AN: Contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead. Here's hoping for much more to come.

Chapter 5: Flight

"You're leaving now?!" Ashei was incredulous.

Link did not answer her, he simply pushed past and up the stairs. He knew he was going to regret this as soon as he calmed down and the adrenaline wore off.

Shad stood in the middle of the bar's main room, staring at the floor where the shadow beasts had all but completely dissolved into thin air. "What were those things?"

Telma and the swordsman were trying to reattach the door to its frame. Telma took a step back as it popped back into a position similar to how it used to be. "Shadow Beasts," she said turning around.

Link could sense Midna's discomfort as he hurried about the bar, stuffing whatever supplies he could find into a large satchel he had taken from Shad after dumping its load of books onto the map room table. He couldn't stay and let the others be put at risk of a larger attack. He knew what it meant for him to keep them out of harm and he did not care. He could tell Midna knew too, and he could tell it was taking all of her self control to not leap out of his shadow and berate him. Though fortunately for her, Ashei did it for her.

"It's got to be a trap!" Ashei said angrily. "You can't just go run off; they're probably waiting for you!"

Link paused and looked up at her steadily.

Ashei stared back at him. "You know that already…"

Telma started forward. "Now Ashei don't start this again. It was probably a trap even before those things showed up. Link was always going into that alone."

Ashei looked furious, and for a moment, Link thought she looked scared. The moment quickly passed however and she was angry again. However, before she had a chance to be angry, link threw the old dusty cloak around himself, secured the satchel over his shoulder and hurried toward the door.

The Swordsman held the door on its hinges for Link as he passed through, and Shad held Ashei back from following as the Swordsman secured the door once more. Only after the door was firmly secured did Shad let the fiery young woman go, though she had stopped resisting as soon as the door had shut, and had since stood there, thoroughly defeated.

The Swordsman smiled gently at her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "He'll be alright. I didn't teach him to lose, and he's getting stronger all the time. There will be plenty for you to do around here while he's gone. Yeah?"

She just stared at him. "I hope so."

Midna said nothing as Link entered the stables and mounted up. Epona was clearly displeased about being taken out at such an odd hour, but she did as her master wished, as she always did. Link was almost halfway out of the stable before he noticed that Midna was not with him. He reined Epona to a halt and turned back to her confused.

Midna was hovering back in Epona's stall, staring at the wall, a highly distant look on her face. Slowly she turned to meet his gaze, and seeing the concern in his eyes she quickly looked away and rapidly melted back into his shadow without a word.

Link was about to say something to her when he heard the growl of more shadow beasts. After a quick priority adjustment, putting survival back on top, the three bolted out of the stables, and quickly were out of the city and on their way to Lake Hylia to meet Auru and find his way into the desert.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anti arrived at the camp at the Arbiter's Grounds only moments after leaving Castle town. He was genuinely surprised to find an entire battalion of bulbins already on site and already having constructed a fortress of sorts outside of the prison. Ganon had already known about this place long before Anti had even arrived and had just sent him there because he could. Rage boiled up inside Anti yet again and he lashed out at the bulbin worker who approached him to ask for his clearance or some trivial thing, killing it instantly. Anti stormed off in search of the leader of the camp so he could hopefully kill him and take over himself.