he stood, almost exactly where the shadow beasts had dropped down from. He sighed. 'It's definitely a lot easier to deal with them with Midna's help.'
He stared out at where the shadow beasts had been pointing. 'What were they even doing here? Were they trying to ambush me?' The thought sent a chill down his spine and brought an uneasy feeling almost like nausea to his stomach. He shook his head. 'I should focus. The sooner I get to Lanayru, the sooner I can find Ilia and get her to safety.' With that thought he turned and walked back to the large boulders blocking his way forward.
He brought out the bomb bag he had bought from Barnes, pushing aside the curious pondering of just how he had done so to instead ponder how the bag could fit multiple bombs into it. The bag itself was the size of one bomb, the idea of it somehow managing to store another twenty-nine just seemed impossible. He shook his head again. 'I don't have time to be worrying about that. If Barnes lied to me I can deal with that later. But I need to find Ilia.' He cautiously opened the bag and reached in. For a moment it felt like the bag was empty, like he was reaching into nothing but the air. He frowned and reached deeper into the bag. 'Come on, where are those bombs Barnes said were in here?'
Just as the thought ran through his mind, he suddenly felt a jagged metal edge scrape across his fingers. He flinched, almost drawing his hand back out of the bag, but instead carefully shifting his hand to find the bottom of the bomb. For just a moment, it seemed to not have any heaviness to it, until he fully brought it out of the bag. In an instant it was like he was holding a small dog, or perhaps a particularly fat Cucco. For some moments he stared at it, unsure of how exactly to use it. The bomb was a ball of some black metal, almost completely surrounded by a gray metal shell. The opening of the shell showed a shining yellow metal ring, with a thick rope sticking out from the ring.
As he stared at the bomb, the destruction of Barnes' bomb shed exploded into his mind. He could almost feel the heat, could almost hear the crackling of the flames as they consumed the wooden shelves-
He brought out his lantern, only to blink in surprise as he noticed the handle looked a lot like the horns and face of an Ordon Goat. If he looked closely enough, he could almost see the sleepy look in its eyes. 'That guy I bought this from, he wasn't from Ordon Village.' He resolved to ask the man about it, when he next passed through the Faron Woods. 'For now, I need to get rid of these boulders.' He carefully held the thick rope of the bomb up to the flickering flame in the lantern. Before he could blink, the rope caught fire, and a loud hissing noise came from the bomb. Almost in a panic, Link threw the bomb towards the boulders and bolted away. He made it to Epona's side when an explosion rang out, followed by the sound of small rocks falling to the ground. Epona whinnied and reared up onto her back hooves, and Link had to reach over and gently pat her neck to comfort her.
"I'm sorry, Epona. I didn't mean to scare you. But I had to get those boulders out of the way so we can get to Lanayru's lands." A smirk found its way onto his face. "Besides, I don't think Ilia would be very happy with me if I tried to have you jump over those boulders, now would she?" Epona snorted, turning Link's smirk into a softer smile. He continued patting her neck for some moments, before finally climbing back into the saddle to make his way forward.
The ground behind the boulders, as it turned out, was a mess of rubble and uneven terrain. No doubt made worse by the boulders exploding into hundreds of tiny pieces. Link couldn't - wouldn't - ask Epona to go any faster than a steady walk. Any faster and she was likely to end up with an injured hoof, which could take a long time to heal. The slower pace gave Link plenty of time to think, at least. His mind drifted back to the shed burning, to Midna's words as she fled. He frowned. 'What did she mean by that, anyways? What's so romantic about being trapped in a burning building together?' He almost wanted to ask. 'That would probably just make things awkward for the both of us.'
An approaching ravine forced Link out of his thoughts. Thick wooden beams stuck out of the ground, and he could just barely see the remains of what was likely a bridge before the earthquake. There wasn't enough left for Epona to safely cross. He gently pulled at the reins, and Epona obediently eased to a stop, allowing him to slide down from the saddle.
"Sorry, Epona. I'm not going to make you try to walk across this though." She snorted, stamping a hoof into the ground to further make her point. He patted her shoulder. For a moment he pondered just having her stay by the edge of the ravine - Epona was a smart horse, she would know to wait here for him. Another glance at the rock walls changed his mind. 'If another earthquake happened...' The thought wasn't even finished before he made his decision.
