Story Title: Our Wind Will Shake the Earth and Stars

Disclaimer: I don't own TP.

Author's Notes: Thanks to Enhasa, eudaemonics, FFLove190, and Namesake for reviewing.

While I admit I've had a lot of personal/family tragedies and health issues this year, I'm embarrassed that this story hasn't been updated in more than a year and, for what it's worth, I do apologize for that. The irony is that I've been excited to reach this chapter and it's one of the first plot points I planned out from the initial drafts but it's been slower than a cold molasses drip to finish. Though this chapter is relatively short, during writing, it felt like I had written twenty pages of material when I had only written four.

I just hope that the wait has been worth it. I really would be surprised if there are any old readers waiting for this story… It's been so long I've probably lost what few loyal readers it had. Though as always, thanks for reading, regardless if you are a new or an old reader.

-o-

Chapter Eleven: The Presence of Light

-o-

Not needing to be told twice, Shad stepped back as he gawked, mouth open, at the presence of the Light Spirit Ordona. He found himself split between intellectual awe being once more in the shadow of a minor divinity and pervasive fear reminding him that Ordona wished himself and Link dead and thoroughly intended to carry onward with that sentencing.

Link, still crouched in a battle stance in front of the scholar, growled low in warning.

"We need not to fight, brave youth," Ordona said. "You need only to leave the Oocca to their fate and we shall forgive your ignorance. Seek life, hero chosen by the Goddesses. Your trials have ended and evil has been slain. Return the Master Sword to its sleep and reap the fortunes of peace."

Link did not stand down. He lashed his tail and smacked the flooded floor, the sound of the splash and the snap of his long tail feathers at the tip of his tail crackling like fire.

Bowing its head and readying to charge, Ordona scowled in disapproval. "This is the choice you alone have made, hero chosen by the Goddesses. So be it."

Ordona charged and though the spirit was not coming at him at full speed, Link nonetheless sidestepped its charge, not knowing yet if he could match the Light Spirit's strength. Shad hurried to get behind the ring of support columns and out of the way, in case Ordona planned to rush right through the columns. The goat-shaped spirit slowed its charge right before the support columns and quickly turned to face Link once again.

To no surprise, the Light Spirit obviously did not consider Shad a threat and focused all of its attention on eliminating Link first. Water rippled and splashed across the support columns and up the scholar's legs as the two raced to and from one another. He was not certain if it was wise to remain where he was or to give chase in the opposite direction of wherever Link and Ordona were or would be. While he was not unaccustomed to running and hiding, he was used to his pursuing attackers being some variety of bulblin and he could outwit those easily. Ordona, however, was of large size and long lived, and there was nowhere but the support columns for Shad to hide behind.

Much as I would prefer to be far away, I am here, in the way. Shad thought as he ran to and flattened himself against the far wall as a giant wave caused by the stomp of Ordona's claw-like hooves battered him against the stone.

The force of the wave pounded the air out of Shad's chest. As the water receded, the tide dragging him along, he dropped to the floor. Pain arced through his bruised chest as he sputtered and gasped for air. In these matters, when am I not?

-o-

Running alongside the length of Ordona's body, Link had just managed to time his dodge right and avoided colliding with the Light Spirit's bowed head. He scrambled and searched for an opening but he had yet to find a clear weak point. He knew that he could in time but how much time he had before the Light Spirit wore him down he didn't know. And Shad was here somewhere and he could not simply hide safely in Link's shadow like Midna could.

Ordona reared up and stomped its hooves, the shockwave sending the water beneath it rising into a giant, barreling wave. Link crouched down and braced himself as the water smashed into him and washed him into two support columns, his weight combined with the force of the water cracking both pillars. He felt several thin but steady streams of water dribble down his waterlogged wings. Even if his wings were ever dry for a single moment, there wasn't enough room within the chamber for him to fly properly. Only if they broke a large enough hole in the roof could he and Shad escape to the sky, not that Ordona would be unable or unwilling to pursue them.

Link sidestepped Ordona as it charged at him and then sprung at the spirit as soon as he landed on his back feet. He sunk his front claws and gaping jaws into the spirit's left side as Ordona thrashed and bucked Link through several support columns and against the far wall. He struggled to keep snapping his teeth into the spirit's impossibly-tangible flesh and managed to raise his hind legs and hooked his back claws into the Light Spirit to extend his hold. Eventually, Ordona threw him off and he righted himself mid-air and landed on the chamber floor, sliding to a stop in a battle-ready stance.

