Chapter Eight: Blue Eyed Beast...?

Aura and Rutaysu waited nervously inside the large building they had been sent to. Quite a few people had already begun hiding in the building before they had gotten there. Even the little Twili girl Vitani was in here, tucked away in a dark corner. Sheikah and Twili alike huddled close waiting in frightened anticipation for the moment of safety they were all praying for.

Aura and Rutaysu sat down on a large cushiony mat, and Aura gently placed Theyd at her side. She looked down at him. When is he going to wake up…she thought to herself.

Right as those words ran through her mind, Theyd awoke, quite startled to find his head resting beside Aura's lap, her fingers lightly tracing numerous shapes on her knees. He bolted upright, but right as he was about to say something, Rutaysu clasped a damp, fishy hand over his mouth and motioned for him to be quiet. "We will explain later," she whispered softly. Theyd nodded as Rutaysu removed her had from his face.

Suddenly, the door opened and shut. The three of them jumped from the sudden noise amidst the quiet, and they all looked towards the door.

"It's just me," whispered Valefor. "Stay quiet, everyone is inside the buildings now. We can't let it know we're here." Valefor walked over to Aura, Rutaysu, and Theyd.

Back outside, Duska and the Rangers waited around the perimeter of the camp, waiting for any sign of the wolf. A thick, claustrophobic air was settling all around them, making them fidgety and forcing a sense of dread upon them. They all prayed that this was Queen Midna's Blue-Eyed Beast, and that this was not another trap set by Itzal.

Every few so often, for it had happened three times now, Itzal had made a spell and sealed it in the form of a wolf, and he set it to raid the black forest and try to find the camp of the Resistance. The wolf would bear the same elaborate markings as the Blue-Eyed Beast of the Queen, yet its eyes would be nothing but swirling black mist. The very first time this creature happened upon one of the members of the camp, it was welcomed with open arms, and led directly into the camp. Yet as soon as it smelled the blood of the Twili, it went into a berserker rampage, thrashing about and lashing its dagger-like teeth at anyone and everyone that got in its way. As it tried to escape to tell its master of what it had discovered, the Rangers had no choice but to assemble a blockade, trapping the wolf within the camp. Many lives were lost that day, but the dark wolf was at last destroyed. And that was the day they took her…

From that day on, when a wolf was sighted, a perimeter would be formed, and the wolf would be examined for the color of its eyes. As soon as that had been determined, the full brunt of the Rangers would descend upon the beast, killing it quickly to avoid what had happened on that fateful day.

There it was, right before them, the beast. It was slowly approaching Duska's younger brother, Ageroy.

"Its eyes!" shouted Duska. "Hurry, look at its eyes!"

Ageroy readied his throwing daggers. "Brother! Its eyes are…"

Too late. Within seconds, the wolf had sprinted a great distance and latched its teeth into Ageroy's arm. His blood dripped down his arm and into the mouth of the wolf. It unclenched its jaws and then struck at his leg, lacerating it deeply. Ageroy fell to the ground in pain, no longer able to stand on his leg because of the torn muscles. There was no way this could have been the Blue Eyed Beast of Queen Midna. It would have never attacked a human like a Sheikah, and definitely not a Twili. Never.

Gynsei and another Ranger were suddenly upon the both of them, doing their best to wrestle the wolf from Gynsei's best friend. He grabbed one of his arrows from his quiver and stabbed it into the wolf's head. The blood was black…this was definitely Itzal's creature. The wolf fell to the ground shortly after the arrow had been thrust through its skull, and exploded in an array of black Twilight Matter.

Gynsei reached for Ageroy's good arm and helped him up. "You should get that wound dressed," he said as he hoisted Ageroy's good arm over his shoulder and grabbed him by the waist, helping him to stand despite his deep wounds.

"Take me to Theia. She's the only healer-witch we know, and she's got the antidote for the poison of Itzal's wolves," replied Ageroy.

"Theia? But she left this camp three years ago. No one knows where she is."

"Then we'll make it a mission. Please, Gynsei, without her I'll die…"

"No, Age…"

"Gynsei, be realistic. You've seen the work of this poison before. How long do I have?"

"A week without the antidote…at best," he choked out.

"I see…"

"Come on, let's get you inside. We'll tend to your wounds as best we can until we can find Theia. You'll just have to hold out until then," finished Gynsei as he helped Ageroy walk into the camp, the other Rangers following close behind.

Duska opened the door of the central building for the others. When Gynsei walked in, helping a bleeding, heavily perspiring Ageroy, Aura rushed towards them.

"What's happened?" she demanded as they laid Ageroy down on one of the beds.

"It seems that the wolf was not Queen Midna's Blue-Eyes Beast. We were too slow…it attacked Ageroy. Its poison now flows freely through his veins," answered Duska.

"What can we do to help him?" asked Aura sadly as she put her hand on his forehead.

