Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess ❯ Return to Twilight ( Chapter 10 )

A.N.- None of these characters belong to me, they are the property of Nintento. Noticed a few spelling errors so I figued I better go through and fix that asap. Also if something seems weird with the page it could be because my vista program doesn’t like this site or something stupid like that. At any rate enjoy.

Back at Faron’s spring the spirit had a few more words of wisdom to impart to Link before he continued on his quest.
“Heroic Link…” Faron said, choosing its words carefully, “Do not think that Hyrule is now safe from the spread of twilight…Leave these woods and go east, where you will find the land protected by the spirit Eldin. There you will find those you seek….But know that these lands lie in twilight…They are now a dark realm covered by the clouds of duck. If you set foot beyond the curtian of twilight, you will revert to your beast form, so be prepared. Hero chosen by the gods…Leave these woods and go east, to the land of Eldin.”
Link was dissapointed that he had not found the village children in the forest temple and felt like he shouldn’t go back to the village until he had at least found them safe and sound. And Faron had said that he would find the ones he sought in the lands guarded by the spirit Eldin. That could only be them.
“That’s better,” Midna said, “Searching should be much easier now. Eee hee! But…Of course, you feel the need to go help the other light spirits, don’t you?”
The thought had in fact just been crossing his mind as she’d begun speaking and Link nodded in response.
“Well, don’t worry,” she said, giggling, “When you turn into a beast again I’ll take good care of you.”
“Hey!”
“The first thing you need to do is find the land covered in twilight,” she said, smirking at his outburst, “Once you do, I’ll help you out. Eee hee hee! See you later!”
Pausing on his way out of the woods to buy some more oil from Coro with the rupees he had found in the temple Link headed out into the unknown world that was spreading out before him with suprising speed. Once he had his oil he carried on to the path just beyond Coro’s home. He knew that this must be the way into the rest of the Faron providence seeing as how there was no other path to take besides the one that lead back into the forest again.
So he walked along this new path wondering to himself what new wonders and dangers he was about to encounter.

Link gazed in awe at the sight that spread out before him as he approached the end of the path.
Hyrule field lay ahead. The largest expanse Link had ever seen in his life. The entire field was entirely open with a few spotted rises of land that had trees growing on top of them and the area between them that dipped dangerously low. The area that dipped low wasn’t so much a crack opening up in the ground but rather what used to be a lake that had died down to a small spring with a bridge spanning its expanse. Though t he field was uniformly covererd in grass for the most part there was a path of sorts where the grass had been worn away in each of the compass directions.
It would truly have been a wonderous sight to behold if it weren’t for the sinister viel of twilight hovering over the land to the north, east, and west.
Not wanting to waste any more time admiring the scenery, and dreading the threat that loomed beyond it, Link hurried on at a steady jog towards the darkness in the east. He was nearly there when someone shouting at him in the distance stopped him short.
“HEEEEEY!!!”
He watched in mild confusion as a Hylian in a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt and equally tight white short shorts came jogging towards him with a pack and a flag strapped to his back.
“Go no further!” he said, adjusting the red cap on his head, “There is a black wall ahead that blocks the way! I thought I would deliver a few letters, but it seems impossible…”
“I can see that,” Link said, glancing from the sight of his destination back to the strange man before him, “If you don’t mind my asking, just who are you?”
“I am the honorable and dependable letter carrier, known to some as…the posman. Now that I have introduced myself, please! Take this letter and read it at your leasure!” he said, grinning from ear-to-ear and handing Link a letter.
“Um, thank you,” Link said, taking the letter from him, “My name is Link by the way.”
“A pleasure Mister Link!” the postman said, shaking his hand, “Well, my business is concluded! Onward to mail!”
Link watched him run off for a moment before opening his letter and reading it.
‘If I have a letter for you, I will approach you at high speed! Please to not flee!’
Shaking his head in bewilderment Link folded the letter and stowed it away in his item pouch. He then continued on his intended path despite the warning that the postman had given him.
It wasn’t long before the all-too familiar orange glow cast off by the markings on the wall of twilight. He approached it slowly, glancing around from side to side to see if there was anyone else nearby.
“Hey, it was much closer than I thought…” Midna said, drifting towards the wall as she turned to face him, “You remember, right? You know what this is?”
“How could I forget?” Link muttered, remembering the first time he had been pulled into the twilight.
“If you set foor in there, you might be a wolf again fro quite some time…”
“About how long do you think?” he asked, not exactly keen on the idea of being a wolf for longer than he had to no matter how much more convenient some things might become.
“For at least as long as it takes for you to save the light of Eldin from the twilight,” she said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes as though the answer had been obvious, “anyway…So shall we try to go see the light spirit Eldin? Eee hee!”
Link took a deep breath and stepped closer to the barrier until he was only inches away from where Midna floated.
“Want me to let you into the twilight?” she asked, smiling as though she could sense what he was feeling.
He nodded, but didn’t dare speak lest she hear the unwillingness in his voice.
She smiled and drifted into the realm of twilight. A minute passed and Link almost thought that she had forgotten that he was standing out there. Either that or she had changed her mind and decided that she wasn’t going to help him anymore. Then her hair-hand shot through and pulled him into the twilight with barely a ripple in the magical barrier.