Yet again, Ordona charged at him but this time Link raced toward and clashed skulls with the Light Spirit. Locked like two battling Ordon goats, the two pressed and pushed one another, with Ordona giving Link's skull a few short, rapid head-butts and finding his forehead to be as firm and unyielding as its own. With neither giving to the other's press, Link quickly raised up and grabbed Ordona's circular horns with his front claws and jaws.

He wrestled the Light Spirit, jerking its head back and forth as the spirit violently struggled to free itself from Link's clasp, until his power and momentum tipped the Ordon goat-shaped spirit right onto its back. Link lunged at and chomped into Ordona's underbelly as it kicked and roared and hustled to escape Link's fangs. A well-timed clawed hoof in the throat gave the Light Spirit the time and space to stumble onto its four legs.

"I have protected you," the guardian spirit of Ordon Province said with labored breaths, "and you have turned against us."

Link bared his teeth at the accusation. While, yes, he presumed the spirit had guarded and blessed him as a son of Ordon all his life, there were but two times he had ever seen and knew of the spirit having a hand in protecting him. Ordona could claim that it had always protected him but there was no way for Link to confirm its vow as truth. The spirit accused Link of turning against it and yet was this not the second time Ordona had attempted to kill him? The ancient spirit of Light apparently had forgotten that it had charged at Link first.

Ordona charged a ball of light energy inside its circular horns and shot the orb at Link. Leaping out of the way, he dodged it and the barrage of energy balls the Light Spirit shot at him afterwards. As he ran toward the spirit, Ordona retreated hastily. He wasn't sure if it was evading him or outright running away from him. The spirit seemed to be panicking as it rushed to distance itself from Link. Managing to grab hold of a back leg, Link pulled and dragged the kicking goat-shaped spirit to the flooded floor.

Amid the frenzy of hooves and claws, the two beasts clawed and tussled. Jaws open above the nape of Ordona's neck, Link stopped, realizing that he was poised like a wolf over a deer ready to kill the Light Spirit. Though he had killed countless monsters and eliminated the great evil that had consumed Hyrule, he hesitated on killing a once ally. The Light Spirits were not evil. They wished not to take over Hyrule or bring the land and its people to harm. They guarded Hyrule as he had done. They were not enemies and yet the Light Spirits sought to kill Link.

"Is this your idea of mercy, hero chosen by the goddesses?" Ordona said, exhausted and bleeding, as it stumbled back onto its four legs as Link stepped away warily from the Light Spirit. "In fighting me, you made your choice. You cannot falter now."

Drawing on the latent holy energy in the land, Ordona raised its head and roared, the stone chamber and the water spilling in quaking and sloshing violently as rocks and green vines fell throughout the room and tendrils of white-gold water surged and swelled around and over Ordona, distorting its Ordon goat characteristics and transforming it more into a wolf. A wolf with a far too long muzzle and far too many teeth.

"Do you still seek the restoration of the Oocca?" the spirit asked, its fangs permanently bared.

Link crouched down and flinched at the monstrous sight of Ordona. It was no longer the gentle guardian spirit of Ordon. Had it been present with the other three Light Spirits when they were called to seal the Fused Shadows and banish the Dark Interlopers, this would have been the form the shadow tribe would have faced.

Link did not growl nor did he give any physical sign of one choice over another but he did not back down or retreated from the Light Spirit.

Taking his inaction as his decision, Ordona stamped its multi-clawed hooves, sending snaking bolts of bright yellow energy arcing through the shaking, rolling ground and splintering the once smooth stone floor into jagged chunks. Link heard Shad screaming in absolute panic behind him. He had to admit that his attention had been on Ordona and Shad's presence and safety was not at the forefront of his battle plan. He was nonetheless grateful that the scholar was still alive.

Neither of them would be alive soon if Link did not act. He wanted to reason with Ordona and, though he doubted his limited ability to talk would be much of an issue to a spirit, he knew that the Light Spirit would not change its mind because Link would not give up on the Oocca. He had promised Ooccoo and her son to help the sky beings and he would. But he could not obey Ordona's order in that case. He could not go forward by stopping. He could not turn back and succeed in his goal. It was one or the other.

