Song of the Sea, Symphony of Shadow
“What did that idiot do this time?” Midna groused, continuing to stare at her reflection in the small pond she had found shortly after waking up, with a mixture of annoyance and resignation.
Moving her head sideways, the reflection of the strange black and grey quadruped in the pond immediately followed the movement. Proving that, yes, the small, fluffy, bat-winged quadruped with the stupidly adorable fuzzy ears atop its head was indeed herself.
This wasn’t the first time her beautiful self had been transformed into another form against her will. But, taking in her small and ridiculously adorable new appearance, she almost wished she had been turned back into an imp. At least that form could pull an intimidating façade when push came to shove!
Taking a deep breath, she attempted to rein in her fraying temper as her long, fiery, light-orange mane rippled with power. The fact that she couldn’t feel even the faintest trace of the Twilight Realm, showing that she wasn’t anywhere even near Hyrule, also really wasn’t helping her mood.
Fluffy ears flat against her skull, Midna tried to make sense of her current situation. She had no idea how she had ended up in a new dimension, or why she had been transformed into an annoyingly cute miniature bat pony. But what she did know was that whatever this was, it was, without a shadow of a doubt, all Link’s fault!
“Oh, we are going to have words when I find you, mister, mark my words!” she snarled, the fact that the action looked more adorable than anything with her new features only served to worsen her mood.
“Stupid, idiotic, useless things!” Midna loudly cursed from the thick bushes into which she had crash-landed moments ago.
As she got back unto her hooves and fought her way out of the grasp of the annoyingly thick bush, she glared at the dark bat wings at her side. She had thought that flying would be a no brainer, what with all her practice floating and levitating. That it would be a piece of cake, something that she would be able to just manage right away in order to speed up her search for the green idiot considerably. After all, her new wings were a part of her body now, so how hard could it actually be?
She had been wrong.
“Confound it all! This can’t be that hard!” she complained as she shook her mane in order to get out the myriad twigs and leaves that had found their way in there. “Link barely even stumbled when he was first turned into a wolf! So why can’t I get these stupid things to work?!”
As she spoke, she harshly stomped in anger, which caused her wings to flare at her sides in an instinctual response without her even trying to move them. “And stop moving without my say so!”
Midna had been trying and failing to use her wings to take off for several minutes now. But, even after several crashes into the shrubbery, all she could boast about was that she could, sort of, glide in the right direction. Most of the time. Until her wings twitched wrong or otherwise moved without her conscious input, and she was tumbling back into the greenery.
She was quite thankful for the fact that the trees that dotted the landscape here and there were spaced quite a bit. She really didn’t want to think how things would’ve gone if she had woken up in the dense forest she could see at the northern horizon, instead of the more open plains she currently was resting in. Crash-landing into a tree trunk was not something she wanted to experience!
After a few more choice curses, the princess of the Twili decided to use her hooves for a little longer until she could trust her stupid wings to not drop her for no apparent reason. A few minutes later, as she approached a large lake, she got the first sign of some kind of intelligent life in this new realm as she heard a beautiful song in the wind.
The song’s melody was both sad and hopeful at the same time. It spoke of cherished memories and happier times. Of how things could be lost to the sands of time, but their memories would remain. It was quite beautiful, but far more importantly it was a song that Midna recognized.
Fuzzy ears swiveling from one side to another in an attempt to pinpoint the origin of the song, a new and quite strange sensation if she was being honest with herself, she climbed a rocky outcropping in order to get a better view of the surroundings. Now quite sure that it was one of the songs Link liked to play from time to time. The Ballad of Wing Whale or something like that, she wasn’t really certain about the name, but she was certain it was one of Link’s songs.
Narrowing her eyes against the annoyingly bright sunlight refracting against the lake, Midna finally pinpointed the origin of the song. On the far side of the lake, there was someone singing.
It was too far out to make out the details well, but the creature was also a winged quadruped of some kind, with a cream-colored coat, and a strawberry blond mane. Only, their wings seemed feathered instead of bat-like. And, while she might be wrong, the dark-coated bat pony could swear they had a beak of some kind on their muzzle.
Shoving her musings of what odd species she had just stumbled upon, she instead started to look around to try and find the best way to get towards this unknown singer. She was quite intent on finding out exactly how they knew that particular song, or more specifically if they had learned it from a certain green-obsessed Hero.
After confirming from her perch that the lake was far longer to both sides than it was wide, Midna took a long look towards the figure in the distant shore right on front of her, before she turned a very doubtful gaze towards her wings.
Going around the lake on hoof could easily take over an hour. And there was nothing guaranteeing that the singer would still be there by that point, which meant that if she wanted to get there in a timely manner there was but one option.
“C’mon girl, it’s just a straight line, you can do it!” She psyched herself up as she took several steps back until she was at the farthest border from the lake of the rock outcropping.
She measured the distance once more while experimentally flapping her wings. She was a badass wizard and the ruler of the Twili. She had faced monsters and demons alike! She could do this!
Eyes narrowed in concentration, she started to gallop as fast as she could towards the edge and then jumped over the pristine waters of the lake down below. Her wings beat down with all her might as she took wing, eyes locked upon the figure of the mysterious singer at the faraway shore.
Singing the final stanzas of the Ballad of the Wind Fish, as always, Marin felt her spirits being lifted by the beautiful song.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she simply allowed the cool breeze blowing over the serene lake she had found shortly after waking up to caress her now fur-covered body. Opening her eyes, she lazily took in her new form looking back at her from the lake’s placid waters.