Link lay on the ground on the other side of the curtian of twilight, sore all over from his forced entry through the barrier. He stood up and was able to look around for a moment before the magic of the triforce in his hand forced him into his wolf form.
He shook his head to clear it of the slight dizzyness that came on him from the sudden change as Midna hopped up on his back.
“That’s a good boy!” she said, scratching him behind his ears, “ Now you need to listen to what I say from now on!”
“I know the drill,” Link said, rolling his eyes.
“Ah, look!” Midna said, waving her arm dramatically at the twilight-drenched land before them, “ The black clouds of twilight are so fetching today…I feel so much more at ease here….”
“Lucky you,” he muttered, surpressing the urge to shiver at the unnatuaral glow everything seemed to cast off.
“An you look so much better in this form than you do in those dusty old clothes, anyway.”
“Of course you would think so.”
“Eee hee! So, let’s get going!” she said, nudging him in the sides with her heels.
Growling slightly at her Link followed the worn path ahead of him, destroying the mutated baba plant as he went. However he paused for a moment as his nose started twitching.
He could smell something up ahead, Something that smelled so familiar, but that he couldn’t quite place. Trotting along he soon came across his old wooden sword, broken in two and lying in the middle of the road.
Link ran to where the sword lay. Pawing at the ground and sniffing the area around it images appeared in his mind. Images of Talo, Malo, Beth, and Colin.
“They were taken this way…” he said, gazing ahead of him in the direction that the scent was leading.
“See, isn’t being a wolf more convenient?” Midna said, smiling smugly, “ Now, hone your senses! You’ve begun to reawaken as a wolf, I think. Eee hee!”
Link followed the scent trail as fast as he could, dodging enemies as he went. Now that he could even smell them and knew which direction they had been taken he had eyes, or rather a nose, only for the task of finding them at last.
Suddenly pillars fell from the sky and the shadow creatures appeared. Having no patience at the moment for dealing with them Link destroyed them quickly then trotted over to the broken bridge that had once spanned the ravine.
“What’s this?” Midna said, leaning over him to get a better look, “That’s strange…The bridge is gone…I wonder if this is the work of those shadow creatures…Ugh…what a pain! Ah, well, let’s look for it…”
“And how do you propose that we do that?” Link asked, eager to cross and continue his search for the village children.
Almost in response she got his map out and laid it out on the ground before him.
“The yellow arrow marks where we are. You know that right?”
“Of course.”
“Whenever you destroy those creatures from the darkness a portal opens that looks like this on the map,” she said, pointing to one of the spots where he had destroyed a group of them. And indeed there was a mark on the map much like the actual portals themselves only much smaller. “You hear me?” she said, snapping her fingers in his face to make sure that she had his attention, “ It’s called a portal. You’d better remember that!”
“I’ll remember I promise,” Link said, watching her drag her fingers along the map that showed Faron Woods.
“And…in those woods we came through…Yes!” she said, tapping her finger on the portal mark in the North Faron Woods, “It’s got to be around there…I’ll use my power to take you to the location of the open portal…”
Link felt a strange tugging sensation on his body as Midna used her power to teleport them outside of the realm of twilight.

