*Ahem* Pardon me for going so long without updating either of my stories. I recently got into two jobs and haven't had an actual full day off from both in almost three weeks. So that's what I've been doing. Linkcina, I apologize for taking so long, but I needed to ensure the quality of the story.

Chapter 4: Following Shadows

"So… why're your ears all pointy like that?" asked Caeda, as Link countered another strike from Marth's Falchion. "Can you turn into a dragon?"

Slightly distracted by such an odd question, Link let his guard down and Marth knocked his training sword from his hands. Quickly reacting, he rolled to dodge Marth's next swing and picked the iron blade from the ground and lifted it over his head to block what he thought would be an overhead swing, but was disappointed when he noticed that the Falchion was already held at his neck for a killing stroke. "No," he replied with annoyance at Caeda.

"I was actually gonna ask why your ears are rounded!" spurted Jixi, flying around Caeda's head. "It's pretty normal to have pointed ears around here."

Link grabbed the training sword by its blade and held it towards Marth, pointing the hilt at him. "Keep it," said Marth simply. "You're improving quicker than anyone I've ever seen. You just need to work on your focus. You actually almost had me there." The entire morning had been spent trying to find a path, but every time they left their camp, they'd always find themselves back without any explanation. Marth had resigned to train Link until they could come up with a way to get out of the woods.

"You fight with the ferocity of a dragon, but your skill needs work," said Marth, pulling Link by the hand to a standing position. "You can never hope to hit me if you can't outsmart me." Lucina had been pacing around the camp, trying to find any clue as to how they could escape. Caeda was sitting on a stump, watching their bout intently.

"Not to mention you'll need to learn how to fight someone with a lance like Caeda." Marth gave his fiancé an encouraging smile as she continued to daze off into the distance. "With my sword, I'm practically hopeless against her."

Marth walked over to where she sat and nudged her to the edge of the stump to make room for himself. Link took this as an opportunity to see if Lucina had found anything yet, and walked over to where she stood observing a tree, as if it had some special significance.

"How's your training coming along?" asked Lucina, not taking her eyes off the seemingly normal tree.

"Not bad," Link replied honestly. "You learn anything yet?"

Lucina remained silent as she continued to stare up and down the trunk, until she finally looked at Link shaking her head. "I can tell you it has nothing to do with the trees. And… I do have a theory…" From this distance, Link could see the markings in her left eye more clearly. They weren't random or scattered marks, but they were making some sort of symbol. He tried to keep himself from staring, but with a face as pretty as hers, it was rather difficult to accomplish.

"Every time we go out, we go a different way," she started her theory. "I noticed once in particular, it took quite a while longer than usual for us to end up back here." Link nodded, remembering the moment it seemed like they'd finally found their way. "Well… it's crazy, but I think there's an enchantment on this place that keeps us from going any way except one specific way. We would have to go exactly the right way if we want to get out or find the temple or anything like that. Just to get out of here at least."

Link thought that it made more sense than any theories he'd heard before. It didn't feel as if they were simply trapped, only that they were continuously going in circles. "Anyways," said Lucina, suddenly drawing her sword and taking a stance of attack, "come at me."

Instantly, Lucina lunged at him, her hair and cape flowing behind her rapid movement. Link barely had time to draw the sword from his back to defend himself against the sword which was swinging up towards his waist. Before having time to react, Lucina had already brought her sword around to Link's other side, where he didn't have the advantage of holding a shield.

In that instant, Link realized that she had actually left herself open for an attack where her sword had just left a space. He brought the sword close to her body and stopped his attack just as Marth had in their fight earlier. Lucina's sword was also hanging over Link's shoulder, bringing them to a stale mate, or so Link thought. Lucina's free hand was already grabbing Link's sword arm, without him even realizing it.

"You shouldn't be willing to sacrifice yourself for a killing stroke just because you see that it's possible," said Lucina, releasing Link's arm and sheathing her sword. "I mean, I definitely wouldn't have been able to stop all of your force in that swing, but I'd survive, and you would certainly be dead. It's a game of survival. You should be trying to survive the fight as much as your trying to cut down your enemy. I know you're brave, but you need to live for those you're trying to protect."

Link remembered his carelessness in going back to save Lucina from Ashnard. If she hadn't been there, he'd be dead. Then again, she probably would've fallen as well, so he didn't feel any guilt in his endeavor.

"Exactly," said Marth, interrupting Lucina's advice. "Let's say you're trying to protect Lucina again, but you die. Imagine how much she'd miss you!" Lucina's face grew red quicker than Link's own as she glared at Marth. He simply smiled and continued to speak, "But it seems that we have a… guest of some kind."

