CHAPTER 18: THE INTERLOPERS
(unrevised)
_The light that dispersed from the cave when Midna let the vessel drop
into the dim waters of the spring blinded them so intensely that they
both had been forced to shut their eyes. Perhaps it was that the spring
was sealed from any natural light that could interfere in contrasting
with the pure luminescence of the spirit. Drops of water bounced and
splashed from and into the water, restoring its true color with each
trickle. The rocky vines that encased the walls and ceiling were
revived, and they hummed with their surrealistic green radiance.
Sloshing through the water below was the long form that comprised a creature of which Link could not name. Finally it burst through the surface, its head halting just feet away from the ledge upon which Link and Midna stood. Its lengthy and slender body stretched back and coiled beneath the surface of the water. Its gigantic maw held the shining orb of light that had now been revivified. The two huge white eyes upon the sea serpent's head bore into Link's, and the remolding of his body began.
The hair across his body sunk back into his skin and the grey color of his flesh melted away to a renewed peach. Blonde locks fell about a face that shrunk back, cracking. Ears lowered their points and stretched in their correct direction facing the back of his head. Sharp claws shriveled into reshaping fingers, and his legs once again were straightened from their hunched position.
Lying on the ground, Link had physically become human once more. Midna looked to him, and his still posture upon the ground seemed incomprehensible to her. He was human. Why was he not moving or grunting in pain? Was he…?
She leaned in toward him to check his breath, but upon a glance to his face, she noticed that his eyes were still that of his wolf form. She then understood. Though, his appearance was once again human, the soul of his birth identity had not yet been restored. A sudden scream from him further encouraged this notion. The transformation from wolf to human and human to wolf no longer truly dealt any great pain to him, but the spiritual reformation still agonized him.
He clutched at his chest, and Midna noted that his organs and heart were most likely now returning to their former state. His heart beat erratically. He closed his lupine eyes tightly, and with his opposite hand he grabbed the moist earth. He choked and gagged, moaned and cried. At last, a final shriek shocked the air, a final pain that spread his eyes open as they condensed into their oval shape.
Leaning in toward the ground now, Link purposely misplaced any pride that was his. He cared not that Midna, a usually sneering and selfish partner, watched on. He still held his chest, as the fingers of his other hand toyed with the grass, using this motion as an outlet for any further unvoiced pain he endured. He heaved his breaths deeply, as if testing that his old lungs were still working. He leaned his forehead against the cool grass and closed his eyes. From this torture, he did not request a reprieve. He simply stole it.
Midna sat down to wait. His rest was due. He had been struggling through so many fierce battles and home bound atrocities that she understood. He had been fighting to save Hyrule for so long. Indeed, he had rested following the safe return of Colin and after freeing Darbus from the curse of the Fused Shadows, but no event that he had spiraled into proved more wearying than having his body crushed apart only to be reformed in just as brutal a fashion.
Yet, this troubled Midna. Upon his first descent into the twilight, the transformation had thrown him into unconsciousness-which was where Midna assumed he had again gone-but the reconstruction that had followed had not traumatized him. His body had remolded itself in silence as Faron had spoken with him.
His second wolf mutilation had weakened him only momentarily, recovering quickly from its accursed pain. Yet to contrast, Eldin's restoration of his body had surprisingly caused him more pain than any of the then four shape shifting occurrences. She remembered the broken questions he had uttered and his puzzlement at the pain.
The third time he had fallen into shadow, he had been accepting of the torment and even less time had been spent in recuperating. She remembered how he had almost immediately been able to canter off to continue his journey. Perhaps it had been that he had every last urge to find his lost friend, the last of the Ordonians, but Link-even though knowing where she was now-still had to bring her to the safety of Kakariko Village.
As he lay before her, his body draped against the ground as if a knightly nobleman sleeping in all his elegance, there was still terror raging within his beating heart. The fierce pounding of it rattled her, and the emotion creeping up in her nearly frightened her. Allowing the feeling to progress so much within her caused the better half of her fear.
Though his metamorphoses into the lupine animal pained him less and less each time, the fact remained that returning to his human form had progressively become more and more unbearable.
