Born a Weapon
A Twilight Princess Fan story
Chapter 10
Faron Woods
Darkness.
That was all she could see. The world was pitch black. The only reason she knew there was even a floor was that she could feel it under her feet. She thought it was strange that although there was no light around her, she could see herself fine. It was as if she was standing in a bright room, yet everything was black.
All she could see around her was nothing.
But it wasn't all she could hear. There was something there. Something was coming for her, and all she could do was run.
So she ran.
Midna pumped her legs as fast and hard as she could, all the while trying to fly instead. But for some reason, she couldn't. She couldn't fly, so she ran.
Behind her, she heard a giggle. It sounded familiar, but all she cared about was how close it sounded. She tried to pick up speed, but she was already running as fast as she could.
She heard footsteps. They sounded like they came from something with four legs. And it was gaining on her at remarkable speed. She looked over her shoulder and saw a black outline of something. It looked like an animal with a rider. Midna quickly sent a bolt of magic at the outline, but the figure vanished as soon as the spell left her hand.
The giggling rang around her, echoing, sounding like it came from everywhere at once. Midna turned and continued running.
"What's going on?!" she asked herself through shaky breaths, "Where am I? where did that stupid light dweller go?"
A sound came from above, and she looked up to see a faint outline of a ledge above her, and standing atop it, somehow perfectly illuminated perfectly just like she was, stood the wolf she had helped escape from Hyrule castle and steal a sword and a shield. She had tried to summon the items but, she could not.
"Hey! Down here! I need your help!" Midna shouted. The wolf's eyes locked onto her, but otherwise, he stood still.
"Didn't you hear me?!" Midna screamed. "Get over here and help me! There is something in the darkness!"
After staring for a few more seconds, the wolf lowered itself slightly, preparing to jump. Midna was silently relieved he was finally coming down from the ledge.
The wolf jumped… and landed right on Midna.
Midna slammed into the ground as a paw forced her off her feet.
"What are you doing?!" she screamed as she squirmed with all her might, "let go!"
"My, this is an active one, isn't it?" spoke a voice from a creature on the wolf's back. Midna looked up to see the wolf was being ridden by… her.
"Midna" floated off the wolf's back, "Here…" she said, sounding annoyed, "I'll give you a hand."
Midna watched as the figure that looked like her extended a large orange hand from her hair and used it to pin her to the ground.
Midna struggled as much as she could, but with her doppelganger pinning her, she couldn't move at all.
"Link! Stop screwing around and help me!"
"Time to die, little bulbin."
The wolf's mouth opened, and with a roar, it pushed its head forward to bite her.
Link was awakened by his strange companion throwing her limbs in every direction around her while screaming, "No! Get off! Bulbin! Stop! Ge-" Midna stopped her sentence when she realized where she was. In Faron woods underneath a tree with Link.
She slowly turned her head to find him looking at her with a confused expression, but he said nothing, and for a minute, they just looked at each other.
"Did you have a nightmare about the bulbin?" Link asked after a pause.
"No," Midna replied with emphasis, and Link knew she was lying.
"It's ok if you did. It's perfectly normal."
"Shut. Up." Midna said while starring daggers at Link, who did not show any reaction.
"Just give yourself time. And remember, it wasn't your fault."
Midna turned away from him and silently took several deep breaths trying to calm herself. Link respectfully gave her space and instead focused on the path ahead of them. There was a path that led through a grassy field before continuing through a narrow passage in between two rocks. Not much to look at, but Link studied it while Midna calmed herself, and although she didn't voice it, she was glad for the space. And maybe she was also thankful for him trying to help her deal with what she did.
Just a little.
While Link was waiting, he noticed there was a strange sound coming from somewhere ahead. It sounded like a choir of voices singing, but with no words, and it seemed to echo slightly.
Midna plopped onto his back, now wearing her strange helmet again, bringing him back to reality.
"All right," she said, seeming much better now, "you don't seem completely useless, so I'll help you find those kids you're so worried about… but" Midna leaned forward so she was laying against his back and her head was right next to his left ear. "In exchange for my help, I need you to gather some things for me."
There it is. Link was wondering why Midna was helping him, and now he knew.
"And what are these mysterious things?" he asked.
"Look, I can't tell you all the details now, but it'll be easy, trust me…" she said.
"And now that you've said that, it's going to be the hardest thing in the universe to do." Link said before sighing. "You must know I would be an idiot if I helped without knowing-"
"But enough about that." Midna interrupted. "Do you hear that noise? It's the lamentation of the spirit that had its light stolen."
"How could you possibly know that?" Link asked, assuming she was referring to the strange singing.
"I passed by it before," she responded.
"So, you know where it is?"
"Maaaybeee!'
"Oh, for the love of… I swear you must be getting paid to annoy me."
"You did say it was my job back in the castle. You must really think someone hates you if they would pay me to this. Although, it doesn't sound like the worst job. I think I'll take it!"
"You're fired."
"Oooohhhh noooooo!" Midna said in a mocking tone. "Whatever will I do now? I'll need to get a new job!"
