Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda Series or its characters. I also do not own "Beauty and the Beast", "Les Miserables", or any other musical or piece of music mentioned in this story. This story is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Hello, everyone! Thank you again for your continued support! As always, please leave a review! I'd love to hear what you think! Enjoy chapter 8! ~Opal
Chapter 8: Finding the shards
Marcus and I decided to begin our journey in Faron Woods. We traveled for hours deep into the forest. We ventured into the temple together, we looked through the caves, and we even looked for some sort of sign of a shard in the fogs of poison. Nothing. We found absolutely nothing. At the end of the day we obviously hadn't looked through all of Faron Woods. Eventually it was too dark to make much more progress, so we had decided to set up camp for the night. We set up the tent and made a campfire. He gave me some meat and bread to eat and then the two of us went into the tent to sleep. I was asleep for a few minutes, but then a bad dream woke me up. I still can't remember what it was about to save my life. I lifted my head to see Marcus sitting up from his sleeping bag. "Can't sleep either, eh, Link?" I shook my head. "It's bullcrap. That's all this mission's been so far. We've found nothing; not even a single clue!"
I looked at him with sympathy, unable to express what I was thinking. Be patient. We'll find something eventually. I appreciate what you're doing to help me, I really do…
"It's just very irritating, Link…you know what I mean? I wish that we could be given some sort of sign, some source of assistance." He lied back down and pulled the sleeping bag up to his head. "Let's try to get some sleep. We'll continue in the morning…" He closed his eyes and dug his face into his pillow.
I laid my head down again and tried to sleep. Unfortunately for me my thoughts were racing. Is he upset that he's spending time away from Sally? I don't want to burden him…this kind of drama is exactly the reason why I don't date! It's exactly the reason why Zelda and I broke up. That and all of the formalities of aristocratic society. We were too different, and it never felt genuine. Am I still trying to get over it? Yes…but there's nothing I can do; it's over. Besides, I truly don't believe that trying to get back together with Zelda is the answer…I don't want to get back together with her. God, why am I thinking about all of this?! I lifted my head and looked back at Marcus, who was hard to see in the pitch-black darkness, but eventually my eyes adjusted. He was fast asleep. I guess I'm thinking about it because I'm jealous of the connection that Marcus and Sally have. Sure, I've had a relationship like that before, the butterflies and confessed feelings, the budding of a new potential romance, but nothing on the caliber that they do. That's what I want…a relationship where the two people involved deeply care for one another; a relationship where the feelings of adoration come effortlessly. From the outside looking in, it appears they have that. I finally fell asleep with the aid of my thoughts a few minutes later.
The next morning I woke up earlier than Marcus. I looked at him briefly as he slept peacefully, and then I got up and left the tent to get some fresh air. I embraced the sunlight peeking in through the trees, feeling joyful with its presence. I walked around for a few minutes until I came up to a blueberry bush. I took a few of the berries off the bush with my mouth and ate them slowly to savor the taste. Marcus came out of the tent as I was coming back. He yawned and stretched with his arms straight up in the air. "Good morning…" He yawned again.
I nodded. He went back into the tent to grab some food out of a knapsack. He held out some bread and I gently took it in my mouth and sat in the grass to eat it. He sat in the grass next to me as he ate some bread and fruit. "Searching Faron woods some more today…" He said with a sigh. "Let's hope we find something this time…" We got up, packed the tent and began to traverse again. We looked in Faron woods most of the day, and then we traveled east to the Sacred Grove. Still nothing. By the end of the day we had traveled northeast from there to the Great Desert. We didn't get far though, because it was nighttime again. We set up camp again, feeling stupid because of our continued lack of success. I went to sleep that night feeling defeated, worthless, call it whatever you want.
I had another dream, but this one felt more significant. I was in my wolf form with Marcus. We were in Hyrule Field looking for the missing shards. In the dream I used my wolf sense to literally "sniff" out the shards. Apparently the shard that I have has a unique scent in my dream. Marcus and I eventually found them all and enlisted the help of Zelda in getting the trinket put back together. I was a human again and the world made sense again. Scratch that…the world somewhat made sense again…because my dream ended with the postman in a tutu…what did I eat today to make me dream like this?! I woke up with a jolt, almost letting out a whine of terror thinking about the image. It was still dark out, but when I left the tent I noticed that the sun was just beginning to rise over the sand dunes. I decided that there was no harm in going with my gut and seeing if I could pick up a scent trail from the shard I had. Voila! It actually did have a scent trail! I wanted to bite myself over the time lost these past two days, when all I had to do was see if it had a scent! Now to try and communicate this news to Marcus. Mission Impossible…challenge accepted! A little while later he finally woke up and came out of the tent. Now was my chance! I began to bark. He looked at me like I was crazy and I hung my head momentarily in shame.