But as soon as she put her hand on his forehead, there was a blinding flash of light and Aura was now seeing a whole different type of scenery. There was a little Sheikah boy who was holding the hand of who looked like a much younger version of Duska. There were quite a few adult Sheikah with them, and even some other Sheikah children. Were these small boys Duska and Ageroy as children? The one Aura thought was Ageroy was looking up at his older brother.

"Duska," he began in his little voice. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know, Age. Mom didn't say."

"So why don't you ask her?"

"I did, little brother. But all she said was that we would see in time."

"But it's getting awfully eerie. Look at the sky, how strange its color is."

"Yes, I see. I've never seen such a color in the daytime sky before…this musky orange. Do you think we've ended up in another dimension?"

"Oh no! Then how would we get home?"

"The way we came, of course. We'll just retrace out steps, that's all."

Then there was a flash and Aura was seeing yet another different setting. This time, Ageroy was a little older, ten years old at the most. There was another Sheikah boy with them, who was most likely Gynsei, and there was even a Sheikah girl with them, though Aura did not know who she might have been. Valefor was also there, though it could be easily seen that he was a good four years or so older than little Ageroy. Then Duska ran into the scene, more excited than Aura had ever seen him.

"Hey Guys! You won't believe this! They've found another one of the Twili people in the forest! Just like they found Val! Come on, let's go check it out!" The five of them ran off to go check out the newbie.

This Twili was a girl. She had short teal hair that was spiked up in the back, and she had beautiful purple eyes. She was as enthusiastic and curious as ever.

"Hello!" she said to the others. "My name's Pialé. Nice to meet you." Aura remembered having seen her in the central building earlier when they were all under alert. She was the one who had been staring at Valefor from the moment he'd walked in.

"Hello Pialé. Welcome to the group," said Valefor with a smile as he outstretched his hand to shake hers. Pialé's expression brightened significantly from its already vibrant enthusiasm as she took his hand and shook it.

"You know what they used to call me back home?" laughed Pialé. "They called me a wolf."

There was another bright flash, and the scene switched to what had happened outside with the wolf. Everything, from the moment the Rangers took their positions to when the wolf attacked Ageroy to the moment they killed it and brought Ageroy back.

There was another flash, and Aura suddenly realized that she hadn't been breathing. She blacked out momentarily and then abruptly ended up back in reality.

"Aura!" exclaimed a voice. It belonged to Theyd. He was holding her in his arms as she lay partially on the ground. "Aura, are you alright? You suddenly collapsed on the ground…"

"I saw…I saw everything that happened. I saw the wolf attack, all of it!" said Aura.

"What? What are you talking about?" This time the voice belonged to Rutaysu.

"I don't know how it happened, or even why, but I saw. I know. How he got attacked…how he came to be in this place in the first place…how he met Pialé…I don't even know her myself, but I saw…"

"What?" asked Duska. "How do you know all of this?"

"I told you already, I don't know. But there's something more important that we need to talk about first. The poison in Ageroy's body, the poison of the wolf…the antidote can only be made by the witch Theia. But she left this place three years ago. We need to find her, or he's going to die!"

Everyone in the room was staring at her by this point. The new girl was a psychic of some sort and the daughter of Queen Midna? She hadn't even been in the camp for half a day, and she somehow knew about the healer witch Theia and the girl Pialé, who she had scarcely even seen, and hadn't even met before. This was too weird.

"Does this mean it's time for another mission?" asked Valefor.

"I'm afraid so," answered Duska. "We can't just leave him to die. Theia is his only hope."

Then a new voice joined the conversation. It was the Twili girl who was from Ageroy's memories, Pialé. "If you're going to look for Theia, I'm going with you. I have some unfinished business with her and I needed a good excuse to go looking for her. You can't stop me from coming with you."

"Who else will come with us?" asked Duska.

"I will," said Aura.

"As will I," added Theyd.

"I will stay here and look after Ageroy," said Gynsei. "I'm sorry, but I can't go with you this time."

"That is alright, Gynsei," said Duska. "Stay here and take care of my brother. I can trust you with this task." Then he turned to Aura, Theyd and Pialé. "We leave in ten minutes. Get any provisions you need. We will be gone for no more than five days. Meet me at the base of the watchtower, and be prepared. Everyone, you are all dismissed."

With that, the crowd broke up and many of them did their best to resume their previous activities before the wolf came. Others just remained inside the central building, unwilling to leave after what had happened.

Aura stood up as Theyd let go of her, and she dusted herself off. "Looks like our adventure isn't quite over yet, is it?"

"Too bad, I was looking forward to a nice rest after everything that's happened. Not much we can do, seeing as we did volunteer. We'll just have to make the best of thing, won't we?" replied Theyd.

"Let's just clean up and get going." With that, Aura walked towards the door and exited the building, and Theyd watched her as she walked all the way out.