"I'm sure there's an opening for a helpful companion, but I don't think you meet the qualifications."
"Augh, that sounds like such a chore! I'd rather just sit back and watch my pet do all the work for me."
"Be sure to introduce me to your invisible pet sometime."
Midna rolled her eyes at Link with an impish grin still on her face.
"Better get going, don't you think? Don't blame me for your world's fate if you don't hurry up and find that light!"
Link was a bit hesitant, "You want me to go toward the creepy music?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine. After all, it's your oh so glorious light spirit! Besides, you're the one who went towards the creepy voice the other one had." Midna said with sarcasm, "Now come on! Snap to it!" she added with a light kick in Link's sides.
"I only went there because the villagers told me there was a light spirit there, and what did I tell you about kicking me?" Link said as he started moving. He did not want to oblige her kicking, but she had a point that he better get the light spirit back on its feet before who knows what happened. But he did purposefully destabilize Midna slightly as he proceeded.
Link proceeded forward on the path until he reached the two rocks, where he was intercepted by large pillars identical to the ones he encountered in Ordona's spring falling from the sky and again trapping him inside a strange barrier.
Link and Midna looked to the sky to see another mess of black squares with red markings above them drop another shadow beast, but Link froze when the portal didn't close until two more followed the first.
"Where penned in again!" Midna said, trying to disguise the fear and what sounded like sadness in her voice. "heh, who do they think they're dealing with, right? You took on these guys before, and…" Midna turned and looked at something behind her, "No need to take these guys on one at a time, right?" Midna said quite fast, "You can take them all at once! So, you can handle this by yourself, can't you? Good luck! Bye!"
"Wait, what?!" Link cried, but Midna had already floated off and landed on the ground outside the energy field, where it looked like she was trying not to break down, and she refused to look at the arena.
Fine whatever, it's not like she helped with anything else anyway. Except for that one kargarok at Hyrule castle. Link thought to himself.
The shadow beasts rushed Link, and he ran to the right to avoid being slaughtered. All the shadow beasts clumsily crashed into the wall right behind them, sending electricity through two of them, but one of them had bounced off his allies and fell on the floor.
That is really freaking lucky! Link thought as he destroyed the beast's throat with his teeth.
The other two had recovered and hoping to replicate what just happened, Link stood next to one of the walls and dove to the side when he was charged. The Shadow beats stopped incredibly fast, avoiding a repeat of what had just happened, and one surprised Link with a punch, sending him to the other side of the arena, stopping just before he could be electrocuted himself.
Link barely dodged a smash from one of the shadow beast's fists and quickly jumped on its back to do as much damage as he could before either it or its friend could stop him. Link underestimated how quick the other shadow beast was and was slammed into the floor and had to dodge another smash. Link tried to attack the beast he had just dodged, but he was met with a fist by the same beast, sending him flying back to the other side of the arena.
After dodging another slam attempt, Link rushed to the other Shadow beast and jumped on its face, and attacked. When the second Shadow beast began to close in, Link pushed off his current prey and latched onto the one rushing him. In the confusion of the sudden attack, the shadow beast Link was currently on knocked over the other before falling to the ground itself, where Link finished it off.
Link immediately rushed the final beast while it still lay on the ground, hoping to end it. He crouched low, jumped forward, and prepared to close his fangs around its neck, ending the fight.
The shadow beast's hand closed around Link's throat, catching him completely off guard and knocking his breath out of him. Before Link could even begin to struggle, the shadow beast was back on its feet, and it slammed Link into the strange wall forming the arena.
Link's body convulsed violently as pain flooded him, and his opponent seemed completely unbothered by the electricity coursing through it from its grip on Link. Link struggled to regain control of his limbs but to no avail.
Just before Link's world went black, he heard what sounded like a bolt of lightning, and the shadow beast pulled away in pain, allowing Link to fall to the ground and escape the electrocution.
Link managed to look up to see Midna floating in the air, and she extended her hand, and with a loud bang, a black lighting bolt with orange dots inside collided with the shadow beast, making it recoil.
Before Midna could send another bolt, the Shadow beast inhaled and screamed.
It was not a normal scream, more of a shriek, actually. It echoed around the forest, and when it met Link and Midna's ears, it assaulted them with pain. Link tried to use his paws to cover his ears as Midna screamed and collapsed to the ground with her hands pressed against her ears.
The shriek only lasted for three seconds at most, but it felt like an eternity to Link and Midna. When it was finally over, Link opened his eyes to see the other two shadow beasts he had slain rise back to their feet, with no sign of wounds anywhere on them.
Link's body flared with pain, but he had to move quickly. He pushed himself to his feet and ran out of reach of the Shadow beast that tried to catch him with a quick swipe from its right hand and dashed for Midna, who was still recovering from the screech and unaware of the death closing in on her.
With no hands to grab her, link resorted to tackling her out of the way and mostly avoided harm himself but received a scratch on his tail.
Stupid tail! He thought. Why can't I just be a freaking person again?!
"What the HELL was that?!" Midna screamed.
"Painful! And cheating!" Link replied.