Link was surprised at the announcement of a guest, looking over at Lucina whose face showed just as much surprise as he felt. "An enemy?" she asked.

"Well…" began Marth, a rather questioning look appearing on his own face now. "I don't really know, but he certainly is talented with that flute of his." Jixi flew around them and shot towards where Caeda was still sitting on the stump.

Link had heard plenty of stories about the Lost Woods while growing up in Faron, but he'd never really believed them. Upon hearing Marth say that the visitor was talented with the flute, he had his own suspicions arise concerning who their new visitor must've been, as it started to seem that the stories about the Lost Woods were true.

Link took hurried steps ahead of Marth as Lucina followed to see who it was himself. When they reached Caeda, they looked to where she was gazing up in the canopy to see the visitor, dancing atop one of the thick branches, playing a tune that was repetitive, yet very pleasing. Jixi was floating around his scarecrow-like face, which was gazing in a never-ending smile.

Jixi flew back down as Marth calmly walked back to Caeda's stump, nudging her again to make room for him, as if the guest was giving them a show of some kind. "It's a Skull Kid!" exclaimed Jixi, circling Link's head.

"A what?" asked Lucina, folding her arms, waiting for an explanation.

"Well, one of the reasons why people avoid the Lost Woods," started Jixi, "is because if you get lost in here for too long, you turn into something else. The Skull Kids are children who never found their way out."

"What happens to adults?" asked Lucina, again with an air of urgency.

"Umm… I'd rather not say. Best we get out of here before you have to find out. Besides, I don't think it's gonna be safe here much longer. Skull Kids really don't like grownups."

Lucina already had her sword drawn and held in a defensive pose. If there was anything Link could already tell about this girl, it was that she was always ready to defend herself. Just what exactly did she go through growing up?

Suddenly the music from the flute stopped, and the figure playing the flute vanished in a cloud of leaves. Almost instantly after, a firelight from a lantern appeared in front of them and the Skull Kid was standing on a fallen tree only a few feet in front of them.

"It's been a long time since I've seen anyone," said the child in a mischievous voice. He had a withered pointed hat, and a lantern hanging in his hand. His tattered clothes were made from leaves and bark which he'd apparently gathered from around this place. His face was gray, with two glowing orange eyes and a wide undying smile with more teeth than any normal human would have. His nose wasn't a nose, just two nostrils in the center of his face, and strange markings were around his eyes.

"Oh, do keep playing, it was lovely," said Caeda, her metaphorical trance broken. "It's been a pretty rough day for all of us."

His eyes squinted as he continued to smile. "You… liked it?" asked the child.

"Yes, it was quite pleasant," said Marth calmly, standing up and prodding Lucina to sheath her sword, who somewhat reluctantly did so. "Would you continue to play for us?"

Without speaking an answer, the Skull Kid brought the wooden flute back to his mouth and began to play the same melodic tune. It wasn't an uplifting song as it had sounded before, however. Now as he played, there seemed to a be a weight of melancholy surrounding the tune, and Link felt his heart grow heavy. The others around him all had looks of deep concern on their faces, as if they were longing for the past, as Link felt himself begin to do.

For several minutes they listened, as Link began to remember his friends from his youth. Their faces began to swim around in his mind, and he longed to see them again, but painfully remembered the day they entered the woods of Faron and never emerged from within them, leaving him the only boy of his age in the whole town. He remembered the reason he started to delve deeper and deeper into those woods every time he entered for a hunt, as if going to find them still after years of searching.

He felt tears begin to well in his eyes, but managed to hold them in, while still hoping that the tune would continue. He looked at the others, seeing the pain in their eyes as well. Marth was holding in plenty of what Link was, but Caeda had burst into tears, burying her face in her hands. Lucina was holding in as much as she could, but there were two small streams leaking from her eyes. The pain in her expression was enough that Link could see she'd endured more than anyone in the party, despite being the youngest there.

"All of you are so sad," said the Skull Kid, ending his tune abruptly with his statement. "Are you angry at me?" The wooden flute was still held to his smiling mouth as if he were about to play again, though no sound came from it.

"N-no, no, not at all!" exclaimed Caeda, running to the child to give him a hug. "It was so beautiful, do play for us again sometime!" As Caeda knelt with her arms around the child, the hands holding the flute dropped to his sides, as he stood awkwardly, as if he didn't understand what was going on.