Her hair had remained largely the same long expanse of strawberry blond locks it had always been as she lived back on Koholint Island. But that was basically all that had stayed the same. She was now some kind of quadruped creature with a cream-coat and fluffy feathered wings.
Her hands had been replaced by claws of some kind that were but a shade lighter in coloration than her coat, while her feet had been replaced by hooves of the same color. And that was not mentioning the very soft and expressive beak that she now sported or the long tail of the same color as her hair she now had.
Tilting her head slightly to the side, Marin concluded that, all in all, her new form was actually quite cute and endearing. And at least this time she still had something that could work like hands! Her claws seemed to be every bit as dexterous as her hands used to be. It was definitely a step up from being turned into a seagull!
Not that she blamed Link for that. Far from it! It had definitely been infinitely better than simply disappearing as so much mist upon the morning sun as the Wind Fish woke up. But some prior warning would have been nice.
Chuckling lightly at the last thought, Marin wondered what Link could’ve done this time to cause this new transformation. And if he had even realized that he had caused it in the first place. Link was a true hero and an awesome friend, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware he hardly ever considered the consequences of his actions as deeply as he should.
A panicked shout followed by a loud splashing sound, from something plummeting into the lake quite a few meters away from her, cut her musings short as she jumped backwards in startled surprise.
“What in the name of the Wind Fish?” the strawberry blond questioned as the formerly placid waters of the lake were disturbed by whatever it was that had fallen into it.
The very next moment her question was answered as a dark-colored muzzle appeared briefly above the water level, before being hidden by the waves being caused by the creature that had fallen in thrashing motions as it tried to stay afloat with limited success.
When the creature started to curse aloud, Marin realized it was not some creature, but actually a person that had fallen into the lake!
Not wasting a single moment longer, she took flight. Shortly after she was circling above where this new being was mostly succeeding on keeping themselves above the water level. Thinking how best to help, Marin’s eyes drifted towards her dexterous new claws.
Nodding once at this new idea, she used her old experience as a seagull to gauge the distance. Took aim. And then dove right in. Claws extended and ready to play their part.
The very next moment she was fishing a very disgruntled looking and soaked bat-winged pony out of the lake.
“Thanks for the help,” Midna grudgingly said to her rescuer. Sure, she currently wasn’t exactly a happy camper. She was soaking wet after her stupid wings decided to dump her in the lake when a gust of wind had hit her wrong. And being yanked out of the lake as if she was a fish being grabbed by a bird of prey had hardly been the most dignified form of being rescued. Even then, she had more than enough self-control to not take her aggravation out on someone who was just trying to help.
“You’re welcome!” the hippogriff, or at least Midna thought she was a hippogriff based on her appearance, cheerfully said with a beaming smile. “I’m Marin, what’s your name?”
“Midna,” was the bat pony’s succinct reply.
“Nice to meet you! Now let’s get a fire going so you can dry up a little!” Marin happily chirped before flying towards the nearby forest with an ease that made the bat pony glare at her own stupid wings.
“Here, now we just have to get the fire going!” the hippogriff happily stated as she moved to grab two sticks to try and start the fire. By this point of things, Midna was starting to think that happy and chipper was her default way of being.
“No need,” Midna said, actually feeling tired just from Marin’s enthusiasm, as she concentrated upon her magic and caused a spark to ignite the dry wood.
“You know magic?” the cream-coated mare exclaimed in surprise as her eyes moved from the merrily burning fire towards the slightly smug-looking bat pony to her side.
“Eh, it’s no big deal. It comes from being a Twili,” Midna simply said with a small smirk as she sat by the fire.
“Twili?” Marin curiously asked as she sat right next to the other mare, excitement clear in her features.
“It is my race, or well, was my race. It’s complicated. Suffice to say this isn’t my birth form,” Midna said with a small shrug of her shoulders, and a larger involuntary shrug with her wings. “In a nutshell, the Twili are a race of spiritual beings that dwell on the Twilight Realm.”
“I get it, being transformed into another form is always weird at first! I still remember how odd it was when I turned into a seagull!” Marin easily stated with a solemn nod and a happy smile. Though the contents of what she said made Midna blink in slight confusion. That was not helped as she continued. “And you were a spirit? That’s really interesting! I used to be a spirit myself! Well, kinda. I was more a fragment of the Great Wind Fish’s dream! But since I didn’t really have a physical body before Link helped me become a seagull that makes me sort of a spirit, right?”
Midna, for her part, simply stood there, staring at the other mare as she processed what had just been said. Because, really? The girl used to be a dream? And then was turned into a seagull of all things? Just what? Before with a small head shake, she shoved it all to the side and focused on a single fact.
“Wait, you know Link? Kinda dense, massive wanderlust, no concept of what danger is, can’t leave things well enough alone, obsessed with the color green? That Link?”
“You know Link too?” Marin excitedly asked as she got up and trotted right towards Midna until their muzzles were almost touching with each other, her eyes shining with excitement. “That’s great! Do you know where he is? I think he is the reason why we are wherever this is and why our bodies changed, but I’m not sure. So it would be nice to have some confirmation that’s the c-“
As Marin kept talking a mile a minute, Midna thought about interjecting for a moment, before deciding it was probably best to let the very excitable girl get it out of her system. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere until her stupidly fuzzy coat was dry anyway.
As she made vague noises of agreement to Marin’s many questions and exclamations, Midna couldn’t help but wonder what crazy situation had that little idiotic Hero pulled her into this time.