Veil of Twilight

Chapter IV
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The surface of the water in Ordon Spring shined with a lackluster, yet deep shade of gold, the sky above swirling ominously. The water rippled in perfect circles as a large wolf appeared in the spring, a soft eyed demon astride it’s back.

Link spun around in a full circle, their new location only adding to his confusion. There were so many questions he had not had answered. He turned to Midna on his back, asking her what he thought to be the most pressing one.

“How long am I going to be like this?” he asked, his voice nervous in her head, almost pleading. She looked at him solemnly.

“I’m afraid,” Midna spoke, “that you’re going to be trapped in that form until this is all over.” She dropped her gaze sadly. “Even then, your true form may not return…”

Link felt his animal legs tremble under him, not able to believe what he was hearing. Then, he saw Midna’s lips curl into an evil grin. He could hear her trying not to snicker. Link vainly snapped his jaws furiously at her, enraged by her subsequent giggles.

“Oh, don’t be so serious,” she said to him. “It was just a joke. Anyway, your change is an effect of the twilight. Once it’s lifted, you’ll go back to normal.”

Link’s spirits immediately lifted. “Alright, then,” he thought. “How do we get rid of the twilight?”

“Well,” Midna said, thinking. “The twilight has put the light in this land into a slumber. If we break the seal of the curse, the twilight will disappear, and we can move onto bigger and better things.” She grimaced. “Knowing Zant, the curse seal is probably going to be something foul.”

“How do we find it?”

“Oh, goodness,” Midna cried. “You really are helpless aren’t you? Honestly, what would you do without me?”

“I am not helpless!”

“Oh, really? Well, good luck finding the curse then.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“So, you admit that you’re helpless, then?”

“GRAH!!” The mental cry emerged as a series of furious barks. Midna laughed satisfactorily.

“Oh, you really are too easy,” she sighed. “Anyway, it’ll be easy to find the curse. You’re wolf, after all. You were meant for hunting. Just sniff around for anything gross.”

Link turned his nose to the air, and with one whiff, almost made himself pass out. His nose was a thousand times more sensitive in this body. He could smell everything, from the earthy trees, to the crisp water. He could even pick up faint traces of people. He could smell the children, Malo, Talo, and Beth. Very faintly, he could smell Ilia, sweet, like the hay in the barn. Not enough to follow, though.

Beneath all of these scents, almost subliminal, was another odor. It smelled like something rotten, something dead. Evil. He put his nose to the ground, following the scent.

…

The trail led him into the Forgotten Woods. Link stalked silently over gnarled, tangled roots, even fallen trees, and slipped under vines and low hanging branches. The only sound was a strange one. Link thought he could hear the faintest music, a mysterious, somehow happy tune. He tried his best to ignore it; he had heard stories of the Forgotten Woods, how it played tricks on the mind.

Keeping the music from his thoughts wasn’t hard. Midna was humming her own annoying tune. He knew she was doing it to irritate him; her humming was only in his head, not even out loud.

He was nearly at his wit’s end with the annoying little monster. Zelda’s friend or not, she had done nothing but give him a headache since he had met her, prodding at him with her smart quips and questions. Yet she wouldn’t answer any herself…

“So,” Link started before thinking, still sniffing at the ground as he thought at her. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? Like the Twilight King?”

For the second time, Midna said nothing. This time, though, she did not seem to recover. Her voice, upon answering, was filled with sadness, and Link found himself wishing that he hadn’t said anything.

“I’m not like him…” she said. “The Twili are peaceful. We’re not as bad as everyone seems to think. Zant was corrupt, and seized the throne for himself. He murdered the King and Queen to do it… now he is subjecting our people to a curse of their own, using them for his gain. I’m nothing like him…”

Link followed the trail , both of them silent now. Midna wasn’t even humming anymore. The filthy odor of corruption was growing stronger, and the foliage was thinning. They were coming to a clearing, climbing a rise in the forest.

They came to the top, and out of the woods into a clearing. It was barren, save for the grass on the ground, and a single tree. It was absolutely enormous. It’s leafy branches almost completely blotted out the sky. The massive trunk was twisted and gnarled in a strange way, as if it had once been a human face. There was a hole in the base of the trunk, serving as a would-be mouth.

Link approached it cautiously. The smell was everywhere, filling his throat, clouding his senses. He felt as though he could feel it on the skin beneath his fur.

“Look,” Midna almost whispered, her small hand pointing ahead. Something was happening to the tree. It’s surface was shifting and writhing, as if the bark was alive. As the two watched, chunks of the trees surface fell from the trunk, seemingly decomposing before them.

The pieces of bark moved around in the grass below, turning upright on spindly legs and moving rapidly towards Link and Midna. As they came closer, he could see what they really were; insects, massive and terrible, colored in the dull brown that had caused them to be mistaken for the tree. Their eyes shined a glossy black above their clicking mandibles.

Link tried to look everywhere at once; the bugs had already surrounded him, skittering towards him.

“What now?” Link thought to Midna frantically. She didn’t answer.