"What?" He asked, looking at me with misunderstanding. I showed him the shard and then jerked my head in the direction of the trail I could smell, hoping that he'd understand.
"Are you saying that you know where the next one is?" He pondered aloud. I nodded and his face lit up. "Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's get packed!" He quickly tore down the tent and I helped him in any way that I could, the two of us kicking the sand around in excitement. When we finished packing we continued to kick the sand around for another minute or two because of our joviality. We then began to run clumsily in the direction of the scent trail. What can I say, we found our 'Eldorado'!
We followed it for what felt like forever, and then I realized that it led right into Arbiter's Grounds. Great!
The two of us stopped a short distance from the entrance. "Hahahaha…" Marcus laughed nervously. "Maybe we should try someplace else?" He cleared his throat. "I don't think we'll find a shard here." He began to turn around and walk back. "Oh well—" I took hold of his shirt in my mouth and jerked him back towards me, his last word sounding louder and more drawn out by my sudden force. "Darn it!" He shouted. "Do we really have to?" I nodded my head again. He groaned as we walked up to the entrance and inside. The first thing we found was the quicksand trap and broken ledges scattered about. "Looks fun!" He said sarcastically. "Let's make a sandcastle, it's not like this sand can kill us!" I ignored him and looked over at the first ledge that requires a clawshot to get over. I immediately felt hopeless. The trail was still strong, leading further into the grounds. Marcus got down on his knees. "Fine. I'll get serious." He sighed. "How about I give you a piggyback ride?" He chuckled. "I have a clawshot." I jumped onto his back. "OOF!" He said. "You're a little heavy!" I rolled my eyes as he used his clawshot and I held onto his shirt with my mouth for dear life. It's moments like this where I'm flopping about that make me wish I was in my human form!
We jumped over the other ledges until we came up to the chain that needed pulling to open the gate to the next section. We pulled the chain and advanced into the next section. We came into a dark room and Marcus took out a lantern. The light filled a small section of the room, just enough for us to see where we needed to go. The Stalkin began to attack, but Marcus and I took care of them without any problems. We then lit the two torches in the room in order to advance to the next one. Even though I had originally defeated the poes that were in the next room there was one poe there to greet us. It was yellow in hue, but otherwise looked just like the poes I have defeated before. It swung its lantern at Marcus and tried to attack him, but he jumped backwards and then swung his sword at it when it was less transparent. When it was less transparent again a minute later I took the opportunity to bite it. It screeched and swung its lantern at me, but I dodged it and took another bite of its ghostly flesh. With that it was defeated and disappeared. The lantern the poe was carrying dropped to the ground and the glass on the outside shattered. A metal door on the underside of it opened and some strange black objects came out of it. When I came closer I realized that the objects were not one, but three shards from the shadow crystal! Marcus picked them up and we spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to piece together the shards of the crystal that we did have.
"We got lucky! Three shards in the same location; now who would've thought?" Marcus chortled, swinging his sword around to show off. "Let's hope we get this lucky with the rest of our journey!"
I nodded. Yes. Let's hope so…I'm tired of being stuck as a wolf! When we figured out how to arrange the shards together I sniffed the new shards we found along with the original fourth shard we had in hopes that I could find a new scent trail for the next shards. Thankfully I found a new scent trail very easily! Marcus put the shards safely away in a drawstring bag and we left Arbiter's Grounds without an issue.
For two days we followed the scent trail to Lake Hylia. Strangely enough, the trail led into Fyer and Falbi's Watertop Land of Fantastication. We went into Falbi's shack to speak with him, but he was immediately frightened of me. "W-wha?!" He raised one of his legs and shook uncontrollably. "Please! Get it away from me! I don't want to be evil doggy food!"
I huffed in annoyance, sat down in front of him and began to wag my tail. Marcus smiled. "This wolf means no harm, he is with me."
Falbi shuddered. "I-if you're sure…" He watched me with great caution as Marcus stepped closer to him. "If we can just look around the shack and then get a fowl ride down to Lake Hylia we'll be out of your hair."
