Time's POV

The next morning was clear skies.

The champions (the five + Zelda and Impa) were talking freely. Not a care in the world.

But me and the boys were too shaken up to do as much as smile.

Last night, Wild had interrupted a highly amusing interaction—which I will cherish for as long as I shall live—with a squeak of fear.

Her scimitar had been covered in black blood. The sight of which killed all conversation.

Wild had been frozen in fear for a full few minutes before Four gently moved her hand down to her blade. Then she snapped right out of it.

We hadn't told the others yet. They wouldn't really understand.

They had noticed the solemnity of the group, but didn't act on it. Zelda once looked back worriedly but left it alone.

Random fact: Wild still hasn't put her shoes back on. Not even after walking over sharp rocks and branches.

It was a little impressive, to be honest.

Twilight guided Wild as we walked. As she walked with her eyes glued to her Sheikah slate screen.

When faced with a difficult situation, she preferred to fade away from reality.

The rest of us are stuck with trying to find the the best way to tell the others that their monsters are infected. And are now more powerful. And we don't know what's causing it.

That would be a pretty useless conversation, don't you think?

But I decided that they needed to know.

"Princess?" I asked.

She paused in her conversation with Impa and looked back. "Yes, Time? And you can just call me Zelda."

I nodded. "Zelda. We have something to tell you…"

Zelda frowned, sowing down so our two groups were one again. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Um… The reason Hylia had us meet," I gestured to me and the other Links, purposely stalling. "Hylia noticed a Shadow was traveling between eras causing trouble."

"Shadow?" Zelda said, alarmed.

"Yes." I stayed calm. "And, we're pretty sure that as a result of him, monsters have been getting stronger. Their blood is turned black and they get smarter and harder to kill. But we don't know exactly what's causing this infection."

There was silence for a while.

"Do you know what this Shadow looks like?" Zelda asked, now genuinely intrigued.

I shook my head. "As far as we know, the Shadow's a shapeshifter. But we don't know which form it prefers. We could've actually come into contact with it but never known."

"Well… that's… unsettling…" Urbosa said. "Does it have a weakness."

"Like he said, we've never fought it before." Hyrule said.

"Actually…" Wild said. She poked around on her slate before lifting it up so we could see it. "I always thought it was just a trick of the light."

It was picture of us one evening. Legend and Warriors were bickering Twilight was sitting next to them, trying to quietly enjoy his soup. Four and Wind were placing bets while Hyrule wrapped Four's broken wrist. Sky was sitting with his back against a tree, fast asleep. I was in the background, watching fondly.

Wild zoomed in on the darkened tree line that was behind me.

A pair of red eyes stared out.

"Creepy." Four said, thinking of how it had been watching us.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" I reprimanded the Champion.

Wild shrugged again. "I always thought it was a trick of the light. I've also seen it a few times on my adventure so I wasn't concerned enough to raise an alarm."

Twilight made a older brother noise of concern and pulled his Cub close.

Said Cub squirmed as she tried to avoid his feet that were wearing heavy boots. That would hurt on her bare feet.

"That's still not enough to go by." Zelda said pointedly. "We would need to see its face or weapons or something that would help us identify him if we ever saw him in battle."

"You mean glowing red eyes and pitch black skin aren't enough to go by?" Legend asked, one eyebrow raised in question.

Zelda huffed. "If it's a shapeshifter, than maybe it can change the color of its eyes and skin."

Hyrule, who had been silent for the whole walk, spoke up. "Actually I've actually seen something with red eyes and black skin,"

"What was it?" Wind asked nervously.

"My shadow," Hyrule pulled up his tunic to point at a round stab scar on the lower left side of his torso. "Dark Link."