Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess ❯ Howling in Twilight ( Chapter 5 )

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.

Link woke up slowly, sore and exhasted from his ordeal.
“ Oh, my head…” he said, but all he heard was a loud growling noise.
He looked around frantically for the animal that was snarling at him, but found that he was all alone in some kind of cell. He could hear the rain very clearly though even if he was underground. And shouldn’t everything be at a higher level than what he was seeing?
That’s when he took notice of himself for the first time.
“ By the Gods…” he said, glancing over his new canine form and tugging at the manacle around his front left paw, “ What has happened to me?!”
He pulled harder at the chain, but only found that he was causing it to rub away at the fur where it was fastened. Link even went so far as to take part of the chain in his teeth and started knawing on it. But he stopped when he thought he felt someone’s eyes on him.
Glancing over his shoulder he saw that there was indeed someone watching. A strange pixie-like creature that was no bigger than a child, but with the proportions of an adult and an unusual headdress. She smiled widely at Link and jumped through the air, landing in front of him.
“ I found you!” she said, giggling.
“ Stay away from me…” Link said, not sure if she would prove to be his ally or his enemy in this strange place.
“ Ooooh!” she said in mock fear, shaking her head, “ Aren’t you scary! Eee hee!” Link continued to snarl at her and backed away into a crouch. “ Are you sure you want to be doing that? Snarling and glaring at me? Well, that’s too bad…I was planning on helping you…if you were nice.”
“ You were?” he asked, standing up from his crouch and ceasing his growling.
“ Eee hee! That’s much better! You humans are obedient to a fault, aren’t you?” she said, tapping him under the chin, “ Oops! But you AREN’T a human anymore, are you? You’re a beast!”
Annoyed by her teasing Link snapped at her, but missed. She easily avioded his jaws and hopped out of the way giggling the whole while.
“ There, there,” she said, smiling and holding her arms out wide, “ You be a good boy and calm down. No need to bite!”
Suddenly serious she brought her cupped hands in front of her with one on top of the other and summoned a glowing ball of energy. Aiming it at the chain that bound Link to the floor she severed it with one quick strike.
“ What the…” Link said, jumping away from the broken chain in surprise.
“ You look kind of surprised!” she said, leaning in front of his face, “ Eee hee hee!”
She floated away from him, dissintegrating herself to fit through the cell bars, and reassembling herself on the other side.
“ You’re probably wondering where we are,” she said, with a mix of arrogance and smug satisfaction, “ Well, I’ll make you a deal, if you can get over here, maybe I’ll tell you! Eee hee!”
She beckoned to him teasingly then yawned as if she was bored with this whole thing.
Link examined every corner of his cell, serching for the way out while she watched him and giggled every now and then. But he could only see the area around the bars as holding a possible way of escape. That’s when he noticed the aera of soft dirt that was all but completely blocked off by boxes. He rammed into them and was pleasantly surprised to see how easily they broke. Now the entire area of softened dirt was exposed and Link could see that the bars around it were bent outward. He dug until there was an opening big enough for him to squeze through.
Finally on the other side he looked around for the girl that had helped him, but could only hear her giggling from somewhere nearby.
“ Ooof!” he grunted, as she sat herself on his back like he was a horse, “ Hey, get off me!”
He bucked and kicked like any horse who was trying to shake its rider, but couldn’t dislodge her. She tugged on his ears and pulled his head back so that he had to listen to her.
“ Hmph! I guess you’re not completely stupid after all!” she said, patting his side, “ Listen, I like you, so I think I’ll get you out of here.” She paused for a moment to pull his head farther back. “ But in exchange you have to do exactly as I say! If you need my help just give me a sign! So, are we all clear?”
“ Yeah, we’re clear,” he grunted.
“ Good. Now come on! Get moving!” she said, kicking him with her heels to spur him on.
“ Hey!”
It was awkward walking around on all fours, but Link got the hang of it quickly. Even with the extra weight riding around on his back. That was something that he didn’t quite understand was why she had to ride on him.
