A/N: Sorry for a few in-game lines, but I LOVE THIS PART :D And poor Link can’t see in color anymore. :( Also, be warned, there is a smidge of what some people might call gore in here. I don’t call it that for certain, but some people might. XO Anyway, I apologize for the lack of update, and I don’t feel like making an excuse.

You may have also noticed I changed my name and erased six out of my eight stories. I explained it on my profile. But never fear! I am still Kioasakka, just with a different name, and this story shall not be deleted :D Also, to those who read A Never Known Love, the long-awaited sequel is to come out before September 2007, guaranteed!

Baronfly: Nope, no bad dreams. But it was really creepy. o.O
Flameshield: Mayhap yes, mayhap no. ;)
Duke Serkol: Ah, yes, but I based mine off the fact that you saw their pan out vision and Link wasn't in it. Those things are not exactly the brightest, you know.
MythCreaterWriter: Everything's here for a reason. :)

Many thanks to everybody else for reviewing!

Chapter Five
The Imp and the Wolf Boy

When Link came to, he was lying on a cold stone floor with a chain around his front left wrist. All the colors seemed to have vanished from wherever he was, and thousands of smells entered his nostrils stronger than usual. He shook his chained paw. Wait… paw? He looked down at himself and yelped in the same way a dog would yell. He growled. What was he? A dog? Why was he a dog? He clawed at the chain, which was attached to the floor. He gripped it in his mouth and shook it. A slight noise made his ears twitch. His hearing was even more sensitive, he found, than usual. Better watch that, he told himself. He turned toward the noise. Someone was there. Someone little. He growled. The small person jumped in the air. He looked up, and then the being was right in front of him.

“I found you!” the person said. Link snarled. “Ooh, aren’t you scary!” The being was a girl judging by the voice, had a black-and-white body with glowing green symbols all over—which Link saw as a shade of gray, as well as everything else, to his dismay—and orange hair coming out of a large… thing on her head. She laughed. “Are you sure you want to be doing that? Growling at me? Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it? I was going to help you, if you were nice.”

Upon hearing this, Link quieted at once and stood up straight.

The girl-being giggled. “There now, that’s much better!” she said. “You humans are obedient to a fault!” She tapped Link on the bottom of his chin twice. “Oops! But you aren’t human anymore, now, are you? You’re a beast! Aren’t you lucky?” She grinned and jumped back when he snapped at her. He noticed she had one fang sticking out of her mouth. “There, there. You be a good boy and calm down. No need to bite!”

Link was not liking this person very much. But when a red light formed at her hands and flew toward him, breaking the chain, he could only be astounded. He’d been brought up to believe magic was only alive in faery tales, but here he was, free to go… sort of.

The imp looked at him sideways, grinning that grin of hers. “You look kind of surprised!” she pointed out, giggling again. “I’ll bet you’re wondering where we are, huh?” She jumped back and seemed to turn into small green, black and red bubbles before reappearing behind the bars. “Well, let’s make a deal. If you can get over here, then mayhap I’ll tell you!” She yawned, as if this would take a while.

He frowned and looked around at the cell bars. A pile of junk was stuffed in a corner, right next to the bars and the stone wall. He attempted to walk over to it and pawed at it once he had, noticing that the ground poking out from under it was dirt, then backed up and charged at it. Everything broke or flew somewhere, and he was left with a pile of broken debris scattered around him. He took a glance at the imp-girl, who was eyeing him, bored, then turned his attention back to the spot he was at. He saw that the whole bit ground was no longer stone, but rather exceptionally soft dirt. He began to dig at it, waiting to feel stone. He never did, but he did find that the same sort of dirt appeared to be on the other side. How it was he overlooked it, he wasn’t sure, but he saw it now, so he dug his way into the ground, and then out on the other side. Link shook out the dirt from his fur and looked back at where the smirking figure had vanished from. Where did she go? he couldn’t help but wonder. He wasn’t too upset she was gone, but it was strange.