He nodded. "Alright…"
Marcus and I briefly searched the shack for any sign of shards, and after turning up with nothing, we paid to ride chickens down to Lake Hylia. Marcus paid for two chickens to support the weight of me and him. He carried me in one arm and held onto the legs of both chickens with the other. It was very awkward, Marcus struggled with my weight and the chickens tuckered out quickly. Halfway through the ride they dropped us into the water…Well, at least no one was harmed! The two of us swam in the direction of the scent trail until it led us onto the dock with Fyer's Human-cannonball Ride. Fyer was there in his fat, goofy glory...or lack thereof… He looked at Marcus with disinterest. "What do you want?"
"I need to search your building, please. I can't explain why, but I'm dealing with some important matters."
"Fine." He replied half-heartedly, his eyes droopy with fatigue. "Don't make me stop you…" He yawned as we walked by him and searched the premises. Marcus and I found a bunch of the shards just right behind the building! Something's fishy, this almost seems too easy! After arranging them with the shards we already had, we realized that we only needed one more shard to complete the crystal again. We put the newly found shards into the drawstring bag after I sniffed them and I used my senses to try and find another scent trail.
I did find a new scent trail, and Marcus and I followed it for a couple more days. This trail led us to the woods near Eldinaire Village. We came to the end of the scent trail early in the morning. It was very foggy, so foggy in fact, that I couldn't see anything more than a few inches past my nose. It was unnerving, that's for sure. Marcus took out his lantern to see better in the thick fog. It was no use; we even bumped into each other a couple of times as we went in separate directions to look for the shard. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glinting from a nearby bush. I walked over to it and sniffed it, realizing that it was indeed the last shard! I barked at Marcus and he came running, reaching out with his hands in an attempt to find me. "Did you find it?" He found me and kneeled down at eye-level to see my nod in response. "Good!" He took out the drawstring bag and placed all of the shards on top of my head. Almost magically the shards joined together to create the completed shadow crystal. The crystal floated for a moment and it then landed once again on my head. Upon contact I transformed back into a human! Thank the Goddesses! Marcus laughed upon seeing that I was still on all fours. "Um…Link? You can stand now!" He snickered.
"R-right." I replied while standing up, feeling strange because of being able to speak again.
"Are you happy to be a human again?" He grinned.
"Yeah." I said. "I still have a craving for raw steak, though…" We both chuckled.
"Well, I guess we're finished then!" He laced his hands together and put them behind the back of his head.
"I guess we are!" I replied. It was silent for a moment between the two of us, and I tried to come up with what to say next. "If it's alright with you, Marcus, I'd like to come back to Eldinaire with you. I want to visit long enough to thank Sally for all of her help with my injuries and such."
He beamed. "You bet! We shall go together!" He and I began walking through the fog to Eldinaire Village.
As we walked, I felt very uneasy. It was most likely just my imagination, so I decided to strike up a conversation. "Sooo…" I said with a playful smirk. "Sounds like you and Sally are an item!"
He froze in his tracks and abruptly turned around to face me, his face bright red with embarrassment. "Shut up!" He yelled, the pitch in his voice going up.
I laughed at him as he quickly turned around again and walked ahead of me. We were silent again, but I still felt uncomfortable. It almost felt like we were being watched. I scanned the area with my eyes and thought I noticed a figure walking towards us, but it looked so hazy in the fog that I couldn't tell who or what it was. As it came closer I finally realized what it was. It was that same monster that had attacked me. Wait, didn't I defeat that thing?! Obviously not. There it was, in the flesh and ever-so menacing. Marcus was very distracted and continued to walk ahead of me. I realized that it was walking more towards Marcus. Just as I was about to say something it was gone, and then it reappeared out of thin air right behind Marcus. "MARCUS!" I shouted while the monster drew out its sword. "LOOK OUT!" I dashed towards him and the monster, but it was too late. Marcus had turned around only slightly towards the monster as it drove the blade into his side. His eyes widened and then he fell to the ground. The monster disappeared again out of thin air before I could reach it. I came over to Marcus and looked at his injuries. It wasn't good; he was stabbed very deeply in the side of his stomach, and he could die from it pretty easily. "Are you alright?" I asked him, taking some medical supplies out of his knapsack. I started to compress his wound.
"No…" He said weakly. He then began to cough violently. His eyes were beginning to close as he started to lose consciousness. "Please…take…take me to see Sally…I must see Sally…" I nodded and picked him up.