“Midna?” he tried, looking up at the imp on his back. Only she wasn’t on his back; not completely anyway. Her eyes were closed, and she was levitating above him. From the sky above, swirling, hazy tendrils of twilight were curling around her body, engulfing her in a shroud of black and gold.

Midna opened her eyes, and the twilight smoke exploded from her. Link closed his eyes from the force of it, only for a moment. He opened them again, and saw all the insects. They lay dead, bellies up in the grass, their legs curled up in that disgusting insect manner. From their empty black eyes, a golden white light was pouring outwards, floating up and converging at one point above them.

Link turned his eyes from the light and to Midna, who sat astride his back once more, eyeing the light as if she hadn’t just saved their lives.

“What was that?” He asked. Midna shushed him.

“Listen,” she said. Link turned his gaze back to the light, doing just that. Now that she had mentioned it, he could hear something. A voice, ethereal and divine.

“Chosen Hero,” it said, echoing within his head. “I thank you for purging the land of darkness.”

As Link watched the light, it changed shape before him, becoming some sort of animal, with long, curling horns and a bushy tail. Above all of them, the sky was changing, the twilight receding, suffocating under an expanding growth of blue sky and clouds.

Link felt his body changing, but not as it had before. There was no pain, but rather a sense of relief. There was no sensations of individual changes, such as his snout receding or his hair disappearing; only a pleasant, magical sensation, and suddenly he was standing on two feet once more, his human form returned. He looked down at his human hands, feeling as though he might cry at the sight of them. The light spoke again.

“Hero,” it said. “I am Ordona, Avatar of Destiny. You have done well to come to this old part of the forest and return light to Ordon. Now that your form is true again, you must venture into the Deku Tree of Old and purge the curse permanently, so the Twilight may not return. Will you undertake this duty?”

Link nodded.

“Very well,” Ordona said. “I grant you this aid before venturing within. The Great Hero before you wore these during his travels. Surely there is still some magic left in them… Good luck, new hero. Be courageous…”

The light vanished, leaving Link alone with his newly recovered body.

“Wow, Midna,” Link said. “I guess nobody was watching when you saved our skins, cause that spirit didn’t even mention-” He looked around, seeing Midna nowhere.

“Midna?” He called out. No answer. He frowned. Rather than being worried in the slightest, Link was only suspicious. He could just imagine her hiding somewhere, waiting to play some cruel prank on him. It seemed just like her.

Shrugging his shoulders, Link’s eyes found their way to a rumpled pile on the floor. Presumeably, they were the clothes that Ordona had mentioned. The garments, however, were nothing like Link had ever seen. Tight leggings, and a goofy, floppy green cap. It looked like clothes for an oversized gnome.

Well, he thought, pulling his shirt over his head. If these were a gift from a divine spirit, it would probably be best to put them to use, strange looking or not.

He made to pull down his breeches, when he suddenly stopped. Midna was still nowhere in sight. He felt strange, watched. He narrowed his eyes, looking all around him. She was there somewhere. He knew it.

He scooped up the Hero’s clothes in his arms and approached the big tree, climbing behind a massive, gnarled root, hiding himself from view.

He emerged a few minutes later, fully garbed in the Hero’s old clothes. He straightened the floppy cap on his head, frowning a bit. How this Hero of Time had ever been taken seriously in these clothes was beyond him.

Link walked around the giant root and towards the dark entrance of the tree. He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a voice.

“Well, well,” it said sultry and mocking. “That was quite a show.” Clapping resounded, and Link whipped around, looking for the little devil. She was nowhere to be seen.

“Down here.”

Link looked down, seeing nothing on the ground but his own shadow. Then a pair of eyes appeared in his shadow, and the inky blot changed from the silhouette of his body to Midna’s. It was all black, like a normal shadow, except for her eyes, which remained yellow and vibrant, full of mischievous glee.

Link’s mouth opened, but he floundered for words.

“Wha-… what are you doing in my shadow?!” He cried.

“Well, I can’t very well survive in the light world, wise one,” she said casually. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

“Does that mean… you… you saw me?” Link felt heat rising in his face as he turned a shade of red.

“It sure does,” Midna said maliciously. “I saw everything.”

Link sputtered incoherently.

“You- I- You Damned Little Imp!!!” He finally shouted, unable to believe it. He should’ve known better than to change until she was accounted for.

“Oh, don’t be so shy,” Midna said. “Humans are a little pale, compared to what I’m used to in my world, but you’re doing quite well for yourself. You should be proud.”

“I can’t believe you would spy on me!!!” Link cried furiously.

“Oh, of course you can,” Midna retorted smartly. “How could you expect any less of me, after what I’ve done, so far? This is your fault, really.”

Link ignored her, choosing to drop it completely. It was fortunate that she was nothing but a shade at the moment, because he wanted nothing more than to throttle the little monster. What made it worse, he thought as he stepped into the darkness of the great tree, was that she was right. After what he’d seen of her up to this point, how could he have expected anything less?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here you go. Sorry it took a while. The chapter came slowly. Once again, thank you for the reviews. You guys are the best, and your support is priceless. Next chapter will be up before too long. Read, Rate, Review, and Enjoy!!!