Suddenly, he felt something light fall on his back. He growled and ran awkwardly around to catch it, snapping his jaws. The imp-girl giggled and pulled on his ears, making him stop. “Well, I see you’re not so completely stupid, as I thought,” she told him. “Listen up, wolf. I like you, so I’ll help you out of here. However… you’re going to have to do exactly as I say, got it? You’ll have to be a good little slave and do as I tell you, or I won’t help you. And trust me when I say, wolf-boy, that getting out of here alive without my help will not be at all easy.”

“Why should I trust you?” Link asked angrily, though he knew she wouldn’t hear it.

To his surprise, she did. “Hey, I’ve helped you out so far, haven’t I?” she asked. “Or should I put you back on your leash in that cell? Get moving.”

He looked down. The whole walking on four legs thing wasn’t really coming easy to him. Well, of course it wouldn’t, considering he’d never been a wolf before. He put one leg forward, and the other one next, but his hind legs were still where they were.

“What’s the holdup? Move!”

“In CASE you hadn’t noticed,” Link snapped, “I’ve never been a wolf before, so you’d do well to let me figure it out on my own.”

“Oh, so scary,” was the sarcastic reply. “What’ll you do to me? You can’t walk.”

“How is it that you can understand me? What are you?”

The imp laid down on him, putting her chin on his head. He moved his eyes upward to see her smirking at him. “What am I?” she asked. “What are you, little wolf-boy? When you can answer me that, maybe I’ll answer you.” Link growled. She bent down and tapped his leg four times, then sat back up. “Now move.”

This time, when Link took a step with his front left leg, his right back leg moved forward with him. He walked forward, amazed. How’d you do that? he asked.

“Too many questions!” she cried. “I’m getting bored of you. Hurry it up before I change my mind about helping you out of here.”

He was getting rather bored of her, too, and her constant nagging, but he clenched his sharper teeth together and walked toward the door out, not saying anything. When he saw the door was closed, he began to paw at the ground to see if he could dig out again.

He heard an irritated sigh and felt the imp-girl kick his sides. “You can’t open that,” she told him irritably. “Try that cell over here.”

Confused, but not really wanting to have to figure out this unknown territory by himself, he obeyed. He wandered into the open cell adjacent to the one in which he’d been imprisoned. A large metal circle hung out of the ceiling. The imp’s hair began to glow, but he didn’t notice, because an idea had come to mind. He backed up, then jumped, grabbing the bar in his mouth, and yanked it down before he let go. The wall beside him crunched, and was pulled upward, revealing a room full of water.

The imp still hadn’t said anything as he jumped down onto the landing, and he took the silence for granted. Link walked forward, and stopped. What was that blue thing floating around in that corner? It looked like fire.

“See that?” the imp asked, breaking the silence. “Pretty weird-looking, huh? Try ‘honing your senses’, wolf-boy.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but it really wasn’t hard. With just a thought his vision sharpened and the floating blue fire turned into a person. Link ran over to him, barking loudly. The person didn’t seem to notice.

“Quiet down,” snapped the imp. “That soldier can’t hear you anyway.”

“Soldier?” Where was he?

When Colin came to, he was more than afraid. He was terrified. But he made sure not to show it when he saw Malo, Talo and Beth nearby. They were lying in beds in a dimly-lit room, with a man with dreadlocks over in the corner. He noticed Colin, who buried quickly under the covers more to hide from the approaching man.

“Little boy,” the man said gently when he crouched next to the bedside, “you’ve awakened, I see. It’s about time.”

The blond boy hesitated, then poked his head out from under his hiding spot just enough for his eyes to see the man. He was trying so hard not to shake in fear, but it was difficult when it seemed to run through his veins.

“I’m not about to hurt you,” offered the man. “My daughter and I helped save you and your friends here.”

Colin peeked over at the three again, then back at the man. Finally, he squeaked, “Who are you? Where is this place?”

He smiled. “I am Renaldo,” he answered, “and you are here at my house in Kakariko Village.”

Only when Colin moved it to nod did he notice his head was bandaged. He touched it gently. It throbbed in a mild pain.