Link found the door leading out easily enough, but since he no longer had hands it didn’t look like he would be able to open it. And it didn’t look like his passenger was willing to help either. So, noticing that the door to the other cell was adjar, he went in to see if there might be some sort of emergency exit.
“ Huh? What’s that?” his passanger asked, drawing his attention to an iron ring that hung down from a chain in the ceiling.
“ I wonder…” Link said, tramping down his hind legs and jumping up to the ring.
He locked his jaws firmly around it. Now that his wieght was added on to it the mechanisim turned on and pulled away the iron grate in the wall. He let go and started down the tunnel that had revealed itself.
At the end of the tunnel Link stopped short, having noticed a small blue-green ball of flame floating in the corner.
“ Oh….” She said, taking notice of the flame as well, “ Well…Well…Eee hee hee! Want to see something interesting?”
“ ‘Something interesting?’”
“ You’re a beast, remember? Hone your senses and poke around!”
Link honestly had no idea what she was talking about, but he did find that when he concentrated on the feeling tugging at the back of his mind that he could see the vaugue outline of a soldier. Curious he concentrated harder and found that he could even hear what the soldier was saying.
“ Huff…Huff…Can’t…run…any…farther…T hat’s far enough…right? I’ll be safe here…I think…” the soldier said, glancing this way and that while trembling and fear and clutching his spear for dear life, “ What was that noise?! Don’t…Don’t anything come near me!”
He let the feeling fade and wandered away from the floating flame, not understanding at all what had just happened.
“ That was a soldier’s spirit,” she said, speaking up for his benefit.
“ A…soldier’s spirit?”
“ Maybe it’s someone from the other world? Eee hee!”
“ Other world?!”
“ There are lots of other spirits roaming about here you know,” she said, giggling to herself at how confused Link was, “ Hone your senses, they might know things…”
Shaking his head in confusion Link moved forward along the stone path. Soon enough he encountered a moving mass of darkness with strange red markings over its body. He didn’t know what manner of creature it was, but he could feel through some understanding that it was an enemy. The only problem was that he was no longer human and didn’t know how he would be able to fight it.
“ I doubt you’re used to your new body yet, so I’ll just tell you…,” she said, noticing his hesitation at spotting an enemy, “ Think about how you fought enemies in your human form…” Link nodded. He knew very well how he would’ve taken care of this creature had he been able to use a sword. “ Just because your shape has changed doesn’t mean your instincts have as well!”
He thought about that for a moment then launched himself at the creature. Catching it firmly in his jaws he shook it like a rag doll until it was dead. And just like the monsters he had killed back home it dissappeared into a puff of black smoke.
Having dispatched the creatuer he continued on. Blocking his path was an area that was entirely set with spikes with no way for him to get around them. So he doubled back until he found another iron ring hanging from the ceiling.
He hoped that this one would activate another meckanism and latched on to it. Luckily for him that it did. It pulled the door holding the water flowing through the catacombs up. Water rushed in until it even had a thin level overlaying the ledge that Link was standing on.
Satisfied he went back to where the spikes had previously blocked his path and swam right over them. Shaking himself as he got out he smelled himself disdainfully, knowing that until he could dry out he was going to smell like wet dog.
Nevertheless he carried on and noticed another spritit floating ong the corner of the path. Concentrating he listened in to what the spirit was saying.
“ What are these black things…Where are they coming from…And how do we get out of here?!”
Link felt himself starting to feel sympathy for these spirits. They seemed to be just as cluless about what was happenning as he was.
He followed the path around the corner to the right and found another iron gate seperating him from freedom. His passanger hopped off his back and floated through the bars.
“ This way! Over here!” she said, beckoning to him with a large pink hand that had transformed from her hair, “ I’ll be waiting for you but you’ll have to help yourself for a change!”
“ Why you…!”Link said, seeing that the door to the gate was locked and he wouldn’t be able to open it.