Ordona fired a beam of light from the orb within its circular horns, destroying what remained of the support columns and riddling the walls and ceiling with cracks and tenuous breaks, none of which would need much force or shake to fall on top of them. Ordona was seeing to it that they would be buried and forgotten in this chamber.

In what he surmised would be its final assault by its great roar, Ordona made a thunderous charge, rattling the chamber and sending chunks of stone falling. From the thunder-like crack of its hooves against the floor and blusterous rush of its charge drawing him toward the Light Spirit as he struggled to gain distance out of its way, Link felt trapped inside a thunderstorm brewing inside a tornado. Ordona would not relent. It pursued Link and coursed bolts of yellow energy into the broken earth. Wedges of earth along Link's footpath sharply raised or suddenly dropped or crumbled away altogether on him, leaving him little time to think or focus on anything but his next step.

He had noticed that more and more of the ceiling had collapsed. There was a large enough gap for Link to fly through, if his wings were dry enough to fly. Much of the water flooding the chamber floor had sank and soaked into the broken earth and Link's dragon body was superheating itself to raise and maintain his body heat and dry his wings faster. Still, he was not certain if his wings were suitable to fly yet and he doubted he and Shad had time to wait. As soon as he could reach Shad, they were going to find out how dry his wings were. Taking flight wouldn't stop Ordona from chasing after them but the sky was a heck of a lot higher and safer to be in than on the ground with a hopefully earth-bound Ordona.

Managing to leap out of the way of Ordona's oncoming tackle, Link was quickly on his feet, knowing that the Light Spirit would turn around immediately and try again and again. He watched in wary anticipation as Ordona began to turn and readied his legs to bolt as soon as the spirit redirected. Ordona did not turn toward Link. He watched in stunned horror as the Light Spirit turned and barreled toward Shad.

Link sprang into a dash, panic and rage powering and hastening his legs into a flying run. While he knew that Shad was in as much danger as him, there was no sense in Ordona going after him. Shad couldn't fight. He was no threat to the Light Spirits. Shad was not their enemy. Link was. Though they had once fought alike, the Light Spirits had made Link an enemy.

A slab of rock from the ceiling fell in front of Shad and, as he scrambled to find a safe route, more pieces rained down, cutting all his escape routes and boxing him in with Ordona. He circled around and pressed himself against the walls of fallen rock around him and stared wide-eyed and mouth open in silent terror as the blindingly bright spirit blazed closer and closer to him.

Whether or not Ordona heard his roars or saw him bolting toward it, the spirit was set on killing Shad first. Link would not let it. Leaping and ramming into Ordona's side, Link sank his teeth into the more wolf-than-goat spirit's neck. What he assumed was warm blood seeped into his mouth as he twisted and tore at the spirit's throat, his jaws locked into the wet flesh. Thrown by Link's tackle, the Light Spirit was knocked to the ground, the weight of its fall rumbling throughout the standing ruins of Ordona's chamber.

-o-

Having dropped to his knees in overwhelmed shock, Shad sat staring into nothing and breathed shaking breaths. He had seen the white-gold light of Ordona draw so close to him he was certain that the pure white light that had overtaken his sight was the light of death shepherding him to the afterlife. Not once had he been safe after the Light Spirit manifested itself, truth be told. As Link and Ordona squared off, Shad had remained on the sidelines, avoiding the spirit's tackles and beams and then also falling rock and waterspouts. It was some sort of divine blessing that he was somehow still alive.

When the Light Spirit's course took aim at him, he was also eternally indebted to Link for dashing to his aid. Were it not for him, the scholar most roundly would have been stomped or seared to death. As it was, Link stood in between Shad and Ordona, his teeth bared and growling low, as the Light Spirit struggled to breathe and stand. It attempted to rise onto its clawed hooves only to stagger into the ground. White-gold blood dripped, seeped, and poured out from Ordona's throat onto and into the earth.

The Light Spirit was dying. Sharply hyperventilating as he stared at the fallen spirit, Shad could not believe that such a feat was possible. Link had mortally wounded a spirit in corporeal form. How could a guardian spirit of Light created and appointed to its task by the Goddesses perish? This was not supposed to happen. This was not what they were here for, why they had traveled to Ordon Village, searched their underground and arrived at this chamber. They were looking for a potential Feather of Glory. They never meant or ever wanted to kill a Light Spirit.

The presence of light also creates a shadow—no action can be made without also inadvertently producing its opposite, his father's words echoed suddenly into his thoughts. To change the state of space into absolute shadow, we need only to remove the presence of light...

