Chapter Three

Link

[AN: I decided to write Link in the third person rather than first, as he is never given a voice quite the same as Midna and Zelda are, and I don't want to ruin his character with my own version of him, so I will try my best to give you enough space to create your own image of Link, just as the games do!]

Link dragged his feet up the last few steps and leaned against a pillar, taking a moment to catch his breath, wiping the sweat from his brow before it dripped into his eyes. He remembered when he thought travelling to Gerudo Desert this often was a good idea. The heat never eased up, but at least the passage through Arbiter's Grounds was becoming easier with each visit.
It was pleasant, to say the least, to be able to have somewhere to go, even if it didn't make him happier. By him alone, he had no doubt that Fabi and Fyer were turning over a huge profit. Epona, no doubt, got tired of the same route over and over. Fado probably found it a pain to have to look after the ranch on his own so much, even since Link was back home.
Everything was against him coming here time and time again, but he just couldn't bring himself to stop. It was simply too special a memory for him to just stop. The trip was difficult, bearing what he found every time was difficult, but he could only hope that once, just once, he'd arrive, and what he'd find would be... different. Not knowing if the place had changed when he wasn't there was the most difficult part.
It wasn't like he could tell anyone what he was looking for.
Or why he was looking for it.
Drawing one, last, shaking breath, weary from the trip, Link began to walk to the Mirror Chamber once again. The sun had set as he'd been resting and the heat of the day had begun to subside. His footsteps echoed into the slowly gathering dusk.
As he approached the pedestal that once held the Mirror of Twilight, he had to close his eyes for the memories that came flooding back, causing him to sway slightly on his feet. The scenes played out inside his mind, yet somehow real enough for him to close his eyes to hide them.
See you later...
If only that meant he really would see Midna later. He opened his eyes and gave the mirror stand a mournful look.
Something on the stand caught his eye, glinting in the gathering darkness. Curious, he picked it up. It seemed to be a shard of the very mirror that once settled there, but the design on it was the triforce – the centre piece – but the shard was too small.
Pondering the meaning of the mysterious piece, he looked up at the huge rock, turning the shard over and over in his hand as his thoughts clamoured indecisively. Was this really a piece of the mirror? Or was he mistaken about the size of the centre piece?
Without warning, the triforce on the back of his hand began to burn, as did the shard he was holding – almost as if in reaction to each other.
He dropped the shard and grabbed his burning hand, clutching it to his chest. The shard began to emanate a white glow which seemingly expanded, setting his vision spinning. It took him a moment to realise that it wasn't his vision that was spinning. It was the portal.
Before he even had the chance to take a step forwards, a creature materialized from through the portal. Its body was black, marked with the blue patterns that identified it was a Twilight being. But its face was covered by a horrendous mask that identified it as none other than a shadow beast. The agonizing searing of his hand rendered him unable to even draw his sword, and sensing its chance, the shadow beast let out a soul curdling screech.
Unlike the screech of the other shadow beasts Link had encountered, this one didn't raise its fallen brethren. This one brutally ripped apart the fabric of reality, tearing shadows from the ground and leaving them to float as wisps of darkness skywards until they faded into nothingness. The starless sky was wrenched in two, the darkness forming into impenetrable black clouds and the light shining from an indistinguishable point behind them with a yellowish glow that bathed Gerudo Desert and the Arbiter's Grounds in the unmistakable hue of the Twilight.
As the sky spread into the Twilight, the burning heat spread from Link's hand to his arm and to the rest of his body, sending a smouldering pain through his heart. The pain in his chest became almost unbearable when the heat like flames turned to a frigid cold which began to spread outwards, consuming all heat, and with it, his human form. The feeling of ice brought the body of the wolf that consumed him entirely.
Having not experience the pain of the change in so long, the shock rendered him exhausted deep down to his very spirit. His legs gave a tremble, then another, and then buckled beneath him.
His last sight before a black wave of fatigue enveloped him was the faceless form of the shadow beast moving towards him with fearlessness and purposefulness.