Renaldo noticed this. “You were bleeding from the head when we found you, boy. My daughter bandaged you up nice and well. She’s a bit of a… let’s call it a knack for healing.” He grinned.

Colin smiled meekly in response. He then sat up, slowly. He looked around the room. “Where’s Ilia?” he asked suddenly. She wasn’t in here. It was just him, Beth, Talo and Malo. “And Link? How come they’re not here with us?”

Link gasped when they were finally out of there. Well, in as much a way a wolf can. He was still a little dizzy from walking across tightropes in the last room, and then jumping and having that crazy imp’s hair catch him. He’d never been a big fan of heights. He wasn’t afraid of them, but he just didn’t like them.

For a moment he wasn’t so sure he was outside. He saw a large building spread out before him, and the sky was tinted a gold color, with little black dots floating upward. It reminded Link of—

“Ah! My, isn’t the cloud of twilight looking absolutely lovely today?” the imp asked nobody in particular.

Twilight? Yes, that’s what it reminded him of. But this wasn’t any twilight he’d ever seen. What was with the black dots? He hopped off the ledge onto a roof and then onto a small wood platform. Where am I? he wondered.

“So, little wolf-boy, have you got any idea where you are now?” he heard whispered in his ear. He shook his head. She sat up quickly. “Are you serious? You have no clue as to where we are? What cave have you been living in all your life?”

“Knock it off,” he grumbled irritably. She merely giggled and kicked him as a signal to move. He did, figuring the sooner he did what she asked now, the sooner he’d be out of this body and away from her. He ran across the roof until he caught sight of something that made him stop in his tracks.

“What’s wrong now?” the imp demanded. Then she saw what he was staring at, and laughed. “Oh, that’s just a shadow monster, no big deal. I’ll bet you can defeat it so easy.”

“And how, pray tell, do I do that?” Link snapped.

“Hm. I don’t know. Just pretend you’re in your normal body. It can’t be much different, right?”

As if that helped. But still, he had to try. The creature had spotted him and was flying his way. He panicked and backed up a step, but a kick from his rider made him remember his thoughts. He clenched his teeth together and lunged at the beast. Clinging on with his jaws in its neck, he began to scratch at it. It yelled—or, at least, he thought it was a yell; it sounded more like horns—and shook him off. He scrambled to his feet again and he attacked it once more, this time mashing his fangs into the squirming creature and hanging on by sinking his claws into it. It shrieked and he felt a weird substance flow into his mouth. He grew faint and almost fell off.

“Get a hold of yourself!” his rider commanded him. She was hanging on to his fur and simply watching.

He did. He brought back his sense and raised his mouth. He sank it into one of the wings and jerked; it came off with a sickening tear. Black liquid poured from the open wound, and suddenly the creature began to tremble. Link instinctively let go and moved out of the way as it fell to the ground and exploded. The black fluid sprayed everywhere. Once it settled, Link spat the same substance from his mouth. He felt like he was going to throw up.

His rider wouldn’t allow for it. “Here, hold on, let me make you look somewhat presentable,” she mumbled, flying off and landing in front of him.

Presentable…? he wondered.

She flicked her hand and the creature’s blood particles flew off of Link and landed in a puddle with the rest of it. She cleaned herself up the same way. “My, my, you couldn’t have made a cleaner kill?”

“D-Damn you,” he told her. “That was horrible! Don’t expect me to do it ever again. You got that?”

“That’s my wolf boy,” she replied with a smirk. “A bit commanding, though, I must say. Shall I remind you of who’s in charge here?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “Anyways, come on. We’ve got to move.” She hopped back on.

There weren’t any more monsters on the way to the mystery imp’s destination, thankfully. She gave him the directions there and he followed them. It ended up with him back inside and dropping to a flight of stairs, up which he ran. He entered a slightly open door.

A/N: Yay, an exciting chapter:D And sorry, but I hate the water room, it’s really boring XD So I put that scene with Colin in instead! Sorry, too, for the ‘gore’ with the shadow monster. I just had a bit of a hard time picturing exactly in what way Link killed those things, so I made one up. XDDD