In an effort to control his breath before he passed out, Shad bowed forward and breathed, running his hands into his hair and concentrating on his father's words right down to remembering the very moment he spoke them to Shad and the tiny mischievous grin that had stretched through his mouth after he relit the candle. Shad doubted that his father would not find his lesson in practice amusing now.

As he concentrated on his father's words, Shad realized what it would take to restore Link to his proper form, although the long sought answer brought him no will to celebrate and was none easier to bear. I say, we have been avoiding the solution this entire time. Link cannot be shackled if there are no more chains to bind him. To undo the effects they have caused upon Link, we must remove the source of the effects upon him.

...We must eliminate the Light Spirits.

Weight and worry held his head down as he gathered and pulled his hair and his face twisted into a sharp grimace of anguish and disgust. There was nothing more wrong, more against the Group's founding mission, more damning and destructive to Hyrule than removing its guardians. Paralyzed with anxiety, Shad remained bowed over on the broken earth and tried desperately to ward off his mind's rapid, intrusive thoughts listing off the many, many, countless consequences that could arise from the loss of the Light Spirits.

-o-

Placing himself in front of Shad, brought to the ground by shock and disbelief in the wake of his near death, Link watched a stumbling Ordona warily and warned the spirit with a growl that Shad was not its enemy. Seeing the spirit fall and never regain its footing, Link's battle rage gave way to confusion and then alarm as he realized he had not merely wounded the spirit. Ordona was in the throes of death. The guardian of his home province was dying and there would be no tears of light to revive it.

Slowly, with his head lowered in grief and regret, he approached Ordona, its white-gold liquid light body gleaming as its wolf features faded away and it reverted to its Ordon goat form. Mouth open, Ordona lay on its side gasping for every bit of breath.

"You know not what you will wrought upon this world and upon yourself, hero chosen by the gods," the spirit said weakly, its faint voice raw and raspy. "…One day you will know that I was only protecting you. As I was made to do."

In a flash flare of light, Ordona dissolved into wisps of flame and fireflies, its brilliant golden light fading into twilight and then darkness. At the same time, four tendrils of liquid light arced and spiraled around an invisible orb. The tendrils of light thinned and unraveled and the strings of light branched and interwove their curving, knotting beams with and into one another. Liquid light began to fill the floating framework and once filled, with a final burst of blinding light, the shape solidified into a deep twilight golden Shard of Forfeited Light.

When all that remained of Ordona was the Shard, Link cautiously approached the pointed lightning bolt-shaped fragment floating in place. As he opened his mouth to grab it, the Shard pulsated ominously and raised a circular barrier around itself. Even if he could take it, he was sure the Shard would make him regret his choice. Perhaps it sensed the Light Spirit's magic within him or Ordona's dying spell was to will the Forfeited Light to attack him so it could never be used by Link. In any case, perhaps the light fragment would not react to Shad this way.

Link turned and walked back to where the scholar remained sitting on his knees and stared into the ground. Sitting nearby, he stared idly at the leather patches protecting the scholar's knees but knew not what to say or how to communicate his words even if he did happen to know.

"We did not intend for this…" Shad muttered quietly, though Link heard him easily in the silence of the ruins and the surrounding forest, even with his better hearing.

Link rumbled his throat in agreement.

"What can we do to correct this?" Shad asked Link. "What will become of your home province?"

He couldn't answer either of his questions. The sky above was cast in the darkest night Link had ever seen. He wondered, without Ordona's light, if the province would be locked in a never-ending, unbreakable barrier of Twilight, his friends and family transformed into spirits consumed with fear and worry, never knowing and never able to see Link, even if he stood right beside them.

Perhaps, since this was not the work of Zant, the endless Twilight would turn the villagers into Twili. At least then they would be able to see Link and he could protect them… The hope of his friends and family and all the people of Ordon Province becoming Twili was a bitter comfort. It was the least harshest fate, he supposed, rather than remaining as frightened spirits…or mutating into shadow beasts. Link had no idea what was going to happen to his family and friends but he prayed to the Goddesses that they would not become shadow beasts.

"We will discover a way, will we not?" Shad said, hope lifting but never rising entirely above the grim heaviness of his voice, as he looked into Link's eyes for any similar sign of hope. "I-It is what must be done, r-right?"

Link offered a cheerless nod.