"What are you doing?" asked the Skull Kid, as Caeda continued to pout. "Why are you still crying? I don't like making people cry." He broke the embrace and stood off from Caeda, looking around at the group of warriors. He raised one distinct finger and pointed it at Link.

"You, I want to play with you!" shouted the boy, much to Link's surprise. Immediately, dozens of shadows engulfed the area, completely obscuring Link's vision. His ears perked up and he heard shouts come from Marth, Caeda, and Lucina, and he tried to move through the darkness to try and find them before anything terrible happened.

The shadows dispersed, and Link found that he was again in the same place as before with the Skull Kid standing mere feet in front of him, however the others of his party were nowhere to be seen. Even Jixi was missing.

"Where are they?" Link shouted at the boy, who stood giggling with his creepy smile. Was this all part of the kid's plan?

"I took them somewhere so they can help us play," said the boy, floating up to one of the high branches, dead leaves trailing from his body as he did. "If you can win, I'll show you the way out, but if you lose, you'll be my friends forever in here."

Something, no, everything about what was happening really disturbed Link, but he knew that he had no other choice but to listen to the Skull Kid. "What do you want to play?"

"I want you to find me!" His lantern suddenly burst into light. With one last glance at Link, the child disappeared into the trees, leaving Link alone to wander through the forest.

Perfect, thought Link. Now I can just get lost alone. He looked around the area for any clue that may have been left by the mysterious little imp, only seeing a faint glow coming from the canopy of a few trees in the distance. Immediately he began to sprint towards the light, hopping over fallen trees and avoiding getting tangled in the underbrush.

As soon as he got close to where the dancing light in trees was bouncing overhead, he heard the same tune being played on the wooden flute of the Skull Kid. Too easy, he thought. He strung an arrow on his bow and pointed to where the light was dancing. Am I really going to kill him, though? he thought mercifully, beginning to lower his bow.

A split second later, Link rolled on the ground in front of him, dodging the swing from a crude looking iron sword. He turned to face his opponent, but the sight of it made a chill run down his neck. It was like a puppet, only with a creepy face to match that of the Skull Kid's. Not only that, but it had crude-looking blue straws attached to its head, and a flowing blue cape of leaves tied around its neck. A few other ornaments which exemplified its inspiration gave Link the clue that this was supposed to represent Marth in some way.

"Do you like it?" Link heard the voice of the Skull Kid echo around him. "Don't worry about killing it, only his strings are tied to your princely friend."

The Marth Puppet immediately charged towards Link with the crude blade, but Link had seen this attack from Marth in their trainings earlier and beat it aside after quickly drawing his own blade from his back.

The Puppet swung the blade back around towards Link, though he jumped slightly to dodge the attack and brought his sword in a horizontal slash to catch the Puppet in the air. Much to his surprise, however, the Puppet parried the attack and attempted a counter stab at Link's head.

Quickly reacting, Link brought his sword screaming upwards to knock the attack above his head. His hat was skewered, meaning that if he had reacted any slower, he'd have been dead. As Link continued to defend himself against the speedy, yet strong attacks, he realized that this Puppet was using all of the same techniques that he'd seen Marth do earlier, and the creepy smile didn't ease his tension in the slightest. He could tell one clear difference between the two, however. The Puppet was nowhere near as skilled as the real Marth. The attacks weren't precise, and there was an apparent lack of speed and way too much force behind each sword stroke.

As the attacks continued to rain down, Link waited for an opening, trying to remember what he'd learned in his lessons earlier that day. You can never hope to hit me if you can't outsmart me, Marth's voice rang clearly in his head, which gave him an idea. He took a few steps back through the murky earth and held out his sword in his right hand. It felt uncomfortable, but he knew this would be the trick.

He lunged forward at the Puppet, which had been poised to defend itself, and it took the bait. It brought the sword to defend itself on its left side, leaving its right side completely vulnerable to attack. The swords clanged in the air, followed by the clunking of wood as Link kicked the Puppet hard on its right side.

Link quickly brought the sword back into his left hand while the Puppet tried to regain its balance, and brought the full force of his swing, decapitating the Puppet, which burst into smoke upon its collapse to the earth.

He sheathed his sword and looked back up to the canopy and saw that the light had disappeared, which meant that the Skull Kid was clearly not finished playing his game. Guess this means I'll have to fight Puppets for Lucina and Caeda, too. He scanned the canopy around him until he saw the dancing light of the lantern once again.

He wasn't sure who he'd have to fight next, but the anticipation of having to go against Caeda was weighing heavily on his mind. He'd fought against Marth and briefly against Lucina, which gave him somewhat of an idea of how to fight them. But against Caeda and her lance, he began to pray to the goddesses that he could pull through.