How many more times could Link withstand such brutality? Or even more distressing....
How long would it be before these transformations became so tormenting to him that he did not wake from his unconsciousness?
===============
Link at last awoke, hours later, grunting. Pushing himself up slightly, he looked about. Midna, having glanced over at his movements, had uprooted herself from her moist seat and approached him.
"Are you done sleeping then?" she shot, masking her true, rattled feelings well.
He moaned in response and his gaze followed the radiating light in front of him. Blinding though they were, he stared into the patient eyes of the last spirit. Link rose from his earthly bed to stand before the noble entity, shaking away the last of the pain that he had endured.
"My name is Lanayru," the ethereal voice spoke, after judging that Link had indeed recovered well enough from his divine torture. "Your efforts have at last restored each of us light spirits in Hyrule. O, hero chosen by the gods.... The dark power that you seek...." the spirit's tone fell as if in disappointment, but it quickly recuperated. "It waits in the temple set in the bed of Lake Hylia, a sacred place for the Zoras.
"But" -its voice was shattering, precaution and disturbance both set upon its pitch- "before seeking it, you must now bare witness to something … and never forget it. You must know that it was the will of the goddesses that we lock away the forbidden power."
Into Link's eyes the spirit bore its most intense gaze, and Link was forced to close his membranes to shut out the blinding force. Yet, when he reopened his eyes, he saw all around him … nothing. A blank emptiness. No feeling. No reason to breathe. And suddenly he was weightless; he no longer stood upon the ground of the cave. He looked down upon himself, and found that his Ordonian clothes again adorned him.
When he had worn those garments … he had been innocent, ignorant to his true place in Hyrule and to the land's distress.
Within the blackness Lanayru's voice broke into his ears, and the severity of its words struck Link immediately. "When all was chaos, the goddesses descended and gave order and life to the world."
Three bright lights burst from the blackness and danced about Link. A crimson flash engulfed him and suddenly, within its wake, there sprouted formations all about. He felt the ground beneath him at last. With a turquoise blaze, grass grew from under his feet and trees flourished within seconds. In another blast of light-this one emerald-sparkles of life pollinated the world. Goats roamed about in the distance and birds flew high in the skies.
Ilia stood beside him....
"They had granted power equally to all who dwelt in the light and then returned to the heavens. The lands where the goddesses descended came to be known as the Sacred Realm."
Lanayru's voice had grown distant in Link's mind, as if numb to the fact that it existed. He had fallen into the illusion that had been painted around him, and the singsong voice had merely become a hum within his ears. He could still hear Lanayru, understand the words, but it was as if this vision were his reality.
He and Ilia watched in amazement as the three beams rained upon each other, and in a flash, three of the most golden triangles circled above them.
The very symbol that had branded Link for as long as he had known.
"For ages, the people lived at ease, content in mind and body. But soon, word of the Sacred Realm spread through Hyrule, and a great battle ensued."
Ilia's eyes began to droop, as Link himself staggered. For some reason, the sight of the triangles had created a deep hunger within him. He turned to Ilia, but instead of her glimmering green eyes, their identity had been consumed, and he now faced her dagger point. But she gasped and sputtered before she could steal his life.
Her dirk clanked to the ground, and her still body followed soon after.
Pleased and caring not that the blood staining her garments was the very same blemish that tainted his sword, he tossed his weapon to the ground. Her death meant nothing to him. Now he could pursue his prize.
He raced from her body, his attire shadowing the hero that he had now become.
"Among those living in the light, interlopers who excelled in magic appeared."
The figures rose from their earthly womb and laughed at Link. They were darkened forms, eyes filled with red hatred. Yet, what was more, they were a mirror into Link, reflections of the lust that billowed throughout him now. A colossal form sprang from the ground behind them. The Fused Shadow. Its darkness shielded the triangles.
"Wielding powerful sorcery , they tried to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm."
And they stretched out their arms, just as Link had realized his mistakes. The murder of Ilia.... The lust for the great power.... He tried to shield himself from the force that threatened to rip him apart, but-
With a scream, his body burst into pieces, consumed by the interlopers.