"You remember the way back to Kakariko, don't you Epona?" She made no motion or sound of answer, only staring at him as he spoke. "You should go back there so you're safe, in case something happens." The slightest frown found its way onto his face as he fought off the image of what "something" could be. This time Epona flicked an ear back. A clear sign of discontent. He smiled softly.
"I'll be okay, Epona. I just want you to stay safe." He patted her shoulder again. "Go on, Epona." She sighed, then snorted. At last, she slowly turned and made her way back down the trail. He watched until he couldn't see her anymore, and then turned back to the ravine. It was small, compared to the one in front of Ordon Village. The remains of the bridge suggested it was sturdier than the one in Ordon, though clearly not enough to stay intact after an earthquake.
A firm kick revealed that one of the beams crossing the gap was still solidly anchored in the rock face, and could be walked across. Looking further down the trail, he saw what looked like wisps of smoke and the shapes of figures near the rock face. Putting on the Hawkeye revealed a small squad of the creatures that Eldin had called Bulblins had made a camp of sorts on a ledge formed by rubble. As he wondered if they would see him while he crossed the ruined bridge, a comment resurfaced in his mind. 'Hm... Barnes mentioned that bombs can be tied to arrows. This may be my best chance for a while to try it out.'
Pulling a bomb from the bag, and an arrow from his quiver, he tied them together and nocked it in the bow, feeling how much heavier the arrow felt and realizing it would fly a much shorter distance. 'Well, here goes nothing!' He lit the fuse before quickly drawing back, angling up, and firing. The dark bomb and burning fuse made it easy to follow the arrow's arc, high into the air before coming down, bouncing off the back wall and landing at the edge of the ledge. Through the Hawkeye, Link watched them stare at the bomb arrow for a second, before they realized what it was and started to run.
The bomb's explosion caught two of the Bulblins, sending them flying, while a third grabbed its shoulder and let out what sounded like a scream. One of the remaining Bulblins pointed towards Link, as the rest grabbed their weapons. Not wanting to deal with the bridge and the Bulblins' barrage of arrows, he hurried across the remaining beam, drawing his sword and charging towards them. A couple swings, one stab, and the camp was emptied.
Link looked at the bodies, pulling two green and a blue rupee, and examined the Bulblins who were hit by the bomb. The two bodies that were killed outright, and the arm of the injured one, were peppered with chunks of metal. 'Oh wonderful, so these are even more dangerous than I thought. Great.' He sighed as he looked at where the arrow had bounced, trying to picture how the flight path compared to a normal arrow. 'This... will take a lot of practice to get used to. Let alone timing the fuses.' A pause, as he looked at what the bombs had done to the area. 'It's a good thing I sent Epona away. She wouldn't have liked any of that.' At the end of his study of the camp, he found a sack containing a red rupee and some dried meat. Continuing from the campsite, Link walked up the trail until he reached the massive wall of shadow blocking out the sky.
The air was no longer warm like it was in Kakariko Village, as if the wall of twilight bled the area dry of any comfort to be found. He stared up towards the clouds, almost hoping to see that there was an end to the vast blanket of darkness, that somewhere the sky of Hyrule could be seen again. Nighttime was beginning to fall, however, blurring the border between the two. He let out another sigh. 'Time to be a wolf again, I suppose.'
"There's only one Fused Shadow left. So this is the last of the twilight you'll see, I guess." Somehow, Midna didn't seem fond of the idea. Link didn't feel like asking why.
"So, what will you do?"
'I think it's pretty obvious, Midna.' He wondered if she could see his smirk, despite the thick shadows that surrounded him.
"So, want me to let you into the twilight, then?" Link wasn't sure when she had left his shadow, when she had floated up in front of him.
"The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we both get what we want." A laugh from Midna.
"Aw, does wolfy not like being a wolf?" Link scoffed.
"Ordona's tail, no." The stretching and cracking of his bones, the tearing of his muscles and skin, the shifting of his insides... he could never get used to that. It made his skin crawl just to relieve it. 'The sooner her errands are done, the sooner I never have to go through that again.'
"Well, you'll have to be a wolf again shortly." She laughed again. "I'll make sure to take good care of you!" Before Link could respond, the glowing orange hand grabbed him and dragged him through the last wall of twilight.
