The rain had picked up, and Link stayed hidden under the small roof of the window as Midna flew away from him. She faced him and smirked. Her face was kind of cute the more he looked at it, and her red eye was almost...pretty. But behind its glossy exterior he caught something...Greed. Selfishness. A bit of pain, masked by hatred.
"So, do you understand where we are now?"
He did. He wasn't in just some strange world...it was HIS world. Taken over. Corrupted. Shadowed. And, Farore...Ordon could be next.
"Well, a promise is a promise, so I guess I'll take you back to where you first transformed in twilight...But are you really sure you should be going back?"
Link looked down at the ground. Should he?
"Are you sure you aren't forgetting anything important?" Midna smirked, tapped her finger to her chin, and suddenly she spun around and Colin was screaming, then Ilia. Link's eyes softened at the sight of her.
"Ooh, now THAT sure caught your attention," The Ilia-looking Midna giggled. "You must really like her." Link felt his heart skip a beat and his face heat up. Thank Din he was a wolf.
She giggled. "Do you want to save them?" Link whined, trying to say yes. "Well in that case, little Midna would be happy to help you."
"Oh, really?" Bark.
"Well, you'd have to be my servant, and like a servant, you'd have to do exactly as I say!" She was back to normal, with her strange black and white pattern and short, stubby legs. "Why don't you go back, take a little time, and give it some thought?"
Midna giggled, and suddenly Link couldn't feel anything beneath his feet. It felt as though he was being crushed into nothingness and stretched out into infinity at the same time, yet...it didn't hurt. Everything shifted below him and his vision dissolved into black.
Link slowly...floated?...down close to the ground, when his feet slammed down and he toppled over, legs weak. He looked around and saw that he was back in Ordon Spring. His throat felt dry until he realized that everything looked a bit different. Lighter. Happier. His home, at least, wasn't twilight.
"Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention one thing." Link spun around, but Midna was nowhere in sight. "Even though you've left the darkened world, you haven't transformed back to your former self, and you won't anytime soon. Now why could that be?" Midna's giggle echoed in his mind, and Link winced. He was still a beast. He had no choice but to be her servant and then, maybe, he'd get back to normal and would be able to see Ilia again...Link shook his head. Right...Colin too.
"So, um, now what?" Link asked.
Bark!
A shadow in the shape of Midna suddenly floated in front of him, and she giggled as Link jumped. "You didn't think I'd disappeared, did you?"
More like hoped.
"Listen, there's another thing I forgot to tell you...don't think you can just run off and save your friends, because you can't. Just beyond that bridge, the land is covered in Twilight. Last time, a shadow beast pulled you through the curtain of twilight. If you want to go through this time, you'll need the cooperation of someone FROM the twilight...like me!"
Great.
"Right now, I want a sword and shield that'll suit me. You do know what that means, right?"
How was he supposed to get his hands - er, paws - on a sword and shield when he couldn't leave Ordon...?
Link suddenly felt sick to his stomach.
He had to steal from his friends.
Either that, or he would never rid Hyrule of Twilight, let alone find Ilia or transform back to a human.