He had now become one of them, sneering at the pathetic nature of all other things living. All the good in him has been banished into the air, and he grinned with his counterparts. A laugh escaped him. The Sacred Realm was his to control.
"It was then that the goddesses ordered us three light spirits to intervene."
Orbs of light descended upon Link and his comrades, and they searched about, looking for a path of evasion. But … there was none....
"We sealed away the great magic those individuals had mastered."
Link watched in hate and fear as the Fused Shadow tumbled out of his reach. He jerked himself about and stared down the light spirits. The vilest shriek of the most hateful rage escaped his lungs, and he wanted to slaughter every last sentient being for revenge.
Suddenly, Link had returned to the true world, Midna looking on in wonder, curious as to what Link had seen, for the look upon his face had been a constant stare. A daze, unknowing, unblinking.
"You know this magic," warned Lanayru. "It is the dark power you seek … the Fused Shadow. O, hero chosen by the goddesses.... Beware.... Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it. Never forget that."
As if to impress the issue further, an image of a thousand Ilias tumbled through his vision. Each of her bodies fell upside-down before him. Some laughed at his mistake of killing her and taking the destructive power for himself. Others sneered. But most wept, pleading, haunting him for his accursed actions.
The deepest sorrow within him erased the sneer that painted his face, and suddenly, his chest heaved and he awoke to the real world. Lanayru had gone already, watching over the land in its dreams.
Ilia's murder replayed in his mind, and something began smearing his vision. The danger of the Fused Shadows loomed above him. He hated the thought of their might, their raw power. He recalled the lust that had consumed him, a hunger that had driven him to madness. It, too, had infested Ilia, and she had turned a dagger upon him. He had killed her. The sight of her shining blood rattled his mind, and he crashed to his knees, weakened by the horrifying thought.
Such an accursed power....
But Ilia would never.
He would never.
"Ilia...."
Sloshing through the water below was the long form that comprised a creature of which Link could not name. Finally it burst through the surface, its head halting just feet away from the ledge upon which Link and Midna stood. Its lengthy and slender body stretched back and coiled beneath the surface of the water. Its gigantic maw held the shining orb of light that had now been revivified. The two huge white eyes upon the sea serpent's head bore into Link's, and the remolding of his body began.
The hair across his body sunk back into his skin and the grey color of his flesh melted away to a renewed peach. Blonde locks fell about a face that shrunk back, cracking. Ears lowered their points and stretched in their correct direction facing the back of his head. Sharp claws shriveled into reshaping fingers, and his legs once again were straightened from their hunched position.
Lying on the ground, Link had physically become human once more. Midna looked to him, and his still posture upon the ground seemed incomprehensible to her. He was human. Why was he not moving or grunting in pain? Was he…?
She leaned in toward him to check his breath, but upon a glance to his face, she noticed that his eyes were still that of his wolf form. She then understood. Though, his appearance was once again human, the soul of his birth identity had not yet been restored. A sudden scream from him further encouraged this notion. The transformation from wolf to human and human to wolf no longer truly dealt any great pain to him, but the spiritual reformation still agonized him.
He clutched at his chest, and Midna noted that his organs and heart were most likely now returning to their former state. His heart beat erratically. He closed his lupine eyes tightly, and with his opposite hand he grabbed the moist earth. He choked and gagged, moaned and cried. At last, a final shriek shocked the air, a final pain that spread his eyes open as they condensed into their oval shape.
Leaning in toward the ground now, Link purposely misplaced any pride that was his. He cared not that Midna, a usually sneering and selfish partner, watched on. He still held his chest, as the fingers of his other hand toyed with the grass, using this motion as an outlet for any further unvoiced pain he endured. He heaved his breaths deeply, as if testing that his old lungs were still working. He leaned his forehead against the cool grass and closed his eyes. From this torture, he did not request a reprieve. He simply stole it.