Leaning half a step forward, Link tapped Shad's shoulder with his snout. The scholar briefly looked down before creasing his mouth into a small, tight-lipped frown. Understanding his meaning, Shad stood, resting his hand on Link's forehead to balance and brace himself up. He followed Link over to the floating fragment and stopped in front of it.

"I say, I hope you will not fault me for possessing a great measure of reluctance to take hold of this solid fragment of light," Shad said, a waver in his voice, as he held his hands out just out of range where the circular barrier would manifest. "Especially since it responded with such hostility to your presence. I will take it…in a moment or two, of course…but I must voice my doubts that the Light will regard me any more favorably than it would you. Between us, you would be the appropriate wielder of its magical might."

As Shad brought his hands toward the Shard of Forfeited Light, an orb of gentle light surrounded the fragment. The Shard then floated down inch or two into Shad's hands and rested. Its reaction to Shad could not be any more of the opposite of its wrath toward Link. Mouth open slightly, Shad stared at the fragment in bewilderment and wonder.

"…How peculiar," he muttered before a jarring, strident sound of stone grating on stone made the both of them cringe in agony.

The grating noise came to an abrupt stop and they saw a cluster of jagged rock rustle and shift. Walking over, Link tossed and pushed aside rocks above and below the broken earth as he dug and dug until he found a set of stairs leading into and below the ground. Once Link had cleared the collapsed rock from the tunnel and reached a seemingly stable cavern deep underground, he headed back to the surface and sharply nodded for Shad to follow him down. The scholar was not keen on the idea of entering a cavern of questionable structural integrity, as he put it, but with little other options and intellectual curiosity prodding him forward, Shad cautiously made his way down the stairs with Link in tow.

-o-

Holding the Shard out in front of him as a suitable substitute for a lantern, Shad listened and eyed the cavern ceiling warily as he stepped further and further down into the earth. He felt no less assured of the certainty of their safety and was quite positive the stone stairwell was about to cave in at a moment's notice, though he realized that Link would hear and notice if the tunnel was collapsing long before he would see the slightest stone slip. The fact that Link had not grabbed him and bolted back to the surface had to be some form of dour comfort.

Down and farther down the gentle, sloping corkscrew of stairs they walked and at the end of their path was a giant stone door. There was almost no recognizable sign of carvings and letters etched around the doorframe and within the rock itself at all, except for a few spots no longer or wider than the scholar's thumb. Even still, it was not enough for Shad to piece together and discern their meaning. The rest had been clawed and scratched away into historical obscurity. Whatever that was once depicted on the door was lost forever. It was something someone clearly wanted no one to view ever again.

"This pathway was only opened to us after Ordona's passing," Shad said, with his hand on the coarse, scarred stone. "I can only surmise that there must be something of great power sealed behind this door. I say, it is the logical conclusion that the Light Spirit was guarding something more than your homeland from here. Perhaps it will be something that can assist us in our journey, old boy…"

Pressing his weight onto his shoulder, Shad attempted and failed to assist Link in pushing the great stone door open. As far as he was aware, he more than likely never budged the door open even by the smallest measurable increment possible. Though he supposed his lack of physical strength was not all at fault here, as Link even had difficulty pushing the evidently heavy stone door open.

While not entirely certain what he had expected to observe once he entered the sealed chamber, the scholar was fairly positive that he had expected something grander, something more in line with Ordona's chamber on the surface. The chamber was more of a room, a rather small one at that, and the most intriguing aspect of the room itself was that it was shaped like a star. However, the most fascinating and significant feature within the room was the short, squat altar and the orb of light floating atop said altar in the center of the room.

Shad walked into the room, observing and noting the rays of light that shined and disappeared into each point of the star. The room was too small to hold the both of them so Link stood halfway in and halfway outside the room, really giving himself enough space to grab Shad by the coat and wrench him out to safety if required, though the scholar doubted that would be necessary. It was also entirely plausible that a quick escape would be very much necessary and that he really should be more wary and fearful of the blinding golden orb that he was slowly approaching and raising his hands out toward to grasp.

In a moment of pause before his hands, aching with pain from sensing the steady stream of magic the orb was pouring into the earth around them, took hold of the orb, Shad noticed an object within the light that seemed to be the source of the light magic altogether. He saw just for a glimmering, gleaming moment that there was a gold and white-gold feather glistening within the orb.