No sooner had he felt the sensation that it was gone and he was standing in the Faron Woods. He was still a wolf, true, but at least he was outside of that dreadful twilight.
“See!” Midna said, hovering above him, a shadowy phantom once more, “I told you. We’re here! You know, most people can’t leave the twilight that easily. You’d better be grateful! It’s your job to look for the bridge! Look hard!”
He didn’t have to look very far. The section of missing bridge was directly in front of him, propped up against the side of the cliff.
“Wow! It’s perfect don’t you think?” she said, inspecting it like she was a prospective buyer for a piece of property, “What do you think? Should we take it?”
Link nodded since taking the bridge back was benificial to him finding the village children.
“Good little obedient wolf!” she said, turning back to the bridge.
She flicked at it with her hair-hand causing sparks of orange magic to run upand down it. Then she lifted it into the air and dissolved it into the portal above them, doing the same to Link next.

Link appeared back in twilight first so he was able to watch as the bridge appeared in the sky and settled right where it needed to be.
“See!” Midna said, sitting on his back once again, “Just as I thought…Eee hee! So, isn’t the power of twilight amazing? Call me if you need the power again. It should help you find what we’re looking for, don’t you think? All right! Let’s keep going!”
She didn’t need to tell him more than once. Link set off at a dead run, having noticed that the scent of the children was getting stronger.
Just before the road ended there was yet another obstacle blocking Link’s path. A ridiculously elaborate gate had been erected between the two cliffs that flanked either side of the road. It was chained and locked on the outside with an iron bar barricading it on the inside, and spikes on both the top and the bottom. As an extra percation in case al of this wasn’t enough there were two sentries on the other side and an archer standing watch behind them.
“Huh…What are they doing here?” Midna mused, surveying the gate and its defenses as well, “This is a pretty elaborate gate…What are they trying to keep in….”
“The kids!” Link exclaimed.
“Or out?” she said, finishing her thought, “I bet it’ll be worth our while to dig in….”
Link sniffed around at the bottom of the gate for a minute before finally finding a patch of soft soil by the lower right-hand hinge. He burrowed his way under the gate, narrowly scraping the fur off his shoulders in the process.
Once on the other side the sentries and the archer took notice of him. Growling and snapping Link quickly took care of the sentries first and then moved on to the archer. The archer after having witness what had happenned to its companions did its best to put up a fight. It managed to fire off at least one arrow that just barely nicked the tip of Link’s ear before it was killed.
Ignoring the spoils that burst forth from the bodies of his fallen enimies Link continued on. Desperate to find the village children.

Link looked around himself breifly as he trotted into this strange new village. The buildings were mostly made of brick and metal with shared wooden porches conecting them. There was a bell on top of the hut directly in front of him and a lookout tower looming at the far end of the town. This village didn’t have the vegetation that Ordon had, but rather a few hardy trees stretching up amongst the few stubborn weeds and red sand.
Here his observations on the towns appearance ended for the moment as three of the shadow creatures moved in for the attack. With Midna’s help however they were soon gone and another portal had opened up above them.
“To the hero…who was transformed into a blue-eyed beast…in the realm of shadows…In twilight…” a voice said from the shallow spring off to the right, “This way…”
Link trotted over knowing that it could be none other than the spirit of Eldin that was calling to him this time. He waded into the water until he was standing before the frail-looking ball of light floating just before the second level from which the water was spilling.
“I’m here spirit,” he said.
“…I am…a spirit…of light…” it said, the rasp Link felt in its voice nearly audible, “Hero…chosen by the gods…Look for…my light…Gather the light stolen by the shadows…into this…”
He stood perfectly still as a vessel of light much like the one that Faron had given to him, only this one had more empty beads on it, floated down out of the light and wrapped itself around his neck.
“The insects of darkness…They are the form taken…by the evil that attatched itslef…to my scattered light…In this shadowy twilight…the shadow insects are invisible, much as the people from your light world are…With the last of my power…let me mark your map…with the locations of the tears that have turned into…shadow insects…But…be careful…the darkness…now hunts you…”
“I understand,” Link said, turning away from the light spirit, “I’ll be sure to be more careful now.”
Satisfied with this the spirit settled, exhasted just by the little effort it took to speak to him.
Leaving the spirit to rest Link continued to follow the scent of the children to the building right next to the Spirit’s Spring. He pawed at the base of the door where the smell ended in the hopes that he might find some soft earth through which to burrow under the door, but unfortunately he wasn’t so lucky. Leaving the door he walked around the building in the hopes that he might find another way in. Along the way he paused by the slightly open window to listen to the spirit one of the village’s men complaining to himself.
“Cripes! How the heck am I supposed to babysit someone else’s little brats when I oughta be savin’ myself?!”
Hearing this Link’s sense of urgency only increased all the more. Around to the back of the building he found a crumbling section of wall that might’ve been an old storage shed at one point.
“Hey,” Midna said, looking from the crumbling wall to the top of the building, “I think you can climb up here!”
With her help he scaled the wall and made it to the top of the building with ease. The roof of the building looked incredibly solid with no signs of being able to break through it. So without thinking about it Link trotted over to the center of the roof that was only a semi-stable mound of thatch. As soon as he put his full weight on the thatch it collapsed beneath him and sent him plummetting into the house below.