Midna sat down to wait. His rest was due. He had been struggling through so many fierce battles and home bound atrocities that she understood. He had been fighting to save Hyrule for so long. Indeed, he had rested following the safe return of Colin and after freeing Darbus from the curse of the Fused Shadows, but no event that he had spiraled into proved more wearying than having his body crushed apart only to be reformed in just as brutal a fashion.
Yet, this troubled Midna. Upon his first descent into the twilight, the transformation had thrown him into unconsciousness-which was where Midna assumed he had again gone-but the reconstruction that had followed had not traumatized him. His body had remolded itself in silence as Faron had spoken with him.
His second wolf mutilation had weakened him only momentarily, recovering quickly from its accursed pain. Yet to contrast, Eldin's restoration of his body had surprisingly caused him more pain than any of the then four shape shifting occurrences. She remembered the broken questions he had uttered and his puzzlement at the pain.
The third time he had fallen into shadow, he had been accepting of the torment and even less time had been spent in recuperating. She remembered how he had almost immediately been able to canter off to continue his journey. Perhaps it had been that he had every last urge to find his lost friend, the last of the Ordonians, but Link-even though knowing where she was now-still had to bring her to the safety of Kakariko Village.
As he lay before her, his body draped against the ground as if a knightly nobleman sleeping in all his elegance, there was still terror raging within his beating heart. The fierce pounding of it rattled her, and the emotion creeping up in her nearly frightened her. Allowing the feeling to progress so much within her caused the better half of her fear.
Though his metamorphoses into the lupine animal pained him less and less each time, the fact remained that returning to his human form had progressively become more and more unbearable.
How many more times could Link withstand such brutality? Or even more distressing....
How long would it be before these transformations became so tormenting to him that he did not wake from his unconsciousness?
===============
Link at last awoke, hours later, grunting. Pushing himself up slightly, he looked about. Midna, having glanced over at his movements, had uprooted herself from her moist seat and approached him.
"Are you done sleeping then?" she shot, masking her true, rattled feelings well.
He moaned in response and his gaze followed the radiating light in front of him. Blinding though they were, he stared into the patient eyes of the last spirit. Link rose from his earthly bed to stand before the noble entity, shaking away the last of the pain that he had endured.
"My name is Lanayru," the ethereal voice spoke, after judging that Link had indeed recovered well enough from his divine torture. "Your efforts have at last restored each of us light spirits in Hyrule. O, hero chosen by the gods.... The dark power that you seek...." the spirit's tone fell as if in disappointment, but it quickly recuperated. "It waits in the temple set in the bed of Lake Hylia, a sacred place for the Zoras.
"But" -its voice was shattering, precaution and disturbance both set upon its pitch- "before seeking it, you must now bare witness to something … and never forget it. You must know that it was the will of the goddesses that we lock away the forbidden power."
Into Link's eyes the spirit bore its most intense gaze, and Link was forced to close his membranes to shut out the blinding force. Yet, when he reopened his eyes, he saw all around him … nothing. A blank emptiness. No feeling. No reason to breathe. And suddenly he was weightless; he no longer stood upon the ground of the cave. He looked down upon himself, and found that his Ordonian clothes again adorned him.
When he had worn those garments … he had been innocent, ignorant to his true place in Hyrule and to the land's distress.
Within the blackness Lanayru's voice broke into his ears, and the severity of its words struck Link immediately. "When all was chaos, the goddesses descended and gave order and life to the world."
Three bright lights burst from the blackness and danced about Link. A crimson flash engulfed him and suddenly, within its wake, there sprouted formations all about. He felt the ground beneath him at last. With a turquoise blaze, grass grew from under his feet and trees flourished within seconds. In another blast of light-this one emerald-sparkles of life pollinated the world. Goats roamed about in the distance and birds flew high in the skies.
Ilia stood beside him....
"They had granted power equally to all who dwelt in the light and then returned to the heavens. The lands where the goddesses descended came to be known as the Sacred Realm."
Lanayru's voice had grown distant in Link's mind, as if numb to the fact that it existed. He had fallen into the illusion that had been painted around him, and the singsong voice had merely become a hum within his ears. He could still hear Lanayru, understand the words, but it was as if this vision were his reality.