He reached the next light, but this area was much rockier and covered in fallen branches from the nearby trees. Though like the Lost Woods always seemed, it was quite dark, with only just enough light to see things clearly against the mild fog.

The Skull Kid giggled loudly from where he was continuing to play his song, and another Puppet slammed into the ground in front of Link. The straws in its head were painted blue once again, but they were much longer this time. The short cape let Link know that this was the Lucina Puppet, along with the small skirt it had oddly tied around its waist.

Link remembered how his bout with Lucina had ended that afternoon, and remembered that he couldn't sacrifice himself for a killing stroke. Especially considering that his newfound friends' lives were in his hands. Without hesitation, the Lucina Puppet quickly rose and started swinging furiously at him.

It was faster than Link had anticipated, and he was only able to narrowly dodge most of them, receiving a few small cuts from the flurry of swipes. Like the first Puppet, however, the Lucina Puppet was vastly inferior to the actual Lucina. In particular there was little to no coordination in the attacks.

Despite this, dodging and countering each attack put more and more out of Link, and he began to worry that he'd be drained of his energy before the time came to fight with Caeda's lance-wielding Puppet, which he knew he'd have to be prepared for. He parried one attack on his left side, but the Puppet quickly swung the blade around to his other side, and he received a deep cut in his right arm.

Link rolled away from the follow-up swing and looked for anything to hold to use as a shield. He dodged behind one of the bigger rocks around field, and saw a large piece of bark that had fallen off of a nearby tree. He picked it up in his right hand and turned around to face the Puppet which had already begun another attack.

The Puppet swung wildly down at his head. He used the bark shield and deflected the blow and stabbed his sword straight into the center of the wooden Puppet. It still didn't quit and continued to randomly swing the deadly weapon around, though even less coordinated now that it was skewered. Link continued to beat the attacks away with the bark shield and carved his way up to the Puppet's head with the blade, up until it made contact and knocked its head clean off.

Again like the previous foe, it dropped to the earth and popped in a smoke. Link put the sword back in its sheath and threw the bark shield away. He looked up and saw that the Skull Kid had again relocated further away than before. Link searched the area to see if there were any larger branches or bark that he could use as a shield for his next bout, which he knew he had to end quickly if there was any chance of his victory.

Again Link ran to follow the music and the light, finding himself getting more tired by the minute, but forcing himself to continue on through the pain, praying that he wouldn't have to fight anyone else after this. He came to an unusually straight corridor of trees seeing that there was a single tree arched over itself where the Skull Kid was dancing with his lantern.

When he reached the clearing, there was sun surrounding the tree. There was also grass instead of underbrush, and the sky was clear above them. Link hadn't noticed before, but he had apparently been progressing through Lost Woods, rather than appearing back where he had countless times before.

The sinister giggle of the Skull Kid echoed across the clearing, and the final Puppet fell from the sky, wielding a long, dangerous-looking lance. Like the Lucina Puppet, it had long strands of blue straw attached to its wooden head, but there was lipstick and eyeshadow hurriedly marked on its face. This time there was no cape, but the odd skirt was red.

Link held his breath as the Puppet charged at him, but he could see no way to fight it. No opening in the defense, no angle of attack. Just before it skewered him, he dodged with a roll to his right, but almost as fast as Lucina's Puppet, it quickly brought the lance back to an attack thrust.

A sharp pain shot in Link's leg as the lance's tip pierced his calf, disabling his ability to walk or run. He let a yell escape his mouth, but quickly rolled himself away from another strike. He threw aside the useless shield and sword and drew his bow, slinging an arrow faster than he ever had before and letting it fly straight at Caeda Puppet's head. The impact of the arrow knocked the head clean off, and again the Puppet collapsed and burst into smoke.

Quickly, thought Link, allowing himself to collapse on the ground. The Skull Kid leapt from the arching tree and landed directly in front of Link. "I like you," said the Skull Kid. "You remind me of some of my old friends, but I haven't seen them in a very long time. Play with me again someday!" Shadows engulfed the area, and when they dispersed, Lucina, Marth, and Caeda stood unharmed around Link, and the Skull Kid was nowhere to be seen.

Caeda quickly ran to Link and held him in her arms, as Marth immediately began to scan the area for any sign of more enemies. Lucina knelt with Caeda next to Link, looking at the wounds he had received at their expense. "And we were the ones who were supposed to protect you," said Lucina.

The last thing Link saw before he blacked out was Lucina's look of concern, and behind her, up in the trees, a door.