He could see what looked like a tunnel through the wall under the water, but he wouldn’t be able to get through it before he drowned. Snorting in frustration he went in search of a mechanism that would hopefully lower the water again.
Link found the door and the iron ring that opened it along with more of the black creatures and another spirit cowering in the corner. He dispatched the creatures and listened to the spirit.
“ What are these black monsters…I’ve never seen anything like them…’
Since he’d said nothing of valuable interest to him, Link ignored him and pulled on the ring. The water level drained and he went pack to the tunnel he had spotted.
Crawling on his belly he made his way through to a small room with still another spirit inside. He didn’t even have to hardly concentrate anymore to hear what the spirits were saying. All he really had to do was think that he wanted to and he could.
“ Please…” the spirit wimpered, “ I am but a lowely soldier. Pleas…someone save me from these evil creatre…Ahhhhh!”
Link felt sorry for the spirit, but there was really nothing that he could do so he carried on to reunite with the only person that seemed to be helping him at all in this crazy place.
This time he was prepared for the thud of extra weight as she sat on his back again.
“ Eee hee! Awww, did the detour tire you out, little wolf?” she gigled, “ By the way…Are you honing your senses like you should?”
“ Of course I am!”
“ It looks like the spirits in here…They’re all soldiers,” she said, smling like a little girl who knew an important secret and wouldn’t tell, “ Were in the world could we be? Eee hee!”
“ You know,”Link said, “ You could stop being so difficult and just tell me since I obviously don’t know and you do.”
“ You want out of here, right?” she said, thinking that that was what he was growling about, “ OK! We’re off!”
Nodding he proceeded to the next area. Link lookied up at the winding stairs that were laid out before him. He was now in the bottom of a tower somewhere. Shaking his head he started to head up the stairs. The stairs were broken and crumbling not too far up and when he tried to jump the gap that had appeared between them he only fell through to the water below.
“ Ugh…What are you doing?” she asked, contemptuosly, “ I guess I have to do EVERYTHING for you…”
She fumed at getting wet while Link climbed back up the stairs, and stopped him when they reached the edge of the gap.
“ Look,” she said, floating over to where the stairs were solid on the other side, “ I’ll show you all the snall ledges so just jump to where I am!”
Link was skeptical that this was even going to help. But she seemed to know more about this place and what was going on so he decided to do as she said. She beckoned to him with her hair/hand and hee jumped out towards her and found that it was almost as if he was being drawn along and invisible wire. He made the jump, and the next one, and the next one after that.
“ Unbelievable…” he muttered, shaking his head as she sat on him again.
With her help at jumping the unsafe gaps he made his way to the top of the tower. There was on section where even she couldn’t help him jump so he ended up having to walk across a rope to get to where the stairs started again. But even though he was walking across a slim path above a dizzying drop he did not fall. Link was beginning to get used to his new form, but was still amazed at the grace and balance he possessed as a wolf that he did not have as a human.
Reaching the top of the tower was simple enough, but for the transformed keese that swooped down and attacked. Link yelped in pain as one of them sank its claws into him. Schreeching in satisfaction it let go and backed up to do it again. When it came back down though, Link caught it in his jaws and shook it like a rag doll. Roused to anger the others swooped down as well, only to meet the same feat.
Link noticed that one of the exploded keese had yeiled a heart. Hoping that it worked the same as when he was human he went over and nudged it with his paw. The heart absorbed into his body and worked it’s mysterious powers on the wound he had received.
“ So…” she said, speaking up again, “ you know where we are yet? Eee hee!”
“ I…I think I might have an idea…”Link said.
“ Well…” she said, pointing out the door at the very top of the tower, “ if you go to the top, you might just figure it out!”
With her help he managed to reach the open door and left the tower to breathe the air outside.
What he saw was a shock. They were in the ruins of what looked like a castle. Smoke billowed from burned out structures and parts of the ramparts were crumbling from where they had simply been blasted away. It was raining heavily and the entire land was bathed in and erie golden-orange light. Like the way the land looked just as the sun was setting, like twilight.