He and Ilia watched in amazement as the three beams rained upon each other, and in a flash, three of the most golden triangles circled above them.
The very symbol that had branded Link for as long as he had known.
"For ages, the people lived at ease, content in mind and body. But soon, word of the Sacred Realm spread through Hyrule, and a great battle ensued."
Ilia's eyes began to droop, as Link himself staggered. For some reason, the sight of the triangles had created a deep hunger within him. He turned to Ilia, but instead of her glimmering green eyes, their identity had been consumed, and he now faced her dagger point. But she gasped and sputtered before she could steal his life.
Her dirk clanked to the ground, and her still body followed soon after.
Pleased and caring not that the blood staining her garments was the very same blemish that tainted his sword, he tossed his weapon to the ground. Her death meant nothing to him. Now he could pursue his prize.
He raced from her body, his attire shadowing the hero that he had now become.
"Among those living in the light, interlopers who excelled in magic appeared."
The figures rose from their earthly womb and laughed at Link. They were darkened forms, eyes filled with red hatred. Yet, what was more, they were a mirror into Link, reflections of the lust that billowed throughout him now. A colossal form sprang from the ground behind them. The Fused Shadow. Its darkness shielded the triangles.
"Wielding powerful sorcery , they tried to establish dominion over the Sacred Realm."
And they stretched out their arms, just as Link had realized his mistakes. The murder of Ilia.... The lust for the great power.... He tried to shield himself from the force that threatened to rip him apart, but-
With a scream, his body burst into pieces, consumed by the interlopers.
He had now become one of them, sneering at the pathetic nature of all other things living. All the good in him has been banished into the air, and he grinned with his counterparts. A laugh escaped him. The Sacred Realm was his to control.
"It was then that the goddesses ordered us three light spirits to intervene."
Orbs of light descended upon Link and his comrades, and they searched about, looking for a path of evasion. But … there was none....
"We sealed away the great magic those individuals had mastered."
Link watched in hate and fear as the Fused Shadow tumbled out of his reach. He jerked himself about and stared down the light spirits. The vilest shriek of the most hateful rage escaped his lungs, and he wanted to slaughter every last sentient being for revenge.
Suddenly, Link had returned to the true world, Midna looking on in wonder, curious as to what Link had seen, for the look upon his face had been a constant stare. A daze, unknowing, unblinking.
"You know this magic," warned Lanayru. "It is the dark power you seek … the Fused Shadow. O, hero chosen by the goddesses.... Beware.... Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it. Never forget that."
As if to impress the issue further, an image of a thousand Ilias tumbled through his vision. Each of her bodies fell upside-down before him. Some laughed at his mistake of killing her and taking the destructive power for himself. Others sneered. But most wept, pleading, haunting him for his accursed actions.
The deepest sorrow within him erased the sneer that painted his face, and suddenly, his chest heaved and he awoke to the real world. Lanayru had gone already, watching over the land in its dreams.
Ilia's murder replayed in his mind, and something began smearing his vision. The danger of the Fused Shadows loomed above him. He hated the thought of their might, their raw power. He recalled the lust that had consumed him, a hunger that had driven him to madness. It, too, had infested Ilia, and she had turned a dagger upon him. He had killed her. The sight of her shining blood rattled his mind, and he crashed to his knees, weakened by the horrifying thought.
Such an accursed power....
But Ilia would never.
He would never.
"Ilia...."
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REVIEWS FOR THIS CHAPTER:
~Xcoinic Mar 16, 2011 I think I sense Link having a bit of distrust to his childhood friend, I wonder? Man, If I were in Midna's shoes, seeing Link and hearing him turn to wolf to human over and over, the sickening cracks of bones and mutilated screams would forever be burned into my mind.
~Dimension-Dino Aug 22, 2012 I'm telling you, and I'm sure that several people agree with me, that scene in the game FREAKED. ME. OUT. And you did a good job replicating it, I tell you. That takes talent.
~Dimension-Dino Aug 22, 2012 I'm telling you, and I'm sure that several people agree with me, that scene in the game FREAKED. ME. OUT. And you did a good job replicating it, I tell you. That takes talent.