Shaking the dirt out of his fur and silently thanking the gods that he hadn’t been seriously hurt in the fall Link took a look around him.
The building looked like a shrine with a statue of a large bird with its wings spread wide in the center and a series of unlit candles lining the walls at about half way to the ceiling. The candles were set on the wall in such a way that one would have to climb up the stairs on the side to the second level girdling the circular room, and jump the gaps beneath the torches in order to light them.
The thing that interested him the most about the building though were the seven spirit flames floating within it. Six were huddled together on a bench while one was wavering back and forth by the window. Concentrating the true forms of the spirits became visible to him.
Talo, Malo, and Beth sat huddled together on the bench with a long-haired man and a girl that Link didn’t recognize while Colin stood a little off to the side. Over by the window stood the man Link had heard when he’d passed by the same window outside. He was portly with a metal welding mask pulled down over his face.
“Cripes!” he said, glancing out the window fearfully, “ I don’t see those black brutes anywhere…They’ve gotta be hidin’ somewhere waitin’ for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they’ll FEAST!”
Talo shivered and shifted closer to the long-haired man’s side, looking up at him fearfully.
“We are sare as long as we remain in here, child,” he said, looking down at Talo comfortingly, “Be at ease.”
“Oh, yeah?” the man at the window grunted, flipping up his welding mask to reveal his face. He wore glasses and had a close-trimed beard with a dome-like bald patch on the op of his head. And he was absoluetly covered in grime from head to toe. “I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you…” he continued, unhindered by the look the long-haired man was giving him, “They sure didn’t seem impressed by my bombs! How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh?”
Talo huddled even closer to the man’s side and Beth started trembling.
“Once they attack it’s OVER! Remember that lady from the general store? Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened? She was already gone, and there were TWO monsters waitin’!”
Beth started trembling even more violently and was even wimpering a little.
“You connectin’ the dots?” he asked, not paying any attention to the fear he was instilling in the children, “That means that if we get attacked by them, then we’ll be…”
“BARNES!!” the long-haired man shouted, glaring at him.
Beth broke down into sobs then and Colin walked over to try and comfort her. The long-haired man glared at Barnes even more fiercly. Barnes huffed indifferently and slid down the wall to the floor, pulling his mask down over his face and wimpering as he did so.
“Look, Renado…” he said, “All I mean to say is that it’s risky here, too! Ain’t you got someplace we can hide?”
Renado thought for a moment before saying anything.
“There is…a cellar.”
Barnes scampered over on all fours to where Renado was sitting and flipped his mask up again.
“WHAAT?! You’ve got a CELLAR?! Where’s the entrance, man?”
“The entrance to the cellar is designed to open when all of the candles have been lit…” Renado said, his eyes following the candles hung on the wall.
Barnes hurridly set fire to a torch and scampered over to the first candle at the foot of the bird statue. He managed to light the candle, but in his excitement tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face.
“I…would not do that,” the girl said, “When father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw insects like the beasts outside…”
She waved her hands through the air in scittering motions to emphasize her point. Barnes scampered away from the lit candle quickly and backed up against the wall.
“Don’t cry, Beth!” Colin said, trying to comfort her only to have his hand pushed away, “ Link is coming to save us all!”
Link perked his ears up when he heard this and Beth stopped crying almost immediately Talo and Malo looked up as if they were surprised to hear Colin of all people say such a thing. Renado and his daughter looked up, interested at what Colin was saying while Barnes only tipped his head back and forth and grunted in confusion.
“…I can feel it!” Colin said, placing a hand over his heart.
Talo snorted as if he didn’t belive a word of it, but Link was touched by the boy’s faith in him.
“Colin…” he said.