Midna seated herself back on Link's back.
"Thanks for hitting that thing."
"Yeah, well, you were getting your ass kicked, so I did something."
Link dodged and ran from another attack.
"But I don't want to make a habit of saving you. So, get your shit together!"
"Well, you're going to have to do something again. I need to hit these guys all at once, or else the last one will revive the others!" Link said as he ran aimlessly around the arena avoiding his opponents.
"I'm still not going to kill anything!"
"We are going to DIE if you don't-"
"BUT! I might be able to help you get them, as much as I don't want to…"
"HOW?!" Link yelled as he just barely avoided being struck.
"Remember how I helped you jump around in Hyrule castle? Well, I can use that same magic to shoot you around quickly. Think you can hit them that fast?"
"Don't exactly have a choice! These things adapted to everything else I can think of! So let's just go with your plan and hope they aren't smart enough to understand what you just said!"
"Ok! Get close to them and give me a second!"
Close?! SHIT! Link thought as he ran around another beast and positioned himself, so he was in the middle of them at equal distance, and Midna closed her eyes tightly and focused.
Comeoncomeoncomeon!
"JUMP!" Midna screamed.
Link jumped at the shadow beast he was facing and felt much lighter than he should. He tore out the thing's throat and pushed off its body and flew through the air to another one, killed it and jumped to the last one, and ended it.
All three enemies lay on the ground before exploding into particles and forming another mess of black squares in the sky.
Link collapsed to the ground, and Midna sat on top of him in silence. She had helped him kill again. Midna let out a loud sigh and looked down at Link. He had some blood coming out of spots on his body and likely large bruises underneath his fur coat that she could not see.
"Come on, get up. The light spirit is just ahead. Let's go."
Link's body hurt all over, but he assumed that this light spirit might have healing water like Ordona, so he tried to get up.
"Come on! Let's GO!" Midna said when Link only budged slightly/
"Give me… A FREAKING MINUTE! I JUST GOT THE SHIT BEATEN OUT OF ME!" Link screamed at her. "Why don't you do your magicky thing and get the portal like you did at Ordona's spring, where you could warp me to with it! And give me a second to get up?!"
"The spirit is right there!" Midna screamed, pointing to the path ahead. "I am not going to teleport us back when we're this close!"
"Even though we could get back here just as easily." Link added as he finally managed to find his footing. "Are you going to do the thing with the portal or not?"
"Why should I listen to you?"
"Fine. I suppose it would be pointless to make the portal usable if you're never going to use any of them anyway." Link said as he began slowly moving forward. Midna sat in silence with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face, but Link noticed blue markings appeared on the mess of black squares.
Link headed onward despite the pain in his body and eventually came across the pool of water he remembered running past while chasing after Talo, but there was a soft, transparent glowing ball floating above the water this time.
Link stumbled into the water and collapsed. Luckily the water here also was not very deep, so he wouldn't drown in healing water.
"Please…" spoke a voice from the glowing ball, "be careful… these woods… have changed…"
Link raised his eyes to the ball but did not move his body at all.
"The dark clouds of dusk cover this land… this drape of shadows is called… twilight…"
"Really?" Midna said sarcastically.
"In this twilight, those who live in the light become as mere spirits… it is a place… where the dark ones and evil creatures dwell…"
"Hey!" Midna interrupted, "I live in the twilight, and I'm not evil!"
"I do not refer to your home, Midna… I refer to the unnatural twilight covering these woods…" the light spirit responded, "Blue-eyed beast," it then continued. "I…am a spirit… of light…"
"No shit," Midna mumbled.
"Look… for my light… retrieve the light stolen by the dark beasts… and keep it… in this vessel."
An object floated from the ball of light and floated just in front of Link's face. It look like a grapevine, but rather than green, there was gold, and instead of grapes, there were clear glass balls. The gold formed designs on the glass balls, but otherwise, the glass was completely unscathed, without a hint of dirt on it.
"You going to take it?" Midna asked.
Link turned his gaze to see her on his left with her arms crossed.
"I have no hands. Can you hold it?"
Midna rolled her eyes but put the item in her pocket dimension.
"Find… the insects of darkness…" the light spirit said, "The dark insects… they are the form taken by evil… once it has latched onto… our sacred light…"
"We have to go on a bug hunt?!" Midna complained, "This is so stupid!"
Neither the light spirit nor Link acknowledged her outburst.
"Fine! Get up!" Midna demanded while shaking Link, "now!" she added when he did not move.
"I need to rest." Link said, and even his mental voice sounded exhausted.
"NOW!"
"Let me use the last of my power… to restore the spring's healing properties partially… but it will only be temporarily…"
It wasn't healing me this whole time? Link thought.
The ball of light intensified slightly for a few seconds before fading afterward to an even dimmer glow than before.
"Rest… hero…"
All fell silent, and Link was thankful for it, and in a few seconds, he was asleep. Completely unaware Midna was bugging him to get up and keep going.
This chapter was challenging because of the fight between Link and the shadow beasts. I think I am happy with how it came out, but let me know what you think of it.
Fight scenes are hard.