His eyes and smile wide with wonder and surprise, Shad peered over his shoulder at Link behind him. "It is a Feather, old boy," he said, his voice squeaking a bit with joy. "We have located and now possess a Feather of Glory."

With this Feather, the scholar finally had proof that they were not on a wild cucco chase. The Feathers of Glory were real and waiting to be found. All that they sought, the restoration of the Oocca and Link to their proper form, were possible to obtain. They needed only to listen and seek out one Feather after another.

As Shad lifted the Feather from the altar, the orb of light surrounding it flickered, faded, and vanished altogether, taking with it the rays of light from each point of the star. Shad watched as darkness crept in to replace the dimming, disappearing light. While he expected such a natural cause and effect, he also found the sight inexplicably unsettling and foreboding. He supposed it was a too fresh reminder of the Light Spirit Ordona's death.

He marveled at the Feather's radiance, its gold light gentle and warm casting an iridescent rainbow halo that was unlike any he had observed before. The Feather of Glory was the length of his hand from his fingertips to his wrist and yet the delicate divine down exuded depths of power Shad could only imagine the Goddesses wielding. He found it difficult to bring himself to fathom that this was but one of eight Feathers, therefore but a fraction of magical might.

Perhaps there would be no necessity to eliminate the Light Spirits. "I say, old boy, if magic like this is not enough to break the Light Spirits' spell—" The earth began to rumble and roar, silencing the rest of Shad's spoken thought.

As he hastily slipped the Feather into his waistcoat pocket, Link snatched Shad by the back of his short purple jacket and backed out of the small room. Stumbling from the sudden wrench, Shad somewhat caught his balance and scrambled onto Link's back as he growled sharply in urgency. Quickly, Shad clasped his arms around Link's neck and he sprang into a leaping dash back up the stairs to the surface.

The ground shook around them and through them. Link climbed flights at a time as the path behind them cracked and crumbled and collapsed. Rocks plunked and pelted their heads, dirt and dust clouded Shad's spectacles, as Link rushed up the gently twisted stairs. And though they were bruised, battered, and, in Shad's case, blinded, none of that mattered. The earth was falling around them and they needed to escape. They would need to do so in a quick manner. Oh the devil take all, Shad hated being right sometimes.

Most joyously, fresh night air filled their lungs as they reached the surface. Sensing they were not safe, Link dashed onwards, gaining enough speed to take flight. Despite the fact that according to Shad's internal clock it was at least the start of early dawn, the sky was black and devoid of stars. At the horizon line, however, there was a deep burnt copper light radiating over and throughout the land. Hyrule cast in a dying glow was far from a soothing sight to the scholar's soul. From the way the copper light flickered, the horizon seemed lit by fading embers, the last of the land's light seemed perpetually moments away from being lost forever.

This was not permanent. They could and would correct this, he assured himself. The sky above Ordon Village would not remain so foreboding. They would restore its pastoral landscape. When Hyrule was cast in Twilight, Link had restored the world to its magnificent grandeur. Surely, they—or in the least, Link—could restore the sky above Ordon Village one day.

The ground below continued to rumble and roar. As Link turned back and paused in the air, Shad hastily cleared his spectacles and watched in confusion and aghast as clouds of dust and dirt rolled and rippled over the surface and the remains of the ruins of Ordona's Chamber sank below the earth. When nothing of the ruins remained, the land did not quiet and great cracks and fissures continued to open and splinter the land and the surrounding forest.

Shad gazed in shock, his mind reeling, as chunks of land, trees after trees, and all the creatures that resided within these woods slipped and fell into an ever-expanding dark void without end. Link trembled beneath him, his body primed with energy and urgency but knew not where to go as every direction called out to him for help. Finally realizing that they were powerless to stop the destruction, Link flew off toward Ordon Village, racing seconds behind the bursting, branching cracks and swiftly crumbling land roaring and barreling down on the town's outskirts.

"No!" Shad shouted, his voice strained and raw, as he saw Link's home tumble over into the void, and watched in horror, knowing the devastation to come, as the cracks spread throughout the village and beneath Link's family and friends' homes. This could not be happening and yet it was and Shad knew not why, only that this was their fault.

Desperately searching and calling out to everyone, anyone in the village, Link dove down and soared low above the main road as the villagers' homes fell one after another into the void. Reaching the ranch, Shad and Link heard the falling Ordon goats' panicked bleats as the last of Ordon Village was swallowed up by darkness.