“ So, we were finally able to get out,” she said, admiring the scenerly lovingly, “ And look at the sky! Isn’t the black cloud of twilight looking beautifulo today?”
“ Twilight…”Link mused, not taking his eyes away from the scene.
“ Do you know where this is?” she said, giggling as Link shook his head, “ You STILL don’t know? Eee hee hee!”
“ I’d know if you’d just tell me!”he growled.
“ Look, there’s someone I want to introduce you to…” she said, pointing to another tower off in the distance, “ but I’ll need you to go to that tower to do it!”
Sighing at her constant stream of demands, but knowing that he didn’t have any choice but to listen to her, Link hopped down from the tower entrance and proceeded along the broken ruins of the rampart. There he saw a long spirit looking out hoplessly over the ruined castle.
“ So there are even spirits up here, huh?” she mused, “ This whole spirit thing is new to you, isn’t it?”
“ This entire experience is new to me,”Link mumbled.
“ Even though these guys can see those monsters,” she said, “ they don’t know a thing about you!”
“ What?!”he said, turning his head to look at her.
“ If you think I’m lying, why don’t you check it out?” she giggled, “ Hone your senses little wolf! Eee hee!”
He did just that, not wanting to believe that he really was going to go about unnoticed in this place.
“ What…what are these monstrous birds?” the spirit said, “ What in the world is happenning here? Ah, our poor Hyrule Castle!”
Link stopped listening and looked around him again in disbelief.
“ Hyrule Castle…?”he said, “ This place…? It can’t be…What happened here?!”
“ Eee hee! That wasn’t the person I wanted you to meet, by the way…” she said, nudging him with her heels, “ Well, let’s just try and get to that tower.”
Link made his way to the tower in a half-daze. He couldn’t bring himself to belive this recent turn of events. He just couldn’t…


Inside the tower his passenger directed him to the top where the iron door to a room stood adjar. He nudged the door further open and trotted in, noticing a hooded figure staring dejectedly out at the landscape.
Link growled low in the back of his throat at the figure, not sure if this was another ally or a new enemy regardless of what she had said. On his back she raised a hand to her mouth to try and cover up her giggles at his reaction. Hearing him the figure turned around to face them and gasped.
Recognizing the tone of the figure’s voice as that of a woman’s Link stopped his growled and stepped closer to her.
“ Mm hmmm….” She said, rolling her eyes, as if she had expected this reaction.
“ Midna…” the figure said, noticing her.
“ Eee hee! You remembered my name?” Midna said, “ What and honor for me…”
“ Midna…?”Link said, glancing back at her and then up at the figure, “ So that’s her name…”
“ So, this is the on for whom you were searching…” the figure said looking down at him.
“ She was searchig for me?”Link asked, more confused than ever.
“ He’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Midna said, waving her hand like it really didn’t matter one way or the other, “ but…I guess he’ll do.”
The figure kneeled down to Link’s eye level and studied him from under her cowl.
“ …You were imprisoned?” she said, noticing the chain on his leg and looking ashamed, “ I am sorry.”
“ Poor thing,” Midna said, rubbing his side like he was her pet, “ he has no idea where this is or what’s happened…” She paused for a moment to look her contemptuously in the eye. “ So, don’t you think you should explain to him what you’ve managed to do? You owe him that much…” she paused again, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “ Twilight Princess! Eee hee!”
The Twilight Princess thought for a moment about what Midna had said before looking back at Link.
“ Listen carefully…” she said with utmost seriousness, “ This was once the land where the power of the gods was said to slumber. This was once the kingdom of Hyrule. But that blessed kingdom has been transformed by the king that rules the twilight…It has been turned into a world of shadows, ruled by creatures who shun the light…”
As she spoke Link saw the images of what had happenned as clearly as if he had been there himself.
The royal guard of Hyrule and a beautiful woman holding a sword in front of the throne who could only have been Princess Zelda stood guarding the royal throne room.
Suddenly a black mist seeped into the room with surprising speed, enveloping the soldiers in the front line. Creatures like the one that had pulled Link into this world skittered in on all fours taking the soldiers by surprise. The soldiers’ comrades rushed to their aide only to be cut down as well.
Princess Zelda gasped and wanted to help them, but held her position by the throne.
Soldiers both dead and struggling for their lives against the creatures filled the room as an imposing figure dressed in ceremonial shadow armor strode calmly towards the throne flanked by two more of the creatures.
“ It is time for you to choose: surrender or die,” the figure said.
Princess Zelda glanced at the soldeirs who were still living and gritted her teeth.
“ Oh yes, a question for all the land and people of Hyrule…” the figure continued, “ Life? Or death?”
The soldiers that flanked her glanced back at her as she made her decision. Reluctantly, Princess Zelda dropped her sword to the ground. Behind her the statue of the Triforce and the three goddesses who had crafted it was cast into shadow.
“ Twilight covered Hyrule like a shroud, and without light, the people became as spirits,” she said, “ Within the twilight, they live on, enaware that they have passed into spirit forms….All the people know now is fear…Fear of a nameless evil…”
The people watched as the castle burned. Twilight took it’s hold and the people turned into spirits.
“ The kingdom succumed to twilight, but I remain its princess…” she said, removing her hood, “ I am Zelda.”
“ Zelda…”Link said, staring up in awe at the beautiful woman.
“ You don’t have to look so sad!” Midna said, putting her hands behind her head, “ We actually find it to be quite livable! I mean, is perpetual twilight really all that bad?”
“ Midna…” Zelda said, as she floated off Link’s back and refused to face her, “ This is no time for levity. The shadow beasts have been searching far and wide for you. Why is this?”
“ Why indeed?” Midna said, shrugging and laughing, “ You tell me! Eee hee hee!”
“ Time has grown short,” she said, looking down at Link once more, “ The guard will soon make his rounds. You must leave here, quickly.”
Midna sat on his back once more and they left, meaning to take the stairs all he way down and out of the tower. Suddenly Midna pulled back on his ears and signaled for him to stop. They waited while the door opened.
“ Not that way! The guard’s coming! Boy, he’s prompt!” Midna said, looking around for another way out and spotting a window.
Outside Midna skipped along the crest of the rooftop while Link trotted along after her.
“ Eee hee hee!” she giggled, “ Well? Do you understand where we are now?”
“ Yeah, I understand,”Link said, looking out over the landscape, “ But I still can’t belive it…”
“ I guess a promise is a promise, so I’ll let you back to where you first tumbled into twilight…” she continued, tapping her chin thoughtfully, “ But…are you really sure you should be going back?”
“ Why wouldn’t I want to go back?”
“ Are you sure you aren’t forgetting anything important?” she asked, transforming herself into the terrified forms of first Colin and then Ilia.
“ Colin! Ilia!”Link gasped, “ I have to help them!”
“ Eee hee! Do you want to save them?” she asked smugly, “ Well, in that case, little Midna would be happy to help you!”
“ You will?”
“ But…” Link winced. He knew there was going to be a catch. “ Well, you’d hve to be my servant…and like a servant, you’d have to do exactly as I say!”
“ What is wrong with you?!” Link demanded.
“ Why don’t you go back, take a little time, and give it some thought,” Midna said, snapping her fingers, “ Eee hee hee!”
“ Wait! What are you doing…?!”
He didn’t get any farther than that as his body was disintegrated.

Link reasembled in the Spirit’s Spring in Ordon, still in his wolf form.
“ Oh, that’s right,” Midna said.
Link looked over his shoulder at his back thinking that he was going to see her sitting there. She wasn’t though. In fact she was nowhere to be seen.
“ I forgot to mention one thing…” she continued, “ Though you may have left the darkened realm, you haven’t transformed back to your former self…and you won’t anytime soon!”
“ What?!”
“ Now why could that be? Eee hee hee! See you later!”
“ Wait! Midna! Midna, come back here!”